LUKE 3:23-38 WHAT THE RECORDS SHOW2011 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Luke 3:23-38 What The Records Show

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You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2011.

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Alright, well this morning we're in Luke chapter 3. We'll be looking at verses 23 through 38, finishing up the chapter. And normally I would have you stand and read the portion with me. But if you glance quickly here at this passage that we're looking at this morning, it's a genealogy. It's a whole bunch of names. And I thought that would just be cruel to try to make you pronounce all those names. And so we're just going to go through it together. But would you begin with me in prayer?

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Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day. God, we do thank you for these things that you're putting upon our hearts in the area of reaching out to our community. Lord, I thank you for Pastor George and raising him up and the work that you want to do in

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And God, as we look at your word this morning, I pray that you would pour out your Holy Spirit upon us. Lord, that you would give us insight. Lord, give us understanding and clarity into what you're speaking. Lord, not just that we can understand it in our minds, but Lord, that it would impact and change our hearts. Lord, that we would live differently as a result of what you will share with us today. And so God, we pray that you would meet us here and be glorified. In Jesus' name, Amen.

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All right, here in Luke chapter 3, we start out in verse 23. It says, Now Jesus himself began his ministry at about 30 years of age, being, as was supposed, the son of Joseph, the son of Heli. And we'll stop there for a moment.

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Here we start in verse 23 and Luke is now moving on into the life of Jesus. We saw last week his baptism. We saw prior to that a couple instances of his birth and then an instance that happened when he was 12 years old. And now we're beginning to move into his earthly ministry. But before we get into that part, Luke says, okay, you need to know some important things about the genealogy of Jesus.

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You need to know what the records show. What do the records show? Well, we'll talk about that today. But as we get to this portion of Jesus' life, we find here at the very beginning of His ministry, He's about 30 years of age.

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And this is kind of a side note compared to what I want to share with you this morning or focus on this morning. But as I was considering that, that Jesus began his ministry at 30 years old, I was considering how God's timing is important. And I would suggest to you that his timing is as important as his calling. Because here you have Jesus. He's the Son of God. I mean, he's the Savior. He is...

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The Almighty God incarnate in the flesh. He's born through the Virgin Mary. He has at 12 years old this revelation. He recognizes that Joseph is not his real father, but that he is the Son of God. And yet, it's not until 30 years old that he begins his ministry. For 30 years, although he is God, although he is the Savior that God has sent to the world,

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He lives in obscurity. He lives in poverty for 30 years. No miracles, no spotlight, no healings, no teaching, no walking on water. He's the Savior of the world. He's God Almighty. But for 30 years, He lives in obscurity. He had to wait for the right time, for the Father's timing.

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Now in the meantime, as he was waiting for the father's timing, he was faithful in the little things. He was faithful in his life and he learned the trade of carpentry. He took care of the family as it seems that Joseph probably died at an early age. He was responsible. He was diligent, waiting for the right time for him to begin the ministry that he was here to perform.

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You know, when Paul was giving Timothy the qualities to look for as he raised up pastors and elders and leaders within the church, Paul tells him that they must not be a novice. They must not be brand new or too young in the faith. Now, why would Paul need to tell Timothy that? That seems pretty basic. Why would he need to tell him to make sure that they're not a novice?

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I think he had to tell him because Timothy, like us many times, we look at people's lives and what we see is the potential. Wow, this person really could be effective for the kingdom of God. This person really could be used by God. This person is really gifted by God. But in raising up leaders, Paul tells Timothy, it's important that the timing is right.

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Not that that person cannot ever serve in that capacity, but the time must be right. The timing must correspond with the calling in their life. And so I'd like to share with you as we look at verse 23 and the fact that Jesus was 30 years old as he headed into his earthly ministry, I would like to encourage you because maybe God has given you an indication of things that he wants to do in your life.

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Maybe He's given you a glimpse of some things He's called you to and some things He wants to work in. Some things He wants to accomplish through you. And I want to encourage you to make sure you look for the timing and not just the calling. When God gives you that glimpse, seek Him for the timing of when to go forward in that area.

