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Amen. All right, we're there in Luke chapter number three. And of course, on Sundays we've been working our way through the book of Luke verse by verse, chapter by chapter, and we find ourselves tonight in Luke chapter number three. We're gonna finish the gospel of Luke tonight. And in our study, we come to Luke chapter three and verse 23, and of course, verse 23 through 38 begin a series of verses which are the genealogy of the Lord Jesus Christ. And tonight we're gonna look at the genealogy of Christ. And just by way of introduction, let me just give you some kind of just introductory thoughts in regards to genealogies. First of all, let me say this, that the genealogies in Scripture are a part of the Word of God. They are just as much the Word of God as John 3.16 and in any other part of Scripture. I talked about this this morning, but let me read it for you again. Second Timothy chapter three and verse 16 says this, all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. The Bible says that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and it is all profitable. You can learn from all of it. And I think people have a tendency to look at genealogies in the Bible and just kind of ignore them or roll their eyes. Sometimes I hear people say that they actually skip reading through genealogies. And I would just submit to you that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and we shouldn't look at any portions of Scripture less than others. Obviously there's gonna be parts of Scripture that are more applicable and maybe a little more exciting or fun to read through, but it's all the Word of God. So normally when a preacher would be preaching through the Gospel of Luke, they would skip the genealogies, but we're not gonna do that at our church. I'm gonna preach through the entire Bible. When I get to the place where I can say we've preached through the entire Bible, I want to be able to say with integrity that we have preached through every verse, every chapter, every book of the Bible. And I believe that God gave us this genealogy for a reason. So we're gonna look at it, we're gonna study it. And that's actually the next introductory point that I wanna say is not only are genealogies a part of Scripture, but genealogies are in the Bible for a reason. God puts these genealogies in there for a reason. He's not just trying to make the reading difficult for you. When you're reading through the Old Testament, you get into all those genealogies. He's not just trying to make it hard for you. All those genealogies are there to prove something. They're there for a purpose. They're there for a reason. And so we need to just look at it and study it and figure out why it's there and why God gave it to us. So genealogies are a part of Scripture. They're there for a reason. Let me just say this about genealogies as well, because this seems to throw people off. But genealogies oftentimes in the Bible, and not just in the Bible, just throughout history, skip people. So sometimes people, when they go into studying a genealogy, they come in with this preconceived idea that the genealogies have to cover just every single person that ever lived in that line. But what I would say to you is show me in the Bible where God said, you know, by the way, every genealogy I give you, I'm just going to name every single person. Because if you understand that the purpose, that the genealogy is given for a purpose, then you'll sometimes realize that God purposely skips people or doesn't mention certain people. And we're gonna go into more details about that later on in the sermon. But I just want you to kind of understand these things as we're going into it. Genealogies are part of Scripture. They're there for a reason. God gave them to us for a reason. He's trying to prove something to us. And oftentimes these genealogies do skip people or sometimes you'll take genealogies that are from the same line and you'll compare them and there'll be differences because some people are missing or some people are added. And there's reasons for that and it's completely normal. When it comes to the genealogy of Christ, there are two genealogies for the Lord Jesus Christ. The one that we're looking at tonight is here in Luke chapter number three. And there's another one in Matthew chapter number one. There's two genealogies for the Lord Jesus Christ. One that is a patriarchal genealogy that goes through the side of his adopted father. And then the other is a genealogy that goes to the side of his mother. So what we're gonna do tonight is I'm gonna give you five statements in regards to these genealogies. And we're going to compare and contrast the two genealogies of the Lord Jesus Christ. The one found in Luke chapter three and the one found in Matthew chapter one. And we're gonna just flip back and forth between those and a few other passages. I'm gonna give you some statements in regards to the genealogies. It's gonna be very much and probably feel very much like a Bible study tonight. But then at the end, I wanna close with an application in regards to the genealogy. So we're gonna compare and contrast the genealogies of the Lord Jesus Christ, the one found in the Gospel according to Luke, the other one in Matthew. And I want you to maybe look at some differences here and see what it is that God is doing. I'm gonna give you five statements. They're a little wordy, so if you wanna write these down, I'll try to say them slowly and repeat them as you need it. And I would encourage you to write these things down as we move through this. The first statement, as we compare and contrast these two genealogies of the Lord Jesus Christ, and this is not something that's really important, but I just want you to be aware of it. The genealogy in Matthew, in fact, go with me, if you would, to the book of Matthew, Matthew chapter number one. Find Matthew one and just put a ribbon or a bookmark or something there, because we're gonna flip back and forth between Luke three and Matthew one. Find Matthew chapter one, put your finger there, and then go back to Luke chapter number three. And let me just point this out to you. The genealogy in Matthew is what we would refer to as a descending genealogy, meaning that it starts at a certain place and it goes down. So the genealogy in Matthew begins with Abraham, and it goes from Abraham down to the time of the Lord Jesus Christ, or you could say from Abraham forward to the time of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's a descending genealogy where the genealogy in Luke is what we refer to as an ascending genealogy, meaning it begins at the time of Christ or it begins with Joseph and Mary, and it goes up towards Adam, or it goes back however way you wanna see it. But I want you to notice that the genealogies are formatted different. In Luke chapter three and verse 23, the Bible says this, and Jesus himself began to be about 30 years of age being, notice in parentheses there, as was supposed, because we know that his father is God the father, but as was supposed the son of Joseph, which was the son of Heli, which was the son of, and it goes on. So you notice we start there with Joseph at the time of Christ, and we go backwards, which was the