WEBVTT 00:00:00.401 --> 00:00:05.174 Turn with me to the wonderful Gospel of Matthew in chapter 1. 00:00:05.174 --> 00:00:07.280 Matthew, chapter 1. 00:00:07.280 --> 00:00:15.071 The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham. 00:00:15.071 --> 00:00:20.788 Abraham was the father of Isaac, isaac the father of Jacob and Jacob. 00:00:20.788 --> 00:00:27.228 The father of Judah and his brothers and Judah the father of Perez and Zera by Tamar and Perez. 00:00:27.228 --> 00:00:29.713 The father of Hezron and Hezra. 00:00:29.713 --> 00:00:31.504 The father of Ram and Ram. 00:00:31.504 --> 00:00:34.573 The father of Amenadab and Amenadab. 00:00:34.573 --> 00:00:36.478 The father of Nashon and Nashon. 00:00:36.478 --> 00:00:38.942 The father of Salman and Salman. 00:00:38.942 --> 00:00:42.189 The father of Boaz, by Rahab and Boaz. 00:00:42.189 --> 00:00:44.834 The father of Obed, by Ruth and Obed. 00:00:44.834 --> 00:00:47.084 The father of Jesse and Jesse. 00:00:47.084 --> 00:00:53.444 The father of David, the king and David was the father of Solomon, by the wife of Uriah and Solomon. 00:00:53.444 --> 00:00:56.270 The father of Rehad, abgeum and Rehabom. 00:00:56.270 --> 00:01:00.710 The father of Abijah, the father of Asaph and Asaph. 00:01:00.710 --> 00:01:03.399 The father of Jehochefah and Jehochefah. 00:01:03.399 --> 00:01:09.620 The father of landfill and Jamintrodu, him the father of the CIA and Uzziah are the father of Joseph, him and Joseph him. 00:01:09.620 --> 00:01:12.028 The father of a has and ah has. 00:01:12.028 --> 00:01:18.103 The father of Hezekiah and Hezekiah, the father father of Manasseh and Manasseh. 00:01:18.103 --> 00:01:20.207 The father of Amos and Amos. 00:01:20.207 --> 00:01:30.400 The father of Josiah and Josiah, the father of Jochaniah and his brothers at the time of the deportation to Babylon, verse 12. 00:01:30.400 --> 00:02:07.930 And after the deportation to Babylon, jochaniah was the father of Shilteel and Shilteel, the father of Zerubbabel and Zerubbabel, the father of Abayud and Abayud, the father of Eliachim and Eliachim, the father of Azor and Azor, the father of Zadok and Zadok, the father of Ahim and Ahim, the father of Abayud and Abayud, the father of Eleazar and Eleazar, the father of Matan and Matan, the father of Jacob and Jacob, the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ. 00:02:07.930 --> 00:02:18.473 So all the generations from Abraham to David were fourteen generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon, fourteen generations. 00:02:18.473 --> 00:02:26.935 And from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ, fourteen generations. 00:02:26.935 --> 00:02:32.204 Many of you know my story. 00:02:32.204 --> 00:02:37.540 Some of you are new to Trinity and perhaps don't How. 00:02:37.580 --> 00:02:41.451 I first heard the gospel through the witness of my older brother, who is a drug addict. 00:02:41.451 --> 00:02:42.823 He's four years older than me. 00:02:42.823 --> 00:02:43.986 We lived in Philadelphia. 00:02:43.986 --> 00:02:52.112 He became addicted to drugs at a young age, mainlining a needle in his arm for many years and hopelessly addicted to drugs. 00:02:52.112 --> 00:03:00.508 My parents, in attempt to shield me from drug use, came to me in 1969, said Neil, we don't want you turning out like your brother's brother. 00:03:00.508 --> 00:03:01.955 We want you free from drugs. 00:03:01.955 --> 00:03:07.605 We're moving to Miami, drug free Miami. 00:03:07.605 --> 00:03:35.253 But I really did, while living in Miami, hear the gospel the first time the only time I ever remember from the lips of my newly saved brother, who was dynamited into the kingdom in the revival of the 70s, instantaneously healed of drug addiction, and he began to talk to me on the phone and then moved back to Miami and personally share with me that Jesus was the Jewish Messiah. 00:03:35.253 --> 00:03:55.259 But actually something happened to me years before my brother shared the gospel with me in Philadelphia that I remembered And it was a very vivid memory because it's the first time that I can consciously remember thinking about Jesus of Nazareth in a Jewish context. 00:03:56.866 --> 00:04:00.560 I grew up in a Jewish neighborhood in Philadelphia, but all my friends were Italian. 00:04:00.560 --> 00:04:04.447 I used to dip my calzone in chicken soup. 00:04:04.447 --> 00:04:26.565 But I distinctly remember one Christmas Eve walking down the street of my Philadelphia neighborhood and hearing from the houses of my friends one in particular, christmas music, and it stopped me dead in my tracks and I listened to the words. 00:04:26.565 --> 00:05:01.281 It was an Italian family that I knew and from their home was coming the words Noel, noel born as the king of Israel, and I knew they were Italian, so I thought Noel was Leon spelled backwards, but I remember stopping in my tracks I might have been eight, nine years old And for the first time hearing about Jesus as the king of Israel, and I was stumped by that. 00:05:01.281 --> 00:05:02.704 It was foreign to me. 00:05:03.526 --> 00:05:08.302 You have to know that most Jewish people have no understanding. 00:05:08.302 --> 00:05:17.269 I tell you this and I'm not exaggerating I thought Jesus was a Jew who became a Catholic priest and went around Israel sprinkling holy water on people. 00:05:17.269 --> 00:05:18.673 No exaggeration. 00:05:18.673 --> 00:05:26.805 That was the extent of my understanding of Jesus of Nazareth, and I remember thinking as a young kid, born as the king of Israel. 00:05:26.805 --> 00:05:30.673 He's the king of the Gentiles, but he's not the king of Israel. 00:05:30.673 --> 00:05:36.471 It seems strange to me to relate Jesus in any way to Israel. 00:05:36.471 --> 00:05:53.704 But what is even stranger this morning is, so many of us are used to Jesus in a Gentile or a church context, we have difficulty thinking of Him in the context of Israel as well. 00:05:53.704 --> 00:06:12.264 Take, for example, the fact that many of us this Christmas will hear Christmas readings from the Scriptures, most of which, if not all of them, will start with verse 18, which I didn't read this morning. 00:06:12.264 --> 00:06:19.208 The birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way, when His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph. 00:06:19.208 --> 00:06:25.211 Before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. 00:06:26.754 --> 00:06:30.122 No one in this room who attends a Christmas service in this city. 00:06:30.122 --> 00:06:38.065 It is unlikely that you will hear what I read this morning the first 17 verses of Matthew. 00:06:38.065 --> 00:06:41.334 We will sing about the babe in the manger. 00:06:41.334 --> 00:06:44.281 We will celebrate God coming in the flesh. 00:06:44.281 --> 00:06:48.110 We will talk about the wise men coming from the east all part of the story. 00:06:48.110 --> 00:06:49.281 I have no problem. 00:06:50.302 --> 00:07:01.122 But when Matthew begins his account of how Jesus came to this planet, he doesn't start with Bethlehem's manger folks. 00:07:01.122 --> 00:07:07.595 Instead, he starts with a list of names nobody in this room can pronounce. 00:07:07.595 --> 00:07:10.641 Why. 00:07:10.641 --> 00:07:24.408 Why start with such an archaic list of names from the past, most of which, sadly, the majority of us are unfamiliar with? 00:07:24.408 --> 00:07:26.512 Well, there's good reason, and here it is. 00:07:26.512 --> 00:07:46.745 Matthew starts this way because he wants his readers to understand that they cannot understand the story of Jesus unless they see it in the light of a much longer story which goes back many centuries and leads up to Jesus. 00:07:48.266 --> 00:08:02.081 That story, which I read this morning, is the story of the Hebrew Bible, the Old Testament for those of us who don't know it as the Hebrew Bible, and Matthew doesn't tell it as a story. 00:08:02.081 --> 00:08:12.564 He tells it in a very typical Jewish way, by providing us a genealogy that tells us Messiah's ancestry. 00:08:12.564 --> 00:08:46.412 It may not mean a lot to most of us in this room, but to every Jew who read it, this was a familiar story, and what Matthew is trying to tell us, folks, is that we will only understand Jesus properly if we see him in the light of the story which he brings to a climax, the story of the Old Testament And, in other words, jesus. 00:08:46.412 --> 00:09:04.193 The Old Testament tells the story which Jesus of Nazareth completes, and not only do we need to look at Jesus in the light of the history of the Old Testament, but he also sheds light backwards upon it. 00:09:04.193 --> 00:09:15.508 Think about the importance of this, because you understand and appreciate a journey only in the light of its destination. 00:09:15.508 --> 00:09:36.763 The fact that you know where you're going makes the ride doable, and so it's important for us, if we're going to be biblical, gospel-driven people, to understand that as we journey through the Hebrew Bible, as we read through its pages, it's going to lead us to Jesus. 00:09:36.763 --> 00:09:50.611 This is so important for us every Christmas to understand, because without it, we get the impression that Jesus has dropped into history. 00:09:50.611 --> 00:09:52.104 We don't know who he is. 00:09:52.404 --> 00:09:54.211 But that's not how Matthew starts. 00:09:54.211 --> 00:10:00.734 He tells us Jesus is a man with a story and he's going to bring to completion that story. 00:10:00.734 --> 00:10:08.094 And this, my friends, gives us proper perspective on the person of Jesus of Nazareth. 00:10:08.094 --> 00:10:11.600 You know, i have a tree in my front yard. 00:10:11.600 --> 00:10:24.211 So if I take a picture of the tree standing in front of my yard but I Photoshop my house out of the picture, can you tell me how big or small the tree is? 00:10:24.211 --> 00:10:25.514 You can't. 00:10:25.514 --> 00:10:41.934 But the moment I go back in Photoshop and put my house in the background and show you the same tree because the tree now has perspective or background you suddenly know how big or small the tree is. 00:10:41.934 --> 00:10:54.279 This is exactly what understanding Jesus from his Old Testament background does. 00:10:54.279 --> 00:10:58.320 It suddenly brings the Lord Jesus into proper perspective. 00:10:58.461 --> 00:10:59.605 Now I don't need to say this. 00:10:59.605 --> 00:11:02.669 Well, maybe I do, but I hope you knew it already. 00:11:02.669 --> 00:11:07.451 Jesus is a man with a unique culture and a specific history. 00:11:07.451 --> 00:11:18.626 His background, his ancestry, his roots were shaped and influenced, as all his contemporaries were, by the history of his people. 00:11:18.626 --> 00:11:19.562 Ps. 00:11:19.562 --> 00:11:21.929 Jesus was a Jew. 00:11:21.929 --> 00:11:35.374 That's important because when we sing about him and talk about him, we can do it in a sort of general way, without a reference to his ancestry. 00:11:35.374 --> 00:11:37.679 This blew my mind. 00:11:37.779 --> 00:11:46.631 These verses have particular meaning to me this morning because I had all of the typical prejudices as a young Jew about Jesus. 00:11:46.631 --> 00:11:50.782 I knew two things as a young Jew Jesus is not for us And I knew. 00:11:50.782 --> 00:12:00.331 Somehow I never got it, as I said earlier, he was a Jew but he left us And he became a Catholic, or I didn't get it. 00:12:00.331 --> 00:12:01.644 Why did he leave us? 00:12:01.644 --> 00:12:11.980 He was a Jew And when I was 16, 15, i think I can't remember I decided to run away from home. 00:12:12.100 --> 00:12:13.164 I was living in Miami. 00:12:13.164 --> 00:12:15.628 I had moved there from Philadelphia. 00:12:15.628 --> 00:12:18.408 I was probably living in Miami about a year. 00:12:18.408 --> 00:12:19.410 I hated it. 00:12:19.410 --> 00:12:27.851 I wanted to be back with my friends in Philadelphia because, sadly, i was beginning to experiment with drugs and tensions were building between my parents and I. 00:12:27.851 --> 00:12:38.049 So I devised a plan to hitchhike, run away from home in the 11th grade hitchhike from Philadelphia, i'm sorry, from Miami back to Philadelphia. 00:12:38.049 --> 00:12:41.506 And right before I left my brother called. 00:12:41.506 --> 00:12:51.399 He was already converted, he was training for ministry, he was in Bible school in North Dakota And I told him about my plan to run away And he said these words to me. 00:12:51.399 --> 00:12:58.066 Now my brother's name is Perry And he said to me I'm praying for you, you're going to meet Jesus. 00:12:58.066 --> 00:13:00.539 And I said that's good for you. 00:13:00.539 --> 00:13:12.888 I don't need Jesus because my I'm a musician and I wanted to make a record and get famous and get rich and buy a yacht and sail down the California coast, proving again Satan is a liar. 00:13:12.888 --> 00:13:17.509 The only thing that came true is that album. 00:13:17.509 --> 00:13:20.279 I made it and I sold 60 copies. 00:13:20.279 --> 00:13:23.580 So and so I did. 00:13:23.720 --> 00:13:30.187 I ran away from home the next day, hitchhiked from Miami to Philadelphia, and three days later I'd been up for three days. 00:13:30.187 --> 00:13:31.090 I was on drugs. 00:13:31.090 --> 00:13:32.284 My hair was long. 00:13:32.284 --> 00:13:36.048 In those days I had a picture I've lost that I wish I could show it to you. 00:13:36.048 --> 00:13:36.760 I had. 00:13:36.760 --> 00:13:44.234 I had hair like David, my son, i did, and it was curly, and I was on drugs and I was in a little town in Maryland. 00:13:44.299 --> 00:13:47.705 Now, remember, my brother told me I'm praying for you, you're going to meet Jesus. 00:13:47.705 --> 00:13:52.942 And I was hitchhiking about two in the morning in Maryland And there it was. 00:13:52.942 --> 00:13:54.749 No, there was a small town. 00:13:54.749 --> 00:13:55.985 I didn't know where I was. 00:13:55.985 --> 00:13:58.000 One car comes up to the light. 00:13:58.000 --> 00:13:59.120 They rolled her window down. 00:13:59.120 --> 00:14:00.178 Would you like a ride. 00:14:00.178 --> 00:14:02.327 I said no, i'm getting a tan. 00:14:02.327 --> 00:14:13.559 By the way, it was January when I ran away and I forgot that once you get above Tallahassee it's cold And I was not prepared for it. 00:14:13.559 --> 00:14:16.849 I thought the rest of the nation was 80 degrees, like Miami. 00:14:19.140 --> 00:14:20.506 And these people picked me up. 00:14:20.506 --> 00:14:40.278 It was two, two a married couple, a man and a woman in the front and a man in the back, and I got in the car and we weren't driving down the road two minutes when I started telling him my life story, that I'd run away and all this stuff and all my frustrations And the guy in the front seat turned around and said I have a question Do you know Jesus? 00:14:40.278 --> 00:14:45.618 And I answered you know, i've been around the church long enough. 00:14:45.618 --> 00:14:49.167 I answered right, i said yes, i know Jesus My brother's in Bible school. 00:14:49.167 --> 00:14:53.649 But he said no, do you know Jesus? 00:14:53.649 --> 00:14:57.139 And then he said this he said why don't you come back to our house? 00:14:57.139 --> 00:14:58.144 We live down the road. 00:14:58.144 --> 00:15:07.192 We will put you up for the night, we will feed you a good meal And when you wake up in the morning, we'll buy your bus ticket from Maryland to Philadelphia. 00:15:07.192 --> 00:15:10.940 My name is Neil Silverberg. 00:15:10.940 --> 00:15:12.927 My brother, perry, is praying for me. 00:15:13.059 --> 00:15:27.591 I found out I was with Bob and Connie Silver in Perryville, maryland And, by the way, bob Silver never heard the end of the story. 00:15:27.591 --> 00:15:30.313 And I called him up years later. 00:15:30.313 --> 00:15:36.650 I got his number I can't remember how And I said Bob, it must have been 10, 15 years, maybe more. 00:15:36.650 --> 00:15:42.788 I said Bob, he said Neil, and he said did you ever get saved? 00:15:42.788 --> 00:15:47.330 And I told him what I've been doing for the last 20, 30 years. 00:15:49.379 --> 00:15:55.072 But when I, when they took me to the bus station in Maryland, they did the unthinkable. 00:15:55.072 --> 00:15:59.679 As a Jew, i had never read the New Testament. 