Untitled Sermon (2)

Matt. 1:1-17

Incarnation

  The Bible sees physical flesh as a theologically significant symbol—a symbol, namely, of the created and dependent sort of life which men and animals share, a sort of life which is derived from God and which, unlike God’s own life, requires a physical organism to sustain it in its characteristic activity. Hence ‘flesh’ becomes a generic term for men, or animals, or men and animals together (cf. Gn. 6:12; 7:15, 21f.), viewed as creatures of God, whose life on earth lasts only for the comparatively short period during which God supplies the breath of life in their nostrils. ‘Flesh’ in this theologically developed sense is thus not something that a man has, but something that he is. Its mark is creaturely weakness and frailty (Is. 40:6), and in this respect it stands in contrast with ‘spirit’, the eternal and unflagging energy that is of God, and is God (Is. 31:3; cf. 40:6–31).

To say, therefore, that Jesus Christ came and died ‘in the flesh’ is to say that he came and died in the state and under the conditions of created physical and psychical life: in other words, that he who died was man. But the NT also affirms that he who died eternally was, and continues to be, God. The formula which enshrines the incarnation therefore is that in some sense God, without ceasing to be God, was made man. This is what John asserts in the prologue of his Gospel: ‘the Word’ (God’s agent in creation, who ‘in the beginning’, before the creation, not only ‘was with God’, but himself ‘was God’, Jn. 1:1–3) ‘became flesh’ (Jn. 1:141

1 Packer, J. I. (1996). Incarnation. In D. R. W. Wood, I. H. Marshall, A. R. Millard, & D. J. Wiseman (Eds.), New Bible dictionary (3rd ed., p. 501). Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.

Slide 5

  The whole gospel of Matthew asks and the whole gospel of Matthew tells who this is. The reader starts to learn who Jesus is in the first chapter. The child’s name is Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins (1:1, 21). He is the Christ, anointed by God for a given task (1:1, 18). He is the son of David—born king of the Jews (1:1; 2:2). He is the son of Abraham, for he will bring God’s blessing to the nations (1:1, 18). He is born of the Holy Spirit (1:18). He is Immanuel, for he is “God with us” (1:23).

Jesus received names such as Jesus and Immanuel not because they were fashionable, not because they were manly, not because of family heritage, but because they were fraught with significance. Each name reveals part of Jesus’ identity. The question “Who is this?” leads next to the vital question, “Why is he important?” The answer is traced through the hopes and fears of 2,000 years of Israel’s history. So Matthew 1 introduces us to our hero by stating his name and his origin.

Slide 7

  Jesus does not save us this way. He did not save Israel from military enemies. Jesus did save some people from physical illness and danger (8:25; 9:21–22), but physical deliverance is not the essence of his work. Rather, such deliverance pointed beyond itself to God’s eternal restoration of all things. Psalm 130:7–8 says, “O Israel, put your hope in the Lord, for with the Lord is unfailing love and with him is full redemption. He himself will redeem Israel from all their sins.” In the long run, God cares about salvation from enemies, disease, and death, but that part of his program lies in the future, when Jesus returns.

By his incarnation, Jesus began to address the problem that lies at the root of all pains and sorrows. He came to save his people from their sins. We see this already in the genealogy of Jesus.

  About half the kings in the genealogy were truly wicked. Ahaz worshiped the pagan gods of Assyria. He practiced human sacrifice. He killed one of his own sons. He stripped the gold and silver from the temple and gave it to other kings. He defiled the Lord’s altar and installed pagan altars instead (2 Kings 16). Nor was Ahaz alone. Rehoboam and Jeconiah were almost as bad and Manasseh was worse. Indeed, Manasseh “did more evil than the nations” that the Lord drove out of Canaan. He promoted the worship of idols and murdered innocent people (2 Kings 21:9–18).

So Jesus’ genealogy includes great kings and sordid sinners. Regal as his lineage was, Jesus did not come to praise his forebears, but to save them. If you doubt this, consider the four women in the genealogy. People often wonder why we find women inserted, apparently at random, in the genealogy. The answer is clear if we notice that common threads appear in the foursome that is interwoven with the kings: “Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab, Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth, Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of King David. David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah’s wife” (Matt. 1:5–6).

Slide 8- women of the genealogy\

  Within this quartet, all but Tamar came from foreign lands or families. They were outside the family of God. Moreover, of the four, three were either prostitutes or adulteresses. The point is clear: Jesus comes from the human line, pimples and all. His own people, his own family, needed him to save them from their sins.

The last part of Jesus’ genealogy shows that Israel was suffering the consequences of its sin (1:11–16). The borders of Israel had failed to hold. Assyria dethroned Israel’s king and Babylon conquered Judah, deported its leaders, and declared the pitiful remnant to be their vassals.

Jesus’ ancestors lost their rank as kings, lost their wealth and land, and nearly lost their identity. We could compare the family of Jesus to the last derelict scion of a once-great family. They were Roosevelts, Lincolns, or Jeffersons, but had fallen far over the years. In any shattered clan, some are drunks, gamblers, or wastrels; others are decent folk, perhaps, but lack any great skill or asset. Those are the people Jesus came to save, then and now. We too have lowlifes in our family, and we have done things that fit a lowlife-laden family.

