The Lineage of Christ

The genealogical lists in the both the Old and New Testaments are very important because they confirm the presence of these individuals in history, as well as trace their lineage to affirm, for example, Christ's descent from King David and the house of Judah. This sermon presents some of the major similarities and differences between Luke and Matthew's genealogies of Christ. For the purposes of his Good News to the Hebrew people, Matthew immediately begins his gospel with the tracing of Christ's lineage back to Abraham, the father of the Hebrew people. Luke, however, traces Christ's ancestry all the way back to Adam, thus showing that the Savior came to saves Gentiles, as well as Jews. Besides Judaism, the foundation of Christianity, no world religion has such extensive genealogical records as does Christianity, thus establishing this faith in history and in actual historical figures. The gospel is from God but is mediated through human beings whose existence and lineage is in found in the historical documents of Old and New Testaments.