The Son of Abraham, Son of David, Son of God | Matthew 1:1–18 | Revd Dr Justyn Terry

It's lovely to be with you. Great privilege to

be here at Oak Hill. I've been here for several

years, I've realised. It's lovely to be back

again and have a chance to open up this passage

from Matthew's Gospel. So prior to coming to

Wycliffe Hall, I was actually 11 years at a theological

college in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The evangelical

college there for the Episcopal Church, now really

more the Anglican Church of North America. And

from time to time we'd go out. to other churches,

often support churches, and often would take

a student with us. And when we go to some of

the more southern states, particularly I'm thinking

now of places like South Carolina, we try to

take someone who came from that sort of area,

and it would be helpful that they could talk

about their experience at the college. But it's

also absolutely fascinating to me, particularly

in some of those more southern states, they wanted

to know the surname of the student. Because they

reckon if they knew the surname, they could kind

of see if they had a sort of family connection

and work out if they kind of knew them. And it

was quite a prominent thing. I realised a lot

of folk coming out of those sort of communities,

their family connections were really important

to them. So when we hear a whole genealogy being

read out, I think probably comes as a surprise

to most of us raised in cultures that aren't

as fascinated with family lines. I think to the

folks in South Carolina and elsewhere, no surprise

at all. But I should imagine even in our own

cultures here, we begin to notice who we are

and what we're doing. It's not unrelated to parents,

grandparents and going back through. I was quite

struck. I came across a little Christian tract

that my grandfather had written decades ago.

He died just after I was born. And so I was working

very hard, not very long ago. I don't know if

I've got it with me, but at the end we have.

Here we go. A little gospel tract I carry about.

My grandfather wrote a gospel tract? I've no

idea. But it's not unusual. You know, someone

in the medical profession? Well, maybe someone

in their family is from the medical profession,

or if you're a sports person or an actor, or

maybe you're in ministry. Turns out, oh, well,

you're not the first to be in ministry. We are

influenced by our families. So whilst it might

be to us a bit of a surprise to open such an

important piece of written work as a gospel to

do a whole list of a genealogy, no surprise.

to a Jewish audience, because it's a wonderful

way to introduce someone. You've got the family

background. You can see the lineage. You can

see where they've come from. And it's quite clear

that Matthew wants us to notice two particular

ancestors of Jesus, because clearly he thinks

by noticing those two names, you're going to

have an immediate introduction to who Jesus is.

And the whole structuring of it is also making

clear that this is an important announcement.

This is a sovereign work of God. He's been working

on for generations and generations. And we have

these three groups of 14 generations. And again,

mathematicians will spot don't exactly add up

to 14. And if you worry about that, please do

not worry about it. As Dick France points out,

it's more of a theological 14 than a statistical

one. I'm quite sure the person who wrote this

was well able to count up to 14. That's not the

point. It's not all about the numbers. But it's

saying there's a lovely sense of a pattern unfolding.

And now's the big moment. The Messiah has at

last arrived. And by giving his genealogy, we've

been given the backstory. But alongside that,

we've also got some rather surprise candidates

added in. Some of these, if you like, the irregularities.

You don't expect to see Tamar in here. And Rahab,

the prostitutes. And nor would you expect to

see someone famously brought into the Bible narrative

when she is committing adultery with King David,

Bathsheba. And what about Ruth the Moabitess?

Unlikely candidates. Everyone else in the list,

until they get to Mary, is a man. They're being

brought in deliberately to say, yes, these are

key figures in the ancestry of Jesus. And just

to kind of notice, I think maybe in theological

college life, We can often feel that, you know,

there are other people here who seem more worthy

to be here than I am. I certainly remember that

kind of feeling. And maybe you're not from a

sort of generations of ministers. Now it's my

moment. And maybe you're thinking, well, everyone

else seems to know the Bible better than I do.

And they've got this wonderful ministry experience.

And I can see they've got these great gifts.

What am I doing here? But God's called you in.

He's preparing you for something. And God delights

to keep on bringing people in. So don't in any

way discard yourself or put yourself out of what

God is doing. He delights to call us in. So I

want us to really look at this passage, particularly

focus around three key names, Abraham, David,

and of course, Jesus. Because this is the way

that the gospel starts and how we are introduced

to the central figure. So we begin by noticing

we have the introduction to Jesus. as the son

of Abraham, who of course came to bring the blessing

to the nations, as Jesus was just about to do.