00:15:59.679 --> 00:16:00.664 Can I be honest with you. 00:16:00.664 --> 00:16:01.945 I never touched it. 00:16:01.945 --> 00:16:03.028 It was illegal. 00:16:03.028 --> 00:16:12.750 And as I got on the bus, bob Silver handed me and, by the way, i didn't give my life to the Lord that night but they prayed with me and asked me to pray a very dangerous prayer as a Jew. 00:16:12.750 --> 00:16:16.750 I think if anybody prays that it's dangerous, but it's dangerous if you're a Jew. 00:16:16.750 --> 00:16:22.879 And they asked me to pray to the God of Abraham, isaac and Jacob, who I had never prayed for. 00:16:22.879 --> 00:16:28.639 I prayed prayers from a prayer book, but I had never talked to God that way. 00:16:28.639 --> 00:16:41.743 And they directed me to pray to my God, the God of Abraham, isaac and Jacob, that if Jesus is the Jewish Messiah, god would show me You're in trouble. 00:16:41.743 --> 00:16:45.567 If you're Jewish and you pray that prayer, you're condemned to salvation. 00:16:45.567 --> 00:16:52.894 And then I got to the bus the next day and they handed me the New Testament And I couldn't say no, i'm Jewish. 00:16:52.894 --> 00:16:55.297 Because these people were so hospitable. 00:16:55.297 --> 00:17:03.520 So I grabbed the New Testament, stuck it in my pocket and got on the bus And while the bus was going to Philadelphia I thought about pulling it out Now. 00:17:03.681 --> 00:17:21.029 I assumed, as every Jew does before he or she reads it, that if I opened the New Testament, it's probably the most Gentile book you could ever read The story of Jesus, a Jewish boy who left Judaism and became a Catholic or a Protestant. 00:17:21.029 --> 00:17:22.112 That's what I expected to find. 00:17:22.112 --> 00:17:22.792 I really did. 00:17:22.792 --> 00:17:46.119 I had no idea what was in the New Testament And I can remember the moment on that bus ride where I stuck my hand in my pocket and pulled out a little New Testament and opened it up and fell off my seat Because I read those words The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham. 00:17:46.119 --> 00:17:54.940 I stopped and I said I know these guys Abraham begat Isaac, isaac begat Jacob. 00:17:54.940 --> 00:17:56.362 It was so Jewish. 00:17:56.362 --> 00:18:21.443 Well, that's exactly why Matthew starts his genealogy, or his book, with a genealogy reaching back all the way to Abraham, because Jewish society genealogies were the pivotal way of establishing your right to belong to the community of Israel. 00:18:24.771 --> 00:18:26.055 And look what Matthew does. 00:18:26.055 --> 00:18:34.733 In the opening verse, he connects Jesus of Nazareth to two of the great personages in the Old Testament. 00:18:34.733 --> 00:18:42.253 He's Ben David, son of David, and Ben Avram, son of Abraham. 00:18:42.253 --> 00:19:06.904 And Matthew is telling us this not merely to tell us Jesus is physically descended from these guys though he certainly is But Matthew is telling us that he's Ben David and Ben Avram, ben, son of David, son of Abraham, to connect Jesus to the great promises that were given to these two men in Hebrew history. 00:19:06.904 --> 00:19:11.594 David is first, because he's the most important. 00:19:11.594 --> 00:19:19.984 Every Jew knows one thing, if he knows nothing else about the Messiah, every Jew knows Messiah must be Ben David. 00:19:19.984 --> 00:19:27.490 I remember my parents talking about it when I was little Messiah, ben David, messiah, son of David. 00:19:27.490 --> 00:19:32.404 But he also says he's son of Abraham. 00:19:34.096 --> 00:19:37.605 And I want to start there for a minute, because, really, verse 1,. 00:19:37.605 --> 00:19:41.883 Let me read verse 1 to you properly from the Greek text. 00:19:41.883 --> 00:19:43.078 Here's how it reads. 00:19:43.078 --> 00:19:55.970 See if you recognize anything familiar folks The book of the Genesis of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. 00:19:55.970 --> 00:19:57.318 Any familiar words to you there? 00:19:57.318 --> 00:20:03.586 Genesis is the real word in the Greek text of Matthew 1, 1. 00:20:03.586 --> 00:20:23.028 And obviously, if you read that and you're a Jew, you're going to think of what The book by that title, genesis, which is the book that tells us the story of a man named Abram who is living as an idol worshiper in Caldea. 00:20:23.194 --> 00:20:30.046 And Abraham was not elected by God because he had a propensity towards godliness. 00:20:30.046 --> 00:20:37.037 By the way, the New Testament doctrine of election, which we all should celebrate, that we were elected. 00:20:37.037 --> 00:20:42.848 It is not that God reached down and said you've got potential, i see it. 00:20:42.848 --> 00:20:45.282 I think I'll choose you and use it later. 00:20:45.282 --> 00:20:47.623 That's not the basis for God's choice. 00:20:47.623 --> 00:20:49.221 And Abraham was no better. 00:20:49.221 --> 00:20:50.460 He was an idol worshiper. 00:20:50.460 --> 00:20:55.477 Jewish tradition says he worshipped the stars, he worshipped. 00:20:55.477 --> 00:21:02.520 In fact, where he lived, or of the Caldeas was a citadel for the worship of the moon god Herki. 00:21:02.520 --> 00:21:06.742 And, by the way, if you have a god named Herki, you need to be saved. 00:21:06.742 --> 00:21:09.317 That's embarrassing, i mean. 00:21:09.317 --> 00:21:12.925 I wonder if people in the ancient world said to Abraham who do you worship Herki? 