Luke 3:23-38

Luke chapter 3, beginning with verse 23 and reading through verse 38. And Jesus himself began to be about 30 years of age, being, as was supposed, the son of Joseph, which was the son of Helai, which was the son of Methat, which was the son of Levi, which was the son of Melke, which was the son of Janah, which was the son of Joseph, which was the son of Matthias, which was the son of Amos, which was the son of Naum, which was the son of Elslai, which was the son of Nagy, which was the son of Maath, which was the son of Matthias, which was the son of Shemiah, which was the son of Joseph, which was the son of Judah, which was the son of Jonah, which was the son of Rasha, which was was the son of Zorobebel, which was the son of Salatholil, which was the son of Neri, which was the son of Melki, which was the son of Adai, which was the son of Kosam, which was the son of Elmodam, which was the son of Err, which was the son of Josie, which was the son of Eliezer, which was the son of Jorim, which was the son of Jorim, which was the son of of Methat, which was the son of Levi, which was the son of Simeon, which was the son of Judah, which was the son of Joseph, which was the son of Jonan, which was the son of Lyakim, which was the son of Melia, which was the son of Menan, which was the son of Methotha, which was the son of Nathan, which was the son of David, which was the son of Jesse, which was the son of Obed, which was the son of Boaz, or Boos, which was the son of Salman, which was the son of Neasthan, which was the son of Aminadab, which was the son of Aram, which was the son of Ahram, which was the son of Fares, which was the son of Judah, which was the son of Jacob, which was the son of Isaac, which was the son of Abraham, which was the son of Thara, which was the son of Nacor, which was the son of Seyruk, which was the son of Ragaw, which was the son of Phelik, which was the son of Iber, or Heber, which was the son of Salah, which was the son of Canaan, which was the son of Arfaxad, which was the son of Sem, which was the son of Noah, or Noe, which was the son of Lamek, which was the son of Pthuselah, which was the son of Enoch, which was the son of Jared, which was the son of Meli, Leel, which was the son of Canaan, which was the son of Enos, which was the son of Seth, which was the son of Adam, which was the son of God. May God bless to us the reading of His sacred and holy word this morning. Tracing one’s family line has certainly become an obsession in our day and age. People spend hundreds of hours, travel to different countries, to look up their family lines, and check their lineage and see where they originated and so forth. Everybody hopes to find somebody among their descendants that is famous in history, maybe a king, maybe a queen, maybe a legendary figure, movie star, a sports star, something. My wife had Davis and her family background, and the family rumor was that they were descendants of Jefferson Davis, who was the president of the Confederacy. I had Jackson in my family background, and the family rumor was that we were descendants of Stonewall Jackson, the famous Confederate Civil War General. However, careful research proved both of these things to be untrue, that we weren’t relating to either one of them. It seems that Stonewall Jackson and David, Jefferson Davis, only had girls. I couldn’t have any boys. So those rumors. ended up being bogus. Now, as you go back in history, you find it more and more difficult to trace your family lineage. It gets to the point where you run into a dead end somewhere along the line. There are sketchy records, and eventually you just can’t go back any further. Friends, the one genealogy that really matters is the genealogy of Christ, which we have before us. in this text of scripture. His genealogy provides proof of the fulfillment of every promise of God that he made in the Old Testament with regard to the covenants and so forth. From the Garden of Eden and the seed of the woman, Abraham and his seed and David is his seed, we have the fulfillment of those promises. Our text provides. the evidence of how God faithfully kept His Word. Now normally, when people come to lengthy sections of Scripture with genealogies, their eyes glaze over. I have people that told me, well, I just skipped the first 12 chapters of Chronicles. First Chronicles. I don’t have to read all these names. It is somewhat difficult to read all these names. as you can imagine. Some people say, well, this is boring. It’s unimportant. Here’s the thing. This is God’s Word. And it contains the genealogy of Jesus Christ, your Savior. And therefore, it’s obviously something important for us to consider. It demands our attention. It demands our interest. And we’ll have to consider what we can learn from this passage of Scripture. Well, let’s talk about the genealogy. of Christ. Now, if we compare this with Matthew’s genealogy, and Matthew genealogy starts with Abraham and goes down to Christ, here we start with Christ, and we go back all the way to Adam. But if you look at Matthew chapter 1, you have the first 17 verses here provide us with another genealogy. in this