Redeeming Genealogies - [Luke 3:23-38]

I'd like to read something this morning, and if it's not true, there's no salvation for any of us,

there's no forgiveness for anyone, there's no eternal life.

Jesus, when he began his ministry, was about thirty years of age, being the supposed son

of Joseph, son of Heli, son of Matthew, son of Levi,

son of Melchi, son of Jani, son of Joseph, son of

Mattathias, son of Amos, son of Nahum, son of

Esli, son of Nagai, son of Maath, son of Mattathias,

son of Semang, son of Josesh, son of Jodah, the son of Jonan,

the son of Risa, the son of Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, the son of

Neri, the son of Melchi, the son of Addi, the son of Kosem,

the son of Elodem, the son of Ur, the son of Joshua, the son of Eliezer,

the son of Joram, the son of Mathut, the son of Levi, the son of Simeon,

the son of Judah, the son of Joseph, the son of Jonam, the son of Eliakim,

the son of Malachi, the son of Malachi, the son of Malachi, the son of Malachi, the son of Malachi, the son of Malachi, the son of Malachi, the son of Malachi, the

son of Malachi, the son of Malachi, the son of Malachi, the son of Malachi, the son of Malachi, the son of Malachi, the son of Malachi, the son of

Malachi, the son of Malachi, the son of Malachi, the son of Malachi, the son of Malachi, the son of Malachi, the son of Malachi, the son of

Malachi, the son of Malachi, the son of Malachi, the son of Malachi, the son of Malachi, the son of Malachi, the son of Malachi, the son of Malachi, the son of

Malachi, the son of Malachi, the son of Malachi, the son of Malachi, the son of Malachi, the son of Malachi, the son of Malachi, the

the son of Nehor, the son of Serig, the son of Ru, the son of Pelig, the

son of Eber, the son of Shelah, the son of Canaan, the son of Arphaxad, the

son of Shem, the son of Noah, the son of Lamech, the son of Methuselah,

the son of Enoch, the son of Jared, the son of Mahalaleel, the son of Canaan, the

son of Enos, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the Son of

God.

What just went through your mind when I read those?

Maybe you thought to yourself, well, Pradeep pronounces those better than Pastor Mike.

Maybe that went through your mind.

Why are you laughing?

I thought I did a pretty good job.

I practiced.

I mean, we're in the most exciting part of Luke, and there's John the Baptist

recognizing Jesus.

We have the heavens open, and there's the Father that says, this is my beloved Son in whom I'm

well pleased.

The Spirit of God attends to that very thing.

Soon we're going to be in the middle of the wilderness, and the temptation with Satan.

I mean, what in the world are we doing with this long, extended genealogy?

Why would that be here?

How can that possibly help me live the Christian life?

Say no to sin, say yes to righteousness.

I mean, can't we just kind of dismiss these son of's and begats?

It's very interesting, though.

Many of you, and I don't do it too much, but I'm attracted to it to some degree, would love to

study genealogies .com or ancestry .com.

We love ancestral study.

Oh, this is my great -grandfather, and this is my great -grandmother, and they did this, and they did that, and they accomplished

these things.

I wonder why it is that we'd love to study those ancestors, but when it comes to these long genealogies in

Scripture we just think, oh, ho -hum, let's just skip it and get to the good stuff.

Did you know that Jewish people around the time of the Bible were so intrigued with genealogies

Paul even had to warn them to not spiral off into some weird, esoteric, non

-biblical genealogies?

Paul writes of Timothy, in order to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote

speculations rather than stewardship from God that is by faith.

Did you know, even for a second time, Paul not warned just only Timothy, but Titus, be

careful of people who spend way too much time in weird, non -biblical genealogies.

Titus chapter 3, but avoid foolish controversies.

Genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless.

And so today, the sermon title is simply, Redeeming Genealogies.

Not that the Bible genealogies need to be redeemed, but our view of genealogies need

to be redeemed.

If you're a visitor here, we're just working through the Gospel of Luke, and we come today to Luke chapter 3, verses 23

through 38, which I just read, and we're going to look at how to

redeem genealogies.

In other words, when you're reading a genealogy in Scripture, instead of you bypassing it, or skipping over it,

I want you to try to think of some of the things you learned today to make it more meaningful to you.

It is meaningful, but we want to make sure it's meaningful to us.

