About this sermon
Matthew opens his gospel with “the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham,” echoing the generations of Genesis. Written for Jewish readers, the genealogy announces a new beginning, a new creation. A first-century Jew might be offended by the sinners it names, yet all are sinners and none can look down on others. As God rested on the seventh day after creation, Christ was enthroned at God’s right hand as Lord of the Sabbath, and believers find rest in him.
Sermon transcript
Genesis chapter 2 is our first reading. We will read four verses from there. That is on page 1 in the Old Testament and most of the Bibles that are in the pews. And then let us also turn to the New Testament, where we will read Matthew chapter 1, 1 through 17. That is also on page 1 in most of the Bibles that are in the pews. Let us give careful, close attention for when someone reads the Bible God is speaking to us. May we revere him. Hear the word of God.
Thus, the heavens and the earth were completed and all their hosts. By the seventh day, God completed his work, which he had done. And he rested on the seventh day from all his work, which he had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it he rested from all his work which God had created and made. This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord made earth and heaven.
Now let us turn to Matthew chapter 1. I would encourage you not to lose heart as we are reading through these verses in Matthew chapter 1. It is a long list of names. Hopefully you will see the significance of it afterwards. Matthew chapter 1, the record of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah. the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers.
Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar. Perez was the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram. Ram was the father of Aminadab. Aminadab the father of Nashon, and Nashon the father of Salmon. Salmon was the father of Boaz by Rahab. Boaz was the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse. Jesse was the father of David the king. David was the father of Solomon by Bathsheba, who had been the wife of Uriah.
Solomon was the father of Rehoboam, Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asa. Asa the father of Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, and Joram the father of Uzziah. Uzziah was the father of Jotham, Jotham the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah. Hezekiah was the father of Manasseh, Manasseh the father of Ammon, and Ammon the father of Josiah. Josiah became the father of Jeconiah and his brothers at the time of the deportation to Babylon. After the deportation to Babylon, Jeconiah became the father of Shealtiel, and Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel. Zerubbabel was the father of Abihuth, and Abihuth the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim the father of Azor.
Azor was the father of Zadok, Zadok the father of Achim, and Achim the father of Eliud. Eliud was the father of Eleazar, Eleazar the father of Matan, and Matan the father of Jacob. Jacob was the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, by whom Jesus was born, who is called the Messiah. So, all the generations from Abraham to David are 14 generations. From David to the deportation to Babylon, 14 generations. and from the deportation to Babylon to the Messiah, 14 generations.
Thank you for your endurance through that. May the Lord bless the reading, but also and especially the preaching of his holy inspired word. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, help us to see the beauty and the glory and the significance of Your Word. May there not be one word in Your Word which we despise or think ill of. May we rejoice in everything that You have given and every single name that You have included in Your Word. Help us, O Lord, to ultimately see the name that all names and all words in Your Word Point to namely Jesus our Lord the one who loved us with that Everlasting love it is in his name that we pray Amen Our first reading was from Genesis chapter 2.
In Genesis chapter 2, we read about the seventh day. whole bunch of things precede that, that is all of Genesis chapter 1. Genesis chapter 1 tells us what happens the first six days. God created the world in the space of six days and all things very good. You might wonder, well what did he What did he create on each day? I point you to that. Go back and look at what he created on each of those six days. Each day is very significant.
But there’s something even more significant about the seventh day, which we read about in Genesis chapter 2. Genesis chapter 2, we see that God rested from the works of creation. Now, why did God rest? Some people might say, well, because He was tired, because it’s difficult to create the world.
Well, I don’t even want to say that’s a good guess. That’s not a good guess because the Lord neither slumbers nor sleeps. He is not tired on day seven. He did not have trouble getting up. He does not go to sleep. He is not like us who would push the snooze on our alarm. He never sleeps. So why? Why is it that he sits? Why is it that he rests on that day?
The seventh day is our God’s Sabbath enthronement. After doing work for six days, he sits as the king of creation, ruling over it. and admiring the glory and the beauty of the work that he has done. A king who sits on a throne does not sit on a throne because he is tired, necessarily. He sits because when you see a king sitting on a throne and he has the garb that he’s wearing and he holds a scepter, you know that he is in charge. Equally so, when we see the Lord taking the day off, He is proclaiming His rule and His reign. So I would say that, again, hyphenated, the seventh day is our God’s Sabbath enthronement.
