In the sermon titled 'The Perfect Mediator' by Jason Dohm, the speaker explores the dual nature of Jesus as both the Son of God and the Son of Man, emphasizing his unique qualification to act as the perfect mediator between God and humanity. The sermon delves into the significance of the genealogy found in Luke 3:23-38, highlighting how it establishes Jesus' rightful place as a mediator through his human lineage, tracing back to Adam, and his divine nature, confirmed by his anointing with the Holy Spirit. The speaker compares the genealogies in Matthew and Luke, noting their differences and their shared emphasis on Jesus' connection to King David, which fulfills Old Testament prophecies. The sermon underscores that Jesus, being both divine and human, is uniquely equipped to reconcile humanity with a holy God, offering salvation to all. It concludes with an encouragement to recognize Jesus as the perfect mediator who offers the possibility of salvation and eternal friendship with God.

Title of the message today is the perfect mediator Paul says this in first Timothy 2 verses 5 and 6 for there is one God and one mediator between God and men the man Christ Jesus who gave himself a ransom for all. When you look at the Greek word that's translated mediator, one mediator between God and men, you see this. One who intervenes between two, either in order to make or restore peace and friendship, or to form a compact, or to ratify a covenant. That is exactly what Jesus does between those who believe in him and his father. He makes, restores peace and friendship, and he ratifies a covenant.

So today's text is a boring theology, a boring genealogy with 77 names, most of whom we know nothing about. But if it sets forth the Lord Jesus as the perfect one to bring us together with a holy God and make peace and friendship with this holy God, it wouldn't be a boring genealogy at all. If that was really the meaning behind it, is it makes him just the perfect one to make peace between us and God and bring us into friendship with God, then actually this genealogy of 77 names, most of who we know nothing about, would be a very precious thing. So I want to use my time to try to convince you that that is actually what this text is. Last week James preached on the baptism of Jesus.

John the Baptist baptized him and the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon Jesus and then this voice comes from heaven and says this is my beloved son. And I think a strong case can be made from Isaiah 61 by the way we've already recited this in our recitation text. Jesus is going to quote this in chapter four, Isaiah 61.1. I think a strong case can be made from that text that the Holy Spirit descending and remaining on Jesus was his anointing by his father for the work of a mediating Savior. This was the moment of his anointing And so then we see him go into the work that God had given him to do really know almost nothing of what of his life before that time but then he's anointed by the spirit and begins to do the things that God has sent him to do as a mediating savior.

Listen to Isaiah 61 verse 1. This is the Messiah saying this, the Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound. In chapter four, Jesus is going to stand read this before the people. And then he's going to say today this is fulfilled in your hearing.

So I believe you're witnessing the anointing of Jesus for his mediating saving work. As we go to this boring genealogy, let's ask God to help us. God, your Word isn't boring at all. Your Word is life to the dead. Thank you for it.

How precious a treasure we have. In the words of scripture, thank you for not just leaving us with our own thoughts in our own ways, but pulling us up to something so much better and higher. Please help us to squeeze every drop of good out of this genealogy today in Jesus name. Amen. I'd like to begin just with verse 23.

I'll read it and then talk about it. So hopefully your Bibles are open to Luke chapter 3. Follow along as I read verse 23 and then we'll stop and then I'll talk about it. Luke chapter 3 verse 23. Now Jesus himself began his ministry at about 30 years of age, being, as was supposed, the son of Joseph, the son of Heli.

So In this verse we have this parenthetical phrase, a phrase in parentheses, as was supposed the son of Joseph. Jesus began his public ministry at about 30 years of age. So this is transitioning us to the public ministry of Jesus. So far, there haven't been any sermons from Jesus. Jesus hasn't restored the sight of any blind people, given hearing to any deaf people, walked on water, done any of that.

Now we're almost there and this is the text that's transitioning us into the public ministry of Jesus. We're finishing chapter 3 today. In chapter 4 Jesus will be led into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. That'll be next week. And then we are off to sermons and miracles, the public ministry of Jesus.

This is the text that transitions us into that. Luke doesn't comment on Jesus' age. He just says his public ministry began about the age of 30 So since Luke didn't say much about it, I won't say much about it other than to say this in numbers four So if we went and looked at that chapter, the book of Numbers, chapter 4, it says, 5 times that Levites could begin their service in the temple at the age of 30. So if five times you encounter this phrase, from 30 years old and above, not below. So Levites went into their service in the temple at 30 years old.

This is not to say that Jesus is a Levite or needs to satisfy those qualifications to begin his public ministry. He isn't a Levite and he doesn't need to satisfy that qualification to begin his public ministry. The point is simply that all of his fellow Jews would have recognized that Jesus had fully come to an age of maturity and ought to be fully ready for serious things. So Jesus begins his public ministry and none of the Jews are going to be saying who is this young whippersnapper? He's of the age that anyone who's a Levi would be able to go into the temple.

It was expected that you were an age of maturity and that you were ready for serious things. Then we encounter this phrase, as was supposed, being as was supposed the son of Joseph. That's who Jesus was. Now why does Luke say that? Why does he use that phrase, as was supposed?

Well, was Joseph actually Jesus's father? No, so Luke is actually driving home the point and making the distinction. The Holy spirit came upon the Virgin Mary and the power of the highest overshadowed her, therefore Jesus would be called the Son of God. Those are the exact words of Luke 1.35. This is what the angel Gabriel said to Mary.

So Joseph isn't actually the physical, genealogical father of Jesus, but it was supposed that he was because Joseph became the husband of Mary. And so it was supposed that Joseph was Jesus' father, and he was certainly the head of the household that Jesus grew up in. And so that's what people naturally assumed. That's what Luke is pointing out here. Now, there are two genealogies of Jesus in Scripture.

There's Matthew 1. The Gospel of Matthew starts with the genealogy of Jesus, and there's here in Luke chapter three. In a few minutes, I'll compare them. But for now, let me point out that in Matthew one, it says that a man named Jacob begot Joseph, the supposed father of Jesus. Not that Jacob, not the Jacob we think about, but a man undoubtedly named after the Jacob we think about in Genesis.

A man named Jacob begot Joseph, the supposed father of Jesus. Here in Luke 3 it says that Joseph, the supposed father of Jesus, was of Heli. So they say different things here. And then there are different ancestors all the way to David, meaning if you look at these two family trees, Matthew 1, Luke 3, you find going up from Joseph, the supposed father of Jesus, all the way to David, different ancestors the whole way. They merge at King David and they're perfectly the same after that.

Now how do we explain that? Let me give you three quotations from the commentators. A lot of ink has been spilled on how we explain those differences. Robert Stein says this, Most scholars think that at present the two lists resist any and all attempts at harmonization, meaning don't waste your time trying to make these two match up because you can't do it others Seeking to harmonize the two accounts have offered various explanations. I read a lot of them this week At the present time with the material available no truly satisfying solution has been brought forward to resolve this difficulty.

So there's no getting around it. You have two genealogies. They match up until you get to David and then they don't match at all from David through Joseph. How do you explain this? Robert Stein says there's no truly satisfying solution that's been brought forward to satisfy the difficulty.

I would say it a little differently than that. I understand this point and I don't think I'm actually meaning something different than what he means, but I would say it this way. I would say there's no truly definitive solution that solves the difficulty, meaning that you can propose several that solve it, but you can't prove which, if any of them, actually are the solution to it. So it is true, there's no definitive solution. Here's what J.C.

Ryle says, between Abraham and David, the two genealogies agree. Between David and Joseph, they almost entirely differ. How can this difference be reconciled? This is a question on which learned men have written volumes and failed to convince one another. In other words, the smartest people have all written books about it and none of them have convinced the others.

The most probable explanation of the difficulty is to regard Luke's genealogy as the genealogy of Mary and not of Joseph. Now, Mary's name doesn't appear in our genealogy in Luke chapter 3, and Joseph's name does, but I'll tell you how you get there in a minute. J.C. Ryle says that's the most probable explanation. There are other possible explanations, but he thinks that's the most probable one is that the genealogy that we're studying right now is really Mary's family tree and not Joseph's.

He goes on to say, Heli was the father of Mary and the father-in-law by his marriage of Joseph. It is also a remarkable fact that rabbinical writers speaking of Mary in very reproachful terms distinctly call her the daughter of Heli. Now isn't that an interesting data point that you can go back to the rabbis who were writing against Jesus and his identity and are talking bad about Mary. Those rabbis actually call her Mary the daughter of Heli. So the way you get to this being Mary's genealogy and not Joseph would be Mary having no brothers and the genealogies only naming fathers and no women named in the genealogy.

And so a daughter with no brothers, the oldest daughter's husband would actually be named in the genealogy and there's actually precedent for that in Scripture if you go back to Numbers 27 and look at the daughters of Zalapahad, if you're familiar with the daughters of Zalapahad and how they got their inheritance because there were no sons born in that family. It's sort of a similar thing. Matthew Henry says this, anyone might at that time, so at what time? At the time when Luke was beginning to be circulated. So the first recipients of the Gospel of Luke, that first generation that got this Gospel.

Anyone might at that time have liberty to compare with the original. Meaning if you were that first generation that got the Gospel of Luke, you could go to Jerusalem and look it up and check it. Against the genealogical records, very precise, very exhaustive, kept in Jerusalem, but that were destroyed in 70 AD when Jerusalem was destroyed, the temple was destroyed. Matthew Henry says, It's not being contradicted at that time, is satisfaction enough to us now that it is a true copy. They were all lost and destroyed with the Jewish state and nation." What's he saying?

He's saying there's all this opposition to Jesus, but you can't look in the historical records and find Jews saying, that genealogy is wrong. So you find all sorts of arguments against Jesus being the Messiah, but that's not in any of the historical arguments against Jesus being the Messiah is that genealogy is wrong, meaning no one questioned it. None of the Jews at the time who had access to the original records called this into question. So that's interesting, I think. Now, moving to the rest.

Verses 24 through 38. I'm not reading these names. I'm going to skip to 38. I'm gonna say so there are 75 names between Jesus on one end and God on the other. The very end God is going to be called the father of Adam or Adam the son of God.

There's Jesus, 75 names, and then God. I'm going to start in verse 38 and then make broad comments on the whole thing. Okay, verse 38. The son of Enosh, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God. So we can go back to our study in Genesis and go back to Genesis 5, the genealogies there and find those names.

In fact, between Adam and David, all of that is really clearly established in Scripture. The obscure names in this genealogy are between David and Joseph, the son of Heli. So this goes back all the way to Adam. Now let's compare Matthew 1, that genealogy, and Luke 3, this genealogy. Matthew 1 starts with Abraham and works forward to Joseph.

So what is Matthew doing there? He is setting forth Jesus as the Jewish Messiah, as this promised Savior who God promised to bring out of Abraham's family. So he just goes back to Father Abraham and doesn't need to go back any further because He's proving that Jesus is the fulfillment of the promises to deliver the Savior through Abraham's family that would be a blessing to all the families of the earth, these promises given to Abraham. So that is Matthew's objective. He goes back to Abraham and no further.

And he starts with the oldest and works forward to Joseph, showing that he's the Jewish Messiah. Luke 3 starts with Joseph, the youngest person on the list, the supposed father of Jesus, and works backward all the way to Adam. So they work in different directions. Matthew starts with the oldest to the youngest, starts at Abraham and forward, and Luke starts with the youngest with Joseph and works all the way back through David, through Abraham, all the way back to Adam. So why does he go further?

Because Luke has a different objective. Luke is writing to the most excellent theophilus, this Greek man, and he's showing that yes Jesus is the Jewish Messiah, but he's actually the savior of the world. Jews, yes. Gentiles, yes. The whole world, yes.

Luke has a little different purpose for his genealogy, so he can't stop at Abraham. He has to show that all the sons of Adam have hope in Jesus Christ, not just the ones of the family of Abraham. Also, these two genealogies are exactly the same from Abraham to David. So you can you can check my homework on that. You can take Matthew 1 and set it side by side here and look at all the names from Abraham to David and you'll find them exactly, perfectly the same.

Then David, they diverge and are completely different from David to Joseph, the supposed father of Jesus. In Matthew 1, the son of David named is Solomon, him we know, King David, then his son King Solomon. So that's Matthew 1. Here in Luke 3, the son of David is Nathan. He is a named son in 2nd Chronicles, but really you know almost nothing of this son of David, Nathan.

So that is where these two genealogies diverge and they never come back together again until Joseph. Now some observations I'll give you four. Number one in both Matthew 1 and Luke 3 Jesus is the product of an extensive human family line. A long, long list. Where did Jesus come from?

You've got a long explanation in both places and it's an extensive human family line. Jesus was not a spirit apparition who appeared on the earth out of nowhere. No, he had parents, grandparents, great grandparents, great great grandparents, you could trace it all the way back to Adam. Jesus is the son of man. Jesus is a real, live human being and as a man, Jesus is qualified to be a substitute for humans.

Just like the blood of bulls and goats could never actually satisfy God's anger against sin, It takes a human to satisfy God's anger against sin. And as the Son of Man, Jesus is qualified to be a substitute for humans because he's a human. And also in Matthew 1 and Luke 3, Jesus is born of the Virgin Mary, an unprecedented, miraculous birth, because God is his actual father. We just saw that at Jesus' baptism. A voice came from heaven which said, You are my beloved son.

Jesus, this is God's voice from heaven, God the Father from heaven. Jesus, you are my beloved Son. And as God, Jesus has the perfect righteousness needed to be a substitute for sinners. Sinners can't die for sinners. So this has to be a person with perfect righteousness.

As God, Jesus has the perfect righteousness needed to be a substitute for sinners and the infinite value needed so that One can die for all. So this Savior is going to have to be very particular. He's going to have to be very man, a very man, so that He can die for men and women. He's going to have to be a human So that he can be an acceptable substitute for humans. And yet, he's going to have to be perfectly righteous.

The righteous dying for the guilty. He has to be God to be perfectly righteous. And He has to be of infinite value so that one can die for all, not just one dying for one. So Matthew and Luke both set forth Jesus as the Son of Man. What's this human genealogy about?

He's a man. But also, He is God and He needs both to fill this office. Number two, As the Son of God and the Son of man, Jesus is the perfect mediator. Who is it that can come and reconcile A perfectly good, holy, righteous God and sinners. The God-man.

The God-man can touch God on one side in all his perfections and can touch man on one side, being a man himself, He is the perfect mediator. I'll read to you what Paul said. I started the sermon this way, but I'll repeat it now. 1 Timothy 2, 5 and 6, for there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus who gave himself a ransom for all. Jesus is the one who can intervene between the two.

This isn't against the wishes of God, oh no, now I have to be reconciled with man. This is God's plan, desire. This is God the Father's work to send His Son to bring peace between sinners and himself even though he's perfectly good to bring friendship between God and men actually to make enemies sons and daughters to bring them into a covenant of grace. Jesus is the perfect mediator. Number three, In both Matthew 1 and Luke 3, Jesus is the son of David.

So the genealogies don't agree on every point, but they agree at this point. David is the common ancestor, is a common ancestor in these genealogies. I remember what the angel Gabriel told Mary in Luke chapter 1 verse 32. He will be great And will be called the Son of the Highest and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David so this is really important that the genealogies go through David because all these promises in the Old Testament That Jesus would be that the promised Savior the Messiah would be in the genealogical line of David are fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ. Friends, God has sent us a perfect king.

God has sent his people a perfect king. The greatest king in Israel's history was only a shadow and a type that pointed forward to and taught about the greater reality. Jesus is the greater reality. So David's a lot of things, But one of the things he is is a picture of something better and a reality to come. A perfect King, a mighty King, a conquering King, A just king, a king who sacrifices for his subject.

Jesus is all of these things. David was a little shadow of all those things, but Jesus is the perfection of them and the fulfillment of them. So that's number three in both Matthew 1 and Luke 3. Jesus is the son of David and the point is God has sent us a perfect king. Number four.

Luke, like the Apostle Paul in Romans 5 and 1 Corinthians 15, understood Adam as a real historical person, who was the very first person in the direct creation of God. He did not have a father other than God brought together the dust and breathed life into him. So that's what Luke believed. That's what he says here. And That's what Paul believed.

That's what he says in Romans 5 and 1 Corinthians 15. So just understand this. The theories that make Adam less than a real historical person, the very first person who ever existed and the direct creation of God without a human father all the theories that Try to make Adam less than that to play nice with scientific theories don't match up with the Bible. They're irreconcilable with the understanding of the New Testament authors. Luke and Paul both understood Adam as being a real historical person who was the first person ever and the direct creation of God without any other parents.

So The two ends of this genealogy is a son of God. On one end you have Adam, the son of God, a direct creation of God, and on the other end you have Jesus, the Son of God, where God the Father sent his spirit to overshadow Mary and she became pregnant in that fashion. Okay, applications. I want you to listen to yes, I'm already at applications. No, you're shocked.

I want you to listen to Hebrews seven, verse The author of Hebrews says this in Hebrews 7, verse 25. Therefore he, Jesus, is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through him since he always lives to make intercession for them. By giving us this genealogy Luke is setting forward Jesus as the perfect mediator between God and man, the perfect one to come and make peace and bring friendship between a perfect God and sinners. The author of Hebrews says, he can save you to the uttermost. He's such a mediator.

Being the God man, having the. The qualities of God that makes him perfectly righteous and infinitely valuable as a substitute. So one can die for How many? A billion? One can die for a billion.

But also man to come and be able to be a sympathetic high priest who can enter into the sorrows of human beings. He's a man of sorrows and can be a substitute for humans because he was human. He's the perfect mediator and it makes him able to save to the uttermost. It makes him willing to save to the uttermost and there he is at the right hand of God interceding for the people that he has saved. To the unbeliever, to the unbeliever.

Do you understand who God is? Do you understand that He's perfectly good? And do you understand What kind of a problem that creates for us? He's perfectly good because it means that sin is not going to dwell with him in eternity. And it means that he could never overlook it.

And it means that he knows about all of them. Even the ones that have just happened in your mind. Put that in air quotes because we tend to think of that as less as things that have happened externally but God doesn't make those distinctions. You understand that? Has God left us with that quandary?

No! He sent Jesus Christ from heaven to be the perfect mediator who can reach out his hand, figuratively speaking, and touch God in all of his perfections and bring us who are nothing like that, who are imperfect in a thousand different ways, who have lived in rebellion, pride, self-sufficiency, and he can lay his hand on us too because he's lived in the flesh and God has made him the perfect mediator to bring us together and make peace and actually Create friendship between us and God. Can you believe that? That's essentially the meaning of this genealogy is that This God man can bring us into friendship with a all-knowing, perfectly good God. In short, salvation is possible.

I'm not sure We could have thought our way out of that dilemma and problem with God being so good and us being nothing like that. But God thought his way out of that dilemma. God knew just what was needed and Jesus is just what is needed. And really, there's no other way. No one comes to the Father except through Jesus.

To the believer. Can you say you've been saved to the uttermost? I would say yes and no. Meaning I've been saved permanently. I believe that scripture teaches that once God saves, God keeps.

And no one can keep Him from keeping. So when He's adopted a son, He adopts forever. When He adopts a daughter, He adopts forever. So in that way, I've been finally saved. But are there still things that need to be changed?

Still things that are imperfect and need attention? Yes, okay. So he, I think he has saved me to the uttermost in that way, a final permanent saving, but I believe that I'm also in the process of being saved in the sense that there's so much work left to do in my life and that Jesus always lives to make intercession for me. Listen to the verse again. Therefore, he is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.

Well, I saved that one. I'm just moving on to the next one to say, no, God actually doesn't move on. God sends His Spirit to indwell the believer and then He continues His saving work in the life of a believer. That's how He keeps us. So there's your boring genealogy.

77 names. Only it's not so boring because it means you can be saved. Would that be okay? If this genealogy, even though it's people we mostly don't know, if it means we can be saved, it is really a precious thing. So behold the God man, he is the perfect mediator.

And he's the only mediator, there's one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. Let's give thanks. God, you knew from eternity past that our race would rebel, that our natures would be changed, twisted, warped. We would be by nature children of wrath. Thank you that you had a way to save from those earliest days that you promised that a seed of the woman would one day come and crush the head of the serpent.

You would defeat sin and death through the work of this promised Savior, a son of David, a son of God, and a son of man, the perfect one to mediate and to save to the uttermost. Give you thanks for the person of Jesus. There's no one like him. He's perfect for this work and for the work of Jesus doing for us what we can never do for ourselves. Thank you God in Jesus name, amen.