WWUTT 091 Genealogy of Christ (Matthew 1:1-2)

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When someone starts talking about the genealogies in the Bible, what might your reaction be?
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Well, it probably sounds something like this. Yes, the genealogies probably don't strike most as being the most interesting parts of Scripture, but like the rest of the
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Bible, they're still very important, especially the one we're going to be looking at today in Matthew chapter 1, when we understand the text.
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Many of the Bible stories and verses we think we know, we don't. When we understand the text as an online ministry committed to teaching sound doctrine and exposing the faulty, visit our website at www .utt
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.com. Now here's our host, Pastor Gabe Hughes. Thank you, Becky. When we finished up our study of Colossians, we went through some of the names that Paul mentioned to the
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Colossian church in issuing his final greetings. And that's one of those lessons I wish I had dragged out a little bit longer, because I'm one of those persons that truly enjoys going through those names and knowing who those people are.
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And I just brushed through that in one lesson. Talking about the significance of each person could have been something that I did over an entire week.
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And each one of those names Paul mentioned was someone significant. The Colossians would have recognized those names.
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Remember that he wanted the Colossians to know that they were just as instrumental in this work of advancing the gospel as any of his missionary brethren.
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And so for the Colossians, it would have been awesome to hear Luke greets us. Whoa, and Aristarchus and Mark, and Mark might be coming here.
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See, these were legit. Here's how we think of you kinds of inclusions by the Apostle Paul.
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And these names were important. Equally as important are the names that we read in the genealogies in the
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Bible. Now, I will tell you that genealogy is not something that I have studied intently. As I'm continuing to grow in my knowledge of scripture, genealogy is something that I could be more devoted to than I have been.
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But I know enough to at least provide you at least a basic importance that we should understand when it comes to the genealogies, particularly the genealogies of Christ as we see them in Matthew 1 and in Luke 3.
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These are so important to understand. And it's so common when pastors start digging into the
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Christmas story to skip the genealogy. We either skip Matthew 1 and go straight to Matthew 2, or we'll read
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Luke chapters 1 and 2, but not get to the genealogy in chapter 3. And I tell you that the reason why we do that is not because the genealogy isn't interesting.
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It's because we don't understand how truly interesting it is. So today
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I want to begin a study of the genealogy in Matthew 1. So open up your
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Bible and join with me there. Before we read the scriptures today, let's come to the Lord in prayer. Our wonderful God, we thank you once again for this opportunity to open up this
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Bible and read your word. What a privilege it is that I've got a Bible open in front of me that I can recite it into a microphone and somebody else on the other end of this recording can hear it spoken and read it themselves in their own
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Bibles. And I pray that we don't take these things for granted, but truly desire that the gospel would go out even farther and wider than it already has been.
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That there are others in the world who might be able to hold a Bible in their own language and have somebody speak it to them so that they would understand it and rejoice in hearing the gospel for the first time.
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May your spirit go forth so that by your spirit, they would understand the words that are being spoken and read to them.
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Lord, it is by that spirit that we can understand these scriptures as we open them up before us and read them today.
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Understanding something that we would ordinarily dismiss as mundane, like a genealogy. But Lord, by your spirit, may this be vibrant and exciting to us to hear your gospel spoken even in this genealogy in Matthew chapter one.
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And we pray and ask this in the name of Jesus. Amen. Matthew chapter one, starting in verse one, and we'll go through verse 17.
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The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. 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 and Perez, the father of Hezron and Hezron, the father of Ram and Ram, the father of Aminadab and Aminadab, the father of Nashon and Nashon, the father of Salmon and Salmon, 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.
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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 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 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.
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And after the deportation to Babylon, Jeconiah was the father of Shelteel And Shealtiel, the father of Zerubabel.
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And Zerubabel, the father of Abiud. And Abiud, the father of Eliakim. And Eliakim, the father of Azer, and Azer, the father of Zaddik.
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And Zaddik, the father of Akim. And Akim, the father of Eliud, and Eliud, the father of Eleazar, and Eleazar, the father of Mathan.
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And Mathan, the father of Jacob and Jakob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom
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Jesus was born, who is called Christ. So all the generations from Abraham to David were 14 generations and from David to the deportation to Babylon 14 generations and from the deportation to Babylon to the
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Christ 14 generations. Now Matthew has a firm grip and knowledgeable understanding of the
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Old Testament. It's strangely necessary for me to say that because the criticisms of Matthew's genealogy are rooted in one of two accusations.
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Either he didn't know the genealogical accounts of the Old Testament well or he did know them and deliberately chose to ignore them.
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The latter accusation would also be accusing Matthew of being dishonest. No, absolutely not.
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If the rest of Matthew's gospel tells us anything it's that its writer was very knowledgeable in the scriptures, prophecy, events, and the like.
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Matthew was, after all, a Jew. His Hebrew name was Levi. He makes constant references back to the
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Old Testament, not only in direct references but much of the language imitates Old Testament language.