00:21:12.925 --> 00:21:18.163 Herki, you might want to change deities there. 00:21:18.163 --> 00:21:23.242 I just get saved out of sheer embarrassment. 00:21:26.194 --> 00:21:32.366 But what does Matthew mean when he tells us the book of the Genesis of Jesus Christ? 00:21:32.366 --> 00:21:35.118 he's the son of Abraham. 00:21:35.118 --> 00:21:39.740 Let's remember who Abraham is. 00:21:39.740 --> 00:21:45.905 He's a man to whom God gave incredible promises. 00:21:45.905 --> 00:21:55.327 God chose a man out of the mass of humanity and gave him incredible promises. 00:21:55.327 --> 00:22:04.398 So often when we think of Abraham I'm going to challenge you a little here, because we don't think this way Most people think of Israel. 00:22:04.398 --> 00:22:14.663 Abraham would give birth to a great nation called Israel And I stand before you and say that's biblical, that's right, and if you read the Old Testament you know it happened. 00:22:14.663 --> 00:22:26.027 But you'll never understand Abraham, folks, if you stop with a nation called Israel and think once God has a nation called Israel, the promise to Abraham was fulfilled. 00:22:26.027 --> 00:22:33.748 Israel was part of the process by which God's promise to Abraham would be ultimately fulfilled. 00:22:33.748 --> 00:22:46.025 And, brothers and sisters, the promise given to Abraham was not a land in the Middle East, it was that through him, god would bring blessing to the nations. 00:22:46.025 --> 00:23:03.867 When Matthew says Jesus is the son of Abraham, he is saying that Jesus belongs to a people whose very reason for existence was to bring blessing to the rest of humanity. 00:23:03.867 --> 00:23:14.481 Now this is demonstrated in Jesus's genealogy here in an incredible way, and if you read this genealogy you may have missed it. 00:23:14.481 --> 00:23:16.019 This morning I want to point it out to you. 00:23:16.019 --> 00:23:18.500 It blows my Jewish mind. 00:23:18.500 --> 00:23:41.601 It really does, and the first time a Jew reads it it should be shocking, because in a genealogy which always is traced through the dead Sorry girls It was a male world Two sticks in four women, and they're not that great a gal. 00:23:43.714 --> 00:23:46.742 I would have definitely kept women out altogether. 00:23:46.742 --> 00:23:53.183 If I want men to read us And I definitely, if I'm going to include women, would not include these gals. 00:23:53.183 --> 00:24:02.586 Not only were they foreigners, but they were women of very dubious, shady characteristics. 00:24:02.586 --> 00:24:05.719 Abraham was a harlot. 00:24:05.719 --> 00:24:17.863 Tamar posed as a prostitute in order to lure her father-in-law, judah, to conceive a child through her after her husband died. 00:24:17.863 --> 00:24:20.001 Bathsheba I don't know about you. 00:24:20.001 --> 00:24:23.549 When I read the story of David and Bathsheba, i have a feeling. 00:24:23.549 --> 00:24:26.941 Forgive me if this offends you, but I think Bathsheba had a plan. 00:24:26.941 --> 00:24:31.115 Could be wrong, but I didn't. 00:24:31.115 --> 00:24:35.286 She know her tower was right under David's. 00:24:35.286 --> 00:24:37.317 And then you have Ruth. 00:24:37.317 --> 00:24:42.986 Ruth is impeccable in her personal life, but she's part of a nation called Moab. 00:24:42.986 --> 00:24:48.703 She's a member of a group that God told Israel to totally extinguish. 00:24:51.515 --> 00:24:53.961 Why does Matthew include women? 00:24:53.961 --> 00:24:57.900 Why does he include women of dubious character? 00:24:57.900 --> 00:25:08.487 God wants us to know something in this that this Jesus of Nazareth came to save sinners. 00:25:08.487 --> 00:25:17.127 And not only would Jewish sinners be saved by him, but Gentile sinners would be saved. 00:25:17.127 --> 00:25:23.528 And if you are in this room and you're as messed up as Rahab, tamar or Bathsheba, welcome. 00:25:23.528 --> 00:25:25.917 You are a candidate for the kingdom. 00:25:34.434 --> 00:25:39.507 But then something else comes in this genealogy and everybody looks really alarmed. 00:25:39.507 --> 00:25:42.381 I'm not going over every person in the genealogy. 00:25:42.381 --> 00:25:44.105 Thank you, jesus. 00:25:44.105 --> 00:25:47.064 Hey, you should be thanking me because I could have pulled Luke's out. 00:25:47.064 --> 00:25:48.398 It goes back to Adam. 00:25:48.398 --> 00:25:50.737 You would have missed lunch. 00:25:50.737 --> 00:26:06.375 But even more important than being Ben Avram, messiah, son of Abraham, as I said previously, messiah has to be Ben David, son of David. 00:26:06.375 --> 00:26:18.135 Every Jew that I know knows this, though they're all waiting, and you really want to find out how confused Judaism is? 00:26:18.305 --> 00:26:21.074 Ask Jews who the Messiah is and how they'll recognize it. 00:26:21.074 --> 00:26:22.008 There's no consensus. 00:26:22.008 --> 00:26:26.453 There was a rabbi years ago that everybody said was the Messiah. 00:26:26.453 --> 00:26:27.015 He died. 00:26:27.015 --> 00:26:28.670 They thought he was going to be raised from the dead. 00:26:28.670 --> 00:26:31.493 I used to say to my mother when will Messiah come? 00:26:31.493 --> 00:26:33.068 I don't know He's coming. 00:26:33.068 --> 00:26:33.931 We have to wait. 00:26:33.931 --> 00:26:35.414 Let's go buy something. 00:26:35.414 --> 00:26:40.876 Hey, it's almost Hanukkah. 