He is King. Then we come to Matthew chapter 1, page 1 in most of our New Testaments here. It begins somewhat like we would expect if we know just a little bit about our Bible. Jesus is the Christ. He is the Anointed One. He is the son of Abraham and he is the son of David, as it tells us. We might know a little bit about Abraham, father of the faith, in a sense, father of the faithful. We know a bit about David, King David, conquering king, ruled in ancient Israel.
And he also had some missteps along the way. Those are famous as well. So we think of Jesus Christ, and we have a genealogy, David, Abraham, and then in verse two, it gets a little interesting. Or does it get interesting? Verse two, does it get a little boring? You can be honest if it got a little bit boring. I hope you won’t think so at the end. We have a list of names, genealogical names.
It says so-and-so was the son of or was fathered by. in the Old Testament, or excuse me, in the King James language, we would say, the begats, so-and-so begat so-and-so, who begat so-and-so, who begat so-and-so. We might be of a mind to read through the whole entire Bible, and I think it’s certainly worthwhile for Christians to read through the whole entire Bible at least once in their life. For some who really want to benefit from the ministry of the Word, it’s worthwhile to do once a year, if you like, or once every two years. Sometimes you might have a system of reading through the Bible, and you’re working your way through, and you find interesting stories, interesting narratives.
Then you come to a portion like this, and you wonder, Should I just skim this? Can I count that as reading if I just skim this? It’s just a list of names. I think it’s something to say about the time and place that we live. A list of names like this does not mean a lot to us. But what would a list of names like this mean? to a first century person. What would a list of names like this mean to a first century Jew? He would not see it as boring in the least. He would want to go through each name with a fine tooth comb and see who is in this genealogy. Genealogies are very, very important.
Matthew is an evangelist. He desires to proclaim the gospel with a hope that people might come in and come in and believe the gospel and enter into the kingdom of Christ. as an evangelist, he has a particular interest. His interest is the Jewish people. I’m fully convinced that his target audience is the Jewish people. Matthew’s gospel has a distinctly Jewish flair to it. It has more quotations from the Old Testament than all the rest of the gospels, the other three gospels. Matthew seeks to reach Hebrew people with the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And so, a first century Jew would look at that first verse and say, son of Abraham, very good, very good. Son of David, very good as well. Now we understand that the Messiah has to come out of David’s line. Very, very important. First century Jew, though.
I think he might be quite offended by this list. Very offended. Let me explain to you what I mean. I was a teenager during the time of the 90s and during the 90s there was a terrible terrible thing on tv ruled the tv it seemed they were they were talk shows and they were at their worst during the 90s it was entertainment in the 1990s to see love triangles and all these terrible things going on in people’s lives, and people would get in fights on stage, right? And chairs would be thrown at people. It was absolutely terrible.
It’s gotten better, believe it or not. As I understand, I really don’t, I have utter disdain for TV. If you watch TV, that’s fine, but I just don’t like it anymore. Probably much because of what I watched in the 90s. There are people, there were people who were living horrible lives. We have in this genealogy people who notoriously lived horrible lives. Let me just give a couple of examples for you. Look at verse 5. Verse 5, we see.
Rahab. Salmon was the father of Boaz by Rahab. Who is Rahab? Rahab in Joshua chapter 2 is a prostitute. She becomes a believer in the Messiah but she is a prostitute. Not only that, she’s not Jewish. Rahab is a Canaanite whore. Are you telling me that Messiah is born of a sinner like that? You have got to be kidding me. I think that’s how many a first century Jew would read that. Though she becomes a believer, assembled into the community, that’s the mother, the distant grandmother of Christ, in a sense. Look at verse three, if we just might move up a bit.
Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar. Judah has Perez and Terah by Tamar. Judah and Tamar. Who are these people? Judah was one of the sons of Jacob, and he is ultimately one of the fathers of the 12 tribes. And he had sons, and the sons were disobedient. They had wives, but the son would not give, that is Judah’s son, would not give his wife a child. His wife’s name was Tamar.
You can read about it in Genesis chapter 38. So at a time when Judah is going to shear his sheep, he sees a prostitute by the road and unbeknownst to him, he picks her up and he has relations with her. But this is his daughter-in-law. The line of Christ contains such a relationship Are you telling me that Messiah, the Christ, has this in his line? Surely you cannot be serious. Look at verse 6.