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For example, the way that he describes the angel that appeared at the tomb of the risen Christ in Matthew 28 verse 3, his appearance was like lightning and his clothing as white as snow.
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This is as Daniel described the angel that appeared to him in Daniel 10 as wearing white linens and had the appearance of lightning.
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So again, both in direct references and in the use of language, Matthew clearly has a handle on the
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Old Testament. As I've heard Vody Bauckham say, if you want to understand the Old Testament, look at how the
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New Testament writers talk about it. Rather than criticizing Matthew's genealogical timeline, we should be criticizing our understanding and saying, okay, what is it about what
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Matthew is saying that I'm just not getting? And I will tell you, when you compare
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Matthew's genealogy with Luke's and also the record of the Kings and 1st and 2nd
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Kings and 1st and 2nd Chronicles, there are some things here in Matthew's account that appear to be inconsistent.
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They only appear to be, not that they actually are. That forces us to have to dig deeper into the
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Word of God in order to understand what's being said. So, let's look at the beginning of Matthew's beautiful words under the guidance and inspiration of the
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Holy Spirit. Matthew chapter 1 verse 1. The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the
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Son of David, the Son of Abraham. Now, whenever we talk about the
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Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the one that we give credit to being like the beginning of the
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Bible is John, right? In the beginning was the Word, John 1 1. That parallels Genesis. In the beginning,
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God. But I tell you that Matthew is just as equal to the language of Genesis 1 1.
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The word for genealogy, the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Greek word for genealogy is
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Genesis. Hey, Matthew's opening line is the beginning of Jesus Christ.
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His opener is not just to preface the genealogy, but the entire gospel account that Matthew is writing.
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This is a new beginning that he is writing here. The story of what Jesus Christ fulfilled by his life, death, and resurrection.
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Now, by pointing out that Jesus is the Son of David, the Son of Abraham, that actually adds a very personal nature to the genealogy.
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In a sense, we're being told that we get to know him too. There's a connection with that in Genesis 2 4, which is the first time that God's name,
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Yahweh, is used in the scriptures. Up until that verse in Genesis 2, the generic title for the creator deity,
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God was used. But in Genesis 2 4, where it talks about the generations, which is also rendered genealogy, it is
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God's personal name that's being used. We get to see the personal nature that God has with his creation.
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But it's important for us to remember that when Matthew is writing, he's writing to primarily a
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Jewish audience. Matthew, Mark, and Luke are called the synoptic gospels. Synoptic meaning same.
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But all three are written to different audiences. Luke wrote down the gospel the way that Paul shared it, and he wrote to Theophilus, a single
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Gentile. Mark was probably writing the gospel the way Peter shared it, and he wrote it for a
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Gentile audience. But Matthew was writing to a primarily Jewish audience. The Jews kept genealogical records to establish a person's heritage, the rights to their inheritance, the legitimacy of the claims that they made to the house or tribe that they belong to, and also their very identity.
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And so, Matthew means to show that Christ is in the line of David, meaning that he has a legal right to the throne of Israel.
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To cement that legal claim, it's not enough to say that he was of the line of David, but also that he was descended from Abraham himself.
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In this way, Matthew will show how Christ fulfills all the law and the prophets.
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Christ has a legal claim on the throne of David, and he is the promised seed that was prophesied would come from the line of Abraham.
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Now, we're not going to get to Luke's genealogy, but I will tell you how Matthew and Luke differ from one another, is that Luke establishes
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Jesus's biological descent from David and Adam. Okay, so Matthew is
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David and Abraham, Luke is David and Adam. If you know something about the theology that Paul unpacks in the book of Romans, then you probably understand why.
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Romans 5 talks about how all sin came through one man, Adam, and grace comes through one man, Christ.
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So, Luke wants to show how the futility that was introduced to all men through Adam's sin has been redeemed by Christ.
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Matthew wants to show how the promise for the people of God is fulfilled in Christ. It all comes back to Christ, it's just two different approaches.
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So, in verse 2 of Matthew 1, Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers.
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So, there we have the forefathers of the Hebrews, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Abraham is the first in the scriptures to be called a
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Hebrew, a title that is derived from Eber, a descendant of Shem. Now, Eber was 225 years older than Abraham, and given that there are no gaps in the genealogy that we read in Genesis 11, he would have still been alive when
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Abraham was born. In fact, he was still alive when Isaac was born. He would have been 325 years old, and Genesis 11 16 records that Eber lived to be 430.
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So, he outlived Abraham, who would have died when Eber was 400 years old. Now, that's just following the math of Genesis 11.
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Again, as I stated earlier, I'm not a genealogical expert. I'm especially not learned in the Jewish tradition of writing a genealogy.
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So, if there's something like an omission or a gap that I'm not familiar with, I'd have to yield to the pros on that one.
