Please turn in your copy of God's word to Matthew chapter one. We continue our advent series this morning with son of Joseph. We have looked at son of a woman, son of Abraham, son of David, and now this morning, son of Joseph. Matthew chapter one. And as we come to the reading and the preaching of God's word, let me pray for us. Father, in your light, we see light, and so we pray that you would come now and, by your Holy Spirit, illuminate the reading and the preaching of your word so that we would see Jesus more clearly, love him more dearly, and follow him more nearly. And we ask this in his precious name. Amen. Matthew chapter 1, and beginning at verse 1. The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, and Judah the father of Perez and Sarah by Tamar, And Perez, the father of Hezron. And Hezron, the father of Ram. And Ram, the father of Aminadab. And Aminadab, the father of Nashon. And Nashon, the father of Salmon. And Salmon, the father of Boaz by Rahab. And Boaz, the father of Obed by Ruth. And Obed, the father of Jesse. And Jesse, the father of David the king. And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah. And Solomon, the father of Rehoboam. And Rehoboam, the father of Abijah. And Abijah, the father of Asaph. And Asaph, the father of Jehoshaphat. And Jehoshaphat, the father of Joram. And Joram, the father of Uzziah. And Uzziah, the father of Jotham. and Jotham the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah, and Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, and Manasseh the father of Amos, and Amos the father of Josiah, and Josiah the father of Jeconiah and his brothers at the time of the deportation to Babylon. And after the deportation to Babylon, Jeconiah was the father of Shealtiel, and Shealtiel, the father of Zerubbabel, and Zerubbabel, the father of Abiud, and Abiud, the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim, the father of Azor, and Azor, the father of Zadok, and Zadok, the father of Akim, and Akim, the father of Eliud, and Eliud, the father of Eleazar, and Eleazar, the father of Matan, and Matan, the father of Jacob, and Jacob, the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ. So all the generations from Abraham to David were 14 generations. And from David to the deportation to Babylon, 14 generations. and from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ, 14 generations. Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream saying, Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel. which means God with us. When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him. He took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son, and he called his name Jesus. The grass withers, the flowers fade, but the word of our God endures forever. What makes Christmas special is the element of surprise. Boys and girls, you know this, the magic of Christmas is all about surprise. The surprise of what's in your Christmas stocking. The surprise of what's underneath the Christmas tree. Christmas is all about surprise. the surprise of gifts, gifts waiting to be unwrapped and enjoyed. And that's the same when it comes to the Christmas story. It's about surprise. The surprise of a virgin becoming pregnant by the Holy Spirit, the surprise of an angel visiting Joseph, the surprise of angels visiting shepherds on a hillside, the surprise of wise men visiting from the east bearing gifts. The Christmas story is about surprise, and that's true for our passage this morning. It contains a surprise, a surprise that makes Christmas Christmas, that helps us understand what Christmas is all about. It's the surprise of whose family tree it is. Verse 16, listen to how the genealogy ends. And Jacob, the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ. And verse 18, Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph before they came together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. Do you see the surprise? Jesus is not actually born of Joseph. He's not actually the son of Joseph. Joseph is not Jesus's father. Mary is Jesus's mother, but Joseph is not Jesus's father. So why does Matthew begin his gospel with a family tree that Jesus doesn't physically descend from? Why does Matthew begin his gospel, the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, when this isn't actually Jesus's genealogy? Jesus doesn't have Joseph's blood running through his veins. So what has Joseph got to do with Jesus? In verse 16, Matthew connects Jesus to Mary, not Joseph. Even though Mary comes from the tribe of Judah and from the house of David, Matthew doesn't use her family tree, he uses Joseph's family tree. Mary's family tree is seen in Luke chapter 3, where the genealogy seems to trace Jesus' family line through his mother's line within the tribe of Judah and the house of David through her male ancestry. But here in Matthew chapter 1, it's Joseph's family tree, not Mary's. And since Jesus doesn't come from Joseph, why mention Joseph's family tree? This is the surprise, whose family tree it is, which makes us ask the question, what does all of this mean? Well, it means three things. And boys and girls, I think you will be able to follow along this morning, because these are three points with just three words in each point, three points about what Jesus' family tree means. And each point has three words. And I reckon if you can remember these three points, each with three words, you might just get some extra chocolate this Christmas. At least that's the deal my children are on. And I thought it only fair that you should know that as well. So are you ready? Three points. Here's the first thing that Jesus's family tree means. Jesus is God. Jesus is God. The fact that Jesus does not descend from Joseph means that Jesus doesn't have a human father. Joseph's family tree is not Jesus's family tree because Jesus's family tree is from above. Verse 18. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph before they came together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit chose a young virgin girl, scholars think she would have been about 13 or 14 years old, who was engaged to be married. And the Holy Spirit caused her to become pregnant, which caused something of a scandal. Hence why Joseph decides to divorce Mary, verse 19. And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. Mary and Joseph were not actually married at this stage. They were in what was called the betrothal stage. It was an official engagement that had occurred in the presence of witnesses. They were pledged to be married, but they had not yet come together as one flesh. This is what Joseph is left trying to sort out. Mary's pregnant, and he didn't have anything to do with it. And so he decides to divorce her quietly. God's law at this time required a termination of the engagement if there was a case of adultery. And since in Joseph's eyes, Mary must have been guilty of adultery because how else is she pregnant? As a law abiding man, he knows he has to disown his unfaithful fiance and divorce her. But he also clearly loves her. And so he tries to do it discreetly. He doesn't want to bring her public disgrace by exposing her. In fact, for adultery, she would have been liable to the death penalty, hence why he tries to divorce her quietly. However, his plans are abruptly put to a halt when he's finally let in on the secret, or we may say when he's finally let in on the surprise. Verse 20. But as Joseph considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream saying, Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. What Joseph receives here is confirmation of the incarnation. that the child in Mary's womb is of divine origin, that the child is God himself, verse 22. All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which means God with us. This is what the family tree of Jesus means. He does not descend from Joseph because he is God. He is Emmanuel, God with us. This is the surprise at the heart of Christmas. God of God, light of light, lo, he abhors not the virgin's womb. Very God, begotten not, created. Oh, come, let us adore him. Oh, come, let us adore him. This is the first thing that Jesus's family tree signifies. Jesus is God. Boys and girls, here's the second thing that Jesus's tree signifies. It means that Jesus is king. Jesus is King. Jesus is God and Jesus is King. Matthew refers to Jesus as the Christ three times. Just glance back to verse 16. And Jacob, the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ. And then in verse 17, at the end, And from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ, 14 generations. And then verse 18, now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. Christ was not Jesus' surname. It was his title. It means anointed one. It means king. Matthew identifies Jesus as king in this genealogy. Now how Jesus was born King brings us back to the question, what has Joseph got to do with Jesus? If Jesus is King, what has Joseph got to do with that? Since Jesus does not descend from Joseph's family tree and yet Matthew begins his gospel with the family tree of Joseph and concludes it with Jesus as the King. So what's the connection between Joseph and Jesus? If you think about it, Joseph isn't needed to bring Jesus into the world, is he? The Holy Spirit was essential to the deity of Jesus. Joseph was non-essential to the humanity of Jesus. Mary was essential to the humanity of Jesus. But Joseph wasn't needed. The Holy Spirit plus a woman was enough to bring Jesus into the world, which begs another question. Why did God choose a virgin girl called Mary who was engaged to a man called Joseph? Why not choose a single virgin girl who wasn't engaged to anyone to avoid any scandal? We know that Jesus' mother had to be a virgin girl. The prophet Isaiah prophesied that. But in verse 22, it doesn't say, the betrothed virgin shall conceive. No, it just says, the virgin shall conceive. If God had chosen a different virgin girl, any single virgin girl, Jesus would still have been Emmanuel. God with us. So why did it have to be Mary who was engaged to a man called Joseph? Why was Joseph so essential to the circumstance of Jesus' birth? Well, the answer lies in the words that the angel speaks to Joseph, verse 20. Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife. For that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins." Notice how the angel addresses Joseph. Joseph, son of David. Now, that's surprising. Why didn't he just call him Joseph? Or Joseph, son of Jacob. since Joseph's father was Jacob, as verse 16 states. Why Joseph, son of David? Well, glance back to verse six, and Jesse, the father of David, the king. Do you see it? Joseph was a direct descendant of King David. He was of good stock. He was of royal pedigree. Joseph had royal blood flowing through his veins. He had David's blood flowing through his veins. But more than that, through David, Joseph had a direct line to the throne. Joseph was fit to be a king. He was fit to be the king of Israel. He was fit to be the king promised in 2 Samuel 7 that we saw last week. The temple building, son of God. So when the angel tells Joseph to take Mary as his wife, he tells him to do it as the son of David. as a direct heir to the throne. In other words, the angel tells Joseph to make the baby in Mary's womb a king, an heir apparent to the throne of Israel. By marrying Mary, Joseph formally and legally adopts her son Jesus into the direct line to the Davidic throne. Hence why Matthew begins his gospel with the genealogy of Joseph. Luke, in his gospel, includes a genealogy similar to Matthew's but with significant differences. especially from David onwards. In Luke chapter three, the genealogy goes from David to his second son, Nathan. In Matthew, the genealogy goes from David to his chosen son, Solomon, whose line ran directly to the throne. One explanation for the differences in Luke's genealogy is that it's Mary's genealogy as traced through the men in her ancestry, with the men being Joseph's ancestral in-laws. So Luke talks of it being Joseph's genealogy, but through his in-laws. I think that's probably the best explanation for the differences. And if so, then we can say that Mary puts Jesus into the tribe of Judah and into the house of David physically. Joseph puts him on the throne legally. Mary makes Jesus royalty in a physical sense. Joseph makes Jesus king in a legal sense, as an actual heir to the throne. Hence why the angel addresses him as son of David. In the Gospels, there are only two people who receive the title son of David, Jesus and Joseph. But Jesus only gets the title because of Joseph through adoption. Joseph confers the title of king on Jesus through the process of adoption. He adopts him into the royal line as a direct heir to the throne of Israel, something that Mary's line in Luke chapter 3 could never quite accomplish. If I may be all British for a moment, it's a bit like Princess Catherine, the princess of Wales in the United Kingdom. She met Prince William at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland when they studied together, and then they got married. But imagine for a moment that she had met and married Prince Harry and not Prince William. And imagine they had had children together. The children would have been royal babies, but they would not have been direct heirs to the throne. She had to marry William, the heir to the throne, so that her children would not only be royal babies, but would be direct heirs to the throne. It all had to do with who she married. And it's the same with Jesus. Mary is a descendant of royalty, but not the direct line to the throne. But through her marriage to Joseph, her son Jesus becomes a royal baby with a direct line to the throne, not by natural descent, but by adoption via Joseph. Look at verse 24. When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him. He took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus. The naming of Jesus was part of the formal adoption process. But notice that Joseph doesn't lie with Mary until after Jesus is born. It's an interesting comment that Matthew makes and it's important because it confirms Jesus' supernatural origins. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit. Had Joseph slept with Mary before the birth of Jesus, there would have always been a question mark over his divine origins. And so Joseph confirms Jesus is God by not knowing Mary intimately until after Jesus's birth. But Joseph also does something else. By marrying Mary and naming Jesus when he is born, Joseph confirms Jesus's royal origins and his right to the Davidic throne. What has Joseph got to do with Jesus? Quite a lot. He makes him king. By adoption, by abstention he confirms that he's God and by adoption he confirms that he's king. Now you may say, well, Jesus wasn't really the rightful king or legitimate heir. If he didn't actually descend from Joseph, he was only adopted, I mean, Adopted children are not really children in the family, are they? Jackie and I have friends, Charles and Carol in South Africa. Charles is a pastor and for 10 years they had infertility, they were unable to have children and so they were led into adoption and they had two boys, Joshua and Matthew. And then 10 years after, They had adopted these boys. Carol fell pregnant with Jamie Sarah. And then a year later, she fell pregnant again with little Michelle. And one day, after Michelle had been born, Charles was greeting people at the church door on the way out, and a woman came up to him and said, you must just be so thrilled to finally have two children of your very own. And he smiled at her and