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Because his timing is just as important as his calling. Well, here in verse 23, he begins his ministry at 30 years old. And he goes on now to say that he was the son of Joseph. But he kind of clarifies that a little bit, as was supposed.

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And so here, as we head on into the following verses, we're going to be following the genealogy of Jesus, starting with Joseph and then moving our way backwards through his genealogy. But in actuality, as we look at this and study it, we find that this genealogy that we have here is probably Mary's genealogy and not Joseph's genealogy. Well, how do we know that? A couple of reasons. First of all,

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This whole time, Luke has been telling Mary's side of the story. Remember in Luke chapter 1, we see Mary's experience there with the angel Gabriel appearing to her.

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Joseph's experience when the angel appeared to him is not recorded in Luke. It's actually recorded in the book of Matthew. There in Matthew, we have kind of Joseph's side of the story and things that happened from his perspective. But here in Luke, we've been following the narrative surrounding Mary's perspective and what she experienced through all of this.

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The second reason why we know that this is Mary's genealogy though, is because Luke points out here that Jesus was the son of Joseph supposedly, or according to the custom is how it also could be translated. He was not biologically Joseph's son. He was actually Joseph's adopted son. But people supposed, people assumed that he was Joseph's son.

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But that was not the reality. He was not Joseph's biological son. And so being the son of Joseph, supposedly, the son of Heli. And so Heli, we find, is not actually Joseph's father, but Mary's father. And so Joseph is the son of Heli by marriage. And so it's the son-in-law of Heli is Joseph. He's his son by marriage.

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Now, in the Gospel of Matthew, there's a genealogy as well. And that genealogy records the line of Joseph. And so if you want to see Joseph's line and the descendants of Jesus through Joseph, then you can check out the Gospel of Matthew and see all of that recorded there. And we have these two genealogies in Matthew and Luke, and they show us that Jesus was a descendant of David through both Joseph and Joseph.

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his adopted father, and Mary, his biological mother. And so that's an important point, and we'll talk about that a little bit later on this morning.

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But now as we head on into the next verses, we're working backwards through the genealogy of Jesus. We'll look at a couple of highlights and there's basically three things I would like to point out to you this morning. Three things about the genealogy of Jesus and what the records show. What do the records show about Jesus? Why is this here? Why do we care about his genealogy?

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Well, the first thing I'd like to share with you this morning is that the records show that God loves each one. The records show, the records prove that God loves each and every individual. Well, let's check it out. In verse 24 through 30 says,

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Please bear with me as I do my best to pronounce these names. Verse 24 says, The son of Methot, the son of Levi, the son of Melchi, the son of Janna, the son of Joseph, the son of Mattathiah, the son of Amos, the son of Nahum, the son of Ezli, the son of Nagai, the son of Math, the son of Mattathiah, the son of Semi, the son of Joseph, the son of Judah.

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The son of Jonah, the son of Eliakim.

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I don't think I butchered them too bad. Hopefully not. Here we have this first section of names. The son of, the son of, the son of, the son of. What is this? It's a record of the family. It's a record of the fathers and the sons

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From Eliakim all the way through Jesus. And we'll go a little bit further back as we go in the passage. In fact, this whole passage that we're looking at this morning has a total of 76 names here in these verses. 76 names of individuals who

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who lived a time span of about 4,000 years. And so we're reading all of these names, we're covering 4,000 years of history here in Jesus' genealogy, in His line. Now you and I, I think we have the tendency to look at genealogies as we read through the scriptures and we see them and we kind of think, how boring.

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I mean, the names are hard to pronounce. They're not names we know. We don't know a whole lot about the people that are talked about here. They're not personally known to us. It's just a list of names. And so we kind of skim through it. We kind of glance over it. But we don't pay that much attention.

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That's our approach. But I would ask you to consider, how do you think God sees genealogies? What do you think he thinks when there's a list here of names in the line of Jesus? You know, I really believe that God loves genealogies, that he gets excited about genealogies. Because we know God and we know that he is passionate about people.

