Participants: Glenn Russell & Ranko Stefanovic (Host)
Series Code: MTBOTB
Program Code: MTBOTB00002B
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00:01 Welcome back, we're exploring the genealogy of Jesus,
00:04 found in Matthew Chapter 1. 00:06 Ranko, let's go back into this a little bit further. 00:09 What else do we need to know about this genealogy, 00:11 in terms of its background, this was-- 00:13 these Old Testament echoes, that you mentioned? 00:15 Tell us little more about that. 00:17 If the intention of the Holy Spirit, 00:20 who inspired Matthew to begin His Gospel of genealogy 00:24 and put it at the very beginning, 00:26 you know, you put at the very beginning, 00:28 the things that are the most important. 00:30 That sets the tone, for the rest of the book. 00:34 Then, we really have to go to the Old Testament, 00:38 to the Book of Genesis and find out 00:41 about the meaning of genealogy, 00:42 there in order to understand the meaning of genealogy, 00:45 in Matthew Chapter 1. 00:46 So, Glenn, now you have to help me, okay. 00:49 We have in Gospel of Matthew-- 00:51 in the Book of Genesis, Chapter 1. 00:54 God created the heaven and earth, 00:56 okay, in six days, on the seventh day He rested. 01:00 And then, God wanted to establish 01:01 that working relationships with human beings. 01:05 Telling them, as long as you work with Me, 01:08 you'll be happy here in the Garden of Eden. 01:11 And then, we know sin came. 01:14 Genesis Chapter 3 and destroyed everything. 01:18 So in Chapter 2, verse 1, we have the book of genealogy. 01:22 It's the beginning with the history 01:23 of the planet earth, and God's effort to establish 01:27 the working relationships, with human beings. 01:30 Then the crush, the sin came. 01:34 Now, we know what happened as the consequences of sin. 01:37 Now we come to remember, the second reference 01:40 to the book of genealogy is chapter 5. 01:43 One is before the coming of sin, 01:45 another one after coming of sin. 01:47 You see, even though, the human beings fell into sin 01:52 and the sin according to Apostle Paul, 01:55 enter into all human beings, because all have sinned. 01:59 God wanted, still to keep the knowledge of Himself 02:03 among the human beings 02:05 and to work for their salvation. 02:06 Any idea, what is the method 02:08 that God used in order to do it? 02:11 So you're saying, He hasn't given up on them? No. 02:13 He is still reaching out, He is working to intervene? 02:16 How? Okay. 02:18 By means of genealogy. 02:20 In Genesis 5:1, He says, 02:23 now this is the beginning-- this is the book of genealogy, 02:28 genealogy of Adam. 02:30 See, God had genealogy, let's explain genealogy. 02:33 It means God has a lineage of His faithful people, 02:38 throughout history, who were faithful to Him. 02:42 And it is through those people, 02:43 through that genealogy, Adam's genealogy, 02:46 that God wanted to preserve 02:47 the knowledge of Himself 02:49 to work for the salvation of human beings. 02:52 See, God did not leave 02:53 the human beings alone, but then what happened? 02:55 So He works through this family tree 02:57 to preserve the knowledge of the truth, okay. 03:00 But then we have, Satan was doing very similar. 03:03 He made the counterfeit genealogy. 03:05 We have that evil genealogy, the genealogy of Cain. Cain. 03:09 Tell me, which genealogy succeeded? 03:13 Well, we certainly see this coming 03:16 all the way down to the time of Jesus. 03:18 No. Actually the flood came, 03:21 have they seen the genealogy, 03:23 finally concluded with the flood. 03:26 Only Noah and his family stayed faithful, 03:29 but the entire earth became corrupted. 03:31 So the flood came and brought 03:33 the end of the generation of the-- 03:36 So God's family tree. 03:37 What does God do after the flood? 03:42 We have the new, the beginning of a new genealogy, 03:46 the genealogy of Noah. 03:49 So the same purpose, the same reason 03:51 but at the same time, Satan, 03:53 creates his own genealogy, the new genealogy 03:56 that try to do something at the Tower of Babel. 04:00 Yeah. To make the name beings, 04:01 to prevent God's plan, that he wanted 04:03 to accomplish through his genealogy. 04:06 And finally, we have that God's plan 04:08 almost failed with the Tower of Babel. 