August 10, 2012 Why Geneologies?

Why Genealogies? Matthew 1:1 A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham: SO, YOU’RE all excited to read Matthew’s Gospel about Jesus’ teachings, but then you come to this—a genealogy. Are you still excited? You might be if genealogy is your hobby. Or you might just skip over it and get to the “good stuff”. Why would it be good to pause and consider the genealogy? Actually, this genealogy is for you because Matthew desires his readers to know the Gospel’s truth. Matthew was a Jew—his name was Levi when Jesus found him in the tax collector’s booth. He’s one of the two disciples whose account of Jesus’ life is in the Bible. Matthew is writing to convince other Jews that Jesus is the prophesied Messiah from David’s line. Matthew’s original title is “The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.” In the Jewish language, this means this is the total story of Jesus, the Messiah. Matthew indicates he is about to reveal the truth of Jesus’ birth, his life’s activities, his suffering, his death, his resurrection and his ascension! Imagine what the first Jewish readers thought when they saw the title. They may have excitedly opened it to say, “I want to learn all about the Messiah!” Others may have said, “You’ll have to prove this to me, Matthew.” Others may have said, “I’m sure this is a bunch of lies. The Messiah certainly wasn’t Jesus.” So, the genealogy is part of the testimony of the truth of Jesus Christ. It is a snapshot of God’s grand picture of salvation come from Abraham to you. It’s True! Matthew wrote to prove Jesus to the Jews. I pray he’s proved it to you.