son of Heli, which was the son of, and it goes all the way back to Adam. That's an ascending genealogy. If you flip to Matthew chapter one and verse two, why don't you notice the descending genealogy, Matthew one and verse two, the Bible says, Abraham begat Isaac, and Isaac begat Jacob, and Jacob begat Judas and his brethren. You'll notice that it descends there, and it starts with Abraham, and it goes all the way down to the Lord Jesus Christ. So one comparison and contrast between the two genealogies is that the genealogy in Matthew is a descending genealogy, and the genealogy in Luke is an ascending genealogy. Another contrast that I want you to understand is this. The genealogy in Matthew is Joseph's genealogy. It is the genealogy of Joseph, and the genealogy in Luke is Mary's genealogy. It's the genealogy of the mother of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I'm not gonna turn to any verses right now to prove that to you, because I'm gonna prove that to you through the rest of these statements that I'm gonna give you. But the first thing I want you to notice, and this isn't hard to grasp, but it's just that one is an ascending genealogy, the other is a descending genealogy. The other thing I want you to be aware of is that the genealogy in Matthew is Joseph's genealogy, and the genealogy in Luke is Mary's genealogy, and that'll be proven to you with the rest of these three statements that I wanna give you. Number three, and we're gonna spend a little more time on that one. The first and the second one we're kind of fast to go to. The genealogy in Matthew, because remember we talked about the fact that God gives these genealogies for a reason. He gives them to us with a purpose. There's something that he's trying to show us or prove to us. The genealogy in Matthew is proving that Jesus is the King of the Jews. When you ask yourself, what is the purpose of the genealogy in the gospel according to Matthew, the purpose of the genealogy is to prove to us that Jesus is the King of the Jews. Versus the genealogy in Luke. The genealogy in Luke chapter number three is not written to prove to us that Jesus is the King of the Jews. In fact, it doesn't prove to us that Jesus is the King of the Jews, but the genealogy in Luke is meant to prove to us that Jesus is the Son of Man, or that he is a human being. The term Son of Man means that he is a descendant of Adam, the first man, that he is a human being. The genealogy in Luke, the purpose of that genealogy is to prove to us the humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ. The genealogy in Matthew is to prove to us the kingship of the Lord Jesus Christ, the fact that he is the King of the Jews. Now let me just kind of point some things out for you in regards to these genealogies there. Go to Matthew chapter number one, if you would. Matthew chapter number one. Remember, Matthew one is, the purpose is what? To prove that Jesus is the King of the Jews. So when the genealogy begins there in Matthew chapter number one and verse number one, the Bible says this, the book of the generations of Jesus Christ, so it says here's the generations, or here's the genealogy of the Lord Jesus Christ, and it says this, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham. Right there in the very first verse, it tells us what the purpose of this genealogy is. It is to show us that the Lord Jesus Christ was the Son of David and the Son of Abraham, and that is the purpose, that is the point. You say, why would we need a genealogy to prove to us that Jesus is the Son of David and the Son of Abraham? Here's why. Because if you remember, the purpose of this genealogy is to prove that Jesus is the King of the Jews. So the book of the generations of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, that would make him the King. Remember, David was the King. David's line is the line of the King. David had a son named Solomon who had a son named Rehoboam and so forth, and Jesus is from that lineage, so proving that his lineage goes back to David makes him a king, proving that his lineage goes past David to Abraham makes him a Hebrew or a Jew, and this purpose is to prove that he is the King of the Jews. So right off the bat there in verse one, he's telling us the purpose of this genealogy, the book of the generations of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham, and notice for that reason, it begins at verse number two with Abraham. Abraham begat Isaac, and Isaac begat Jacob, and Jacob begat Judas and his brethren, and it goes on all the way down to the Lord Jesus Christ. Why? Because the genealogy in Matthew starts with Abraham to show that Jesus was a Jew, and it also focuses on the kings of Israel. You'll notice that when you go from Abraham to David, and then when you get to David, it focuses on David and the kingly line of the nation of Israel. Notice there in Matthew chapter one and verse six, and Jesse begat David the king. Notice the emphasis there. David the king, we're told he's the king. Why? Because it's proving that Jesus is a king, and David the king begat Solomon of her that had been the wife of your eyes, and it goes on, and you'll notice that it gives us the line of the different kings of Judah, and again, why? To prove to us that Jesus is the king of the Jews. By the way, we talked about this a few weeks ago, but each one of the gospels has a different emphasis itself, not just the genealogies in those gospels, but the gospels themselves. If you remember, the Gospel of Matthew has a theme throughout, which is proving that Jesus is the king. The purpose of the Gospel of Matthew is to prove that Jesus is the king of the Jews. For example, in the Gospel of Matthew, the word kingdom is used 54 times. In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus is called the son of David 16 times. If you've been reading your nine chapters a day, you may remember that as you read through the Gospel of Matthew, you'll notice that people refer to Jesus as the son of David 16 times, as opposed to three times in the Gospel of Luke and three times in the Gospel of Mark, which that phrase is used. So in Luke and in Mark, Jesus is referred to as the son of David three times. In Matthew, he's referred to as the son of David 16 times. Why? Because the purpose of Matthew is to point back to the fact that Jesus is a king. That's why the word kingdom is used 54 times. The phrase son of David is used 16 times. That's why the lineage in Matthew is there to prove that he is the king, the son of David, of the Jews, the son of Abraham. And it's the genealogy of Joseph. And you might say, well, Joseph was not his physical, literal father, and we understand that. But Joseph was Jesus' adopted father, and as a result of being adopted into that family, Jesus would legally have a claim to the throne of David through his connection to Joseph. Joseph was in that line of kings, and Jesus became the son of Joseph through marriage and adoption. Jesus was legally the rightful king because of the genealogy of his adopted father, Joseph, that goes through Solomon through David. So the purpose of the genealogy in Matthew is proving that Jesus is the king of the Jews. Now, when you compare that to the genealogy in Luke, or go to Luke chapter number three, you'll