passage of scripture. It says here in chapter one of Matthew, chapter one, the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham begat Isaac, Isaac begat Jacob, Jacob begat Judas and his brethren, Judas begot Phares and Zara of Thamar, or Tamar. And Phares begat Esram and Ezra begat Aram, and Eram begat Aram, and Aram begat Amidab, and Aram begat Abed Aminadab. and Aminad beget Naisan, and Nassan beget Salman, and Salman begette Boz or Boaz of Rehap, and Boaz begette of Ruth, and Obed begat Jesse and Jesse beget David the King, and David the King begat Solomon of her that had been the wife of Euryas, and Solomon beget Rehoboam, and Reoam began Abaya, and Abaya, Begat Asa and Asa begat Josephat and Josaphat begette and Joram and Joram beget Ozias and Osias and Ozias begette Joathem and Joatham beget Echaz and Acaz beget Ezekias and Ezekias begetteus and Ezekius beget Mes and Ezekius and Ezekius beget Meshius and Ambae and Ambae and he got Josias and Josias and Josias Begat Jaconius and his brethren about the time they were carried away to Babylon. And after that, and after they were brought to Babylon, Jaconius begette Salathilio, and Salathio begetteal Beget Zoro Bable, and Zorobebel, and Zorobebel beget abyhood, and Abil, and Abil, and Abyhood beget alayakim, and Eliacem, and Alacim begette Eezer. And Azor, and Azore, and Azore beget Zadok, and Zadok begette acim, and Aikam, and Aikam begetteh, lihood and lihood begettezar, and eleazar, and eleazar begat met met and methathan, and methadon begatine, and Jacob beget Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born, Jesus, who was called Christ. So all the generations from Abraham to David are 14 generations, from David until the carrying away into Babylon are 14 generations, from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ are 14 generations. That’s Matthew’s account. Matthew’s account and list here is much shorter than Luke’s. He skipped some generations in order to provide what we call three lists of names, each having 14 names in it. So that between David and Salathiel, including Salathiel, there are 16 names, Between Salathiel and Salathiel, including Salathiel, there are 16 names, there are 16 names, where Luke has 22. between Salathiel and Jesus, including Jesus, Matthew has 13 names, Luke has another 22 names. So you can see the difference between these two. Matthew hits the highlights. He provides a memorable way to think about the names. From Abraham to David, there are 14 names. Then from David to the Babylonian captivity, there are 14 names, and from the Babylonian captivity to Christ. or 14 names. Now Matthew’s 14 names from Abraham to David agree with Luke’s genealogy. If you were paying close attention, you’ll see that they’re exactly the same. Both lists contain Salathiel and Zorabababal. The difficulty is, as many of the names are completely different from one another. Have you noticed that? Outside of David, all the kings are missing in Luke’s genealogy. You read Matthew’s geneal, you find them. But where’s Solomon? Where’s Rehoboam? Where’s Jehovahe? Where’s Jehosephat? Where’s Uzziah? Where’s Hezekiah? Where’s Josiah? Where are these kings? How come they’re not in Luke’s? And there is a seemingly glaring contradiction, if you look at it, Matthew 116, Joseph is said to be son of Jacob. But if you read Luke 323, some people think that it says here that he is the son of Heli. Well, how can that be? Now, it is true that sometimes in the Bible a person can have two names or more. You know Peter or Simon is also called Seifis. You know that Paul was once called Saul. You know that. that Daniel was called Beltasasar and so forth. However, it’s quite a strain to argue that such famous kings as those listed in Matthew and have them all called by a different name in the book of Luke. You know, Solomon is consistently called Solomon, both in the Old and New Testament. He’s always called Solomon. Even though at birth is, he was given the name by the Lord of Jededa. which is beloved of the Lord. He’s always called Psalm. And therefore, it seems impossible to reconcile these two genealogies where they overlap with one of them. And, of course, critics of the Bible seize on these differences and say, see, this discredits the Word of God. It’s full of contradictions. These two genealogies, you can’t really match them up. My answer to that is who said they should be matched up? Luke presents Christ’s genealogy through Mary. Matthew presents Christ’s genealogy through Joseph. Of course, they’re all descent. Both of our descendants of Abraham. Both of them are descendants of David. But that’s why the names are different. So this is a simple answer to this alleged discrepancy between these two different genealogies. What would be more approach? than Christ’s genealogy being traced both through his supposed father, Joseph, and his physical mother, married. Matthew provides Christ’s legal right to the throne of David, and thus the listing of all the kings in Joseph’s family tree. Luke provides Christ’s physical descent from David, Abraham, and even Adam, as the listing of all the kings. the promised seed who would