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…
Royal lineage
This lineage connects Jesus to David - one of Israel’s most beloved kings, but not to Solomon, the son who succeeded David as King. Does this break the royal line? It certainly reinforces the royal connection, but at least on this side of the family, likely Mary’s side of the family, Jesus is a descendent of Nathan a son who didn’t sit on the throne. Interestingly, both Matthew and Luke’s genealogies converge around Shealtiel and Zerubbabel - both descendants of the royal line, but neither were occupants of the throne as they lived after the exile.
Thirdly, this lineage reveals Jesus’
Spiritual lineage
As a descendent of Abraham he was considered ethnically Jewish. Some of these descendants served as priests, so there is a bit of the religious element in there as well.
But even beyond the religious aspect of His spiritual heritage, Luke draws our attention to Jesus’ connection to God. Jesus was begotten of the godhead, yet as human and a descendant of Adam is spiritually related to God, which means that so are we!
There is one final lineage that I think we need to touch on briefly, and that is the…
Physical lineage
The legal lineage places Jesus in good standing with governing authorities. The Royal lineage helps to connect Jesus to the throne of David and the prophecies that surround the Messiah. The spiritual lineage connects Jesus to the historic Jewish faith.
By virtue of the fact that Luke takes the genealogy all the way back to Adam, the first human, He is communicating that Jesus can relate to all humans. He is to some degree a relative of all of us. To that end, all of us are relatives of each other. But by including Adam, Luke communicates the humanness of Jesus.
But, let’s shift gears a bit. When we look at the overall message of Luke, and the specifics of this genealogy, it can be easy to dive into the minutia and the critique of who is here and who is not. We can speculate about names and reasons for inclusion or exclusion. But I think it’s important to ask, what is Luke telling us? What does the Holy Spirit communicate through Luke’s account of Jesus’ genealogy life? It seems like Luke is communicating…
A particular message
That message is that Jesus is the Son of God! We’ve seen that phrase or something similar come up a few times in our study.
When the angel Gabriel announced to Mary that she would bear a son, he said that this child would be called “Son of the Most High” (1:32). Then, when Mary asked about the logistics of how this would happen, the angel replied Luke 1:35
Luke 1:35 ESV
And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God.
So, Luke is already setting the stage for the sonship of Jesus. Now, as we come to the genealogy and some of the passages around this, Luke is helping us to see that Jesus is the
Son of God by Declaration (3:22)
We saw this briefly last week as we considered the ministry of John. After Jesus was baptized, a voice from heaven called out saying…
Luke 3:22 (ESV)
“You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”
This voice from heaven claims Jesus as His Son. It’s not Jesus own testimony, but the audible testimony of God Himself, accompanied by a physical sign of the Holy Spirit in the form of a Dove. This really is a beautiful revelation of the Trinity - Father, Son, Holy Spirit together.
grace - declared son before doing anything.
In salvation we receive that grace too, God calls us, we can’t earn it, but only respond.
Good parenting advice - declared son before love for our kids, even delight. Not holding love hostage by their performance.
In addition to communicating the sonship of Jesus by declaration, Luke, through this whole genealogy helps us see that Jesus is…
Son of God by Heritage (3:38)
As we’ve already seen, Luke takes Jesus’ genealogy all the way back to Adam and then interestingly takes it back a step further noting that he (Adam) is a son of God. In going back to Adam, Luke is calling us to compare Jesus and Adam. Here are a couple of points of comparison:
Both men lacked earthly fathers. Genesis 2:7 “then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.” Adam wasn’t born, he was made. As we considered in the birth narrative of Jesus - while he was born but was not born of an earthly human father. He existed for eternity past, but was begotten as Son in the miraculous conception.
Both men were tested by the devil - Adam in the garden in Genesis 3, Jesus in the wilderness as we’ll see.
Adam was failed the test
Jesus passed it.
The apostle Paul helps us understand some of the eternal and spiritual significances of these two men.
1 Corinthians 15:45–49 ESV
Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.
In some ways, we could say that while they are both sons of God, Jesus is the better, the perfect Adam.
Jesus is the Son of God by declaration and heritage, finally, as we’ll see in a couple of weeks, He
Son of God by Examination (4:3)
We already alluded to this in the comparison, but if you look at Luke 4:3, we get to see the mocking condition of the devil toward Jesus…
Luke 4:3 (ESV)
The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God.…”
While on one hand we could say that the devil had no grounds upon which to place this condition, it does become the condition by which the devil tests or tempts Jesus. These are tests which Jesus passed with flying colors.
Again, the apostle Paul helps us to interpret the perfect life of this second Adam with another comparison.
