Why Two Genealogies of Jesus? Matthew vs Luke Explained

Welcome to Through the Bible with Les Feldick, a 30-minute walk through the Scriptures, teaching in-depth Bible truths that change people's lives. Now, here's your host, Les Feldick. Good evening. Once again, it's good to have everybody back, and if you'll reflect for a moment, we had to kind of abruptly end our last half hour when we looked at the genealogy of the New Testament of Christ. In chapter 1 of Matthew, we remember, it only went back as far as Abraham, because Matthew depicts him as the king. And as we've had it on the board, the Abrahamic covenant has within it, in a latent form, the promise of a nation of people who would be located in a geographical area of land over which God would provide the government in the person of the Messiah, the Son of God, Israel's king. So the reason we looked at Matthew chapter 1, and you might turn to it for just a moment before we go back again, because I want to carry this king aspect of the government all the way into the New Testament, so that you can see that God has been continuously, ever since Genesis chapter 12, moving the nation of Israel forward to the time when the king could make his appearance. Now, when we get to the law in Exodus—now, that's going to be quite a ways yet into the future at the rate we've been going—but when we get to Israel receiving the law, the whole reason was to prepare the nation for the fruition of this covenant. She had to be a prepared people, and God chose the system of law to teach them. That's why Paul calls it in Galatians a schoolmaster, a tutor. It was to prepare the nation for a role sometime in the future. Now, if you go to Matthew chapter 1, then, in light of the third part of our covenant, the government, the king, our New Testament introduces him genealogically to prove that he is the rightful heir to this throne of David over which the king of kings would rule the kingdom. Verse 1, Matthew 1, now this is just a little review of our closing moments last week. The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham, and that's as far as it goes, because that's as far as this genealogy is going to concern itself. This one is going to prove that he is the rightful heir to the throne of David by being a son of David. That is genealogically, down through the family tree. Then we look just briefly at Luke chapter 3, and in Luke chapter 3, which is the genealogy of Mary, and that takes us all the way back to Adam. Remember we looked at verse 38, the end of the genealogy, going back from Mary, and it ends up, who was the son of Enos, who was the son of Seth, who was the son of Adam. Now we have to remember that even though Joseph was not the physical father of Christ, he was the legal father. And so, all the way back to Abraham, and then you come on up to David, and Solomon, and then at Solomon, you get a branch in the family tree, and one line will come down and form the genealogy of Mary. The other line forms the genealogy of Joseph. Now the reason the Scripture does that is to prove that Christ was the rightful heir to David's throne by virtue of the bloodline of Mary, because as we were talking at break time, always remember that the seed of the woman was spoken of way back there in Genesis chapter 3, and the seed of the woman was kept insulated from the curse. There was no sin nature in the seed of the woman as it came all the way down through human history to Mary, so that Mary could conceive of God and still have a child whose blood was divine, not sinful, not with an Adamic nature in it, because there was no earthly father. And remember, we've pointed out way back there, I think in Genesis 3, that the circulatory or the blood system of every fetus born of a woman comes from the man and not from the mother. And so the virgin birth fits so beautifully physiologically and scientifically in that the blood system of Christ originated with God, who was the Father, but He was human because He was born of the very ovum or the egg or the seed of the woman. And so consequently, these two genealogies follow all the way down from David to Christ, Joseph proving that he was in the line because he was the legal father of Christ, even though he wasn't the physical father, and Mary, of course, being the physical mother. And so the genealogies which ended at Christ all go back to King David. David in turn goes back to Abraham. Now then, since we're in the New Testament, before we go back to Genesis, another verse we looked at quickly in closing last program, in chapter 2 of Matthew. I think a lot of these things are too oftentimes overlooked, and we don't attach the importance to it that we should. In Matthew chapter 2, we might as well begin with verse 1. Now, when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east. Now, it doesn't say three. We don't know how many there were. These wise men said, Where is he that is born? Now, what does it say? King of the Jews. Now these wise men, whoever they were, we don't know. We don't know really where they came from, but evidently God had revealed to them that the promised king of Israel was now on the scene. And this again came from all the Old