The Genealogy of Jesus / Matthew 1:1-17
The End Credits of the Gospel
Welcome to The Well. I hope you guys are doing good tonight. For those of you joining us via video this weekend, we are thrilled that you have chosen to hang out with us. If I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting you, my name is Mike Slayton, and I’m one of the teaching pastors here. It is a privilege to get to hang out with you guys.
As you know, if you were here last week, we are back in a book of the Bible, and I’m excited about that. I invite you to turn to Matthew chapter one. We’re going to dig into a genealogy of all things today—48 names. If you’re wondering why you came to church for a list of 48 names, hopefully, this will be a redemptive time. If it’s not, you can stone me later! But my goal is that this will be a great time together.
Brad did a great job last week introducing this series. He introduced us to the character of Matthew through Caravaggio’s painting, The Calling of Saint Matthew. It was a beautiful picture of the moment this Jewish tax collector from Capernaum decided to follow after Jesus. Now, we venture into the first pages of Matthew’s Gospel. As you scan Matthew chapter one, you see 17 verses on who Christ came from.
As Americans, I don’t know about you, but I look at a genealogy and think, “Really? Why start a book as important as the Gospel with a genealogy?” It’s like going to a movie and starting with the end credits. All these names are scrolling by—the key grip, the best boy—and we don’t care, so we get up and leave. But every now and again, you show up to a movie and a friend tells you to stay to the end. You’re watching something like The Avengers, and suddenly there’s an “Easter egg” scene buried in the credits. It’s a preview of what’s to come; it connects back to the past. There are gems buried in the midst of genealogies, and they are very important.
Matthew 1:1-17 (NASB)
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 Amminadab, Amminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon 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 was 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 Amon, and Amon 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 Abihud, Abihud 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 Matthan, and Matthan 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 fourteen generations; from David to the deportation to Babylon, fourteen generations; and from the deportation to Babylon to the Messiah, fourteen generations.
The Heir to the Throne
Think about the story of The Lord of the Rings. (Some of you in this room are saved; the rest of you need to go watch those movies. I’m questioning your salvation publicly right now!) In that story, you meet a guy named Strider. He’s a ranger from Bree. He’s a mysterious, hooded figure sitting in a corner, looking a bit sketchy. As the story unfolds, we find out he is no mere ranger. He is actually Aragorn, son of Arathorn. He’s treated like a commoner until we find out his genealogy. He is the heir to the throne of Gondor. He is the one rightful ruler, and the tension of the story is whether he will fulfill his destiny. He’s the only one who can claim the correct genealogy to take the throne.
We see the same thing in Matthew. We are looking at 2,100 years of history. There are 48 names, including Christ—43 men and five women. It ranges from powerful kings to lowly shepherds, Israelites and Canaanites, virgins and prostitutes, the righteous and the wicked. Matthew is writing to the Jew, trying to convince his countrymen that this Jesus is the Christ. To a Jew, starting with a genealogy made perfect sense because they had been waiting for a specific guy for thousands of years. Matthew is out to prove two things: number one, this is your King; and number two, His Kingdom has come.
Matthew arranges this story thematically rather than chronologically to build his case that Jesus is the promised Old Testament Messiah. As we roll through this, I want to show you four things: it is legal, it is scandalous, it is merciful, and it is inclusive.
Matthew 1:1 (NASB)
The record of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham:
A Legal Claim to the Throne
Matthew starts with the name “Jesus the Messiah.” The name Jesus is the Greek form of Joshua, meaning “Yahweh saves.” Messiah, or Christos, means the “Anointed One.” Every Jew knew that title; it was the entire hope of the Old Testament. Then Matthew introduces two prominent characters: David and Abraham. These were men who received unilateral covenants from God.
In 2 Samuel 7, at the height of David’s reign, David tells God he wants to build Him a house. God responds by saying, “No, I’m going to build you a house.” God promises that when David dies, He will raise up a descendant to establish a kingdom forever. Now, Solomon was David’s immediate son, but Solomon didn’t live forever. God was looking past Solomon to a throne that would be established eternally. This is the Davidic Covenant.
2 Samuel 7:12-13 (NASB)
’When your days are complete and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your descendant after you, who will come forth from you, and I will establish his kingdom. ’He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.
God repeats the word “forever” over and over. This wasn’t conditional; God promised He would do it regardless of David’s actions. When the angel Gabriel speaks to Mary in Luke 1, he uses this exact language: “The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David… and his kingdom will have no end.” If you’re a Jew, you’re playing connect-the-dots. You know the Messiah has to come through David’s line because of that promise.
2 Samuel 7:16 (NASB)
‘Your house and your kingdom shall endure before Me forever; your throne shall be established forever.’‘’
But it goes even further back to Abraham. Two thousand years before Christ, God called Abraham and promised that through his seed, all the families of the earth would be blessed. Paul tells us in Galatians that this was the Gospel being preached in advance—that through Abraham’s descendant, the Messiah would come to bless all nations.
Genesis 12:1-3 (NASB)
Now the LORD said to Abram, ‘Go forth from your country, And from your relatives And from your father’s house, To the land which I will show you; And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing; And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.’
The Chosen Line
As you look at the lineage, you see God sovereignly electing the path. Abraham had two sons, but the blessing went through Isaac. Isaac had two sons, but it went through Jacob. Jacob had twelve sons, and God chose the fourth-born, Judah. On his deathbed, Jacob prophesied that the scepter would not depart from Judah until “Shiloh” comes—the one to whom the obedience of the nations belongs.
