Faith in the Person of Jesus // Matthew 1-4

Intro Activity:

*Split into groups, assign each group a chapter from Matthew 1-4*

Prompt: Give me the main idea of this chapter in 1-2 sentence.

What is this chapter about?

My answers:

Chapter 1: Jesus is the promised descendant of Abraham and David, the promised Messiah, and the Savior of the people from their sins.

Chapter 2: Jesus is the one spoken of by the prophets, and the events of his life were foretold in the Old Testament.

Chapter 3: Jesus is the One coming proclaimed by John the Baptist. He is God’s Son, God in the flesh, with whom the Father is well-pleased.

Chapter 4: Jesus is the Second Adam, the One able to withstand the temptation of Satan. He calls and equips His disciples, proclaims the good news of His coming Kingdom, and heals those who are afflicted.

Now if you notice, all of my summaries start with the phrase “Jesus is…”

Now the Sermon on the Mount is arguably the most important sermon ever delivered. That’s due pretty largely to its content, but I’d argue that it’s even in larger part due to who delivers it.

That being the case, Matthew describes for us different elements of who Jesus is as he tells His story in chapters 1-4, and I’d like to take a short look at each of these, one chapter at a time.

1. Jesus is the promised descendant of Abraham and David, the promised Messiah, and the Savior of the people from their sins.

v. 1 - Direct mention to Jesus as the “Son of David,” and the “Son of Abraham.” From the outset, Matthew connects Jesus to the two most forward looking covenant promises of God in the OT:

God’s Covenant with Abraham

Genesis 12:2–3 (CSB)

2 I will make you into a great nation, I will bless you, I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, I will curse anyone who treats you with contempt, and all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you.

Genesis 15:3–6 (CSB)

Abram continued, “Look, you have given me no offspring, so a slave born in my house will be my heir.”

Now the word of the Lord came to him: “This one will not be your heir; instead, one who comes from your own body will be your heir.” He took him outside and said, “Look at the sky and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” Then he said to him, “Your offspring will be that numerous.”

Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.

God’s Covenant with David

2 Samuel 7:8–16 (CSB)

8 “So now this is what you are to say to my servant David: ‘This is what the Lord of Armies says: I took you from the pasture, from tending the flock, to be ruler over my people Israel. 9 I have been with you wherever you have gone, and I have destroyed all your enemies before you. I will make a great name for you like that of the greatest on the earth. 10 I will designate a place for my people Israel and plant them, so that they may live there and not be disturbed again. Evildoers will not continue to oppress them as they have done 11 ever since the day I ordered judges to be over my people Israel. I will give you rest from all your enemies.

“ ‘The Lord declares to you: The Lord himself will make a house for you. 12 When your time comes and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up after you your descendant, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He is the one who will build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 14 I will be his father, and he will be my son. When he does wrong, I will discipline him with a rod of men and blows from mortals. 15 But my faithful love will never leave him as it did when I removed it from Saul, whom I removed from before you. 16 Your house and kingdom will endure before me forever, and your throne will be established forever.’ ”

Matthew is saying that it is through Jesus that the promises of God to Abraham and David are fulfilled, and He will be the blessing to the nations (Gen. 12:3) and the King who reigns forever on the throne God gave to David (2 Sam. 7:12-13).

This is the Messiah, and as Matthew writes in Matthew 1:21 “he will save his people from their sins.”

*This coming king has been no secret, because Matthew will argue in chapter 2 that…

2. Jesus is the one spoken of by the prophets, and the events of his life were foretold in the Old Testament.

In this chapter there are (just by my count) at least 4 references to the Old Testament through either direct quotations, repeating themes, or mention of events marked by something similar to the phrase “to fulfill what was written by the prophet(s).”

v. 5-6: Jesus was born in Bethlehem (ref. Micah 5:2) and He would be the “shepherd of Israel” (ref. leaders of Israel referred to as shepherds Ezek. 34:23; direct quote of 2 Sam. 5:2)

v. 13-15: Jesus is taken by his parents to Egypt where they would stay for several years before being led back to the Promise Land by the Lord (v. 15, direct quote from Hos. 11:1)

v. 16-18: Herod massacres the male children of Israel around Bethlehem. Pharaoh did the same to the Israelite male children in Exodus 1. (Direct quote from Jer. 31:15).

v. 19-23: (the most obscure reference to the OT) There is no direct mention that the Messiah would be from Nazareth.

