If you are visiting with us tonight, you might be wondering why we would include Mathew’s genealogy in our lineup of passages for a Christmas Eve Gathering. Here is the reason. We have been studying this passage for the last couple of weeks in our Sunday gatherings in anticipation of Christmas and as we have studied it, we have discussed what it must have been like to wait for Jesus for generation, after generation, after generation. Look at the passage with me…
1The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. 2Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, 3and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram, 4and Ram the father of Amminadab, and Amminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon, 5and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, 6and Jesse the father of David the king.
And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah, 7and Solomon the father of Rehoboam, and Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asaph, 8and Asaph the father of Jehoshaphat, and Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, and Joram the father of Uzziah, 9and Uzziah the father of Jotham, and Jotham the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah, 10and Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, and Manasseh the father of Amos, and Amos the father of Josiah, 11and Josiah the father of Jechoniah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon.
12And after the deportation to Babylon: Jechoniah was the father of Shealtiel, and Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel, 13and Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, and Abiud the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim the father of Azor, 14and Azor the father of Zadok, and Zadok the father of Achim, and Achim the father of Eliud, 15and Eliud the father of Eleazar, and Eleazar the father of Matthan, and Matthan the father of Jacob, 16and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ.
17So all the generations from Abraham to David were fourteen generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ fourteen generations.
The beauty of Matthew’s genealogy, as we as we have discovered, is that he constructs all the names in Jesus’ family tree, according to verse 17 where he says, “So all the generations from Abraham to David were fourteen generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ fourteen generations.”
The three sets of fourteen generations in this verse, are a way of compounding the number seven twice over (because the number seven is the number of perfection) and Mathew wants to show that Jesus’ family, in all its sinful brokenness, is the perfect bloodline for the Messiah to come from.
What Matthew is telling us is that Israel waited for thousands of years for Jesus to come into this world in fulfillment of the promises of God to redeem, renew and rebuild us into the people that God always intended us to be. So, this is Matthew’s way of constructing Jesus’ family tree, according to three major historical movements that basically create a capitol letter “N” which outlines all of Israel’s history leading up to the birth of Jesus.2
FIRST: From Abraham to David (the first upward leg of the capitol letter “N”) in verses 1 – 6, we saw Israel, through some deeply flawed characters such as Abraham, Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and David looking forward in anticipation of Jesus’ birth as the fulfillment of God’s promises. God had literally promised to make Abraham into an innumerable nation, and he had also promised David to establish his throne and family for all eternity. The bottom line here is that God’s promises are sufficient to sustain us through thick and through thin because his promises are not contingent upon our performance.
SECOND: From David/Solomon to the deportation into slavery in Babylon (the second downward leg of the capitol letter “N”) in verses 6 – 11, we saw Israel looking forward once again in anticipation of Jesus’ birth as the One who redeems us from our sin and our rebellion. It is absolutely amazing to think about how God would not only forgive David for his sin against Bathsheba, but he would also make Bathsheba part of Jesus’ family tree even though she was a victim of David’s sin.
It was also sobering to think about King Solomon who was a very wise but also a very foolish king who wound up losing everything because of his love for his 1,000 foreign wives and concubines. In King Solomon, we have a strong warning not to put off the repentance that is due today.
The reality is that we need to be more like King Josiah who inherited his throne at the young age of 8yrs old from his wicked and perverse father and grandfather who allowed temple prostitution and child sacrifices to happen in the temple. Josiah gives us a vision for being a people of repentance and transformation as we look forward to Jesus. But in Josiah we also have a picture of the better King that is yet to come in the person of Jesus Christ, the one who will rebuild what has been broken because of sin and rebellion.
THIRD: The deportation into slavery in Babylon to the birth of Jesus (the final upward leg of the capitol letter “N”) in verses 12 – 16. In this final portion of Israel’s history as well as Jesus’ family tree, we see Israel looking forward once again in anticipation of Jesus’ birth as the One who will be faithful to rebuild us into the image of God. One significant character in that portion of history was a man named Zerubbabel.