And so the next time you're reading something in Chronicles or, for that matter, even something with a long list of names like

Numbers, that you would read it and think, oh, this is wonderful now, because I have some idea about how to

redeem genealogies.

And we're going to move from general to specific.

And so these first seven general ways to redeem genealogies apply to Luke, but

then we're going to move into Luke in particular.

So today, redeeming genealogies, I think you're really going to be glad you came today for lots of reasons, because there's so many

genealogies in Scripture, and you're going to think, okay, great, I now get to understand genealogies.

Now, before we get into this, let's pick up a little bit of context for where and

why this genealogy is here.

Remember, the Gospel of Luke is written by a physician who wants to make sure you have a very precise

faith, a historical faith.

Remember Luke chapter 1, verses 1 -4, the very prologue that tells us why it's written.

A detailed account, an orderly account, like a physician would write, so that you might know.

And of course, it was written so if you're a Christian, you'd keep believing, because sometimes trials in life and

difficulties make you think, you know what?

Is there really a God?

Is it really Jesus only?

Did He really rise from the dead?

Is this all true?

Luke will help you with that.

And of course, if you're here today and you're not a believer, and you think, I don't know about the claims of Christ, there's a detailed, orderly,

historical, theological account of the Lord Jesus that should drive you to believe in

the Lord Jesus.

And the Gospel of Luke is pretty simple.

It starts off with His origins, that's where we are now in Luke chapter 3.

It moves towards Jesus, setting His face like a flint towards Jerusalem, with resolute determination to

obey the Father's will.

That's why He was sent by the Father, to go to Jerusalem, and then at the end of the book to die, to be buried,

to rise again, and then to appear.

And so we're just working through this book that helps us think through the issue of

why did Jesus come, and why does it matter?

And of course we know, remember, with Zacchaeus, Jesus came to seek and save those who were what?

Lost.

That is the key to the Gospel of Luke.

And John the Baptist, he recognized Jesus, did he not?

If you look back in chapter 3, verse 15, as the people were in expectation and all were questioning in

their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Christ, John answered them all, saying, I

baptize with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose

sandals I am not worthy to untie.

While I baptize with water, now John says, he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor, and to gather the wheat into his barn.

But the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.

So with many other exhortations, he preached good news to the people.

But Herod the Tetrarch, who had been reproved by him for Herodias, his brother's wife, for all the

evil things that Herod had done, added this to them all, that he locked up John in prison.

So John recognized Jesus, and now we see the Father and the Spirit do as well.

Verse 21, now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus had also been baptized and was praying,

the heavens were opened, and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a

dove, and a voice came from heaven, you are my beloved Son, with you I am

well pleased.

And remember, from two weeks ago, Jesus didn't need to be baptized as a sinner, because Jesus was

sinless, spotless Lamb of God, but Jesus, to identify, remember,

to have solidarity with sinful humanity, Jesus is baptized.

Remember, John said, I don't want to be baptizing you, you should be baptizing me.

John recognizing, even though he was a great man, still sinful, but Jesus said, permit this

to fulfill all righteousness in Matthew chapter 3.

And so now that we have context, we come to genealogy of Jesus in chapter 3 of Luke verses 23 and

following, with our outline today, redeeming genealogies.

How do we do that?

Number one, how do you redeem genealogies?

It's recognize the profit of genealogies.

Of course, a genealogy is just a line of descent traced through an ancestor.

Number one, recognize the profit of genealogies.

Normally when I'm preaching, I try to stick in one passage.

We might go to one or two other passages, but we're probably going to look at more today.

And so, when I'm preaching students, I tell them, try to stick with one passage most of the time, because

otherwise you don't want to sound like you're a football quarterback, audibling all the time.

The whole sermon, 328, 682, 413, all around.

But today I might have to call an audible today, an audible sum.

So let's go to 2 Timothy chapter 3.

I know you know this, but I want to remind you that genealogies are in the Bible for a reason, and they're God

-breathed, and they're profitable for you.

So we don't want to fall into the trap of thinking they do me no good because it's just a bunch of names.

The Bible teaches that everything in the Bible, including genealogies, is good for you and profitable

for me as well.

Paul writes to Timothy his last letter before he is beheaded for the Lord

Jesus' sake, and he writes in 2 Timothy chapter 3 verse 14 and following,.

