Let's take our Bibles now and
turn to Luke chapter 3. Luke chapter 3. I want to talk to you a little
bit about verses 23 through the end of the chapter. I'm not going to read all these
verses to you because unlike some of the other passages, this
is a genealogy. The verses are not building up,
they're not building a doctrine, they're not answering questions. It's a genealogy. And while it's
very important to our faith, It doesn't contain any key statements
concerning the salvation of sinners. It's the genealogy of Christ. And I hope you'll go home and
read it for yourselves, but I want to use my time this morning giving
you some lessons from the genealogies. There's a lot of genealogies
in the scriptures. And I have two things I want
us to consider this morning concerning the genealogies of scripture,
and in particular, the genealogy here in Luke. And first of all,
why Luke's account seemingly runs contrary to Matthew's account. We'll talk about that a little
bit. And then secondly, I wanna answer this question, why are
genealogies given to us in the scriptures? So let's begin with
the question, why does Luke's genealogy seemingly run contrary
to Matthew's? And I don't think it'll be necessary
to read the whole account of both to point out the discrepancies. In Matthew's account, it clearly
says that Matthan begat Jacob and Jacob begat Joseph, the husband
of Mary. In Luke's account, it says Joseph
was the son of Heli, which was the son of Methad,
which was the son of Levi. So why are these genealogies
different? Why does one say Joseph's father is this man, and the other
one says Joseph's father is another man? Why are these genealogies
so different? Well, if you read them carefully,
they appear to be separate family trees, if you look at them. And I believe that's exactly
what it is. Matthew gives us our Lord's paternal
genealogy while Luke gives us his maternal genealogy. Matthew talks about the physical
parents and grandparents of Joseph while Luke is giving us the parents
and grandparents of Mary. So that's why the discrepancies
in the genealogy. Now how do I know that? Well
I know that because Heli is Mary's father, not Joseph's. But the
scriptures can say that he was his father because he was his
father-in-law. And to me, This is another one
of those things that God sets in the scriptures to trap and
snare unbelieving men, men who have no understanding of the
scriptures. The Redeemer's set forth in several
passages of scriptures as the virgin-born son of man, the Messiah. But there's equally set forth
with him in connection with David and Jesse and so forth. And it's
just another one of them things that I believe God, the Holy
Ghost, has intertwined in the Bible as a snare for wise men
of this world who think they can, like a puzzle, just put
the Word of God together and so forth. The Scripture says
God has hidden these things from the wise and prudent. He's hidden
them. He's put them in there in such
a way without the revelation of Jesus Christ by the Spirit
of God, you'll never understand the Scriptures. You'll say, well,
yes, I agree, the Scriptures said do this, but the Scriptures
also said to do this. Scriptures run in harmony with
one another. The problem is we don't have
that understanding. We don't have that understanding. Among the Jews, the family of
the mother not even considered a family. They never gave a genealogy. Yet because of their hatred of
Christ, they mentioned Mary being the daughter of Heli. And so
in their Objections to Christ, trying to prove him to be an
intruder, they actually established Mary's person. They didn't tell us her genealogy
to honor her, but they wanted to use these things in a horrible
way and with malice toward her. But nevertheless, by their own
confession, she's the daughter of Heli, And so the Virgin used
of God to bring our Savior into this world. He establishes that. All right, here's the second
question I want us to consider in our text. Why are genealogies
even given? Why are these genealogies given
to us in the Word of God? Well, I think for three reasons. Three things I want you to think
about. The first thing is this. The genealogies are given to
us to verify and document the person of Jesus Christ as the
promised redeemer. When God the Holy Ghost sent
him forth through the prophets, they intertwined him with David
and Jesse and so on down through the scriptures. It not only described
him in his office and in his character, but in his lineage
it foretold him. And so these genealogies, they
verify and document the person of Jesus Christ as the promised
redeemer. In Isaiah 11.1, the prophet of
God says, and there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of
Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots, And then he
begins to talk about that branch. In Jeremiah 23, five, behold,
the days come, saith the Lord, that I'll raise unto David a
righteous branch. And a king shall reign and prosper
and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. In his
days, Judah shall be saved and Israel shall dwell safely. And
this is his name, whereby he shall be called the Lord, our
righteousness. And then in Zechariah 3.8, he
said, I will bring forth my servant, the branch. So he's showing us
here that our Savior is intertwined in the lineage of Jesse and David. And he proves this in the scriptures. Jesus Christ is that righteous
branch, the seed of Jesse, the seed of David, the seed of Abraham,
the promised seed. And genealogy simply show us
the connection of Jesus Christ to the promises set forth in
the word of God. Here's a prime example, Galatians
3.16. Now to Abraham and his seed were
the promises made. He saith not unto seeds as of
many, but unto thy seed which is Christ. He gives us these genealogies
to verify and document that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the
living God, and all of the early messages of the apostles in the
book of Acts begins with a genealogy. Or at least a genealogy of sorts,
a reference to the genealogies that Jesus of Nazareth is the
Son of God. At Pentecost, Peter began with
David and his prophecy and his promise that of the fruit of
his loins, he was gonna raise up Christ to sit on his throne,
and he's seeing this before, Acts 2.31, spake of the resurrection
of Christ. Talking about David's offspring. In Acts 13, 17 through 38, Paul
uses the same thing. These genealogies were used to
verify that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, come into the
flesh. All right, the second reason for the genealogies is
to show us God's sovereign hand in the fulfilling of his promises
to us. This one begat this one, who
begat this one, who begat that one. We have, you talk about a maze. You talk about something that
you can't see through. You try to imagine the providence
involved in the lineage of Christ. It's amazing. It's absolutely
amazing. Paul talks about the stewardship
of Christ to fulfill his redemptive will in Ephesians 1 10, and then
he says this in verse 11, in whom also we have obtained an
inheritance being predestinated according to the purpose of him
who worketh all things after the counsel of his own And it's not only the great things
like the birth and death and resurrection of Christ, but every
minute working of his providence, all the events, all the situations,
all the means of grace. Solomon said, the preparations
of the heart in man and the answer of the tongue is from the Lord.
