An unlikely background.
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If you have a bible open it up to Matthew Chapter 1. I have titled the message, An unlikely background. Pray with me.
So today we start this amazing journey through the book of Matthew. A journey that may be our longest one yet as a church since I have become your pastor. The gospel of John took us nearly 13 months to get through and after studying this gospel I am sure it would take even longer to get through this book, but that is ok because this book like every book points to Jesus, and the teachings in it are going to be some we have not covered as a church together. Matthew is one of the four gospels. The others are Mark, Luke, and John. I have titled the series Matthew: The Sovereign King. Today we will see that Jesus is Son of David Israel’s greatest King that was until Jesus. And as King; Jesus has this incredible authority to Save and command his people. This great book ends with a verse that many of you may have memorized Matthew 28:18-20
18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
This is said after the King defeated the greatest enemy we have which is Sin. And these verses have been and will continue to be fulfilled that is why we are here.
We are commanded to hear all that these 28 chapters have to say. Scholars and the word tell us that this gospel is the fulfillment of the Old Testament Scriptures, that it teaches us about his everyday walk, and what he taught people and what we should know about him, It teaches us about his wonderful character and the many miracles that he preformed.
But the gospel start’s with a genealogy.
Now when a book has a genealogy to often we overlook them. We read them see the names, we may recognize the stories that go along with the names, but then we quickly leave them going on to the next thing. Now this genealogy because its the word of God is worth preaching, its worth studying because God has something to show us through this genealogy. Throughout the week I was wondering what he was going to show me to show you through his word, and I came up with this conclusion which will be your main point today.
Main Idea: Despite coming from an unlikely background, Jesus is the sovereign saving king.
Main Idea: Despite coming from an unlikely background, Jesus is the sovereign saving king.
Matthew 1:1–17 (ESV)
1 The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
2 Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, 3 and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram, 4 and Ram the father of Amminadab, and Amminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon, 5 and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, 6 and Jesse the father of David the king.
And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah, 7 and Solomon the father of Rehoboam, and Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asaph, 8 and Asaph the father of Jehoshaphat, and Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, and Joram the father of Uzziah, 9 and Uzziah the father of Jotham, and Jotham the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah, 10 and Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, and Manasseh the father of Amos, and Amos the father of Josiah, 11 and Josiah the father of Jechoniah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon.
12 And after the deportation to Babylon: Jechoniah was the father of Shealtiel, and Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel, 13 and Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, and Abiud the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim the father of Azor, 14 and Azor the father of Zadok, and Zadok the father of Achim, and Achim the father of Eliud, 15 and Eliud the father of Eleazar, and Eleazar the father of Matthan, and Matthan the father of Jacob, 16 and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ.
17 So all the generations from Abraham to David were fourteen generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ fourteen generations.
Few things I want to unpack from these 17 verses. The first is this.
Jesus came from the line of David, and Abraham.
Jesus came from the line of David, and Abraham.
Why is this important. Why does Matthew focus so much on this truth in verse 1 and 17. David and Abraham play such an important role in God’s redemptive plan for Isreal. Jesus comes from this bloodline of David and Abraham.
Now before I continue I want to say that this genealogy is different in many ways. One man says this.. Matthew's genealogy is distinct in several ways. While typical Greco-Roman genealogies, and also Luke's genealogy, begin with the hero's father and work back to distant forebears, Matthew begins with David, then Abraham, before moving forward in time. By starting with David and Abraham, Matthew evokes their role in Israel's history and reminds readers of the promises God had given them.
Now what were these promises. Now I am going to be referencing a lot of scripture today, If you miss one along the way just message me talk with me after I would love to give those to you.
But Abraham was given this promise. Genesis 12:1-3
1 Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
Abraham and his offspring were to bless the whole world. All those who belong to God the scripture says our Abrahams Children.
The apostle Paul says this. Gal 3:8
8 And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.”
and this in Rom 4:13
13 For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith.
So this promise that Abraham believed many years before Christ came by faith. And that promise would come from actually a child of Abraham Jesus Christ.
Now David gets a promise and that promise says this in 2 Sam 7:12-13
12 When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.
This text is talking about Jesus. The Sovereign King the savior who was to come had to be what a Jew? A child of Abraham. But also from the tribe of Judah.
In Jacobs parting words he blesses his sons one of which is Judah and he says these very words. In Genesis 49:8-10
8 “Judah, your brothers shall praise you;
your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies;
your father’s sons shall bow down before you.
9 Judah is a lion’s cub;
from the prey, my son, you have gone up.
He stooped down; he crouched as a lion
and as a lioness; who dares rouse him?
10 The scepter shall not depart from Judah,
nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet,
until tribute comes to him;
and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.
Jesus the Kings comes from the line of Judah. Yes he is a child of Abraham, and Child of David who was from the tribe of Judah. God himself enters into his own creation from a promise he given a few thousand years before he had come.
Charles Spurgeon says these words. He says Marvelous condescension- Because we were not from Spurgeons times that means to willingly lower oneself to another's level, He goes on to say That God should be a man and have a genealogy, even He who was in the beginning with God, and thought it not robbery to be equal to God. Marvelous condescension. Let that hit you folks.
Jesus Christ did not appear out of thin air. He came from a line of people just like you and I for the purpose to save his people. The scriptures are so magnificent and so purposeful that God would not leave any doubt in our minds that they are not true. God came to his people. This is the time of year we celebrate that the most. We sang that today. Hark! The herald angels sing "Glory to the new-born king.
And friends he came at the perfect time.
second point is this.
Jesus came at the perfect time.
Jesus came at the perfect time.
You see something interesting in verse 17.
17 So all the generations from Abraham to David were fourteen generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ fourteen generations.
I couldn’t wrap my head around what this meant as far as each of these fourteen generation tell I began to study. Now people are all over the place on what this means, but I tie this all into my second point after studying this week. Jesus came at the perfect time.
In fact one man said, “Matthew is saying that there are three key periods thus far in salvation history, Frederick Dale Bruner helpfully suggests that we think of the history here like the capital letter N. The first fourteen generations head upward from Abraham to David, the second fourteen downward from Solomon to the fulfillment from the exile to Christ." Babylonian exile, and then the final fourteen "move upward again in hope and fulfillment from the exile to Christ.
This means Matthew is connecting all this to coming of Christ. Who came at the perfect time. Despite all that has happened in the history of Isreal. Paul says that in Gal 4:4
4 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law,
26 for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
When Christ came it changed the history of this world. But I believe this genealogy is telling is this.. The world as we know it was designed for the creator the Son of God to enter to it and save his people, and glory God through it all.
One man posed an interesting question this week that I think its worth sharing to you.
Have you ever wondered why Jesus didn't come to earth as a man in the modern age rather than in the first century? Why didn't he come to earth during the era of television, video, and the Internet, when nearly all that he said and did could be precisely documented? Can't you just picture CNN reporters and paparazzi camped a few feet away from Jesus and the Twelve for three years straight? Can't you imagine a streaming video of his each and every movement? Can't you imagine the ten o'clock news starting every night with something from the life of Christ-"Today Jesus healed ten lepers. We interviewed nine of them. One refused an interview in order to return to Jesus for a word of thanks." And can't you imagine years from now, when some rebellious teen started to doubt the claims of Christ, how the teachers of the times would just pull out their computerized contraptions and say, "Now, son, look here, it's all on video." And then this teacher would proceed to show the clip, the most famous one played on You Tube Jesus' resurrection. Everyone has seen it. The reporter is outside the tomb, giving a play-by-play of Jesus' life, and while he's saying something about Christ's claim to rise again, lo and behold, the stone is rolled away. There it is on film! They take a close-up and out comes the Son of God, just as he said he would. Who wouldn't believe?
Sometimes we wish God's timing were different. And sometimes we wish God took out the "faith" part of our faith. What I mean is, some of us think like Carl Sagan thought. Sagan, the briliant scientist but foolish man, once said he'd believe there was a God if God had written the Ten Commandments on the moon. Well sure, everyone would believe if that were the case. But that would take the faith out of faith, which would as be as bad as taking the mystery out of romance, the curiosity out of the cat, or the oxygen out of the air.
When Scripture says that Jesus came at "the fullness of time," it means. God designed history — with the rise of this empire and the Fall of that one, with this person born here and that person born there, with this event happening now and that one then — to prepare us for Jesus and to give room for faith.
God values us too much to treat us like robots, and I'll add (and maybe I'm bold to do so) that only unimaginative atheists want the Ten Commandments painted on the moon or Jesus captured on videotape.
The Bible tells us that while God's ways are hidden to some extent (e.g., Deuteronomy 29:29; cf. 2 Corinthians 4:3-6), nevertheless "his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature," as Romans 1:20 puts it, are as obvious as the North Star on a clear night. When we die, we will find this reality to be as real as oxygen, which we cannot see or taste or touch, but we know it's there, keeping us alive every second of the day.
God is real, and he is faithful, and we can see such attributes in creation and in Scripture. Yet God has not made himself so self-evident that no faith whatsoever is required. How boring that would be. How dull. How lifeless.
How robotic. How so not like he who created this unbelievably complex, mysterious, beautiful universe. How so not like he who glories in bestowing the gift of faith to undeserving and rebellious sinners (see Matthew 16:17).
There is enough evidence for my children—whether it's facial features, lanky limbs, or personality characteristics—to recognize me as their father.
But if each one of them demanded a DNA test before they would acknowledge and appreciate me as such, then they would be very ungrateful and overly demanding children. God has given us creation—what Calvin called the theatre of his glory—and Scripture, what I'II call the evidence of his faithfulness, and yet how many humans want a DNA test before they will call him, "Abba, Father." Thankless little brats, aren't they?
God has given you enough evidence even in these 17 verse to believe in him. and the beautiful picture of his genealogy is that he not only came from this line of David and Abraham, and at the perfect time but he came from a line of sinners to save them and us.
Final point is this.
Jesus came from a broken line to make it new.
Jesus came from a broken line to make it new.
You might have read this genealogy and thought there are some powerful names here. David, Nathans favorite. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob the list goes on and on and say to yourself these are some significant people. But what do they all have in common outside of Jesus. They are broken full of sin. The genealogy would have been weird for fellow Jews because its not like there accustomed to.
First it includes many women. We see Tamar, Rehab, Ruth, Bathsheba, and Mary. Women would not be mentioned often in these genealogies, but this women outside of Mary Jesus mother were all gentiles. Sinners is what the Jews call them. Tamar and Rahab were from the tribe were Canaanites not to be confused with Cainacts these people were forbidden to be married by the Jews. Ruth was a Moabite. Who trace themselves back to Lot. Then Bathsheba was a Hittite by Marriage because we know Uriah was one. So she would legally become one. So this bloodline was strained. Though Christ was not. It became stained because of sin. Tamar dressed as a prostitute and slept with her Father in Law. Which gave birth to Perez and Zerah. Rehab was a prostitute. Bathsheba had an affair with King David. Though not all her fault still had an affair leading to the death of her Husband and lost her first son. Mary though a virgin would bring about the Messiah was still in need of a savior. Jesus came from a family of not so perfect people.
The men listed were not so great either. Abraham lied multiple times so did Isaac Jacob thought he could take on God is a wrestling match. Had multiple wives. Judah sold his brother and slept with his daughter in law. Many of these men we know little about or I wont touch on them today I just want you to understand their sinfulness. Many of these kings were sinful including David who commited adultery and had someone killed. Soloman had many wives he become idolatrous over time. Most of the Kings of Israel were just pure worthless. Ahaz worshiped other Gods. practiced human sacrifices, and did God’s house dirty.
Hezekiah was goodish he still had his own issues such as showing others how good Israel had it.. His Son Manasseh was a character not a good one. He was more evil than the other nations is what the bible teaches us.
Josiah was good I preached a series on him, but he knew he was still sinful he ripped he clothes when he heard the word of God. The Sins of the people lead to this deportation but God still kept his people.
What can we learn here. Jesus family tree is not full of sunshine and roses its full of Sin. Bad people who need a savior. Which we will focus on more this week.
Now when it comes to our own family tree we come from broken families, sinful families all with the same problems that Jesus linage comes from. And we all have the same problem sin. The good for us and the good for them is that Jesus Christ came to save sinners. Later in this book we will read this… Matthew 9:13
13 Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”
Let me being to close by reading you something. This commentary I read this week shared this story. RECENTLY I LISTENED to a fascinating talk by Marvin Rosenthal, a Jewish convert to Christianity. He shared how Matthew's genealogy was one of the proofs that persuaded him that Jesus is the Messiah. To explain what he meant Rosenthal used a helpful analogy from his experience as a U.S. Marine many decades ago. At the rifle range, he and his fellow soldiers would practice their aim by shooting at a target from three distances —200, 300, and 500 yards. From that distance they couldn't always tell by the naked eye if their bullets hit the target or not. So, in order to determine their accuracy, one of the soldiers would hide down in a nine-foot ravine behind the target until he heard ten shots. Then he would get up and check the sharpness of the shooter. He would add up the score and relay the results by slipping a colored disk onto the end of a pole and raising it up high. The color of the disk would communicate the shooter's accuracy. If you missed the target completely, a big flag would be waved, a military way of saying, "You ought to be embarrassed!" Yet, for each bull's-eye a red disk would be secured to the pole and the pole would go up and down. So if you were six out of ten, the pole would go up and down six times. Now, if you hit the bull's-eye ten times out of ten, that same pole and red disk would simply be spun around once. Rosenthal goes on to say that, especially for a Jewish audience (who understands the significance and the necessity of genealogical records), Matthew's genealogy hits the bull's-eye ten times out of ten.'
Jesus came from the line of David, and Abraham, and the perfect time from a broken line to make it new. The good news for us is this. It does not matter where you came from, who your earthly mom and dad are, you by faith can be apart of Christ line if you come to him by faith today.
23 Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. 24 So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. 25 But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, 26 for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. 27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.
Not alot of personal application today, but answer before you leave? Am I a child according to the promise if not. Repent believe be saved just like Marvin Rosenthal was when he saw the power of God through a genealogy. Let us pray.