Testament prophecies that he would be born. And so they asked, Where is he that is to be born, the king of the Jews? Now let's stay in Matthew and go all the way over to chapter 21 when we come to the crucifixion. Matthew 21, and again for sake of time, drop down to verse 4. Well, we really should go up, I guess, to verse 1. Let's start with verse 1, so we pick up the flow, as I call it. Matthew 21, verse 1, And when they drew nigh unto Jerusalem, that is, Jesus and the twelve, they were come to Bethphage, unto the Mount of Olives, then sent Jesus, two disciples, saying unto them, Go into the village over against you, and straightway you shall find an ass, or a little donkey, tied with a colt, loose them, and bring them unto me. And if any man shall say ought unto you, you shall say, The Lord hath need of them, and straightway he will send them. In other words, he won't give you an argument. Now it won't take time to go back and look at it, but see, this is referred to twice in the Old Testament, that Christ would come into Jerusalem as Israel's king, not riding upon the white steed of Roman emperors and generals, but upon the donkey, and not even the full-grown donkey, but the unbroken colt of one. And now it's time for it to be fulfilled, and so Jesus tells the twelve, There's the village, go get that little colt. And then verse 4 says, All this was done, that it might be fulfilled, because the Old Testament said it would happen, and it had to happen, and it did happen. And it was fulfilled, which was spoken by the prophet, saying, Tell ye the daughter of Zion, Behold thy, what's the next word, thy king cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon the colt of a donkey, and so on and so forth. So there's that constant appearance of this thought of the king, the king, the king. Now I imagine most people, when I emphasize this, immediately they'll say, Well, now this guy is out in left field. Paul says in Timothy that this is a faithful saying, that Christ Jesus came into the world to what? To save sinners. Well, that's true, but always remember that the Bible is a progressive revelation. Everything is chronologically unfolding, and so there is no mention in the Old Testament of a statement like Paul, that he came into the world to save sinners, but instead the whole emphasis is that he is going to come to fulfill this Abrahamic covenant, and he's going to be the king. But now we're going to add something else to this whole Old Testament format, and I usually like to put it like this, as parallel as I can possibly draw two lines. We have two thoughts coming up through the Old Testament, and the one is, as we've been seeing for the last couple, three programs, would be the coming of a king and his kingdom, but running parallel with all of those verses is another theme of a suffering Savior, a suffering Savior. Now Isaiah 53, most of you know that one. He was prepared as a sheep done before his shearers, and he suffered the chastisement of our sins, and so on and so forth. Absolutely, that was also promised. There had to be a suffering Savior, because we mentioned last half hour, when Nicodemus began to ask questions concerning the kingdom, what did Jesus tell him? Except a man be born again, he cannot enter the kingdom. There will be no unbelievers in that kingdom. So there had to be a salvation, absolutely there did. Now in the light of that, I'd like to have you turn with me a little further in your New Testament. Go to Luke's Gospel. Chapter 1. Now, every once in a while, not too often, because hopefully I lay enough groundwork of Scripture where the question isn't even appropriate, but once in a while someone will say, well now, Les, are you telling me that this is going to be a political kingdom? I'd always thought it was a spiritual one. Well, I don't like the word political, because politics always smacks of something just less than honorable, and this kingdom is not going to be anything but honorable. But if that's the word that has to be used to emphasize that it's going to be a literal kingdom with a literal king and a literal government, yeah, then I'll use the word, it's going to be a political kingdom. It's going to be a viable government. Now, look at Luke chapter 1 and drop down to verse 64. And again, I do this only to save time, because you remember that when Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist, who was a priest working there at the temple, serving, and he had been stricken dumb, if you'll remember, and at the birth of John, when they asked his mother what they were going to name it, instead of using a family name, she said, his name will be John. And they were all amazed that they had never heard that before, and so they went and asked Zacharias what the child's name should be, and he said, well, get me a writing pad, and he too wrote the name John. Well, all the people were amazed, because this was a miracle in the works. Now this Zacharias, when he said his name should be John, come down to verse 64 of Luke chapter 1, and the Scripture says, "...his mouth was opened," he got his speech back, "...and immediately his tongue loosed, and he spake, and he praised God. Fear came on all them that dwelt round about them, and all these sayings were noised abroad throughout all the hill country of Judea." Verse 66, "...and all they that heard them laid them up in their hearts, saying, What manner of child shall this be?" Now remember, we're not talking about Christ, we're talking about John the Baptist here. What manner of child shall this be? "...and the hand of the Lord was with him." Now watch verse 67 carefully, "...and his father, Zacharias, was filled with the Holy Ghost," or the Holy Spirit. Now before you go any further, you always have to ask yourself a question. If someone is filled with the Holy Spirit as they were in these days, does he speak wishful thinking? No. What Zacharias is now going to utter is prompted by that Holy Spirit that has filled him. This is not just a bunch of wishful thinking from a nationalistic, patriotic, religious Jew. But now look what Zacharias is prompted to say. Verse 68, "...blessed be the Lord God of whom..." See what the book says? See, a lot of people just glance over there and they just think God belongs to everybody. Well, He does, but in instances we have to remember it's the Lord God dealing with Israel. And so Zacharias says, "...blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he hath visited..." And what's the next word? "...redeemed his people." Now what does redemption speak of? Salvation, see? So here is the salvation of Israel being offered. Read on. Verse 69, "...and hath raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David." Now do you see how Jewish all this is? No Gentile belonged to the house of David. This was uniquely Jewish ground. And Zacharias is speaking on Jewish ground because Zacharias is speaking in fulfillment of what? The Abrahamic covenant. Israel is a nation. Israel is in the land. What does Israel still need? That promised government, that king. And now Zacharias, by inspiration, is telling us it's here. It's about to happen. Read on. Verse 70, "...as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets," Old Testament, "...which have been since the age," is a better word than world, I think, "...which have been since the age began, that we should be saved from our sins," what? Enemies. Now always stop and ask yourself questions. Who were Israel's enemies? Well, the physical people around them, see? The Arabs then, like they are now, and the Egyptians were always enemies of Israel, and the various other Mediterranean nations, the Syrians, see? They were all their enemies, and so this is what he has reference to, oh, that we can be saved from our enemies, "...and from the hand of all that hate us," hate who? The Jew. Israel. Verse 72, "...to perform the mercy promised to our fathers," that is, our forefathers, "...and to remember his holy covenant," don't stop there, "...the oath which he swore to whom." Do you see what I'm talking about? You see why I started back there in Genesis with his Abrahamic covenant, and it just keeps coming and coming and coming, and here it is in the New Testament. Now for this reason, I have learned in my 20 years of teaching that we have to throw off that brainwashing that we've all been under, that the Bible is divided at the Old and the New Testament. And if you'll throw that off, if you possibly can, and realize that the first four and even a part of the book of Acts is still really more Old Testament than it is New, because it's an extension of all these Old Testament promises looking forward to the fulfillment of this Abrahamic covenant. Now, in our next Scripture reference, you'll see what I'm talking about when I say even into the book of Acts. And this again goes back to what I said last week. The main reason we've got so much confusion in Christendom is because people refuse to see the difference between God dealing with Israel on the basis of the covenants and his dealing with us Gentiles on the basis of his grace. Well, let's read on. All of this is going to come in, Zacharias can see, because God made that covenant with Abraham. Now, verse 74. Here's what that covenant guaranteed, that he would grant unto us, the nation of Israel, that we, being delivered out of the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear. Look at Israel tonight. Isn't this what she wants? Every Middle Eastern nation has a vowed statement within their government that they'll not rest until Israel is driven into the sea. What were the words Sodom and Hosein used at the height of the Gulf War? We're going to incinerate them. And the Palestinians hooped and hollered when they heard it. Why? Because they all want Israel destroyed. It's never been any different. Zacharias was of the same mentality, and he said, oh, he said, now we're going to finally be released from this fear. We're going to have the tranquility and the peace that the covenant promised. Verse 74, reading on. Now verse 75, that in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life, in holiness and righteousness. Now, what does that indicate? That this government is not going to be part and parcel of the world system. It's going to be a heavenly government. It's going to be ruled by the God of heaven. The King of kings, the Lord of lords. And Zacharias