said, I'm afraid you don't understand the Christian doctrine of adoption. As many of you know, Jackie and I adopted a little boy from North Carolina nearly six years ago. And if there's one thing we have learned in the process and believe now even more with all our hearts is that our little boy is a full member of our family, equal in every respect to his natural brother and sister. In fact, The legal document that we signed in court put it like this, quote, the person proposed to be adopted herein, and then his name, shall have all the rights of a child and shall be heir of the petitioners, Jonathan and Jacqueline Gibson. Do you hear the language of full and equal rights, of full membership in the family? Through adoption, our beautiful boy became a full and equal member of the Gibson family with equal rights to his siblings. Some children become heirs by natural birth and others become heirs by adoption. Either way, all are true children of the family, whether they are born into the family or adopted into the family. And it was the same for Jesus. Jesus was not born naturally to Joseph, but he was adopted legally by Joseph. And so he became a rightful, legitimate heir of David's throne. He became a true king in every respect. This is one of the surprises that we celebrate at Christmas. We celebrate the surprise that God's son became a man. We also celebrate the surprise that God's son was born a king in David's line. The boy, Emmanuel, is King Emmanuel. Hark, the herald angels sing, glory to the newborn king. But he was only king because of Joseph. Jesus is king. This is the second thing we see from his family tree. Boys and girls, are you still tracking with me? Remember, there's chocolate on the line here. Jesus is God. Jesus is king. And here's the third one. Jesus is savior. Jesus is Savior, verse 21. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. The name Jesus is the Greek equivalent to the Old Testament name Joshua, the Lord saves. In other words, in the person of his son, God came to save his people from their sins. Jesus is saviour. This is the third surprise in the family tree. The last person in Joseph's family tree is a saviour. This is what the family tree shows us. Jesus is God, Jesus is King, Jesus is saviour. And he is saviour because he is first God and King. There's a connection between these three points. Essential to Jesus' saving work is his deity and his royalty. Jesus had to be God to save us because he had to be perfectly righteous. This is why he couldn't descend from Adam or Abraham or David or Joseph. Because had he descended from Joseph, or David, or Abraham, or Adam, then he would have incurred the guilt and sin of Adam, and Abraham, and David, and Joseph. No, Jesus had to be his own Adam. He had to be pure and innocent from conception and birth so that he could live a righteous life under the law. In other words, the virgin birth is an essential part of Jesus being perfect as a man, as the God-man. So essential to his saving work is his deity, but also essential to his saving work is his royalty, in order to save his people, Jesus had to be more than just one of the people. In order to save his people, he had to be one of the people, but he had to be more than one of the people. He had to be the king of his people. He had to represent his people. He couldn't just be a covenant member, he also had to be the covenant head, and to be the covenant head, he had to be the king in order to represent his people. We know that Jesus' death was a substitutionary atoning death, but it was not a substitution like in a sports game, a sort of one for one replacement. No, Jesus' substitutionary death was a representative substitutionary death. Jesus didn't die as a nobody for anybody. He died as a somebody for some people, his people. Jesus was born to die as a king for his people. He had to be God so that he was a righteous man and he had to be king so that he was a representative man. And when you put those two facts together, righteous man, representative man, you get Jesus the Savior. Jesus is God, Jesus is King, and that's what makes him Savior. It's both his deity and his royalty that constitute his status as saviour that qualify him to be our saviour. He had to be the God-man and he also had to be God the King-man in order to save us. He couldn't just be Emmanuel, he had to be King Emmanuel to save his people. This is the third thing we see from Jesus's family tree. Jesus is Savior. Jesus is God. Jesus is King. And Jesus is Savior. Now, you may be sitting there thinking, OK, I get it. I understand why Jesus had to be God. He had to be a righteous man. I understand why he had to be a King. He had to be a representative man. I understand the combination of God and king, it qualifies him to be a savior, but I mean, I don't know how else to say this, but it sounds very Jewish. Save his people from their sins. What about us Gentiles? Has this got any relevance if you have no Jewish ancestry? Well, did you notice some of the women mentioned in the genealogy as I read it out earlier? If we exclude Mary for a moment, there are four women mentioned earlier in the genealogy. Women were not of any legal benefit to genealogies in the