Date: January 4, 2026
Lord’s Day: 1
Series: Matthew in Seven Movements: Advent
Title: New Beginnings
Text: Matthew 1:1-17
Today is a first, and this is not only in reference to the first Sunday of 2026 but most likely you have never heard a sermon on this text which is just a family tree or a lineage. I never thought I would deliver a sermon on this section of Scripture.
A quick review of the travel logs for 15 years of moving showed we had done over 1400 moves of businesses and homes. You show me a picture of a house and I can tell you how many bedrooms, floors and if it had a basement or not. Ask me their names? I would forget them mid move. I have been horrible remembering names.
There are many occasions when a text would come in and someone is moving again and they want help. I will ask them for their last address and do a Goggle Earth Search or street view search so I can see the image of their house and then I would know who it was. (see if they were on the naughty or nice list)
Most of us, if we do read it in our yearly Bible reading, whiz right by it or skip it entirely. “All Scripture breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness” 2 Timothy 3:16 and this is no less true here in this case.
RC Sproul was sharing a story concerning a missionary with the Wycliffe Bible Translators who went into a land that had no written language. All their communication was oral and the people could not read or write.
She had to first learn the language and then she developed it into a written form. This took many years and then she was able to teach it to the people and translate Scripture.
The first book translated was Matthew and because she was in a hurry these first 17 verses were left out thinking that it was not of big interest to them. When the book of Matthew was delivered to the village it was a disappointment for the people had more interest in the truck that brought the Bibles than in the book itself.
She was crushed for this whole process had taken 10 years and the people did not care at all. In the second edition of her translation, it did include the genealogy of Jesus and the tribal leader was excited.
“You mean to tell me this Jesus you have been telling us about is a real person?”
“Yes” she said.
The tribal chief thought she was teaching about a mythical character. It was only after he could see that Jesus came from real people, in real space and real time that many, including the chief, came to Christ.
This is not a fly over text. Even though this is a family tree there is A LOT here. I think it will blow your sock off, so be prepared. Bring high expectations here.
There needs to be some review that was shared in the adult class last week as this series was introduced. The gospel of Matthew was written to the Hebrew or Jewish audience. The purpose of this book is to prove that Jesus is the Messiah or the Christ.
There was an “anointed one” introduced in the Hebrew Scriptures and Matthew seeks to prove that this Jesus is him. How do we know this? Is it because somewhere in the book of Matthew he says, “Ok, I have written this so you will know that this man called Jesus is the anointed one.”
Kind of 1:1. BUT also the MAKE UP OF THE BOOK.
This must be understood that the people to whom Matthew was written had a HIGH literacy rate. Matthew is reflecting on centuries of knowledge and this book is intelligently laid out. What will be shared today, as said earlier, will amaze you but the readers would have picked up on it.
I had to dig and find it. Classes and books by Tim Mackie, Steven Bryan and Jacob Stromburg. The first readers of this gospel would not have needed that. They would have automatically understood.
Take for instance the progress of the book:
This would have been evident to the original readers of Matthew. What we see in the first 4 chapters of Matthew is this unfolding. We also see in the first 17 verses of chapter 1 a very similar unfolding. It is a picture that Matthew is painting and he is saying- THIS IS THE SAVIOR. THIS IS THE MESSIAH. PAY ATTENTION!
Let us take a look at this list. Matthew says, “Thus there were fourteen generations in all from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile to Babylon and fourteen from the exile to the Messiah.” (1:17)
There is one other account of the family tree of Jesus and it is in Luke. There are a couple of issues here that the Bible critic will quickly attack:
What do we do with this? It appears to be a fallacy in Scripture and for those who have a high value on the reliability of Scripture, how do we resolve this?
I want to introduce you to a term called Gematria. It is the process of assigning value to a letter and then adding the letters together. Our text in Matthew is FULL of this practice. It is something that was FREQUENTLY done in the day of Matthew, not so much today.
Example: A=1, B=2, C=3 and so on. So my short name M=14, A=1, T=20, T=20 would be 55. 14+1+20+20=55
There is a really long Psalm, most likely you have read it or seen it in the book of Psalms. It is Psalm 119, it is the longest chapter in the bible and it is an acrostic.
Turn to Psalm 119. What you will see there before each section is the Hebrew alphabet. The fist word in that section begins with that letter. Aleph is the first letter and so that section begins with the letter Aleph. The second section is Beth and that section has a word that begins with the Hebrew letter Beth. This continues through each of the letters in the Hebrew alphabet.
Let us combine these two concepts here: the Gematria and the Acrostic:
Let me be clear and repeat, this was a high literacy culture. The symbolism would not be a mystery. It would have been picked up on immediately.
When you and I do our family tree, we are careful to get every detail possible. I am a direct descendant of the Hatfield family (on my father’s side, Hatfield and McCoy). So one branch of my tree is very easy to follow and has been well researched. As I recall I am third generation from Devil Anse Hatfield. (Don’t mess with me!)
The omission of names and generations is alarming to us. We do not leave those things out. We look over at the other genealogy in Luke and see differences and the critics who want to discredit the authority of Scripture immediately say, “There is a problem here. Different names mean there is a contradiction.”
The reply is we live in a different culture. Biblical authors employ numbers as vehicles of meaning. This does not just apply to Scripture. The practice holds up in literature outside of the Bible in the same period.
Matthew was more interested in showing the David roots of Jesus. Steven Bryan shows how this plays out in many ways in these first 17 verses in Matthew.
Value of Name
Position in Genealogy
41
Abraham
14
David
40
28th Jeconiah (last king in line of David)
41
Jesus (man)
42
Messiah (son of God)
Total 14+14+14=41? Jesus the Messiah is the 42nd so in reality Jesus name is mentioned twice. Once as his early name, second as the anointed of God, Messiah.
Last week we introduced the idea of the Gospels being written to difference audiences. Matthew as stressed earlier, was written to Jewish audience. It would emphasize specific things. Luke was written to a different audience and his genealogy goes:
Matthew begins this long list of names, and it takes us back to this message of HOPE. Begins with Abraham in that God sovereignly binds Himself to the promises that He made and unfailingly kept them through a flawed people.
How is this a message of Hope? We are like them. We may or may not have committed the same trespasses but we bring our own baggage to this relationship.
We bring trespass, God brings redemption.
We bring trespass, God brings redemption. Don’t miss that.
“When the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.” Galatians 4:4-5 LSB
It was not a moment too soon and it was not a moment too late. At the exactly right time.
God was weaving this tapestry, through time, through a flawed people to bring redemption. That is why we do not skip over this list of names.
You and I are in there. We received a NEW BEGINNING. This is the NEW CREATION.
Do not allow culture to blind you from what happened here. This says brothers . . .for a reason. Even for you here who are my sisters in Christ.
This is about inheritance. We are all, in this state, brothers in Christ. We can see this throughout Matthew and it begins here in Matthew 1.
Isn’t this beautiful? Our elder brother Jesus was the first to rise from the dead. He is the firstborn among MANY. It includes us.
You see this in our confession today. We are adopted by God’s free grace into this family.
We are, by an act of God’s free grace, received into the number and have a right to all the priviledges, of the sons of God.
Oh what a beautiful reality!
