December 29, 2025 • 29 mins
A royal claim is only as strong as the proof behind it, and Matthew opens his Gospel with precisely that: a pedigree designed to be tested. We explore why this oft-skipped genealogy may be the most audacious opening in ancient literature, walking through Abraham to David, the Babylonian exile, and the arrival of the Messiah with a precision that reads like both history and legal argument.
We look squarely at a problem that would disqualify any pretender today: the temple archives burned in AD 70, erasing the official records that once verified tribal identity and royal descent. Against that backdrop, Matthew’s written genealogy stands out as the surviving witness, making Jesus the last verifiable heir to David’s throne. We also tackle the Jeconiah dilemma from Jeremiah 22: if Joseph descends from a cursed king, how can Jesus inherit David’s throne? The answer unfolds through adoption and ancestry: Joseph confers the legal right through Solomon’s line, while Mary provides David’s bloodline through Nathan. The virgin birth isn’t a poetic flourish; it’s the exact hinge that preserves legitimacy without inheriting the curse.
But Matthew doesn’t airbrush the story. He includes Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and the wife of Uriah—women, Gentiles, and complicated histories woven into royal lineage. He lists kings both faithful and faithless, refusing to hide the fractures of Israel’s past. The result is a portrait of providence that preserves a throne through judgment, exile, scandal, and grace. If you’ve ever wondered whether faith rests on blind leaps or on a tested line, this conversation invites you to weigh the evidence, see the design in the details, and consider what it means for a king to claim not just David’s seat but your heart.
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SPEAKER_01 (00:34):
How do we know that Jesus has a rightful claim to
sit on the throne of King David?
SPEAKER_00 (00:41):
Jesus can validate his tribal connections and his
royal pedigree because hisgenealogy escaped the
destruction of Israel viainspired scripture.
You're holding a copy ofthousands of copies available
today.
Which means Jesus is the lastverifiable claimant to the
(01:06):
throne of David.
SPEAKER_01 (01:20):
How much do you know about your genealogy?
Have you ever researched yourfamily tree?
I know a few things about mypast.
I find it fun and interesting tothink about my ancestors.
But think about this.
If you were part of a monarchy,your genealogy would be more
(01:40):
than just interesting.
It would be critical.
If you were a king or a queen,your genealogy would be the
basis of claiming your rightfulplace.
Jesus is the descendant of KingDavid.
And God promised David aneternal throne.
(02:01):
Today, we're gonna find out whythis is important in a lesson
Stephen's calling the pedigree.
SPEAKER_00 (02:10):
Some of the fastest growing internet services are
those dealing with genealogicalresearch.
Already millions of people areresearching their family tree
through a vast network of sites,and as I sort of kind of
provoked my curiosity, and so Iwent to one of these sites and
(02:31):
and uh got about three levels inbefore they said, you know, you
can continue if you give us$7.95.
And so I said, Well, I need asermon illustration, so I'd go
ahead and do it.
So I did$7.95 and uh didn't findanything at all.
I I I did find out that um Daveyis the 5,592nd most popular name
in America, and that's reallyimpressive.
(02:53):
And and I've got an averagelifespan of 73 years.
So I'm I'm gone in 18 years, andmy name means absolutely
nothing.
So that was a wonderful tour ofthe internet site.
According to one institutionalanalysis, though, more than 9
million internet users describegenealogy as a serious passion
(03:13):
or hobby.
I can understand why.
One article I read said thatpeople might be simply putting
together a multimediapresentation for their next
family get together.
Others might be publishing afamily history for posterity.
Many are searching for livingrelatives, many are studying
their family's health history inan attempt to kind of get a jump
(03:36):
on their own issues.
But all of them, thisunbelieving reporter actually
said, which is interesting,wrote, they're asking a core
question of human nature.
Where did I come from?
Where did I come from?
Who do I belong to?
How far back can I track it?
Estimates, if you can believethis, put the number of visitors
(03:59):
to genealogy search engines andsites at a staggering 88 million
a month.
88 million a month.
What would you do if you did alittle research and found
somebody you were related to andyou really didn't want to know
that?
Maybe it's a littleembarrassing.
And the discovery, I'm relatedto that guy.
Oh my, like one woman I readabout who wrote a well-known
(04:21):
author and asked him to researchher genealogy.
She was going to publish it forher rather well-known family.
He agreed.
As he began a research, though,he discovered soon into it that
one of her distant relatives hada murderer, had been a murderer,
and was electrocuted at thefamous Sing Sing prison in the
state of New York.
He came to her and he said,Look, I'm an honest author and
(04:43):
I've got to include this man inyour genealogy.
And she begged him to leave theguy out of the family tree, and
he refused to be persuaded.
And finally she said, Look, ifyou got to include him, at least
write it in such a way thatpeople won't exactly know he was
electrocuted to death at SingSing.
The book came out, she rushed tothat particular page where he
(05:03):
wrote of that ancestor, andfollowing the entry of his name
at red, he occupied the chair ofapplied electricity in one of
America's best-knowninstitutions.
He was very much attached to hisposition and died in the
harness.
There you go.
It cleans it all up.
More recently, I was sent anemail, and it probably an
(05:25):
e-rumor, probably as apocryphalas that sing sing story I just
told you.
Judy Wallman, a professionalgenealogy researcher in Southern
California, was doing somepersonal work on her family, and
she discovered that SenatorHarry Reid's great-great-uncle,
Remus Reed, in fact, she foundthat she intersected the family
(05:45):
at one point, but she found outthat his great-great-uncle,
Remus, was hanged for robbingtrains in Montana in the late
1880s.
