Some people love family trees. They’ll schedule vacations to visit rural courthouses to dig up records of a long dead great aunt. For others their family history is recorded in the frontispiece of an oversized and underused family Bible. The best part of discovering from whence we came is finding a famous person so we can brag about our heritage. We love to see to whom we are related, as if such a feat we accomplished by our own power. I've discovered that I am related to two Presidents, Taylor and Tyler. Not a whole lot to brag there. If we talk about our family tree we do so as to drop a few impressive names, like saying "My family came here on the Mayflower," when in fact it was Allied Van Lines. People rarely brag about being related to Benedict Arnold, Jack the Ripper, or John Wilkes Booth.

As we come into the holiday season when families are often on our mind, lets take a look at the family which produced Jesus Christ. Over the next two weeks we’ll look at Jesus’s genealogy. What kind of ancestors does Jesus Christ lay claim to? While Christ was the eternal Son of God, the second member of the Trinity, Christmas is the time we celebrate the Incarnation, the time He came to earth, born of Mary, conceived by the Holy Spirit. But as one who was born, He had a family tree. Let's look at one such tree. This morning we’ll look at the first verse of Matthew, concentrating on just two names.

Why the lists? Why waste such precious space? Lineage was important to the Jews for a variety of reasons. In a time without Driver's Licenses and Social Security numbers, the family tree provided the means by which you could determine important matters. Your family tree in ancient Israel determined the area in which you lived. It was necessary in the transference of property. One's pedigree also under-girded status, especially with offices of kings and priests where lineage is important. After the captivity in Babylon the lineage was necessary to reestablish the priesthood. Royal succession was linked with Davidic lineage. Someone as common as Joseph knew his family tree. In Luke 2 Mary and Joseph to return to his ancestral home of Bethlehem, the city of David, for they were part of David's family.

The great rabbi Hillel bragged he could trace his genealogy back to King David, and the Jewish historian Josephus, writing towards the end of the first century AD, begins his autobiography by relating his own pedigree. These documents were kept in the public records by the Sandhedrin. As a matter of fact, Herod the Great was so embarrassed because, as half Jew-half Edomite, his name was not in the official genealogies, that he sought their destruction, so that nobody could claim a purer pedigree than his own! Far from seeing this as a bit of dull antiquated facts, the first readers of the Gospel would be fascinated that Jesus could trace His genealogy back to Abraham.

Jesus is the Promised Ruler  - 2 Samuel 7:11b-13

In order to understand how important this aspect of Jesus’s lineage is, we must look at 2 Samuel 7 where God promises King David a son who will sit on his throne. God makes this promise at a time in David’s life when there is peace in the land and he is residing in a fine palace. While David enjoys the opulence of royalty, God’s house is still the tabernacle, a tent. So David decides to begin a building project, but God nixes the idea. Instead, there will be another one who will build God’s house.

At first glance we know these promises were fulfilled in the reign of King Solomon, for it was he who built the Temple as God’s house. Yet, what Solomon did was only a faint figure of the fulfillment of God’s promised ruler who would be the anointed one, the Messiah. The title Son of David was used as a Messianic title. So Matthew, in identifying Jesus as the "son of David," is stating that Jesus is the longed-for, hoped-for, and prayed-for Messiah; the Messiah who fulfills all those glorious promises given to David. The promise of 2 Samuel formed the basis of messianic hope for the past 3 millennia.

This one who would come, this son of David would build a house which will endure. That is the house which we’ve looked at the past few weeks in Ephesians 2 and 3. Christ the cornerstone graciously has made us living stones in the growing, holy temple in the Lord. The dwelling in which God lives by the Spirit is the church over which Christ now rules as King.

It is Matthew’s intent in his gospel to inform his readers as to the special nature of Jesus. The genealogy in the first chapter is just a part of that. By showing His Davidic roots, His lineage going back to Israel’s great king, Matthew reminds us that Jesus is the promised Messiah. By pointing us back to David, Matthew tells us that not only is Jesus the promised ruler, He reigns even now.

Isaiah clarifies who this son of David would be. As some two hundred years passed from the time of David’s reign to Isaiah life, he knows that the promised Son of 2 Samuel 7 is not Solomon, but the Messiah. God, through the prophet Isaiah, tells us more about this promised reigning ruler. In this passage made more familiar by the powerful orchestration of Handel, we have the description of work of Christ. (Isaiah 9:6-7) That one who will reign on David’s throne is the one on whose shoulders will be borne the government, the rule of God’s Kingdom. For this reason He carries the fourfold title of wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting father, prince of peace. These describe His work today.