notice a difference. Because the genealogy in Luke is making a different point. The genealogy in Luke is making that point, the point that Jesus is the son of man, or that Jesus is a human being. Notice, in Luke chapter three and verse 38, we have a difference, because remember, the genealogy in Matthew, it starts from Abraham, it goes to David, it goes through Solomon, the line of Solomon, and it goes all the way down to Joseph. And it's a descending genealogy. When you read the genealogy in Luke chapter three, it begins at the time of Christ with Mary and Joseph, and it goes backwards, but when you go all the way down, and I'm not gonna take the time to read the whole thing, we read it before the sermon, when you get all the way to the end, it goes past David, it goes past Abraham, and it continues on all the way to Adam, the first man. Notice Luke chapter three, verse 38. Which was the son of Enos? Which was the son of Seth? Which was the son of Adam? Which was the son of God? So why would the genealogy in Luke go all the way back to Adam? Because the purpose of the genealogy in Luke is to prove that Jesus was truly the son of man, he was a human being, he was God, yes, in the flesh. God became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the word was made flesh. God, the Bible says, was manifest in the flesh. See, Mary's genealogy goes back to David, and it goes past Abraham, and it goes to Solomon. Now, here's what's interesting. Remember, Matthew's genealogy from Joseph goes back to David, but it goes back to David through Solomon. Mary's genealogy in Luke goes back to David as well, but it goes back to David through a different son. Look at Luke chapter three and verse number 31. Luke chapter three and verse number 31. Notice what the Bible says here. Luke chapter three and verse 31. It says, which was the son of Meliah? Which was the son of Menon? Which was the son of Matatha? Which was the son of Nathan? Which was the son of David? Now, I want you to notice, and I want you to compare this, and I don't think I, I must have not written down the verse, so let me just find it for you real quick. You're there in Luke 3.31. Go back to Matthew chapter one just real quickly. I want you to see this. Matthew chapter one, look at verse six. And Jesse begat David the king, and David the king begat Solomon of her that had been the wife of Uriah. Now, David had more than one son, obviously, but Solomon was the son that took the kingdom. The kingly line continued through his son Solomon. In Matthew, we're told that Jesse begat David the king, and David the king begat Solomon of her that had been the wife of Uriah, and Solomon begat Rehoboam. You'll notice from Solomon, we have a list of the kings of Judah. Begat Rehoboam, and Rehoboam begat Abiah, and Abiah begat Asa, and Asa begat Josephat, and Josephat begat Joram, and Joram begat Ozias, and if you're familiar with the Old Testament, these names are familiar to you because you've read their stories. Ezechias, and Manasseh, Hezekiah, Josias, Jeconias, these different men were in the kingly line that came through Solomon. If you look at Mary's genealogy, go back to Luke chapter three and verse 31, it also goes back to David, but notice it doesn't go back to David through the line of Solomon, it goes through David through a different son, Luke 3 31, which was the son of Meliah, which was the son of Minan, which was the son of Metetha, which was the son of Nathan, which was the son of David. So David had a son after Solomon who he named Nathan. Isn't that interesting? Remember, Nathan the prophet was the one who came and told David, thou art the man, you know? That oughta teach us something about how David took hard preaching. Instead of getting offended that Nathan showed up and put his finger in his face and said, thou art the man, you're committing adultery and you need to get right with God, you know, instead of getting offended and quitting the church, David got right with God and even named one of his sons after that prophet, named one of his sons Nathan. And Mary's descendancy goes through another son of David, one named Nathan, and she goes, so here's what's interesting, Jesus goes back to David through both lines, through Joseph, his adopted father's line, and through Mary, his physical line. So Jesus, even though you say, well, it goes back through Solomon and David, through Joseph's line, but he's his stepfather or his adopted father, but Jesus was still physically a descendant of David through Mary and Mary physically gave birth to Jesus. So he was physically the son of David, which obviously makes him the son of Abraham and he goes back to Adam, but he was also legally the son of David and had a claim to the throne. So these two different genealogies are teaching two different things. One is emphasizing the fact that Jesus is the son of man. And by the way, the Bible, because in the Gospels, you'll have these terms used about Jesus. One is the son of God, that's the one we're most familiar with. Jesus referred to as the son of God. The second is he's referred to as the son of man. The third is that he's referred to as the son of David. These are all terms used about the Lord Jesus Christ and they all have emphasis. The fact that he's referred to as the son of God proves his deity, that his father was God the father. The fact that he's referred to as the son of man proves his humanity, that he was God in the flesh. The fact that he's referred to as the son of David refers to his Christ line, his kingly line, the fact that he was the Messiah, the fact that he was the chosen one. But here's what's interesting. The term son of God, which is the most known term of Jesus, is one of the least used terms. In fact, the term son of man is used 88 times in the Gospels in reference to the Lord Jesus Christ. He's referred to as the son of man more than he's referred to as the son of God. And like I already explained, he's referred to as the son of David 16 times in the book of Luke and six different times in the other Gospels. So we see that the genealogy of Matthew is proving that Jesus is the king of the Jews and the genealogy in Luke is proving that Jesus is the son of man or that he is the son of Adam, that he is a human being. Let me give you the foresight. I mean, go back to Matthew chapter one if you would. And let me just say this. Because sometimes people, they like to argue about which genealogy belongs to who. Is Luke's, Mary's genealogy, is Matthew's, Joseph's genealogy or vice versa? And if people have different opinions, that's fine. I'm not gonna argue with you about that. But my position is that the genealogy in Matthew belongs to Joseph and the genealogy in Luke belongs to Mary. Now people, sometimes they get confused because they both say Joseph, all right? But let me just help you out, okay? Joseph did not have two dads, okay? Maybe in 2022, but not back then, all right? So obviously, when you read the genealogies, especially the ones in the Old Testament, you'll find that women are usually not mentioned in those genealogies. So when you see the name of Joseph, because his name appears in both genealogies, one of them is a genealogy of Mary and Mary is being represented by her husband, Joseph. And then one is a genealogy of Joseph. Because