A Genealogy of God's Grace

Go ahead and take your Bible, turn with me to the Gospel of Matthew. The Gospel of Matthew. We will be in Matthew chapter one this morning. Now I have mentioned several times that we're going to have three messages around Christmas. There are several things that have been on my heart. This is the first of those three messages. So if you take notes, we trust that you do. Maybe you note that. Maybe you have a different method in which you take notes out of our series. Series like Nehemiah and series like John. But this morning we'll be in Matthew chapter one. We'll start in verse one and we'll go on down to verse seventeen.

Now you will notice that our verses this morning are from the genealogy of Jesus. Now I would be willing to bet you that most of you when you come to verses like this, whether it be Old Testament or New Testament, most of us at best glance at verses like these and move on. You know especially when we're in the Old Testament we have those names that are really hard to pronounce. Some of the New Testament names can be difficult as well. And there are times when I think that we overlook verses like these and I can understand that. But it might seem strange to you. For years I have enjoyed the genealogy of Jesus.

For years at Christmas I find myself back looking at this genealogy. As a matter of fact one of my favorite Bible characters is from the genealogy of Jesus. Now before we get into the message we need to understand why Matthew includes a genealogy in his gospel account. Now we're in John on Sunday mornings. How did John start his gospel? He did not start with a genealogy. He went all the way to forever past. And what did he say? In the beginning was the word and the word was with God. But Matthew starts with a genealogy. You have to understand who Matthew was and who Matthew was writing to.

Matthew was a Jew and he was writing primarily to a Jewish audience. Matthew was trying to show Jesus as a Jew and as the true king of Israel. Matthew was writing to Jews to prove that Jesus was the promised true Messiah. And so for Matthew to include a genealogy it was very very important. Proving their lineage was extremely important and part of the Jewish life. Now let's go back in our memory to the book of Ezra and the book of Nehemiah. Didn't we see them deal with their genealogies numerous times? Why? Because it was important for them to prove that they were truly descendants of Abraham.

So in the Jewish mindset this was extremely important. Now this morning I want us to look into the genealogy of Jesus from Matthew's account and we're going to focus just on a few individuals. We're going to learn from their lives and I believe I said this last Wednesday night in Bible study. This will be very very practical. Now the title of what I'm going to share with you this morning is a genealogy of God's grace. Very easy for you to remember. We would encourage you to write that down because the title of a message really captures the theme of the message. So we're looking at a genealogy of God's grace.

Like I said earlier we'll be in verses 1 through 17. Really I will read verses 1 through 6 and then I will mention verse 17 or read verse 17 a little later. Now I'll give you the major truths that we're going to explore. We will look at two great men out of verse 1. Two great men out of verse 1. We will look at four outcast women out of verses 3 through 6. Four outcast women from verses 3 through 6 and then one simple couple in verse 16. One simple couple from verse 16. Let me read a few of these verses and then as we progress through the message we will touch on them. What do we see in verse 1? The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ.

Now that you know Matthew's purpose so when you read that verse you understand why he's writing so that should read differently to you now. The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. And then starting in verse 1 you'll see to Abraham was born Isaac and then it goes all the way down through the lineage of Abraham and then some and then we get all the way down to 14 generations and what do we see in verse 6? And to David was born Solomon by her who had been the wife of Uriah. If you go on down to verse 17 what does Matthew give us?

Therefore all of the generations from Abraham to David are 14 generations and then from David to the deportation to Babylon 14 generations we've learned about that in our study of Ezra and Nehemiah and then from the deportation to Babylon to the time of Christ 14 generations. Now just as Matthew had a purpose in writing his gospel, his genealogy in his gospel I have a purpose in why we're looking at these individuals and I will share that with you at the end. I will make application at the end of the verses that we will divide. So like I said earlier our first major truth is two great men.

Go back to verse 1, the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, here are the two men, the son of David, the son of Abraham. And then what do we see here in verse 6? David is mentioned again and to David was born Solomon. So here in verse 1 and here in verse 6 we see these two individuals. Now arguably these two men are the greatest in the Jewish faith. Now we could make an argument for men like Moses to be included in that list. That would be a very valid argument but when we look in Jewish history, when we look in the Old Testament these two individuals Abraham and David are considered two of the greats.