come. Joseph and Mary were from the same tribe of Judah and from the same royal family, David. But we find that Matthew provides Joseph genealogy through Solomon, the son of David, whereas Luke provides Jesus’ genealogy through Solomon, the son of David, whereas Luke provides Jesus’ geneal. through Mary, through Nathan, the son of David. So there’s two different sons of David that are mentioned in this genealogy. But this shows that Jesus Christ, the Savior, was in the most complete way, the descendant, which the Bible prophecies required. Now, the key to understanding this, I think, is a proper understanding of verse 23. Let’s look at this again in Luke’s gospel. And Jesus himself began to be about 30 years of age, being as was supposed, the son of Joseph, which was the son of Helod. Jesus began his public ministry about when he reached 30 years of age. At this point, Jesus’ family line has provided but with a qualification. And that qualification was being as was supposed the son of Joseph. Luke indicated. there’s something unusual regarding this genealogy. As was supposes a phrase that is often repeated in official Greek documents with this meaning. According to the law, it is reckoned. Jesus was reckoned by the law to be the son of Joseph, even though he was not his literal physical son. Joseph might rightly be called the father. of Jesus by a rule that is followed by the Jews, according to John Gill. He that brings up and not he that begets is called the father. In fact, in chapter 4 verse 22, they’re going to say, is this not Joseph’s son? And we read about his parents, you know, and so forth, doing this and that with regard to him. Remember, Moses refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. early to son, the Pharaoh’s daughter? No. She found him in the Nile River. He was adopted. But he legally was her son. At the time of Jesus’ birth, Joseph and Mary were husband and wife. He was espoused to her. Remember in chapter 2, verse 5, when he goes to Bethlehem and she gives birth. And so Jesus was reckoned as Joseph’s son in the eyes of the law. as was supposed. So our text here is expressing the author’s meaning clearly, and it could be rendered this way. And Jesus himself began to be about 30 years of age as was supposed the son of Joseph being the son of Helai. Or, I can put it this way. Jesus being a son, as was thought of Joseph, of Heli, of Mothaw. What Luke is telling us here is not that Joseph was the son of Eli, but that Jesus was the son of Heli. Joseph was the son of Jacob, according to Matthew, chapter 1, verse 16. So he’s giving us Jesus here, his background, through Mary. That is, so Mary was the son of Heli. And so therefore, that’s the line that we’re following. fallen. It’s a remarkable fact in the Jewish Talmud, even though it speaks in a very negative, very reproachful terms of Mary, of the one who they say was the mother of Christ, she’s called the daughter of Helai. So Mary is the daughter of Heli, but the genealogy is traced under her husband’s name, Joseph, and she is not mentioned. This is a basic rule that the family of the mother is not called a family. So we have the idea of Joseph of Heli, of Mathot, and so forth. Or Jesus, excuse me, of Heli, of Mathot, and so forth. So there is no contradiction between the genealogies. Once we understand what they’re trying to portray for us. Matthew, Jesus is presented as Joseph’s legal son, and the heir, and he has the right to the throne. He has the right to the throne. He proves that. Luke provides Jesus’ actual physical descent through Mary, and it traces him back through David, Abraham, and indeed all the way to Adam. Jesus fulfills the two conditions required of a king. He’s all of the royal bloodline is through Mary for short, and he inherited the legal title to the throne through throne through Joseph. And so therefore, he is the proper one to have the, have fulfilled in him the promises. This is the genealogy of Christ, and that is what I’m going to say. Now, there, let me talk about a few lessons that we can learn from this genealogy. There are many names here that are very obscure, and I can’t even comment. I don’t know anything about them. We have very, even in the old Testament. Sometimes we have just very little about some of these individuals that are mentioned. Some of them we don’t even have listed in the Old Testament because we’re talking about Mary’s line here. But let’s consider this genealogy and what we can learn from it. The first is this. It’s interesting that we have revealed to us here the two natures of Jesus Christ. Did you catch this in verse 22. of this chapter. We read here, and the Holy Ghost descended up in a bodily shape like a dove upon him and a voice came from heaven which said thou art my beloved son and whom I well please. He’s the son of God. Is he not? And then we read here and Jesus himself began to be about 30 years of age, being as was supposed the son of Joseph, who was the, and we saw here that Jesus is the son of Eli, and so forth. He’s the son of he lie, and one, one, and he’s the son of God and the other. So we see the God man here portrayed for us. There was a simple