if both genealogies were of Joseph, then that would mean that Joseph had two dads. That doesn't make any sense. So you say, well, how do you come to the conclusion that Matthew's is Joseph's and Luke's is Mary's? Well, several ways, and let me just give you the first one. If you study the gospels, not only does Matthew emphasize the kingdom, right, emphasizes the son of David, emphasizes the fact that Jesus is the king, and Luke puts his emphasis on the humanity of Christ, not just gives us, he doesn't just give us a genealogy that goes back to Adam, but all throughout the gospel of Luke, we have Luke the physician. He's telling us all sorts of things. He's the most descriptive about the physical humanity of Christ. He gives us the most description of the death of Christ and what happened to his body when he died. He gives us all these descriptions of the fact that Jesus was a human being. Here's what's interesting. When you study the gospel of Matthew and you get to the Christmas story, because not only are there only two gospels that give us genealogies, there's really only two gospels that give us the Christmas story. You have a genealogy in Matthew, chapter one. You have a genealogy in Luke, chapter three. You have the Christmas story in Matthew, chapter one and two and you have the Christmas story in Luke, chapters one, two, and chapter two. So in the two gospels that you have the two genealogies, you also have the two Christmas stories. Here's what's interesting. When you study those Christmas stories is this, that the Christmas story in Matthew focuses on Joseph, while the Christmas story in Luke focuses on Mary. Let me show it to you, and I don't have time to preach through all those Christmas stories. I already did it in Luke, but let me just give you some highlights. Matthew, chapter one, look at verse 18. Here we have the Christmas story in the book of Matthew. Matthew, chapter one, verse 18. Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise, right? So Matthew's about to tell us about the birth of Christ. When as his mother Mary was a spouse, notice the focus was a spouse to Joseph. Before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. Then Joseph, her husband, being a just man and not willing to make her public example, was minded to put her away privately. Here the Bible tells us that Joseph, he found out that he's married to Mary, but they've not yet consummated the marriage, which means that he, under the law of Moses, because they've not consummated the marriage that he could have divorced her, and he's contemplating what he should do because he just found out that the girl that he married, the girl that he loves, he's just not consummated. He just found out that she's with child. So what would any man think? But it shows you though that he was a just man because in verse 19, first of all, the Bible tells us he was a just man, but also tells us that he was not willing to make her a public example. So here you have Joseph who just found out that the love of his life in his mind was unfaithful to him, and yet we don't see him being vindictive and just dragging her name through the mud. He was not willing to make her a public example and was minded to put her away privately. The Bible there, when it says minded, it doesn't mean that that's what he was going to do. He was just thinking about, in his mind, he was considering, should I put her away privately, verse 20, but while he thought on these things, so notice he hasn't made a decision yet, he's just thinking about this and kind of processing this, but while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou, notice, son of David, because Joseph was the son of David as well, he came from that kingly line, fear not to take unto thee, marry thy wife, for that which is conceived in her is up the Holy Ghost. And when you study the Christmas story in the Gospel of Matthew, you'll notice that you see it through the perspective of Joseph. Joseph is the emphasis, he's the main character in this Christmas story in Matthew. Let me give you another example. Go to Matthew chapter two, look at verse 13. This is after the birth of Christ, when the wise men have already showed up, and when Herod is going to begin to kill all the children two years old and under. Notice Matthew chapter two and verse 13, and when they were departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word, for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him. When he, referring to Joseph, arose, he took the young child and his mother by night and departed into Egypt. So you notice that Matthew gives us the story from the perspective of Joseph that's in contrast to the Gospel of Luke. Go to Luke chapter one. Luke chapter one, you should be familiar with this because we just preached through the Christmas story in Luke but let me show it to you. The Christmas story in the Gospel of Luke focuses on Mary and gives you Mary's perspective. Luke chapter one, verse 26, and in the sixth month, the angel of Gabriel was sent from God unto the city of Galilee named Nazareth, notice, to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph. And Matthew said to Joseph, who was espoused to a virgin, and Luke says to a virgin, that was espoused to Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin's name was Mary. And the angel came in unto her and said, hail thou, thou that art highly favored, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women. And I won't take the time, we've already gone through it, but if you remember the Gospel of Luke, it focuses on Mary. We have Mary being told that she was with child. We have Mary going to visit her cousin Elizabeth. We have Mary's song of praise. We see it all through the perspective of Mary. So because Matthew focuses on Joseph and Luke focuses on Mary, it would make sense that the genealogy in Matthew is about Joseph and the genealogy in Luke is about Mary. Now that's only one reason why I've come to that position and that conclusion and I know many good men that have. But let me give you another reason why we know or we believe or we have confidence that the one in Matthew is about Joseph and the one in Luke is about Mary. Go back to Matthew chapter one and look at verse 16. So let me just recap. We're talking about these genealogies. One, the genealogy in Matthew is a descending genealogy and the genealogy in Luke is an ascending genealogy. Two, the genealogy in Matthew is Joseph's genealogy and the genealogy in Luke is Mary's genealogy. How do we know that? One reason is because the genealogy in Matthew is proving that Jesus is the King of the Jews and the other one is because the genealogy in Luke is proving that Jesus is the Son of Man. So as we've already seen in the passage, it would make sense that Joseph's genealogy is the one that goes back through Solomon and David since the angel refers to him as the Son of David, which would be a term that would be used for a king or someone that was in the kingly line. And it would make sense that Mary's genealogy goes back to Adam because Mary is the human physical mother of the Lord Jesus Christ and his humanity came from Mary. He's of the seat of the woman, so her genealogy goes back all the way to Adam. Here's another reason. Number five, the genealogy in