But as for you, Timothy, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed,

knowing from whom you have learned it, and how from childhood you have been acquainted with sacred

writings which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

All Scripture is breathed out by God, and profitable for teaching, for reproof,

for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God, that's the preacher, but it would apply to

anyone, may be complete, equipped for every good work.

While the false teachers were teaching a bunch of mumbo -jumbo that just led to dissensions and ungodliness and just crazy

talk, the Bible is breathed out by God and therefore it's profitable.

Paul doesn't say the men are inspired, he says that the Scriptures are God breathed.

Paul says everything is important.

The false teachers in the context would say only parts of Scripture are important, but not everything.

And Paul said, no, everything is important, and it will make you, what?

Adequate, thoroughly equipped.

And so we need to make sure we understand that genealogies are profitable for us,

so we just don't skip them.

How to redeem genealogies?

One, recognize they're profitable and God breathed.

Number two, notice the context of genealogies.

Ask yourself the question, why is that genealogy there?

And I'm going to give you an illustration of that.

Turn to Genesis chapter 5.

We're working broadly on how to look at genealogies, generally speaking, and then we'll narrow it into Luke

chapter 3.

There are many genealogies in Scripture.

Here's one, Genesis chapter 5.

And if you notice the context and ask the question, why are these here?

It will help you when you read genealogies.

You might even succumb to underlying a few things in a genealogy one day.

That'd be a good test.

Go around the congregation and see how many people have underlined things in genealogies.

Genesis 5 gives us an illustration of context that makes you think, okay, now this

genealogy in Genesis chapter 5 is mine.

I get it.

I can go to it often.

Genesis 5, one.

This is the book of the generations of Adam.

When God created man, He made him in the likeness of God.

Male and female, He created them and He blessed them and named them man when they were created.

Adam had lived 130 years.

He fathered Seth, etc.

And then it says in verse 5, do you notice, thus all the days that Adam lived were 930 years and he

died.

Verse 8, thus all the days of Seth were 912 years and he died.

Verse 11 of Genesis 5, thus all the days of Enosh were 905 years, any guesses?

And he died.

Verse 14, thus all the days of Canaan were 910 years and he died.

Verse 17, thus all the days of Mahalalel were 895 years and he died.

Verse 20, all the days of Jared were 962 years and he died.

Verse 27, thus all the days of Methuselah were 969 years and he

died.

And then finally verse 31, the 8th and he died.

Thus all the days of Lamech were 777 years and he died.

So what's the deal?

And he died and he died.

Remember what happened in Genesis 3?

Remember what happened?

Well you're right there close by, we might as well just look at it together.

Genesis 3 .1, now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the

Lord God had made.

He said to the woman, did God actually say, you shall not eat of the tree of the garden?

And the woman said to the serpent, we may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden but God said you shall not eat of the

fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it lest you die.

But the serpent said to the woman, you will not surely

die.

And he died and he died and he died and he died and he died and he died and he

died and he died.

So if you look at the context, you think, now I get it.

It's there for a reason.

It's there for me not to just skip over but to punctuate that very truth that was found earlier in the context.

If you eat of that tree, you will surely die.

Satan is the liar and the father of lies and everything just opens up.

How do you redeem biblical genealogies in your own mind?

Well, you say they're God breathed, number one.

Number two, context helps me understand.

Number three, remember that the Bible is historically accurate.

When you read a genealogy, you should say, this is not Narnia.

This is not Middle Earth.

This is not some weird Mormon Bible that doesn't have a map at the back.

This is real.

These people are true and right.

The Bible's historical accuracy, family histories.

Do you know there was a person literally named Adam?

There was a person literally named Methuselah?

Hence the term, as old as Methuselah, 969 years old.

There were actually people with those names.

Real events.

Not a myth, not a legend.

In Luke, we have learned in the past, have we not?

People really called Herod.

People really called Quirinius.

People really called John.

Number four, how do you redeem a biblical genealogy in your own mind?

Rejoice over the fulfillment of prophecy and promises.

Rejoice in the fulfillment of prophecy and promises.

The Messiah was to come through what line?

Isaiah chapter 11 gives a prophecy of the Messiah Messiah coming, and He was going to come through whose line?

David.

Good.

David's line.

And all of a sudden you read in Luke 3, son of David, Matthew 1, the genealogy of Jesus, and it was

Jesse the father of King David, and David was the father of Solomon.