And again, funnily enough, Tom Wright likes to

call it a drum roll, this sense of, and here

are the generations of, which again, not very

exciting language to English ears, but if you're

familiar with Genesis, time and again, a big

moment is introduced in Genesis 2, Genesis 5,

these are the generations of. It's like the opening

of a new chapter. Something significant is really

going on. Something is about to happen that you

really need to pay extra attention to. And so

it's all this begetting. You've got the Greek

word here, agenison, and it's talking about the

begetting, the generation of one generation after

another. And it's talking about how God has been,

over these years, faithfully preserving, protecting,

and bringing through his people this one particular

son. called Jesus. And I notice of course with

Abraham, obviously you can say, but one of the

things that is quite clearly prominent in the

life of Abraham is a man of unusually remarkable

obedient faith. When he's called out of his homeland,

where no doubt he was quite safe and secure and

kind of knew how things work, to go into a far

country that he will be told the name of after

he'd set off, that is quite a journey. Even just

setting off from England or London, heading out

to Pittsburgh, at least we knew where we were

going. It's a big enough challenge, even knowing

where you're going, having to dislocate, relocate.

It's a very big deal. But he was willing to do

it. He knew that God had told him, off he goes.

He gets sent off to a distant country. Well,

of course, we see that with the Son of God. He

comes to us, if you like, from a distant country

and a much more glorious one. And so we see that

wonderful faithfulness and of course the astonishing

story of him even offering up his son Isaac,

the one who he'd been waiting for, the one who

God had promised to give him and then having

to have the faith presumably to believe that

God could raise him from the dead. Extraordinary

faith. Now of course there are other ways we'll

see later where Abraham doesn't measure up to

Jesus in all sorts of ways but we notice he's

a man of obedient faith. But we also notice here's

a man through whom God was going to bring blessing

to the nation. So we come back to chapter 12

of Genesis. And right there we see that the Lord

said to Abraham, leave your country, your people,

your father's household and go to a land I will

show you. I will make you a great nation. I will

bless you. I will make your name great and you

will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless

you. And whoever curses you, I will curse. And

all peoples on earth will be blessed through

you. Quite an extraordinary promise. And of course,

some blessings did indeed come through Abraham.

But of course, what we're waiting for is the

great blessing still to become fulfilled in Jesus.

He's the one who's come to fulfill that covenant

promise. He's come to bless the nations. Yes,

the people of Israel, but not just the nation

of Israel. He's come to bring a blessing. To

the nations. As I said, of course, we've got

to notice there are all sorts of ways that Jesus

vastly exceeds, of course, Abraham. Abraham,

he has his failings. He passes his wife off as

his sister. Partial truth, but of course, significantly

deficient on the whole truth. There are all sorts

of other ways he fails. He doesn't just have

a child with Sarah. He has other children. What

is going on? He's not a paragon of virtue. But

he is a way of beginning to think. This is the

sort of ancestor that Jesus has. Someone who's

willing to obediently travel off and the person

who's willing to faithfully be used by God to

bring a blessing to the nations. And so from

the start, Matthew wants us to know that this

Jesus, he has a clear, solid Jewish ancestry.

His father is Abraham. So he comes to bring a

blessing to the nations. But what we also see

when we get a little bit further down to verse

6, Jesus is also... the son of david who amongst

many other things vanquishes his enemies that's

also a clear central part of what jesus has come

to do so here we go verse six and jesse the father

of king david david was the father of solomon

his mother had been uriah's wife and on we go

again back into this long list of great names

it's also noticeable he's the only one who actually

gets the title king Well, guess what? His son

Solomon was also king, but doesn't get mentioned.

He's the only one who really makes the grade

in a way worth recording for future posterity.

He is, if you like, the nearest thing to an ideal

king because he was willing to faithfully do

what God called him to do. And he was willing

to go out and fight the enemies of God and bring

the victories of God, thereby displaying the

glories of God. And so we see also picking up

that wonderful Old Testament lesson. If you go

back to Genesis 49, some of the ways in which

Jacob was blessing his son Judah, well, some

of that was being fulfilled in King David. There

was a sense in which he was able to really go

forward against the enemies of God and bring

that triumph. The scepter would be with him.

We see other prophecies fulfilled. Well, it's

beginning to be fulfilled. If you go back to

some of Balaam's prophecy back in... Numbers

24, that expectation of someone that God would

raise up to bring provision for his people. Well,

again, you see bits of that being fulfilled in

the life of David. As a wonderful summary towards

the end of his life to Samuel 8, all the different

nations he triumphed over. The peace that God

had brought. And it's not just for him, it's

for him and his mighty men. So again, heading

out into ministry, don't think it's all up to

you. You need a team around you. people who can

give you that shared wisdom and discernment.