Matthew says the word begat versus the genealogy in Luke, which uses the term the son of. So not only is one ascending and the other descending, but they also use different terms. In Matthew, it uses the word begat. In Luke, it uses the words the son of. Now let me just kinda go through these terms with you a little bit. The word begat is defined as to bring a child into existence by the process of reproduction to give rise to, to give life to, to bring about. That's what the word begat means. So in the genealogy in Matthew, we see this word begat. Look at Matthew chapter one and verse 16. And Jacob begat Joseph. You see the word begat there? The husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called to Christ. Even there, you notice how the way it's worded, the emphasis is on Joseph, not Mary. It's Jacob begat Joseph, the husband of Mary. And wouldn't it make sense that a guy named Jacob would name his son, a Jewish guy named Jacob would name his son Joseph? Since there's a pretty famous Jacob in the Old Testament that had a son named Joseph. So here we have Jacob begat Joseph. The word begat means to bring a child into existence by the process of reproduction, to give rise to, to bring about, to give life to. So the Bible tells us that Jacob begat Joseph. Now here's what you need to understand. The word begat, when you compare these two terms, begat versus the son of, begat is the stronger phrase or the stronger word because the meaning of the word begat means that there is a physical relationship and it could not be used in a relationship like, for example, of adoption or of an in-law. So for example, there's no way that Joseph was adopted by Jacob in Matthew 1.16 because the Bible says Jacob begat Joseph. So that's a very strong term. If you go to Luke chapter three and verse 23, you'll notice Joseph's name there as a representation of Mary. But I want you to notice there it says, and Jesus himself began to be about 30 years of age being as was supposed the son of Joseph. And that's being said there because he wasn't the son of Joseph but Joseph was married to Mary, his mother. So being as was supposed the son of Joseph, he's giving you a disclaimer why Joseph's name's there. He says, which was, notice it doesn't say begat, it says the son of Heli. Now the term the son of is a weaker term because of the fact that the term the son of could be used for an adopted son and could be used and is used in the Bible in regards to like a son-in-law. So for example, when the Bible says that Joseph was the son of Heli, that doesn't contradict scripture because the term the son of can be used for a son-in-law. It's a weaker term that can be used in more than just a physical relationship. But when somebody says so and so begat so and so, that means that person gave life to reproduce that individual. So the fact that it says that Joseph was the son of Heli tells us that this is not his physical father, he's the son of Heli because he's really the son-in-law of Heli because Heli is the father of Mary. That term son could be used in instances that are not a physical giving birth, like for example, a son-in-law or an adopted son or something like that. Now here's why you need to understand. Because Matthew uses the stronger term, begat, while Luke uses the weaker term, the son of. The interesting thing is that Luke is actually the stronger genealogy that goes not only back to David and Abraham, but all the way back to Adam, and is missing no names at all, while Matthew's is the weaker genealogy, goes only back to Abraham and skips a bunch of names. There's a bunch of names that are not in the genealogy in Matthew that you could easily compare to the Old Testament, the genealogies given in the Old Testament, and you could be like, where's this guy? Why is this guy missing? Why is this guy missing? Here's what you need to understand is that because the term begat is used, though begat is the stronger term, because it's the stronger term, it allows Matthew to be able to skip names and to not incorporate every single person's name. You say, what do you mean, or why is that? Well, here's what you need to understand. When you're going through a line of people that begat, you know, so and so begat so and so, David begat Solomon, Solomon begat Rehoboam, you cannot put in there adopted children. You can't put in there son-in-laws. It has to be physical, actual reproductions of that line. However, because you have that stronger term of a line that physically reproduced itself, you can skip people and still use the word begat, because the truth is this. My father begat me, and I begat my sons, but this is a true statement. My father begat my sons, because my sons were reproduced through that same line. The fact that the stronger term begat is used actually allows the genealogy to skip people and still be true, because if you look at somebody's grandfather and say that grandfather or that great-grandfather begat that grandson or that great-grandson, it's still a true statement because they came through the same lineage, they came through the same bloodline, that grandfather reproduced someone who reproduced the grandson or who reproduced the grandson. So the fact that Matthew uses that stronger term begat actually allows the genealogy in Matthew to skip names and still be true. And the genealogy in Matthew does skip names. Now, sometimes people ask, why does genealogy in Matthew skip names? And I don't know an exact answer for that. You'll have to ask God when you get to heaven. But I can give you my thought on it, and my thought on it is this, that the purpose, remember, the reason for the genealogy in Matthew was for people to be able to know the line by which the Messiah, the King of the Jews, would come. And the genealogy in Matthew uses a way of writing or laying it out, which is known as a mnemonic. Let me just kind of define that term for you. A mnemonic is a device such as a pattern of letters or ideas or associations that assist someone in remembering something. So if you ever tried to study for something, study for a test or try to remember something, you could use a mnemonic, you could use like a pattern or you could use some sort of a way where things kind of match or look similarly to remember what you're trying to remember. Well, the genealogy in the Gospel according to Matthew is written in a mnemonic format. Look at Matthew chapter one and verse 17. Let me show it to you. You get to the end of this genealogy and here's what we're told. We're told, so all the generations from Abraham to David are 14 generations. And from David until the carrying away into Babylon are 14 generations. And from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ are 14 generations. Now let me tell you something. That's not literal. That's a mnemonic. What he's saying is the genealogy is written in such a way for you to easily remember that between Abraham, proving that Jesus was a Hebrew of the Jews, from Abraham to David, you have 14 generations, David proving that Jesus was the king, from David to the carrying away into Babylon or the captivity was 14 generations. You say, why the carrying away of Babylon? Because that's when the kings stopped being kings. And from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ is 14 