A Dysfunctional Family to A Divine Fulfillment

Intro

I have good news and bad news, Good news, we are starting Matthew. I’m thrilled to be in the gospels! Bad news, we start with genealogies.

While you might think that a long list of names might be unimportant and a good opportutnity for a sunday mid morning nap, this genealogy list is different. There are hidden insights and nuggets of truth hidden beneath the intial surface of a boring list of names. Before we get to it today, we are going to look at some introductory information with the book of Matthew.

My plan today is to do an introduction to Matthew, and then look at the genealogies.

I. Importance of Matthew

I am excited for this book and I hope you are too. I knew after Daniel that I wanted to do a Gospel, but debated about which one. And I landed on Matthew.

Matthew is a literary masterpiece that gives us many details about the life of Christ.

Of all of the gospels, Matthew is the most revered and quoted in the first three centuries of the Church.

Matthew is the only book to talk about the Ekklasia, or the church.

Matthew if the first book in the New Testament intentionally. It is bridging the gap between the Old Testament and the New Testament. Jesus is introduced to us as the fulfillment of the Jewish Messiah, and the rescuer of nations.

Even with the Genealogy, Matthew is showing that his book is meant to bridge the gap and be the continuation of the Bible’s metanarrative or big over-arching plan.

Matthew has more Old Testament quotes and allusions than almost all other New Testament books. You know this sings to my ears as I love the Old Testament and seeing how it is fulfilled in the New Testament. Matthew has 75 Old Testament allusions and fifty quotes.

Matthew is doing this intentionally to show the prophetic fulfillment in his narration. He is selective with what he quotes from the Old Testament and focus on texts that help explain Christ as the promised Messiah.

II. Author of Matthew

If I asked you who wrote the book of Matthew, some of you might be thinking of a scronny, small, curly haired akward individual from the Chosen video series. Put that out of your mind and come fresh to the text. While the chosen video series has benifits, it can sometimes distract us from the text and come to the Word of God with fresh eyes.

You must be able to guess the Author of Matthew. It is fairly undisputed. Early manuscrips have the words “according to Matthew” in the title.

Pseudo Barnabas, Clement of Rome, Polycarp, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, Justin Martyr, Papias, Irenaeus, Origen, Eusebius, Jerome, Dionysius, Theophilus, Cerinthus, Valentinus, and Tatian, the Didache, Ignatius, and Barnabas’ Epistle all give credit to the apostle disciple Matthew being the author.

But Matthew never references himself or introduces himself in the story. John also does this in his gospel. He refers to himself as a beloved disciple.

It is here that we can make a critical point in understanding Biblical authorship. We certainly believe that godly men were used by the Holy Spirit to write scripture. But what does biblical inspiration mean?

Does it mean that the Holy Spirit would come upon Matthew and he would go into a trans-like state, write down what he was told, then wake up and see that he wrote a bunch of chapters of his gospel?

No! The message is coming from God, but God is using the humanity of his human authors. There humanity is not left out. This is why different books read differently. 1 John is very easy to understand, while Hebrews is very difficult. Even for translation, the John’s gospels and epistles are easy for translators while Hebrews and Peter are extremely difficult.

God chose specific people at specific times to communicate the message of scripture. Here is a few ways we see Matthew in this Gospel, and how he as a person affects the writing.

The house party that happens in chapter nine of Matthew he just calls “the house” but Mark and Luke say it was Matthew’s house.

Tax collector as a previous occupation only appears in Matthew’s gospel, the other books probably did not want to depricate Matthew, but he was willing to show how far the gospel of Christ goes, even to the worst of sinners.

Matthew focuses on the gospel and God’s grace to the ones who least deserve it. God chose him, and unlikely sinner and despised individual to write the book that introduces the New Testament.

There are more financial references in Matthew than any other book. Financial language like debt, account taking, reckoning, and money changers are somewhat exclusive to Matthew’s gospel.

Only Matthew discusses Jesus paying the drachma tax.

Only Matthew speaks about a “talent” which was a unit of money that the other disciples would not have been familiar with.

