The Arrival of the Messiah

Introduction:

Situate the Audience: Recap of Last week

Something about DNA tests, knowing family heritage. Interesting and also helpful? Illustration of this? How does knowing where you’ve come from help you make sense of your story? Personal story of knowing that my grandparents were immigrants?

Guiding question: Who is Jesus? We will unpack this more throughout the series (in fact, we do it every week). But, here we learn of Jesus family history/heritage. What does his heritage tell us about him?

Background to Jewish Genealogies

Read Matthew 1:1-17 “This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah the son of David, the son of Abraham: Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, Judah the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar, Perez the father of Hezron, Hezron the father of Ram, Ram the father of Amminadab, Amminadab the father of Nahshon, Nahshon the father of Salmon, Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab, Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth, Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of King David. David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah’s wife, Solomon the father of Rehoboam, Rehoboam the father of Abijah, Abijah the father of Asa, Asa the father of Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat the father of Jehoram, Jehoram the father of Uzziah, Uzziah the father of Jotham, Jotham the father of Ahaz, Ahaz the father of Hezekiah, Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, Manasseh the father of Amon, Amon the father of Josiah, and Josiah the fath…”

Going through the Text

Highlights:

1: The “Book of the Genesis” Is this just the most common way to phrase this?

1: Jesus:

The Messiah: Title meaning anointed one. The fulfilment of all of the anointed ones of the OT.

The son of David: Royal lineage

The Son of Abraham: Inheritor of the blessing of Genesis 12:1-3 “The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.””

Summary: The intention is to tie Jesus to the OT by showing his lineage.

3, 5, 6: The 4 Women: Outsider status and God working through sin.

Tamar

Rahab:

Ruth: Moabitess

Uriah’s wife: Hittite. Why not continue the family line through any of the other of David’s sons??

Summary: Rather than showing the purity of the lineage like normal Jewish lineages would attempt, Matthew intentionally shows that Jesus comes from the margins. Dan: he is including these 4 women because of their outsider status in regards to Israel. Jesus is the fulfillment of every Jewish hope and dream, but he is also the fulfillment of the hopes and dreams of everyone in the world. It starts in Israel, but was never intended to stay in Israel. Additionally, Matthew may be going out of his way to show the way that God continues his work through human sin (or using human sin)—i.e. with Tamar and Bathsheba and Rehab (sexual immorality). WE ARE NOT THOROUGHLY SHOCKED when we read this. The scandal of the genealogy.

7, 10: Changes in the English: DAN: Maybe don’t put too much weight on this. Cut out unless there is a specific point of application for this.

Asa (ἀσάφ): Jesus comes from the psalmist lineage (i.e. those who poured their hearts out to God through creativity)

Amon (Ἀμώς): Jesus comes from prophetic lineage (i.e. the heralds who courageously spoke truth to power when it was out of alignment with the way of God’s instruction/character)

17: The significance of three sets of 14. DAN: Yes, this is an intentional feature. But, not sure we can know the reason for it. The idea of the 7th day. Fulfillment of the 7th day of rest. Prep for David promise, David and his offspring, then what happens when you break the promise. Preparation: Fulfillment to a degree; New preparation for new David. In preaching, there has to be a spiritual payoff for me to go into something I’m not really confident in.

First, the Davidic emphasis of Matthew’s account is affirmed once again. This is seen in the division of the list into three distinct groups, as the writer himself confirms (see verse 17). A closer study of the list reveals that there are gaps between names, sometimes of several generations. This is allowed in the Jewish way of recording genealogies, as the word for son can many times mean a descendant who is not an immediate progeny (cf. Ezra 2 and Nehemiah 7). This practice is justified many times if the writer has a particular point to make. In Matthew’s case, he is clearly focusing on the three sets of 14 names.

While some commentators seem bewildered by this fact, there is good Jewish reasoning implemented here by the writer. Anyone familiar with Hebrew knows that from ancient times the language had a numeric value associated with each of its letters. It is not coincidental that one of the numeric values of the number 14 may be expressed in the three Hebrew letters (D/dalet=4, V/vav=6, D/dalet=4), the Hebrew letters for David. By intentionally skipping over particular names that could have been included in the list, the writer is emphasizing the Davidic connection to Yeshua as King Messiah, the Son of David

Dan: Jesus is being portrayed as 1) The Messiah 2) Fulfillment of all that David was and was supposed to be and he is (David isn’t just one king, he is par excellence the image of the messiah that is to come. He is a symbolic figure.) 3) The Heir of Abraham’s Promise.

His Messiah-ship is for Israel, but it is for Israel so that it can be for the nations. God chose one family and one nation to bless the world.

Main point: God has been bending history toward his redemptive purposes ultimately seen in the incarnation of Jesus. Jesus is the fulfillment of every hope in the OT both for Israel and for the world (or for you). God’s good purpose does not have to be only advanced by good people and choices. Your past baggage does not extinguish God’s good future for you.

Dan: Have one main idea and then two or three ways to apply that.

Areas of Application: One focus on what God is doing. One apply in an individual way.

Deepen your trust

Remember God can use human evil for God’s eternal good

It’s OK to have baggage, Jesus did too.

Remember that the Gospel is for you, but it is for you to give away and spread, not to hoard. In the passage: the gospel is for Israel, but for Israel to be a light to the nations. They were the way for the people to see what God is like. Through their compassion, care for the marginalized, trust of God, treatment of nations around them. But a large part of Israel viewed God for themselves instead of themselves for God.

Practical:

Ask the HS to help you discern something that you have done or that has been done to you that makes you question God’s goodness

Is there something going on in the country or world that makes you question God’s ability to guide the course.

For those who feel like their past failure or what has been done to them keeps them from stepping out boldly: God may have a word for you: I’ve got work for you and I will use your story to bring about my good purposes in the world. I will use that in ways you don’t see. The thing that your heart tells you you want to do, but your mind tells you you wont be effective… bring that to God.

Conclusion:

Life Group Questions:

Question 1

Question 2

Weekly Prayer: