Jesus, The Son Of God Series

In recent years, ancestry and genealogy has been a growing trend. One of the largest and most popular ancestry companies was sold 4 years ago for $4.7b. There is something in us that wants to understand more about where we are from and from whom we descend. Unfortunately, for many of us, the detailed stories of our heritage is lost to history.

I have known some of my relatives who were born as far back as 1888 (she lived a long time). I’ve heard stories about people serving in the civil war and rumors about when some parts of my family immigrated here from Scandinavia - but the details are largely void.

And so with the advent of DNA studies, we can learn about our ethic make up. We can learn about the genetic traits that we share with various parts of the world. I can imagine that as we continue to migrate and marry across ethic lines, even that will become blurry. For example, my father in law has taken two different DNA tests and received two different sets of results with little overlap. I can imagine that if my kids ever do those kinds of tests that they will have markers in several places in Africa, all of the British Isles and all over Scandinavia and northern Europe.

Every genealogy tells a story. This morning, as we continue our study in the book of Luke, we come to one of 2 genealogies of Jesus. Open your Bibles to Luke 3:23-38. We’ll be reflecting a bit on the passage that Jeshuvan read earlier.

Looking at this genealogy may seem like a bit of an exercise in triviality, but I think that there are some things that this teaches us - some things that God is communicating to us through the Holy Spirit and the detailed study of Luke.

First of all, this genealogy begins by revealing...

A proper time for ministry (23)

Luke writes: Luke 3:23a

Luke 3:23 (ESV)

Jesus, when he began his ministry, was about thirty years of age…

For people in the Old Testament, the age of thirty seemed to be the time that people moved from being a young adult to being an adult. It was at the age of thirty that people began to serve in official capacities in the temple and in the tabernacle. It’s not an automatic shift, but their is something about having lived enough life by that point to begin to make wise decisions.

I began being involved in ministry when I was about 24 years old and was finally ordained when I was 29. Frankly, it wasn’t until I hit 30 that I felt old enough. Looking back, some of those years were fruitful and effective, but those years were also accompanied by missteps and blunders.

While we got a chance to see Jesus learning and growing as an adolescent, he didn’t launch out into public ministering until he was in his early 30s. It was just the right time.

But secondly, this genealogy of Jesus reveals…

A peculiar parentage (23b-38)

If you’ve spent any time reading scripture, you’ve likely come across this genealogy and the genealogy from Matthew 1. You’ll notice that they are similar from David to Abraham, but largely different outside of that lineage. Why?

Let’s begin with his father. Both this genealogy and Matthew’s genealogy reference Joseph as his father - and yet Luke adds the statement “as was supposed...”

Luke 3:23 ESV

Jesus, when he began his ministry, was about thirty years of age, being the son (as was supposed) of Joseph, the son of Heli,

We’ve spent a good bit of the last couple of months considering the birth of Jesus. Scripture clearly delineates the uniqueness of Jesus - with good reason. But, I can imagine that if we had encountered Mary, Joseph, Jesus and the rest of the family at the Temple - we would have just assumed what we saw. We would have assumed that Joseph was Jesus’ father. It would have really only been in closer conversations that we would have learned of the miracles.

But I think there are several other things that this genealogy does. It provides a…

Legal lineage

Jewish tradition states that their ethnic heritage was passed on through the mother, however, legal status would have been passed on through the father. Some have speculated that Heli - the man listed as Joseph’s father here, may have actually been Mary’s father. To that end, they have wondered if possibly Heli only had girls, and so in order to legally pass on his inheritance, he adopted Joseph into his family. This is of course speculative, but it does help to explain why there is a bit of a difference between Matthew and Luke’s genealogies.

In addition to providing a legal lineage, this genealogy provides a…