She even found a photograph.
I saw it posted.
Remus is standing there withabout three or four sheriffs and
officials around him.
He's on a makeshift woodengallows.
(06:05):
He's standing on top of thattrap door that's going to
eventually open and leave himjust hanging from a rope until
he's dead.
On the back of the picture, Judyobtained during her research was
this actual inscription RemusReed, horse thief, sent to
prison in 1883, escaped, robbedthe Montana Railroad six times,
(06:30):
was eventually caught in 1887 bythe Pinkerton Detective Agency,
was convicted and hanged.
The entire town came to watch.
So rather mischievously, Judyemailed this photograph to
Senator Harry Reed.
Remus Reed, you know, on thatwooden platform about to be
hung, just, you know, to showthe senator who he's related to.
(06:53):
And uh, at any rate, sometimelater, Harry Reed's staff sent
back the following statement,having a little fun of their
own, putting a spin on it.
Their response was, and I quote,Remus Reed was a famous cowboy
in the Montana Territory.
He had several business dealingswith the Montana Railroad.
In 1887, he was a key player inan investigation by the
(07:16):
Pinkerton Detective Agency.
And in 1889, Remus passed awayduring an important civic
function held in his honor whenthe platform upon which he was
standing suddenly collapsed.
That's the way to clean up yourfamily tree.
(07:37):
Well, in our last studytogether, we took a look at one
of the prophecies of theMessiah.
And today I want to look at thefamily tree, the pedigree of the
Messiah from the Gospel byMatthew.
So if you'll take your Biblesand turn to Matthew chapter 1,
you'll discover it is familytree.
In fact, it isn't going to takeyou long.
It won't take us long beforewe're left wondering why the
(07:59):
Lord didn't clean some of thisup before posting it for all the
world to see.
Now, before we dive in, thesefirst 17 verses probably cause
the average Christian's eyes tokind of glaze over.
It isn't the most excitingreading in the Bible.
In fact, these verses probablyrepresent some of the most
skipped verses as Christiansbegin their Bible reading
(08:22):
program through the year.
And you look at that, and well,just the opening line, look.
The book of the genealogy ofJesus Christ.
And immediately after readingthat, you probably let your eyes
glance down the page, and yousee a bunch of names you don't
recognize, and the rest of themyou can't pronounce.
There's probably not much here.
(08:45):
So you get down to verse 18 andyou skip there.
Now the birth of Jesus Christtook place in this way, and
that's the good stuff, andthat's where you pick it up.
Not so fast.
The truth is, this is actually alot more exciting than you might
first think.
Especially, however, for theJewish nation.
(09:06):
For the Jewish world, to whomMatthew is writing primarily.
Genealogies were criticallyimportant.
They determined occupation, landrights.
They established a tribalconnection and a lineage and all
of the advantages that went withthat.
(09:29):
Almost like the importance of asocial security card or a birth
certificate, for you don't wantto do anything official.
Well, where's your genealogy?
These genealogical records wereso important that the originals
would be kept by the Sanhedrin,Israel's Supreme Court in the
temple at Jerusalem.
(09:50):
This is interesting to me tofind out that the famous
historian Josephus, when he setabout to write his own
autobiography in the firstcentury, he began in a way that
would have been expected ofsomeone like him.
He began with his pedigree.
He listed his genealogy.
Any Jewish priest in the nationneeded to be able to produce an
(10:10):
authentic pedigree tracking backhis line back to Aaron.
Or he didn't have a job.
When Ezra, you may remember,returned from exile and
re-established the sacrificialsystem, several families
volunteered, several men toserve as priests, but they would
be denied because they couldn'tshow their genealogy, their
(10:35):
pedigree, the validatingcredentials.
I also found it interesting thatHerod the Great, you remember
that king as he intersects theChristmas story as we think of
it, he will try to trick theMagi and find and kill Jesus,
who dared to take his title.
He longed to be respected andowned by the nation, but he was
(10:57):
only half Jew, the other half anEdomite, much to his chagrin.
Desperately wanted to actuallyown with a straight face his
title, the king of the Jews.
That was his.
In fact, he had official recordsdestroyed, and one of his
(11:19):
inserted that showed a pureJewish bloodline, but everybody
knew he was lying.
Everybody knew it wasn't true.
He couldn't validate it.
So as you enter thisgenealogical record of Jesus,
you need to know that there areseveral critical reasons why it
would be provided.
(11:40):
In fact, for the Jew, theleader, the nation, this is on
the edge of your seat stuff.
This is really critical.
Let me give you at least threereasons why.
Not only for the nation, but forthe church.
First, to validate the pedigreeof Jesus as legitimately the
(12:00):
Messiah.
Look at the opening line again.
The book of the genealogy ofJesus, Yeshua, Yahweh, Greek
counterpart, which meant the onethrough whom is salvation or
Jehovah saves.
By the way, Jesus is Jehovah.
Notice further, Jesus Christ,just so there isn't any
(12:21):
confusion about this man who hasa rather common name, Yesus.
He's the Christ, he's theanointed one, as we've studied 1
John together.
He's legitimately God in theflesh, the anointed Messiah.
That isn't all.
He's claiming to be descendant,notice, of David.
(12:42):
Since royalty depended onheredity, Jesus is about to
track his family tree all theway back to King David to
legitimately claim his throne.
That's exactly what thisgenealogy is going to do.
And this is going to bestunning, shocking,
life-altering reading.
(13:05):
It will be inspected, clarified,and proven.
In fact, you could paraphrase,one author said, this entire
genealogy by basically saying,here's your king.
Check it out.
Inspect the pedigree throughhistory.
You'll find it true.
(13:27):
Now, what Matthew does next, andwe're just going to do a flyover
in case you're wondering ifwe're going to get very far into
this genealogy.
What he does is he basicallyarranges this genealogy into
three sections.
And those sections follow thethree primary stages of Israel's
history.
Each stage is going toincorporate or include 14 names.
(13:52):
Some names are going to be leftout because they're
inconsequential to thevalidation.
And some comments are going tobe inserted, which are going to
further startle the nation andcreate a lot of heartburn in the
process.
Most evangelical scholarsbelieve that this genealogy is
divided into three sections with14 names each to aid the memory
(14:16):
of those that would want therecord of their Messiah.
They didn't have a copy ofMatthew like you do.
We have three or four copies,more than likely, in our homes
and offices.
But if you wanted to have a copyof his pedigree, you would be
compelled to memorize it andthen write it down.
This was the way you could stayon track.
Fourteen names in each of thethree sections.
(14:37):
So the first section, your Biblemay have it in paragraphs, which
is helpful, of Christ'sgenealogy, follows the history
of Israel from Abraham all theway down to David the king in
verse 6.
The second section takes youfrom David all the way to the
captivity of Israel in Babylon,verse 11, and it ends with this
tragic historical reminder oftheir deportation to Babylon.
(14:57):
And then the third section takesyou from the captivity to the
birth of Jesus in verse 16, whois implicitly the ultimate
deliverer.
Now, in case you missed any ofthose three divisions and you're
just a type A and you think I'mgoing to quiz you next week, all
you have to do is read verse 17.
Look there.
So all the generations fromAbraham to David were 14, and
(15:18):
from David to the deportation toBabylon, 14, and from the
deportation to Babylon to theChrist, 14 generations.
So now you know where I got myoutline.
Thank you, Matthew.
Alright?
So first and foremost, thisgenealogy is going to validate
the royalty of Jesus Christ.
So just think of it.
This humble adopted son of acarpenter, this miracle baby boy
(15:42):
of a virgin, is actually goingto prove he's the heir to the
throne of David.
Now that's startling.
Secondly, this genealogy willnot only serve to validate the
pedigree of Jesus, it'll alsoserve as a demonstration of the
providence of God.
And let me take you back alittle bit in history.
(16:04):
Something devastating you mayalready know about occurred in
Jewish history some 1900 yearsago.
When Titus, the Roman governor,finally said, on the
authorization of the emperor,we're tired of this rebellious
little city.
Go wipe it out.
And he did.
He marched into the city in A.D.
(16:25):
70 and completely destroyed it,and he destroyed the temple.
And with it, and more tragicallyand lastingly to this day, those
records inside the temple weredestroyed as well.
In fact, to this day now, wehave no genealogy existing that
can trace the ancestry of anyJew living today back to their
(16:48):
tribal roots.
No Jew today can prove he's fromthe priestly tribe or the royal
tribe.
It stopped.
There's only one genealogy stillavailable that traces a first
century Jew back to his tribe inprint, back to royal lions.
And here's where it getsinteresting.
For those Jews today, in the21st century, who are looking
(17:12):
for the Messiah to come today,that Messiah would be unable to
establish his lineage back toDavid because those official
records have been destroyed.
But by the providence of God,Matthew, this converted tax
collector with his penchant forrecord keeping, was inspired by
(17:32):
the Spirit of God to record thedetails of the lineage and the
pedigree of Jesus.
Which means Jesus can validatehis tribal connections and his
royal pedigree because hisgenealogy escaped the
destruction of Israel viainspired scripture.
(17:53):
You're holding a copy ofthousands of copies available
today.
Which means, I'm getting to thegood part, Jesus is the last
verifiable claimant to thethrone of David.
If a man showed up today andsaid he's the Messiah, he
wouldn't be able to prove itgenealogically.
(18:16):
Jesus is the last claimant whocould prove it.
There's another factor, by theway, in this second point, this
providence of God.
It's tucked inside thisgenealogy.
In fact, if you go to verse 12,you discover the troubling news
that Joseph is in the line ofJeconiah, a wicked king.
In fact, if you go back to OldTestament records, you find that
because of Jeconiah'swickedness, God declares that no
(18:39):
descendant of Jeconiah shall situpon the throne of David.
Jeremiah 22, verse 30.
That means that since Joseph isdescending from Jeconiah's line,
a descendant of Joseph can'tclaim the throne.
But we know that the Messiah isgoing to sit on David's throne
and he has to have a legitimateclaim to it.
(19:00):
So now what?
Well, if you compare Matthew'sgenealogy with Luke's, and we
won't take the time today, Lukechapter 3, they both track back
to David, but through differentdescendants.
That's because Luke is tracingMary's natural father Eli, and
his line tracks all the way backto David through his son Nathan.
(19:25):
Matthew is tracking Joseph'sline all the way back to David
through his son Solomon.
The lines converge at Davidthrough different sons.
See, Matthew is tracing Jesus'adoptive father, Joseph.
Luke is tracing the lineage ofMary.
(19:47):
I know this is a little tedious,but but hang with me.
The result is wonderful.
And by the way, let me do alittle sidebar here.
It's interesting then toconsider the fact that both Mary
and Joseph can trace theirlineage back to King David.
So you think about the fact thatthis migrant carpenter and his
teenage bride have royal bloodcoursing through their veins.
(20:12):
Now here's why the providence ofGod shines so brilliantly.
If Jesus had been the naturalborn son of Joseph, he would
have been disqualified fromDavid's throne because of this
curse on Jeconiah and hisdescendants.
No blood descendant of Jeconiahcan sit upon the throne of
(20:34):
David.
But Jesus wasn't a blooddescendant of Joseph, was he?
He was adopted.
He was born of a virgin.
And from the virgin Mary, hereceives his bloodline.
Back to David, because she'srelated to David too.
And from his adopted father,adoptive father Joseph, he
(20:55):
receives the legal right passeddown, father to son, which was
significant as well.
You see, there's only one way,only one way for Jesus to
circumvent the curse ofJeconiah, to be related to David
legally, and yet still somehowbe related to David by blood,
(21:17):
which was required.
You see what God didprovidentially when he brought
Joseph and Mary together, heknew he was giving Jesus Christ,
God the Son of the flesh, thebloodline from Mary, the legal
line from Joseph, so he couldrightfully claim the throne.
His parental lines converged togive him his royal pedigree and
(21:41):
the royal privilege to claimIsrael's throne perfectly.
And he's the last to be able toclaim that.
The line ended with him.
Now, you can't help but notice,by the way, how Matthew
carefully makes sure youunderstand that Jesus is not in
the bloodline of Jeconiah.
(22:02):
Look at verse uh 15.
Now follow it with me here.
And Eliad, the father ofEliezer, and Eliezer the father
of Matan, and Matan, the fatherof Jacob, and Jacob the father
of Joseph, and Joseph the fatherof Jesus.
Oh, wait.
Notice the shift?
(22:23):
And Joseph, the husband of Mary,of whom Jesus was born.
We want to make sure nobodymisses that.
The genealogy served not only tovalidate the pedigree of Jesus
and demonstrate the providenceof God in just those two
illustrations.
Let me give you one more.
(22:43):
Genealogy, thirdly, was given toillustrate the principles of
grace.
If you want to study each entryof this genealogy, go back into
the Old Testament and find outthis lineage, you'll discover
that Jesus descended from a lineof kings, obviously.
Matthew's going to name 15 ofthem in all, from David to
(23:05):
Jekyll.
You take a closer look sometime,and you'll discover that half of
those kings were godly.
That is, they followed afterGod, like David, Hezekiah,
Josiah.
But even still, some of thoseguys were pretty, well, all of
them were pretty bad sinners,right?
And they were the good guys.
The other half of the list ofkings were utterly and openly
(23:28):
and unrepentantly, and theydidn't care about its sinners.
Like Ahaz and Rehoboam andManasseh.
In fact, the Bible says ofManasseh, he was more wicked
than all the pagan nationsaround him.
How's that for a reputation?
Then he refused to repent of hisunbelief.
Instead of God, you know,cleaning up his family tree, he
(23:50):
includes these guys.
He claims them as hisforefathers.
But you need to keep in mindhere that Jesus doesn't come to
praise his forefathers.
He comes to save them.
Right?
And all their sin looked forwardto that sacrifice of Christ upon
(24:11):
the tree.
As we to this day look back infaith.
He came to save them.
He came to die for them.
He came to pay the penalty fortheir sin.
Now, still more shocking thanany inclusion of a king, either
godly or wicked, was the factthat Jesus would inspire the
inclusion of women into thepublic record of his royal
(24:32):
genealogy.
They didn't have rights in thesedays, they were considered
property.
So this would be highlycontroversial.
And again, this is the hintingof the gospel.
Where men and women are equal inthe eyes of God and in relation
to their salvation.
They come to Christ just likemen do.
(24:53):
Sinners forgiven by the grace ofGod.
But this would be highlycontroversial.
In fact, add to this scandal ofgrace, all four women just so
happen to be Gentiles.
There were a lot of Jewish womenhe could have thrown in here.
But now that he has theirattention, he chooses four
(25:13):
Gentile women.
So Jewish, and by the way,again, Jewish genealogies
typically bent over backward toshow their pure Jewish lineage.
If there was anything murky,well, we'll just forget about,
you know, that second cousin orwhatever.
But but Jesus openly admits whatevery Jew already knew.
(25:35):
They already knew it.
The royal line is mixed with theblood of Jew and Gentile
already.
By the way, so is the church.
We're all mixed up, aren't we?
What a demonstration of grace.
So who does he choose?
Let's look quickly.
(25:55):
Tamar is the first one mentionedin verse 3.
Look there in Judah.
He's the fountainhead of theroyal tribe.
Judah, the father of Perez, andZerah.
By Tamar.
And you're thinking, no, no, no,no, no.
Put a period after Zerah.
You don't need to mention Tamar.
She's a blemish on thereputation of our forefather
Judah.
(26:16):
The fountainhead of the royalwine.
Her story unfolds in Genesischapter 38, where she marries
the son of Judah.
Her husband dies.
She marries again.
That husband dies.
She wants a child, and so shedresses like a temple prostitute
(26:37):
with a veil covering her face.
She sits near the place whereher father-in-law Judah is
tending the sheep.
She catches his eye.
Nine months later, she has twinsby him.
And the firstborn joins thelineage of the Messiah and
(26:57):
exposes Judah in the process.
I mean, do you really want tohint at that episode?
Let's clean the family tree up.
Let's get that little branchtaken care of.
No, no, no.
Frankly, if we were God, wewould have switched tribes at
that point, wouldn't we have?
I think Tamar is specificallymentioned to remind Israel that
the very fountain head of thisroyal line, that he's a sinner,
(27:22):
that he needs a savior too.
SPEAKER_01 (27:35):
Just like us, every person in the lineage of Jesus
needed Jesus to save them.
Jesus fulfilled all of thepromises God made.
He has a rightful claim to thethrone.
Not only the throne of David,but the throne of your heart.
Today's lesson is not complete,but our time is running short,
(27:59):
so you'll hear the conclusion tothis message on tomorrow's
broadcast.
Stephen Davy is your Bibleteacher, and he called this
message the Pedigree.
Our ministry has thousands ofbiblically based resources to
help you grow in your walk withJesus Christ.
To access all of that, visitwisdomonline.org.
(28:22):
Then join us next time todiscover more wisdom for the
heart.
How do we know that Jesus has a rightful claim to
sit on the throne of King David?
SPEAKER_00 (00:41):
Jesus can validate his tribal connections and his
royal pedigree because hisgenealogy escaped the
destruction of Israel viainspired scripture.
You're holding a copy ofthousands of copies available
today.
Which means Jesus is the lastverifiable claimant to the
(01:06):
throne of David.
SPEAKER_01 (01:20):
How much do you know about your genealogy?
Have you ever researched yourfamily tree?
I know a few things about mypast.
I find it fun and interesting tothink about my ancestors.
But think about this.
If you were part of a monarchy,your genealogy would be more
(01:40):
than just interesting.
It would be critical.
If you were a king or a queen,your genealogy would be the
basis of claiming your rightfulplace.
Jesus is the descendant of KingDavid.
And God promised David aneternal throne.
(02:01):
Today, we're gonna find out whythis is important in a lesson
Stephen's calling the pedigree.
SPEAKER_00 (02:10):
Some of the fastest growing internet services are
those dealing with genealogicalresearch.
Already millions of people areresearching their family tree
through a vast network of sites,and as I sort of kind of
provoked my curiosity, and so Iwent to one of these sites and
(02:31):
and uh got about three levels inbefore they said, you know, you
can continue if you give us$7.95.
And so I said, Well, I need asermon illustration, so I'd go
ahead and do it.
So I did$7.95 and uh didn't findanything at all.
I I I did find out that um Daveyis the 5,592nd most popular name
in America, and that's reallyimpressive.
(02:53):
And and I've got an averagelifespan of 73 years.
So I'm I'm gone in 18 years, andmy name means absolutely
nothing.
So that was a wonderful tour ofthe internet site.
According to one institutionalanalysis, though, more than 9
million internet users describegenealogy as a serious passion
(03:13):
or hobby.
I can understand why.
One article I read said thatpeople might be simply putting
together a multimediapresentation for their next
family get together.
Others might be publishing afamily history for posterity.
Many are searching for livingrelatives, many are studying
their family's health history inan attempt to kind of get a jump
(03:36):
on their own issues.
But all of them, thisunbelieving reporter actually
said, which is interesting,wrote, they're asking a core
question of human nature.
Where did I come from?
Where did I come from?
Who do I belong to?
How far back can I track it?
Estimates, if you can believethis, put the number of visitors
(03:59):
to genealogy search engines andsites at a staggering 88 million
a month.
88 million a month.
What would you do if you did alittle research and found
somebody you were related to andyou really didn't want to know
that?
Maybe it's a littleembarrassing.
And the discovery, I'm relatedto that guy.
Oh my, like one woman I readabout who wrote a well-known
(04:21):
author and asked him to researchher genealogy.
She was going to publish it forher rather well-known family.
He agreed.
As he began a research, though,he discovered soon into it that
one of her distant relatives hada murderer, had been a murderer,
and was electrocuted at thefamous Sing Sing prison in the
state of New York.
He came to her and he said,Look, I'm an honest author and
(04:43):
I've got to include this man inyour genealogy.
And she begged him to leave theguy out of the family tree, and
he refused to be persuaded.
And finally she said, Look, ifyou got to include him, at least
write it in such a way thatpeople won't exactly know he was
electrocuted to death at SingSing.
The book came out, she rushed tothat particular page where he
(05:03):
wrote of that ancestor, andfollowing the entry of his name
at red, he occupied the chair ofapplied electricity in one of
America's best-knowninstitutions.
He was very much attached to hisposition and died in the
harness.
There you go.
It cleans it all up.
More recently, I was sent anemail, and it probably an
(05:25):
e-rumor, probably as apocryphalas that sing sing story I just
told you.
Judy Wallman, a professionalgenealogy researcher in Southern
California, was doing somepersonal work on her family, and
she discovered that SenatorHarry Reid's great-great-uncle,
Remus Reed, in fact, she foundthat she intersected the family
(05:45):
at one point, but she found outthat his great-great-uncle,
Remus, was hanged for robbingtrains in Montana in the late
1880s.
She even found a photograph.
I saw it posted.
Remus is standing there withabout three or four sheriffs and
officials around him.
He's on a makeshift woodengallows.
(06:05):
He's standing on top of thattrap door that's going to
eventually open and leave himjust hanging from a rope until
he's dead.
On the back of the picture, Judyobtained during her research was
this actual inscription RemusReed, horse thief, sent to
prison in 1883, escaped, robbedthe Montana Railroad six times,
(06:30):
was eventually caught in 1887 bythe Pinkerton Detective Agency,
was convicted and hanged.
The entire town came to watch.
So rather mischievously, Judyemailed this photograph to
Senator Harry Reed.
Remus Reed, you know, on thatwooden platform about to be
hung, just, you know, to showthe senator who he's related to.
(06:53):
And uh, at any rate, sometimelater, Harry Reed's staff sent
back the following statement,having a little fun of their
own, putting a spin on it.
Their response was, and I quote,Remus Reed was a famous cowboy
in the Montana Territory.
He had several business dealingswith the Montana Railroad.
In 1887, he was a key player inan investigation by the
(07:16):
Pinkerton Detective Agency.
And in 1889, Remus passed awayduring an important civic
function held in his honor whenthe platform upon which he was
standing suddenly collapsed.
That's the way to clean up yourfamily tree.
(07:37):
Well, in our last studytogether, we took a look at one
of the prophecies of theMessiah.
And today I want to look at thefamily tree, the pedigree of the
Messiah from the Gospel byMatthew.
So if you'll take your Biblesand turn to Matthew chapter 1,
you'll discover it is familytree.
In fact, it isn't going to takeyou long.
It won't take us long beforewe're left wondering why the
(07:59):
Lord didn't clean some of thisup before posting it for all the
world to see.
Now, before we dive in, thesefirst 17 verses probably cause
the average Christian's eyes tokind of glaze over.
It isn't the most excitingreading in the Bible.
In fact, these verses probablyrepresent some of the most
skipped verses as Christiansbegin their Bible reading
(08:22):
program through the year.
And you look at that, and well,just the opening line, look.
The book of the genealogy ofJesus Christ.
And immediately after readingthat, you probably let your eyes
glance down the page, and yousee a bunch of names you don't
recognize, and the rest of themyou can't pronounce.
There's probably not much here.
(08:45):
So you get down to verse 18 andyou skip there.
Now the birth of Jesus Christtook place in this way, and
that's the good stuff, andthat's where you pick it up.
Not so fast.
The truth is, this is actually alot more exciting than you might
first think.
Especially, however, for theJewish nation.
(09:06):
For the Jewish world, to whomMatthew is writing primarily.
Genealogies were criticallyimportant.
They determined occupation, landrights.
They established a tribalconnection and a lineage and all
of the advantages that went withthat.
(09:29):
Almost like the importance of asocial security card or a birth
certificate, for you don't wantto do anything official.
Well, where's your genealogy?
These genealogical records wereso important that the originals
would be kept by the Sanhedrin,Israel's Supreme Court in the
temple at Jerusalem.
(09:50):
This is interesting to me tofind out that the famous
historian Josephus, when he setabout to write his own
autobiography in the firstcentury, he began in a way that
would have been expected ofsomeone like him.
He began with his pedigree.
He listed his genealogy.
Any Jewish priest in the nationneeded to be able to produce an
(10:10):
authentic pedigree tracking backhis line back to Aaron.
Or he didn't have a job.
When Ezra, you may remember,returned from exile and
re-established the sacrificialsystem, several families
volunteered, several men toserve as priests, but they would
be denied because they couldn'tshow their genealogy, their
(10:35):
pedigree, the validatingcredentials.
I also found it interesting thatHerod the Great, you remember
that king as he intersects theChristmas story as we think of
it, he will try to trick theMagi and find and kill Jesus,
who dared to take his title.
He longed to be respected andowned by the nation, but he was
(10:57):
only half Jew, the other half anEdomite, much to his chagrin.
Desperately wanted to actuallyown with a straight face his
title, the king of the Jews.
That was his.
In fact, he had official recordsdestroyed, and one of his
(11:19):
inserted that showed a pureJewish bloodline, but everybody
knew he was lying.
Everybody knew it wasn't true.
He couldn't validate it.
So as you enter thisgenealogical record of Jesus,
you need to know that there areseveral critical reasons why it
would be provided.
(11:40):
In fact, for the Jew, theleader, the nation, this is on
the edge of your seat stuff.
This is really critical.
Let me give you at least threereasons why.
Not only for the nation, but forthe church.
First, to validate the pedigreeof Jesus as legitimately the
(12:00):
Messiah.
Look at the opening line again.
The book of the genealogy ofJesus, Yeshua, Yahweh, Greek
counterpart, which meant the onethrough whom is salvation or
Jehovah saves.
By the way, Jesus is Jehovah.
Notice further, Jesus Christ,just so there isn't any
(12:21):
confusion about this man who hasa rather common name, Yesus.
He's the Christ, he's theanointed one, as we've studied 1
John together.
He's legitimately God in theflesh, the anointed Messiah.
That isn't all.
He's claiming to be descendant,notice, of David.
(12:42):
Since royalty depended onheredity, Jesus is about to
track his family tree all theway back to King David to
legitimately claim his throne.
That's exactly what thisgenealogy is going to do.
And this is going to bestunning, shocking,
life-altering reading.
(13:05):
It will be inspected, clarified,and proven.
In fact, you could paraphrase,one author said, this entire
genealogy by basically saying,here's your king.
Check it out.
Inspect the pedigree throughhistory.
You'll find it true.
(13:27):
Now, what Matthew does next, andwe're just going to do a flyover
in case you're wondering ifwe're going to get very far into
this genealogy.
What he does is he basicallyarranges this genealogy into
three sections.
And those sections follow thethree primary stages of Israel's
history.
Each stage is going toincorporate or include 14 names.
(13:52):
Some names are going to be leftout because they're
inconsequential to thevalidation.
And some comments are going tobe inserted, which are going to
further startle the nation andcreate a lot of heartburn in the
process.
Most evangelical scholarsbelieve that this genealogy is
divided into three sections with14 names each to aid the memory
(14:16):
of those that would want therecord of their Messiah.
They didn't have a copy ofMatthew like you do.
We have three or four copies,more than likely, in our homes
and offices.
But if you wanted to have a copyof his pedigree, you would be
compelled to memorize it andthen write it down.
This was the way you could stayon track.
Fourteen names in each of thethree sections.
(14:37):
So the first section, your Biblemay have it in paragraphs, which
is helpful, of Christ'sgenealogy, follows the history
of Israel from Abraham all theway down to David the king in
verse 6.
The second section takes youfrom David all the way to the
captivity of Israel in Babylon,verse 11, and it ends with this
tragic historical reminder oftheir deportation to Babylon.
(14:57):
And then the third section takesyou from the captivity to the
birth of Jesus in verse 16, whois implicitly the ultimate
deliverer.
Now, in case you missed any ofthose three divisions and you're
just a type A and you think I'mgoing to quiz you next week, all
you have to do is read verse 17.
Look there.
So all the generations fromAbraham to David were 14, and
(15:18):
from David to the deportation toBabylon, 14, and from the
deportation to Babylon to theChrist, 14 generations.
So now you know where I got myoutline.
Thank you, Matthew.
Alright?
So first and foremost, thisgenealogy is going to validate
the royalty of Jesus Christ.
So just think of it.
This humble adopted son of acarpenter, this miracle baby boy
(15:42):
of a virgin, is actually goingto prove he's the heir to the
throne of David.
Now that's startling.
Secondly, this genealogy willnot only serve to validate the
pedigree of Jesus, it'll alsoserve as a demonstration of the
providence of God.
And let me take you back alittle bit in history.
(16:04):
Something devastating you mayalready know about occurred in
Jewish history some 1900 yearsago.
When Titus, the Roman governor,finally said, on the
authorization of the emperor,we're tired of this rebellious
little city.
Go wipe it out.
And he did.
He marched into the city in A.D.
(16:25):
70 and completely destroyed it,and he destroyed the temple.
And with it, and more tragicallyand lastingly to this day, those
records inside the temple weredestroyed as well.
In fact, to this day now, wehave no genealogy existing that
can trace the ancestry of anyJew living today back to their
(16:48):
tribal roots.
No Jew today can prove he's fromthe priestly tribe or the royal
tribe.
It stopped.
There's only one genealogy stillavailable that traces a first
century Jew back to his tribe inprint, back to royal lions.
And here's where it getsinteresting.
For those Jews today, in the21st century, who are looking
(17:12):
for the Messiah to come today,that Messiah would be unable to
establish his lineage back toDavid because those official
records have been destroyed.
But by the providence of God,Matthew, this converted tax
collector with his penchant forrecord keeping, was inspired by
(17:32):
the Spirit of God to record thedetails of the lineage and the
pedigree of Jesus.
Which means Jesus can validatehis tribal connections and his
royal pedigree because hisgenealogy escaped the
destruction of Israel viainspired scripture.
(17:53):
You're holding a copy ofthousands of copies available
today.
Which means, I'm getting to thegood part, Jesus is the last
verifiable claimant to thethrone of David.
If a man showed up today andsaid he's the Messiah, he
wouldn't be able to prove itgenealogically.
(18:16):
Jesus is the last claimant whocould prove it.
There's another factor, by theway, in this second point, this
providence of God.
It's tucked inside thisgenealogy.
In fact, if you go to verse 12,you discover the troubling news
that Joseph is in the line ofJeconiah, a wicked king.
In fact, if you go back to OldTestament records, you find that
because of Jeconiah'swickedness, God declares that no
(18:39):
descendant of Jeconiah shall situpon the throne of David.
Jeremiah 22, verse 30.
That means that since Joseph isdescending from Jeconiah's line,
a descendant of Joseph can'tclaim the throne.
But we know that the Messiah isgoing to sit on David's throne
and he has to have a legitimateclaim to it.
(19:00):
So now what?
Well, if you compare Matthew'sgenealogy with Luke's, and we
won't take the time today, Lukechapter 3, they both track back
to David, but through differentdescendants.
That's because Luke is tracingMary's natural father Eli, and
his line tracks all the way backto David through his son Nathan.
(19:25):
Matthew is tracking Joseph'sline all the way back to David
through his son Solomon.
The lines converge at Davidthrough different sons.
See, Matthew is tracing Jesus'adoptive father, Joseph.
Luke is tracing the lineage ofMary.
(19:47):
I know this is a little tedious,but but hang with me.
The result is wonderful.
And by the way, let me do alittle sidebar here.
It's interesting then toconsider the fact that both Mary
and Joseph can trace theirlineage back to King David.
So you think about the fact thatthis migrant carpenter and his
teenage bride have royal bloodcoursing through their veins.
(20:12):
Now here's why the providence ofGod shines so brilliantly.
If Jesus had been the naturalborn son of Joseph, he would
have been disqualified fromDavid's throne because of this
curse on Jeconiah and hisdescendants.
No blood descendant of Jeconiahcan sit upon the throne of
(20:34):
David.
But Jesus wasn't a blooddescendant of Joseph, was he?
He was adopted.
He was born of a virgin.
And from the virgin Mary, hereceives his bloodline.
Back to David, because she'srelated to David too.
And from his adopted father,adoptive father Joseph, he
(20:55):
receives the legal right passeddown, father to son, which was
significant as well.
You see, there's only one way,only one way for Jesus to
circumvent the curse ofJeconiah, to be related to David
legally, and yet still somehowbe related to David by blood,
(21:17):
which was required.