David was the father of Solomon by Bathsheba, who had been the wife of Uriah. In the Greek, it does not even say Bathsheba. It just leaves it out. Who is Bathsheba? Who is David? As I mentioned before, some things went on between Bathsheba and David. You see, David is guilty because he takes another man’s wife. David is guilty because He has that man, that wife’s man killed.
But Bathsheba is guilty as well. You may remember what she does. Showering on the roof of her house in plain view of the king. She seems to have been up to something. Now, David is restored. We all know that. He is restored. God is kind and gracious to him. But he had many wives, not as many as his son, Tecumseh. He had many wives, though.
Could not the Messiah have come of David out of one of those other wives? Now, out of that line, you’re telling me that the Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed One comes? Maybe you begin to see how someone who’s thoroughly versed in the Old Testament and in Jewish traditions would see these things. But the thing is, All of these people on this list are sinners, are they not? We’ve just talked about David. He’s one of the headliners. David and Abraham. Abraham is one of the headliners, too, on the first verse.
The man who trusted God, believed God, and it was accounted to him as righteousness. But he was a man with feet of clay, and he was a sinner as well. distrusting God’s provision, he follows his wife’s advice and takes his wife’s handmaiden, seeking to fulfill God’s promises on his own, rather than waiting on God and trusting God. We’re talking about a man who would go through hostile territory and says to his wife, lie to them and say you’re my sister. brother and sister have a little bit more opportunity to go through safely, or at least so he thought. If they’re married, they might take her hostage and kill him. That was at least his fear. He did not believe that God is going to take care of him.
And so this whole list is a list of sinners, of weak people, I dare say that a first century Hebrew who would look at this list, if he looked at it with a pharisaical disdain, if he looks at this list with disdain of the people on it, he has bigger problems. Bigger problems because this list generations functions as a mirror that would be shining back at that first century Hebrew and showing and demonstrating that we are all sinners, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
And none of us really are able to look with disdain at other sinners, for we are all worthy of God’s condemnation. We must be very, very careful to pile on the condemnation that comes to someone else when they are found out to be sinners. We must be very careful. I hope we were careful Friday night when we heard news of terrible things. It is God’s grace that withholds us from our sin as well. We have all fallen short of God’s glory. You are sinners and so is this whole entire list. All are sinners. But did you notice the structure of what we read? Isn’t it interesting? The structure is summarized for us in verse 17. I’m going to read it because it begins with so. Anytime it starts with so or hence or therefore, it’s summarizing what has gone on before, right?
So all the generations from Abraham to David are 14 generations. From David to the deportation to Babylon, 14 generations. And from the deportation to Babylon to the Messiah, 14 generations. 14 generations list of sinners. 14 generations list of sinners 14 generations list of sinners and then Jesus Christ comes Those 14 generations are very significant First we have Abraham the man of faith to David a lot goes on during that time during that time are not the people of God enslaved to Egypt and Pharaoh and then freed from it and enter into the promised land and then Eventually, they have kings.
So the high point of that kingship is David a Lot of things go on in that time, but then a lot of things go on after that after that David dies passes away and The theocracy, the national religious nation of Israel begins to plummet into darkness because they begin to sin by worshiping other gods, worshiping statues that God said, do not worship statues, do not adore statues as I’ve told you.
I said, well, these are the gods that we worship. No, they are not. There’s one God and he says, you will not make pictures of me and you will not make statues of me. They go, they are eventually kicked out of their nation for their sin. There are many, many sins, idolatry, just being one of them. So then they spend 70 years in captivity. And that’s where the third one begins. Then we have the time basically from the end of our Old Testament to the time when Jesus comes. What Matthew’s doing is he’s summarizing redemptive history for us by way of these names. But here’s what’s interesting. 14, 14, 14. There are gaps in this genealogy.
Okay? There are some people who are left out. Liberal scholars will say that, but conservative scholars will say that as well. This is no creeping liberalism in here. It’s universally understood. Sometimes there are gaps and they just leave those out. It’s not because Matthew’s being deceitful, and it’s not because Matthew is deceived. Neither of those are the case. It was common in that time to leave out some names. It’s possible that all of biblical genealogies have some names left out because sometimes some person does not live so significant of a life that someone who’s going to be putting a genealogy together will find it helpful or needful or useful.
So he’s left out. So then, if there are gaps in it, and they’re not errors, they’re not deception, and they’re not the author being deceived, then what are we to make of 141414? What are we to think of that? Matthew is not making a statistical point. Matthew is making a theological point. If I might hyphenate, he is making a literary theological point for us. What is half of 14? So if you have 14, 14, 14, then what do you have? You have 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7. Seven is the number of completeness in God’s word. You really seem to have a complete unit, a complete unit, a complete unit, really six complete units.
It’s almost as if he’s saying that there are six days. Six, in a sense, literary and theological days leading up to what Matthew wants to get to, what Matthew wants to reach. What he’s looking for is Messiah’s coming. After six days, What comes? After six days, the Sabbath comes.
In a literary and theological way, Matthew is making the point that Jesus is your Sabbath. Jesus is, if you trust in him, your eternal rest. Matthew is looking for the dawning of the new day. For when Jesus comes, when Jesus arrives on the scene, it is the fullness of time. And that is the day that Matthew wants to proclaim. The dawning of the new day. When the Lord of the Sabbath is being enthroned. That’s what Matthew wants us to see.
For it is, if we might take Matthew’s literary week, it is on the seventh day that Jesus Christ is born and lives the life that he lives, which is free from sin, unlike all of us, unlike all those in the previous six days. and He dies on a cross to die, to be raised from the dead, to save sinners. We only have life in Christ. We only have life in His death and His resurrection.
After Jesus comes back from the dead, He spent some time upon earth, but then He enters into heaven, He ascends to heaven, and He sits at the right hand of His Father in heaven. both in creation and we can say in recreation, we have days and then the Sabbath day.
In creation and redemption, we have the exaltation of the Lord, but it comes on his Sabbath enthronement. For when Jesus arrives on the scene, he is a king. But when he ascends to be with his father in Acts chapter 1, he is proclaimed and enthroned as Lord of the Sabbath, Lord of creation and Lord of salvation, redemption, Lord of our lives as well. He is enthroned to be Lord of the universe.
Those six days filled with sinful people, the seventh day filled with the glory of the sinless one. The only one who could be a mediator between us and God. And there He sits. There He is enthroned and He offers and He guarantees eternal life only to those who trust in Him. Who do not try to do good works so that they can be saved. We cannot do good works to be saved. It is God’s gift that saves us. and as the enthroned king he offers and he gives eternal life to his people.
The people of the old testament in exodus wandered around for 40 years and they did not enter into the new land because of their unbelief. the Bible commenting on this later on makes use of that literary, the issues going on literarily back then, and the idea of entering into the land, of our entering into heaven if we’re believing in Christ. The author of Hebrews chapter 3 says, therefore, As the Holy Spirit says today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion on the day of testing in the wilderness. The people did not enter into that literal land because of their unbelief. That land is considered to be a Sabbath rest land.
It might make even more sense to you now when we think of Matthew’s literary week, when we read what I’m about to read to you. Listen to what the writer of Hebrews says about the day. He’s talking about non-literal days. He’s talking about this day that we live in as the day. Hebrews chapter 4. For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way. And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.
We read that. Genesis chapter 2. And again this passage, in this passage he said, they shall not enter my rest. Therefore, it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience. Again, he appoints a certain day. Today, saying through David so long ago, and the words already quoted, today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. Let me explain what that is saying.
Today is the day of salvation. Today, the day of the sinless Sabbath-keeping man. Today is the day in which we enter into eternal life, not by what we have done, but what He has done. And it is pictured in our Old Testament by them entering into the land. Joshua brings the people into the land, and it was a Sabbath-resting land. But, the writer says, if that had been sufficient, that certainly was not sufficient. It certainly was not. If it had been sufficient, there would not have been need for another day. But there was need for another day.
So we, by faith in Christ, are partakers in His Sabbath rest. The glorious brightness of Messiah’s day has dawned. The sun has risen. As Augustine says, our hearts are restless until they rest in thee. That is the one in whom we rest, the one who is resting from his creation and from his salvation work. Our hearts are as restless as those in the first six days, as sinners defiling ourselves. But when The new day dawns and when the new day dawns, as Peter says, in our hearts, the brightness of his glory shines down upon us. Then we find a Sabbath rest for our eternal soul. May you find the Sabbath rest of your eternal soul this day as long as it is called today. Let us pray.
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