Genesis 49:8-10 (NASB)
’Judah, your brothers shall praise you; Your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies; Your father’s sons shall bow down to you. ’Judah is a lion’s whelp; From the prey, my son, you have gone up. He couches, he lies down as a lion, And as a lion, who dares rouse him up? ’The scepter shall not depart from Judah, Nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, Until Shiloh comes, And to him [shall be] the obedience of the peoples.
Jesus checks every single box. He is the seed of Abraham, from the tribe of Judah, and the family of David. Two verses into the Gospel, Matthew has proven to the Jew, using their own heroes, that this is the King they have waited for. His claim is legal in every respect.
A Scandalous Family Tree
While this genealogy is legal, it is also incredibly scandalous. It’s full of chaos. Look at verse three. It mentions Judah, the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar. If you know the story from Genesis 38, Tamar wasn’t Judah’s wife; she was his daughter-in-law. After Judah’s older sons died because they were wicked, Judah failed to provide his youngest son as a husband for her. So Tamar dressed up as a temple prostitute, Judah slept with her on a business trip, and she conceived. This is the line of the Messiah.
Matthew 1:3 (NASB)
Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, Perez was the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram.
It gets even more intense. Verse five mentions Rahab and Ruth. Rahab was a prostitute from Jericho. Ruth was a Moabite—a people group that originated from an incestuous relationship between Lot and his daughters. Then verse six mentions Bathsheba, referred to as “the wife of Uriah.” We know that story: King David committed adultery with her and then had her husband murdered to cover it up.
Matthew 1:5-6 (NASB)
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.
Why would Matthew include these people? In a Jewish genealogy, you usually only traced the male line. There was no genealogical reason to include women, yet Matthew includes four women with “checkered” pasts before he even gets to Mary. He is showing us that this King isn’t just for the upright; He is the King of the broken.
Unbelievable Mercy Through History
We also see that this genealogy is unbelievably merciful. Matthew breaks the list into three groups of fourteen generations. From David to the Babylonian deportation, we see the Judean kings. Many of these kings were a mess. Matthew even skips a few names—like Ahaziah, Joash, and Amaziah—likely to maintain his 14-14-14 structure, which was a common memory tool in Jewish culture.
Matthew 1:7-8 (NASB)
Solomon was the father of Rehoboam, Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asa. Asa was the father of Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, and Joram the father of Uzziah.
In 586 BC, Babylon wrecked Jerusalem and took the king into captivity. It looked like the line of David was snuffed out. But God was merciful. The line continued through the captivity, through the return to the land with guys like Zerubbabel, and through the “silent years” under Greek and Roman rule.
Matthew 1:11 (NASB)
Josiah became the father of Jeconiah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon.
By the time we get to Joseph, the earthly father of Jesus, the royal line has been reduced to a lowly “tekton”—a stone mason. Joseph was a man doing a humble job, pushed off the throne by pagan kings like Herod the Great. Yet, the line was preserved all the way from Abraham to Joseph.
Matthew 1:12-13 (NASB)
After the deportation to Babylon: Jeconiah became the father of Shealtiel, and Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel. Zerubbabel was the father of Abihud, Abihud the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim the father of Azor.
The Virgin Conception
Matthew is very careful with his language in verse 16. He doesn’t say Joseph fathered Jesus; he says Joseph was the husband of Mary, “by whom Jesus was born.” We’ll look at this more next week, but the Scripture is clear: Joseph did not contribute to the process. This was a virgin conception by the Holy Spirit. Joseph was the legal, earthly father, but Jesus is the incarnate Son of God.
Matthew 1:16 (NASB)
Jacob was the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, by whom Jesus was born, who is called the Messiah.
This genealogy is inclusive. Look at the names: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and likely Bathsheba were all foreigners—non-Jews. If you were writing a genealogy for the Savior of the world, you’d probably whitewash it. You’d make it pretty, full of CEOs and powerful people. But God’s list is full of scandalous, foreign, broken people. Why? Because Jesus is not just a Savior for the Jew; He is a Savior for the Gentile. That is why you and I are in this room today.
Matthew 1:17 (NASB)
So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; from David to the deportation to Babylon, fourteen generations; and from the deportation to Babylon to the Messiah, fourteen generations.
Rest in the King
So, what do we do with this? I’ve heard that at the end of a message, you should tell people what to do. Honestly? I want you to do nothing. I want you to believe this and rest in it. We can have confidence, looking back at 4,000 years of history, that we are worshiping the right guy.
Jesus is the King of the broken. He said He didn’t come for the healthy, but for the sick. He came for tax collectors like Matthew and sinners like me. Aren’t you glad that the people in this list look a lot more like us than we’re sometimes willing to admit? I would be devastated if this genealogy was full of perfect people. Instead, we see people who desperately needed Jesus themselves.
As we worship tonight, let’s rest in the assurance that our faith is in the right person. Jesus is the Messiah, the hero of the story, and the focal point of all history.
Father, thank You that You saw fit to record these words. Though we are often quick to jump over them, we recognize the beauty and the “Easter eggs” found here. Thank You for bringing Jesus through the line of the scandalous and the broken to show us that He is a Savior offered to all of us. We put our faith in Him—the one and only, fully man and fully God. Thank You for Your plan of salvation that bridged the gap between us and You. We give You all the praise and glory. In Jesus’ name, Amen.