generations. It was divided in such a way to help people remember you got 14 generations from Abraham to David, 14 generations from David to the captivity, 14 generations from captivity to Jesus. Here's the thing, in order to make that work, some names were skipped. And generally speaking, the people that were skipped were just people that were not important, that just were not, you didn't need to remember their names to remember anything really particular about them. So that's my theory in regards to why some names were skipped but the point is this. That the fact that the word begat is used allows the writer of Matthew and the Gospel of Matthew to skip names in the genealogy and still have a genealogy that's true because if you go from a grandfather, skip a father to a son and say that grandfather begat that individual, that is still a true statement. It's still a true statement to say that Joseph was the son of David although David was like his great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather because his descendancy and his begotten ship goes all the way back to David. So we see that the genealogy in Matthew says begat versus the genealogy in Luke says the son of. Now let me just show you something about this genealogy in Luke. Go to Luke chapter 3. Luke chapter 3 and look at verse 35. The term the son of is actually a weaker term because it could include adopted sons or sons-in-law but it's used because it includes Joseph who is not begotten by Heli. He was begotten by Jacob but he is the son of Heli because he's the son-in-law of Heli and that's a true statement. However, the genealogy in Luke because it's proving the lineage of Jesus all the way back to Adam, it's proving that Jesus was a human being. It's a stronger lineage which does not allow for the genealogy to skip any names. It does not allow to skip anyone because every person in that line is necessary and has to be credited for that genealogy in order to prove that Jesus was the son of God, that Jesus was the son of man, that he was a human being. So here's what's interesting about that. The gospel in Luke, and this is something that people bring up, and they'll bring it up as like, see, there's a contradiction in the Bible. Because the gospel in Luke has the purpose of proving that Jesus is the descendant of Adam and has to name every person that goes from Adam to the Lord Jesus Christ because it can't skip anyone like other genealogies do, the gospel of Luke in comparison to other genealogies actually has a name added. When you compare the genealogy in Luke chapter 3, there's a name in the genealogy in Luke chapter 3 that is missing in the genealogy, the same genealogy in the book of Genesis. Let me show it to you. Now you're there in Luke chapter 3. Let's look at it in Luke. Luke chapter 3, verse 35. Which was the son of Saruch? Which was the son of Raghu? Which was the son of Phelak? Which was the son of Heber? Which was the son of Selah? Why don't you remember that? The son of Selah, verse 35. At the end of verse 35, we have the son of Selah. Verse 36. Which was the son of Canaan? Which was the son of Arphaxad? Which was the son of Sam? Which was the son of Noe? Which was the son of Lamech? So you remember, you see there in verse 36, this lineage is getting us all the way back to Noah. All right, because in order to get to Adam, you got to go through Noah because remember, we're all descendants of Noah. Everyone here is a descendant of Noah. That's why racism is stupid. We all came from Adam, we all came from Noah. But here, we're told that the son of Selah, which was the son of Canaan, which was the son of Arphaxad. So we have this lineage. It goes from Lamech to Noe, or Noah, to Sam, or Shem, to Arphaxad, Canaan, and Selah. Now let's compare that to Genesis chapter number 11. Genesis chapter number 11, look at verse 12. Genesis chapter number 11. Actually, look at verse 10, just to get the context. Genesis chapter 11, look at verse 10. These are the generations of Shem. Because remember, the lineage of Jesus goes through Adam to Noah. Noah had three sons. It goes through the line of Shem, down to Abraham, down to David, down through Nathan for Mary, and Solomon for Joseph. Genesis 11, 10, and these are the generations of Shem. Shem was 100 years old and begat Arphaxad two years after the flood, and Shem lived after he begat Arphaxad 500 years and begat sons and daughters. Now look at verse 12. And Arphaxad lived five and 30 years, and, notice the term, it doesn't say was the son of, or had a son, it says begat Selah. Now in Genesis 11, 12, we're told Arphaxad begat Selah. In Luke, we're told Arphaxad had Canaan who had Selah. So there's this name missing in Genesis 11 that is added in Luke chapter three. And people will point at this and say, there's a contradiction in the Bible. But here's the thing. In Genesis 11, we know that the Gospel of Luke is true. We know that Luke gave us a genealogy that, we know that holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. So we know that Selah had a son named Canaan, and Canaan had a son named Arphaxad. And in Genesis 11, we're told that Arphaxad begat Selah, it skips Canaan. So what does that tell us? It tells us that in Genesis 11, 12, it tells us that Arphaxad was not the father but the grandfather of Selah. And it would still be a true statement to say that Arphaxad begat Selah because he's the grandfather of Selah. And you say, well, why was Canaan removed from the genealogy in Genesis 11? I don't know. But for whatever reason, he was removed. He wasn't important. They didn't feel like his name needed to be mentioned. And it was fine to go from a grandfather to a grandson. Because look, you can't go from a grandfather, men don't have grandsons. They have sons, and their sons have sons, and those are their grandsons. And they're still begotten of them. So Canaan was not added. But because Luke is making the point that Jesus goes all the way back to Adam, the Holy Ghost made sure that Luke added every name, even the names that weren't added in Genesis. Now, when you explain this to people, the game-sayers, those that want to try to create problems with the Bible, they'll say, well, you can't skip the name. And our answer is, well, show me the verse in the Bible where God said, I'm gonna give you genealogies, but I'm never gonna skip anybody. Okay, you came with that preconceived idea. And then you'll show them where it says begat and say, look, a grandfather is, you could say that a grandfather begat a grandson, and that's a true statement. So then they'll say this. And I'm showing this to you because I just want you to know what the Bible says and understand these things, all right? If you're bored by this, you know, you watch too much TV, all right? And just read the Bible. But I'm gonna give you an application here at the end, okay? So we'll excite you here in a minute. But look at this. When you tell people, okay, Arphaxad is the grandfather of Salah, and that's fine because he begat Salah, then this is what they'll say to you. They'll say, well, look, it says, and Arphaxad lived five and 30 years and begat Salah. And they'll say he was 35 years old and he begat Salah. So, you know, isn't that a little young to be a grandfather? And the truth of the matter is this. In