ancient world. So Matthew's inclusion of them here must be for a certain reason or reasons. He must have an agenda. One reason may be that with each of these women, Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba, with each of them the royal line continues in strange and surprising providence with each of them. But there's clearly more going on here than just strange and surprising providence. Because three of the four women mentioned are Gentiles. Tamar, verse 3, most likely a Canaanite. Rahab, verse 5, definitely a Canaanite. Ruth, verse 5, a Moabite. The unnamed Bathsheba in verse 6, the wife of Uriah, was an Israelite. Her father, Amiel or Eliham, his name is spelt differently in different texts, and her grandfather, Ahitophel, were Israelites. So she was an Israelite. She did marry a Hittite. Uriah was a Hittite, but clearly he was a convert to Israel because he was one of David's 30 fighting men. So of these four women, three were Gentile. In other words, the Jewish royal family was mixed with Gentile blood. Jew and Gentile blood flowed through David's veins and that of his sons. But there were also men and women in this genealogy of questionable moral history. The blood of sinners flowed through David's veins and those of his sons. Abraham, he lied about his wife, Sarah, and then under her encouragement, he took his maidservant and slept with her to get a son. Jacob was a twister with two wives. Judah committed incest with his daughter-in-law, Tamar, who had dressed up as a prostitute. Salmon married Rahab, who had been a prostitute in her previous life before she converted to the God of Israel. Boaz married Ruth, who descended from a nation born from incest through Lot and his daughters. David committed adultery with Bathsheba, Commentators note that the way Matthew identifies her here, not by her name, but by the wife of Uriah, underscores the adulterous affair that they were both caught up in. Every commentator I've read attributes some guilt to Bathsheba here. Otherwise, her inclusion doesn't make any sense because she was Jewish. She wasn't suspect ethnically, she was suspect ethically. The title, Wife of Uriah, also recalls the fact that David murdered Uriah when he wouldn't play ball to cover up the affair. And then there's the product of that affair, Solomon, a womanizing polygamist and an idolater. And then there's Hezekiah, known for his pride. Pick any one of the people in this genealogy and you will find a sinner, a big, terrible sinner. So what kind of people are Jesus's people? They are men and women who are Jew and Gentile, pagans and prostitutes, incestuous, adulterous, murderous, idolatrous. Jesus came to save sinners with all kinds of sins. Everyone in the genealogical line of Jesus had sinned in some way or with someone. Everyone was disqualified from the kingdom of God. And yet, Jesus came to save them all. Warts and all. And that saving began with his identifying with sinners in his family tree. In the words of John Calvin, Jesus came from, quote, adulterated seed. Adulterated seed. Calvin's making the point that he didn't just come for sinners. He came from sinners. His family tree was full of sinners. He came in the likeness of sinful flesh. Identifying with sinners. People like you and me. With sins like yours and mine. Sins that stretch back into our family histories. Which is great good news this Christmas. Because let's be honest, we all fall short of God's standards. Every day. I love how Bishop Handley Mule The 19th century Cambridge professor put it, he said, the liar, the prostitute, the murderer have all fallen short of God's glory. But so have we. Perhaps they stand at the foot of a mine and we on the crest of an Alp. But we are as little able to touch the stars as they are. Wherever you rank yourself in the moral scale of our society, you are unable to touch the star of God's glory. We have all fallen short of God's glory. But the great good news of Christmas is that God sent us a savior. to bring us to that glory. And that's the surprise at the heart of Christmas. So boys and girls, this Christmas, as you and your parents think about the surprises that await you under the Christmas tree, let's all think about the surprise of Jesus's family tree and what it means. Jesus is God. Jesus is King. Jesus is Savior. And if you not only remember those things, but if you believe them in your heart, then this Christmas, you get more than chocolate. You get Christ. You get eternal life. And that's the biggest surprise of all. because we don't deserve it. And yet God offers it to us in the person of his son. And you shall call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. Let us pray. Father, you are the giver of all good gifts. and at the first Christmas you gave the best gift that you could give, your only begotten son. We thank you that he is God, that he is king, and that because he is God, he is able to be a righteous man. And because he is king, he is able to be a representative savior. And so we thank you that he is indeed the savior that we need. And we pray that this Christmas you would help us to come and bow and worship Christ, the newborn King. And we ask this for His glory forever and ever. Amen.