At one time or another we all easily become confused, especially when life is most hectic. We may not have foreign armies invading our lands as Ahaz faced, but you may have your in-laws over for the holidays. You may dread the holidays for the painful memories they conjure, from desires never realized. It is at a time like that our thinking is muddied. We live in a world filled with counselors.

Psychiatrists’ couches are filled with people troubled by guilt, yet all they can offer are stop-gap measures or medication to ease the pain. The root is far too deep to be extricated.

Financial advisors grasp for indications as to what the future economy holds and then gives their guess. They may be well informed, but can not prognosticate with sufficient certainty.

Politicians are surrounded by advisors that read modern tea leaves called the polls in order to give direction. But such advisors are notoriously self serving.

Even the best advice is bound by our finite and sinful minds. It is for this reason God gives what our addled brains so desperately need, a Wonderful Counselor who is Christ.

There are few places in the Old Testament in which we have such a clear statement as to the deity of Jesus. He is God. As we contemplate this Christmas season the babe nestled in the straw, the star-lit night offering tranquillity and peace, we must come from that scene with the firm conviction that the one in the manger is God in the flesh.

As long as we think we control our own lives, that the pressures we face are no match for our own abilities, then the God of might will mean little to us. But as we find our lives spinning faster than we can respond, the pressures far more than we can handle, it is then that we will seek order from the one who ordered the stars in heaven, who orchestrates all creation for His own honor and glory.

This term creates some confusion. The passage is a foretelling of the birth of Jesus. Jesus is the Messiah, the second person of the triune God, the Son of the Father. Why is he called Father here? The term "Father" clarifies "everlasting" or "eternity". Father here is not His eternal office, but tells us what He does for us regarding that which is eternal - He gives us eternal life as our earthly fathers gave us physical life. Father describes the relationship this King has to us. With each title, there is an increasing personal, intimate aspect.

He gives us the supreme gift of life. Christ secured our position before the Father in heaven when He died in our place and rose on the third day. We have received that which will never fade like an old evergreen; it will not be useless like Aunt Martha’s fruitcake. When we receive eternal life, we have that which we can never lose. We did not secure it; we cannot lose it.

As a good father nourishes and protects and cares for his family, so the Messiah will care for His own. He will eternally be a Father to His people. He will never leave us or forget about us. He will not walk away in disgust over our sinfulness, but gently and firmly encourage and enable us to live as God commands us to live.

It is peace we want and only royalty may grant it. This Prince is one with authority to make war and grant peace. But this Prince uses His authority only to end the war and keep us sustained in a time of peace. The Prince of Peace - not only the Author of peace, and the Dispenser of peace, but also He that rules by peace, whose rule produces prosperity.

The peace we so desperately need can not emanate from the order we create, but must begin first from a right relationship with God. Christ satisfied the claims of absolute justice so that God in perfect justice can declare that the sinner stands in a right relationship with Himself. Being at peace with the sinner, God pardons that sinner, and gives to him the gift of peace.

The shepherds well understood the message that first Christmas (Luke 2:11-14) They were told that a baby born in the town of David was their Savior, that the result of this birth was peace to those on whom God’s favor rests. The battle is over, the victory is won. We live now in the light of Christ’s reign. You need not worry whether the Father accepts you;. His Son’s death established the peace. You can rest in that.

Application

As we enter this holiday season, we must not forget this part of Jesus’s heritage. He is the son of David, the reigning King. Far too often we become enthralled with the cuteness of Christmas, with red ribbons and snowflakes, with cherubs and helpless infants wrapped in swaddling clothes. We too easily envision our Savior as nothing more than a newborn, certainly adorable but not demanding adoration; definitely precious, but not very powerful. When we consider the Nativity we must not forget that the manger is also a throne; the rags in which He was wrapped are regal gowns.

The one who sits on David’s throne now reigns in heaven. His sovereign rule is the only means of peace, not just in our private lives, but it is the only hope for peace in our homes, in our country and among all the nations. The one who began in humility lying in a manger, now sits crowned on a throne.

Jesus fulfills the promised blessing to the nations

Next Matthew tells us that Jesus is the son of Abraham. At first this seems unnecessary. If Jesus is the son of David, he must then be the son of Abraham. To say John is my son, it would be assumed he is my father’s grandson. But Matthew’s intent in this genealogy is not merely historical, but to lay the groundwork for who Jesus is with respect to His people, the Church. Being a son of Abraham tells us more than His heritage, more than His genetic make-up. For Jesus to be the son of Abraham takes us to the heart of God’s covenant with His people.

