INTRODUCTION
By a show of hands, how many of you have done the Ancestry DNA testing? I did it a few months ago, and they recently updated their database, and with the updated results, I have some questions. I know my family tree goes back to Italy on my mom’s side, and Germany, Ireland, and Sweden on my dad’s side. So, just last week I got to look at the updated results and imagine my surprise when I saw that Spain somehow ended up in there, even though it’s only a small percentage. And then I saw that Greece and the Balkans ended up in there, at a much larger percentage. (18%) . So, obviously, I’ll be doing more work on my family tree to see how accurate these DNA results are.
As surprised as I was by these results, this pales in comparison to some of the other shocking discoveries people have found through Ancestry.com. For example, I read about one woman who traced her family tree back to the 1600’s and realized that one of the guys in her family tree was John Proctor, the first man that was named a witch and was executed during the Salem Witch Trials in 1692. Then there’s story after story about people finding secret half-siblings as a result of one parent’s infidelity. Then there was one story of a woman who came to discover that she’s a descendant of King Edward III of England and all the royalty who came before him.
It really is fascinating how this practice of genealogy has become so popular. Some people have found a source of pride in realizing they come from a great family tree, and others might feel ashamed at what they find in their family tree. And whether or not we feel that this kind of genealogical research is of any value, the truth is that there’s one family tree that is extremely important: That is, the family tree of Jesus.
TRANSITION
This morning we’re beginning a new series for the Christmas season that we’re calling, O Christmas Tree!
Throughout the series we’ll be looking at five of the characters in the family tree of Jesus, some of the important people in Jesus’ ancestry, as well as well as some of the more surprising characters in his family tree, from murderers and adulterers to liars and idolaters. And this morning we’re kicking off the series by looking at the Father of the Jews, Abraham.
Now, from a biblical perspective, the family tree of Jesus is the first thing recorded in our New Testament, in the very first verses of the Gospel of Matthew. If you’ve read through Matthew before, you may have even skipped the long list of genealogies in the first half of Matthew 1 so you could get to the second half of Matthew 1 where the Christmas story begins. But what might, at least initially, seem boring to us, was vitally important to the original audience. See, the Gospel of Matthew was written primarily to the Jews: Matthew makes the case that Jesus of Nazareth is the long-awaited Messiah that the Old Testament writers prophesied about—the One whom the Jewish people longed for. And what you need to understand is that to the Jewish people, family trees were so important. A person’s lineage gave them certain rights and responsibilities. Land was owned by families and passed along the family tree, and certain families held promise: To the descendants of Levi fell the responsibility of caring for the temple; to the descendants of David a promise was given that an eternal king would arise from their ranks.
BACKGROUND
So let’s look at the beginning of Jesus’ family tree—let’s see how Matthew begins his Gospel (verse 1):
"1 The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham."
Right off the bat you see that Matthew is showing the connection between Jesus, David, and Abraham. Matthew wants us to know that Jesus is the King from the line of David and the promised Messiah from Abraham. And by the way, Jesus’ last name isn’t “Christ”: Christ simply means Messiah, or the Anointed One. All throughout the Old Testament there were promises of a coming Anointed One—a coming Messiah—One Who would bring ultimate deliverance to God’s people. And Matthew’s saying, “This Jesus—this Yeshua—is the Christ…He is the Anointed One… the One we’ve looked forward to—to deliver the people of God. He’s here! The son of David is here. The son of Abraham has come.”
Then in verse 2, Matthew begins the genealogy of Jesus with Abraham:
"Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers,"
Abraham tops the list and this is what we’ll focus in on today: Why is it important that Jesus is a descendant of Abraham? Why does Matthew make it a point to trace Jesus’ lineage all the way back to Abraham? Well, the answer to these questions goes all the way back to Genesis chapter 12.