So many times in the New Testament, it's presbyters

rather than a presbyter heading off into a leadership

role. So again, people around you. And so often

those sort of friendships that are key people

around you, maybe the sort of senior leadership

team or equivalent, produce some of the most

rich and vibrant relationships. I'm still in

touch with people I've served with in years gone

by. It's a wonderful sense that we're in this

together, the mighty men and women of God. being

called into his kingdom work without his help

we're in real trouble but we get a ringside seat

to see what the lord will do and that is a really

beautiful thing and of course one of the central

victories was david up against goliath before

he was the king and jr packer loves to pick up

this story and show how this kind of begins to

help us think towards things like substitutionary

atonement because when david arrives at the battlefield

his life is not in danger he's not a soldier

and yet he's willing to go and put his life on

the line against the giant Goliath presumably

because Saul wasn't willing to we already know

that Saul was the nearest thing that the Israelites

had to a giant he was head and shoulders above

the rest of them but he's sitting quietly in

his tent said oh you can borrow my armor you

go and fight him not the quality of kingship

we're really looking for didn't put David off

he goes out there and he brings Goliath down

He puts his life on the line, substituting himself

to bring salvation to that army. And indeed,

if you like, to prefigure the great work that

Jesus would do in his substitutionary atonement

for us. So we do see a wonderful way in which

King David is, if you like, prefiguring the great

victories that Jesus was about to unfold. Of

course, as Gospel of Matthew will later go on

to tell us. And again, we have to notice, yes,

he falls short. There were all sorts of ways

in which his great victories show taint of sin

and selfishness and shortcoming. Clearly he should

not have had an adulterous relationship with

Bathsheba. He should not have arranged the death

of her husband Uriah. On and on goes the list

of failings. But he was, we know, a man after

God's own heart who repented when he sinned.

And God was merciful and kind and forgave him.

And so we see how these things are again just

beginning to point us to who Jesus is going to

be. Who Jesus was and is. He comes not only to

be a son of Abraham, but also the son of David.

He's a royal family. You can imagine at this

point, this is sort of reading that someone like

King Herod would not have enjoyed very much.

Because King Herod, who was on the throne, half

Jewish, half Edomite. didn't enjoy hearing people's

ancestry because he couldn't have had a reading

like that. His ancestry did not go back to Abraham.

And he was so angry about that, he had all the

records destroyed. So no one was quite sure where

their ancestry went back to. It was quite clear

that God was doing something unique and powerful

in raising up his servant, Jesus. And then what

we, of course, have here is in Jesus, we have

the Son of God inaugurating God's kingdom. So

when you get to the end of this list, and Jacob,

the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, slight

chicane at that point, because Jesus is not the

son of Joseph. Already a little bit of a hint

that something strange is going on here. And

of course, one has to read on. And then if you

may have attended a Christian nativity stories

in the past, we'll know what's coming up next.

We see the whole story unfold, an amazing, miraculous

revelation that God is taking on human flesh

yes to be a son of Abraham yes to be a son of

David but most significantly to be the son of

God no matter how well you do as a son of Abraham

no matter how well you do as a son of David you're

not going to be able to fulfill the covenant

promises it has to be a divine as well as a human

deliverer and that's what we see unfolding in

the verses that come next we see this wonderful

sense of God having preserved his people through

the exile That's something you can't simply take

for granted. It's not like the nation went on

holiday for a little while to Babylon. Holiday

over, we all pack up and come home. A lot of

the folks never came home. When nations are sent

into exile, that's often the end of a nation.

What happened to the ten tribes north of Judah?

It's much more of a scattering effect. So the

very fact that God had graciously preserved his

people through all those generations of exile

was again a way in which we could say... God

was faithfully preserving his people and bringing

them back safe and well. He was so determined

to bring his blessing to the nations, so determined

to bring a vanquishing of the enemies, he was

watching over his folks throughout all these

things. And of course we notice that when Jesus

comes... not only to fulfill those promises of

blessing to the nations, but also to fulfill

the promise of the vanquishing of enemies. It's

not just the nations of Philistines and others.

It's actually to overcome the much bigger, greater,

more pernicious enemies of sin and death and

the devil. He comes to take them on so that his

kingdom can be inaugurated, so the spirit of

God can come back, the glory of the Lord can

be revealed, and his full purposes can be made

known. So that at last the blessings can indeed

come to the nations and peace be restored on

the earth and the new heavens and the new earth

and all that is to come. So we can see these

things neatly tucked away in this sort of wonderful

overture to the whole of the gospel that lies

ahead of us. But it's also a great reminder,

not only for the celebrations of Christmas that

we'll be engaged in these next days, but also

in the ministries that lie ahead. You can have

every confidence that this Jesus that you go

out to proclaim, not only is he the son of Abraham,

not only is he the son of David, he's also the

son of God. And that is the reason we have good

news, a blessing for the nations, an overcoming

of our enemies, and an inauguration of the kingdom

that one day will be revealed in all its glory.

And our joy is to live in the knowledge of these

things and to be equipped to go and proclaim

these things faithfully to all generations. Let's

bow our heads in prayer. My dear God, we do thank

you for your gospel writers who've helped us

to see who Jesus is. We thank you particularly

for the witness of Abraham and David, but most

of all for the life and work of Jesus and for

his presence amongst us now through the Spirit.

We pray that in this season of Advent and as

we prepare for Christmas, that the good news

of Jesus will be proclaimed in power in this

nation and around the world. that people would

hear and see and come to be followers of him.

I need to equip each one of us here present to

go and proclaim these glad tidings. And we pray

these things in Jesus' name. Amen.