And you read in the proclamation of 2 Samuel chapter 7, the Davidic kingdom

is going to be through David, and then you realize David's son ultimate son, Jesus, comes from

David, and you think, this is true.

When I read genealogies, I say to myself this affirms prophecy and

God's truth.

How about this one, number five?

When you read a biblical genealogy, why don't you praise God for His care and interest in people?

Praise God for His care and interest in people.

Not just groups of people, some amorphous blob of people, not just nations, but individual people.

He knew every single one of these people, just like He knows every one of us.

His detailed nature knows all the ins and outs of all these people.

He knows their image bearers.

He knows that they have eternal souls.

He has kindness to them and benevolence.

Reminds me of Jesus' words in Matthew 6,.

Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will

put on.

Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?

Look at the birds of the air, they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father

feeds them.

Are you not of more value than they?

And which of you, by being anxious, can add a single hour to his lifespan?

And why are you anxious about clothing?

Seek first the Kingdom of God, Jesus goes on to say in His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

Next time you read a genealogy, why don't you say, God knows every one of those people.

He knew the ins and outs, their hopes, their dreams, their sins, how they trust in the Messiah, and He knows me

too.

He knows individual people.

Sometimes people think God is just far off, and not involved, and could care less.

I love Isaiah 41, Do not fear, for I am with you.

Psalm 46, Be still and know that I am God.

Philippians 4, Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication.

With thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.

Let your forbearing spirit be known to all men, the Lord is near.

When I read a genealogy, and I think to myself, what in the world is this here for?

How can I think through it rightly?

Number 6, Be amazed that God is not a far off God.

This is related to the last one, that He's not a deist.

He's working, He's involved.

He knows all these folks, and He's sovereign over them all.

God is working in history.

If you look at the world, you're going to say this, the world is out of control.

It's spiraling out of control, and no one is at the helm.

And if you look at genealogies, you'll just say, you know what?

God has this all ordered.

He's working everything together for His purpose.

He works everything for good for those who are called and love Him.

It's just all lined up.

In far away places, in tiny little places, God knows everything.

I love Psalm 103, The Lord has established His throne in the heavens and His sovereignty rules over most things.

Oh sorry, I misread that.

Just wanted to see if you were paying attention.

His sovereignty rules over all, and all these people, and all these ancestors.

And I read genealogies, and I think, God's got this.

He's sovereign.

I can trust in Him.

Our statement of faith says, God, the good creator of all things, in His infinite power and wisdom, does

uphold, direct, dispose, and govern all creatures and things, from the

greatest even to the least.

And every person, in every one of those genealogies, God is sovereign over and working through.

Our statement of faith also says, as the providence of God does, in general, reach to all creatures, so after a more

special manner, it takes care of His church and disposes of all things to the good

thereof.

When you read a genealogy, I want you to think, Lord, sovereign, King, who has dominion, who

rules, who decrees, who runs the universe with predestination, foreordination, establishes

and chooses.

I want you to read a genealogy and just think, I'm in awe of such a God who could do all this.

Not one particle out of place, not one person out of place, not one person born in an inopportune time.

I mean, who would read a genealogy and say, that just comforts me in sorrow.

We should.

We should.

Building our faith.

And the last general principle on how to redeem a biblical genealogy, we see it's

God -breathed, we notice the context, we think, oh, the Bible's historically accurate, oh, there's fulfillment of

prophecy, God cares for people, God's in charge of every situation, and lastly, number

seven, you could trust the Lord that He can use sinful people for His purposes.

Who does that?

Who can use sinful people for His purposes?

The Lord can, and we see that in Genesis 5, we see it in Luke 3,

and every other genealogy.

God uses Israelites, God uses Gentiles, God uses men, God uses

women, God uses children, God uses believers, God uses unbelievers, God uses believers who sin,

God uses unbelievers who sin, God uses pretty much anybody He wants, right?

And I read that in genealogies and I think, wait a second, in Matthew's genealogy, there are

people in there like Rahab, the prostitute, there are people like Tamar,

we want to talk about what happened with her, Bathsheba, Manasseh, Amnon,

how can God do these things?

Well, see, sometimes we think, if left to ourselves, that God is one of these transaction gods, and He is

doing things based on what we let Him do, or if we do something, then He's allowed to do something, and there's all

these contingencies about God, and He's not going to do things unless we somehow

allow that.

Of course, that's untrue.

God is sovereign, He sits in the heavens and He does whatever He pleases, Psalm 115, and when

you look at this and you think, He can use sinful people, and good thing, because that's all that there is

to use, except the Lord Jesus, right?

You read genealogies and you think, okay, wait a second, He used David?

David was a man after God's own heart, and he was also an adulterer, and he was also a murderer.

In our day of cancel culture, where if you've got something in your past, you are done and you're out,

God uses people that should have been cancelled.

Listen to what Phil Riken says, they were guilty of the same kind of sins as we are.

All these people in the genealogies are sinners.

It's nice to think our ancestors were noble and good, they did something heroic.

This is one of the reasons why people study their family trees.

Whether they were heroic or not, the people who came before us were just as flawed as we are.

Consider some of the skeletons in the family closet of the Old Testament.

Terah, the father of Abraham was an idolater, Abraham was a liar, Jacob was a

cheater and a thief, Judah traded slaves and consorted with prostitutes, David was a murderer and adulterer.

We usually remember these men as heroes, but they were also scoundrels all the way back to Adam.

At the taproot of the family tree, like any genealogy, the one in Luke's gospel records a long line

of sinners.

We should be glad that God uses sinners.

So when you read genealogies, you should say to yourself, I'm so thankful for many things, including,

God, you can use a sinner like David, you can use a sinner like me.

Alright, now let's go back to Luke chapter 3 and let's get more particular on redeeming genealogies.

7 general principles, now 3 in particular.

So I guess we could have 10 total today, 7 general, 3 particular.

Okay, so far you look like you're still paying attention to some degree.

It is a daunting task to think, I have to get up and preach a genealogy.

They don't make you do that in seminary because they know you'd totally bomb it.

And so today we're just going to hide behind the text and say it's there, it's there for a reason.

And it's good when you come across a genealogy, before you skip it, if you could just say, Lord, teach me something

from this genealogy.

If you only do that today, I'd be very, very happy.

The first particular thing that we can do to understand Luke, which would be number 8, if we're

adding these all together, is spot the order of the names.

Take a look at the names and see what kind of order they're in.

And so if you look at it, you see kind of a reverse order.

You see something that's not normal.

Matthew's gospel we'll show in Matthew chapter 1 starts with older people and works

into the near present.

What's Luke trying to do?

He's shining a spotlight here for us to ask some questions.

The genealogy of Jesus is backward, as it were.

Jesus, verse 23, when he began his ministry, was about 30 years of age.

Being the son, as was supposed of Joseph, the son of Heli.

And so, of course, we move from Jesus the boy in Luke 2 to now Jesus the man.

18 years passes.

The only thing we see is with John the Baptist just earlier in Luke chapter 3.

And he's 30, and of course at 30 Ezekiel into ministry.

At 30, David becomes the king.

At 30, this is just kind of the way it goes.

You're in public ministry at 30, and now Jesus does the same thing.

But the genealogy ends at the beginning.

Verse 38, the son of Enos, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.

No Old Testament genealogy is like that.

That should make us go, what's going on?

No rabbinic genealogy is like that.

That should make us think, what's going on?

Your own genealogy is in Ancestry .com.

By the way, I'm just curious, how many people do Ancestry .com stuff, or any genealogical stuff?

Okay, some do.

All the people in the back row.

There's always a group of Baptists at every Baptist church.

You notice that?

I'm telling you.

So some do.

And you're exploring, oh, this happened and that happened.

When I do some exploration, by the way, in my genealogy, I think it was my great -great

-grandfather, and he was cutting a tree down, and the tree fell on him and killed him.

And somehow the obituary didn't get written properly to recognize the other side of the

family.

So it was Abendroth.

The Abendroths had a big family fight because of great -great -grandpa dying, and

so there was a split in the family because the one side of the family wasn't recognized.

And so they said, this other side of the family, from this day forth, we're no longer the Abendroths, we're the

Abendroths.

So you want to pronounce my name Abendroth, but because of a genealogy, we've learned that it's pronounced Abendroth,

because my side of the family was the right side, and the righteous side.

I would not write my genealogy like this.

So when you see things that are different, it should make you think, okay, why is he doing this?

There has to be a reason.

Things just don't happen like a big bang of theology in Luke chapter 3.

There's a reason why it's reversed.