CONTEXT
If you read through Genesis, one of the things you’ll notice is that there’s a very distinct division when you get to chapter 12. The period from Genesis 1 to Genesis 11 covers over 2,000 years and those 11 chapters deal primarily with some major events. First, there’s the formation of the universe and the first people, where God enjoyed intimate fellowship with His creation. Then, there’s the Fall, where sin entered our world and created a chasm between God and His creation—yet even so, God was working to reconcile people to Himself, and you see this pattern of sin, judgment, and grace. And this pattern carries over to the next thing in Genesis, when we read about the Flood—that global catastrophe that wiped away the wicked people of Noah’s generation. Then there’s a great Fall-out that resulted from the rebellious people at Babel, where their languages were confused and they were scattered throughout the earth. All these events in Genesis 1-11 happening over the course of thousands of years. Then you get to Genesis 12 where God begins to address the sin problem and reconcile humanity to Himself through the person of Abraham and the promise God will give him. And it’s here in Genesis 12 where the focus shifts from these major world events and zooms in on this one man.
BODY (PART 1)
So we get to Genesis 12 and here’s the first thing we see is the Call of Abraham (Genesis 12:1):
"Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you."
Notice that his name is Abram (which means “exalted father”); God will later change his name to Abraham (which means “father of many nations”). So Abraham is about 75 years old, he’s married to a woman named Sarah, and they don’t have any children—they’ve never been able to have kids, because Sarah was barren. Abraham receives this call from God to leave the place of his birth, a place called Ur of the Chaldeans, and the place he was currently residing in, a place called Haran. These were places in Mesopotamia, and they were pretty advanced places, and wealthy too. But they also happened to be centers of idolatry—there were temples there where they worshipped the moon god and other pagan gods. So this is Abraham’s homeland—one of wealth and security, but also one of idol worship. Yet, in His sovereignty, this is the man God chooses: Not because of any merit on Abraham’s part, but simply as an act of grace.
So God first tells Abraham to leave his country. This is the first part of God’s call to him, and this was a big calling. In ancient times, people stayed in their country. This wasn’t a society like we live in today where people emigrate and assimilate easily to different countries and cultures, this was a big deal. A person’s country was familiar territory; it was where Abraham had his livelihood; it was where he had security; it’s where his roots were deep.
Then God tells him to leave his kindred—his relatives and friends. This second part of God’s call is even more challenging. To leave his country was one thing, but to leave his country without most of his family wouldn’t have been easy, either. Remember, ancient civilizations revolved around community. There weren’t any loners—communal relationships were woven through the very fabric of life. These were the only people Abraham knew and loved; they were the ones he found acceptance and security in.
As if this wasn’t enough, God adds one more aspect to this calling: He tells Abraham he must also leave his father’s house. To leave his father’s house meant he had to separate himself from the very source of his identity; he had to separate himself from the security of his family tree. Because his father’s house is his house; his father’s goods are his goods; and his father’s gods and his gods. But Abraham had to leave the solidarity of his family, and he probably even had to forfeit his inheritance. See, God’s call to Abraham was a call to completely abandon everything that was significant to him. And the kicker is this: He didn’t even know where God was calling him to go.
Now we’ve got to acknowledge that this is a pretty tall order. God is saying, “Abram, I want you to pack up your things and move. I want you to leave behind your home, along with the culture, the language, and the friends and family you’ve known your entire life. And make sure you gather together all your possessions because you won’t ever be coming back to this house your father worked so hard to build for you. Oh, and by the way, I’m not going to tell you where we’re going until we get there.” If Abraham was anything like most of us, he could have thought of all sorts of excuses and arguments for why he shouldn’t go: “Come on, God doesn’t really want me to do that. He wouldn’t ask me to leave everything I’ve ever known behind. I must have misheard Him. I can obey Him and serve Him just fine right here in the comfort and security of the known and familiar.”
BODY (PART 2)
But because God rarely demands personal sacrifice without even greater blessings, the very next thing we see is that attached to God’s challenging, and seemingly impossible, call to Abraham is a wonderful promise. If we titled the first section, The Call of Abraham, we’d title this section, verses 2 and 3, The Promise to Abraham (verses 2 and 3):
"2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
In fact, in these two verses there are actually seven promises God makes to Abraham: seven being the number of perfection, of completeness. God’s promises to Abraham are perfect and they’re complete. Though there are seven promises, these promises actually fall within the context of three dimensions of blessings.
The first dimension of God’s blessing is personal—we see God’s promise to bless Abraham personally (verse 2):
"And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing."
Can you imagine what must have been going on inside his mind when God promises him a great nation? His wife is infertile and he’s seventy-five years old: How in the world is God going to make of him a great nation when he can’t even have one child? Yet, this is what God promises.
Then God says, “I will bless you and make your name great,” and this is likely a reference to God providing for Abraham material wealth, as well as a measure of stature and prominence. In fact, God literally makes his name great by changing his name from Abram to Abraham, which, again, means “father of many nations.” God does all this for him, so that he will be a blessing; meaning that Abraham was to let God’s blessing work in him and his family in order that he might become an agent through whom God might bless others.
And this takes us to the second dimension of God’s blessing: The blessing expands from a personal dimension to a more general dimension. There was God’s promise to bless Abraham personally, now we see God’s promise to bless Abraham’s contemporaries.
The first part of verse 3 reads: "I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse,"
Here God is talking about how He is going affect other nations through Abraham and how He is going to protect Abraham among the nations. Any person or nation who promoted Abraham’s welfare would be blessed, but whoever hindered Abraham or inflicted harm on him would be cursed.
Then we see the third dimension of God’s blessing. It starts personal, for Abraham, then expands to a more general dimension, for Abraham’s contemporaries, then it expands even further and becomes universal in its scope.
Look at second half of verse 3: "and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."
This is the climax of God’s promise to Abraham; it’s the most remarkable of all the seven promises God makes to him: In Abraham, all the nations of the earth will be blessed. Remember, God is interested in reconciling humanity to Himself, and this is how He chose to do it: By calling one man to radically trust in Him, so that, through this one man, God can radically transform humanity. It was going to be through a descendant of Abraham that people from every nation, every tribe, and every tongue would be redeemed and made as God’s very own.
BODY (PART 3)
Now, as remarkable as these promises are, and as gracious as God is, Abraham still had to decide whether or not to obey. So what was his response to all this?
Look at the first part of verse 4: "So Abram went, as the LORD had told him…"
God spoke, Abraham believed all God said—he believed God’s promise—then he obeyed. Abraham went forward, not because it made sense; not because it was easy; not because it seemed like the most practical way to raise a family; but simply because God said so.
But, the story doesn’t end here. It wasn’t all rainbows and butterflies from that day on. In fact, there were some challenging times ahead for Abraham and Sarah. So we’ve seen the Call of Abraham, we looked at the Promise to Abraham, now we’ll see the Testing of Abraham. Remember, that in order for God to make good on his promise, Abraham and Sarah needed at least one child, and they were already into their older years. So what happens?
Well, 25 years happens! 25 years go by and there’s no son, no nation, no glimmer of hope in the monumental blessings God promised.
Though God made it a point to reaffirm His promise to Abraham throughout these years, Abraham’s faith in God’s promise was being tested. As time passed by, Abraham began having some doubts; he began to question God’s promise. He even tried taking matters into his own hands. On two separate occasions, forgetting God’s promise to him and in fear that he was going to be killed because his wife was good looking and some other man may have wanted her, he tried hiding the fact that Sarah was his wife and attempted to give her away. On another occasion he thought it would be a good idea to try to fulfill God’s promise without God, he took a second wife and got her pregnant. Then, on another occasion, when God reaffirmed His promise of a future seed, Abraham laughed at God.
So, 25 years pass, Abraham is a hundred years old and Sarah is ninety.
Then we get to Genesis 21 and here’s what we read: "The LORD visited Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did to Sarah as he had promised. 2 And Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age at the time of which God had spoken to him."
God came through on His promise to Abraham by providing the miraculous birth of their son, Isaac. There was no doubt, that when Sarah gave birth to Isaac, that God was responsible for the miracle. And even though Abraham had some lapses of faith, and tried taking matters into his own hands, he ultimately never lost faith in the promise. See, God’s promise to Abraham didn’t demand perfect faith, but it did demand faith in the perfect God.
What made Abraham’s faith so exemplary was not its intrinsic strength, however strong it may have been. What made his faith so exemplary was its object: God. Abraham clung to the promises of God and God came through.
Now Abraham had a glimmer of hope that God’s promise to him would be fulfilled.
So we flash forward some years and get to Genesis chapter 22. Abraham and Sarah had finally settled in. Their days of wandering around and living in makeshift tents were over—they were now living in the land of Canaan.
And best of all, they had Isaac—their most prized possession. He was becoming a young man now. He was learning to worship the God of his father. Everything seemed just right.
Then we read in the beginning of Genesis 22:
Verses 1 and 2: After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 2 He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.”
What??? God is asking Abraham to sacrifice his own son—the very son Abraham and Sarah waited decades for?
Throughout the rest of the ancient world, human life was cheap, but from the beginning, God has been opposed to killing creatures made in His image. Well, we know from the outset that this is a test, but Abraham didn’t know that. I can’t imagine what must have been going through his mind. Never mind the fact that this seems like a ruthless request, but also, the promise that God made to Abraham and Sarah required that Isaac live. The promise, not only of a son, but of nations that would come forth and a population like the stars of the sky and the dust of the earth—this promise required that Isaac live, but now the command of God seems to require that Isaac dies. What a contradiction; it doesn’t make sense…at least it didn’t to Abraham.
Even so, we’re told that Abraham obeyed. Because God have proven Himself to be so trustworthy and so faithful, Abraham knew that, even if God had truly wanted him to follow through with the sacrifice, that God would raise up Isaac from the dead. And if you remember what happens, Abraham and Isaac go up the mountainside, he lays Isaac on the altar, raises the knife, then God stops him from bringing down the knife and God provides a ram as a substitute. Not only is this a testament to Abraham’s incredible trust in God, but it’s also a reminder that God always keeps His promises!
In fact, right after this event, God again reaffirms His promise to Abraham (Genesis 22:17-18):
God says, “17 I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, 18 and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.”
And sure enough, God follows through on His promise: The family expands through Isaac, then Jacob, then the 12 tribes, and Israel becomes a mighty nation, just as God had promised.
BODY (PART 4)
But what about the rest of the promise? What about that one universal promise where “all the nations of the earth shall be blessed?”
Remember Jesus’ family tree in the beginning of Matthew? Well, this is the very reason Abraham is mentioned in that family tree, to show that the ultimate fulfillment of the promise made to Abraham came down to one offspring: Jesus of Nazareth. In Jesus, we see this aspect of God’s universal promise to Abraham fulfilled. So we’ve seen The Call of Abraham, The Promise to Abraham, and The Testing of Abraham, and now we The Promise Fulfilled.
This comes into crystal clear focus in Paul’s letter to the Galatians:
Galatians 3:7-8: "7 Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. 8 And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.”
Galatians 3:16: "Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, “And to offsprings,” referring to many, but referring to one, “And to your offspring,” who is Christ."
Are you seeing this? Jesus is the ultimate fulfillment of what God promised to Abraham! Through Jesus, the seed of Abraham, all the nations of the earth will be blessed—people of all races, people of all nationalities, people of all languages, will find salvation as they put their trust in Jesus.
APPLICATION
And this is the bottom of line we need to walk away understanding:
JESUS IS THE PROOF THAT GOD KEEPS HIS PROMISES.
God completed in Jesus all He said He would do for Abraham. When Jesus was born, God gave birth to the fulfillment of His promise to Abraham. This is why Matthew begins his Gospel account with the family tree of Jesus, going all the way back to Abraham—because he wanted his first-century Jewish readers to know that Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s promise to the Jews. And, for those of us in the twenty-first century, we can find hope in the truth that Jesus is the proof that God keeps His promises!
So how should this truth affect us?
Well, it means that we can trust God to keep His promises. Our God is a promise-keeping God. He always does what He says He will do. He’s not like us, forgetting or ignoring His commitments. And He’s not like us, sometimes willing to fulfill His commitments, but unable to do so. God is completely unlike us—His strength is unlimited and His mercy is unparalleled. He never runs out of time; He never gets sick; He never has an unexpected scheduling conflict. And He never lacks the strength to do what He says He will do—even if the task is as tall as giving a baby to a ninety-year-old woman or raising His Son from the dead! Nothing is too difficult for the Lord—He always does as He promises, and because He always does what He promises, we can take Him at His word.
And here’s the thing: We can take God at His word even in our waiting. God keeps His promises despite any delays. Remember: Abraham waited decades for a son. And even though God’s timing was different from what Abraham would have liked, His timing was perfect. And during that tension when Abraham had to wait, God still offered His presence and sustaining power to Abraham. God didn’t once forget or neglect the promise He made: He came through as He said He would. We can take God at His word even in our waiting.
Not only that, but we can take God at His word even in our worry. God keeps His promises despite any difficulties.
Even after all those years of waiting for a son, Abraham was then told to lay Isaac down on the altar. And in that moment of what was likely the single most difficult event in Abraham’s life, God came through. God always comes through—He always keeps His promises despite any challenges that arise or any obstacles that seem insurmountable.
And here’s what I want you to notice: With Isaac, Abraham’s son, God stayed the executioner’s hand. Because had Isaac died, the promise to Abraham would have died with Him. But with Jesus, God’s own Son, He didn’t stay the executioner’s hand. Because had Jesus not died, the universal promise made to Abraham would have come to a screeching halt. See, it was Jesus’ death and resurrection that opened the way for people from every nation and every tongue to be brought into the family of God. The very fact that you and I are here this morning worshipping Jesus as our Lord and Savior is all a direct result of God making good on His promise to Abraham. Jesus is the proof that God keeps His promises.
If we can trust God to do what no other person can do—if we can trust Him to save us from our sin and secure our eternal redemption, can we not also trust Him for whatever else we need? We can trust Him—you can trust Him.
You can take Him at His word.
You could take God at His word when He says:
- That if you believe in His Son you will not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)
- That if you confess your sins, He is faithful and just to forgive you your sins and purify you from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)
- That He will supply every need of yours according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:19)
- That He will never leave you nor forsake you. (Hebrews 13:5)
- That neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate you from His love that is in Christ Jesus. (Romans 8:38-39)
- That you can cast all your anxieties on Him, because He cares for you. (1 Peter 5:7)
- That you are dead to sin and alive to Himself in Christ Jesus. (Romans 6:11)
- That you are His temple and that His Spirit dwells in you. (1 Corinthians 3:16)
- That you don’t need to fear, for He is with you; you don’t need to be discouraged, for He is your God; He will strengthen you, He will help you, and He will uphold you with His righteous right hand. (Isaiah 41:10)
- That He has caused you to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you. (1 Peter 1:3-4)
- That in all things He works for the good of those who love Him. (Romans 8:28)
- That He is able to do immeasurably more than all you ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within you. (Ephesians 3:20)
- That a time is coming when He will wipe away every tear from your eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore. (Revelation 21:4)
We can take God at His word! He made good on His promise to Abraham, and He will make good on His promises to us! The baby in the manger is proof of that promise. The savior on the cross is proof of that promise. The victor outside of the empty tomb is proof of that promise. Jesus is the proof that God keeps His promises!
