Lessons from the Family Tree: Gospel of Luke #11
This is an exposition of Luke 3:23-38. This message by Pastor Rod Harris was delivered at Trinity Baptist Church on Sunday morning, May 1, 2016.
Intro:
Years ago Dr. Adrian Rogers became the pastor of the historic Bellevue Baptist Church of Memphis Tennessee. It was a grand old church within the Southern Baptist Convention and had been pastored by R.G. Lee and Ramsey Pollard who were pulpit giants within the convention. Dr. Rogers came to the church as a 40 year-old man from Florida and some of the grand ladies of the South were concerned about his lineage. One of the ladies approached Dr. Rogers and ask, “Sir, who are your people?” Dr. Rogers, knowing what and why she was asking said, “Well Mam, my family goes back to a drunken sailor and a crooked farmer. The sailor’s name was Noah and the farmer’s name was Adam.” Family is important. We need to know who we are and where we come from. Family histories give us grounding and connect us with the past. This is why there is such fascination with genealogy and family origins. Someone in my mother’s family decided to research our history. They barely got started when they found a whole bunch of the family were hung for stealing horses! They stopped the search afraid of what they might find. Genealogy has always been important. Remembering the family story connected folks with the past and the wisdom of those who had gone before. So it was with Israel. The Jews of Jesus day maintained their identity by remembering their fathers all they way back to the 12 original tribes. This remembrance was first transmitted orally but later was recorded for the generations to come. Knowing who you were was tied directly to knowing from whence you came – witness the numerous genealogies of the Old Testament. Luke is about to introduce the public ministry of Jesus and he begins with a genealogy in the ancient style. Our text this morning is found in Luke the 3 beginning with the 12:23.
Text: Luke 3:23-38
Yes, this is normally one of those “skimming” passages.
When we come to these “son of” or “begat” texts we hit the snooze button or skip over it.
But it is here for a reason.
God the Holy Spirit thought it was something we ought to know.
As we reflect on this text we discover that…
Thesis: Contained within this genealogy is the glory of the Gospel: Jesus the Son of God, the Son of Man, Savior of all who will trust in Him.
There is one technical matter we must take up in connection with this passage. Luke is giving us the genealogy of Jesus. Matthew gives us a genealogy as well, Matthew 1:1-17. Even a casual reading of the two make it plain they are different! They are not the same. There are overlaps. There are some common names but they are different. In Luke we read that Jesus’ grandfather is Heli. In Matthew it is Jacob. Well, everyone has two grandfathers. Yes, but both are connected to Joseph in the text. There are other differences. Matthew goes back to Abraham while Luke goes back to Adam. In addition there there are nearly 40 names that are different. Most of them between David and Jesus. How do we explain this? Did one or both of the gospel writers make a mistake? There are various theories.
One theory is that both Matthew and Luke record the family tree of Joseph but they do it in two different ways. That Matthew gives the legal descendants of David and Luke gives the bloodline. In effect Matthew and Luke are asking different questions. Matthew is asking, “Who is the next king of Israel?” Luke is asking, “Who was this person’s father?” This is reasonable but not provable. The other main theory is to say that Matthew gives Joseph’s family line while Luke gives Mary’s family line. Thus Jesus was descended from David through two different lines, one on each side of the family. This would mean that Mary and Joseph were distant cousins. This would be consistent with Jewish culture and tradition.
Then why would Luke refer to Joseph as the son of Heli? There are 2 possibilities one being that Joseph was adopted by Heli because he had no sons. The other possibility is that the son of Heli doesn’t refer to Joseph at all but rather skips to Jesus. This could be supported by the language of the text. In keeping with custom all the names in the list have the definite article attached except for Joseph. “The Heli, the Matthat and so on. Joseph is simply Joseph. The reference of Joseph is a parenthesis pointing back to the virgin birth. Thus Luke says, being the son (as was supposed) of Joseph. That Jesus was the son (descendant) of Heli.
All things considered I think it best to say Matthew and Luke give two different genealogies. Matthew the genealogy through Joseph, his legal father and Luke through Mary his actual mother. After all his humanity came through his mother.
There are three observations I want to make related to this text.
- The genealogy of Jesus connects our blessed Lord with our common humanity.
- The genealogy of Jesus shows He is the fulfillment of God’s promise.
- The genealogy of Jesus declares Him the Savior of all who will trust in Him.
Conclusion:
…made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. (Hebrews 2:17)
He is connected to our common humanity.
He is the fulfillment of God’s promise.
He is the Savior of all who will trust in Him.
Hallelujah what a Savior!