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That's what He's most passionate about. He's passionate about people. He loves people. We look at these names and it's a bunch of people that we don't know, but as God sees the name, He knows everything about them. All of the details of their life and He loves them more than you and I really have the capacity to know. He loves people more than we can fully understand.

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And so he sees these names. This isn't just a list of some people that lived a long time ago. These are people that are close to his heart that he cares deeply for. These are people that he is excited about.

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Now in this list that we just went through so far, we know maybe one of them. Zerubbabel is familiar to us. You remember that prophecy in Zechariah chapter 4? Not by might nor by power, but by my spirit says the Lord. That was God's word to Zerubbabel. He was part of the rebuilding effort there in Jerusalem.

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And there's mention of him in the book of Ezra and Nehemiah. So that's kind of the more prominent names that we have in the list thus far. But the rest, we really know nothing about them. We've never seen their names before. We'll never see them again this side of eternity. But God looks at them and he knows each one. And he's excited about who they are. He's passionate for them.

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As we look at this first point, it's kind of a part two to what I was sharing on Wednesday, where we were talking about the importance of loving each individual for us to do, you know, to love those that God has set in front of us. We are to do that because that is how God is. We're modeling the same kind of love that God has. If you could think about all the different people that are in your life,

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I mean, think of the wide range of people. Of course, you have your family. And your family, of course, is very important to you. You have your immediate family, your extended family. You could maybe broaden it out to your neighbors. You know, they're a part of your life. Or your friends, or your church body. They're a part of your life. Your co-workers. You broaden it out a little bit. You know, there's the person at Starbucks that gets you your coffee, that knows what you want, you know, as soon as you walk in the door. There's...

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people here and there throughout your life. Are any of them insignificant to you? If there was a different Starbucks employee, you know, there one day, would it be a big deal? Yeah, sure, if you had a different wife one day, you walk in the door, who are you? That'd be a big deal. But are there insignificant people in your life? It's like, yeah, it's no big deal. They're here, they're gone, doesn't matter to me. Understand that as far as God's concerned, there are no insignificant people. We're all His family. We're His children.

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And just like you would, you know, be concerned about any of your children, God is concerned about His children. There's no insignificant people to God. There's no one who's, you know, eh, it's no big deal. If He doesn't get to heaven, that's fine. God doesn't feel that way about anybody. That's kind of hard for us to comprehend, but hey, even if a person is insane, right?

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or in deep poverty, even if they're homeless, or murderous, or wealthy, even if they're hideous, I would even suggest to you, even if they're unborn. God is deeply concerned for them and passionate about them. So much so that he keeps records, like the genealogy we're reading here.

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He keeps records. More than this genealogy though, in Revelation chapter 20 verse 12, remember the apostle John says, I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged according to their works by the things which were written in the books. God keeps books about our lives.

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And as the dead are standing there before God for judgment, the books are opened. And then also another book. And so there's books, there's volumes being recorded about you. God's keeping track. He's taking notes. Now is it just so that He can judge people that He's keeping all of these records? No way. Think of how you would do it as a parent. You keep track, you keep record, not so that you can ground them or punish them.

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But you keep record because you're excited about them. You're passionate about them and you love them. I would suggest to you here as the books are opened, it's the ultimate scrapbook. God's scrapbooking in heaven. He's like taking pictures and videos and putting it all together. It's like the ultimate blog of your life because he's passionate about you because he cares about you and he wants to keep track of those details, those things that you've done. He's created you. You're his child and he loves you.

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He loves each individual, no matter who we are, where we're from, or what we've done. The Bible is very clear. He does not just love all of humanity collectively, and you just happen to be in the bunch. The wording is clear. He loves each of us individually. Isn't that amazing to consider?

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Does that just kind of blow your mind that God looks at you and He knows you and He loves you? He knows all the details, all the statistics about your life. In Luke chapter 12, we'll get there in a little bit. Verse 6 and 7, Jesus there is talking and He talks about sparrows. He says, look, sparrows are sold for just a couple of pennies. But He says, not one of them is forgotten before God. And so God knows sparrows.