00:26:40.876 --> 00:26:44.315 You want to hear a summary of every Jewish holiday from the beginning of time. 00:26:44.315 --> 00:26:45.787 They tried to kill us. 00:26:45.787 --> 00:26:46.347 We won. 00:26:46.347 --> 00:26:46.827 Let's eat. 00:26:53.625 --> 00:27:05.027 I'm in a festive mood today, but if you trace Jesus as a son of Abraham, it comes right down naturally to the son of David. 00:27:05.027 --> 00:27:24.790 And what Matthew does in this genealogy and it may shock you and offend you to know that it's not accurate, but he does it as a literary device he traces Messiah's genealogy in three particular distinct periods From Abraham to David is one. 00:27:24.790 --> 00:27:31.208 From David to the deportation to Babylon, which is the end of the Old Testament. 00:27:31.208 --> 00:27:48.132 and then from the deportation of Babylon to the coming of Jesus, which covers that whole period at the end of the Old Testament, and through what we call the inter-testamental period, the silent years until John the Baptist broke the silence by screaming in the Judean wilderness. 00:27:48.132 --> 00:27:50.047 And from Abraham to David. 00:27:50.047 --> 00:27:59.684 There's a natural connection, because God made promises to Abraham and David brought those promises to its zenith. 00:27:59.684 --> 00:28:14.510 Now, actually, his son went further, but dear old dad really prepared the way and by the time of David, israel had become a great nation and the other Gentile nations around Israel were submitted to Israel. 00:28:14.865 --> 00:28:22.519 But when you come to the second period in Messiah's genealogy we have a huge problem. 00:28:22.519 --> 00:28:38.251 It's the time from David to the time that Judah in the book of Second Kings you can read about it was carried away into Babylon for seventy years, and you will remember that period is the period of the kings of Judah. 00:28:38.251 --> 00:28:51.734 Messiah would be the son of David through Solomon, his son Solomon, and therefore all of the Messiah's line was through the kings of Judah. 00:28:51.734 --> 00:28:54.232 And those of you who've never read this history you must. 00:28:54.232 --> 00:28:56.132 It's First and Second Kings. 00:28:56.132 --> 00:29:06.013 You see, there was one kingdom of Israel, but in the book of First Kings there was a shism and the Northern Kingdom broke away from the Southern Kingdom. 00:29:06.013 --> 00:29:21.375 Ten tribes in the north became a separate nation called Israel, with their capital in Samaria, and the Southern Kingdom became Judah with its capital in Jerusalem, and they had separate lines of kings that ruled over those nations. 00:29:21.375 --> 00:29:25.175 Now, israel was a postate from the beginning. 00:29:25.175 --> 00:29:36.595 The Northern tribes, the Ten tribes, were never led by a godly king until they were carried away by the Assyrians a hundred and fifty years or so before Babylon. 00:29:36.595 --> 00:29:49.296 But God had to carefully preserve Judah, because Messiah would come from Judah, and so the line of Judah kings had to be carefully preserved. 00:29:49.965 --> 00:29:53.354 But that's where the problem comes in in this genealogy. 00:29:53.354 --> 00:30:05.732 One of the kings in Messiah's ancestral line had a curse put on him, and it was said of him his name is Jechoniah. 00:30:05.732 --> 00:30:18.963 We read about him in verse 11 of the genealogy, and this is what Jeremiah said to Jechoniah, the king of Judah, who's in the direct line of Jesus, the Messiah, jeremiah 2230. 00:30:18.963 --> 00:30:37.571 Thus says the Lord write this man down as childless, a man who shall not succeed in his days, for none of his offspring shall succeed in sitting on the throne of David and ruling again in Judah. 00:30:37.571 --> 00:30:42.890 This is said of King Jechoniah. 00:30:42.890 --> 00:30:58.275 This curse placed on him for he was a wicked man meant that no one descended from him could sit on the throne of Judah as king. 00:30:58.275 --> 00:31:12.395 So in Jesus' direct line is a man who must be in that line, yet who had a curse placed upon him so that none of his sons can sit on the throne of Judah. 00:31:12.805 --> 00:31:23.852 Now, if Jesus, now this man who had this curse, would give birth to a descendant years later named Joseph, the father of Jesus. 00:31:23.852 --> 00:31:26.863 Now get this, watch this. 00:31:26.863 --> 00:31:28.759 I'm going to blow your mind. 00:31:28.759 --> 00:31:38.008 If you've never understood why the virgin birth is necessary, you're about to, because what would happen if this is true? 00:31:38.008 --> 00:31:41.894 if Jesus was the physical son of Joseph? 00:31:41.894 --> 00:31:45.829 what would happen regarding this? 00:31:45.829 --> 00:31:50.609 Tell me He couldn't rule, he can't be king. 00:31:50.609 --> 00:32:02.771 There's a curse placed on one of his forefathers, and God said you'll never have a son sitting on the throne, but yet Jesus has to go through him, because that's the line of the Messiah. 00:32:04.984 --> 00:32:06.470 How can you resolve this? 00:32:06.470 --> 00:32:29.150 There's only one way Let Jesus be conceived in the womb of a young woman named Miriam, and then let a descendant of this man, joseph, marry his mother, miriam, before he's born, and he gets the legal rights to the throne of David through Joseph. 00:32:29.150 --> 00:32:35.290 Yet he's not a physical descendant through Joseph, so that the curse is not applied. 00:32:35.290 --> 00:32:37.965 You get that. 00:32:37.965 --> 00:32:47.556 This makes the virgin birth not only a miracle, a necessity. 