Luke wants us to see that it ends with, verse 38, the son of Adam.

And before you know it, your mind starts thinking, hmm, first Adam, garden,

food, temptation, Satan.

That's what you should be thinking.

Because in the next chapter, which it leads right into, the last verse of chapter 3 leads us into chapter 4.

What's the first word in English of chapter 4, verse 1?

And, Jesus, well, it's not a garden, but it's wilderness.

It's going to deal with food.

It's going to deal with temptation.

It's going to deal with Satan.

And we're to be thinking like 1 Corinthians 15, the last Adam.

There's the first Adam, who plunges us into sin,

and there's the last Adam, Jesus, who's going to rescue us.

You should be thinking, oh, he's writing this for a reason, so that we can start thinking about who this

one is.

Including, what does it say after the son of Adam?

The son of God.

Wait.

What do you mean the son of God?

Why is he ending it with the son of God, and then we go into the temptation?

Son of Adam, I get.

Son of God, what's going on?

Now, remember from probably two months ago, if I were to say to you, Jesus is known as son of man, you would say

true.

Jesus is known as son of God, you would say true.

And if I were to ask you, which one stresses his humanity, and which one stresses his deity, you probably are going to get tricked, because

when we hear son of man, we think of man, humanity.

And when I say son of God, God, we think of deity.

And that's a normal, natural way to think, but it's not biblical.

Son of man.

Jesus calls himself the son of man.

The son of man has the authority to forgive sins.

Son of man has the authority to be over the Sabbath.

When Jesus calls himself the son of man, is he saying, I'm man?

He certainly is man.

But son of man is a designation.

Remember Old Testament.

One of the best things you can do, as you study the Bible, is to think Old Testamently.

To think about the Old Testament.

And so we have in the Old Testament, Daniel chapter 7, listen.

I saw in the night visions, Daniel said, and behold, with the clouds of heaven, there came one like a

son of, he came to the ancient of days and was presented before him, and to him

was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him.

His dominion is an everlasting dominion, a lot better than Nebuchadnezzar's, which shall not pass away,

and his kingdom, one that shall not be destroyed.

When you read son of man, Jesus' favorite designation for himself, you should be

thinking deity.

It's just opposite of what you think.

I know it's confusing, but once you figure it out, it's fine.

So what does it mean when he says he's son of God?

That's talking about his humanity.

And as God has attributes of holiness and righteousness and justice and kindness,

and I don't want to be blasphemous, but if my children are a chip off dad's old block, and

they're doing things that I do properly, they reflect what I do.

Jesus said, you're like your father, Satan, because you do the things that your father,

Satan, does, you false teachers.

And so Jesus does what his father does, since he's the son, and so he acts like his father,

holy and righteous and blameless, as a son, human son, he does what the father

does.

And so now we have the man, Adam, in a garden, fallen to temptation,

and now Jesus, who's the last Adam, but also is the best, ultimate human, is in the

garden to face Satan.

Number nine, recognize the differences between Luke's and Matthew's genealogy.

We were looking before the order, and now we look at the differences of names, and for some of you that have studied, there's a

lot of differences between Matthew's genealogies and Luke's genealogy and Matthew's genealogy.

And so you study and you think okay, what's going on?

I'll tell you what not to do.

What not to do is well, I can't figure them out in my mind, the Bible must be a lie.

That would be tragic.

If I can't figure out something in the Bible, you know what I usually think?

The problem's not with the Bible, the problem's with you guys.

The problem's with me!

The problem's with me.

I can't figure it out.

I mean, I'm finite.

I'm fallen.

I didn't live 2 ,000 years ago.

I'm not from an eastern culture.

I didn't speak Greek and Hebrew and Aramaic.

The problem's with me.

It's not ever with the Bible.

And so before you think because you'll see this online, well, the Bible has two conflicting genealogies of Jesus, one

in Matthew 1 and one in Luke 3.

The Bible must be bogus.

That's what you ought not to do.

Actually, that's lazy.

That's intellectually lazy to do.

But I don't think you'd do that, so what do we do?

There are names that are different.

I think there are 38 different names here between Matthew's account and Luke's account.

The order's different.

The names are different.

The patterns are different.

There's a bunch of seven patterns in Luke.

There's a bunch of 14 patterns in Matthew.

The easiest way to do this is to ask yourself the question, could it be that Matthew

and Luke are asking two different questions?

