The Family of God

[0:00] Let me add a warm welcome, Will, as Rodney's welcome to church this morning.! Great to see you here. I'll pray and then we'll read God's word and then we'll get into it.

[0:12] Let's pray. Father, thank you for speaking to us in your word. Thank you for revealing your son to us in your word.

[0:23] And we pray this morning as we come to hear you speak again to us, that we'd have ears to hear, minds to understand and hearts to obey.

[0:34] We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Matthew chapter 1. The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

[0:52] Abraham was the father of Isaac and Isaac the father of Jacob and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers. And Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar.

[1:03] And Perez the father of Hezron. And Hezron the father of Ram. And Ram the father of Minadab. And Minadab the father of Nashon. And Nashon the father of Sammon.

[1:14] And Sammon the father of Boaz by Rahab. And Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth. And Obed the father of Jesse. And Jesse the father of David the king.

[1:25] And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah. And Solomon the father of Rehoboam. And Rehoboam the father of Abijah. And Abijah the father of Asaph.

[1:36] And Asaph the father of Jehoshaphat. And Jehoshaphat the father of Joram. And Joram the father of Uzziah. And Uzziah the father of Jotham. And Jotham the father of Ahaz.

[1:48] And Ahaz the father of Hezekiah. And Hezekiah the father of Manasseh. and Manasseh the father of Amos and Amos the father of Josiah and Josiah the father of Jeconiah and his brothers at the time of the deportation to Babylon and after the deportation to Babylon Jeconiah was the father of Shealtiel and Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel and Zerubbabel the father of Abiud and Abiud the father of Eliakim and Eliakim the father of Azor and Azor the father of Zadok and Zadok the father of Achim and Achim the father of Eliud and Eliud the father of Eliezer and Eliezer 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. So all the generations from Abraham to David were 14 generations and from David the deportation to Babylon 14 generations and from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ 14 generations. This is the word of the Lord thanks be to God it is the word of the Lord. Now how much do you know about your family? Uncles, aunties, cousins, nephews, grandparents, parents, grandchildren families give us a sense of belonging and an anchor of where we belong and marriage forms the the links in families in families in their trees families are for the good order of society now most of us will have some record of our family some people are more interested in their family records than others

[3:49] I've seen the Davidson family tree and you know so-and-so got married to so-and-so and so-and-so had so many children who married so-and-so and they in turn had children now what is it that makes a family tree interesting I mean what is it makes wedding photos interesting interesting and what's it makes your school yearbook interesting because quite frankly i'm not interested in yours you're probably not much interested in mine two things make it interesting me where i fit in that's where i'm interested in the family tree that's what i'm interested in the wedding photos that's what i'm interested in the in the yearbook the second thing that makes it interesting right is scandal and intrigue that's what makes it interesting now today we're looking at the family tree of jesus arguably the most important person who ever lived in history which is also more than just the family tree of jesus by the way it's also the family tree of everyone who is a follower of the lord jesus christ because we have been adopted into this family and so this family is our family right and this family is my family and your family this is who this family is and so it's good to know your family all right so to get a hold of things it's good to get some perspective of the context so we're looking at the genealogy of jesus chapter 1 verse 1 the bible is one long interconnected story right it starts off in genesis and then we'll see some slides on the screen here it starts off in genesis where you see that the pattern of the kingdom of god right it starts off with god's people in god's place under god's rule and that soon comes to the end with the parish kingdom when adam and eve sin right and then come the patriarchs abraham isaac and jacob and this is where matthew chapter 1 starts it's almost 1800 years before jesus and so the new testament begins at the cross of jesus and we look forward to the perfected kingdom in the new creation at the very end when jesus returns so the time period we're looking at in the first 17 verses of matthew chapter 1 is the is 1800 years or so and one thing to note clearly is abraham right abraham he's there in the patriarchs!