How much inner working is there in these things? Beyond your
imagination. Absolutely beyond your imagination. And we look at little tiny events
and things and I've often told you, if you try to figure out
the Lord by this event or that event, it's like taking a thousand
piece puzzle and dumping it on the floor and reach down and
getting a piece and looking at it and say, oh, I get the picture
now. No, no you don't. You're just looking at one little
piece. Just one little piece. You have to see it as God assembles
it and puts it together. And all these things working
together like gears in a clock. They're all working together
for our good and His glory. I can't imagine the details and
the working out of God's redemptive will. Even thinking about it,
when I think about my own marriage and what led up to it, it makes
me dizzy just thinking about it. All the things that led up
to that. So why are these genealogies
in the scriptures? Well, they're here to verify
and document the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ into this world
so that believers of all ages might know that Jesus is the
Christ. And it's to show us the sovereign
hand of God working in great detail to bring to pass his redemptive
will. And here's the third thing. These
genealogies are given to show us our insignificance apart from
our Redeemer. Now I dare say that if you read
through this genealogy, you won't find more than three in there
that you're even familiar with their names. Who in the world
was Heli? I never heard a heli until I
started studying this passage. And then I started going back
through there and I'm looking at Mathat and all of these names
that are in that genealogy and I'm thinking, who are these men? Whose son is he? How did he get
in here? What's his significance? I'll
tell you his significance. His connection with Christ. His
connection with Christ. In verses 23 through 38, we're
given the names of 75 people. And were it not for the fact
that their names are in this record, most of their names would
long ago just went out into oblivion somewhere. Who would have remembered them?
Huh? Who would even care? Apart from Christ, they're just
another cursed son of Adam whose only reason for existence is
God's sovereign purpose and grace. Their names would not be mentioned
except in general as vessels of wrath fitted for destruction
or as those whose names were not found written in the book
of life. You know, he doesn't talk about
individuals over in the book of Revelation when he's talking
about judgment. He just said, whosoever's name
was not found written in the book of life was cast into hell. He doesn't even mention their
names. It's our connection with the Son of God that gives us
significance. We're not saints because of some
merit in us or some deed that we did or some thought that we
had or some choice that we made, but because of the glory that's
in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. That's our only significance. We're nothing. We're nothing
apart from him. Have you got something? Huh? Something worthy of hearing,
something worthy of seeing, something worthy of note. Can you do something
that others can't do or won't do? Do you have some beneficial
understanding? Are you able to see and feel
the weight of your sins? Do you experience a longing to
hear the truth, to being able to worship God in spirit and
truth? Do you have a generous and willing
nature? Do you love one another, have
compassion for one another? Do you have anything that even
resembles godliness? Now let me ask you this. What
have you gotten that you haven't received? Do you come up with
that on your own? That understanding just pop in
your head one day? No, it's given to you. It's given
to you. Oh, but you say, I know that
these are gifts of His grace. All right, so why you? Why not somebody else? Why you?
Why would God give us anything? We certainly don't deserve anything.
Why would God give us anything for Christ's sake? You see what
I'm getting at? These genealogies are here to
show us our insignificance apart from Christ. The only reason
these names are written in the word of God to be remembered
forever, the only reason they're there is because of their connection
to Christ. Listen to this, be ye kind one
to another, tender hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for
Christ's sake. Why did he forgive you? For Christ's
sake. God made provision for us in
his son, and never let that thought go. Don't let somebody steal
that from you. God made provision for you in
his son. And that's why everything from
that point on is so positive and so glorious and so gracious. The only thing between us and
eternal hell is Christ. And the one thing that marks
us out as his elect is the person of Jesus Christ. In 1 John 5, 11, he said, this
is the record that God hath given to us eternal life, and this
life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life.
He that hath not the Son of God hath not life. Now, he can have
religion. He can be stirred and have feelings
and speak and see visions and speak in foreign tongues. He
can do a lot of things. But he that hath not the Son
of God hath not life. And he said, these things have
I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God,
that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may
believe on the name of the Son of God. May the Lord help us
to glean from these genealogies as we read through them, and
let these things go home to our heart to show us and established
for us that Jesus is the Christ. The Jews are still looking for
Christ. They're still looking for the Messiah. So we got to
be convinced. Not everybody says Jesus is the
Christ. The Jews absolutely rejected
him, still do. But he's written in his word
these genealogies so that we know it's documented, it's proved
to us in the word of God that Jesus is the son of God. And these final things that I
said to you about our insignificance, oh my soul, we're nothing apart
from him, nothing. All right, thank you.