Romans 5:12–21 NLT
When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned. Yes, people sinned even before the law was given. But it was not counted as sin because there was not yet any law to break. Still, everyone died—from the time of Adam to the time of Moses—even those who did not disobey an explicit commandment of God, as Adam did. Now Adam is a symbol, a representation of Christ, who was yet to come. But there is a great difference between Adam’s sin and God’s gracious gift. For the sin of this one man, Adam, brought death to many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and his gift of forgiveness to many through this other man, Jesus Christ. And the result of God’s gracious gift is very different from the result of that one man’s sin. For Adam’s sin led to condemnation, but God’s free gift leads to our being made right with God, even though we are guilty of many sins. For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and his gift of righteousness, for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one man, Jesus Christ.
Yes, Adam’s one sin brings condemnation for everyone, but Christ’s one act of righteousness brings a right relationship with God and new life for everyone. Because one person disobeyed God, many became sinners. But because one other person obeyed God, many will be made righteous.
God’s law was given so that all people could see how sinful they were. But as people sinned more and more, God’s wonderful grace became more abundant. So just as sin ruled over all people and brought them to death, now God’s wonderful grace rules instead, giving us right standing with God and resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
So, we’ve considered this odd text - reflecting on Jesus’ time for ministry, his parentage and the particular message that Luke is conveying. Let’s conclude by asking the question:
So What?
What difference does this make for us? What should we know personally or do individually in light of Jesus’ genealogy?
Let’s consider three points of application.
We don’t chose our parents, traits, etc, but we can learn from them - the mistakes of the past don’t have to be repeated in us. Jesus’ background was filled with people who made mistakes, big mistakes, huge mistakes. Yet - those mistakes did not define him or determine his destiny. Like Jesus, we inherited certain traits from our parents and ancestors. There are physical characteristics, personality quirks, genetic tendencies and even deficiencies that we pick up. While they make up a bit of who we are, they don’t have to define us forever. Our genealogies help us to look back and give us a bit of understanding of who we are and how we got here, but they don’t define our future - God does. When we allow God’s Word to guide us and His Spirit to refine us, the quirks of the past don’t have to define our futures.
Sam Ferguson, the pastor at Falls Church Anglican recently said, “to be human is to be spiritual and human” - Ferguson - to some degree, our genealogy is the same as Jesus - except - we inherited our sin nature from Adam - Jesus did not. With that being said, we need to not only work on how we live in this life physically, but we need to pay attention to our lives spiritually. Recognize that we do relate to God. Our relationship with our heavenly father influences how we live in this life physically. In other words, our vertical relationship is connected to our horizontal relationships. If our spiritual relationship is broken, then our earthly relationships will be broken. But if our vertical relationships is whole, then our horizontal relationships are more likely to be healthy. Finally,...
Jesus relates to us as human and redeems us as Son of God. Jesus understands our limitations as humans.
Hebrews 4:15–16 ESV
For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
When you’re facing a temptation that seems insurmountable, know that Jesus understands. He faced that too, and succeeded. When you stumble and fall, when you dishonor God because of your sin, know that because Jesus did not, he took your sin to the cross with him, he redeemed it. When you are identified by Christ, redeemed by him, you are not identified by your sin.
Let’s pray.
Benediction
Jude 24–25 ESV
Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.
Questions for reflection and discussion
Read: Luke 3:23-38 - consider expanding to 3:21-4:3
What do you know about your genealogy (nationalities, ethnicities, traits, interesting facts)?
What do you like/not like about your heritage?
In looking at Jesus’ heritage - what jumps out at you?
What does this communicate about Jesus?
Why is 30 a potentially good time to begin ministry?
What does the genealogy reference about Jesus lineage? (we discussed 4 on Sunday)
What is the message that Luke is communicating?
In what ways can we know that Jesus is the son of God (3:22, 3:38, 4:3)?
What can we learn from our own heritages?
What does it mean that Jesus relates to us as humans, but redeems us as Son of God? Have you been redeemed? Would you share your salvation story?
Ferguson said: “to be human is to be spiritual.” Is that true? Why/why not? How did Jesus model this throughout his life?
Sources:
Anyabwile, Thabiti. Exalting Jesus in Luke. Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary. Nashville, TN: Holman Reference, 2018.
Beeke, Joel R., and Paul M. Smalley. Reformed Systematic Theology: Man and Christ. Vol. 2. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2020.
Bock, Darrell L. Luke 1:1-9:50. Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1999.
Ferguson, Sam “Compelling People: the allure of Christ likeness in an identity confused culture.” Cross Conference 2025.
Martin, John A. “Luke.” In The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, edited by J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck. Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985.
McKinley, Mike. Luke 1–12 for You. Edited by Carl Laferton. God’s Word for You. The Good Book Company, 2016.
Stewart, R. A. “Passover.” Edited by D. R. W. Wood, I. H. Marshall, A. R. Millard, J. I. Packer, and D. J. Wiseman. New Bible Dictionary. Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1996.
Wilcock, Michael. The Savior of the World: The Message of Luke’s Gospel. The Bible Speaks Today. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1979.