But here in these two men we have two very different individuals, both have been chosen by God and both were used by God in two different ways. Now I'm going to give you a summary of their life. I want to challenge you to go back and read about Abraham and read about David on your own. We would have to meet many times to exhaust the lives of these two men, all that they did and how God used them. But first we have Abraham. Abraham begins his journey with God starting in Genesis 12. Now you might be confused when you go and study on your own. Originally his name was Abram and God changed his name to Abraham.

Now to be honest with you I just refer to him as Abraham no matter where I am in the story. But Abraham begins his journey with God in Genesis 12. He was a pagan. He was not a worshipper of the one true God. And God revealed himself to Abraham and called him to leave his home, leave his family and begin a journey of following God as the one true God. Abraham is known as a man of faith. He was considered the father of all who believe. Paul gives us that reference in Romans 4.11. Paul is talking about the Jewish practice of circumcision there in Romans 4.

But in that verse he talks about the fact that Abraham is the father of all of those who believe. Then God promised Abraham that he would give the land of Canaan to his descendants. But we know that Abraham had a problem if we know our Old Testament. He was childless. And in that day that was a tremendous disgrace. But what does God do? God promises that he would give him a child and give him descendants. If you know God took him outside one night and said look at the stars in the sky. Your descendants will be as numerous as the stars in the sky. Now we know that's physical and spiritual descendants.

Abraham eventually did receive descendants through the birth of his son Isaac. And Isaac was considered the child of promise. He was the child of promise because God promised that he would give Abraham and Sarah a son and his name was Isaac. So you can say that Abraham was the father of all of those who believe. Then second there's David mentioned in Matthew 1 verse 1 and in verse 6. Now David was the youngest son of a righteous man named Jesse. If you go back and you study the life of David you will see that he was the youngest and he was the one many times that was overlooked.

But you can see where he was the son of Jesse in 1 Samuel 6 starting in verse 10. But David was known in Jewish life for many significant things. Most of you here probably know those events. First he was recognized for being the individual that killed the Philistine giant Goliath. Remember that story? All of the fighting men of Israel were lined up there fighting the Philistines and everyone in Israel even King Saul was afraid to fight Goliath. And then there comes the young David a shepherd boy to check on his brothers. And what does he do? He says that he would fight Goliath and we know that with the stone and the sling he slew Goliath.

Then we know that David later became the second king of Israel. And he was a great warrior king because he exercised judgment and defeat on many of the pagan nations around. As a matter of fact he expanded the nation of Israel's borders greatly. But he was remembered as a man after God's own heart. If you remember a verse about Abraham remember Romans 4.11. He was a great man of faith and the father of those who believed.

And then in Acts 13.22 Paul tells us or the writer of Acts who is Luke tells us that when he had removed Saul, that's the first king, he raised up David to be their king of whom he testified and said that this is what God said of David. I found that David, the son of Jesse, a man after my own heart who will do all of my will. So what do we see here in Matthew's account starting in verse 1. Matthew is showing us that in the lineage of Jesus we have two of the most revered men in Jewish history.

We have Abraham and we have David and we know that the Old Testament scripture said that the Messiah would be a descendant of two, these two individuals. So we have two great men. Now let's move on. I want us to notice our second major truth. We have four outcast women. Four outcast women. Let's go back to our verses. What do we see? Abraham was born Isaac and Isaac Jacob and Jacob Judah and his brothers into Judah were born Perez and Zera by Tamar.

Now Tamar is a particular woman here and then if you go on down in verse 5 and the Solomon was born Boaz by Rahab, there's a woman listed there and then the Boaz was born Obed by Ruth, there is a woman that listed there and then if you go on down we see in verse 6 and David was born Solomon by her who had been the wife of Uriah. Now if we have some knowledge of the Old Testament while reading these verses we will easily notice these women here. Now there are three that can be noticed quickly but if we're not careful the fourth can be overlooked. Why? I've just read it because verse 6 does not call Bathsheba by her name.

She is listed as the one who had been the wife of Uriah. Now I call these women outcasts because they could have been seen in their day as outcasts if they are judged by the standards of the day. So let's go quickly down this list of these four women. First notice we have Tamar. Now Tamar is listed in 1 Chronicles and in Ruth. There's a genealogy in 1 Chronicles 2 starting in verse 4 and then in Ruth chapter 4 verse 12. Now this Tamar is not to be confused with another Tamar who was the daughter of King David. This Tamar listed in Matthew was the Canaanite daughter-in-law of Judah.

