A Study of Matthew: The Messiah is Born

Last week, we began a study in the book of Matthew. We know that Matthew was one of Jesus’ apostles, and his gospel is the first book of the New Testament. We learned that Matthew was writing mainly to Jews in order to help them realize that Jesus is the Messiah they had been waiting for. Messiah is a Hebrew word that means the same as the Greek word Christ, which means “anointed one.” It is a title referring to the fact that Jesus was sent by God to deliver mankind. By the time Jesus was born, hundreds of men had risen up over the centuries claiming to be the Messiah. So it was important to Matthew he could prove that, unlike all those other hundreds of guys, Jesus was the REAL Messiah. Matthew’s main method for verifying Jesus’ claim to Messiah-ship is by showing how everything about Jesus lines up with prophecies that were made throughout the centuries and recorded in the Old Testament.

Part of the prophecy was about the bloodline that the Messiah would be born into. He would be a Jew, a descendent of Abraham, from the Tribe of Judah, and the heir to King David’s throne. That’s why Matthew’s gospel begins with the genealogical list of names we looked at last week that show how Jesus fits the bill in terms of human pedigree. We also mentioned the names of three prominent foreign women, and how they demonstrated that Jesus didn’t just come for the Jews, but for the whole world.

Mathew follows up the genealogy by telling the story of Jesus’ birth. It may seem strange to be talking about Jesus’ birth so soon after Easter, but if we want to understand Matthew, we’re going to proceed.

Matthew 1:18–25 ESV

Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us). When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.

Notice how Matthew quotes Isaiah 7:14

Isaiah 7:14 ESV

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

This was a message Isaiah gave to king Ahaz when the kingdom of Judah was being attacked by the kingdom Israel. Isaiah had already prophesied that God would deliver Judah, but Ahaz wanted Isaiah to ask for a sign from God to prove the prophecy. That’s when the Spirit of the Lord came upon Isaiah, and he spoke those words concerning Jesus’ miraculous birth. Isaiah goes on to say that this Messiah would bring blessing on God’s people and judgment for their enemies.

So when Matthew connected Jesus’ birth to Isaiah’s Messianic prophecy, he was reminding those Jewish readers of everything that the Messiah would accomplish.

The story then moves on into chapter 2

Matthew 2:1–6 ESV

Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him; and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet: “ ‘And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.’ ”

The story of the wisemen is important for several reasons:

They are foreigners. They seem to be astrologers, charting star patterns to predict the future. And yet these foreigners—these men of a different religion—seem to understand what God is doing better than the Jewish people who were supposed to be eagerly waiting for their Messiah.

These foreigners not only understood, they responded in faith and submission. In verse 2, they say that they came to worship the king of the Jews. So while they may not fully understand who Jesus really is, they understand enough to realize that he is greater than they are, and they come with an attitude of worship and submission.

Matthew 2:7–12 ESV

Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time the star had appeared. And he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him, bring me word, that I too may come and worship him.” After listening to the king, they went on their way. And behold, the star that they had seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. And going into the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way.

The star led them to Jesus. Even though they were outsiders from a different religion, they recognized truth when they saw it. I’m not saying that all religions lead to God, but I AM saying that anyone who is truly seeking God will find him.

One of my first messages here was about Naaman, the Syrian army captain who went to Elisha to be healed. After he received his miracle, Naaman promised to only worship the God of Elisha from that day on.

God knew the hearts of these men, so he used that star to lead them to Jesus. Once they saw Jesus, they bowed down and worshiped him. They gave him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

These foreigners must have had a heart change, because not only did God lead them with a star, he sent an angel into their dreams to warn them not to return to Herod.

What are we learning from this?

By telling about the wise men, Matthew is emphasizing again that Jesus didn’t come for a select few. You aren’t a part of God’s kingdom merely by being born into the right family. These men were foreigners, just like Tamar, Rahab, and Ruth. And just like Tamar, Rahab, and Ruth, these foreign men from another religion found their way into a relationship of faith in God.

And that is what Jesus means when he said in Matthew 7:7-8

Matthew 7:7–8 ESV

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.

EVERYONE who asks receives. EVERYONE who seeks finds.

The Jews in Jesus day were descendents of Abraham, God’s chosen people. The right bloodline, the right religion. But they were far away from God. They were busy practicing religion and following rules, but forgetting to seek the heart of the very one who made them a people.

All their lives, they had been told to look for a Messiah, the one God would send to crush the serpent’s head and break through the wall of sin that separated man from God. But they had created a wrong idea of what the Messiah would be like, what he would do. They were so busy looking for this great leader to rise up, they had forgotten the prophecies that told about his humility. They had distorted their concept of the Messiah so much that they failed to recognize the Son of God when he came on the scene.

We can be the same way. When we first come to Christ, we are excited and eager to do whatever we can to please God, just because we love him so much! But as time passes, we become comfortable. We start thinking that we understand exactly how God works. We begin turning our relationship with God into a business transaction—a formula where, if I do the right things, if I pray using these specific words, then God HAS to respond in this certain way. But while God has established a covenant with us, that covenant is not a business contract but more like a marriage vow. It’s meant to last forever, and it deals with commitments of our hearts rather than our outward actions.

The Jews in Jesus’d day were busy being religious and keeping all the laws, but they forgot the most important commandment given by God, in Deuteronomy 6:5

Deuteronomy 6:5 ESV

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.

They were doing all these things, but those actions were just that—actions. There was no love behind them. That’s why they didn’t recognize the Son of God when he appeared.

In the same way, we can become so busy doing our churchy things that we fail to notice what God is doing right in front of us. When that happens, one of two things happens in us. We can start feeling disconnected from God, wondering where he is and why he abandoned us, when in fact he has been right with us the whole time.

Or what may be worse, we can be so distracted and confident in our own busy-ness that we fail to realize just how cold our relationship with God has become. Then we become judgmental, comparing other people’s status as Christian to ourselves. We become legalistic, trusting in our appearance and efforts to establish our place in heaven, forgetting that any claim we have to righteousness is only because of what Jesus did. He came. He died. He rose again. He reached out to us when we were foreigners—outsiders, like those wise men who saw Jesus for who he was when “God’s chosen people” were completely clueless.

So today, I want us each to think about where we stand with God. Is your relationship with him just a business transaction? “I do my thing, you do yours.” That’s it? Or is it a commitment of the heart? “God, I realize that you loved me long before I ever thought about having anything to do with you. And I am going to love you back. I submit myself to you out of love for you. I will trust in you because I know you love me. Whatever happens, I am committed to this relationship with you. And I want to keep my eyes open so that I never miss seeing your hand in everything going on around me. Even if I don’t understand what you are doing, I will continue to trust that you love me.