00:32:47.556 --> 00:32:49.682 It had to be. 00:32:49.682 --> 00:32:52.548 But there's another problem I didn't resolve. 00:32:52.548 --> 00:32:53.451 Are you asking it? 00:32:53.451 --> 00:32:57.390 Jesus has to be a physical descendant of David. 00:32:57.691 --> 00:33:14.131 If this is true, he's not a physical descendant of David, and if we had time this morning, we would pull out the third chapter of Luke and discover that Luke gives us a genealogy of the Lord Jesus. 00:33:14.131 --> 00:33:16.635 That is different from Matthew's. 00:33:16.635 --> 00:33:36.998 It's the same from Abraham to David, but when it gets to David it traces Jesus' line not through Solomon, david's son, but through Nathan, who's another son of David, and you realize these are two different genealogies when it goes through after David. 00:33:36.998 --> 00:33:38.308 And what are we reading here? 00:33:38.308 --> 00:33:51.897 Most Bible teachers and scholars agree that Luke 3 is a genealogical record of Jesus through his mother, mary, and we discover that Mary is a descendant of David as well. 00:33:51.897 --> 00:33:59.905 So Jesus is Mashiach ben David, but not through Joseph, because he was born without a human father. 00:33:59.905 --> 00:34:01.708 The curse is canceled. 00:34:01.708 --> 00:34:04.553 He can rule on the throne of Judah. 00:34:09.664 --> 00:34:21.173 Now, when you, as we bring this to an end, when you realize this I said something earlier Jesus is the climax of the Hebrew Bible. 00:34:21.173 --> 00:34:23.137 It's all been building towards him. 00:34:23.137 --> 00:34:23.838 What does that mean? 00:34:23.838 --> 00:34:27.172 If I go back in the Hebrew Bible, what does that look like? 00:34:27.172 --> 00:34:31.909 The whole earth is lost. 00:34:33.050 --> 00:34:35.936 In Genesis 3, in what is called the fall. 00:34:35.936 --> 00:34:39.773 Men and women have lost their relationship with God. 00:34:39.773 --> 00:34:41.309 Sin has entered the world. 00:34:41.309 --> 00:34:46.630 Sin is not a slap on the hand, sin is a disruption. 00:34:46.630 --> 00:34:52.733 Sinners are now dead in trespasses and sins. 00:34:52.733 --> 00:34:59.914 They are lost, they are separated from God, and God has a plan of redemption. 00:34:59.914 --> 00:35:07.016 So, right after the fall, adam and Eve give birth to two boys. 00:35:07.016 --> 00:35:09.251 They probably had more descendants in fact they did. 00:35:09.251 --> 00:35:13.632 We know that they intermarried but they have two boys that become the centerpiece. 00:35:13.672 --> 00:35:14.755 The story goes on. 00:35:14.755 --> 00:35:24.099 They're named Cain and Abel, and before Cain and Abel come on the scene, god had given a prophecy to Adam and Eve in the garden. 00:35:24.099 --> 00:35:36.407 And in fact, he came in the garden and brought judgment on Adam, judgment on Eve, and then he judged the serpent who had deceived the woman. 00:35:36.407 --> 00:35:42.085 And this is the promise God made, though, when he brought judgment on the serpent. 00:35:42.085 --> 00:35:45.001 It's in Genesis 3, verse 15. 00:35:45.001 --> 00:35:50.487 It is called the fountainhead of all prophecy in the Bible. 00:35:50.487 --> 00:35:57.438 If you don't understand this, you will not understand what I've said earlier this morning about all of Old Testament. 00:35:57.498 --> 00:36:00.023 History climaxes in the Lord Jesus. 00:36:00.023 --> 00:36:08.367 In judging the serpent, god said this I will put enmities talking to the serpent. 00:36:08.367 --> 00:36:15.528 I will be enmity between you, serpent, and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. 00:36:15.528 --> 00:36:21.568 He, the offspring of the woman, shall bruise your head, serpent. 00:36:21.568 --> 00:36:29.945 Now, if you bruise a serpent's head, it's usually fatal, and you serpent shall bruise his heel. 00:36:29.945 --> 00:36:47.047 This is almost universally commentators and Bible teachers agree is the fountainhead of messianic prophecy And notice, it centers around the fact that through the woman, god would have an offspring, a seed. 00:36:47.047 --> 00:36:48.048 So here's how it works. 00:36:48.494 --> 00:36:50.259 Cain and Abel come on the scene. 00:36:50.259 --> 00:36:52.023 Adam and Eve have these sons. 00:36:52.023 --> 00:36:57.425 Cain wants to worship, but he brings vegetables. 00:36:57.425 --> 00:36:58.677 He works hard. 00:36:58.677 --> 00:37:04.440 He's a farmer and he brings his vegetables to the Lord and he says I work so hard. 00:37:04.440 --> 00:37:05.597 But what's he doing? 00:37:05.597 --> 00:37:06.922 when he brings his vegetables? 00:37:06.922 --> 00:37:10.945 He's ignoring the curse that God put on the earth. 00:37:10.945 --> 00:37:19.365 The ground was cursed And one thing is obvious man cannot offer to God in sacrifice that which is cursed. 00:37:19.365 --> 00:37:23.059 His brother, abel, comes. 00:37:23.059 --> 00:37:24.364 He brings blood. 00:37:24.364 --> 00:37:25.918 God rejects Cain. 00:37:25.918 --> 00:37:27.382 He accepts Abel. 00:37:27.382 --> 00:37:30.282 Cain doesn't like it, so he kills Abel. 00:37:30.282 --> 00:37:42.588 God replaces Abel with Seth And it's interesting in Genesis 4, we have a list of the descendants of Cain. 00:37:43.635 --> 00:37:45.623 It's a very general list. 00:37:45.623 --> 00:37:47.581 There's no genealogical information. 