Now being a Canaanite she was a Gentile and she was a non-Jew and she is remembered in Genesis 38 for resorting to very unusual and controversial methods to provide children when children were denied her. Then second we have Rahab. Rahab was known as the prostitute who lived in Jericho during the days of Joshua. Remember Joshua took over the leadership of the nation after Moses and when they were about to conquer the land of Canaan Joshua sent spies into the land in preparation for that invasion and Rahab received the spies into her house.

She provided them safety and God spared her life and the lives are for family when Jericho was destroyed. And you can see that in Joshua chapter 2 starting in verse 1 and in Joshua chapter 6 starting in verse 22. And then we have Ruth. We have Ruth. Ruth was known as a Moabite woman and a former pagan. There was a time when there was a famine in Canaan and a Jewish man and his wife named Naomi moved to Moab with their sons looking for food. What did they do? Their sons, Naomi's sons, married Moabite women. And then after Naomi and her daughter-in-laws lost their husbands, Naomi and Ruth went back and settled in Bethlehem.

Naomi went back home. And there Ruth, who was the Moabite woman, she married a prominent Jewish man named Boaz who was a distant relative of Naomi. And then fourth we have Bathsheba. Bathsheba is known for committing adultery with David while he was king over Israel. Her husband was a Hittite and a soldier in David's army. After he was treacherously killed through David's orders to put him on the front lines, she became David's wife. And later she bore him four sons and one of them was Solomon who became the king of Israel after David's death.

And if you study her life, she remained a positive influence on King David's life until the end of his reign. So what do we see here in Matthew's account? He is showing four women who should have been outcasts by their day standards and they are seen as direct descendants of the promised Messiah, Jesus. Tamar, Rahab, and Ruth were all three Gentiles and should have never been included with the people of Israel. Bathsheba committed adultery with David and she should have been excluded. And even though David had greatly influenced her, she should have been an outcast even from society. So what do we see?

Four outcast women and two great men listed in the genealogy of Jesus. And then third, our third major truth, I want us to see what I'm calling one simple couple. One simple couple. Go back to verse 16. This is an incomplete sentence, but this is where I want to start. What does it say? "And to Jacob was born Joseph, the husband of Mary, by whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ." Of course we know this couple listed in verse 16. They are Joseph and they are Mary. This is Joseph and Mary who become the mother of Jesus. And this is the couple that we read about during Christmas. We sing about during Christmas.

This is the Joseph and Mary that we are very familiar with. Now what needs to be seen in this young couple is their seeming perfect and simple obedience. First Mary. We see Mary demonstrate her faith and her obedience in a love Luke's account in Luke chapter 1 starting in verse 26. The angel Gabriel visits Mary and declares her favor with God in verse 30. Now pause with me for a minute. Imagine that.

The angel Gabriel looks at this young woman and says, "You have found favor with God." And he announces to her that she will give birth to Jesus, the promised Messiah, and he declares to her that she would conceive not through a man but from and through the Holy Spirit. Now what was her response? Here is her simple obedience. Verse 38 from Luke's account in chapter 1. And Mary said, "Behold, I am the servant of the Lord." That really is translated slave. Some translations call it bond servant. And what does she say? "Let it be to me according to your word." Very simple obedience.

In second we see Joseph demonstrate his simple faith and obedience. We see this in Matthew's account a little later on in chapter 1 after the genealogy starting in verse 18. Joseph found that Mary, his betrothed wife, was with child and what did he do? He sought to divorce her and divorce her quietly. After an angel instructed him in a dream to take Mary as his wife that the child was conceived of the Holy Spirit, Joseph did exactly what he was commanded. Chapter 1 of Matthew starting in verse 24 and verse 25 it reads, "When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him.

He took his wife," verse 25, "but knew her not until she had given birth to a son, and he called his name Jesus." So what do we see here in Matthew's account? Matthew is giving us Jesus' earthly parents, Joseph and Mary. They were true descendants of Abraham by birth and by faith. They demonstrated simple faith and obedience as God called them into his plan for the giving of the Messiah. So what are we seeing here out of these verses? We go back and look at the verses. It should be very obvious to you now. In verse 1 what do we see? We see David, the son of Abraham, those two great men of the Jewish faith listed.

