Luke 3:23-38: The Genealogy of Jesus

How many of you have traced back your family tree? There comes a time in life when you begin to seek out your past as a way to understand something of your identity. We all want to know if we have had any famous people in our family line, if you are a Christian whether there were any saints, and we love the scandal of knowing there are a few villains in the mix. This might help you to identify with the importance of our next portion of scripture, Luke 3:23-38, the genealogy of Jesus Christ.

Genealogies in the West have lost their significance but many older cultures deeply value them, especially the Jews. Knowing your racial heritage was very important to Jews. Did you have the right to inherit a portion of the land? If you were childless who were your relatives that could redeem your property, or if your husband died and you were childless who were the relatives who could raise up an heir for his name through the practice of levirate marriage? Is the women I want to marry of Jewish stock? Am I of Jewish stock so that I can worship in the temple? Am I of the priestly line and am eligible to serve in the temple? Am I royalty with a claim to the throne of David? Your genealogy was information you kept close at hand and handed on faithfully as it answered all these questions and more. Who you are was a question that was often answered by your genealogy. In fact we can preach the gospel from the genealogy of Jesus.

Who is Jesus Christ? We have heard the testimony of His baptism and the testimony of John now we have the important testimony of His genealogy. As we look at Christ’s genealogy we want to show how this genealogy proves the historical reality of Jesus; then we want to look at how this genealogy is also a record of promises kept; and finally we want to look at how the genealogy ends showing us Jesus as a the Second Adam and the significance of this for our salvation.

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