Jesus, the Anointed One

  Matthew’s gospel gradually reveals that Jesus was anointed for a far greater victory, one that he accomplished by taking all three of the main leadership offices of Israel. He is the king, anointed to defeat our greatest foes—sin and death. He is the priest, anointed to offer a sacrifice to remove the guilt of sin. He is the prophet, anointed to tell the truth about humanity and himself. The greatest truth is that he defeated sin for us because we cannot defeat sin. He offered himself to remove our guilt because we cannot atone or compensate for our sin.

But Jesus is anointed to do more than fulfill the three main offices in Israel. He completes other tasks, as Matthew will show us. He fulfills the role of the Sabbath, by giving true rest to his people. He fulfills the role of the temple, for in him God and mankind meet. He judges mankind, knowing every thought and deed, and forgiving every misdeed if we ask for mercy, believing he can grant it.

The Son of David

  So the people asked Jesus for mercy and for healing. Early in his ministry, in Galilee, two blind men followed Jesus and called out, “Have mercy on us, Son of David!” (9:27). Even when Jesus traveled to neighboring regions, the people expected him to heal. Once a Canaanite woman approached him, crying out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is suffering terribly from demon-possession” (15:22). Again, just before Jesus entered Jerusalem, “Two blind men were sitting by the roadside, and when they heard that Jesus was going by, they shouted, ‘Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us!’ The crowd rebuked them and told them to be quiet, but they shouted all the louder, ‘Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us!’ ” (20:30–31).

There is a pattern in these encounters. First, the outsiders of Jewish society and the occasional Gentile “appeal to Jesus as Son of David and are thereby healed.” Second, the crowds “generally respond to these healings with doubt.” For example, when Jesus cast demons out of a man who was blind and mute, so he could see and talk, the people asked, “Could this be the Son of David?” (12:23). Third, “the religious authorities respond with anger (21:15) and blasphemy” (12:22–32).

In the last week of his ministry, Jesus healed many in the temple precincts. He saw twisted, broken limbs, and he mended them with a word. Instantly, muscles strengthened and sinews tightened. Eyes bleared and broken with disease and injury could see again. The children (of small account in that day), seeing that the lame walked and the blind could see, began to shout praise to the healer, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” But the chief priests and scribes became indignant and asked, “Do you hear what these children are saying?” That is to say, “Tell them to stop.” Jesus replied that he did hear them and saw God’s purpose in it, for Psalm 8 says, “From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise” (21:14–16).

The son of David offers his strength to the weak and wounded. He offers hope to the yearning heart, because the mighty king, the son of David, is a tender healer. To this day, “son of David” is a title of healing strength. In God’s economy, the strength of Jesus appeals especially to the weak—to the no-accounts. I once had a conversation with someone who hopes to tell a friend about Christ. She commented, “But she has everything, so it’s difficult for her to see that she needs Jesus.”

There are different kinds of strength and there is more than one way to “have everything.”

Still, if anyone thinks he has no needs at all, if anyone thinks he has all the strength he needs, then the son of David will not be very appealing. But if this offer sounds appealing—“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28 esv)—then the strong son of David is for you.

The Son of Abraham

  The common explanation of the difference between the genealogies runs this way: Luke starts with Adam to show that the Savior is descended from the first man. Luke wants to write a gospel for Gentiles, so he says Jesus is from mankind and for all mankind. People say Matthew is the gospel for the Jews, so he starts with Abraham, the father of the Jews. Every Israelite called himself a son of Abraham, but especially those who sought to live by faith and walk with God (Matt. 3:9; Luke 1:73; 19:9; John 8:39–58; Acts 7:2; Rom. 4:1, 12). Yet Matthew expects us to know that Abraham was a pagan, a Gentile, before God called him. He was the father of the covenant people, but he was born outside the covenant and stayed there until God brought him in.

Abraham began life as a pagan, chosen by God to establish his people, Israel. But from the beginning, God swore he would give Abraham back to the nations. God’s greatest promise to Abraham says, “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you” (Gen. 12:2–3).

God also promised Abraham that through his offspring “all nations on earth will be blessed” (Gen. 22:18). The gospel of Matthew ends with this very idea: Jesus will bless the nations. He commands the apostles to make disciples of “all nations” (Matt. 28:19).

Matthew starts to make this point already in the genealogy, in the first lines of his gospel. As it traces Jesus’ forbears, there is a twist. Matthew’s genealogy seems to be patriarchal—he mentions the fathers but not the mothers of Jesus’ forebears. But as we saw, there are exceptions. Matthew mentions four women: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Bathsheba, who is called “the wife of Uriah.”

As we mentioned, three of the four are flagrant sinners. And three of them share something else—they are not Israelites. Rahab was a Canaanite, from Jericho. Ruth was a Moabitess. Bathsheba married a Hittite, ergo probably (not certainly) was a Hittite herself. So Jesus has Gentiles in the family line! If Matthew is the gospel for the Jews, it is for a certain kind of Jew: the Jewish believer who hopes all the nations will taste the blessings God offers through faith in Jesus.

Closing

  The Lord’s titles both tell us who Jesus is and suggest the proper responses to him. He is Jesus, the Savior. Therefore let us receive his salvation. He is the Christ, the one anointed to restore his people. Let us turn to him to restore us when we falter. He is the son of David, the mighty yet tender healer. Therefore, let us turn to him for healing. He is the son of Abraham, the father of all the faithful, sent to fulfill the hopes of Jews and Gentiles alike. Therefore, let us welcome all to the family of God.