countryman, was shown a red glass bottle, what was full of milk, and he was asked what he thought was in the bottle. And he thought, well, maybe it’s it’s wine or brandy or whiskey or something of this nature. He couldn’t believe it that it was filled with milk until the milk was poured out of it. The redness of the bottle hid the color of the milk. And this is the way it is with Jesus Christ. His deity, being hidden within his humanity, it was hard for people to see it. He was made. He was made, in the likeness of men. And from the outside, one would think he was a mere man. However, some were granted the privilege of seeing his glory as of the only begotten of the Father. So without controversy, great is this mystery of godliness that God was manifested in the flesh. So Jesus was no ordinary. man. He was, and he is God. The babe born in Bethlehem’s manger was the mighty God. The great God of our Savior, and our Savior, Titus 2.13. Emmanuel, God with us, Matthew 1.23. Before he came to earth, he lived in heaven. He lived and was worshipped by the angels and the just men made perfect as God. And yet we find he is a real man. He comes to earth. Even though he has no human father, he does have a human mother. He became tired, hungry. He had to sleep. He ate. He drank. He aged. He suffered pain. And even could die as a man. Still, He was completely free of sin. He was holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners unlike every other human being. Jesus was the God man. There’s nobody else like him. This is constantly, you see this in scripture. There’s nobody unique like this god man, Jesus Christ. He has two separate natures in one person. They’re not fused together, and they’re not mixed together. They remain distinct and they may differ from one another. His human nature possessed none of the divine attributes. It was not omnipident, it was not omniscient, it was not omnipresent. His divine nature, however, was unaffected by his human nature. So he lost nothing of these divine attributes. He was fully God. in every sense. So it was necessary for Christ to be the God man in order that he might be a suitable mediator between God and men. And since Christ has two natures, he can properly represent both God and man. There is no analogy which exists, which can illustrate this mysterious person of Jesus Christ. But I like what one divine said. He said, the flame of fire in the midst of the burning bush was an emblem of the presence of God in dwelling the man, Christ Jesus. That’s, you know, the bush burns, but it’s not consumed. And here, God in human flesh, is hard for us to conceive. It’s something unique and special. Now, the scripture says that whosoever denieth the Son, if we deny his true Godhead or his true humanity, the scripture says hath not the Father 1. John 2. 23. A man wants to ask the question, if Jesus is truly God, why doesn’t the Bible say so? So he has asked in return exactly what would you like the Bible to say? I like the Bible to say, well this is the true God. So his friend turned to 1. John chapter 5 and verse 20 speaking of Jesus Christ, this is the true God. That answered the question. here it is. This is the true God. You wanted it? There it is. Now, does Jesus Christ the God man, to whom we direct prayer, to whom we direct our worship? He is God. He is worthy of our worship. He is an effective high priest, though, also because he can be touched with the feelings of our infirmities because he knows what it is to be a man. He’s the God man. So you have revealed the two natures of Christ. He got the voice from heaven. This is my beloved son. But then he’s presented from his human side immediately thereafter. Secondly, you find all our descendants of Adam and need the promised Savior. You look at verse 38. We see all these names and this whole long list, and they all go back to Adam, don’t they? Every individual originated with him. In fact, we can say, that every human being originated from Adam. They came out of his loins. He is the father of the human race. As a consequence of this, because of his fall, death reigns over all mankind. Everybody in this list, and Luke, that I mentioned, all those names that I read, except for one, died. Enoch’s the only one. He was transported to heaven. Remembered facing death. Outside of him, everybody dies because of the curse. Enoch was the exception. Look at yourself. Look at the misery that you suffer because of our association with Adam’s apostasy and death is on your horizon too. And on mine. But in tracing this long genealogy back to Adam, scripture is reminding you of something. What happened immediately upon the fall? What did the Lord do? Did he not give a promise to Adam and Eve? And what was that promise? And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, meaning the serpent, and between thy seed and her seed, it or he shall bruise thy head and thou shall bruise his eel. Who is the seed of the woman? It’s Jesus Christ. Christ. And so taking us all the way back to Adam, I think, is a reminder of, remember the promise I gave in Genesis 315. Christ is the seed. Here he is. He’s come. He will defeat Satan. He