First Baptist Sweetwater“Not By Chance: The Genius of Jesus’ Genealogy” December 14, 2008
Joel Breidenbaugh(Matthew 1:1-17)
Intro.Have you ever been guilty of deliberately skipping over certain portions of the Bible? Maybe the book of Leviticus with all of its minute laws, or some portion of Scripture which speaks of the end times that you don’t understand, or the ones on wives submitting to their husbands, or quite possibly a genealogy. Besides parents, grandparents, and maybe great-grandparents, do people really care from where they come? What’s the point? The point of a genealogy is to prove who you are, especially if you have a claim to a special inheritance or if you are from a royal family. Today we begin a sermon series entitled “Not By Chance.” Over the next few weeks, we will look at Matthew 1-4 to see how Jesus fulfilled prophecy as the Christ. We will see that Jesus’ identity is “Not By Chance” but by design. To begin this series, let’s look at Matthew 1 & “The Genius of Jesus’ Genealogy.”
Theme: Jesus’ pedigree
Background: Matthew, one of the 12 disciples of Jesus, wrote probably before AD 70 & the destruction of the temple in order to prove that Jesus fulfilled the Messianic prophecies concerning His lineage, birth, life, passion, sacrificial death, & resurrection.
- There are some notable people in Jesus’ genealogy, but most people could care less—kind of like the man who was asked to write a review of the phone book. His summary was “Great cast of characters. Weak plot”
- The word translated “begot” or “was the father of” does not necessarily refer to fatherhood in our thinking, but at least refers to some level of grandfather-hood.
- Genealogical research can be important, especially if it determined whether or not we could receive an inheritance from a distant relative. For the Jews, genealogies established who could serve as priests or inhabit a certain land (you couldn’t buy land from a different tribe because of the boundaries set by God). It also clarified potential kings
I want us to see Jesus’ genealogy as establishing 4 important truths:
I.See Jesus’ Genealogy as Establishing His Historicity
- Matthew begins his gospel account by listing Jesus’ genealogy beginning with Abraham. God had promised the Jews a Messiah/Deliverer that would come from their own race.
- Jesus had a human family—mother, father, grandparents, siblings, etc (cf. Matt 13:55-56)—He’s not a fictional character like the Greek gods on MountOlympus
Illus: Outside the NT, other early historians refer to Jesus as a real person in history, even non-Christians (Flavius Josephus writes of Jesus in his Antiquities of the Jews in AD 93; Tacitus, Suetonius, Pliny the Younger [late 1st & early 2nd century writers], even considering Jesus an insurgent)
- Historically, Jesus was the Son of Abraham (1:1-2, 17)—Christ would be associated with God’s covenant to Abraham (Gen 12:1-3; 17:7; 22:18)—had Jesus been a Gentile, He would have had no chance of being the Messiah; He had a few Gentile women in His family tree, but they were all incorporated into God’s covenant people by faith (Rahab, Ruth, Tamar?) through Abraham’s offspring “all nations” would be blessed; the covenant people are those of the 12 tribes of Israel—neither the ½ siblings of Isaac nor the descendants of Jacob’s brother Esau qualify as covenant people in the OT (Carson, NIV Commentary, 7); Jesus was the Son of Isaac—the son of promise (cf. Gal 3:13ff); Jesus was the Son of Jacob—an Israelite rather than an Edomite; Jesus was the Son of Judah (cf. Gen 49:8-12)
II.See Jesus’ Genealogy as Establishing His Royalty
- No one could lay a legitimate claim to the throne of David without producing His genealogy to prove His lineage—the 1st century Jews, with all of their attempts to dismiss Christianity, never attacked Jesus’ genealogy because it was accurate
- David is listed 1st in 1:1, even though Abraham came earlier chronologically, because the crucial issue was not “Is Jesus a Jew (Son of Abraham)?” but “Is Jesus a descendant of David the king?”