No specific OT text explicitly prophesies this, and so Matthew was appealing to a prominent OT theme rather than a particular text. Specifically, he was probably alluding to the “Branch prophecies” since the Hebrew consonants nzr (which make up the word branch) are shared by the words “Nazareth” and “Nazarene.” These prophecies (Isaiah 11:1–2 “There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.”; Jeremiah 23:5 ““Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.”) told of a righteous descendant of David whose wise and just rule would be empowered by the Spirit and who would bring salvation to Judah.

Quarles, Charles L. 2017. “Matthew.” In CSB Study Bible: Notes, edited by Edwin A. Blum and Trevin Wax, 1501. Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.

3. Jesus is the One coming proclaimed by John the Baptist. He is God’s Son, God in the flesh, with whom the Father is well-pleased.

John intentionally compares the righteousness of the Pharisees to the righteousness of the coming One (v. 8-9)

Their self-righteousness was rooted in their presumed position; it came from within themselves, and they had no need to seek the Lord to make them righteous through repentance.

The Coming One, however, displays His true righteousness through His submission through service to the Father and to others. We see this in the baptism of Jesus in vv. 13-17 in a few ways:

Jesus’ baptism was not necessary for repentance, but for representation (v. 13-14)

Some have pointed out that, being sinless, Jesus had no need of being baptized. He does not belong there. And that is true. He no more belongs at a baptism for repentance than He does on a cross for sinners. In both events He identifies Himself with the sinners He came to save. -Danny Akin

Jesus’s baptism modeled obedience for us (v. 15)

Jesus says the purpose of His baptism is “to fulfill all righteousness.” A commentary helped me get a better understanding of what Jesus is saying here as he writes:

“To fulfill all righteousness” means to complete everything that forms part of a relationship of obedience to God.

Blomberg, NAC: Matthew, 81.

He is taking all necessary steps to align Himself with obedience to God, which for us requires repentance that is proclaimed through baptism.

Jesus’ baptism identifies Him as the Son of God (v. 16-17)

God speaks from heaven and the Spirit of God visibly descends on Him from heaven.

John had been baptizing people for a while, and this is the only time this has happened… You can imagine those who had maybe gone to watch a few times, and even John, thinking, “Well that was different...”

One of the most incredible truths about the gospel is that the moment we place our faith in Christ for our salvation, something very similar happens to us:

God’s Spirit descends on us and fills us, and we become one of His beloved children with whom He is well pleased.

4. Jesus is the Second Adam, the One able to withstand the temptation of Satan. He calls and equips His disciples, proclaims the good news of His coming Kingdom, and heals those who are afflicted.

Romans 5:12–21 (CSB)

12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, in this way death spread to all people, because all sinned. 13 In fact, sin was in the world before the law, but sin is not charged to a person’s account when there is no law. 14 Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who did not sin in the likeness of Adam’s transgression. He is a type of the Coming One.

15 But the gift is not like the trespass. For if by the one man’s trespass the many died, how much more have the grace of God and the gift which comes through the grace of the one man Jesus Christ overflowed to the many. 16 And the gift is not like the one man’s sin, because from one sin came the judgment, resulting in condemnation, but from many trespasses came the gift, resulting in justification. 17 If by the one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive the overflow of grace and the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.

18 So then, as through one trespass there is condemnation for everyone, so also through one righteous act there is justification leading to life for everyone. 19 For just as through one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so also through the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. 20 The law came along to multiply the trespass. But where sin multiplied, grace multiplied even more 21 so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace will reign through righteousness, resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Now Matthew, after firmly establishing who this Jesus is… then he begins to answer question, “Ok, now what does He have to say?”

This is the question we will answer next week as we begin to look at chapter 5, but before then, this is our main idea that we will center our entire study of the Sermon on the Mount upon:

Main Idea of the Sermon on the Mount: The Christian Faith, and all Christian teaching, is Centered on the Person and Work of Jesus Christ.