Who is this King?
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The title of this morning’s message is “Who is this King?” As I’m sure you are aware, this Friday is Christmas. For us, as believers, it is a time when we reflect on the birth of Jesus. It is good to celebrate significant aspects of our faith.
Jesus, himself being a Jew, honored the Jewish holidays, and reflected on who God is, and what He had done. So...
For us as Christians, first and foremost, Christmas is a time to reflect on who God is, and what He has done.
I know that it is easy to get distracted during this season. It is easy to make Jesus the sideshow, and ourselves the main focus. But what I want to do is remind you this morning, that what we reflect on, what we remember, what our hope is grounded in is that fact that our king has come!
Jesus was the king the wise men sought.
saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star at its rising and have come to worship him.”
Christmas is the grand story of God coming down in flesh. (John 1:14)
The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We observed his glory, the glory as the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
When we could not get to our King, our King came to us! Born as a baby in Bethlehem. AND WHAT A KING HE IS!!!…
In this genealogy, something that many of us gloss over, in this genealogy are incredible truths that teach us who this king is?
This genealogy sets the stage for everything Matthew is going to write in the remainder of his Gospel.
So let me give you a little background on the book of Matthew.
Obviously, Matthew wrote his gospel after the death and resurrection of Jesus. Though the gospels are all similar, especially the synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke), each author has a purpose for writing, and an audience in mind.
Matthew was writing his gospel, primarily, to other Jews. Matthew wanted them to know that this Jesus, this messiah, fits all the necessary requirements to be the promised Messiah, and to be the King.
Therefore, this genealogy is massively significant. Because Matthew knew that Jesus lineage mattered to the Jews.
Lineage Mattered in Jewish culture.
Let me give you a few examples (MacArthur).
1. Qualifications to be a Priests depended on lineage. You had to be a decedent of Levi. In Ezra 2:61-62, we have the account of the Israelites returning from their exile in Babylon and some who were acting as Priests were no longer considered such when their lineage could not be proven.
and from the descendants of the priests: the descendants of Hobaiah, the descendants of Hakkoz, the descendants of Barzillai—who had taken a wife from the daughters of Barzillai the Gileadite and who bore their name. These searched for their entries in the genealogical records, but they could not be found, so they were disqualified from the priesthood.
2. Your lineage affected your possession and property. (Ruth 3-4)
3. You needed to know your lineage for Censuses. You had to register based on your family and the tribe you were from. You see this in Luke 2:4, when Jesus is born. Joseph was traveling to register in his appropriate place based on his lineage.
4. Obviously, lineage mattered in terms of kingship and being the Messiah because of what was promised to David.
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.
Lineage mattered to the Jews. And Matthew new that for the Jews to even consider the claim that Jesus was Messiah and King, Matthew had to recount the lineage of Jesus.
The point of Matthew is not to bore you with useless history, but rather to declare a vital truth, to reveal the authority of Christ to be King! He is revealing the Kingship of Christ.
What I want to show you this morning, is as we consider this baby, born of Mary, as we trace his lineage…we learn who this king is? Let me share with you four things we learn. First...
Point #1: Jesus is the Legal King.
You know…I love the bible. One of the reasons I love it is because I don’t care how seasoned of a reader you are…God is so creative, that you learn more about Him, and see more of the complexity, yet beauty of His word every-time you read it.
I’ve preached this text before, but as I was studying, I learned something I never saw before.
In this passage, Matthew 1:1-17, there is a pattern (this person-fathered-this person), but there are disruptions to the pattern. And every disruption is intentional, and Matthew wants you to see something.
Charles Quarles, in his commentary on Matthew notes this, “These [verses] record the genealogy of Jesus and follow a simple structure: father...+... son. Several additional phrases disrupt this normal structure. These disruptions are likely of special importance to Matthew for various reasons.”
Each of our points this morning, thinking through “Who is this King,” come from one of the disruptions in the text.
So our first point of emphasis, Jesus is the legal King, it comes from the disruption to the pattern in verse 11
and Josiah fathered Jeconiah and his brothers at the time of the exile to Babylon.
So do you see how it breaks from the normal structure and adds in “at the time of the exile to Babylon?”
Matthew wants you to think about this for a minute…and as we think about it we see that Jesus is the legal king.
Let me show you how we get this.
Matthew is tracing Jesus’ legal line. He is not tracing his blood line. We see it clearly in verse 16,
and Jacob fathered Joseph the husband of Mary, who gave birth to Jesus who is called the Messiah.
Joseph was not Jesus’ blood father…but he was his legal father. Jesus had all the legal rights of Being Joseph’s son, including claiming his lineage. Joseph was a legal descendant of King David.
Here is why this is so significant.
You see that name Jechoniah (also called Coniah at times.) This was a king of Israel…Scripture tells us that he was a wicked king.
Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he became king, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Nehushta daughter of Elnathan; she was from Jerusalem. He did what was evil in the Lord’s sight just as his father had done.
He was wicked in the sight of the Lord. Jeremiah tells us what happened to this king as a result.
Is this man Coniah a despised, shattered pot, a jar no one wants? Why are he and his descendants hurled out and cast into a land they have not known? Earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord! This is what the Lord says: Record this man as childless, a man who will not be successful in his lifetime. None of his descendants will succeed in sitting on the throne of David or ruling again in Judah.
So…if Jesus was from the blood line of this man, he would have been disqualified from being King, he could still be from the legal line, but not the blood line.
This is what makes God’s plan so amazing…we see that Jesus has a legal right to be king because of His father, and has the blood right to be king through his mother.
This is why you see discrepancies between Matthew’s genealogy, and Luke’s genealogy in Luke 3. Luke traced Jesus actual blood line to king David through his mother Mary.