Zerubbabel was the governor of Judah between the deportation to Babylon and the time of Jesus’ birth. All Israel, at this point, had been taken into captivity in Babylon because of their sin and rebellion against God. As the governor of Judah, Zerubbabel was appointed as one of the initial leaders who supervised the reconstruction (or rebuilding) of the temple in Jerusalem with the help of Joshua, the high priest (Ezra 3:2–3, 8).
After a season of about fourteen months to get settled, the Jewish people began to rebuild in earnest under Zerubbabel’s direction. But it wasn’t long before opposition arose from surrounding adversaries, and, eventually, the work was brought to a standstill by order of King Artaxerxes (Ezra 4:1–24). Sadly, only the foundation of the temple had been completed at this pont.3
The point of this final portion of Israel’s history and Jesus’ family tree is that we are all in need of Jesus to finish the work of rebuilding us into the people that God intended us to be. Just as Zerubbabel never finished the work of rebuilding the temple, we too are a work in progress that will continue until we arrive in heaven.
The beauty of the gospel is that once we have trusted in Jesus for salvation, we become a work in progress that will be completed on the day we stand before him in eternity. Philippians 1:6 says, “I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”
My question is this, “What are you waiting for Jesus to complete within you? What sinful brokenness do you long for Jesus to completely eradicate from within you? What are you waiting for Jesus to finish building inside of you?” The work of sanctification (becoming more and more like Jesus) is not an overnight project; it is a lifelong project.
Some of you know that before I became a pastor, I worked in construction and specifically the drywall trade. Sometimes I would do the drywall in a very old home and other times I would do the drywall in a brand-new home. The old homes had lots of issues and would always require tons of hours of labor to make them look new again.
The new homes (this may surprise you) were far from perfect too! While they had shiny new studs in the walls and brand-new foundations for those homes to sit on, there was always the human factor that messed with the perfection of the home and then there was the natural factors (weather, temperature, the moisture levels in the ground around the house, etc.) that messed with the perfection of the home too.
Regardless of the age of the homes I worked on, they were all a work in progress. The same is true of us. Regardless of how long you have walked with Jesus, you are a work in progress. And I am sure that most of you understand this. You are not what you long to be quite yet. Heaven is the promise of completion for every one of us. And the joy of the Christmas season is that we have the best builder laboring over us if we have trusted in Christ as our Savior.
Jesus was not born to merely fix all the political, social, and ethnic problems in this world. When Jesus was born, he was born to literally die so that by his death at a bloody cross, and by his resurrection from the grave, and by his promise of eternity in heaven, he could literally build his kingdom here on earth as it is in heaven. That kingdom is known as the church of saintly sinners who have been ransomed by the shed blood and broken body of Jesus.
So, I ask again: Where are you waiting on Jesus the most right now to rebuild you?Hold onto to that longing. Hold onto that desire to be finally rebuilt. Hold onto the promise that Jesus will finish the work within you. Trust, that if his work at the cross, the empty tomb, and his promise of heaven are true, then his promise to complete you will happen in due time as well.
As you celebrate the birth of Christ this Christmas season, be reminded that Israel waited for generation, after generation, after generation for Jesus to come, to redeem them, to renew them, and to rebuild them into the perfect family for Jesus to come from. If Jesus comes from a family tree that is full of criminals, then there is great hope for all of us.
When you wake up tomorrow morning, please remember, that Jesus was born to die on your behalf, he left the tomb empty so you can trust that death has been defeated, and he left us with the promise of heaven so that as we wait for Jesus to finish the work he started in us, we can trust that he will complete that work he began when he returns or when we stand before him in eternity! – Amen!!
1 Unless otherwise specified, all Bible references are to the English Standard Version Bible, The New Classic Reference Edition (ESV) (Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, 2001).
2 Douglas, Sean, O’Donnell, Matthew: All Authority in Heaven and on Earth, Preaching the Word Commentary, (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway, 2013), 32.
3 Follow this link for more info: https://www.gotquestions.org/Zerubbabel-in-the-Bible.html
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