will conquer death. He will be the redeemer. And so the genealogy leads you to Christ. The efficiency of his blood extendeth back to generations before. him to redeem all who trusted in him. Jesus conquered death. Revelation 1.18, I am he that liveth and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. And what does Jesus say regarding those who trust in him? Because I live, ye shall live also. John 1419. Trust in the Lord. As Paul calls him, in 1 Corinthians 15, he’s the last Adam. We’ve got the first Adam who fails. But the last Adam is Jesus Christ, who is well-pleasing to God. This is my beloved son in whom I am well-pleased. Unlike Adam who failed. And he has purchased eternal life for all who trust in him. So you find all the descendants of God, of Adam here need a Savior. And the Savior was promised to Adam. The third thing I suggest you from this text is this. You should realize man was created by God and was not evolved. some lower life form. Verse 38, we read Adam, the Son of God. Where did he come from? He’s the son of God. Man is traced all the way back to the first man. He was not begotten, nor was he the result of some evolutionary process, but he was the direct creation of God. God made him out of the dust of the ground and breathed into him the breath of life, and he became a living soul. That’s man’s origin. He’s the son of God in the sense that he was created by God. in a supernatural manner. Just like the angels are called sometimes in Scripture, the sons of God. Because they didn’t come from other angels. Angels don’t reproduce. They don’t marry or give in marriage in heaven, as Jesus told us. Well, how did we get the angels? They were created directly by God. God gave them life. If the question is asked, where did life begin? The answer is God. The evolutionary believer likes to say, well, things evolved. And we ask, what do they involve out of? Where do they involve from? And the inevitable answer normally is, well, we don’t know. Prince and University biologist, professor Edwin Conklin, once related this in a reader’s digest, he said, the probability of life beginning from accident is comparable. to the probability of an unbridged dictionary resulting from an explosion in a printing factory. Scripture declares, God made man in his own image and his own likeness. He’s unique. He’s special among God’s creatures. And that’s why the Bible classifies human beings as his offspring in Acts 17, verse 29, because they were created by God. You never find that phrase used of animals, lions and bears and horses and apes. They’re never called sons of God. The only satisfying answer to man’s existence on this earth is that God created him and he created man in his own image. Therefore, he could be called sons of God, a son of God. So you should realize man was created by God. He didn’t evolve. And the fourth and final thing that I’ll mention is this. Notice how God’s providence wonderfully has preserved the actual physical lineage of Jesus Christ from Adam. Think about that a minute. It’s amazing that it is this perfectly complete. Where is there anything of this kind so extensive to compare it to? Do you know if anybody can trace their name back to Adam? Trace your face? family tree, you’ll never get it back to Adam on your own. You’ll never find all the names. How pleasing to think of divine providence preserving this record, even when the Israelites went into Babylonian captivity for all those years, for 70 years. And these public records were preserved for a sufficient time after the coming of Christ so that the Jewish legal records were there and available for people to check and Christians could challenge unconverted Jews about Christ being the son of Abraham, the son of David, indeed the promised seed of the woman. Scripture records this record for all time. Now we have a permanent record because all the records that the Jews held were destroyed in 70 AD when the city was demolished. All those records are gone. There is no authoritative records. that have been kept since that. Now, this should encourage you to believe in the divine mission of our Lord Jesus Christ. You know, the Jews are still looking for a Messiah today? But that Messiah cannot trace his genealogy back. It’s impossible. Why, even the average Jew cannot trace his genealogy. You know, to say that I am actually an Abraham descendant. They have no record to do so. So how could the genealogy of a future Messiah ever be proved? Couldn’t be. Couldn’t be. Well, let me close by saying this. You know, people are often obsessed with uncovering their genealogy. It’s been hours and hundreds of thousands of dollars sometimes trying to trace this all back. Here’s the one genealogy you need to know about. And that is the Lord Jesus Christ. Because through him, he has the right to the throne of David, as Matthew tells us, and he has the physical descent from David, Abraham and Adam, as promised the seed that was to come, as Luke tells us. May we get that, if we can’t gain a lot of detail practically from this, let’s gain that. Let us see this as what God would have us know from this text of scripture. Well, let us close.