04:11 Then, we have God makes the beginning 04:14 of a new genealogy of Abraham. 04:17 Telling him that, through your offspring, 04:20 through your genealogy, 04:21 all the people of the earth will be blessed. 04:25 It is through Abraham, that we have the beginning 04:27 of that Old Testament genealogy, 04:29 that we call the people of Israel. 04:33 What can we say, Glenn, about that genealogy? 04:35 And for the Hebrews, for the Jews, 04:37 this would have been the most important one. 04:39 But that genealogy, was the history, 04:42 of a constant failure. 04:45 Failures, repeatedly. 04:46 Which actually concluded with the Babylonian exile. 04:50 So now, what is the purpose of this Matthew genealogy? 04:55 So can my genealogy save me, 04:57 can my family tree make all the difference, Ranko? 05:00 Matthew want to tell his readers, his, his readers, 05:03 is that it is through that genealogy. 05:07 And, can I say, out of that genealogy, 05:10 Jesus Christ came. 05:12 And he says, this is the book of genealogy 05:15 of Jesus Christ came. 05:18 He came out of that genealogy. 05:20 So the coming of Jesus is actually the climax 05:24 of that Old Testament genealogies. 05:29 Now, as you ask that question is, 05:32 what this the concluding text 05:36 of the genealogy in Matthew Chapter 1. 05:39 Actually the Bible student recognize, 05:42 that actually its verse 21, functions as the conclusion 05:47 and as the climax of this genealogy 05:50 in the Gospel of Matthew. 05:51 Can you just read? 05:53 All that family tree leads us down to Mathew 1:21. 05:56 "And she shall bring forth a son, 06:00 and you shall call his name Jesus, 06:02 for he will save his people from their sins." 06:04 Sin, so you see-- 06:05 That's the hope, that's the common end-- 06:07 So, you see, Jesus is the last one 06:10 in that list of genealogy. 06:13 I would like you Glenn, to pay something 06:15 very, very important is, its verse 16. 06:18 Usually, we don't pay too much attention to this, 06:22 if we go from verse two, what do we see? 06:26 "Abraham bore Isaac, Isaac bore Jacob, 06:29 Jacob bore Judah" and this is what the entire genealogy. 06:32 It shows that something, those individuals, 06:36 they have to do something with the next, 06:39 with the descendants who came after them. 06:41 They came, because they bore them. 06:43 But when we come to verse 16, it says, 06:46 "Jacob bore Joseph, the husband of Mary, 06:52 by whom Jesus was born, 06:56 who is called the Messiah Christ." 06:58 So now, a careful reader will notice, wait, 07:00 there's a shift, something's happening. 07:03 So what is the shift? 07:04 You see, before you have all this active verb, 07:07 Abraham bore, Isaac bore, 07:09 David bore but Joseph had nothing 07:12 to do with the birth of Jesus. 07:15 Joseph did not bare Jesus. 07:18 And, we'll see in the next program 07:19 about the birth of Jesus. About the birth of Jesus. 07:21 But, this is a great miracle. 07:23 Because Mary became pregnant, because of the Holy Spirit, 07:27 not because of the sexual relationships with Joseph. 07:31 So really Jesus came out of that genealogy, 07:36 but he is not out of the genealogy, 07:39 does it make sense? 07:41 Yes, it does. 07:42 And I do wanna ask you here, 07:44 just very briefly, Ranko. 07:45 Verse 17, it talks about these generations, 07:48 it says that there were 14 from Abraham to David, 07:51 14 from David to captivity, 07:53 and 14 from the captivity to Christ. 07:55 There is a structure here. 07:57 Yes. Actually the Holy Spirit through Matthew 08:02 makes periodization of history. 08:05 We have three periods, but you know, 08:07 to make it you had to take few Israelite kings out. 08:10 Okay, evidently, this is theological purpose, 08:13 not really the purpose of genealogy. 08:16 And the Bible students have been always 08:18 struggling with meaning of that. 08:20 What is the purpose of this 14, 14, 14? 08:23 And there is only one satisfactory solution, 08:26 is because it's the key name here is David. 08:31 And we know that, in Hebrew, 08:34 the name of David consists of those three consonants. 08:38 D.V.D. in Hebrew alphabet this is four, 08:43 this is four. Four plus four, it's eight. 08:47 And the middle one V is actually six, 08:50 so you have the number, 14. 