And if you do that, you're there.

I could give you a long seminary list of all the different things this is about, but that's not my purpose today.

Matthew asks the question, who's the next king of Israel?

Who has the credentials to be the king?

Matthew answers that.

Luke asks a different question.

Who was Jesus' father?

One is royal lineage.

The other is paternal lineage.

And that's why it bypasses Joseph, because remember, Jesus didn't have a literal father, because he needed to be

sinless.

And so who conceived Jesus in the womb of the Virgin Mary?

The Holy Spirit did.

That's exactly right.

Two different genealogies, because two different questions are asked.

And both show, through the royal line, David, and through the paternal line, David.

So both ways, Jesus can be the Messiah.

The line of Joseph is his legal father in Matthew.

The line of Mary is Luke's genealogy.

Royal succession in Matthew, physical descent in

Luke.

And now finally, which would be kind of a normal sermon, we come to number 10.

Understand the author's purpose.

How do you redeem genealogies?

Now specifically here in Luke, understand the author's purposes.

Let me give you four of them.

First purpose.

Jesus was a historical purpose.

This microphone makes me sound good, but it's supposed to correct my mistakes.

I was recording a show the other day on genealogies for the radio, and I said out loud, this is the

worst show I've ever done.

I don't know if this is the worst sermon I've ever preached, but that was a bad pronunciation there.

Jesus was a historical person.

That's the first purpose.

He was a historical purpose, purpose, person.

Every pastor is so thankful that it's the Word of God that's powerful and it has nothing to do with me.

Sometimes, you know, when you've taught the Bible, you thought you really did a good job and people are like, ho -hum, and then you really bomb it, and someone comes up

and says, I so needed that today, Pastor.

That's good news.

Jesus was a real Jew, born in a real town of Bethlehem, underneath King

Herod, where Quirinius was in charge.

Jesus was a real person.

Not mythical, not made up, not a legend, not a lore, not like a lot of other teachers, the false teachers around.

He died on a real Friday, was raised on a real Sunday.

He's a real person, and we have to have Jesus as a real person, because to be our representative, He has to be

real.

To be our substitute at Calvary, He has to be real.

Adam was real, Jesus needs to be real.

That's why when people talk about Genesis 1 and 2 and 3 as poetry, and there's like 8

,000 hominids walking around, and God says, one of you 8 ,000 hominids is now Adam.

That's just all trash.

Jesus was a real person, to be my shepherd, to be

my savior, to be your savior.

Now some of you know about the Wycliffe Bible translators, and the work that they do, and so they go to Papua New Guinea and they start

translating Matthew, because they want them to know the good news, that Jesus dies for all kinds of people, including those in Papua New

Guinea.

But they said, you know what, we're going to skip Matthew 1, the first 17 verses, because it's a genealogy.

What are we going to do?

Start with a genealogy, so they skip the genealogy.

They translated everything, and they thought, well, I guess we go back to translate the genealogy.

The account goes this way.

They translated Matthew chapter 1, Abraham begat Isaac, Isaac begat Jacob, Jacob begat, etc.

By the time they completed about 6 of these begats, the translator could sense the men from Papua New Guinea were becoming

excited.

They, the men said, do you mean these were real men?

Yes, they were real men.

Well, that's what we do regarding keeping genealogies.

We thought this was just a white man's story.

You mean Abraham was a real man?

Yes, that's what we've been trying to tell you.

Well, we didn't know that, said the men in Papua New Guinea, but now we believe.

Isn't that interesting?

They thought it was just some lore, some made up thing that someone has.

No, they're real people.

Phantoms can't redeem, weird hybrids can't redeem.

Well, what else is Luke trying to say?

That Jesus was a real, understand me, person, and also

that he has the right credentials.

He's a real person with the right credentials.

If you have to go to a doctor, do you check that doctor and his credentials?

If you go to a financial counselor, do you check the credentials of the financial counselor?

I would say if you wanted to just go to the doctor because you have a hangnail, you don't check.

But if you go to the doctor because you need your heart bypass surgery done, I bet you

check.

By the way, just some free pastoral advice, if you don't check, you should check.

You can find out how many people have done surgeries and what the negative things are, and you think, well, I probably shouldn't

stay here in Clinton Mass for my brain surgery.

I think I should probably make it to Boston.

What do you think?

Good idea?