our culture, that might seem a little young, although there's, I know men and women that were grandparents at 35 years old, okay? It's not that difficult to be a grandfather at 35 years old. All that means is that Arphaxad started having children when he was like 17 or 18 years old, and Canaan had Salah when he was like 17 or 18 years old, and that would make you a grandfather at 35. So it's not like that's unheard of or that would require some miracle, all right? We obviously live in this society where people are told to not have kids that are like 40 years old and to go waste a bunch of money in college and be idiots. But look, my wife and I got married. She was not pregnant when we got married, you know? And we had our first kid at 21 years old. So it's not that unheard of or that weird. But it makes even more sense when you look at the context of this grandfather being 35 years old. Because remember, in Genesis 11, 12, we're told that Arphaxad lived five and 30 years. He was 35 years old and begat Salah. So he was 35 years old when Salah was born. But look at the context. When is Arphaxad living? Genesis 11, 10, these are the generations of Shem. Shem is one of the sons of Noah. Shem was 100 years old and begat Arphaxad, all right? So Shem, the son of Noah, remember Noah? What's Noah known for? He built an ark. He built an ark and he brought his three sons and his three daughter-in-laws and his wife and all the animals, two by two and pairs of seven, brought them on the ark. Why? Because God destroyed the earth and killed everyone on earth where they flood. And then Noah gets off the ark and what does God say to them? He says, be fruitful and multiply. He says, you guys gotta start having babies because there's no one on earth, okay? We gotta start building societies here. We gotta start building nations. Notice Genesis 11, 10. These are the generations of Shem. Shem was 100 years old and began Arphaxad. Notice when he begat Arphaxad, two years after the flood. Now look, two years after the flood, do you think there was much going on on earth? The earth just got destroyed by a flood. They get off the boat and God says, start having babies. Arphaxad was born two years after the flood and then he has his first son at 17 and 18 years old. First of all, there's people today that have had children at 17 and 18 years old. It's not that unheard of, but it would seem actually pretty normal to have a son at 17 years old when there's like 10 people on earth. And God told you like, you guys have one job, repopulate. Get married and repopulate. It's not like they have universities to go to and things to waste their time with. They're literally rebuilding society. So when you look at it in the context, it's not that odd that Arphaxad was a grandfather at 35 years old. Here's all you need to understand, okay? You say, why does God do stuff like this in the Bible? Why does God, why can't he just give us genealogies that all line up perfectly and just don't miss anybody and make complete sense? Here's why, because God wants you to have faith. Because God wants you to believe. You know, all throughout the Bible, God does these things in the word of God where he just kind of makes things confusing on purpose because he doesn't want to just have every single little thing line up because the Bible says that without faith, it is impossible to please him for he that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is the rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Sometimes God puts things in the Bible, I'm gonna skip this guy or I'm gonna change this off or why? Just to test whether you're just a critical spirit trying to find holes in the word of God or whether you're just gonna believe the word of God and say, you know what, God's smarter than I am. And look, this is something that I wanted to bring up when I was going through the Christmas series, but I didn't. But just to give you an example of how God does this. Right, all throughout the Bible, we're told that the Messiah is supposed to come from where? Bethlehem, right? That's why we have a whole Christmas story. Remember, Caesar taxed the whole world. Why did he tax the world? Because Mary and Joseph are in Galilee, they're in Nazareth. Jesus needs to be born in Bethlehem. So he taxed the whole world so that they'll come down to Bethlehem so Jesus would be born in Bethlehem to fulfill prophecy. Now, if I wrote the Bible or if you wrote the Bible, if we were writing the story, wouldn't we just say Mary lived in Bethlehem? She was born and raised in Bethlehem, Joseph was in Bethlehem, and that's where he was born, that's where he lived. But see, that would be too easy because Jesus, though he was born in Bethlehem, he was raised in Nazareth. And all throughout the Bible, he's known as Jesus of Nazareth. All throughout the Bible, he's referred to as Jesus of Nazareth. When he died on the cross, they put a sign above his head that said he was the king of the Jews and that he was Jesus of Nazareth. When he appeared to Paul on Damascus Road, he said, I am Jesus of Nazareth. All throughout the Bible, he's known as Jesus of Nazareth, although the Messiah is supposed to come from Bethlehem. You say, why would God do that? Isn't that kind of confusing? Because God wants you to believe. Because God wants you to, and what are people accusing him of? What are they accusing Jesus of in the entire gospels? Can any good thing come out of Nazareth? What are they accusing him of? I mean, just in John, at the feast of the pastor, I was just reading it in my ninth chapter today, they're fighting about the fact, they're fighting about Jesus, and some of them are saying, well, when the Messiah comes, is he gonna do more miracles than Jesus, than this man? And then other people are saying, yeah, but the Messiah's not supposed to come from Nazareth. But the Messiah was born in Bethlehem, but he was raised in Nazareth. But Canaan was the son of Arphaxad, but he's missing in Genesis 11. Why? Because God just wants you to believe the Bible. Now, it's good for us to read and study and try to come up with answers to these things, but you know what? At the end of the day, if there's something in the Bible that I just don't understand, or I can't come up with an answer, you know what I say? I say the secret things belong to the Lord our God. Here's what I know, the word of God is true, and maybe I'll catch up one day and be able to understand why it is that God has done the way that he's done, but I know this, that God, this is why Jesus spoke by parables, because some people, he just wants to mislead and keep in the dark, because they're reprobates and they're evil and they're wicked. And the rest of us need to just say, you know what, the word of God is true, and I believe it. Now, go to Philippians chapter two, and let me end with my application. You see, I thought that was your application. That one was for free. Let's talk about the importance of the genealogies. Now, remember, just to recap, the genealogy in Matthew is a descending genealogy, the genealogy in Luke is an ascending genealogy. The genealogy in Matthew is Joseph's genealogy, and the genealogy in Luke is Mary's genealogy. The genealogy in Matthew is proving that Jesus is the king of the Jews, while the genealogy