Let us pray. Father, it's only days until what
we know it as Christmas Day. Thank you for the
Christ, the Messiah. Thank you for sending your
son. Please speak to us this morning and help
us to live in light of him. Amen. Friends, Matthew,
Mark, Luke and John. They are so different and
yet they are so much the same. When it comes
to differences, one thing that is different is
the family trees that Matthew and Luke include.
You could say that Mark and John are not into
family trees. That's right. Matthew and Luke
are. Mark and John aren't. Out of interest, who
here is into family trees? Come on, hands up.
Well, some of us love family trees and the details
they provide, but some of us are more like Mark
and John and not into them. I must admit that
I've never been that interested in family trees.
When people tell me how they are researching
the family tree, I usually tell them that I can
save them a lot of time. We all go back to Noah
and then we all go back to Adam. But that is
just me. Well, whether we are more like a Matthew
or a Mark or a Luke or a John, there is one family
tree that we need to be interested in. It is
Jesus' family tree. not have forgotten Matthew
and Luke to put it in the Bible if it was not
that important. God obviously thought it was
of great importance to have it recorded in the
Bible and twice. Once in Matthew chapter 1 and
once in Luke chapter 3. Now you'll see in your
bulletin a printout of Matthew's family tree
and I've made some bits bold. Matthew has certainly
added those bits for a reason. Now we won't get
to look at all of them today, but we'll look
at some of them. Now Matthew has recorded for
us a family tree that goes all the way from Abraham
to Jesus. And that included a lot of very difficult
names. Well done, Paul. That is basically 2 ,000
years of history. and includes at least 42 generations.
This is mind -blowing stuff. Mind -blowing. Think
about it. In history classes, we were taught
that James Cook claimed Australia in 1770. That
is only 255 years ago. We're talking about 2
,000 years ago. We, if Australian born, have
enough trouble tracing things back to a possible
convict ancestry of 200 years. But here we're
talking about 2 ,000 years, 10 times that. Yes,
mind -blowing stuff. I don't even know my great
-great -grandparents' names. Here we have Jesus'
great times 38 grandfather's name. Abraham. Great,
great, great, great, great, great, great, great,
great, great. And if you want something more,
if you're really into family trees, have a look
at Luke chapter 3. He goes back another 2 ,000
years or 4 ,000 years of generations in total.
Right back to Adam, Eve's husband. Very, very
mind -blowing stuff indeed. You could say that
the Bible is not just full of Jesus, it's also
full of historical data, much more than you and
I could ever, ever do. So let's have a look at
verse 1 from Matthew chapter 1. We are told in
the very first verse, this is the genealogy of
Jesus the Messiah. That is, God's chosen one,
anointed by him, the son of David, the son of
Abraham. I believe that this verse tells us exactly
what Matthew wants to show his readers. He wants
to show them that Jesus is the Messiah. that
Israel has been waiting on. Matthew is simply
saying, look, Jesus is the Messiah. Look, here
is also added proof, Jesus is the son of David.
Look, Jesus is also the son of Abraham. He is
the one God said he would send. That is, Jesus
is the descendant of the Lion of David some 1
,000 years ago and also the descendant of Abraham
some 2 ,000 years ago, just as God promised the
Messiah will be. Hence why we had read to us
Psalm 89. We're repeatedly told in the Old Testament
that God will send a Messiah or a branch, as
we're also told in Zechariah and Isaiah, who
is from the line of Abraham and the line of David.
That, no doubt, very much limits who it could
be. And that's my first point this morning. What's
so important about Jesus' family tree? It shows
us that Jesus is of the nation and family out
of which the Messiah was to come. God, in approximately
2000 BC, said to Abraham that the whole world
would be blessed through him. Not one of his
brothers or sisters, but through him. The Messiah.
God even made a covenant with him about that.
That is, he promised he would send him through
him. And so Israel waited and waited. They knew
that through their father, Abraham, God would
deliver great blessing to them. And if one reads
the rest of the scriptures, you find that Israel
was very proud that Abraham was their father.
No doubt because of this very promise. This makes
me think, Wendy, where's Wendy? Wendy, we should
sing Father Abraham. admit though that i don't
think many in the nation of israel fully realized
what god had said to abraham he said all people
will be blessed through him all people not just
the israeli people god was actually on about
something much bigger than many of them had perhaps
realized god also made a covenant a promise with
david now this is some 1 000 years later By now
I guess many of the Israeli people would have
thought, when on earth is God going to deliver
his promise to Abraham? Like now it's been extended
to David. And I think that's fair to say that
when David came along, some thought that David
himself was the Messiah. After all, Israel was
on the crest of a wave, you could say, when he
was king. But the answer from God was a clear,
No, he was not the Messiah. But God's Messiah
would come through his descendants. One needs
to remember an important point here. When Jesus
arrived, it had been around 1 ,000 years. That's
a long time. Since God reiterated pretty much
the very same things to David. And to add to
that, it was around 400 years since the last
Old Testament prophecy. Yes, God was pretty quiet
for a very long time before Jesus arrives on
the scene. And so the Jews should have been absolutely
hanging out by this point, let alone Jews who
are not Christians today. And so here he is now.
It's been a long time coming. Some would have
thought, But others might have questioned, is
he really the one promised by God to Abraham?
Is he really the one that God also promised to
David? Is he really the one that God had spoken
all about a very long time ago and reminded us
through the prophets? Well, enter Jesus' family
tree in Matthew. He certainly is, as far as Matthew
is concerned. And he goes to length to show that
such through his family tree. Not only is Jesus
a descendant of Abraham, he's also a descendant
of David, irrespective of how long it has been.
And that's why by the time of Jesus, some, many
referred to him, well, cried out to him, son
of David. That phrase is actually mentioned,
I looked it up, ten times in Matthew. Son of
David. Let's move on. What's so important about
Jesus' family tree? The second thing is, it shows
us that God's understanding of time is nothing
like ours. Can you imagine God saying to you
at the age of 25 what he basically said to Abraham
and to David? The Messiah will come through you.
The Messiah will be one of your descendants.
I promise you this. This is my covenant for you.
Covenant with you. And you get to 40 and still
nothing. You get to retiring age and still nothing.
You are in Regis Aged Care Facility or Botanica.
And still nothing. And then you die. So your
son thinks, God must be going to bring the Messiah
through me if it wasn't my dad. And so you get
to 40, 60, booper, and still nothing. And then
you die. So now it's your grandson's turn. He
thinks, maybe it's going to happen in my lifetime.
But then you start to think, maybe God has forgotten.
Well, add to this 40 odd generations. 2 ,000
years. And I'm thinking, God has certainly forgotten.
And then you remember Psalm 90. Well, you should.
Do you know Psalm 90? It's a psalm written by
that great leader of God's people, Moses. He
was sort of in the middle of that period between
Abraham and David, Moses. And Moses wrote the
psalm. It's in verse 4 that we need to look at.
How about we read it together? This verse is
referring to God. Together, a thousand years
in your sight are like a day that has just gone
by. or like a watch in the night. Therefore,
one could say that from God's point of view,
the time from Abraham to the arrival of the Messiah,
Jesus, was not 2 ,000 years. It was only like
two days or two watches in a night. One could
also say that from God's point of view, the death
and resurrection of Jesus, It was just the other
night. And so he's promised to return to judge
us in our response to Jesus, that is who he is,
the Messiah, God's son. And what he's done for
us, perfectly lived and awfully died but gloriously
rose to save us from the penalty of our sins,
was just the other day. But to say that is really
missing the point. The point is that God is not
bound by time like we are. Compare also 2 Peter
3 .8. You know what? I'm sometimes like God.