[7:09] and the other thing is david who is the king and his son solomon when the kingdom of god was at its greatest right and then there's the exile right to babylon which is the destruction of the temple in jerusalem and the destruction of jerusalem together and the end of the kings of israel so the first verse of matthew reminds us of the the first book of the bible right literally the book of the genealogy of jesus and matthew begins with a triumphant note god is speaking again after about 400 years of silence in israel's history it's a new beginning a new beginning centered on jesus the long-awaited son of david and the first verse raises the subject matter jesus christ son of david the son of abraham jesus david abraham that is the overview of the family tree right and then we dig into the detail verse 2 abraham and then verse 6 david and then verse 16 we finally get to jesus and then the last verse rounds it all off again abraham david christ okay well let's have a look at abraham to david in verses 2 to 6 abraham is the father of the jews if you want to be a first-rate jew right you want to trace your lineage back to abraham father abraham just like if you want to be a first-class aussie right these days you're no longer ashamed of having a convict in your family you want to be able to trace your lineage back to the convict coming across on the first fleet that's who you want to get yourself back to the convicts were once despised but now they're almost venerated or if you're from adelaide there's people in adelaide i know that who want to trace their lineage back to one of the first settlers!

[9:31] because there's no convicts in adelaide same thing with abraham the sadducees and the pharisees thought they were something if they could get themselves back to abraham as their father but bigger than that right god made big promises to abraham!

[9:50] promises to make him a great nation promises to give him a land a place where the nation would live and promises that through him god would bring blessing to the world here's genesis chapter 12 verse 1 some will know this well this is new for others genesis chapter 12 verse 1 now the lord said to abraham who became abraham go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land i will show you and i'll make you a great nation and i'll bless you and make your name great so you'll be a blessing i'll bless those who bless you and him who dishonors you i will curse and in you listen to this all the nations of the earth shall be blessed so we're longing for someone from abraham who will bring blessing to the whole world now abraham isaac and jacob are the patriarchs of israel that is where the nation of israel came from remember jacob had 12 sons they became the 12 tribes of israel and it's from the line of judah that the kings of israel come now judah and his brothers looking at verse 2 now abraham is the father of isaac and the father of jacob and jacob the father of judah right judah and his brothers judah and his brothers were not particularly nice people to one of their brothers and here comes the first skeleton right in the family judah had a brother you know his name is joseph and joseph who was the father's favorite the firstborn of his favorite wife rachel it's never a good thing to have favorite kids right he dreamed that his whole joseph dreamed that his whole family would bow down to him and so the brothers despised him and planned to kill him judah right however seeing a means of financial gain sold him into slavery and told their father that he was killed so judah's not such a pure character and then now we move on right into another seedy episode of the family line and here we get into ma 15 plus territory are you ready for it we read that perez and zerah were judah's sons by tamar verse 3 you know the story of tamar tamar was judah's daughter-in-law right the short story is that her husband so judah's son died and left her childless and judah didn't give her the son that he'd promised to give to her so that she could have children by her husband right so she pretended to be a prostitute so she could conceive a child by judah her father-in-law and judah defiled his daughter-in-law thinking she was a prostitute she gets pregnant and has sons perez and zerah born from an ungodly sexual relationship there's the first skeleton in the closet of your family and mine the first of many he's ron

[13:53] we don't know much about ram we don't know much about abinadab we don't know much about though he was associated with the desert wanderings in the time of moses numbers chapter 1 and the only thing we know about nashon was that his sister married aaron the priest exodus chapter 6 and now we're in the time of moses we've covered 400 years by four generations perez to amenadab it seems like there's members of the family line that are left out and the idea of father doesn't mean immediate relationship but often means something like it was the ancestor he was the ancestor of like israel's referred to abraham as their father so just like in verse 1 where david can be referred to as the son of abraham lots of generations left out well salmon we don't know much about but verse 5 boaz we do know a little bit about from the book of ruth in fact this part of the phantanoag comes straight from the book of ruth boaz was a kind man he's a good bloke who seemed to live the life that god wanted the israelites to live rahab may not have been boaz's immediate mother just like eve was not immediately the mother of all the living but more than likely she is the rahab of joshua chapter 2 the prostitute of jericho who gave lodging to the spies obed we don't know much about ruth though is not from the nation israel she's a moabite an alien who sought refuge among the people of god and you can read about her in the book written by and given her name she changed her allegiances she left her family she left her gods and famously said your people will be my people and your god will be my god that's who she is and then jesse well had eight sons and the youngest of them was david and david's anointed king we just covered a period of time from 1800 to 1000 bc 800 years of israel's history and with the mention of king david the jews would have a nostalgic thought of their heritage but not only that they'd be reminded of 2 samuel chapter 7 have a listen to 2 samuel chapter 7 verse 12 i've got it here hopefully on the screen here when your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers i'll raise up your offspring after you who shall come from your body and i'll establish his kingdom he shall build a house for my name and i'll establish the throne of his kingdom forever i'll be to him a father and he shall be to me a son when he commits iniquity i'll discipline him with the rod of men with the stripes of the sons of men but my steadfast love will never depart from him as i took it from saul whom i put away from before you and your house and your kingdom listen to this shall be made sure forever before me your throne shall be established forever the eternal king the righteous king your powerful king god's king the kingdom of god the rule of god is now breaking into the world now why do you reckon matthew includes these dubious women in his genealogy tamar rahab and ruth i mean he could have mentioned some