Matthew is from Capernaum according to Mark, and this becomes a focused city for Matthew’s gospel

II. Date of Matthew

The Date is disputed for Matthew, but it matters little. The most critical thing is whether or not Matthew was written before or after 70AD.

You’ve heard Mike talk a few times about the destruction of the temple and Jerusalem in 70AD.

The destruction of the Temple is prophesied in Matthew 24, and it is so accurate that critics would say Matthew must have added these details in.

But we who believe that Jesus is God, certainly believe he could tell us the future of Jerusalem a few decades in advance.

I personally lean to a date in the 60s because Matthew’s gospel talks about the temple as if it was still standing.

There is more here for dating and sourcing Matthew, but I don’t have time today to get into all of it.

What is important for us is thinking about the timing of Matthew’s gospel, is the foundational years of the Church. And what is going on at this time is gentile believers are beginning to join the church. Remember Paul saying that brings the gospel to the Jew first and then the gentileen. Jesus does a similar thing in Matthew. He is offering the kingdom to the Jews, and th the gentiles.

Matthew is writing to a people questioning the gentile inclusion into the covenant plan of God for his people. The church scene he was writing to was primarily Jewish, but was quickly having a growing number of gentiles being added.

III. Structure of Matthew

Let’s think about the structure of Matthew.

Matthew splits his book up into an Introduction, 5 discourses, then the crusifixtion and resurrection. Matthew loves the number 5. It is an untypical biblical number, but Matthew seems to like this number and use it.

The main part of the book is split between 5 discourses. And this is intentionally crafted. What else has 5 teachings? Think about the Torah. The Torah, sometimes called the Pentetuech, or the books of Moses are the first five books of our Bible. Matthew is relating the teaching of Jesus to the Torah. Saying the 5 discourses, the teaching of Jesus, are to the followers of Jesus what the Torah was to the Jews.

The 5 discourses of Matthew are to the followers of Jesus what the 5 books of Moses were to the Jews.

The book of Matthew ends with Jesus telling his followers to teach and obey what he commanded in these teachings. This is what it looks like to be a follower of Jesus. Jesus’s disciples will be characterized by living out his teachings.

IV. Purpose and Themes of Matthew

Let’s think about the purpose.

We can sometimes think that the gospels are just historical accounts, or a writer trying to give a report like we would read a news article of what happened last week.

But this is not how the gospels are written. All of the gospels have an intended purpose. And so it is with Matthew.

He is not trying to record every story, and write down everything he experienced with Jesus. Rather, he is creating a tapestry of stories and teachings for a specific purpose. He wants to communicate something to his audience.

One commentator I was reading said it was too simplistic to boil it Matthews purpose down to one idea. That doing so might hinder you from hearing the subthemes. Certainly we don’t want to miss what the Holy Spirit is trying to communicate in each individual story and teaching of Matthew. But I believe there is an overarching theme in Matthew. And we find it at verse 1.

Lets read it together.

Matthew 1:1 ESV

1 The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

In this introduction to the book and this introduction to the genealogies, Matthew is going to key us into what is important here. He introduces us to the main character, and we learn three things about him.

First, Matthew claims that he is the Christ. This is not Jesus’s last name, this is a title and name with significant weight. Christ and Messiah have the same meaning. The long awaited Messiah that the world had been waiting for. The Messiah who would bring us back to God after our sin. The Messiah who would fulfill all the promises of God in the Old Testament.

When you hear that Jesus is Christ, you are meant to think of all that this name represents. All that was lost by humanity in our sin, all that needs to be redeemed. You are meant to remember that we are broken in need of a rescue. You are meant to think that we cannot uphold God’s standards. We have failed to bear God’s image well. You are meant to consider the promise of an chosen one, an anointed one, a special one, who could redeem what we lost and fulfill what God desire for humanity was. One who would represent God to us and lead us back to his kingdom.

Christ is not a last name.

Next we see that he is the son of David. This is not just that he is in the leneage of David, but rather that David was promised a special descendent.

Isaiah 11:1 ESV

1 There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.

Jesse is David Father. So out of the thing that seemed dead, new life was going to come. Out of this lineage of what appeared dead, new life would come through the Messiah. And through this one, humanity would flourish. This is the one that God promised to David specifically.

2 Samuel 7:12 ESV

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.

2 Samuel 7:16 ESV

16 And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.’ ”

This is the promise to David that one of his offspring would be used to establish and eternal kingdom that would be forever. This one, the Messiah would not just be the chosen one of God, he would be a King to set up his rule and his kingdom.

We also see in this first verse that the Jesus was the son of Abraham.

For this, we go back in time and think about the World at the time of Abraham. Not a lot of godly things happening during Abraham’s time. Tower of Babel just happend, seems like the whole world does not want to submit to God. Abraham is from the land of Ur, a moon worshiping people, we have no reason to believe he was following God previous to God calling him. But all the people of the world were against God, and God says “I just need one.” So he calls Abraham away from his idol worshiping family, and promises to him this:

Genesis 17:4–5 ESV

4 “Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. 5 No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations.

Notice it is a multitude of nationS. With an S at the end. Abraham was not the father of the Jews, he is the father of all of God’s people. How would God use Abraham?

Genesis 12:3 ESV

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.”

Notice that through the line of Abraham, his descendent is going to be used to bless all of the families of the earth.

This plan continues to unfold for Abraham in Genesis 22:18

Genesis 22:18 ESV

18 and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.”

This plan, God’s plan, is not to rescue one people, but to be a blessing to all peoples of the earth. It is too small of a thing for our God to only select one group of people. Think about how Paul interprets this in Galatians 3:16

Galatians 3:16 ESV

16 Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, “And to offsprings,” referring to many, but referring to one, “And to your offspring,” who is Christ.

The promised son of Abraham is Jesus, the Messiah, who would bless the world. And what would this special offspring do? He would fulfill the promise to Abraham.

Galatians 3:14 NET 2nd ed.

14 in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham would come to the Gentiles, so that we could receive the promise of the Spirit by faith.

Through Jesus, the promise of salvation and the Spirit now comes to Gentiles, all the people of the earth.

Matthew comes to tell us right now that he believes and is telling us that Jesus is the Messiah, and that God does not forget his promises.

So when we think about Jesus being the son of David and the Son of Abraham, we see him doing two things that gives us insight into Matthew’s purpose.

Son of David: Fulfillment of the Jewish promises

Son of Abraham: Blessed rescuer to the nations.

If we had to boil down the message of Matthew to a sentence, and specifically this first section, this would be it:

MAIN POINT: Jesus came to be the Messianic King of Israel and the rescuer of nations, establishing his Kingdom for his obedient followers.

V. Genealogy of Matthew

Lets jump into the genealogy.

Let’s read the text, then we will look at a few.

Matthew 1:2–11 ESV

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.

Look at what happens here. The word changes at the end.

These Geneologies are not just meant to be mindless historical data. These names are meant to be symbols. Matthew has carefully selected Key people in this genealogy. It is not a complete history, Matthew has left out some people. Some would say that there that Matthew has organized them this way for easy memory. Look at Matthew 1:17

Matthew 1:17 ESV

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.

Here is a visual representation of this.

Three sets of fourteen. Maybe this was intended to be a memory thing. Commentators are lost when it comes to this 3 sets of 14. The most consistent thing I found was Hebrew letters representing letters. This would be called Gematria.

This is what this looks like. These are hebrew Letter representing one number. What might be the most significant name here? David. There is a great thing with David. His name equals 14. Now you can all go home and memorize these names.

Take a look at this picture. This is the Hebrew spelling of David.

What i want to do with our remaining time is look at this list. Rather than go name by name, I want to point out some insights.

A. Hyperlinks

Jewish people, which would have been the majority of Matthew’s audience, that knew their history inside and out, would have remembered stories and themes in all of these characters. By giving a name, Matthew wants them to think beyond the name.

Think about hyperlinks. When someone sends you a hyperlink, you can see the name sometimes of where the hyperlink might take you, but then when you click on it you can fully understand it and get a better understanding. It opens a wealth of information. Matthew is Hyperlinking here. He uses a name but wants you to click on the hyperlink and see all that it has.

With Judah, with this Kingly line, you as a jewish reader would think of a promise given to Judah:

Genesis 49:10 ESV

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.

The scepter, or ruling authority would come from Judah. And it would be a forever authority. Oh! Jesus is coming from his line!

B. Viruses

Another interesting point in this list, there are viruses in the hyperlinks. Not all of them are good. All the ones Matthew chooses are not good. Some of them are bad. It’s kind of a mixed bag. David was good, Solomon was 50/50, Reheboam was wicked, Abijah is wicked, Asaph or Asa (depending on your translation) was good. Jehosaphat was good. Joram was evil.

God is wonderfully powerful to use both evil and good to bring us the Messiah. God is able to work all things for his glory and for his good. Even when we try to go against God’s plans, he uses it for good.

This is what we have to think through when we see Joseph, notice his brothers are mentioned. When Joseph’s brothers try to go against God’s plan and do what is evil, God uses it for good. Not in a reactionary way, but in a way that he had this plan from the foundation of the earth.

C. Corrupted Files

Next, look at the corrupted files. This sometimes happens in computers. Files get corrupted. Tom might be able to fix them if you ask him, but to most of us in the room, the whole computer seems broken. And this happens with Jochoniah.

Jochoniah is an interesting one. He gets counted twice. At the end of the second set of 14 and at the beginning of the third set of 14.

Jechoniah is so wicked that God puts a curse on him.

Jeremiah 22:30 ESV

30 Thus says the Lord: “Write this man down as childless, a man who shall not succeed in his days, for none of his offspring shall succeed in sitting on the throne of David and ruling again in Judah.”

God says none of his sons will rule the Judah and David’s throne. In 2 Kings 24, he is the king that gets taken as a captive to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar.

But there is a strange restoration that happens with this king. By one of Nebuchadnezzar’s sons, Jechoniah is pardoned. And then we find out he does have sons, and his leneage continues. He is allowed to rule and has sons that continue to carry on the royal line. A restoration happens through him. A forshadowing of something that seemed hopeless. But, now there is a biological curse, a virus if you will.

So why continue on with the last set of fourteen if his biological line is cursed? This genealogy is about kingship. Matthew is showing us that Jesus has every legal claim to the throne of David. But, he doesn’t possess the corrupted file. He doesn’t come from the bloodline of Jochoniah. Rather, he comes from a different blood line. This bloodline is through mary, given to us in Luke 3.

At king David, you can see a split that happens. Matthew is showing the legal right to the throne of David, even with the corrupted file. Then Luke wants to go back to a different restore point of David and trace the blood line through Mary.

Matthew also subtly makes this point by saying that everyone else parented or begat their children, but Jesus was begotton of mary. Mary is receiving the action, not doing the action.

D. Patches

Next, lets look at the patches. I have this theme of computer stuff going now, so i have to keep it going, and this last one is my favorite.

Computer patches are a small piece of code that gets inserted into the system that repairs or creates stability. It ensures the security of the program over time, but will perminantly be a part of the system.

Can you think of who the patches might be here?

There is something that we have ignored in the text until now. It is the women in the passage. This would be strange to include women, women were marginalized at this time (Jesus came to fix this). But not only does matthew include women, he includes strange women. And I mean strange in both sense of the Word. Reading this genealogy would have been a bit obscene and disgraceful. More strange than Matthew including women, are the women that he includes. Notice he leaves out a lot of good women. What about Sarah, Leah, Rebekah, and he includes these.

“uh, Matthew, we aren’t supposed to talk about those ones...”

The women of the story mentioned are strange and hard to find the exact connection. Many commentators take different views on what Matthew’s purpose is here. So take a look at this graphic i put together.

This is kind of showing the patterns that happen.

The first one mentioned is Tamar. You may feel like you need a bath after reading Genesis 38. It is a chapter of terrible sexual misconduct, abuse, taking advantage, killings, murders, deceit, deception. She is let down in the story by the people of God who are meant to show her the character of God. Tamar is no hero in the story, but she if faithful to God to bring a descendent through her. She work, in evil ways, to ensure that God’s people continue through her. She has a son named Perez. Perez means breech. The midwife says “How you have broken out of the womb!” Perez mean the one who makes a way, the one who breaks through. And after an entire chapter of filthy awful sin, this one, breaks through to make a way.

Is this not what Jesus does? He comes to us in our sin and our filth, and makes a way of salvation for us.

Rahab is also listed. She is a prostitute. She is a gentile. Remember what is going on? The Israelites are scared and nervous about entering the land, they don’t know if it’s possible, the are thinking of their own ability, but Rahab trusts God and his plans to bring about his purposes.

Ruth is also in the list. If you read the story of ruth, one words comes up, Moabite. Ruth is uncomfortably called a Moabite a overused amount of times. The story is tying her to an insestuous ethnicity. A people that are cursed and are certainly not meant to be a part of God’s covenant plan. In face, God curses 10 generations of Moabites because they are so filthy. And this gentile women, comes to be faithful to a God who she vaguely knows at a time when most of Israel is not being faithful to God.

Then we get to Bathsheba. Notice how she is reffered to. She is the wife of Uriah. Uriah was a Hittite, most likely, his wife would have also been a gentile Hittite. If you remember in that story, who is the faithful one? Uriah the gentile. King David, who is supposed to be showing and leading his people in what it looks like to follow God, covets, lies, commits adultery, and murders in one chapter. And against that, you have the faithful servant of Uriah.

And then we get to Mary. Mary, while she is a jew, also has a scandelous story. Matthew is almost saying through this list, “look, mary’s pregnancy with no husband is not that weird, God’s used stranger things to bring us the messiah.”

What does this list of patches teach us?

God used gentiles in a scandelous way to show where the Jewish nation had failed to be a light and blessing.

Gentiles are not an afterthought of God, but being woven into his plan of redemption.

No one, can out-sin God. God includes people in his plan of redemption that were the worst of sinners. Matthew the tax collector would have loved this part of the story. If God could include them, surly, he can include me.

Beyond the Walls (Grace and Growth)

Impute the code of faith? reProgram yourself after Christ? Let the final code live through you?

We get to the Beyond the Walls section and thing about the implications for us from this text.

Back to Jochoniah, He is the final line of code from the for the second set, David is the final set of code in the first set, and Jesus comes to be the final line of code in the third set. The last line of code needed.

Jesus comes to end the mess. Jesus comes to complete and restore. To rule and reign.

Jesus is the finale and the final. He comes to end gender, ethnic, social, religious restrictions to save you. God uses this dysfunctional family line to bring us the one who would fix not just the dysfunction in the family, but the world.

Like the women or the evil kings in this story, you might come with your baggage and sin. Jesus comes through all of that to rescue you from it. He comes to give you life from the weight of your sin. He came to free you and call you to be his disciple. But just like the women of this story, through faith, you can receive Jesus and follow your king. Will you do that today?

For the believer, this first section reminds us that our faith is credible. We can trust it as we see how God has worked through history.

If i asked you how far back you could trace your lineage, you might be able to a few generations. I’m not saying you can trace your ethnic dna. But who is your genealogy? We who are believers know that we can now find our lineage rooted securely in Christ, and then back to all the promises of God.

Christians, you need to know who Jesus is. Not know him like he is your boyfriend who you text sometimes, but know him as your Lord and Savior who you devote your life to. To combat the culture of pluralism where everyone is the same, everyone is equal, all roads lead to heaven, all religious leaders did good stuff, Jesus is not another one on walmart shelf to choose from. He is the unique Christ, the son of David, and the son of Abraham. The one who comes to fulfill all the prophecies, and rescue the nations. Only his kingdom will last forever.

Lets respond to the text together today as we bow our heads and close our eyes.

Pray and thank God for sending Jesus to you.

Pray that the Spirit would help you to know this Christ.

Pray for opportunities this week to share this blessing with the world around you.