The Gospel of Luke: The Family Tree

Transcript

JRNT 81
03/30/2025
The Gospel of Luke: The Family Tree
Luke 3:23-38
Jesse Randolph

As a child, I remember a point of pride in my family is that we could trace our lineage back on my dad’s side to a man who was named Edmund Randolph. Edmund Randolph was one of the first Governors of Virginia. He was our nation’s first Attorney General. He was George Washington’s second Secretary of State. And growing up it was pretty special, a nice little boost in the midst of an otherwise ordinary childhood, to think not only did I come from a line like that, but I shared a man’s name, that man’s name.

That was many years ago, back when, if you wanted to learn something about your lineage, your family tree, you really had to do some hard work. You really had to do some digging in those days to learn about your lineage. You might need to pick up the phone and call a grandparent, heaven forbid. You might have to visit your local library and go into their microfiche department. Remember those? You might have to talk with a courtroom clerk in some far-off country and get a sense of where the birth certificates or the marriage certificates or the obituaries records are. And for those who were really invested, you might need to hop on a plane to go figure out a bit more about your family tree, about the lineage.

And nowadays, of course, the process is a lot easier. With just a few clicks, you can subscribe to an online service. They’ll match you right away to your genetic relatives. And right away, you know where you’re from. For just a few dollars and in a matter of minutes you can shake out all the branches of your family tree. Pull down the data about who you are and where you hailed from.

But either way, it’s done. Either the expensive, old-fashioned way that I’m accustomed to, or the new, efficient digital way. That genealogical search process highlights something common to all of us. Which is that we have this relentless fascination of who we are, and where it is we come from, and where it is we hailed from. Right? You can always trace back what a person’s interests and motivations are by aligning it directly to their pocketbook. And let’s just say that the field of genealogical research today is booming. In fact, I saw a statistic recently that a purchase was made of Ancestry.com, sometime in the year 2020, about five years ago. And that majority stockholder interest cost a person $4.7 billion dollars. No matter what side of the tracks you were raised on, that’s a lot of money. And that highlights the value that humans place on knowing our past and knowing where we came from.

That’s why it’s really kind of surprising, really surprising actually, that when we come to the genealogies in the bible, and specifically this morning the genealogy of Jesus, our reactions are typically at best tepid, lukewarm. My genealogy? Well, that’s fascinating. I’m willing to move money around to learn about that. But Jesus’ genealogy? Naw. Let’s wait until we get to the good parts of His life.

Well, we’re going to do something about that today. We’re going to correct that, I hope, by studying the most important genealogy that’s ever been laid out. One that is infinitely more valuable than $4.7 billion dollars. That of course, is the genealogy of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ as it’s laid out for us in Luke’s Gospel. Turn with me in your bibles, if you would, to Luke 3:23. I’m going to read all the way to verse 38. And with the Lord’s help, hopefully get most of these names right. And if you’re visiting here this morning, welcome! Luke 3:23.

God’s word reads: “When He began His ministry, Jesus Himself was about thirty years of age, being, as was supposed, the son of Joseph, the son of Eli, the son of Matthat, the son of Levi, the son of Melchi, the son of Jannai, the son of Joseph, the son of Mattathias, the son of Amos, the son of Nahum, the son of Hesli, the son of Naggai, the son of Maath, the son of Mattathias, the son of Semein, the son of Josech, the son of Joda, the son of Joanan, the son of Rhesa, the son of Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, the son of Neri, the son of Melchi, the son of Addi, the son of Cosam, the son of Elmadam, the son of Er, the son of Joshua, the son of Eliezer, the son of Jorim, the son of Matthat, the son of Levi, the son of Simeon, the son of Judah, the son of Joseph, the son of Jonam, the son of Eliakim, the son of Melea, the son of Menna, the son of Mattatha, the son of Nathan, the son of David, the son of Jesse, the son of Obed, the son of Boaz, the son of Salmon, the son of Nahshon, the son of Amminadab, the son of Admin, the son of Ram, the son of Hezron, the son of Perez, the son of Judah, the son of Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham, the son of Terah, the son of Nahor, the son of Serug, the son of Reu, the son of Peleg, the son of Heber, the son of Shelah, the son of Cainan, the son of Arphaxad, the son of Shem, the son of Noah, the son of Lamech, the son of Methuselah, the son of Enoch, the son of Jared, the son of Mahalaleel, the son of Cainan, the son of Enosh, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.”

Including the name of Joseph at the beginning and the name of God at the end, there are 77 names on that list. And we’re going to get through all of them today. But we’re going to do so in a somewhat unconventional way. We’re going to go through some of the bigger ideas and issues that arise from the genealogy of Jesus Christ, as given to us by Luke. And here’s how I plan to handle this text here this morning. I’ve got five points to hang this text on. First, we’ll look at the “Messiah’s Perfection.” Second, we’re going to look at “Mary’s Priority.” Third, will be “Matthew’s Parallel.” Fourth, will be the “Major Players.” And then last will be the “Main Point,” bearing the lead. So, it’s “Messiah’s Perfection,” “Mary’s Priority,” “Matthew’s Parallel,” “Major Players,” and then “Main Point.”

Now, we’ll get to that first heading “Messiah’s Perfection” in just a moment here. But first, I want to take us down a brief side trail. As we consider the genealogies, how they played out, and how they worked, and their importance in their centrality in the times that the New Testament was written. See, like us today, the Jews of Jesus’ day did place a high value on knowing their ancestry, on knowing their family history. In fact, when you read through the Old Testament, you find genealogies all over the place. Genesis 1-11 is all about the generations of that time period. Exodus, Numbers, you see genealogies throughout. The first nine chapters of 1 Chronicles, all genealogy. The closing words of the book of Ruth, genealogy. I could mention more, but the point is there are various different genealogical records scattered throughout the Old Testament.

Now, unlike ours, the Jewish interest in ancestry and genealogy wasn’t rooted in mere curiosity. No. For the Jews, ancestry played several different important and substantive roles. For instance, how land was distributed. How land was allotted in these times . . . went back to which tribe you were from. You couldn’t just purchase a piece of land that wasn’t initially part of the parceling that happened back in the book of Numbers. Back in these days, to transfer property, to sell property, you had to come up with evidence that you had a right to do so. And how you did so, was tracing your own family tree back to the genealogical root of which family you came from. Any claim to the priesthood at this time had to be verified with proof, ancestral proof that you were actually from the priestly line of Levi. Not just anybody could apply to be a priest and become one. There was a familial connection there.

Then we leap ahead to the New Testament. You have guys like Paul in Philippians 3:5, right? The Hebrew of Hebrews, he says, who certainly knew a thing or two about genealogy. Paul identifies how back in his old days, when he was still called Saul, he was of the tribe of Benjamin. And then even in Luke’s Gospel we’ve already seen what an important role ancestry has played. Think back to that scene in Luke 2, how Joseph and Mary, at the time of the calling of the census by Caesar Augustus, they need to go back to their ancestral home. And in Luke 2:4 we’re told it’s “the city of David, which is called Bethlehem.” Well, how did they know they had to go to the city of David? Well, they had a familiarity with it, they knew that that was their ancestral line. That was the hometown where they needed to go register in order to be taxed.

And then, in our study in Luke so far, we’ve seen over and over how aware Luke was of the Jewish commitment to diligently tracing out one’s genealogical roots. In Luke 1:5 we’re told that Zechariah was “of the division of Abijah, and he had a wife from the daughters of Aaron.” In Luke 1:27 Mary is described as being “a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David.” In Luke 1:69 Zechariah there is prophesying over his newborn son, John, and in doing so he notes how God has “raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of David.” Now, those last two references from Mary and from Zechariah referring to “the house of David,” those both highlight another important point here. Which is that while the Jews of this time were very committed to keeping accurate ancestral records, there was an especially strong commitment on the part of those who were of the house and family of David. For those who are of Davidic descent, they were especially known to be meticulous in their record-keeping and tracing out their genealogical backgrounds. Because they knew that the scriptures had prophesied that the Messiah would come from their very line. From the house of David.

Far from being what we think about biblical genealogies, is this boring list of unpronounceable names that you only preach when you lose a bet. To the Jewish people of this time, these genealogies represented a lifeline. They represented a promise that was yet to be fulfilled. They represented the fact that a day was coming . . . like it says in Luke 1:78, that a “Sunrise from on high will visit us.” That Sunrise being the person of the Messiah, the Savior.

And speaking of the Messiah and genealogies, there would be no one for whom it would be more important to have their genealogy traced through and their genealogy vetted, than a Man who came claiming to be the Messiah. You know, because of the significance of the role and the weight of the expectation that was surrounding this person, it wouldn’t just be assumed at face value that because a Man came claiming to be the Messiah, that he in fact was. No. His claim would have to be verified by genealogical evidence. Genealogical details which showed that He was of the house and family of David, as the Messiah was expected to be. For any Man who was coming claiming to be the Anointed One, His Davidic pedigree had to be proven. Which would be proven by tracing through His genealogy. And that’s exactly what we see Luke here doing for Theophilus in the genealogy that we’re looking at today.

With that, let’s pick it back up in verse 23, which again begins with these words, “When He began His ministry, Jesus Himself was about thirty years of age, being, as was supposed, the son of Joseph.” We’ll stop there for now. And this is our first point, “The Messiah’s Perfection.” Here we’re going to see that Jesus, the Messiah, came not only at the perfect time, but there’s a sense in which He came in the perfect form -- being virgin-conceived, with no stain of sin.

Let’s start with the perfect timing of Jesus’ arrival, as we lean into what Luke says here. It says, “When He began His ministry, Jesus Himself was about thirty years of age.” Now, by saying here that Jesus was about thirty, he doesn’t say He was precisely thirty, he says He’s about thirty. Luke isn’t signaling that he’s unsure of how old Jesus was when He started His ministry. We remember back to Luke 1:3 that Luke “investigated everything carefully from the very beginning,” he says. Rather, what Luke is doing here, with this “about thirty” language is he’s pulling from these Old Testament parallels to point to the fact that Jesus was well-prepared now to begin His public ministry.

In the Old Testament, that age 30 was about the age when many men’s ministries began. Joseph, we’re told in Genesis 41:46, was “thirty years old when he stood before Pharaoh, king of Egypt.” It was “in the thirtieth year,” which appears to be a reference to the thirtieth year of his life, that Ezekiel in Ezekiel1:1 “saw visions of God.” But none is more closely linked to Jesus than David. And David we’re told in 2 Samuel 5:4 was “thirty years old when he became king.” So, what Luke is telling us here in verse 23 is that Jesus, like those who came before Him, came at the perfect time. He came at just the right time. He was fully prepared to begin His public ministry.

Now, He not only came at the perfect time. He came in the perfect form, namely as the virgin-conceived Son of God. Look at the next part of verse 23 where Luke tells us that “being, as was supposed, the son of Joseph.” Jesus was “supposed” as the son of Joseph. That is really interesting language, “as was supposed.” What does it mean? What is its significance? What’s going on here?
Well, what’s happening here is that Luke is going out of his way, with his usual precision, to tell Theophilus, to tell us, that Jesus wasn’t actually… Jesus wasn’t naturally the son of Joseph. Now, that’s how people thought of Him. That’s how people perceived Him. That’s how people saw Him. They saw Him as the son of Joseph. That would explain the reaction that Jesus has in Matthew 13, when He returns to Nazareth. He returns to His hometown and it says, “He [] began teaching them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished, and said, ‘Where did this man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers? Is not this the carpenter’s son?’”

See, before His public ministry launched at His baptism, which we studied last time… And before that one incident where He got lost in Jerusalem at the temple and His parents had to come find Him… (That was a few weeks ago.)… Jesus had been living in relative obscurity.

The one that will later be identified here as “the son of Adam,” representing all of humanity… The One who will be identified here as “the son of God”, divinely-conceived, God Himself… He hailed from this humble family, this obscure little village called Nazareth. Now, from our reading of the Word some two thousand years later we have the benefit of understanding, looking retrospectively at the fact the He was and He is truly divine, and He was and He is truly human. But for the people in His hometown, with boots on the ground, in that little village of Nazareth, they at that point only knew Him in His humanity. And they naturally assumed that Joseph was His natural father. And it’s in that sense, that’s one sense in which it’s being said here that He was “supposed” as the son of Joseph.

Now, Luke here, I’m going to argue, is using that word “supposed” in a different sense also. He’s saying here, very intentionally with that word, that Jesus was not actually the son of Joseph, not the natural son of Joseph. Rather, He was actually and naturally the son of another -- Mary. Recall to this point that Luke has gone to great pains, (we’ve seen this now in multiple sermons) Luke has gone to great pains to point to and establish the virgin conception of Christ. So, as he gets here now to Jesus’ genealogy, Luke is now doubling down on what he said about the virgin conception and the virgin birth by saying Jesus was only “supposed” to be the son of Joseph. In other words, this is yet another affirmation that Jesus was actually virgin conceived, and virgin born.

Now, note what happens next. Still in verse 23. We’re given this next name, “Eli.”
Now, from a first reading of this text, just reading it from top to bottom, in our English-speaking minds we’re used to seeing English words going from top to bottom this very way. From a first reading of that text it might be appearing that what Luke is telling us is that Joseph was “the son of Eli.” Turn with me, if you would, over to Matthew, Matthew 1:16. We’ll come back here to Matthew’s Gospel a couple of times. So, go ahead and keep a finger, a pen, a welcome card in Matthew. But Matthew 1:16 reads this way,
“And Jacob was the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, by whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ.”

So, Matthew reports that Jacob was the father of Joseph. Luke appears to be saying that Eli was the father of Joseph. So which is it? Is the father Jacob? Or was the father Eli? The answer is Jacob. Jacob was the father of Joseph. How do we know? And how is that provable? Well, there are a couple of important things that are happening in this text back in Luke that I want to highlight for you. And these are some of those geeking-out Greek kinds of things that I hope I can translate to you in our time together here. There are things that Luke is doing here in the Greek language that are really putting Joseph off to the side in a sense. I’m going to mention a couple of them right now.

Back to Luke 3:23 here in the Greek text, of what I read to you, those 77 names. Although I read that word “son” some 77-something times, in the Greek text you only find the word “son” one time here. And the only time you see the word “son” in Greek in this text is right before Joseph. So, one time out of this whole list of names, you see the word “son” attached to a person, and it’s Joseph. Right away, we know from that, that Luke is doing something distinct with Joseph in this genealogy.

Now, here’s another kind of an odd fact. In the front of all these names here, this long list in Luke 3, the definite article in a genitive form… Let me just translate that really roughly here. The word “of” in English, it appears before every single name listed here except one, Joseph. Joseph, in other words, is the only one who has the word “son” appear before his name in Greek. And Joseph is the only one who does not have the word “of” before his name. Everybody else has the word “of” before their names. He’s clearly receiving some sort of special treatment by Luke as Luke writes out this genealogy. The question now though is why? Why is Luke singling Joseph out?

Well, the answer is that Luke is separating Joseph from this genealogy. And he’s separating him, not in a way that emphasizes his presence or elevates his presence in this genealogy. He’s instead emphasizing his, or highlighting his presence here in a way to identify him, and then sweep him off to the side. That’s what Luke is doing here. Luke has already turned the limelight away from Joseph by indicating here in verse 23 that Jesus was “supposedly” Joseph’s son. Well, what he’s doing now with this sentence in Greek is doubling down on that and emphasizing that.

This sentence quite literally, and I’m still in Luke 3:23 here, reads something like this,
“Jesus Himself (supposedly Joseph’s son) was about thirty years old when He began His ministry, of Eli, of Matthat, of Levi.” Another paraphrase might be, “Jesus, being the Son, as it was thought, of Joseph, was in reality of Eli, of Matthat, of Levi” and so on.
Here’s a way to think about this, if you mark in your bibles. You could literally put parenthesis or brackets around the words: “being, as was supposed, the son of Joseph.” Because that’s what Luke is doing here. He’s capturing him for a moment, and he’s pushing him off to the side grammatically.
So, the way this reads is that Luke is going right from Jesus being thirty years of age, to zeroing in on who he really wants to talk about. Eli. So, Luke has not only biologically cut Joseph out of the equation here; by saying he was only “supposed” to be the father of Jesus, but he’s grammatically removed Joseph from the equation here with this hyper-precise use of that word “son” and “of.” He’s singling him out grammatically. He’s jumping right from Jesus to Eli.

Now, who was Eli? Well, we’ve established that he wasn’t Joseph’s father since we saw over in Matthew 1:16 that Jacob was Joseph’s father. Meaning Jacob was Jesus’ paternal grandfather, at least in an adoptive sense. What that leaves us with, was that Eli was Jesus’ maternal grandfather. Putting that even more straightforwardly, Eli was Mary’s father. So, what we’re dealing with here in Luke’s Gospel is Jesus’ genealogy through the line of Mary. His family tree on His mother’s side.

That takes us right into our second point this morning, “Mary’s Priority.” Luke here, Mary’s priority, is laying out Jesus’ genealogy for Theophilus and doing so from the perspective of His mother Mary’s line. Now, one might say, “If this whole thing is about Mary, this whole genealogy is about Mary, and if Luke means to say that this genealogy of Jesus is through Mary, why didn’t he just say so?” That’d be a lot easier. I wouldn’t have to go through the whole grammatical lesson I just gave you for five minutes, right?
Well, in these days, here’s the answer, the customary way to write out a genealogy was to leave out the names of the women. Only the names of the men were mentioned typically. And to include Mary’s name here would have been, not only odd, but culturally out of step.

Now, you might think, “Oh, over in Matthew’s genealogy we see Rahab and Ruth, and they’re women. True. But they are only mentioned incidentally. They’re mentioned in the role of them being the bearers of the children of the men who would represent the next link in the genealogical chain. Here it’s different. Luke here is navigating all sorts of complicated waters as he’s writing out this genealogy for Theophilus. He’s writing in a culture where women, by and large, were excluded from genealogies. He’s needs to showcase the genealogy of Jesus from the perspective of a woman who we can’t mention.

He’s required, culturally speaking, to list the name of the first, most immediate, male, family member, Joseph. But he’s already gone out of his way to sidestep Joseph. Not only that, he’s writing about this literal once-in-a-lifetime event, once-in-eternity event involving a virgin conception. Where there’s no earthly father and no male earthly involvement. So, he’s facing this tall task, is Luke, of putting together this genealogy . . . where the mother’s family tree is the focus. But the mother can’t be named and there is no human father. Anybody envy Luke yet? As it comes to putting this all together? This explains the pains with which he’s going here to bend his language around, to point Theophilus directly from Jesus to Eli, His maternal Grandfather.

Now, not everybody out there agrees with the position I’ve just articulated about Luke’s Gospel being about the story of His line through Mary, through Eli. In fact, some have argued against the position I just articulated. And they all say that this is not Luke laying out Mary’s line. But Luke, like Matthew, is also laying out Joseph’s line. And that theory begins with the argument that Eli here, in verse 23, is not Mary’s father. But instead, Joseph’s father.
And what they’ll do when they get to Matthew 1:16, which very clearly says that Jacob was Joseph’s father. Is they’ll maintain the Eli here probably died childless. And Jacob, over in the other line, was some sort of relative. And that Jacob, consistent with the marital practices of these days, ended up marrying Eli’s widow. And then Joseph was born through that union. And the result, they would say, is that Matthew gives us Joseph’s genealogy through Jacob, his actual father. And Luke gives us Joseph’s genealogy through Eli, his legal father.

Well, aside from the fact that there’s no evidence of that transaction, or union having occurred. I’d offer a few other responses to those who hold to that view. For starters, that other view ignores the fact that the narrative focus all throughout Luke’s Gospel really up to this point has been Mary. We’ve seen this through the first three chapters. That when you read through the first three chapters of Luke’s Gospel, Joseph is hardly mentioned at all. And when he is, it’s really in passing. He’s mentioned in Luke 1:27 as the man to whom Mary was betrothed. Even there Mary is the one who is emphasized. In Luke 2:4, he’s mentioned as being of the “house and family of David.” But that’s it. Joseph is never quoted as speaking in this Gospel. His words are never recorded in this Gospel. He’s mentioned only those two instances by name, and only in passing.

By contrast, when you get over in Matthew’s Gospel, Joseph gets more of the attention. Joseph’s character is mentioned in Matthew. He’s called a righteous man. Joseph’s thoughts are described in Matthew. He’s described as considering sending Mary away when she was found to be with child. And of course, it’s in Matthew’s Gospel that Joseph is described, not Mary, as being the one who received that visitation from the angel Gabriel. So, in Matthew’s Gospel there is more of that focus on Joseph.

While in Luke’s Gospel there’s more of a focus on Mary. In Luke’s Gospel, think about it -- the angel visits Mary -- Elizabeth’s words are directed toward Mary -- Mary obviously gives birth to Jesus -- It’s Mary’s Magnificat that’s recorded, her words of praise in Luke 1 -- It’s Mary who says to the boy Jesus, when He goes wandering off in Jerusalem, “Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.” She is in focus. She’s the main player in Luke’s account.

All that to say, would be quite the sharp curveball, one of those 12 to 6 breakers, if you know what I mean, to suddenly have Luke shift from all this discussion of Mary to suddenly describing Joseph’s genealogy. Especially after what we just saw, that Luke here is gone out of his way, that Jesus was only “supposed” to be the son of Joseph, the natural son of Joseph. So, Luke’s focus is all about Mary up to this point. And he’s now laying out the genealogy of Jesus through the line of Mary, His mother.

And as he does so, as we’re about to see. Luke’s focus has quite a bit of a different focus than does Matthew’s focus. In fact, go with me over to Matthew 1 again. I told you to hold your place there. We’ll come back here a couple more times, I believe. But look back at Matthew 1. And by the way, this is our third point, if you’re taking notes, “Matthew’s Parallel.” Matthew 1:1. I’m going to read verses 1-16. This should go faster, I insist that you not applaud.
Verses 1-16, “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham: Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac was the father of Jacob, and Jacob was the father of Judah and his brothers. And Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez was the father of Hezron, and Hezron was the father of Ram. And Ram was the father of Amminadab, and Amminadab was the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon was the father of Salmon. And Salmon was the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz was the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed was the father of Jesse. And Jesse was the father of David the king. And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah. And Solomon was the father of Rehoboam, and Rehoboam was the father of Abijah, and Abijah was the father of Asa. And Asa was the father of Jehoshaphat, and Jehoshaphat was the father of Joram, and Joram was the father of Uzziah. And Uzziah was the father of Jotham, and Jotham was the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz was the father of Hezekiah. And Hezekiah was the father of Manasseh, and Manasseh was the father of Amon, and Amon was the father of Josiah. And Josiah was the father of Jeconiah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon. And after the deportation to Babylon: Jeconiah was the father of Shealtiel, and Shealtiel was the father of Zerubbabel. And Zerubbabel was the father of Abihud, and Abihud was the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim was the father of Azor. And Azor was the father of Zadok, and Zadok was the father of Achim, and Achim was the father of Eliud. And Eliud was the father of Eleazar, and Eleazar was the father of Matthan, and Matthan was the father of Jacob. And Jacob was the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, by whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ.”

Now, I do realize that we are in a sermon series in Luke, not in Matthew. So, I won’t go into Matthew’s account in detail here. But I do want to spend some time, I think it’s important time, highlighting ways in which these two genealogies merge. And ways in which they differ.

For starters, as we’ve already discussed, Luke is focused more in his genealogy on the line of Mary while Matthew is focused more on the line of Joseph. And when you think about it, that really shouldn’t come as a surprise. That through two different authors, two human authors, you get two different human genealogies here. Right? I mean, if you were to trace out any one of our genealogies, if we wanted to be truly comprehensive about who we are, in terms of our ancestry, you would do the same thing. We would trace out our genealogy through dad’s line and we’d trace out our genealogy through mom’s line. That’s what God has done for us here. In the Gospel of Luke we have the mother’s line. In the Gospel of Matthew we have the father’s line.

And what’s the significance of that fact, that we’ve been given the Lord’s ancestry on both sides? Well, what these two genealogies do, when placed side by side, is showcase the fact for us that Jesus was birthed into the Davidic line. Thereby being qualified to be the Davidic Messiah. Here in Matthew, look at verse 6, we see His Davidic ancestry mentioned here. It says, “And Jesse was the father of David the king. And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah.” So, Solomon we know was David’s son. He’s the only son of David mentioned here in Matthew’s Gospel.

But we do know that David had other sons. You can just jot down this reference, 1 Chronicles 3:1-9 where we see the names of David’s other sons mentioned: Amnon, Daniel, Absalom, Adonijah, Shephatiah, Ithream, Shimea, Shobab. And then we also see these two names mentioned in 1 Chronicles 3: Solomon and Nathan. Now, when we hear that name Nathan, we might first think, especially as we associate it with David, that’s Nathan the prophet, the man who confronted David over his sin with Bathsheba. David also had a son named Nathan. So, he had a son Solomon and a son Nathan.

Now, fast-forwarding to the days of Joseph and Mary, this betrothed couple in Nazareth, who lived a full 1,000 years after David’s reign. They each came from a line, a line of David. They each came out of the family tree of David. They just came from different branches in that tree. Matthew, we just saw, records how Joseph’s Davidic lineage goes through David’s son Solomon. And then Luke… In fact, go back with me to Luke 3. Luke is going to trace for us how Mary’s Davidic lineage goes through a different son of David -- Nathan. He’s mentioned in Luke 3:31, “The son of Melea, the son of Menna, the son of Mattatha, The son of Nathan, the son of David.” These two genealogies are going in different orders, different directions. Luke is starting with Jesus and working his way backwards, retrospectively to Adam and to God. Matthew is going forward with Abraham, forward to the Messiah. But you see it there in verse 31, Nathan is the son of David through whom Mary came.

Remember, any man who came claiming to be the Messiah, would have to show that he came from the line of David. What we’re getting here, as we put Matthew and Luke’s genealogies side by side, is the reality that Jesus was doubly Davidic. He had the legal claim to the Davidic throne through his adoptive Joseph, but he also had a blood claim to the Davidic throne through his natural relationship with Mary, in whose womb He was conceived. So, these genealogies merge, and they point to Jesus’ Messianic credentials.

But there are a number of other connection points and differences between these two genealogies. Let’s look at some more of the differences. For instance, Matthew leads off with his genealogy. His genealogy is front and center in his Gospel. He leads off with it, Matthew 1:1. Luke though, waits until the third chapter of his Gospel to bring up Jesus’ genealogy. Why? Well, Matthew is writing from a strictly chronological standpoint. He’s moving from Abraham, the father of the nation of Israel and he’s moving through David to show his Jewish audience that Jesus was that nation’s promised Jewish Messiah.

Luke though, doesn’t always write chronologically. Instead, he sometimes writes thematically, according to groups of ideas. In fact, we’ve already seen this happen. A few weeks ago, we looked at that account of the arrest of John the Baptist. And it’s part way early in the narrative. It’s out of order in terms of when John the Baptist was actually arrested and ultimately killed. Well, Luke did so for a purpose. He was moving on from his discussion of John’s ministry to Jesus’ ministry. And so, he parked that story of John’s arrest at the end of John’s account. He’s moving thematically. That’s also what he’s doing here in chapter 3. Think about this, look at the book ends of this genealogy. Right before it, is what we covered last time, the baptism of Jesus. That’s an event where Jesus’ humanity is truly emphasized. Next time, we’re going to get into the temptation of Jesus. Also an account where his humanity is front and center. We’ve already also seen that the humanity of Christ is a major theme of Luke’s Gospel. He’s presented in his Gospel, not only as the King of the Jews, not only as the Son of God, but as the Son of Man, that universally-reaching Savior of the world. So, in the middle of these two sections, the baptism of Jesus, the temptation of Jesus, Luke drops in this genealogy. And it’s important, this is an important clue here. How he doesn’t stop at David, or even Abraham. He goes all the way back to Adam and all the way back ultimately to God. So, Luke, as he’s guided by the Holy Spirit, he writes these words, and he finds this as being the right place to drop this genealogy reference of Jesus’ genealogy. Because he’s drawing this connection between Jesus’ ministry and mission, not only to His own people, the Jews, but ultimately His saving purposes for all of mankind. That’s a constant theme we’ll see in Luke’s Gospel: Jesus’ humanity and the eventual universal reach of His gospel.

Here's another difference between these separate genealogies in Luke and Matthew. Luke’s genealogy, we’ve seen, has 77 names. That’s why I’m still out of breath. Matthew has 42 names. And those 42 names, we know, are grouped according to groups of 14. Why the discrepancy? Well, for starters, we’ve already established their tracing out totally different lines. One the line of Mary, one the line of Joseph. So, you wouldn’t expect to see the same names in those two lines. Just like if you did your genealogy you’d see different names in mom’s line and different names in dad’s line. Also, Matthew’s genealogy is shorter because it only goes back to Abraham. He’s trying to establish that Jesus is Israel’s Messiah. So, he goes back to Abraham and stops there.
Luke goes back several more generations, all the way back to Adam. Because again, he’s portraying Jesus as the Son of Man and the Savior of the world.

And, of course, a key difference between these two genealogies are the many different names that exist between the two. Luke, for instance, has 20 names before Abraham that Matthew doesn’t mention. But then when you get to the names between Abraham and David in the two genealogies suddenly there’s a lot of overlap. In fact, they almost line up perfectly. Though one goes in ascending order, and one goes in descending order.

Look again at Luke 3, and Luke’s genealogy. We’ll do this kind of oddly, but we’re going to start in verse 34, and then look up the page to 31. I’ll read in reverse order here. But look at the order of these names in Luke 3:34: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah, Perez, Hezron, Ram, Admin, Amminadab, Nahshon, Salmon, Boaz, Obed, Jesse, David, and then into Nathan in that line.
Now, if you were to go over to Matthew’s genealogy in Matthew 1:2-6, he’s going in descending order. And he’s got Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah, Perez, Hezron, Ram, Amminadab, Nahshon, Salmon, Boaz, Jesse, David, and then he goes down Solomon’s line.
Now, Luke has here, by the way, back in Luke’s Gospel, he’s thrown one additional name in here. It’s Admin in verse 33. Apparently that was one more name in the family tree that, for whatever reason, Matthew decided not to include in his genealogy. But the point is, when you put these two genealogies between Abraham and David side by side, just for those generations, they’re just about picture perfect. They’re almost identical.

Now, from David on, the names totally change. On Joseph’s side, again, that’s in Matthew’s account. You go from David to Solomon to Rehoboam and on down.
Then in Mary’s side, in Luke’s Gospel, you go from David to Nathan to Mattatha, to Menna, to Melea, and then on down. Again, two parents, two lines, two genealogies, two sets of descendants, just like you and me.

Well, one thing we haven’t done yet, and I realize we’re 45-minutes in and I haven’t even done this yet, is we haven’t gone through an exposition of the 77 names in Luke 3:23-38. Let’s say we do that in 14 minutes. Here we go. Here’s our fourth point, “The Major Players.” Under this heading, I’m going to give us all a lightning round summary of the names that we see listed here in Luke’s Gospel. Okay? The first seventeen names we see: Matthat, Levi, Melchi, Jannai, Joseph, Mattathias, Amos, Nahum, Hesli, Naggai, Maath, Mattathias, Semein, Josech, Joda, Joanan, Rhesa, we know nothing about any of those people. Now, some of those names do look familiar to us. And that’s because, as is true in our day, the Jews of this era would sometimes name their sons after famous or familiar names from the past. But that specific group of 17, which span a time period from Jesus’ birth back to the post-exilic period, we know nothing about them.

That all changes when we get to Zerubbabel in verse 27. Zerubbabel was the leader of the tribe of Judah at the time that Cyrus in 520 B.C. issued his decree permitting the Jews to come back to their homeland and get set up again. Now, this mention of Zerubbabel has caused all sorts of head-scratching. Mine included. Because you see there, you have the son Zerubbabel, and then you see he’s the son of Shealtiel. So, Shealtiel is Zerubbabel’s father. One fascinating fact about these two is that they appear not only in Luke’s genealogy, but they appear in that same order in Matthew’s genealogy, in Matthew 1:12. And the question is, how? How can we explain both men appearing in both genealogies in the same order, when we’ve just established that Luke and Matthew are establishing these separate branches of the Davidic tree? Mary through Nathan. Joseph through Solomon. The answer is, and this is my super-scientific answer, we don’t know. We don’t know for sure.

Some have suggested that it might be that these were just really, really common names. Zerubbabel, Shealtiel, were really common names, like Bob and Joe. And they just happened to be in both lines at the same time, in the same exact order, with one preceding the other and one following the other. I find that very unlikely. The other possibility, and this one is, I guess, more likely, involves what’s known as levirate marriage. I don’t have time to go through the whole process of that. But let’s just say that either Shealtiel or Zerubbabel had a wife who at some point died. And let’s say that it was Shealtiel, and he’s in the line of Nathan. Let’s say in the other side, in the line of Solomon, there’s a husband over there who is a blood relative of Shealtiel and he dies leaving a widow. What would happen under these principles of levirate marriage is that Shealtiel could marry that widow from that other line. There could be a remarriage. And from that remarriage there could be procreation. Meaning it was possible that either or both of these men could have produced children in one line, and also in the other. It’s the best explanation I’ve heard so far. But it’s still speculation.

Here's another tricky issue in verse 27. You see that name “Neri” at the end of the verse. He’s described as the father of Shealtiel. But if you were to cross reference that against Matthew 1:12, Jeconiah is listed as the father of Shealtiel. How do we get around that one? Well, the best explanation I’ve heard is that Neri here in Luke’s Gospel is in Mary’s line and he’s Shealtiel’s natural father. And Jeconiah, over in the other line, Solomon’s line, perhaps through one of these levirate marriages became Shealtiel’s adoptive father because Neri died and Jeconiah married Neri’s widow. Maybe.

Now, I’ve mentioned Jeconiah, and that one is worth exploring a little bit more, at least for a few minutes. Because in Jeremiah 22:29, you can just jot that reference down, God says this about Jeconiah, “O land, land, land, hear the word of Yahweh! Thus says Yahweh, ‘Write this man,” meaning Jeconiah, “down childless, a man who will not succeed in his days; for no man of his seed will succeed sitting on the throne of David or ruling again in Judah.’”

Did you catch how specific that language is? God didn’t say back in Jeremiah 22 that no descendant of Jeconiah could sit on David’s throne. If He had said so, Jesus would have been disqualified as the Messiah. Because Joseph, as we see in Matthew’s Gospel, comes from Jeconiah’s line and Joseph was Jesus’ legal father. But Jeremiah 22:29-30 says, “No man of his [Jeconiah’s] seed will succeed sitting on the throne of David.” So, to fall under that curse of Jeconiah, in other words, one would have to be “of his seed”, meaning his natural descendant.

So, how does Jesus avoid the curse on Jeconiah while simultaneously being the seed of David while not the seed of Jeconiah. And how does that happen? Through His virgin conception. That’s recorded right here in Luke’s Gospel. Jesus was the biological son of Mary and therefore the “seed of David” as He was required by 2 Samuel 7:12 to be. But He was not the biological son of Joseph and therefore not Joseph’s seed. And so Jeconiah’s curse, which came only through natural conception through Joseph’s line, doesn’t transfer to Him.

All that to say, both of these genealogies, we need them both, Luke and Matthew. Because we have the legal, kingly reign and ownership of the Messianic promise from Joseph. And the biological natural which we see through Luke, through Mary. God knew what He was doing in giving us both of these genealogies.

We’ve been parked in verse 27 for a few minutes. Turning to verse 28, we also know nothing of these names: Melchi, Addi, Cosam, Elmadam, Er, Joshua, Eliezer, Jorim, Matthat, Levi, Simeon, Judah, Joseph, Jonam, Eliakim, Melea, Menna, Mattatha. We know nothing about those folks.

But then, in the last part of verse 31, the genealogy picks up again with several names that we’re more familiar with. Nathan, we’ve already looked at him. The third son of David, born to him in Jerusalem. Mary’s line comes through him. David, of course, is the one whose line through whom the Messiah would emerge.

Then verse 32, we get to this long string of names going all the way to Abraham. And these again are just about nearly identically shared between Luke’s and Matthew’s Gospels. We have Jesse, verse 32, a shepherd, Bethlehemite, David’s father. Obed, Jesse’s father, David’s grandfather, he was the son of Ruth and Boaz. There’s Boaz, the main male figure in the Book of Ruth. He was that wealthy man who married Ruth. Then there’s Salmon, the great-great-grandfather of David. Then there’s Nahshon, Next comes Amminadab and Admin. Amminadab would have been the father of Nahshon. And as I mentioned earlier, Admin is unique to Luke. Apparently, he was another descendent of that next man on the list, Ram. Ram is mentioned in a few different Old Testament genealogies, but we know nothing of substance of him. Next is Hezron, he was a leader of the tribe of Judah. Next is Perez, he was a twin of Zerah, and a son of Judah and Tamar. Then, you see in verse 33, Judah, son of Jacob through Leah. He, of course, was the patriarch over whom the tribe of Judah received its name. Verse 34, there’s Jacob. Jacob is the son of Isaac and Rebekah, the twin brother of Esau, the great patriarch, who would later be called Israel. Next is Isaac, the long-awaited promised son of Abraham and Sarah. The middle of verse 34 then is Abraham, the patriarch of promise for the Hebrew people and the father of many nations.

Now, here at Abraham, I’ve mentioned it a couple of times already, but this is right where Matthew’s genealogy ends. I guess you could say, begins. Because he starts there, and he works his way up. But Luke keeps going. Next he mentions, verse 34, Terah, father of Abraham. Nahor, grandfather of Abraham. Verse 35, we see five names there: Serug, Reu, Peleg, Heber and Shelah, those are all mentioned in Genesis 11. Those are the generations of Shem who was the son of Noah.