00:37:47.581 --> 00:37:52.251 It simply says Cain gave birth to Methuselah or whatever it is. 00:37:52.251 --> 00:37:58.206 That's not the Methuselah of Seth's line, but it just tells us who his sons and sons' sons were. 00:37:58.206 --> 00:38:10.505 But then, when you come to Genesis 5, you have a genealogical table of Seth And what immediately strikes you when you read it is the detail. 00:38:10.505 --> 00:38:13.922 Every year is accounted for. 00:38:13.922 --> 00:38:32.168 It tells us how long Seth lived, how old he was when he had a son, how old he was when he died, and then his son, how long he lived when he had a son, and it is a genealogical table that gives us all that we will need to be able to count every single year. 00:38:32.168 --> 00:38:47.570 Now, if you know nothing else and you're reading the Bible, you're going to ask this question Why is God so meticulous about counting every year of one family line? 00:38:47.570 --> 00:38:49.059 We're not told why yet. 00:38:49.059 --> 00:38:52.481 Well, actually, genesis 3.15 told us. 00:38:53.483 --> 00:38:59.197 But God is separating out for Himself a family line. 00:38:59.197 --> 00:39:04.985 Later, noah comes on the scene. 00:39:04.985 --> 00:39:07.505 He has three boys that make it through the flood. 00:39:07.505 --> 00:39:09.936 But what does God do with the three boys? 00:39:09.936 --> 00:39:30.137 Noah prophesies over his sons, and it is clear from the prophecy in Genesis 10 or 9 that it is Shem, not his other two sons, ham and Bologna, That's later. 00:39:30.137 --> 00:39:35.280 Shem is chosen, ham and Japheth are rejected. 00:39:35.280 --> 00:39:37.418 God's the prophetic word. 00:39:37.418 --> 00:39:41.706 Through Noah, god will dwell in the tent of Shem. 00:39:41.706 --> 00:39:44.922 God makes a decision between these three boys. 00:39:44.922 --> 00:39:54.119 Another reason he's separating out a family line, that line of Shem. 00:39:54.119 --> 00:39:59.268 God will bring out from that line a man. 00:39:59.974 --> 00:40:01.237 We talked about him this morning. 00:40:01.237 --> 00:40:02.722 Stay with me, i'm almost done. 00:40:02.722 --> 00:40:03.844 His name is Abram. 00:40:03.844 --> 00:40:06.762 He comes out of the Shemite seed. 00:40:06.762 --> 00:40:11.585 Abram will have two sons, isaac and Ishmael. 00:40:11.585 --> 00:40:13.039 Which one does God choose? 00:40:13.039 --> 00:40:15.199 He raises up Ishmael. 00:40:15.199 --> 00:40:18.565 He finally gets it after waiting all these years. 00:40:18.565 --> 00:40:19.577 He's 86. 00:40:19.577 --> 00:40:21.920 God needs my help. 00:40:23.855 --> 00:40:25.661 Some of you have recently come to the same conclusion. 00:40:25.661 --> 00:40:27.920 I'm going to help God out. 00:40:27.920 --> 00:40:29.280 I'm going to enter Hegar. 00:40:29.280 --> 00:40:31.659 He's going to have a son and He does. 00:40:31.659 --> 00:40:40.083 And He presents Ishmael to His God and says thank you, this is the promise fulfilled. 00:40:40.083 --> 00:40:43.021 And God said He came from you, i'll bless him. 00:40:43.021 --> 00:40:43.983 But that ain't it. 00:40:45.534 --> 00:40:47.202 Abraham gives birth to two sons. 00:40:47.202 --> 00:40:50.164 God says I'll bless Ishmael, but I'm going to give you a son. 00:40:50.164 --> 00:40:51.599 Abraham is 100. 00:40:51.599 --> 00:40:53.297 Sarah is 90. 00:40:53.297 --> 00:41:00.485 When they hold little Yitzchak Yitzch in Hebrew means laughter, because all Sarah could do How many know? 00:41:00.485 --> 00:41:02.998 Now someone said something to me It's not biblical. 00:41:02.998 --> 00:41:10.847 I just want to quell it right now, because someone said that means when Isaac was two, sarah was 92. 00:41:10.847 --> 00:41:14.581 Is that why she gave him to Abraham and said offer him up? 00:41:14.581 --> 00:41:20.523 It's hard enough having a two-year-old when you're 25. 00:41:20.523 --> 00:41:23.764 But can you imagine 92 with a two-year-old running around? 00:41:23.764 --> 00:41:27.340 Take him, go to a mountain and offer him up. 00:41:27.340 --> 00:41:31.797 Interesting proposition. 00:41:31.797 --> 00:41:32.858 It's not biblical. 00:41:32.858 --> 00:41:40.179 But Isaac's the one. 00:41:40.494 --> 00:41:47.702 Isaac would go on and father two boys, and they both have histories recorded in Genesis, chapters 26 and on. 00:41:47.702 --> 00:41:49.059 But who does God select? 00:41:49.059 --> 00:41:57.007 He bypasses Esau, and Esau becomes a great nation, but he chooses his brother, jacob, instead. 00:41:57.007 --> 00:42:15.666 Jacob has 12 sons And as Isaac is dying on his deathbed I'm sorry Jacob he begins to prophesy and he chooses out one of his 12 sons And God says through Judah, the scepter shall not depart. 00:42:15.666 --> 00:42:18.659 This is the one of all your brothers. 00:42:18.659 --> 00:42:22.208 Judah would be the one through whom Messiah comes. 00:42:22.208 --> 00:42:28.344 How well we know that as this church, because we worship the lion of the tribe of Judah. 00:42:32.474 --> 00:42:35.702 And David comes out of Judah and he has sons galore. 00:42:35.702 --> 00:42:43.085 But God made it clear before David's death Solomon, your son Solomon. 00:42:43.085 --> 00:42:52.380 In fact, god said of Solomon I will raise up a son to him who shall rule on the throne of Israel forever. 00:42:52.380 --> 00:42:55.262 God told David that it can't be Solomon. 00:42:55.262 --> 00:43:02.407 Solomon not only died, but his life was a sad departure from Jehovah. 00:43:02.407 --> 00:43:09.885