08:51 So, the number 14 in three groups, 08:53 and three letters in the name. 08:54 Because in the Gospel of Matthew, 08:56 the name of David is very significant. 08:58 Jesus is always the son of David. 09:00 He is the king sitting on the throne of David. 09:04 So, they need to show that in Jesus Christ, 09:06 all those Jewish expectations, of the son of David, 09:10 who'll come in the reigning justice actually was fulfilled. 09:13 And you see what a story? 09:15 Here you go from, from the great king David, 09:19 down to the captivity of the Babylon. 09:21 And what a disappoint from Abraham 09:23 to David, all the hope. 09:25 Now, the hope is destroyed into captivity and then, 09:29 the last one brings you to Jesus. 09:31 So, did you notice in verse 21, 09:33 "His name will be Jesus", 09:35 which is actually the Hebrew name Yeshua. 09:40 And Yeshua means "Yahweh saves". 09:44 So, His name is supposed to be Yeshua, 09:47 Jesus which means, "He will save 09:50 His people from their sins". 09:53 You know, the question is, why genealogy? 09:59 Is genealogy important? 10:02 According to the Old Testament, it is important. 10:05 Unfortunately, in the Old Testament times, 10:08 people made genealogy to be a means of salvation. 10:11 Ranko, I'm gonna wrap this up quickly, 10:13 but it's moving to the point of this, 10:15 of--what if I say my family tree's a mess, 10:19 this world's a mess? 10:21 How does this, what does this teach me? 10:22 You see, genealogy is not an excuse for what I am. 10:27 What genealogy cannot do for us? 10:29 By the way, when we read the genealogy, 10:31 I'd like to invite viewers to open the Gospel of Matthew. 10:35 And God name after the name, 10:37 and to go to the Old Testament time, 10:39 and you will see that each one of these names, 10:43 has the history, the history of struggle, 10:45 a history of falling into sin. 10:48 Each one of these names, 10:51 really there is something attached to their name. 10:54 That really asks us this question, 10:56 what kind of genealogy is this? 10:59 But, I just want to tell you, 11:01 genealogy cannot save anybody. 11:04 Actually, the key text, Matthew 1:21, 11:07 is to tell us, that His name is Jesus, 11:11 because, what genealogy could not do, okay. 11:15 He came to save, His people from their sins. 11:21 One more time, He came to save 11:24 His people from their sins. 11:28 Which people? The people that are here, 11:30 in the genealogy, Jesus came to save, 11:34 you see, David and Bathsheba-- 11:36 So, you're saying if Jesus came 11:38 to save people like Tamar, 11:41 if Jesus came to save someone like Rahab? 11:43 David, Solomon, Rahab. 11:45 A prostitute, David a murderer and adulterer, 11:48 if He came to save those-- 11:50 He can save me. He can save me. 11:52 Yes. So Jesus came to save His people. 11:56 We are a part of His people. 11:58 Friends, we need genealogy. 12:00 We need to belong. 12:01 God has always, His genealogy, His people. 12:05 It is through His people, God wants to proclaim 12:08 the knowledge of Himself, that everlasting gospel. 12:11 Today, God has His genealogy 12:13 and He would like, through His people, 12:15 to proclaim the message of Jesus Christ. 12:18 That Jesus Christ is coming very, very soon. 12:22 We need the genealogy, but we have to understand, 12:25 that genealogy cannot save us. 12:27 We need Jesus Christ, because He is the only one, 12:32 who is able to save people from their sins. 12:36 And this is that great message. 12:38 This is the great comfort that comes 12:40 to me from the Gospel of Matthew. 12:42 Now, we see why Matthew under the inspiration 12:45 of the Holy Spirit, he begins his book 12:48 with genealogy to tell us, that what human beings, 12:52 they cannot do for my salvation, 12:54 what I, cannot do for my salvation. 12:57 Our hope is only in the one, whose name is Jesus, 13:02 because He is the one who can save 13:06 His people, from their sins. 13:08 So I would like to tell the viewers, 13:10 if you are in despair. If you are fighting 13:14 with the issues of your life. 13:15 If you think that you cannot do anything 13:17 for our self and for our salvation. 13:19 The hope is only in Him, 13:21 who can save His people from their sins. |
Revised 2014-12-17