[17:53] pretty good ones like sarah or rachel or rebecca but he doesn't it may mean that the genealogy is more than just genealogical genealogical data right it certainly isn't whitewashed history which makes it all the more believable that what is written in the scriptures is true we move then from david to babylon verses six to ten the next period of time is a period from a thousand bc to 587 bc roughly from david to the babylonian exile the time of the reign of the kings of israel so solomon right here we go solomon is born of bathsheba again massive scandal in the history of israel you know the story you may not i'll tell it to you anyway david committed adultery with bathsheba she becomes pregnant and then david has bathsheba's husband killed so he could then marry bathsheba you can read about it yourself in 2 samuel chapter 11 the child from that adultery died the next child that bathsheba has is solomon who was the wisest and the most foolish king of israel 700 wives noble birth 300 concubines the epitaph on solomon's grave stone reads listen to this his wives led him astray to worship foreign gods under solomon the nation of israel became the world's superpower and under solomon the nation began its monumental fall by splitting into the northern and the southern kingdoms the northern kingdom israel the southern kingdom judah which is where jesus comes from the southern kingdom judah the lion of the tribe of judah well the rest of the kings stagger from being good kings to bad kings it's interesting that the assessment is generally made of them in relationship to david so abijah a bad king not devoted to the lord as his father david had been or asa a good king who is devoted to the lord as his father david had been and then we get to babylon the exile of babylon marked the end of the reign of david's line a momentous event in the history of israel what happened to god's promise of 2 samuel 7 what happened what happened to david your house and your kingdom shall endure but forever before me your throne shall be established but the kings of israel stopped sitting on the throne jerusalem's beaten up the temples burnt and we don't see a king in israel today what happened to the promise of 2 samuel chapter 7 let me highlight a couple of things the first thing to note god's plans and purposes can't be thwarted this can't be god brings his plans to bear through good kings and evil kings with they served him long time or short and he includes people outside israel in salvation history he uses

[21:54] people of dubious backgrounds and characters to achieve his plans and he works with his creation and with our cooperation and even despite our cooperation to bring out about his plans and purposes the second thing to note is this god's family my family your family is full of spectacularly sinful people it's there for us all to read so one of the big things for everyone to remember is that god's grace doesn't flow through the bloodline right god will bless who he wants to bless and he's gracious to people from all racial backgrounds and yet what has happened to the promises of 2 samuel chapter 7 well we move forward from the babylon exile to the christ in verses 12 to 16 the descendants begin again from verse 12 down to verse 16 these people we know very little of right until joseph husband of mary who is the mother of jesus we need what comes in the next section of matthew to explain things a little bit for the scandal continues mary gets pregnant prior to being married so legally jesus stands in the royal line of david physically he's born of a woman found to be with child through the holy spirit and this one is the christ the anointed king jesus is the christ the anointed one the messiah is confirmed now as we begin our way working our way into matthew light is being shone on the background of jesus we're getting to know his family tree we're getting to know our family and it's interesting isn't it there's no wool pulled over our eyes no whitewashing of scandal the skeletons are not hidden from view we we get all the gossip on the family our family nothing's withheld from us so what are we coming to know about jesus we'll have a look at verse 17 so all the generations from abraham to dave were 14 generations and from david to the deportation of babylon 14 generations and from the deportation of babylon to the christ 14 generations well jesus is a jew who can trace his lineage back to abraham can it be that jesus will be the one who will bring the promised blessing to the world that was promised to abraham to the nations and yet there's nothing good about his human line it's full of murder adultery incest adultery wickedness more than enough for a few good hollywood movies and the people including the family line in jesus include the unexpected a moabite woman ruth gentile women good kings and bad kings david is the king the other kings are measured by he is the benchmark king not because he's anyway perfect he was a sinner too right committed an adultery with basheba and had her husband killed yet he's the benchmark why because he listened to the word of nathan and repented instead of killing nathan the prophet as other kings would he feared the lord god he was repentant

