Matthew 1:1-17

As a reminder, the last time I preached on Wednesday we started the book of Matthew. In that message I did an overview of Matthew. I was told afterward by my wife that I went to quickly and it was difficult to take notes, so I thought I’d write them on the board so you could see them. Giving that much information that quickly can make it difficult to follow. So now you can see it.

I pointed out that while I might have preferred there to have been only one gospel with more information, but that’s not the way God did it. However, it was pointed out to me that if you were to present a case before a court how many witnesses would you prefer to have: one or four? In the four gospels have four witnesses to the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

As a part of that introduction I pointed out that the book of Matthew has three major divisions. We might say that it has a beginning (or introduction), middle, and an end (or conclusion).

The beginning covers his ancestry (which we’ll look at tonight), his birth, baptism, and temptations in the wilderness. His ancestry connects him to the Old Testament and in his birth Matthew shows how Jesus fulfilled prophecy.

The middle section describes the ministry of Jesus. Like the five books of Moses, this section is divided into five parts. Each section ends with the statement “when he finished.” In chapters 5-7 Jesus introduces the kingdom. In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus explains what the kingdom is like. It ends in 7:28-29. In chapters 8-10 Jesus brings the kingdom to the people through his healings and miracles. It concludes with 11:1. In the third section, chapter 11-13, we see the different responses to the kingdom and to Jesus. Some accept Jesus, some reject Jesus, and others just aren’t sure what to think. It ends with 13:53. In chapters 14-18 we’re given the expectations of the kingdom. This is what people thought the kingdom and the Messiah would be like. It is capped off in verses 19:1-2. In the fifth and final section, chapters 19-25, we find a clash of the kingdoms. Jesus clears the temple and the religious leaders make plans to kill Jesus. It ends in 26:1.

The ending of the book is found in chapters 26-28. There we find Jesus celebrating the Passover with his disciples, once more connecting Jesus to the Old Testament. Matthew tells his readers about the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus and goes to great lengths to show how they fulfill prophesy. And the book ends with the Great Commission.

That, if you missed it, is an overview of Matthew’s gospel.

Think of the response national leaders receive when they come into town. Whether it is a king, queen, president, or prime minister, they are greeted with crowds gathering in processional lines along the route to catch a glimpse. Yet think of the reception Jesus received.

The Jews had been waiting for a promised leader for centuries. They believed this leader – the Messiah or Anointed One, would rescue them from Roman oppression, establish a never ending kingdom, and rule with justice. However, most of them overlooked the prophecies about how this Messiah would be a suffering servant that would be rejected by his own and die on a cross. It’s little wonder then that they didn’t recognize Jesus – the lowly son of a tradesman – to be the Messiah.

As we listen to Matthew his message will be clear – Jesus is the King of kings and Lord of lords. He is the long awaited Messiah that the world still needs to hear about.

Turn with me to the first chapter of Matthew and we will begin with verse 1.

As we go through the book of Matthew I plan to do something a little different. Instead of reading the passage we are going to cover I plan to show the passage in a video from the Visual Bible. If you’re not familiar with the Visual Bible, it is movie of the life of Christ based on the New International Version of Matthew. It is a word-for-word rendition of Matthew’s gospel in the NIV. We won’t be able to see the first part since we’re down here, which in unfortunate since it has so many fun names.

1This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah the son of David, the son of Abraham. (Matthew 1:1)

I have to admit that I don’t get very excited about lists of names. I don’t know about you, but when I get to sections of the Bible like this I tend to fall asleep. The names don’t really mean much to me. And as Americans we don’t usually get too wound up about going through our ancestry. There has been an increase in people looking up their family tree so you can now find several websites that will help you do that, but we don’t generally get too wound up about it. There are cultures that if your great-great-grandfather spent a night in jail for robbing a bank it would still look bad on you. But we don’t care.

However, for the Jews all this stuff wasn’t just important, it was very important. That’s why we find them so often in the Bible. They not only knew their ancestral line but had a good idea about those they knew well. Why were they so important?

They were important because in a large part your land was determined by the tribe you belonged to. In the book of Joshua the Promised Land was divided up and given to the tribes. The tribes then divided their section up and gave it to the clans who divided it up and gave it to the families. According to Old Testament law every fifty years the land was to go back to the descendants of the original family. There’s no record that they ever did it, but that was the plan. So it was important to know your family tree.

It was also important for the Levites. Only Levites could become priests. Therefore, you needed to know who you were related to. In the book of Ezra we have an account of the Jews returning to Jerusalem after their Babylonian exile. During that time there had been no worship at the temple because the temple had been destroyed. So after they were allowed to return they rebuilt the temple and they needed priests. However, you had to be able to prove you were a Levite. There were some who thought they might be descendants of Levi, but because they couldn’t prove it were not allowed to serve.

And then there was the issue of the Messiah. The promised Messiah was going would be a descendant of Abraham through the line of David. Who knew if he might be one of your descendants? If you couldn’t trace your ancestors back to David then you knew he wouldn’t come from your family, but when the Messiah came he had to be able to do just that. He had to be able to show he was a descendant of David. Matthew shows us that Jesus qualifies.

What you may have noticed is the differences between Matthew’s genealogy of Jesus and Luke’s. Keep your finger in Matthew 1 and turn to Luke 3. First, Matthew follows the genealogy of Abraham down to David to Joseph and Jesus.

16and Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, and Mary was the mother of Jesus who is called the Messiah. (Matthew 1:16)

Luke goes the other way. He starts with Jesus and goes backward to David, to Abraham and all the way back to Adam.

. . . the son of Enosh, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God. (Luke 3:38)

Another difference is that Matthew traces the lineage of Jesus through Joseph. Joseph wasn’t the biological father of Jesus, but the legal father. And Matthew hints at that difference.

16and Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, and Mary was the mother of Jesus who is called the Messiah. (Matthew 1:16)

Joseph is never called the father of Jesus but the husband of Mary who is the mother of Jesus. It is believed that Luke traces it through Mary. Why do most scholars believe that? Look at verse 6 in Matthew.

6and Jesse the father of King David. David was the father of Solomon. . . . (Matthew 1:6)

Now look at verse 31 in Luke.

. . . the son of Melea, the son of Menna, the son of Mattatha, the son of Nathan, the son of David. . . . (Luke 3:31)

So Luke is following a different son of David. What these two records show us is that Jesus was related to David through both Joseph and Mary. Throughout his ministry Jesus was criticized for a number of reasons. They often complained about him being the son of a carpenter, but they could never say anything about his lineage.

Where was Jesus born? He was born in Bethlehem. And why was he born in Bethlehem when Mary and Joseph lived miles away in Nazareth? Mary and Joseph were in Bethlehem because everyone was required to go to the hometown of their lineage in order to register for the census.

1In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. 2(This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) 3And everyone went to their own town to register. 4So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. (Luke 2:1-4)

Another reason was it was important to know your ancestry.

Before we start reading the genealogy I want to point out how Matthew arranges it.

17Thus there were fourteen generations in all from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile to Babylon, and fourteen from the exile to the Messiah. (Matthew 1:17)

Matthew groups the names in sets of fourteen. Why did he do that? Were there really only fourteen people between Abraham and David and another fourteen between David and the exile and another fourteen between the exile and Jesus? Probably not. Looking at other genealogical records in the Old Testament we can prove that he left out some generations. The issue lies in the word “father.” They weren’t necessarily the father but could have been the grandfather. It’s a much more general term than we use. So why did Matthew do this? I think Matthew understood why he did it and I think his Jewish readers would have understood. However, we have no idea.

So let’s read Matthew’ record. I’ll tell you now I’m going to stop several times through the list and names and make some comments.

1This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah the son of David, the son of Abraham: 2Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, 3Judah the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar. (Matthew 1:1-3a)

If you don’t remember, Tamar was actually the daughter-in-law of Judah though here she is listed as the mother of his son. How can that be? Tamar married Judah’s oldest son Er. When Er died before having children she was given to Judah’s next son that he might raise children for his brother and who would take care of Tamar. He too died. Judah promised Tamar his next son when he was old enough, but he never did. So Tamar pretended to be a prostitute. Now recognizing her, Judah slept with her. When he later learned she was pregnant he became irate and wanted to have her killed until she was able to prove that he was the father. She is an ancestor of Jesus who made the list.

3bPerez the father of Hezron, Hezron the father of Ram, 4Ram the father of Amminadab, Amminadab the father of Nahshon, Nahshon the father of Salmon, 5Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab. (Matthew 1:3b-5a)

Rahab was a Canaanite harlot who lived in Jericho. Rahab is the one who hid the two spies Joshua sent to Jericho before they began their seven day march around the city. Because of her faith Rahab and her family were spared when everyone else in the city was killed. How do we know she had faith in God? We know because of her actions. Under the penalty of death she hid the spies because she believed God was fighting with the Israelites. So she made the list.

5bBoaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth. (Matthew 1:5b)

I’m sure you remember the name of Ruth. Ruth was a Moabite. The Moabites were the descendants of Lot through the incestual relations he had with his daughter when she got him drunk and slept with him. Jews were not permitted to marry women from other nations and faiths, yet Naomi’s son married her. When Ruth’s husband died she stayed with her mother-in-law which meant leaving her own family and traveling back to Israel. Ruth made the list.

5cObed the father of Jesse, 6and Jesse the father of King David. David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah’s wife. (Matthew 1:5c-6)

I think it’s odd that the name of Uriah’s wife isn’t given. What was her name? Her name was Bathsheba. We remember that story as well. David didn’t just have an affair, he had an affair with a married woman and then had the husband killed so he could marry her. Though the child who was born of their illicit relationship died soon after its birth, they had another son – Solomon – who became king and an ancestor of Jesus. Bathsheba made the list even if she wasn’t mentioned by name.

7Solomon the father of Rehoboam, Rehoboam the father of Abijah, Abijah the father of Asa, 8Asa the father of Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat the father of Jehoram, Jehoram the father of Uzziah, 9Uzziah the father of Jotham, Jotham the father of Ahaz, Ahaz the father of Hezekiah, 10Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, Manasseh the father of Amon, Amon the father of Josiah, 11and Josiah the father of Jeconiah and his brothers at the time of the exile to Babylon. 12After the exile to Babylon: Jeconiah was the father of Shealtiel, Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel, 13Zerubbabel the father of Abihud, Abihud the father of Eliakim, Eliakim the father of Azor, 14Azor the father of Zadok, Zadok the father of Akim, Akim the father of Elihud, 15Elihud the father of Eleazar, Eleazar the father of Matthan, Matthan the father of Jacob, 16and Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, and Mary was the mother of Jesus who is called the Messiah. (Matthew 1:7-16)

Mary then becomes the last on the list. And we of course know Mary. Mary was that unwed mother in Nazareth who gave birth to a son.

I assume you noticed who I picked out from this list. All women. Including Mary, there are five women in the list. Why did Matthew include any women, much less these women? The family line flows through the father, so it didn’t matter who the mother was. So it was very unusual to include women in a genealogical record. And then the women he picked out are very puzzling. In this list you have:

3 of the 5 are known for their sexual immorality

2 of the 5 are known as prostitutes

4 were Gentiles, thus were from groups the Jews were told not to marry

2 were Canaanites, 1 was a Moabite, and 1 was a Hittite

These women don’t qualify to be in the list, much less to be mentioned. Why are they there? Why would Matthew, writing to Jews, put women in the list, much less immoral Gentile women? Let me offer a couple of possible reasons.

First, Matthew may have included these women because of Jewish pride. The Jews were a very proud people and rightly so. In the Old Testament we read how God said that of all the nations of the world he chose them. God could have chosen any nation and he chose the Israelites. They alone had God’s law and God’s word. They alone had the only place where sacrifices could be made to God. God had spoken to several of their leaders and sent to them his prophets. They had reason to be proud.

Later, in Acts, when the gospel began to be preached among the Gentiles most of the Jews were against it. Why, because the Gentiles didn’t deserve it. They were not God’s chosen people.

So Matthew brings out the genealogical record and shows not only that there are Gentiles in the lineage of Jesus, but women they might have wished to have over-looked. What the Jews needed to know – and everyone else for that matter – is that God hasn’t chosen anyone because of their greatness, but he has chosen them simply because of his great love. They don’t deserve his love simply because they are Jews any more than we deserve God’s simply because we are Americans. We don’t deserve God’s love because we are better people than our neighbors. Nor do we deserve God’s love because we keep most of God’s commands most of the time. Paul made it clear in Romans 3 that we are all sinners in need of forgiveness. We are all sinners in desperate need of God’s grace. We are no worse and no better than anyone else.

No one has any reason to boast or be proud. The genealogical record of Jesus shows how God can save anyone. It also shows how he can use anyone.

There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3:28)

Second, and more importantly, this record shows the sovereign oversight of God. As I mentioned Sunday morning, God was promising a Savior back at the beginning. In Genesis 3 God referenced one who would be born of a woman whose heal Satan would wound, but who would crush Satan’s head. Then, piece by piece God began to reveal who this Savior would be. God said he would be a descendant of Abraham and then specified how he would be a descendant of David. If you were Satan wouldn’t you want to discredit that line as much as you could so as to prevent the birth of the Messiah? You would try to corrupt the kingly line. You try to disrupt the plan of God. These women may represent detours in the genealogical line. They weren’t the ones God would have chosen. Despites the fact that God commanded his people not to intermarry with non-Jews they did anyway. But that did not prevent God’s plan from being accomplished. God’s plan continued to move just as he had planned.

It doesn’t matter what people do, it doesn’t matter what Satan does, God’s plan will come to pass. God will do what he said he will do. We can’t stop it. No nation or government can stop it. And Satan can’t stop it. And it all comes down to verses 16 and 17.

16and Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, and Mary was the mother of Jesus who is called the Messiah. 17Thus there were fourteen generations in all from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile to Babylon, and fourteen from the exile to the Messiah. (Matthew 1:16-17)

Three times in these first seventeen verses Matthew refers to Jesus as the Messiah and he’ll do it again in the next verse. Matthew wants us to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that Jesus is the Messiah; the long awaited Anointed One for whom the Jews have been waiting. There is no greater claim that Matthew could make. He is the one who will save his people from their sins.