For example, Sue's always telling me that I've
no concept of time. And just as I can annoy Sue,
so too... Does that annoy us? God is not bound
by time. And so when he says things we can think
he's so slow to deliver, we may even start to
think that he's forgotten to deliver. You can
write this down on your outline. Time may exercise
our patience, but time never weakens any of God's
promises. 2 ,000 years didn't weaken God's promise
of a Messiah. Jesus did come just as God promised
to Abraham and David. Likewise, a few thousand
years will not weaken God's promise that Jesus
will return to judge all people, including all
of us. At NHA, Northern Hope Anglican. God might
be beyond time, but his timing is perfect. We,
in this quick -fix, instant everything -or -else
society, don't like to wait for things. But this,
his first coming, and now his second coming,
might seem to us to be thousands of years. But
not to him. What's so important about Jesus'
family tree? The third and final reason today
is this. It shows us that God's plans are not
thwarted. That's a big word, isn't it? Thwarted.
It's a hard word to pronounce too. Thwarted by
our behaviour. And I mean good, indifferent or
simply, outrightly bad behaviour. At one level
it doesn't matter. God's plans will not be thwarted.
There's such a mix of people here in this family
tree and Matthew helps us with his little comments,
comments that I've put in bold. There are heroes
of faith in this family tree like Abraham, Isaac,
Ruth and David. There are some very ordinary
names. like Hezron, Ram, Nashon and Akim. Actually
for Akim, this is the only mention of his name
in the whole Bible. But there are some very shady
characters like Rahab and Tamar. There are some
very evil people like Manasseh and Abijah. And
if you're into family trees, You might have thought
there were some undesirables in yours. Well,
here we have, in this family tree, prostitution,
adultery, murder and incest. Yes, what a family
tree indeed. For example, what's behind verse
3 is incest. What's behind verse 6 is murder
and adultery. And did you notice something about
this verse? Bathsheba isn't even mentioned. But
David is mentioned and mentioned as king. Yes,
the king of Israel. It makes us realise that
Israel was sadly not that great of a nation.
He might have ridden on the crest of a wave as
their king, but he stacked it big time. And then
in verse 10, we read one of the evilest kings,
I think that's a word, evilest kings that Israel
had, Manasseh. He even sacrificed his sons. Can
you believe that? He sacrificed his sons to a
pagan god. 2 Chronicles 33. You can read all
about it. Yes, as we look down this list of names,
we see a lot of serious personal sin in the leaders
of Israel. We also see, thanks to Matthew, the
sins of the whole nation, with the very mention
of the exile to Babylon. And so we see the disobedience
of individuals as well as the disobedience of
the nation, Israel. Yet, God still keeps his
word, his promises. And aren't we glad? Like,
when I sometimes look at the state of some of
the churches today, Anglican churches included,
I'm so glad that God's plans will never be thwarted
by our behaviour. Like, when I look at some of
the church leaders today, Anglican church leaders
included. I'm so glad that God's plans will never
be thwarted by our behaviour. When I look at
how complacent and comfortable and lukewarm some
churches are today, Anglican churches included,
I'm so glad that God's plans will never be thwarted
by our behaviour. When I see how many self -confessing
Christians give church a miss because of the
slightest hiccup in their life, or a clash with
another engagement, I'm so glad that God's plans
will never be thwarted by our behaviour. When
I see how many self -confessing Christians so
preoccupied it seems with discouraging words
and comments rather than encouraging words and
comments, I'm so glad that God's plans will never
be thwarted by our behaviour. When I see what
happened in Bondi, I'm so glad that God's plans
will never be thwarted by our behaviour. And
friends, when I look at my own life, my familial
leadership as a husband, as a father, as a grandfather,
as well as my church leadership as your pastor
for one more week, My behaviour. God will achieve
his dream at the perfect time. He will finish
building the kingdom that his son, Jesus, the
branch, the Messiah, the Christ, his chosen one,
has started. It's a kingdom he promised to Abraham
and to David. It will be a kingdom of people
who love him. Will you be there? Will you be
in his kingdom? Will I be in his kingdom? It
all depends on our response, ongoing response,
to his Messiah. May we respond rightly on Christmas
Day, Thursday, this coming week. rather than
the importance of Jesus' family tree, we'll be
looking at something else that is very important,
Jesus' birth. And Brendan will lead us through
that. So see you all, God willing, on Christmas
Day 2025. Amen.