[25:55] of his sin and he sought to live a life of a baby before god he wanted to build a temple for god and he's remembered as the great king of israel david is the anointed one the messiah the great messiah of israel the great christ of israel if you like the one who was promised an eternal throne and now we have the genealogy of jesus who has come as the descendant of abraham the descendant of david the anointed king in the family line of kings abraham to whom the great promises were made and blessings made for the world but will this throne be eternal can this throne this eternal throne promise to david be eternal in jesus now for those who are the keen close readers there's only 13 generations between the deportation of the exile to the coming of the christ and yet he pushes 14 why is that the case i don't know for sure i don't know for sure but maybe there's another generation to be added before the messiah comes again and in god's mercy this generation is our generation and every generation who will come to faith in christ jesus before the lord jesus returns ultimately to bring in the full kingdom of god so at one level if we consider the times right god's people are still in exile we're still not in the promised kingdom yet in the fulfilled kingdom yet and when he returns the exile will be over and then there will be 14 generations from the exile to the full and final coming of the kingdom of god so what are we to make of these opening verses of the book of the genealogy of jesus well i think we see god at work first we're left in no doubt no doubt that god is at work sovereignly in control of all events throughout history to bring about the coming of jesus in all the twists and turns of israel's history israel intended to murder joseph but through him saves a nation a moabite woman ruth and yet because of a famine in israel she ends up marrying boaz and through foreign women and comes king david and on and on it goes until jesus is born and secondly god includes spectacular sinners into his family the family tree exposes one long sordid saga bringing us to jesus and being part of this family by rights will be something you might ordinarily try to hide when you tell the stories about these ancestors you hear a whole lot of sin and not necessarily a whole lot of praiseworthy achievements god is continually gracious to his people despite their sinfulness god includes people from all backgrounds into his family blood line and that is the way god does his work and he continues to do it the same today you and i are not included in the family of jesus because of our race or of our morality of our high standing in society

[29:56] or our worldly achievements god welcomes into his family those who will submit to his son jesus the king as lord god welcomes into his family repentant sinners the repentant prostitute the repentant adulterer the repentant murderer along with the repentant king and the repentant pauper are all welcomed into our family those who he calls mercifully into his family you and me included we are part of an extraordinary spectacular family of notorious repentant sinners that's who we are and if you're checking out christianity this is the family you are planning to join now the expectation and the question that we are left with having jesus so emphatically tied to abraham and david is this how will jesus bring blessing to the world and how will jesus bring about the kingdom that this christ this anointed king this eternal kingdom how is he going to do that that is the question that's set up for us now in matthew chapter 1 verses 1 to 17 i'm going to pray let's pray our father in heaven we thank you for your word and we thank you that we can read it clearly and carefully thank you for sending your son the lord jesus the christ the king thank you for welcoming us spectacular sinners who repent and believe in the lord jesus into your family and we pray that through us many others might come into this family as well we pray in jesus name amen now what we're going to do is a little bit unusual we're going to actually have a question time now for you if you like and then we'll sing a song and have communion that's what we're going to do so let's if you want to ask questions you're welcome to ask questions now and we'll see how we go and rodney you'll fair them i'll help out and you can answer them even better good yeah so if you have a point of clarification or any application to pursue further heyden uh yeah question about verse 17 talking about how there's 14 generations from abraham to david ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending