In this episode of Beholding Bible Truth, Scott starts us on our path into the book of Matthew and examines the genealogy of Jesus, shedding light on its significance and implications for understanding Jesus' divine lineage. Scott also highlights the early church fathers' acceptance of Jesus' genealogy and how enemies of Jesus raised no accusations against His lineage as the Son of David. The episode discusses the themes of God's sovereignty, grace, and faithfulness despite the flawed lineage comprising figures like Solomon, Tamar, and Rahab. Through these ancestral accounts, Scott demonstrates the consistent forgiveness of sin and rebellion, reinforcing God's unwavering covenant.

Scott also shares his personal story of moving frequently and places notable emphasis on the significance of genealogy in discovering one's background. He divides the book of Matthew into four thematic sections: proof, proclamations, rejection, and resurrection of the sovereign king. These themes highlight the continuity of God's promises from Abraham to David and ultimately to Jesus Christ. By comparing the genealogies in Matthew and Luke, Scott explains their different focuses on legal and biological lineage. He concludes with a blessing, invoking the God of Abraham, David, and Jesus Christ to give peace and assurance, aiming to deepen listeners' trust in God.

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Key Topics

- Jesus' genealogy and its acceptance in early Christianity

- God's sovereignty, grace, and faithfulness

- Forgiveness of sin and rebellion in Jesus' lineage

- Divisions of the book of Matthew

- Fulfillment of promises from Abraham to David to Jesus

- Comparison of genealogies in Matthew and Luke

- Christ's lineage as proof of divine promises

Hi. If you're looking for greater hope, assurance, and confidence through the shifting sands of life, then join me on today's episode as we dig deep into the bible to discover rock solid truth for life and living from the God of the bible. I'm your host, Scott Keffer. Hi, and welcome to today's episode. As always, for a deeper experience, you can go to the show notes and download the blank insight sheet. Fill in the blanks along with the group. Depending on how you're listening to this, there will be a link to the episode website at beholdingbibletruth.com, and a sheet with the answers is included as well. Enjoy today's episode.

Well, people would always ask me, where are you from? Get that question. Where are you from? I said, I I don't know for sure. We lived 6 places growing up. Moved every 3 or 4 years. I was born in Wheeling Hospital. We lived in Ohio at the time, and 3 or 4 moves later, we would move back to Weirton, West Virginia. And my grandmother said, don't tell anybody you're from West Virginia. She said, tell them you're from Pittsburgh.

Tell them you're from Pittsburgh. Don't tell them you're from West Virginia. So I thought when you ask that question, there's a lot behind that. You might be asking, where were you lit literally, where were you born? You might be asking, where are your people from? You might be asking, you know, conceptually, what's your connection? What's your background? You You know, today, it's about what's your genealogy. And I'm always interested because it tells you something about the person. Where is their connection? You know, where what generation came to America? All all of that, you know, tells us something about the person. Well, that's where we find ourselves as we begin this journey through the gospel of Matthew. And that is we begin with the background of the Lord Jesus, his very genealogy.

So I'm glad that you are joining us as we walk together to take a look at the sovereign king. And, hopefully, you can set aside your preconceived notions of him, and you can see him afresh. And you'll be captured with the wonder the wonder that, hopefully, they were captured with when he he practically showed up on the scene 2000 years ago. Well, I've broken down the book of Matthew into 4 sections. This beginning section, chapter 1 to chapter 4, is the proof of the sovereign king. The proof of the sovereign king, that's the blank at the top. Then in chapter 5 through 25, we're gonna look at the proclamations of the sovereign king because he has a lot to say. He has a lot to say about the kingdom of God.

The kingdom of God, that phrase shows up only in the book of Matthew, 30 plus times, only in the book of Matthew. So we're gonna say, take a look at what does he say about this kingdom, the kingdom of of God. Then we're gonna look at the rejection of the sovereign God in 26 and 27, and gloriously at the resurrection of the sovereign king in Matthew 28. And we looked last time at this really the intersection, the trisection, if you will, of 3 things. We began, but with the promise of Abraham. The promise of Abraham. Right? In you, all of the earth all the families of the earth will be blessed. In you.

In your seed, literally, he says, in you, all the families of the earth will be blessed. So if you go back to Abraham called out of called out of Ur, Genesis chapter 12. Somebody read 1 through 3, if you would, please.

Lord had said to Abram, go from your country, your people, and your father's family. Go to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you. I will make your name great. You will be a blessing to others. I will bless those who bless you. I will put a curse on anyone who puts a curse on you. All nations on earth will be blessed because of you.

All the nations on the earth. So this was this was a promise to Abraham and to to Abraham at the time and all the families of the earth. And if you go forward to Genesis 15 in verse 4, he says, behold, the word of Yahweh came to me, who heard the Lord, saying, this man will not be your heir, but one who will come forth from your own body, from your own body. This will be your seed, if you will. He shall be your heir. He took him outside and he said, now look toward the heavens and count the stars. If you're able to count them, and he said, so shall your seed be. Your version might say descendants, but it's literally, so shall your seed be.

Right? And then he believed who Abraham believed in Yahweh and the Lord, and he reckoned to him as righteousness. He said to him, I'm the Lord who brought you out of Ur the Chaldeans to give you this land, to give you this land. And if you go forward to 17, again, he reminds of it 99 years old. Yahweh appears to Abraham and says to him, I am Lord God Almighty. Walk before me. I will establish my covenant between me and you, and I will multiply you. Abram fell on his face. As for me, he says, my covenant is with you, and you will be the father of a multitude of nations.

And your name will be called Abraham, and I have made you the father of the multitude of nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful. I'll make nations of you, and kings will come forth from you. I will establish my covenant between me and you and your descendants, your seed, after you throughout all generations. For an everlasting covenant to be god to you and to your descendants after you, I will give you and your seed after you, the land of your so sojournings, all the land of Canaan, everlasting possession, I will be their god. So the the promise to this moon worshiping individual who leaves the land of Ur, all the families of the earth will be blessed. You and your seed. You and your seed after.

Then we have this promise to David. Promise to David, your throne will be established forever. Now doesn't that beg a question? Who can make a promise like that? An everlasting covenant? You and your seed, with all the the realities of life and people's choice and stuff happening, I mean, who could make that promise? Who could make that promise? And then David shows up. Your throne will be established forever. Are you aware of what you're promising? Who is making this promise? Then the promise of the Messiah, the promise of the one who would rescue for a child. Let's read this from Isaiah. Let's read this together, if we will. For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us, and the government will rest on his shoulders, and his name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.

There'll be no end to the increase of his government or of peace on the throne of David

Over his kingdom.

And over his kingdom, to establish it, to uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of Armies will accomplish this. So you can underline, the zeal of the Lord of Armies will accomplish this. Not only is this a promise, but it's a promise that's based upon the joy of the Lord of Armies will accomplish it. Yahweh of Armies, Lord of Hosts, will bring this about. Which begs the question, a child will be born, but a son will be given. And he'll be a wonderful counselor, eternal father, mighty god, prince of shalom. There'll be no end.

There will be no end. So we have the promise to Abraham, the promise to David, and the promise of the Messiah, all connecting together. We have 400 years seemingly of silence, and all of a sudden, one shows up in the fullness of time. And so we begin here, the very first, Matthew 1:1. Matthew 1:1 is the book. What's it the book of? Genealogy of Jesus, the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham. So I put there the proof of Jesus pedigree. This is the proof of Jesus pedigree.

So again, nothing new. If you look, this is this was something that God had laid in. If you go back to Genesis 5, it says, this is the book of the generations of Adam. This is the book of the generation. Chapter 6 verse 9. These are the the records or the book of the generations of Noah. 101, saying the records of the generation of Shem, Hath, and Japheth, proof of Jesus' pedigree. So he begins in Matthew, if we're back here, verse 2.

Abraham was the father of Isaac Isaac, father Jacob Jacob, the father of Judah, and his brothers, Judah, and it goes on. So if if you're like me, when you start to read the Bible, you think, like, who cares? Or why should I care? Or who wants to read this? You know? It's unless my name's in there, then you might read down and say, right? You would read down there, like, like, if I'm in that, or if my my grandson was in that or my granddaughter, I might say, where is that? Right? So particularly, you you kinda run through that really quickly, read it really all the generations, Abraham to David, David. Okay. Now let's move on. Verse 18. So you see in there, what's the big deal with this? Well, genealogy is the connection. Where is the the Messiah is connected? The Messiah has a lineage of connection, the seed of, if you will. Right? The seed of.

And, of course, we remember at this time, there were lots of messiahs. And in in ruling at the time, remember we looked at last time, was one who was called the king of the Jews. And so there there were many who were showing up. So here, he's giving us proof. What's interesting is if you look at Matthew's genealogy, you look at mass Matthew's genealogy here. So in Matthew's genealogy, we have Jesus' legal and royal record. It's legal and royal record. That's the blank there.

It's legal and it's royal record. Well, what's interesting is when I started to study this, you see and if you know, if you've looked at this before, the genealogy in Luke chapter 3 is different, very different. And there's you know, I I told Beth I got into this rabbit hole of all the explanations, and there are a whole bunch. So I'm gonna try and boil them down and give you some way to think about this. So so Matthew's genealogy, Jesus' legal and royal record, Jesus' grandfather is Jacob, linking back to David's son, Solomon. So Jesus' grandfather is Jacob, David's son is Solomon. Now what's interesting is verse 2, how does that begin in in in your version? Matthew chapter 1 verse 2, Abraham. So the genealogy begins with Abraham.

So if you look back here to a Jew, what was the connection there? Abraham. Abraham is the father of the Jewish nation. Abraham is the beginning of their history. Abraham is the father of the nation. Right? If you go to Luke chapter 3 verse 23 how does that begin? Verse 23. From the son of Elaz, son of Mattad. Right? So that begins in a very different place. Right? Where Abraham is the beginning of this genealogy, This was past to present.

Right? It starts with Abraham and it ends with Jesus. Right? There are 42 names, and there are 3 lists of 14 names. In the Luke genealogy, it's Jesus going backwards. And where does it end if you think about it in Luke? If you go back all all the way to the end of that section, verse 38 always goes back to the son of Enosh, the son of Seth, and the son of Adam, the son of god. So it goes back to the very beginning. So if you if you see, the the Matthew's genealogy goes back to ab starts with Abraham and comes forward. Luke's genealogy goes all the way back to Adam. Jesus' grandfather in Luke's genealogy is Eli, linking back to David's son, Nathan.

Well, as you can imagine, depending on how you, approach this question, if you are some of the famous anti Christians, you're gonna say, see. There we go. Evidence. Can't trust the Bible. Can't believe the Bible. These things don't match. Blah blah blah blah blah. That would be true.

Exactly true. So I put on there, so Jesus has 2 genealogies. Well, that can't be. Well, it does. So there are actually more than a few ways to answer this, but I put 2 of them, which seem to be 2 of the most popular. Option 1 is in Matthew's gospel, Joseph is his biological father. In Luke's, Joseph is his legal father by Levite marriage, which means somebody died and the brother married, and therefore became the father. One explanation.

The other is Matthew's genealogy traces Joseph's ancestry. Luke traces Mary's, which you're for if you were a good arguer, you'd say, well, Mary's not listed in there. That would be true. There were no women in Luke's genealogy. And there there is even one explanation on why Matthew is really Mary's genealogy. So the answer is nobody knows for sure, except they are different. John MacArthur said from Joseph, Jesus receives the legal right to the throne. From Mary, Jesus has the blood of David in his veins.

He can be king legally through Joseph. He could be king naturally through Mary. In other words, they both find their way back to David. They both find their way back to David. 1 is a legal royal record. The other is a natural royal record. So if you go to Romans chapter 1, it says Paul, a bondservant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures, concerning his son concerning his son, who was born of a descendant of David according to the flesh. Is that enough? Where he says, no.

Who was declared the son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead according to the spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our lord, to which we will receive grace and apostleship, to bring about the obedience of faith among all the gentiles for his name's sake, among whom you are the called of Jesus Christ. So he says this is not the only proof. The ultimate proof would be who he is. The ultimate proof would be his power here on earth. The ultimate proof would be his resurrection from the dead. But here is his connection to David and the promises and the covenant that God made. I love that. He was born of a descendant of David according to the flesh.

How did he get connected back there? Legally, naturally, the answer would be yes. Revelation 5. And, ultimately, we'll see how it all fits. And when we see him, I'm pretty sure we won't care because we'll see him for a reason. I saw in the right hand of him who sat on the throne of book written on the inside and on the back, sealed up with 7 seals, I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, who is worthy to open the book and to break its seals? No one in heaven, on the earth, under the earth was able to open the book or look into it, even to look into it. He said, I began to weep greatly. There's none. There's none.

There's no one worthy to open the book or to look upon it. No one worthy on the earth, in heaven, or under the earth. He says to me, stop weeping. Verse 5. Why? The lion. The lion from the tribe of Judah, the root of David has overcome so as to open the book and to break its seals. They sang a new song verse verse 9. Worthy are you to take the book and to break its seals? For thou was slain and to purchase with thy blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and thou hast made them to be a kingdom and priest to our God, and they will reign upon the earth.

And it says, I heard a voice of many angels, living creatures, the elders, and numbered them with myriads of myriads, and 1,000 upon 1,000, saying with a loud voice, worthy is the lamb who was slain, to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing. It says every created thing in the heavens and on the earth and under the earth and all things in them. He says, I heard them say, to him who sits upon the throne and to the lamb be blessing and honor and glory, dominion forever. Ever. So he saw saw the 4 living creatures. What'd they do? They said, amen. The elders fell down and they worshiped. I think that's what's calling us today, fresh, to fall down and worship the lamb who was slain, the king, the sovereign king.

He is the root of David. He is the root of David. Jesus descended from David. Whether you can explain the genealogies or not, he is the king. He is the king, descended from David. So Timothy reminds us, it's interesting. Don't don't waste time on genealogies. It's interesting.

It says don't waste time. And Blair says the really surprising thing is that no one in the 2nd century found it surprising or made any comment on their disagreement. In In other words, if you look back at the early church fathers, there was no there was no issue here. So whatever the explanation to us, science grounded, intellectually enlightened folks of our day, they didn't have an issue with it. The other thing you would find is if you were an enemy of Jesus at the time, you would just trot right down to Bethlehem, take a look at the records because the records were there. And so if they were able to call him on his claim to be the son of David, because that's what he's called throughout the scripture. Right? Son of David. The messiah would be the son of David.

They would certainly have hailed that accusation against him, wouldn't they? You don't see that in here. They don't bring that accusation against him. So whatever the answer is, he's the son of David, and he's the son of the living god. So have we settled that? I don't know. But I put on there what is interesting about this. Here's the observation. As you walk through this list of folks, I put on there, this is proof of god's sovereignty, grace, and faithfulness. Because just like scripture, I would not have put this list together.

Unbroken. Unbroken. Despite sin, despite rebellion, and despite brokenness. So you see in there, of course, Solomon is in there. Maybe we should not mention him. Right? We go back to 1st Kings chapter 11. It says in verse 1, King Solomon loved many foreign women along with the daughter of Phara, Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women from the nations concerning which the Lord had said to the sons of Israel, you shall not associate with them. They will surely turn your heart away after their gods.

But Solomon held fast to these in love. Verse 9, it says that the Lord, Yahweh, was angry at Solomon because his heart had turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice and commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods. But he did not observe what the lord had commanded him. Did not observe what the lord had commanded him. Well, maybe we should take out Solomon, or maybe it's not bringing him up. You know? Leave him out of the press release. And then, you know, again, if you go back to Matthew here, it talks about their their captivity, their time of deportation in Babylon. The nations exiled to Babylon.

And then Matthew does something that was totally uncharacteristic at the time. He included women in the genealogy. So Tamar, Canaanite daughter-in-law of Judah, not a Jew. She disguised herself as a prostitute, and she tricked him into having sexual relations. Then we have Rahab, another gentile, an actual prostitute in Jericho, wife of Solomon, mother of Boaz, David's great grandfather. Holy smokes. Ruth, a Moabite. She had no right to marry a Jew.

She married Boaz and became the grandmother of King David. And in there, Bathsheba is not named directly. It's the wife it's the wife of Uriah. The wife of Uriah. The son of David's sin dies, and then Solomon is born, and he goes after idolatry. Manasseh brought idols into the temple. He sacrificed his sons, and he led the nation astray. The only good news in second Chronicles is that he turns back to the Lord after he repents.

So we have idolatry and repentance. And then we have David. David, the king. They're all relating back to the king. You notice how in if you look up there in the diagram, this all connects back to David. David, the king, who committed adultery, who committed murder, premeditated murder. What? When he appears when Yahweh appears to Moses, he says that the Lord descended in a cloud and proclaimed the Lord, the Lord God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness, keeping lovingkindness for 1,000, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin. Iniquity, the first word meant sin, like willful sin.

The last word meant unknown. Right? Where we break God's commandments and we're not aware of it. Ignorance. In the middle was the word for rebellion, active rebellion against God. It says God forgives iniquity, transgression, and sin. All 3. Holy smokes. Rebellion.

And yet in Acts, if you go to the book of Acts chapter 13, it says Paul stands up and he motions with his hands, and he says, men of Israel and you who fear god, listen. The God of this people, Israel, chose our fathers. He made the people great during their stay in the land of Egypt. With an uplifted arm, he led them out from it. For a period of about 40 years, he put up with them. He put up with them. In the wilderness, he put up with them, the god who is holy and righteous and true. When he destroyed 7 nations in the land of Canaan, he distributed their land as an inheritance, all of which took about 450 years.

After these things, he gave them judges until Samuel the prophet. Then they asked for a king. God gave them, Saul, the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for 40 years. After he had removed him, he raised up David to be their king, concerning whom he'd also testified. I found David, the son of Jesse, what? A man after my own heart. He will do my will. He will do my will. How'd he do? Kinda like us.

Who would put who would put David's story if you were chronicling the history of your company, of your family, of your country, of your people. Would you put King David's story in there? You might leave that part out. But then he says, here it is, god's faithfulness, verse 23, from the descendants of this man, according to promise, god has brought to Israel a savior, Jesus. What? From the descendants, from the seed of this man, the king after god's own heart who committed murder and adultery, Proof of god's grace. And, of course, then we have Aka Isaac and Jacob who were not god's firstborn, who were not the firstborn. They should have been firstborn. They get the inheritance. Right? No.

Isaac. Jacob. So book of Romans speaks to this issue. He says verse 6 chapter 9, it's not as though the word of god's failed for the Jews. We're not for not all Israel are descended from Israel, nor are they all children because they are Abraham's descendants. But through Isaac, your descendants will be named. That is, it's not the children of the flesh. This is not a fleshly connection.

But it's a spiritual connection. The children of promise are regarded as descendants. For this is the word of promise. At this time I'll come, Sarah shall have a son. Not only this, but there was a Rebecca also, when she had conceived twins by one man, our father Isaac, for though the twins were not yet born and had not done anything good or bad, so that God's purpose, according to his choice, would stand, not because of works, but because of him who calls. But said to her, the older shall serve the younger, just as it is written, Jacob I love, but Esau I hated. God's sovereignty in choice. That's what that space is.

God's sovereignty in choice. He says in here, God's purpose according to his choice would stand. So we see the proof of god's sovereignty, his grace, and his faithfulness despite it's unbroken, despite sin, despite despite rebellion, despite brokenness. What? What? And so we get caught up in the details of the genealogy, connecting back to David, David to Abraham, Abraham back to Adam. The promise was made in the garden, like the promise was made before eternity passed that God would send a savior. So I put in here the fulfillment, promise, fulfillment, promise, fulfillment is less about apologetics that we prove that Jesus is the Messiah. It is about the sovereignty. It is about the sovereignty of the Lord and his king.

God doesn't need to prove the genuine authentic nature of his son. Doesn't need to. Doesn't need to. He does, but he doesn't need to. But at the heart of that is he's showing us his absolute sovereignty over generations. The covenant is not broken. It's an eternal covenant made before the foundation of the earth. The lamb slain before the foundation of the earth.

The covenant made and kept. And he's kept it up till now, and he'll keep it up till the end of your life, and he'll keep it up till the end of the days. God is bringing forth the people, bringing them unto himself. He is the king. He is the sovereign king. He says, just check it out. Check out my promise through these generations. Check out the genealogies.

Check out their stories. Look at their brokenness, look at their rebellion, look at their sin, and look at my sovereign grace, power, and faithfulness in the midst of it. Behold the king. Behold, he is the king of kings. It can't be broken. It cannot be broken. Amen? Amen. Right.

Write an insight. The proof of Jesus' pedigree. The proof of God's sovereignty and grace and faithfulness. So, Jesus, where are you from? I'm from heaven. God the father. A long way from West Virginia. That's right. What do you see? May the God of Abraham, the God of David, the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, may the God, our father and his son, may he bless you.

May he keep you. May he cause his face to shine upon you. May he grant you his everlasting peace this week as he lifts up his countenance, and he lifts you up and carries you through the day. And remember, he has inscribed you upon the palms of his hands. May he bless you and keep you. Amen.

Thanks for listening. I hope you have greater hope, assurance, and confidence in your life and a deeper trust in the God of the bible and his son, Jesus Christ. Until next time, may the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. And may the Lord lift up his countenance on you and give you his peace, his shalom in your soul and in your life. Until next time, may god bless you and keep you.