in Luke is proving that Jesus is the son of man or human. The Gospel of Matthew emphasizes Joseph and sees things through the perspective of Joseph, while the Gospel in Luke emphasizes Mary and sees things through the lens of Mary. And the genealogy in Matthew says begat, which is a stronger word that allows you to skip people, because if you skip from grandfather to grandson, begat is still an appropriate term, and the genealogy of Luke says the son of, which allows for Joseph to be named because he is the son-in-law of Healy. The genealogies, and I'm not gonna preach on this, I just kinda wanna make this application. The genealogies show that Jesus fulfilled prophecy. They show the humanity of Christ, because remember, Jesus was the Messiah, and the Messiah had to be born in a certain place to a certain family, and the genealogies prove that about the Lord Jesus Christ. But here's the main thing that I believe the genealogies prove about Jesus, and it is this, that Jesus is uniquely the number one main character of all history. In fact, history, I've heard it say, is really just his story. And what the genealogies show us is that everything before Christ was leading up to Christ, from Adam, to Noah, to Abraham, to David, to the Lord Jesus Christ, everything before Christ was leading up to Christ, and let me say this, everything after Christ is looking back to Christ. The genealogies are there to show us that Jesus was an actual human being that actually lived, that actually was a descendant, that actually had grandparents, and had a lineage. He was a real person, and he was a person that lived, and since his birth, everything was leading up to his birth, and since his birth, we only look back to the birth of Jesus. Now our world hates Jesus, and they try to deny the importance of Jesus. I remember, I didn't do this recently, but several months ago, or maybe a year ago, I was preaching to someone about something, and I wanted to look up, and I did a Google search, the most influential people in history, and I did another Google search, the most important people in history. This was like a year ago, maybe a year and a half ago, and I had several lists come up, and of course, I'm thinking, 10 most influential people in history, 12 most important people in history, and I'm, of course, thinking like, number one, the Lord Jesus Christ, number two, the Apostle Paul. That's not what the list showed. When our world writes a list, now here's the interesting thing, Jesus was on every list that I saw, but he was not number one on any list that I saw. Different lists had different, but they would go like this, most influential person in the world, number one, Muhammad. I saw one list that said number one, Muhammad, number two, Jesus, number three, Paul. I saw another list that said number one, Gandhi, number two, Muhammad, number three, Jesus, number four, Paul. No list that I saw, the only list that said number one, Jesus, were like made by a Christian organization. You look at the worldly lists, and they can't deny the influence and the impact of Jesus. He has to be on the list, but they purposely never put him at number one. But here's the interesting thing. People wanna deny the importance and the fact that Jesus is the historical figure of all time. But here's why the genealogies are important, because they tell us and they prove to us when Jesus was born, and our entire calendar and system of looking at years is based off the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, the way that we document dates, we document them by saying something happened 500 years BC before what? The birth of Christ. Something happened 700 BC. 700 BC, what, what does that mean? 700 years before Jesus Christ. And even today, how do we document things? I mean, today, we are at church on January 9th, 2022. What does that mean? We're in church January 9th, 2022, years after the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, the world wants to say Jesus is not impactful, Jesus is not influential, but let me tell you something. Every Muslim, every Buddhist, every agnostic, every atheist, every one that wants to deny Christ and mock Christ and make fun of Christ, every single one of them has to acknowledge the Lord Jesus Christ every time they write a check. I'm writing my bread check, January 1st, 2022. 2022, what? 2022 years since the birth of Christ. Every atheist can't write, they can't buy a card, they can't sign a contract, they can't buy a house, they can't start a Google account without acknowledging the birth of Christ. Even their own birthdays. I was born on February 1st, 1985 years after the birth of Christ. Everybody every day has to acknowledge the birth of Christ, has to acknowledge that Jesus is the central figure of all mankind and all humanity, whether they like it or not. And they tried to change it. We used to use BC, which stood for Before Christ. We used to use AD, which stood for Anno Domen, which is Latin for in the year of our Lord. Now they say, we're not gonna use those terms anymore because they talk about Jesus. So now they say BCE. And you say, well, what does that stand for? They'll say Before the Common Era or Before the Current Era. Or they'll say ACE, Before the Common Era or Before the Current Era. But here's the thing, we're in January 2022 years, they would say After the Common Era. But we have to ask this question, well, what happened 2022 years ago that made it the Common Era? And you would have to answer that it was the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. These genealogies, when you're reading through Leviticus, you're reading through Second Chronicles, don't skip these genealogies because they're all pointing to the fact that Jesus is the undisputed, number one, main character of all history. And every time you write a date, every time you write a check, every time you sign a contract, every time you apply for a job, any time you put a date on anywhere, anyone and everyone, every Muslim, every Hindu, every atheist acknowledges that their birth is in reference to the birth of Christ, that their wedding anniversary is in reference to the birth of Christ. These stinking, filthy sodomites want to get married and celebrate their anniversary, but even on those anniversaries, they are determining that date based off the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ because he is the number one main figure of all history. Let's bow our heads in our board of prayer. Heavenly Father, Lord, we do thank you. We thank you for these genealogies. I know they're easy to skip and easy to want to ignore, but there's things there for us to look at, study, understand. All scripture is given by inspiration of God and it's profitable. Lord, I pray you'd help us understand that, believe that, study that. Lord, we thank you. It cannot be said of any human being. It cannot be truthfully and honestly said that they are the main character of all history other than the Lord Jesus Christ because even when they publish these lists, they date them in reference to the birth of Jesus. Lord, we thank you for that. Thank you for sending your son to die on the cross for our sins, that he was born, that he might redeem a people, that we might be saved. In the matchless name of Christ, we pray, amen.