- He had to be the Son of David (1:1, 6, 17, 20)—2 Sam 7:16; Pss 89:36; 132:11—Joseph, Mary’s husband, was the son/descendant of David; Jesus was the legal son/heir of Joseph & is therefore the Son of David
- “Son of David”—11x in reference to Jesus (9:27; 12:23; 15:22; 20:30-31; 21:9, 15; 22:42, 45)—used as a title for Christ (“Christ” occurs 5x in 1:1-18)
- He had to fulfill prophecy about the Christ, such as being born of a virgin (1:16)—Matthew is careful to reference Joseph as a different kind of father to Jesus than all the previous references—“Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ” (“of whom” is singular & feminine, referring to Mary rather than both Mary & Joseph)
Illus: Many of you may remember that about 15 years ago, Prince Charles of England & Princess Diana got separated & eventually divorced. The controversy over the whole thing was that although Charles was next in line to reign after the passing of Queen Elizabeth, he couldn’t serve as King if he was divorced, so he relinquished his rights to the throne. His oldest son, William, is next in line, for the monarchs of England must come from the house of Windsor, & those rulers are determined strictly by genealogy—Davidic kings were determined the same way & Jesus’ genealogy establishes His royalty
III.See Jesus’ Genealogy as Establishing God’s Sovereignty
- Galatians 4:4 says that God sent Jesus right on His timetable
- Matthew traces select portions of genealogy to highlight the 3 periods of national history as theocracy, monarchy, & hierarchy. Through each God had remained faithful to & in control of His promise, for out of Abraham, He called forth David “the king”; from the adultery of this king, the nation began spiraling downward into idolatry & apostasy & eventual captivity; from the captivity God began to restore His people, reestablish temple worship, & though a wicked Gentile in King Herod sat on the throne over Israel, God fulfilled His promise in sending the Messiah.
- After the exile to Babylon & some of the Jews ultimate return to their land, God promised protection to Zerubbabel in the midst of calamity (Hag 2:20-23)—God remained in control
Illus: When things go wrong in sports, like football or basketball, it is not uncommon for the coach to change his game plan during halftime—we’ve been focusing on Williams all this time, but Jones is killing us, because he keeps splitting the defense or setting up for the open 3—God has never changed His game plan
IV.See Jesus’ Genealogy as Establishing God’s Mercy
- The good, the bad, & the ugly of Jesus’ earthly heritage are listed, with some prominent members of Jesus’ family noted—Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah, Boaz, Ruth, David, Solomon, Josiah, & Zerubbabel.
- Of those on the list that we know anything about, almost all of them are marked by notable moral failures (the good are also seen as the bad & the ugly)—Abraham lied about his wife as did Isaac, Jacob was a deceiver, Judah was a fornicator with Tamar, Rahab was a Canaanite prostitute, David was an adulterer with Bathsheba, Solomon was a polygamist (how did Solomon keep up with the birthdays & anniversaries of his 1,000 wives & concubines? How did he manage all of those mothers-in-laws?), Rehoboam divided the kingdom, & Manasseh was the most evil king Israel ever had—yet God showed mercy to His people by sending the Messiah who would save them from their sins (cf. 1:21)
- Even Jehoiachin (Jeconiah) was cursed by God so that he would be as though “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” (Jer 22:30)—the house of David had become so evil that God cut them off from the throne, which would be vacant for 600 years before Christ—though God took away any hope that man put in himself, God remained faithful to His promise to raise up a Righteous Branch, a Shoot (Jer 23:5-6)
Conc.I don’t know how many of you like to research your family tree. I find a good deal of interest in my family, but my Dad’s side is virtually impossible to trace beyond a few generations because of all the variant spellings of my last name. I can trace a branch through my Mom’s side to at least the middle 18th century. When we record our family’s history, we inevitably run across people who were adulterers, drunkards, murderers, prisoners, & more. Though we might want to run from our past, we cannot escape it, whether it be our family or the face in the mirror. Some of us dread holiday gatherings because you see people in your family that brings up bad memories—an abusive father, a drug-addict uncle, an adulterous aunt—that’s why Jesus Christ is so significant & Matthew is ingenious in recording Jesus’ genealogy—who Jesus is & what He came to do is “Not By Chance.” Our families & our lives are not too different from Jesus’ family & just as He came to give hope to them & deliver His family from their sinful pasts, so He can give hope & do the same for you.
*Note: All of my sermons (audio & detailed notes) may be accessed at
1