You laugh, but sometimes I'll say this to one of you, and you'll say, well, I'm getting surgery at such and such a place, and it

seems to me kind of a major surgery.

I'm like, you're getting it in Clinton?

I guess I can't say anything.

And I call Pastor Steve, and I say, you tell him.

Don't we need the right credentials?

If we need it for surgery, and we need it for finances, you better

make sure that you're trusting in the right Messiah, or you're going to pay for your sins forever in hell.

If you've got the wrong Messiah.

So, Luke, make sure you realize it's the right Messiah.

And everything in Luke shouts, it's the right Messiah.

Baptism, the Father and the Spirit agree.

John the Baptist, pointing to Jesus.

Genealogy, pointing to Jesus.

You have the right Jesus.

No wonder Luke is such a good doctor, so precise, so orderly.

He wants to make sure if you're all in on someone with the right credentials, you're all in.

And of course, remember, for an Old Testament priest, they couldn't say, I'd like to be the priest.

Self -appointed priest.

We learn from Matthew, Hebrews chapter 5, rather, that it says, Christ did not exalt Himself to be made

a high priest, but was appointed by Him, the Father, who said to Him, You are my Son, today I have

begotten You.

Jesus isn't just a good teacher.

Jesus isn't just a good storyteller.

Jesus wasn't just somebody walking around one of many religions.

Jesus has the right credentials, so you can trust Him.

You can rely on Him.

If you read reviews on Yelp and Thrillist and Google Maps for

food so that you don't get a bad dinner, how much more do you need to have the

right Messiah?

And then lastly, sorry, two more, third purpose, Jesus is truly and perfectly man.

He's a real man, He's got the real credentials, and He's the perfect man.

He is the Son of God, so He can sympathize with your weaknesses.

He's the second Adam.

He's the one who's truly man and can identify with us.

And as I said before, He, number four, is the last Adam.

The last Adam.

1 Corinthians 15, for as by man came death, by man has also come the resurrection of the dead.

For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made.

Your only hope is the Lord Jesus.

So if you're going through a trial, dear Christian, and you're in a dark time, you think, you know what?

God is still faithful.

Good song to be reminded today.

We open with the hymn, Great is Thy Faithfulness.

And we have the scriptures and the words of eternal life, and we can say, He is the right Jesus.

He's a real person.

He has the right credentials.

He's truly man.

He's truly God too, but He's truly man.

And He's the last Adam.

He'll undo what the first Adam did, and more.

So today we've looked at a genealogy.

I guess I have two takeaways for you today, homework assignments.

Number one, when you see an Ancestry .com commercial, instead of doing what I do

in the past, thinking, bunch of Mormons trying to trick me.

That's what I think.

I didn't say it was right or wrong.

You know why Mormons are into Ancestry stuff, right?

Because there's a lot of people that need to be baptized.

A lot of dead people that need to be baptized.

So they need to make sure they're baptized for the dead.

But instead of thinking that, I want you to think, there's a greater genealogy found in Luke

3 and in different places in the Bible.

So Ancestry .com don't forget about this biblical ancestry of Jesus.

And also, I'd like you to read a genealogy this week.

Go to Chronicles, go to Genesis, go to Matthew, go to Luke, and just read one and ponder through.

Just a few of the things that come to your mind.

God knows individual people.

God knows me.

God's sovereign over everything.

He's sovereign over them.

He's sovereign over me.

These things are important.

They teach me things.

The more I can learn about Jesus, the better.

I'd like to know about Jesus.

I'd like to know about His grandpa.

I'd like to know about Abraham.

I'd like to know about David.

I'd like to know about these things.

Lord, please help me to appreciate genealogies.

P .S. Jesus loved Old Testament genealogies.

Yeah?

That's great.

Thank you, Father, for today.

Father, a difficult passage of Scripture, yet there for us to enjoy and to be edified.

And we would praise you for Jesus, the last Adam.

Jesus, the ultimate David.

And Jesus, the complete fulfillment of all the Abrahamic promises.

Father, would you help the Christians here today who are hurting and struggling.

Be reminded again that they have a faithful Savior in whom they can trust.

And who loves them even though they've fallen short this week.

And Father, for those that aren't Christians today, as S. Louis Johns would say, may they not rest or

sleep until they rest by faith in Jesus, the one with the right credentials who can conquer death and

forgive their sins.