You see what God didprovidentially when he brought
Joseph and Mary together, heknew he was giving Jesus Christ,
God the Son of the flesh, thebloodline from Mary, the legal
line from Joseph, so he couldrightfully claim the throne.
His parental lines converged togive him his royal pedigree and
(21:41):
the royal privilege to claimIsrael's throne perfectly.
And he's the last to be able toclaim that.
The line ended with him.
Now, you can't help but notice,by the way, how Matthew
carefully makes sure youunderstand that Jesus is not in
the bloodline of Jeconiah.
(22:02):
Look at verse uh 15.
Now follow it with me here.
And Eliad, the father ofEliezer, and Eliezer the father
of Matan, and Matan, the fatherof Jacob, and Jacob the father
of Joseph, and Joseph the fatherof Jesus.
Oh, wait.
Notice the shift?
(22:23):
And Joseph, the husband of Mary,of whom Jesus was born.
We want to make sure nobodymisses that.
The genealogy served not only tovalidate the pedigree of Jesus
and demonstrate the providenceof God in just those two
illustrations.
Let me give you one more.
(22:43):
Genealogy, thirdly, was given toillustrate the principles of
grace.
If you want to study each entryof this genealogy, go back into
the Old Testament and find outthis lineage, you'll discover
that Jesus descended from a lineof kings, obviously.
Matthew's going to name 15 ofthem in all, from David to
(23:05):
Jekyll.
You take a closer look sometime,and you'll discover that half of
those kings were godly.
That is, they followed afterGod, like David, Hezekiah,
Josiah.
But even still, some of thoseguys were pretty, well, all of
them were pretty bad sinners,right?
And they were the good guys.
The other half of the list ofkings were utterly and openly
(23:28):
and unrepentantly, and theydidn't care about its sinners.
Like Ahaz and Rehoboam andManasseh.
In fact, the Bible says ofManasseh, he was more wicked
than all the pagan nationsaround him.
How's that for a reputation?
Then he refused to repent of hisunbelief.
Instead of God, you know,cleaning up his family tree, he
(23:50):
includes these guys.
He claims them as hisforefathers.
But you need to keep in mindhere that Jesus doesn't come to
praise his forefathers.
He comes to save them.
Right?
And all their sin looked forwardto that sacrifice of Christ upon
(24:11):
the tree.
As we to this day look back infaith.
He came to save them.
He came to die for them.
He came to pay the penalty fortheir sin.
Now, still more shocking thanany inclusion of a king, either
godly or wicked, was the factthat Jesus would inspire the
inclusion of women into thepublic record of his royal
(24:32):
genealogy.
They didn't have rights in thesedays, they were considered
property.
So this would be highlycontroversial.
And again, this is the hintingof the gospel.
Where men and women are equal inthe eyes of God and in relation
to their salvation.
They come to Christ just likemen do.
(24:53):
Sinners forgiven by the grace ofGod.
But this would be highlycontroversial.
In fact, add to this scandal ofgrace, all four women just so
happen to be Gentiles.
There were a lot of Jewish womenhe could have thrown in here.
But now that he has theirattention, he chooses four
(25:13):
Gentile women.
So Jewish, and by the way,again, Jewish genealogies
typically bent over backward toshow their pure Jewish lineage.
If there was anything murky,well, we'll just forget about,
you know, that second cousin orwhatever.
But but Jesus openly admits whatevery Jew already knew.
(25:35):
They already knew it.
The royal line is mixed with theblood of Jew and Gentile
already.
By the way, so is the church.
We're all mixed up, aren't we?
What a demonstration of grace.
So who does he choose?
Let's look quickly.
(25:55):
Tamar is the first one mentionedin verse 3.
Look there in Judah.
He's the fountainhead of theroyal tribe.
Judah, the father of Perez, andZerah.
By Tamar.
And you're thinking, no, no, no,no, no.
Put a period after Zerah.
You don't need to mention Tamar.
She's a blemish on thereputation of our forefather
Judah.
(26:16):
The fountainhead of the royalwine.
Her story unfolds in Genesischapter 38, where she marries
the son of Judah.
Her husband dies.
She marries again.
That husband dies.
She wants a child, and so shedresses like a temple prostitute
(26:37):
with a veil covering her face.
She sits near the place whereher father-in-law Judah is
tending the sheep.
She catches his eye.
Nine months later, she has twinsby him.
And the firstborn joins thelineage of the Messiah and
(26:57):
exposes Judah in the process.
I mean, do you really want tohint at that episode?
Let's clean the family tree up.
Let's get that little branchtaken care of.
No, no, no.
Frankly, if we were God, wewould have switched tribes at
that point, wouldn't we have?
I think Tamar is specificallymentioned to remind Israel that
the very fountain head of thisroyal line, that he's a sinner,
(27:22):
that he needs a savior too.
SPEAKER_01 (27:35):
Just like us, every person in the lineage of Jesus
needed Jesus to save them.
Jesus fulfilled all of thepromises God made.
He has a rightful claim to thethrone.
Not only the throne of David,but the throne of your heart.
Today's lesson is not complete,but our time is running short,
(27:59):
so you'll hear the conclusion tothis message on tomorrow's
broadcast.
Stephen Davy is your Bibleteacher, and he called this
message the Pedigree.
Our ministry has thousands ofbiblically based resources to
help you grow in your walk withJesus Christ.
To access all of that, visitwisdomonline.org.
(28:22):
Then join us next time todiscover more wisdom for the
heart.
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