And then we see four outcast women. We see in verse 3, we see Tamar. We see in verse 5 Rahab. We see in verse 5 Ruth. And then we see in verse 6, she's unnamed but she is described. We see the one who had been the wife of Uriah. Now, what might we learn at this day and time from the genealogy here in Matthew's account? Like I said, I believe many times we overlook verses like this, but I believe there is a lot that the Lord can teach us. Now, Matthew had a purpose in writing this genealogy, proving who Jesus was. But I believe there is a purpose for us in examining these individuals this morning. Now, first, this is application.

Notice that all of these individuals attained and lived God's predetermined plan for their lives which would bring Him greatest glory. Think about that. These individuals acquired and lived God's predetermined plans for their lives that brought God greatest glory. I'll start at the beginning and I'll mention there at the end. What is the difference between Abraham and David and Joseph and Mary? A lot. God used Abraham to be the father of the faith. God used David in a completely different way. He was a true king of Israel, a man after God's own heart, and then we have humble peasant Joseph and Mary.

But what we see in those individuals is that they had attained God's predetermined plan for their life which was to bring God greatest glory. Now, in application, I personally believe that every individual in any day and time and generation that is born of God, there is a predetermined plan by God for their life for God's glory. For me, I was able to understand that and attain that when God called me into the gospel ministry.

Now, my call and my predetermined plan by God is different than yours, but there was a point in time in my life when I was seeking God's will and direction, many things in my life seemed empty and they just seemed to be in vain and I knew that there was something greater that God wanted me to do. But God worked in my life to reveal to me the predetermined plan that God has for me. I'll give you another example.

I watched Brother Keith as he was transitioning in his vocation, I watched God bring him through two or three jobs and ultimately led him to where he is, where he is teaching at a community college level, and I'm watching him enjoy being where God wants him to be. It was a predetermined plan for his life and he is used of God in the secular workforce to influence people for Christ. You see what I'm showing you?

And my challenge for you is this, begin to pray and ask the Lord, "Lord, what is your calling for my life?" Especially you children, listen to Brother Chris, especially you young people, teenagers and college students, begin to pray, "Lord, what do you want me to do with my life?" That doesn't mean you'll be a missionary. Look at all these individuals, how they were different. Now here is where I believe many people ask the wrong question and they ask the wrong person. I hear this from young people all the time, "I'm not sure what I'm going to do for a living. I'm not sure what I'm going to do in college.

I'm not sure what kind of job I'm going to have." And they begin to counsel and talk with other people and those things are good. But that can be the wrong question asked to the wrong person. Many times they're asking the wrong question to themselves, "What am I going to do?" The right question is this, "Lord, what do you want me to do?" And no matter what vocation it is, if you're called of God to do it, listen, it will be God's predetermined plan for your life, for his glory out of your life. Again, look at these different individuals, how different they were.

Second in application, notice that some of these individuals had serious flaws in their life. Abraham, the father of the faith. Abraham was fearful in certain circumstances which caused him to totally distrust God. Go back and study on your own what happened when a famine came into the land. He did not do what God said to do and he went down to Egypt and what did he do? He demonstrated that he could not trust God. He was fearful. This led to disobedience to God's instruction and then it led to lying which could have cost him his family and his own life.

At times he failed to even protect his wife, even putting her in serious life-threatening circumstances. At times his actions brought shame on his wife, on himself, and on God's reputation. His actions even jeopardized God's very plan for his life. You might say, "Brother Chris, that's the father of the faith." Yes, he had serious flaws in his life. We do not have time to go into King David's life. But by God's grace, Abraham became the father of the faith and a part of the genealogy of Jesus. Now, here's where I'll make these applications. We all have flaws in our life. We all have sinful tendencies. We all have ways about us.

Some are not overtly sinful. We might call them our personality or our ways. That's just kind of the way she is. We are flawed people and we have sinful tendencies. There are some sins that seem to always be on certain people's doorstep. We should pray and ask God to reveal to us our flaws, our strange ways, our tendencies, and our sinful tendencies. Could it be that Abraham needed God to show him that at times he just did not trust his word? Could it be that Abraham needed God to show him, "Listen, Abraham, you're not doing right by your wife. You see those flaws and tendencies and sins?

We should pray and ask God to reveal to us our flaws, our hang-ups, our tendencies, our sinful tendencies, and those tendencies that can always seem just outside the door and we struggle having victory over. I am convinced that we all have them. Call them personality quirks and flaws all the way to sin that can creep into our life and can hinder us. I am convinced that we all have this and we need to pray and ask God to reveal these ways to us and we need to pray and ask God to help us to have victory in these areas in our lives. How much easier could David and Abraham's life have been?

How much different would the story be written had they had victory in these areas? Third an application. Notice that some of these individuals had past sinful lives which they had to overcome. In her past life Rahab, Bible scholars believe she had been a prostitute. What a past to overcome. But when Joshua sent spies into Jericho to spy out the land for capture, Rahab demonstrated her faith in trusting the one true God and protecting the spies. Therefore God spared her life, the lives of her family, and when the city was overrun and destroyed she was saved.

And ultimately the prostitute from a pagan people became a part of the genealogy of Jesus. And we need to see that some people are converted and they are converted and they have to deal with a sinful past. A past that they wish they could erase. And there might be people here this morning. You have a past prior to your conversion that you wish that you could erase. And that can be difficult and it never will go away. Sure the blood of Christ is applied. Sure there is grace and there is forgiveness. But there are people who have to deal with a past.

But we need to see that God can use you even if you have a past through biblical conversion and the grace of God you can overcome to be used. Now the key here is conversion. Rahab was converted because guess what? She became a child of faith. She became a woman of faith just like Abraham was a man of faith. We see this all in the New Testament. What about Paul? He was a murderer and he hated the church and hated Jesus. But yet he was converted and he had a past to deal with. I think about one that is one of the greats in church history. I have read a little about his life not necessarily in depth but the great Augustine.

One of the greatest theologians the church ever produced. But he was converted from an immoral background. And it is a wonderful picture of grace just like these women as well. And then fourth notice that some of these individuals were insignificant by the world standards. Both Joseph and Mary were poor. Go back and look at the offering that they brought to the temple when they presented Jesus. It was the offering of the poor. They were young. They were from unknown families in the genealogy. And by the day standards they were too insignificant to be the earthly parents of the Messiah. But God's ways are not man's ways.

And some of you, you need to see that. Because you feel like you are insignificant. You ask questions like this, what can I do? Or what do I have to offer? God can never use someone like me. What we need to see is that God uses people who seem insignificant. And we see in Joseph and Mary a simple obedience and a simple faith in significant individuals who were used greatly. And instead of asking the question, what can I do, we should look to the Lord and say, Lord, what do you want me to do? No matter how we may feel or how others may view us.

Now as I conclude what I wanted to share with us this morning out of this genealogy, I want to issue you a prayer challenge during this Christmas season. Here's the prayer challenge. This comes right out of the lives of the individuals we've studied. First, pray, pray and study the word and pray to discover God's predetermined plan for your life. I believe every individual who is born again and walking in victory, they will be able to articulate God's call on their life. Pray, pray that God would work in your life and you would be at a place where you know you're doing or on the journey to do what God has called you to do.

You're not going to stumble upon that by accident. You're not going to get that from Brother Keith or myself. You're not going to get that from your parents, young people, although God might use your parents. You get that because first you're converted and you seek to the Lord for his will and plan for your life. Second, pray that God would show you your personal flaws, your ways, your tendencies, your sins and always attack them for victory. Now, you're going to have to have God show you, but be careful because God might use somebody to show you. God might use someone to show you. God might use your parents, young people.

God might use a friend to show you your flaws. God might use circumstances, but pray and ask God to show you your flaws, these personality flaws, these funny little ways, these tendencies, even these sins that can kind of haunt us and pray for victory. And then third, part of this prayer challenge, pray that no matter your life, if you're like Abraham famous and flawed, or Rahab, living with a sinful past, or Joseph and Mary insignificant, pray that God would use you for kingdom work. What did Mary say? May it be to me as you have said. That came from a kingdom glory of God centered heart.

Pray that no matter where you are in this group of visuals, that God would use you for his glory, which will always be centered around kingdom work. And look, then you will be part of the genealogy of grace as well. You will be part of the genealogy of grace, just like these individuals. And I'm thankful that I can say I'm a part of the genealogy of grace. Now, before we pray in close, look back at your scripture. What do we see? Verse 1 through 17, verse 1, the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, something we can easily overlook.

But I believe some great truths, great challenges, and great lessons, and great examples that we can practically apply to our Christian life.