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All of the sparrows. They're not very valuable, but none of them are forgotten. And then he goes on to compare it to us. He says, but the very hairs of your head are numbered. Sparrows are insignificant and God keeps track of them. So how much more for you? He says, look, don't fear. Therefore, you're of more value than sparrows.

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You are of more value to God than sparrows. And if he doesn't forget about any of the sparrows, if he keeps track of the sparrows and they're not very valuable, how much more does he keep track of your life? Even to the point Jesus says, the hairs of your head are all numbered. If you get a really powerful microscope and examine your hair, you'll see the serial number across it. I'm just kidding. But God does. Your hairs are numbered.

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He knows each one. He knows all of the minute, minuscule details about your body, about your life, internally, externally, emotionally, spiritually. He knows you completely through and through. And understand, this is not just for other people. Some people he loves that way. This is for you. For every individual, God loves you this way.

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So much so that I would say to you that if there was nobody else in the world except for you, God could not love you any more than He does right now. He loves you completely and wholly. Even if you were the only one in all of history, He couldn't love you any more because He already loves you.

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Completely and thoroughly. He could not, if you were the only person in existence, give you more attention than he's giving you right now. Sometimes we feel like God's got some more important things, he's busy, and so we just kind of have to make do with what we got until he has time to come back and help us. God could not give you more attention if you were the only person on the face of the earth than what he's giving you right now.

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His eye is on you. He knows what you're going through. And yes, there's difficulties in life. And He's here to help us through them. He's with us. He could not care for you more even if you were the only person on the face of the earth. He cares for you fully and completely. That's why Peter tells us to cast our cares upon Him because He cares for us.

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The psalmist in Psalm 56 verse 8 says, Again, God is keeping some detailed records here. When you shed a tear, God keeps track of it. He knows your heartaches. He knows the pains. He knows the difficulties. He hasn't forgotten about them. He hasn't forgotten about you.

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He hasn't lost sight of what's going on, how hard it is, how hurtful it is. He's keeping track. He's writing it down. Now we know, looking forward, Paul tells us all things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose. And so as we enter into eternity and we look back at these books and all of the tears that were shed, we won't look at God and say, look how unfair you are, look at what I had to go through. We'll look at Him and say, thank you.

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Because then we'll see the value of what He was allowing in our lives and the reasons why He was working in our lives in this way. But the point is, He's keeping track. He knows. You're not just some blurred face and a big crowd. He's keeping track of your tears and of your hairs and of every other detail about you.

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Now as we think about this and how God loves us in that way, again I would ask, does God only love good people? Is this focused on those who are good? Well, if that were the case, then we'd all be out. None of us are good. Does God only love you when you're good or doing good or going to church or reading your Bible or praying? No. God loves you, get this, He loves you unconditionally, without any conditions. Without any conditions.

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Whether you run towards him or run away from him, God loves you. He doesn't love you today because you're good today and then, well, I don't love you tomorrow because you're going to be bad tomorrow. He loves you. He's passionate about you. He's keeping records about your life. He's scrapbooking about who you are and what's going on around you. In the book of Ezekiel chapter 33, it tells us there, God says, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked.

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You know why he has no pleasure when the wicked die? Because he loves them. He's passionate about them. He cares for them. In 2 Peter 3.9, it tells us that God is not willing that any should perish. His desire is that all would come to repentance. That's not just kind of a casual, yeah, well, I just kind of hope, you know. No, his desire, he's doing everything short of forcing a person against their will to bring them to repentance.

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That's His desire because He loves people. He will not force them. He will not force you. But He loves you and He cares for you and He's paying attention to you. God loves every individual, every human being. Sometimes being in the culture that we're in, we kind of get the idea that God only loves Americans or God especially loves Americans. But of course that's not the truth. You know God loves the terrorists too? It's kind of hard for us to swallow sometimes.

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But the Apostle Paul, when you think about it, was a terrorist. I mean, he was torturing people, causing them to blaspheme the name of God. That was his objective, to turn people away from Jesus. And God loved him and offered to him eternal life and got a hold of him and allowed him to be a part of the kingdom of God. God loves every person. He loves the good. He loves the bad. He loves the ugly. He loves us all.

