Matthew 1:1-17

The Birth of a King

Let me begin by addressing the obvious. Yes, this morning we will be studying a genealogy. If you are like, aw man I chose the wrong day to go to church, frankly, I don’t blame you.

There is a unique kind of disappointment that comes from waking up early to read your bible, cracking open 1 Chronicles, ready to receive the word of the Lord, only to see a mountain of names before you.

I think most of us have two responses to this, some of us start reading, get about halfway through and then just skip to the next chapter. Others of us, get about halfway through and then just skip to the New Testament… See the jokes on you because you flip to Matthew chapter 1 and boom, more Genealogy. it’s like AHH I can’t escape the endless names.

And theres a reason for this, the Jewish people love their genealogies. They were very important and interesting to the Jews during this time. To us today, yeah, not so much. And to be honest, some genealogies ARE more or less important than others, but no genealogy is more important than the one we are studying this morning. And no genealogy is more interesting than the one we are studying this morning. See Matthew isn’t just sharing the line of names from Abraham to Jesus as a matter of Jewish practice, no, he is preaching the Gospel through these names. Now if you will stick with me this morning, I promise you we are going to unpack this genealogy and uncover why Matthew included it.

See, Jesus’ genealogy is not the genealogy you’d write if you were making up a religion. Jesus’ family had a lot of issues, and Matthew is not shy to put the sin and brokenness front and center. But he does it to show us something. He is setting the table for the good news he is about share over the next 28 chapters and here already in this seemingly innocuous list of names in the first chapter we find the truth that the long awaited king has come and he has come to establish his kingdom and we have a seat in that kingdom. The question is, will we take it.

Don’t take my word for it, lets dig in. Would you pray with me.

PRAYER

We have been in a series on the bok of matthew and we started this series part way through the book, that was on purpose so that when advent came around we could go back to the beginning and be in line with Christmas. This actually is a great thing for today’s text because having already been through Matthew’s account we can see more clearly why he begins the way he does.

And this question we are all thinking why? is actually a great question. “what does this mean?” “Why is this important?” “Why was this included?”

THESE are all good questions, the problem is that they are unhelpful questions, because they are too broad and actually can be misleading. If we ask “what does this mean?” Well meaning can be subjective.

For instance, if my mom wakes me up and says “clean your room” and I respond by stuffing everything in my closet, that could be the meaning of “clean your room”, but its not what my mom meant by “clean your room”.

See, the questions, “what does this mean?” “Why is this important?” “Why was this included?” are to some extent leading towards a subjective answer. Whereas “what did this mean to Matthew?” “Why was this important to Matthew?” “Why did Matthew include this?” these are much more helpful questions.

We don’t need to create some meaning in our minds from our best judgement, we just need to uncover what Matthew meant to communicate. If we understand what he intended to communicate, as He was led by the Holy Spirit, then we have uncovered the objective meaning.

Now there are a few key decisions that Matthew makes in this text that give us an idea of what his intention was. You will see this right away, he begins the passage this way: Matthew 1:1

Matthew 1:1 ESV

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

Notice how he refers to Jesus Christ. He could have referred to Jesus by countless names. John chose to refer to Jesus as “The Word who became flesh” in his Gospel, Matthew could have chosen that, or “God Himself”, we could have chose, “Jesus, the son of Mary”, but no Jesus, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

Then in verse two Matthew begins with Abraham. Not Adam. Abraham. Luke in His gospel starts with Adam, but not Matthew, he starts with Abraham. Skipping just shy of 2000 years of genealogy. So what can we conclude from this, well it’s clear Matthew’s isn’t to provide an in depth genealogy of Jesus.

Then you will notice Matthew breaks it up into three sections, one is from Abraham to David, the next is from David to the exile from Babylon, then from there to Jesus. And Matthew even acknowledges this in verse 17.

Matthew 1:17 ESV

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.

You notice something repetitive in this passage Two names keep popping up. IN verse one, Son of Abrahan, Son of David, verse 2 he starts with abrahm, the three sections are broken up by abraham and david, then matthew points this our in verse 17. Abraham David, Abraham, David, Abraham David. So these guys must important to Matthew’s purpose.

Furthermore, we know from Luke’s genealogy and the sheer amount of time between some of the names included in the genealogy that Matthew skips, literally hundreds of years of names. Not just from Adam to Abraham, but at other points in the genealogy to. This makes you question well what is Matthew’s point of including this genealogy if hes going to skip names.

Well Matthew notes that each of the sections there are 14 generations listed. See that in Matthew 1:17

Matthew 1:17 ESV

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.

Matthew points this out, he says 14, 14, 14. As you may know, numbers are very symbolic in Jewish literature. In fact, every Hebrew letter has a corresponding number value. So, certain words, could have associated number values. We are in the weeds, but stick with me, early Hebrew only had consonants, so for example the word David, has three consonants DVD. The value of D, in hebrew symbolism was 4 and V is 6. So if you do the math, DVD, 464, David equals 14.

If you are catching my drift, Abraham David, Abraham David Abraham David, all three sections have 14 generations, 100s of years are omitted in the genealogies to accomplish 14 being in each and section what is the 14th name in Jesus’ genealogy. David.

I sound like a conspiracy theorist right now, but I promise this is the way Jews would have understood it.

And so we return to our original question what did Matthew mean to communicate by starting his Gospel account with this genealogy?

Something that has to do with Abraham and David and how they connect to Jesus. Well what do we know about Abraham and David?…

God had made promises with them he had made with no other humans.

He promised Abraham land, to turn him into a great nation, and KEY that all the earth would be blessed through Abrahams descendant.

Then to David the promise that One of David’s descendants would be king forever, that that kingdom would never end, and that the coming king would be God’s own son.

So Matthew writes this geneaolgy centering it all on abraham and david, specifically david, who was promised that a king who whos kingdom would never end from his line, and the next verse after Matthew’s genealogy… Matthew 1:18

Matthew 1:18 ESV

Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way.

So, again we return to the question, what did Matthew mean to communicate by including this genealogy?

Jesus is the son of Abraham come to bless all of the earth, he is the son of David come to be a king forever, in a kingdom that will never end, God himself and God’s own son.

Matthew uses this genealogy to communicate that Jesus, this baby born in a manger, is what all of History has been aiming towards. This is the core of what Matthew intended to communicate. He sets the scene where the reader is thinking could this child be the fulfillment of the promises made to Abraham and David then through His gospel, Matthew shows the reader, yes, this is Jesus.

This has massive implications, because what this means is that Jesus is the king David was promised, and he has come to establish his kingdom that will be forever. This is why Matthew, as we have talked a little bit about over the past several weeks, Matthew records Jesus saying the word “Kingdom” referring to the Kingdom of God or Kingdom of Heaven, this Kingdom that was promised to Abraham and David, Matthew quotes Jesus saying this 49 times, in 20 out of 28 of the chapters.

This is what it’s all about, Jesus is coming to establish the kingdom that has been promised to the people of God for generations. And the genealogy is setting the scene for this.

And Jesus, as we have covered extensively over the past weeks, spends much of his time, especially in the sermon on the Mount, describing what this kingdom will be like:

We see this in the beatitudes, blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven

whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

Your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven

“But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.”

‘The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field.’”

“He put another parable before them, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field.’”

“He told them another parable. ‘The kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, till it was all leavened.’”

Those are just 8 examples. The kingdom of God is everywhere over Matthew and it starts right here with Matthew connecting the birth of Jesus to this king and kingdom that was promised to Abraham and David years and years ago. This is not subjectively what this genealogoy means, this is what matthew meant, through the Holy spirit and therefore, objectively is why this genealogy was icluded.

And what we have seen in our study of Matthew is Jesus wants to make it clear what this Kingdom is like, so he uses parables, commands, and logical reasoning to explain to people what the Kingdom of God is like. Hes tryng to explain what this king and kingdom that was promised to Abraham and David looks like lived out in people’s lives both as a present spiritual reign of Christ in our hearts and an eternal kingdom in the new heaven and new earth.

Here in Chapter 1, before Jesus is quoted having said anything, we begin to see this idea already developing. We begin to see shadows of what Jesus will come to teach as he explains the nature of the kingdom of God. And this is actually really smart of Matthew, it is kind of the perfect intro. Matthew shows the reader that Jesus is the fulfillment of the promises made to Abraham and David of an eternal kingdom with an eternal king, and then as we will see now he gives a glimpse into the nature of this kingdom.

You see as we read more into the contents of the genealogy we begin to see other hints as to what Matthew intended to convey.

There is the first point which we have covered, this truth that Jesus is the fulfillment of the promises made to Abraham and David of an eternal kingdom with an eternal king. Thats number one

Matthews second point is about the nature of this kingdom. What that kingdom will be like.

You may notice this is similar to Jesus’ main popint, Jesus says through the streets repent for the kingdom of God is at hand. Then teaches of the nature of that Kingdom, so what matthew is doing is using this genealogy to gonvey Jesus’ central thesis.

So 1,Jesus is the fufillment of king and kingdom, and 2 what is the nature of that kingdom.

And so now as we look towards what Matthew is teaching about the nature of this kingdom through this genealogy, again we uncover significance in what is abnormal.

Two things about Matthew’s genealogical account would have stuck out to the Jewish reader as unusual and unnecessary. Women and Gentiles.

The traditional Jewish genealogy was just Father son Father son Father son, but Matthew in a few key places says Father had son, by mother. For instance in verse:

In verse 2 we see the typical pattern of Jewish genealogies, Matthew 1:2

Matthew 1:2 ESV

Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers,

But then in verse 3 we see this. Matthew 1:3

Matthew 1:3 ESV

and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram,

Then in Matthew 1:5

Matthew 1:5 ESV

and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse,

Throughout the genealogy Matthew goes out of his way to mention five women specifically, 4 of whom are gentiles.

This seems innocuous to us but it would have stuck out like a highlighted portion of a book to the Jewish reader at the time. Like why did Matthew include these names? For one it was unecessary and not normal practice to include women, and two including gentiles in the Son of God’s geneology is a bit scandalous.

Furthermore, they aren’t just random gentile women, these are women who were a part of some shady business.

Tamar was Judah’s daughter in law become prostitute, whom Judah neglects, and well the story of their affair is one of great sin and brokenness on both sides, where Judah ends up having a child with his Daughter in Law tamar, and that child is in the genealogy of Jesus.

Rahab was a gentile prostitute, who through a series of events ends up joining the nation of Israel, but this is prostitute number two in jesus’ genealogy.

Ruth was a moabite, a gentile, and moabites specifically were forbidden in Deuteronomy for 10 generations from entering the house of God because they were so deplorable.

Then you get to David and Bathsheba. If you don’t know the story, King David sees Bathsheba bathing on her roof and David kills her husband, Uriah, by sending him to the front lines in war so he can be with Bathsheba.

None of these women needed to be included. Their inclusion was completely unecessary if you were simply seeking to give a genealogical account. All you needed was father son, father son, But Matthew, includes them. We are hard pressed to conclude for any other reason than Matthew intended to point out the sin and scandal in Jesus’ genealogy.

If you needed anymore evidence of this notice how Matthew doesn’t use Bathsheba's name, lest you accidentally miss it, Matthew in the genealogy of Jesus christ, says Matthew 1:6

Matthew 1:6 ESV

and Jesse the father of David the king. And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah,

He calls Bathsheba “the wife of Uriah”, blatantly, clearly, obviously, going out of his way to reference the, adultery and murder David committed in the genealogy of Jesus.

This is not accidental, it is not normal, this is done intentionally by Matthew. To what end?

Well we know Matthew’s main intention here is to show that Christ is the king that was foretold to Abraham and David. He is the king that will establish this eternal kingdom, and Matthew by going out of His way to include these names is saying something about the nature of that kingdom.

The kingdom of God is not just for the perfect. It’s not for those who would be deemed worthy to be in the genealogy of the king. No, the kingdom of Heaven is for the broken, the sinner, the prostitute, the adulterer, the murderer, the Kingdom of God is for the Jew, the gentile, the man the woman. Instead of the strongest or most righteous, God uses, the younger over the older, the overlooked over the privileged, the sinful over the morally impressive.

See there are people in Jesus’ genealogy of every kind, but as you trace the line through its a bunch of broken people. So if you are broken this morning, I have good news, the kingdom of God is for you.

Matthew is saying there is no division, in fact, in all of this mess of a genealogy, there is really just one dividing line. As you look through the stories, the sin, the wretched kings and rulers, in all of it, they are all the same, broken people and there is only one dividing line between them that matters.

There are those who had faith in promises of God and those who didn’t. What then is this saying about the nature of the Kingdom of God ?

The only dividing line in the kingdom of heaven is faith in promises of God, and this isn’t not new. It has always been that way.

David was an adulterous murderer, who had faith in the promises of God. Rahab was a prostitute who had faith in the promises of God. Ruth was a moabite, born in the wrong family at the wrong time, but had faith in promises of God.

The kingdom of of God isn’t a bunch of perfect people, its a bunch of people made perfect by the blood of the lamb.

So there is this king, and he has established his kingdom, and the kingdom is for all those who will have faith in promise of God, Christ his son. Who knew all of this could be found in a list of names.

Matthews two points in this Genealogy are Christ is King, and we are his kingdom. Knowing this is one thing, living it is another. TO live it is to lay down our crown and take our seat.

The problem with Christ being King, is that we all from time to time try to slip back on our crown. Christ is King, but sometimes we try to be.

Taking your seat in the kingdom means surrender, it means submission to His rule not to yours.

Christ is King. And he is a much better one than you or me.

The problem with us being his kingdom is that many of us refuse to take our place in the kingdom. We refuse to use the gifts God gave us, instead of taking the call God placed on our lives and stepping up to be leaders darkness disrupters, we sit back and watch from the sidelines of a church pew. If I can be honest, I see this most often with grown men. They’d rather acknowledge Christ as king but set up their tent outside the city walls.

There is lots of reasons for this, apathy, doubt, business, but I think the unspoken one is that many of the men in our churches deep down feel they really aren’t good enough to take their seat in the kingdom of God. There is so much shame being held within them. Then that shame becomes a cheap excuse for not stepping up, and taking their seat at the table.

And while I see it in men more, I know this shame cycle is a reality for women too.

And this is the good news Matthew is pointing out, there is a place for you in the kingdom, no one is too messed up, too stained, too late, too far gone.

If the genealogy of Jesus shows us anything, it’s that God writes straight with crooked lines.

We look at Jesus genealogy and see what God had to deal with for thousands of years and you think he’s held up with you… nah.

There is a place for you in the kingdom of God. This is good news, but it also means you and I have no excuse for not taking our seat in the kingdom. Every excuse is just that, an excuse. Ultimately, it comes back to the first point, we are trying to be king. We haven’t fully surrendered to Christ trusting that His salvation is sufficient for the darkest parts of our stories.

Y’all Christ is king, and we are His kingdom. This is good news, but only if we lay down our crowns and take our seats.

I want you all to bow your head and close your eyes… Do you believe that Christ is King, and we are His kingdom?

What is stopping you from laying down your crown and taking your seat? Would you do surrender that to Him? Say God, Idk how, but I want to. That is enough.

Father.