Verse 36, there’s a name that doesn’t look quite as familiar, Cainan. Now, that name doesn’t appear in that place between Shelah and Arphaxad in the Hebrew Old Testament. But it does appear in that particular place in the Greek Old Testament, the Septuagint, the LXX. All that means is that Luke apparently was using the Septuagint as he put his genealogy together.

These remaining names are all names we see in the days both before and after the flood. Arphaxad, the son of Shem. Shem, one of the three sons of Noah. Noah, of course, the one who built the Ark. Noah is the son of Lamech. Lamech, is the son of Methusaleh. Methusaleh the longest living human, 969 years, he’s the son of Enoch.
Enoch, we know, didn’t die but was taken up to heaven, he’s the son of Jared.
Jared, the son of Mahalaleel. Mahalalel, is the son of Cainan, there’s that name again. Now this one we do know of, because he appears in Genesis 5, although he’s spelled there K-e-n-a-n. Cainan, son of Enosh. Enosh was the son of Seth. Seth, we know, was the third son of Adam and Eve, following Cain and Abel.

And then Luke’s genealogy ends, at least in human terms, with this mention, verse 38, of Adam, the one who was originally made in God’s image in Genesis 1. The one from whom the entire human race descends. And the one who would ultimately send humanity into a downward plunge of sin. So, Luke goes all the way back to Adam then to stress Jesus’s humanity. He came as the Son of Man. He came as the perfect man, the perfect human – the spotless Lamb to bring about perfect redemption for people like you and me.

That ties to our fifth and our final point this morning, which is simply this, “The Main Point.” The main point of Luke’s genealogy, the immediate purpose of his genealogy. I’ve got to say, it’s been fascinating for me to read through this volume of material all week long. And to be reminded of all these people who were in Jesus’ family tree, in both Luke’s Gospel and Matthew’s Gospel. But this is that point in the sermon where it’s important that I bring it for everybody back into focus here. And remember that the study that we’ve been engaged in here and what Luke’s point here was in bringing all this to bear for Theophilus, was to establish that Jesus was of the lineage of David, the line from whom the Messiah would arise. And Jesus was of the royal line of Judah from whom, we know from Genesis 49, the scepter would never depart. And Jesus came as Abraham’s seed. And He was pointing to the Abrahamic promise. And He was from Adam’s line, connecting Him as the Son of Man to all humanity.

And then finally, end of verse 38, we see that He is “the Son of God.” And that’s really the main point. That these genealogical details that we’ve been looking at all morning, that they had a point and a purpose foreordained by God Himself as He brought His Son, the Son of God, the Savior, into the world. It was all pointing to His ultimate plan of salvation and rescue.

As we wrap up our time together here this morning, just a few items I’d love for you to take home with you on your 84th Street conversations. First, is to remember that God is a God who keeps His promises. You want to talk about some takeaways, let’s start with that one, as we’ve gone through this waterfall of names and people. God is a God who keeps His promises. We’ve been seeing that throughout this text. The arrival of the Messiah in the person of Jesus was in fulfillment of a promise that God made to Abraham. And in fulfillment of a promise God made to David. And that same God is an unchanging God. And He has always been and always will be faithful to the promises He makes with and through His word. So, His faithfulness in the past, in other words, is the surety that the promise we have that He’ll be faithful in the future.

Second observation here, is that God works providentially through unexpected means. And He often works providentially through very unheralded people. I mean, how many people did we consider today that right now sitting here we know nothing about, virtual nobodies during their time. But as God was directing the traffic of human history leading up to the arrival of His Son on earth, they all played a part in God’s plans. And what an encouragement that is for us today, even in our seasons of disappointment or hopelessness or feeling especially small. To think that God is working through these seemingly minor and insignificant events, through insignificant people like us, to bring about events that are only for His purposes in events He has foreordained.

Third, is that what we see here, Jesus is not only fully God, the Son of God. But He is fully man, He’s the son of Adam. So, He’s not only the creator and the sustainer of all, but He is this fully human, compassionate, merciful Lord of our lives. Luke has shown us that He is not only this transcendental God of the universe who towers over us in purity and glory, at the same time He’s a very sympathetic Savior. And again, there’s intentionality here with where Luke placed this genealogy between these very human events of Jesus’ baptism and Jesus’ temptation. They show us just how human He was. And how humanly relatable He is.

Last, this text reminds us that God’s word is a treasure. All of it, even the genealogies. We’ve spent an hour looking through 77 names. We’ve spent an hour looking through names that other preachers, pastors, churches would stay away from. They would only go here with a gun to their head, or if they lost the bet, right? Well, I hope what this has shown us this morning is that running through all of these difficult-to-pronounce names are these silver threads of God’s sovereignty over all of history. And also, man’s salvation through Christ Jesus. That not only makes reading this genealogy doable, but it provides a rest and hope for we who believe.

Let’s pray. Father, thank You for this time this morning. Thank You for sustaining us in what is a sometimes a difficult time and a difficult part of scripture to work our way through patiently. But God, the difficulty is not in any sense of You, it’s of us, in our own weakness, in our own impatience. And our own inability to see how You have worked through history, through various names and circumstances and people and situations. So, God, I pray that what this message has done, is renewed in us a love for You, a love for Your word, its purity, its clarity, it’s consistency. And at the same time, I pray, we can still see and hold on to that silver thread of what You did through these names. And bringing about Your perfect plan of redemption through Your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Help us to take these truths to heart this morning. Help us not to let these thoughts we’re having float away. Help us to take what we’ve learned, apply it to our lives, with the Spirit’s help, for Your glory. In Christ’s name, amen.