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Without exception. Without condition. He knows all the details of your life. All of your tears are recorded. The number of your hairs is known. You are extremely valuable to God. So He's keeping record of everything about you. Now,

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If the idea of having everything about your life and every detail about who you are and your innermost thoughts and the things that nobody else sees, if all of that being recorded and written down and in a big scrapbook in heaven is scary to you, then you need to pay special attention to this next point. Point number two. The records show that Jesus is the promised Savior.

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First of all, we see that the records show that God loves each one. Not a single person is excluded. But now as we continue on in the genealogy, we also find that Jesus is the promised Savior. Read along with me from verses 31 through 34.

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The genealogy continues. It says, the son of Malaiah, the son of Menan, the son of Mattathiah, the son of Nathan, the son of David, the son of Jesse, the son of Obed, the son of Boaz, the son of Salmon, the son of Nashon, the son of Amminadab, the son of Ram, the son of Hezron, the son of Perez, the son of Judah, the son of Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham, the son of Terah, the son of Nahor.

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And so now we have another bunch of names. But these names we are a little bit more familiar with. There's a few more people that we recognize here. We see David, we see Jesse, we see Boaz, as well as Jacob, Isaac, Abraham, Terah. These are names that we're familiar with from the book of Genesis and 1st and 2nd Samuel, 1st and 2nd Kings. These are names that we've had contact with as we've studied through the scriptures together.

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And as we look at these names, we find the fulfillment of some important promises here. You see, since Adam fell there in the Garden of Eden, God has been promising a Savior for mankind ever since Adam fell.

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Ever since the very beginning, Genesis 3, there in the Garden of Eden, when He eats of that forbidden fruit. Ever since then, God has been promising and proclaiming that He would provide a Savior for mankind. And why would He do such a thing? Well, as we just discussed, He loves us. And He wants to spend eternity with us.

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He loves you enough, He loves me so much that He wants to spend eternity with me. And so He said, I'm going to provide a Savior. There in the Garden of Eden before the fall, we see God and man and the perfect fellowship that existed between them. That was what God intended in creating man. However, no relationship is real if it's forced, if there's no option, if there's no choice.

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And so we find that God, although he had perfect relationship or fellowship with man there in the garden, he also gave man the choice. Adam, you don't have to continue in this relationship with me. You can have the choice. You can eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And so Adam and Eve had this choice to choose to obey and walk with God or not. And of course, we know the story that Adam chose to disobey.

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And as a result, sin entered in. He sinned against God. Sin entered in and affected all of humanity. That perfect relationship with God, that fellowship with God was broken now as a result of sin. Now as we look at this story, we need to understand that this was not a surprise to God. When Adam took the bite of the forbidden fruit, God didn't like fall off his chair because he was so shocked. He knew from the very beginning that

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That man would make that choice. He knew what Adam would do, but he created him anyways because he thinks we're worth it. You're worth it. He wants to spend eternity with you. And since he knew what was going to happen, he already had in place the plan of salvation. And so from the very beginning, we see him giving hints and revealing little bit by little bit by little bit his plan of salvation, the person of salvation, the Messiah or the Savior that would come.

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And so God, throughout the Old Testament, you can see the records, God was showing little by little more and more detail about this Savior that He had been promising. And how would we know the Savior when He came? How would we know that He was the one that God had been talking about? Well, God gave many different prophecies, different signs and criteria, over 300 prophecies about this Savior and the things that He would do

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The places that he would be from, the place where he would be born. Gave all kinds of details about his life so that we could recognize, okay, this is the one, here he is. One of the criteria for the Savior, one of the things that he had to fulfill, was he had to be a descendant from certain people. And those are the people that we see here in these verses. Starting with Abraham.

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It's the end of our verses here in verse 34 there we see Abraham is listed. But chronologically Abraham was the first. Of all the people who are alive in Abraham's day, God chose Abraham. And he told Abraham, you're going to be a great nation. And he promised Abraham, the Savior that I've been talking about Abraham, he's going to be one of your descendants. In Genesis chapter 12 verse 3,

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God tells Abraham, in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. How could all the families of the earth be blessed in Abraham? Because his descendant, someone from his line, a great, great, great, great, great, great, a few more greats, grandchild of his, would be the Savior for all the families of the earth, for all mankind. And so the promised Savior had to descend from Abraham.