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But, as we read Genesis as given, that's how the numbers follow. Abraham was still alive when
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Jacob and Esau were born, and even though the birth of the twins occurs after the death of Abraham in the narrative, that doesn't mean the writer of Genesis implied that Abraham died before Jacob and Esau were born, and then had just mistakenly configured his math wrong.
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Even understanding a chronology requires understanding the context in which it is given.
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Does that make sense? So, as we're trying to understand the order of events in which they are given in Scripture, we have to understand the context in which those events are being spoken about.
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Let me give you kind of a brief or very simple example of this. Esther is the 17th book of the
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Bible, but chronologically, it records the last events to have taken place in the entire
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Old Testament. There are novels and movies that don't always present the story in a chronological order, and you have to pay attention to the context to know what part of the story is being told.
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Batman Begins is an example of that. The first half of the movie jumps around between three different periods.
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You've got Bruce Wayne as a boy before his parents' death, Bruce Wayne as a young adult trying to cope with his parents' death, and then you have
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Bruce Wayne traveling the world on his journey to become Batman. And you have to pay attention to the context to know what part of the story is being told as you're watching, or you'll get really confused, right?
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So, this happens also in the Bible. I think of an account that happens in Matthew.
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Later in Matthew chapter 27, Matthew starts talking about the resurrection of Christ before we get to the resurrection of Christ in the narrative, which is in Matthew 28.
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Anyway, you'll just have to go to Matthew 27 and read what I'm talking about there. So, it's important to understand the context in which that portion of the chronology is being spoken about.
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So, at least the way that Genesis is given to us, Eber was still around even when
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Abraham was promised by God to be the father of the Hebrews. The line, the promised people of God started with Abraham.
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So, why does Eber get credited as the one for whom the Hebrews are named after and not
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Abraham? Well, it's recorded in Genesis 10 -25 that it was during the time of Eber's son
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Peleg that the earth was divided. We're meant to understand that it was in Peleg's generation that the
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Lord confused the languages of the people at the Tower of Babel and scattered them over the whole earth.
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That means that Eber, Peleg's father, is credited with a certain heritage and language that continued through his descendants to Abraham.
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We see in Genesis 14, Abraham being called Abram the Hebrew. When Abraham's nephew
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Lot was being taken captive by Chedorlaomer, king of Elam, the news was delivered to Abram the
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Hebrew, Genesis 14 -13. So, there was something unique about Abraham that designated him and also
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Lot, his nephew, as descendants of Eber. And it was likely the language that they spoke, which was the same language as Eber.
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Cool stuff, right? I told you the genealogical stuff is fascinating. So, Abraham is the first to be mentioned in the
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Bible as a Hebrew. And even though it was Eber the Hebrews are named for, they are called
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Hebrews because they are descended from Abraham. They are called Israelites because they are descended from Jacob.
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It's in Genesis 32, after Jacob wrestles with God, where God says to him, you will no longer be called
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Jacob, but you will be called Israel, for you have striven with God and with men and have prevailed.
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The name Israel means to strive with God and man. So, they're called
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Israelites because they are descended from Jacob. They are called Jews because they are descended from Judah, one of the sons of Jacob.
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Now, there can tend to be a little confusion here, so let me clarify. The Apostle Paul mentioned that he was a descendant of the tribe of Benjamin, the youngest of Jacob's sons.
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Yet, he referred to himself as a Jew. So, how could he be both? Well, Judah has a double designation.
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After Solomon sinned against the Lord by building temples to false gods, God said that he would divide his kingdom during the reign of his sons.
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Israel was then divided into the northern and southern kingdoms. The northern kingdom continued to be called
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Israel, and the southern kingdom was Judah. Yet, during the time of Christ, when that division no longer existed,
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Jews continued to be identified as both Israelites and Jews, regardless of their ancestry. So, when
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Paul says that he's from the tribe of Benjamin, he's referring to his specific ancestry.
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But, when he calls himself a Jew, he's either referring to his ethnicity, or, depending on the context, he may also be talking about his election in Christ.
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All who are in Christ are Israel. As we read in Romans 2, 28 and 29, for no one is a
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Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. But a
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Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the spirit, not by the letter.
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His praise is not from man, but from God. So, now, we are the people of God, all who are in Christ Jesus, not because of anything on the outside, not by anything physical that marks us, not by any work that we have done, but the work that Christ did for us on the cross.
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It's not exterior, it's interior. It's what has been done for us on the outside.
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And we are all of the line of Abraham, because we are marked, not with blood that runs through our veins, but the blood of Jesus Christ.
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This is as far as we're getting in the genealogy today, just verses one and two, but we'll pick this up from here tomorrow.
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I hope this has been fascinating to you thus far, and please join me again as we continue a study of the genealogy of Christ.
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You've been listening to When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. We hope you are a part of a church family committed to gospel teaching, and we thank you for including us in your
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Bible learning. If you would consider a gift to this ministry, please visit www .utt
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