could see, hey, it's coming, it's just around the corner. Then read on. Verse 76, and thou child, that is John the Baptist, shall be called the prophet of the highest, for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways. Now, what word is really implied here, and it's not used here, but it is in other places, John the Baptist was a herald, H-E-R-A-L-D. Now in ancient history, a herald would come in maybe a day or two before a great emperor or the leader of an empire, and he would just simply begin at one end of a city, and he would, like a trumpet, announce the coming of his emperor. But he would never go back and retrace his steps. He would announce it once, and he would announce it as he went through the city, and that was it. It was a one-time heralding. Now, some have made an illusion that many times this is where we have really lost sight of propagating the gospel, and I know many foreign mission boards decry the fact that 90 percent of God's servants are proclaiming the Word of God to only 6 percent of the world's people. What do they say? Most Christian workers are laboring here in America. Ninety-some percent of all the preachers and the missionaries of the world labor right here in America who are only 6 percent of the population. Well, we're not even heralding the gospel to the many nations of the world that have never heard, and we know there's millions out there who have yet never heard, and we're probably being remiss. But anyway, John the Baptist was going to be a herald, an announcer of the king. Now, read on. Verse 77 again, "...to give knowledge of salvation unto," who? His people, and the His people at this point are still Jew only. Verse 78, "...through the tender mercy of our God, whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited us," now verse 79, "...to give light to them that sit in darkness, and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace." Zacharias had it straight, and he should have. He was filled with the Holy Spirit. Now then, let's turn over. I think we've got time for one more New Testament portion that deals with this Abrahamic covenant, and believe it or not, it goes all the way into the book of Acts, Acts chapter 3, Acts chapter 3. But before you get to Acts chapter 3, you might want to just stop momentarily in Acts chapter 2, in this great Pentecostal sermon by Peter, and again, most people just don't stop to realize who is Peter talking to, to whom is he talking, and what is it? You got Acts chapter 2, verse 22, now I'm just again, just giving you little, just shots at it. It'll be a long time before we get down to a verse by verse of the book of Acts. Verse 22, "...ye men of Israel," does that include Gentiles? Not as I understand language. Verse 36, "...therefore let all the house of Israel," who is that? That's Jew only. That doesn't include Gentiles. All right, now come on over to chapter 3, so we can wind this up before time is gone. Peter is preaching his second sermon in the book of Acts. Now remember, this is just shortly after Pentecost, 50 days after the ascension, and we'll have to forsake a time again, come all the way down to verse 22. Well, I guess I really should start with verse 20. Acts chapter 3, verse 20, where Peter is announcing that if Israel would repent and believe who Jesus really was, that he would come back and set up his kingdom. And so Peter says, "...and he that is God shall send Jesus Christ." Send him for what? To be their king. He's been crucified now, so now he can be the king, rightfully. "...which was preached unto you, whom heaven must receive or hold until times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets, since the age began." This isn't an afterthought. This isn't something that came up accidentally all the way. Now then, verse 24, "...yea, all the prophets from Samuel, and those that follow after as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold," prophetically, "...of these days," what days? "...the appearance of the king, his crucifixion, his resurrection, his ascension, but his soon return." And remember, the Bible writers all thought it was going to happen just right in order. Now, read on, verse 25, "...you are the children of the prophets, and of the," what's the next word, "...covenant, which God made with our fathers, when he said unto," what's the next word, "...Abraham." See? What's Peter claiming? Abrahamic covenant. Peter is still claiming nothing more than the promises of this covenant. They're already the nation. They're in the land, but they want the king. And they couldn't have the king unless Israel repented to the last person. Everyone had to. And then Christ could have come and set up his kingdom, and Israel could have been the missionary force. Israel could have been the evangelists. But what did Israel do with it? They continued to reject it, and they continued to reject it, until finally God, not by accident, not as an afterthought, but in his preordain, said, I'll go another way, and he went to the Gentiles with the gospel of grace. But see, Peter is still on covenant ground. Thank you for watching Through the Bible with Les Feldick. 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