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How many sons did Abraham have? You could say one, you could say two, but actually he had eight sons. He had Isaac, he had Ishmael, and then he had six more sons by a lady named Keturah, who he married after Sarah died. Of those six sons of Abraham, God narrows it down. First he says, Abraham, one of your descendants is going to be the Savior. Abraham has eight sons. This...

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Lying is going to continue, God says, through Isaac. And so God gives to Isaac that same promise. In Genesis chapter 26 verse 4, he tells Isaac, Same promise he gave to Abraham, he now passes on to Isaac. So the other sons, the Savior is not going to come from them. The Savior had to descend from Abraham through Isaac.

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And then how many sons did Isaac have? Isaac had two sons, Jacob and Esau. You probably remember those names. And the messianic line continues on through Isaac to Jacob. He tells Jacob in Genesis chapter 28 verse 14, In your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed. And so Esau is eliminated. He's not blessed.

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Part of the messianic line. The Messiah will descend through Abraham, through Isaac, through Jacob. And then how many sons did Jacob have? Well, he had 12 sons. God had a lot to choose from there. 12 sons. They became the 12 tribes of Israel. Now, which of these were to carry on this messianic line, this line that would provide the Savior? Well, we find that it was the line of Judah. One of Judah.

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Jacob's sons was named Judah in Genesis chapter 49 verse 10. He tells Judah, God is speaking prophetically through Jacob, that the scepter, that is the rule, should not depart from Judah until Shiloh comes, until that Savior comes. And to him, to that Savior, shall be the obedience of the people. And so God speaks to Jacob.

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He says, Judah is the one. I'm going to continue this line of the Savior through Judah. So the other 11 sons are eliminated and now the Messiah, the Savior, must be a descendant of Abraham, through Isaac, through Jacob, through Judah. And then, it kind of spreads out a little bit farther then, we find David there in verse 31. God tells David in 2 Samuel 7, verse 16,

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Your house and your kingdom shall be established forever. Your throne shall be established forever. The throne of David, that is one of David's descendants, is the throne that will be established forever. And so the Savior must be a descendant of David. That's why this part of the genealogy is so important. Because what we're seeing here is,

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is that Jesus fulfills all of these. He is a descendant of Abraham through Isaac, through Jacob, through Judah, as well as through David, both on Mary's side and Joseph's side. So if you're looking biologically, if you're looking legally, he is a descendant of David. God has narrowed down the possibilities. The Savior had to be a descendant from this line. Now, of course, there's many other prophecies that Jesus fulfilled as well.

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But these records that we have here show that he is that promised savior. He is that one that God has been declaring will come. He fulfills the genetic criteria. His genealogy proves that he has the right to the throne of David. God's plan of salvation is found in Jesus. It's revealed in Jesus.

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The restored fellowship, the restoration of what man had with God there in the Garden of Eden is fulfilled in Jesus. The promise of eternal life is found in Jesus. And so the records show that Jesus is the promised Savior.

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Well, finally, the third point as we finish up our verses this morning is that the records show that Jesus became a man. Let's finish it up. Verses 35-38, it says...

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And so here Jesus' genealogy is traced all the way back to

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To the beginning, the first man, Adam, created from the dust of the ground. And God breathed into him the breath of life. He is the Son of God. God created Adam. Jesus traces his lineage all the way back to Adam, showing to us, reminding us, proving to us, he is a descendant from the first man. Jesus became a man.

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We have this intriguing combination here because Jesus is a descendant of Adam, although he is the creator of the universe. That's quite a combination, don't you agree? He's a descendant of Adam, but he's the creator of the universe. How is that possible? Well, Jesus became a man. Jesus is God.

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In Colossians 1, verse 16, it tells us that by Him, that is by Jesus, all things were created that are in heaven, that are on earth, visible, invisible, thrones, dominions, principalities or powers, all things were created through Him and for Him. He is God. He is the Creator. And yet, He became a man. How did this happen?

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Well, going back to verse 23, remember it said, being as was supposed the son of Joseph. Jesus was the son of Joseph, in parentheses, as was supposed. How did the Creator become man? Well, Jesus was Joseph's son by adoption. He was not his biological father. The phrase there, as was supposed,

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could also be translated according to the custom. And it was customary for a son to be adopted, to have the legal right to be his son. But Joseph was not his biological father. Now Mary was Jesus' mother, but she became pregnant supernaturally, not through natural means. She became pregnant miraculously. She conceived without intercourse. God placed Jesus in her womb.

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It's a miracle. How did this happen? God did it. Supernaturally, miraculously. And so Jesus has this unique role, this unique position. No one else in history compares to it. He is the creator and he became man. And he can trace his lineage all the way back to Adam, although he created Adam. It's pretty amazing. And so this genealogy takes us back to Adam, the first man, and reminds us that Jesus is God and he became man.

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Now, here this genealogy that we have in the Gospel of Luke, we have in each of the Gospels kind of a different genealogy that's appropriate for the message that they're bringing and their emphasis that they have on Jesus. You could think of it this way. Let's say that you wanted to tell the story of Pastor George's life, but you wanted to focus on, you wanted to especially show the kind of father that he is. And so you would pick a starting point.

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And it might have to do with when Patty became pregnant. Maybe you would start a little bit back further to kind of highlight some things that you're going to bring out in the story later on. But you would pick a point and you would begin to tell and you'd be emphasizing the kind of father that George is. Certain things would stand out. But then let's say someone else said, oh, I want to tell the story about George's life, but I want to show the kind of husband that he is.

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And so your starting point might be a little bit different. And you would emphasize different things throughout the story. There would be much overlap though because he is both the husband and the father at the same time. And then you say, well, I want to write a story about Pastor George and talk about his Christian life and what kind of Christian he is. And so that would have probably yet a third starting point and so on and so forth. And so depending on what you're looking to emphasize,

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and highlight in his life, he would start at different points and kind of give different backgrounds. Same person, but he's fulfilling multiple roles in different aspects of his life. Well, the same thing is true of the Gospels. Each of the writers of the Gospels have a certain emphasis, a certain thing that they're seeking to highlight and share about Jesus. And so their perspectives are slightly different. Same person, but

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Same events, but a slightly different perspective, sharing those elements that go along with that aspect of his life that they're seeking to emphasize.

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And so Matthew was, it appears, seeking to emphasize that Jesus is the Messiah, or Jesus is the promised king. And so the genealogy in Matthew's case is traced back to Abraham. There was no need to go all the way back to Adam. The promise was given to Abraham, and so he was able to start there and prove his credentials to be that king, that savior that God had promised.

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Now Mark, as we look at the Gospel of Mark, Mark, it appears, is emphasizing the servanthood of Jesus. And so Mark includes no genealogy because, you know, what qualifications do you need? What genealogy do you need in order to be a servant? Well, none. And so he doesn't get into that. That's not important for the people that he's writing to and the aspect of Jesus' life that he's emphasizing.

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The Gospel of John, as we read through the Gospel of John, we really see the focus of Jesus Christ being God. He really focuses on the deity of Jesus. And so John, for his genealogy, he doesn't give a human lineage. He goes back to the beginning. In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God. The Word was God. And so he gives the eternal genealogy, his credentials as God from the very beginning.

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Well, here in the Gospel of Luke, as we study through the Gospel in the coming weeks, we'll see repeatedly that Luke's really emphasizing the humanity of Jesus. He really focuses on the human aspect or human side of Jesus. And so it's appropriate that his genealogy then goes back to Adam, the first man.

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Because he's seeking to illustrate and to emphasize, to show us that Jesus indeed became a man. Although he is God, he became man. Now the fact that Jesus became man is important for a few reasons. Number one, it was the only way to undo what Adam did. Adam represented all of humanity there in the garden. And so Jesus represented all of humanity there on the cross.

