Here are some questions based on last Sunday’s sermon text (Matthew 1:1-17), in case they’re helpful to you for personal growth or group discussion…

• Matthew’s overall purpose in writing his Good News (Gospel) about Jesus is to show how Jesus is the fulfillment of all God’s works and words as recorded in the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament). He wants to show how Jesus is “the Christ” (the Greek translation of the Hebrew word Messiah, meaning “Anointed One”). Matthew begins with this genealogy tracing the line of promise according to God’s promises to Abraham (Gen. 17:1-7), Judah (Gen. 49:8-12), and David (2 Sam. 7:12-16), that the Christ would come from their line. Have you read the Hebrew Scriptures, the Old Testament? What value do you find in them? Can you see how they point ahead to Jesus, how he is the Christ in fulfillment of those Scriptures? What do you make of a genealogy like this? What value might our culture place on genealogies? What value might other cultures place on a genealogy like this?

• Slow down as you read the names in this family tree. What do you know about particular individuals named here? It is one dysfunctional family, that’s for sure! Full of cowards, thieves, scoundrels, and illegitimate children. God chose to bring forth his Savior through a family like this, not because they were good people, but to show his grace to bad people. What sort of dysfunctions exist in your family tree? How do you feel about your ancestry? If God set his love on such a dysfunctional family as Abraham’s, do you believe he could love your crazy mess of a family? If he is willing to associate himself with misfits like this, do you believe he could associate with you and bring you into his family?

• [16] Joseph is not Jesus’ biological father, but his legal, adoptive father. Rather than invalidate the genealogy because Jesus is not linked to Joseph by blood, this proclaims the Good News of Adoption—God in the flesh, Jesus, has adopted this whole family line as his own. It is not their special pedigree that reflects on him, as much as it is his grace that shines on them. Because of God’s grace, in spite of themselves, they are privileged to be able to say, “The Savior of the world comes from people like us!” If you are united to Jesus through faith and by the Holy Spirit, you are as much a part of his family as anyone in this list, and therefore just as privileged in being able to say, “We are Jesus’ people.” You also are called to bring Jesus forth in this world for the adoption of other brothers and sisters into his family. Do you know what it is like to belong to Jesus’ family, to call his Father “Our Father,” even though you don’t deserve it? Do you believe that being an “adopted” child of God means you are a “real” child of God? What difference does your adoption in Christ make for your life? Do you delight to see others brought into this family?