To understand the connection with Abraham we need to go back to Genesis 12 to God’s promise to make Abraham into a great nation (Genesis 12:2-3,7). God’s promise is that through Abraham others will be blessed; the benefits God has for His people will flow through this man. Notice in verse 7 God’s blessings go to Abraham’s offspring. God repeats this promise again when the sign of the covenant, circumcision, is given (Genesis 17:6-7). But how does this relate to Christ?

Though these promises were partially fulfilled in and through Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, and those after them, a more glorious and complete fulfillment was expected. By the time of the New Testament, for instance, God did make of Abraham a great nation; his descendants did possess the promised land; and, nations and kings did come from Abraham. However, unfulfilled to date was God's promise that "all peoples on earth will be blessed through you." And, though Israel was a numerous people, they still were not as many as the stars in the sky or the sand on the seashore or the dust of the earth. Finally, God's eternal covenant with Abraham, though already established, was not yet fully established.

In large part, God's promises to Abraham would remain unfulfilled until the appearance of the Messiah. You see, it is only in Messiah Jesus that all the peoples on earth are blessed; it is only in Messiah Jesus that Abraham's descendants become as numerous as the sand on the seashore; it is only in Messiah Jesus that God has established an eternal covenant with Abraham and his descendants after him.

Galatians 3:16 gives us a clue how this happens. All the sons of Abraham who came before were but shadows of the final fulfillment. Jesus is the promised one of Abraham. What Matthew wants us to understand is that while Israel was full of sons and daughters of Abraham, this one born two thousand years ago was the culmination of God’s promise. From the time of Adam God promised that from the enmity between the seed of Satan and the seed of Eve would come one to crush the serpent's head. That time is now.

The importance of being a son of Abraham is that this is the child of promise. This is the child that comes unexpectedly, by God’s direct intervention, apart from human intervention. While Abraham and Sarah were far too old for conceiving children, God gave them Isaac. While still a virgin, Mary conceived and bore a son by the Holy Spirit. This is why Paul points to Abraham in Galatians 3:17-18 as the one who was given a gracious gift by God.

The importance of Abraham is seen again in Romans 4 where Paul draws the connection between the gift of offspring to Abraham and God’s grace which gives life apart from the Law:

As we approach the joyous time of giving gifts, of a desire for happiness and cheer, knowing that Jesus is the son of Abraham reinforces the greatest gift, the wonderful grace of God who by His own decree determined to make us His own through grace, apart from our own works. To say that Jesus is THE son of Abraham is to say that our law-keeping is null and void.

Paul tells us that the promise of life is received not through the Law, but righteousness comes by faith. We are recipients of grace, not slaves eking out a living by our own wages. The promise given to Abraham to bless the nations comes about through the one who is given to us. All that God asks is that we respond in faith to God’s gracious gift.

That Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham means that Jesus is the source of the promise to all those who like Abraham trust the promise made by God to His people. The promises made to Abraham are fulfilled in Christ. He is then the source of those blessings to us, even if we can not trace our ancestry to Abraham. The promise of God’s grace, the promise made that first Christmas, is fulfilled and passed on in the person of Christ. We receive it by faith, by trusting that what God has promised will be delivered.

This promise made and believed is at the heart of God’s dealing with Abraham and it is fulfilled in Christ so that Christ becomes the source of that promise to us. In Genesis 15 God reminds Abraham that He will cause him to succeed. The problem for Abraham was the lack of an offspring; without children of his own, he could see no hope. It is then that God reiterates His promise once again. Abraham believes and Genesis 15:6 gives us that snapshot of the Gospel: "Abram believed God and he credited to him as righteousness." But God does not stop there. Genesis 15 gives us a wonderful illustration of what Christmas is all about.

God instructs Abram to gather a heifer, a goat and a ram along with a dove and a pigeon. The animals are gathered and in an ancient bloody ritual they are cut in two, placed opposite of each other. While Abram falls into a deep sleep, he is reminded once again what God will do. In the form of a smoking fire pot and a blazing torch, God passes between the animals, making a covenant with Abraham. In so doing this, Abram was a passive participant; God took the oath on Himself that God would give Abraham descendants and fulfill all the promises. Abram was only to believe. In passing between those animals that night, God took upon Himself an imprecatory oath, calling a curse upon Himself if the oath would not be fulfilled.

How is that a sign of Christmas?

The promise made centuries before to Abraham that through him the earth would be blessed was realized that first Christmas night. But the fulfillment came at a tremendous cost. The oath which God swore to Abraham was kept at the cost of God’s own Son. As the son of David, we know Jesus Christ rules supreme over heaven and earth. We can celebrate His majesty and power. As the son of Abraham we know that we receive the promise of eternal life through a gift and not by the works of the Law. Yet that victory comes only through the Cross. Before we can glory in the victory won, the crown adorning His head, we must go through the agony of the Cross.