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It was the only way of salvation. The only way for sin to be taken care of. The second reason why Jesus becoming a man is important is that it was the only way for God to be a sacrifice. If you're the creator, how can you die? He can't die unless he became a man. And so in order for him to be a sacrifice, he had to become a man. He had to put on humanity.

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The third thing I would share, an important reason why Jesus became a man, is because it makes Jesus the perfect mediator between God and man. Because he is both God and man. And so he's the perfect mediator for us. In Hebrews chapter 4, the author of Hebrews there says, look, we have a great high priest, speaking of Jesus, a great high priest, Jesus, the Son of God.

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He says, look, we don't have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses. He can sympathize with our weaknesses. You know why? Because he lived them. He went through them. He goes on to tell us he was tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin. He didn't succumb to the temptation, but he was tempted in all the ways that you are. He knows what it's like. He knows the pressure you're under. He knows the things that you experience. He knows the things that you face.

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the struggles, the difficulties. He knows it. He's a great high priest. He's the perfect mediator. And so then, in verse 16 of Hebrews chapter 4, he concludes, Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. We can come boldly to the throne of grace. Why? Because we know that the one we're coming to has been where we are.

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He's gone through what we go through. He understands our weakness. He can sympathize with us. He's not just some, you know, holy, all-powerful God that's looking to strike those who come when they're not worthy. He looks at us and He has mercy upon us. He looks at us. Remember, He knows all the details. He knows all the numbers of hairs on our head. He knows all the sins that we've committed. He knows all the sins we've thought about committing. He knows everything about us. But when He...

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looks at us and he knows all of those things about us, he still loves us and he still wants what's best for us. So the author of Hebrews says we can come boldly to him to receive the grace and the mercy to help us in our time of need. And so as we look at this genealogy of Jesus, we can see that God loves each one. God loves each one. These names are written not just on

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Here in the Gospel of Luke, but they're written in God's scrapbook. He's keeping record. He knows them. They're important to Him. They may be insignificant to us, but no one is insignificant to God. And because no one is insignificant to God, He provided the Savior that He had been promising, Jesus. And in providing this Savior, He, being God, became man. For God so loved the world, He gave His only begotten Son,

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Whoever would believe in him should not perish but have everlasting life. The worship team is going to come up and close us in a song. And as they do, I would like for you to spend some time with the Lord. And consider who Jesus is and how much he loves you. Consider that God loves you so much. And he understands where you are. He understands what you're going through. And he loves you so much that he provided a Savior for you.

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And for those of you who are believers here this morning, it's an opportunity to be reminded of our great high priest that we can come to to receive grace and mercy for help in our time of need. Our great high priest who has loved us so much that's able to sympathize with our weaknesses. He's able to sympathize with what we go through because he's been there. It's a great time to reflect on how much God loves us and what he's done for us.

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At the same time, I would like to say that if you have not been born again, if you've not received this Savior that God has promised, this is a great and grand opportunity for you. Because His love for you, even if you reject Him, is unconditional. His love for you is shown, it's demonstrated in the fact that Jesus Christ died upon the cross for your sin and for my sin.

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And today, God is extending His hand to those who have not yet received it, saying, it's not too late. I haven't given up on you. There's still time. Repent. Turn to me. Follow me. Surrender your life to me, and I'll give you everlasting life. And so as we worship the Lord together, Pastor George is going to be up here. Sifo and Lorena will be up here. They would love to pray with you.

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If you need to get right with God this morning, as we worship in this song, come on up. Let them pray with you. Let them help you to get right with God and to mend that relationship that was broken there in the Garden of Eden. If you need prayer for anything else, as you're here and you're just, you're maybe really going through some things, you're really struggling, again, they'll be up here. They would love to pray with you and agree with you.

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And present your requests to God, who's not just off in the distance somewhere, you know, maybe we can get His attention. He's right here. And He knows what's going on. And He's excited for you to spend time with Him and lift up those things in your life before His death. So let's worship the Lord. And as we do, you're welcome to come on up and receive prayer for whatever may be going on in your heart.

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We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of His Word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.