Through All Generations Series

“…THROUGH ALL GENERATIONS” Matt. 1:1-17

FBCF – 12/4/22

Jon Daniels

INTRO – K & K missionary video – Only way they can stay where they are & do what they are doing is b/c they KNOW that God is w/ them! And that’s the subject of this sermon series for the next month: “GOD IS WITH US.”

EXPLANATION – Matthew 1:1-17 (pg. 807) – USE KJV – Then v. 18a – “Now the birth of Jesus took place in this way…”

These genealogies are some of the most boring sections of Scripture, at least for me. How many of us have just skipped over them when we’ve been reading the Bible? Or, if we read them, we just skim through them rapidly? Long sections of Scripture, particularly in the OT, w/ lists of so many hard-to-pronounce names. 1st 9 chapters of 1 Chron are nothing but these genealogical listings.

Why include them? What could they possibly add?

For original readers in biblical times, these lists had a number of purposes, like:

- Determining tax rolls & military service personnel

- Defining occupations (OT priests)

- Royal succession (“house & lineage of David” – Luke 2:4)

- Land ownership & inheritance issues

A casual reading of a biblical genealogy is practically meaningless to us today. But obviously, God had a purpose for including them in His book. These lists are not there by chance or by accident. They are there b/c God wanted them there & inspired the writers of Scripture to record them for all to see & read, no matter how boring we think they are.

Matthew was a tax collector. B/c of that, he would have been familiar w/ these lists & was meticulous in including this list at the beginning of his Gospel. One of the main reasons he included it is b/c he was writing to Jewish people. He wanted them to see that Jesus did indeed fulfill the requirements of the Messiah. John MacArthur: “If Jesus is going to be heralded & proclaimed king, there must be proof that He comes from the recognized royal family.” (Matthew 1-7, p. 2)

But there’s another, maybe less obvious purpose for this tracing of Jesus’ family tree. As you look down this list of names, you’ll find out that there are some definite “knots on the family tree.”

Knots develop on trees as the result of diseases that injure the tree, or an insect that stings the tree. The tree heals around that affected area & causes a gall, or a knot to develop there where that injured place was.

All throughout this listing of names in Jesus’ family tree, there are people whose lives had been stricken w/ the disease called sin. Their lives had been stung by sins & sinful situations. Here are just a few:

- Abraham was a liar & so was his son, Isaac

- Jacob was a schemer & a cheater

- Tamar disguised herself as a prostitute & committed incest

- Rahab was a prostitute & a Canaanite, enemy of God’s people

- Ruth was from the Moabite people, a tribe who were the product of incest

- David was an adulterer & a murderer

- Solomon had 700 wives & 300 concubines, foreign women who led him into idolatry

- Manasseh was a wicked king who built altars to Baal & burned his own sons up as a sacrifice to idols

Shocking to see that the family tree of Jesus is filled w/ sinners. But that’s exactly the point! The deeds of these people on this list are not on display – God’s GRACE is! There’s ugliness in the lives of every imperfect person on that list, & yet God used them to bring His perfect Son into the world. He was w/ them, working in them, sometimes working in spite of them, to bring about His perfect plan for our salvation. What a story of the GRACE, mercy, power, & love of God! If He was w/ THEM, we can rest assured He is w/ US now!

APPLICATION – God has been with us in generations past & will be with us now & in generations to come.

Let me be very clear: We are not celebrating or condoning the sins that these folks committed. We are not saying that a believer can just live any way they want to live & expect that God will bless them. There were terrible consequences for the sins that these people committed.

But the point is that, no matter how far you’ve strayed from God, He’s not through w/ you yet. He is still w/ you, even if you’re far away from Him.

GOD IS WITH US…

…THROUGH EVERY SITUATION – Every one of us will find ourselves in troubling, difficult situations. May be due to the sinful actions of others. May be due to our own sinful actions.