You might be thinking, wow, that was a lot of stuff to talk about. Well, let me pull it together for you. I say all that to say this to say...
Jesus has the right to be king. God so carefully orchestrated his plan that Jesus has the right by law and by blood to be the king. To be the Messiah! Jesus is KING.
Let’s Pause and find hope in that. God’s plans are not our plans. His ways are not our ways…But God always accomplishes what He wills. Nothing happens outside of God’s sovereign plan.
But we learn something else from another disruption in the text.
Point #2: Jesus is the Covenantal King.
Not only is Jesus the Legal King, Jesus is the Covenantal King
There are two people mentioned in the lineage of Jesus to whom God made specific covenants revealing a certain king to come, and Matthew intentionally puts disruptions in the flow to make you think about them first, in verse 2,
Abraham fathered Isaac, Isaac fathered Jacob, Jacob fathered Judah and his brothers,
By Matthew including the brothers of Judah, he forces us to consider the 12 tribes of Israel, and the promise made to their great grandfather Abraham.
Then in verse 6
and Jesse fathered King David. David fathered Solomon by Uriah’s wife,
Notice how David is given the title King, and no one else is, even though there were other kings in the lineage.
With both of these men, Abraham, and David…God made a covenant.
First we have Abraham. We have the account of Abram (soon to be Abraham) beginning in Genesis 11. God choose Abraham and covenanted with him and the entire covenant hinged on an (undeserved) inheritance and a son.
In Gen 12 God calls Abram to go and promises blessings for him, and blessings for all humanity.
In verse 4- Abram went
13:4-God promises Abram land and offspring.
In Chapter 15 we see the incredible covenant of God enacted with Abram.
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. He also said to him, “I am the Lord who brought you from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.” But he said, “Lord God, how can I know that I will possess it?” He said to him, “Bring me a three-year-old cow, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” So he brought all these to him, cut them in half, and laid the pieces opposite each other, but he did not cut the birds in half. Birds of prey came down on the carcasses, but Abram drove them away. As the sun was setting, a deep sleep came over Abram, and suddenly great terror and darkness descended on him. Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know this for certain: Your offspring will be resident aliens for four hundred years in a land that does not belong to them and will be enslaved and oppressed. However, I will judge the nation they serve, and afterward they will go out with many possessions. But you will go to your ancestors in peace and be buried at a good old age. In the fourth generation they will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.” When the sun had set and it was dark, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch appeared and passed between the divided animals. On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “I give this land to your offspring, from the Brook of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates River:
This covenant hinges on a son.
Then you have David. God covenants with him in 2 Samuel 7, and the covenant hinges on a son.
When the king had settled into his palace and the Lord had given him rest on every side from all his enemies, the king said to the prophet Nathan, “Look, I am living in a cedar house while the ark of God sits inside tent curtains.” So Nathan told the king, “Go and do all that is on your mind, for the Lord is with you.” But that night the word of the Lord came to Nathan: “Go to my servant David and say, ‘This is what the Lord says: Are you to build me a house to dwell in? From the time I brought the Israelites out of Egypt until today I have not dwelt in a house; instead, I have been moving around with a tent as my dwelling. In all my journeys with all the Israelites, have I ever spoken a word to one of the tribal leaders of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, asking: Why haven’t you built me a house of cedar?’ “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. 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. 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 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. 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. He is the one who will build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.
This covenant hinges on a son.
Christ is the true offspring of Abraham that brings the nations into the promised inheritance. Who brings a people before God in covenantal relationship
Christ is the heir of David. The true king who permanently established God’s kingdom through the finished work of the cross. Christ is the covenantal king!
Let me pause for a moment…because this merits some reflection. Look with me at verse 17
So all the generations from Abraham to David were fourteen generations; and from David until the exile to Babylon, fourteen generations; and from the exile to Babylon until the Messiah, fourteen generations.
This is a reminder to us, that though it may not be on our time, thought it may not be how we expect...our God always keeps his word…and Jesus, this covenantal king is a testimony to that truth.
For unto Abraham and child is born and a son is given
For unto David a child is born and a son is given .
For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
We long for that peace in this world, and Jesus is a living, breathing testimony that God has not forgotten his promises…therefore…no matter what happens…we have hope.
So Jesus is the legal King, Jesus is the covenantal king, next, I want you to notice that...
Point #3: Jesus is the Redemptive King.
We see this reality through four disruptions in the pattern. Verse 3, 5, 6.
Judah fathered Perez and Zerah by Tamar, Perez fathered Hezron, Hezron fathered Aram,
Salmon fathered Boaz by Rahab, Boaz fathered Obed by Ruth, Obed fathered Jesse, and Jesse fathered King David. David fathered Solomon by Uriah’s wife,
Did you catch the disruption to the pattern? Notice that names of some women in there.
Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Uriah’s wife; Bathsheba.
Again…this would have caused the readers to pause and think, why would Matthew include women in the genealogy. This was not common.
Even more…why would Matthew include, not only women, but gentile women at that?
Well…Matthew wants us to consider something…in the lineage of this King, there are not only Jewish men present. There are women, and there are gentiles.
This is pointing us to the fact that this king is a king who will redeems. This king is one, who before his throne, people from every tribe, tongue and nation bow.
In this kingdom, as Paul writes in
There is no Jew or Greek, slave or free, male and female; since you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, heirs according to the promise.
This a king who will redeem…this redemption is not based on a person’s background, it is not based on their gender, it not based on their ethnicity, it is not based their past…This king’s redemption is based on His own character and His covenantal love for all of his creation.
This King will redeem a multi-ethnic, multi-gendered, multi-cultural people to himself. He will save.
How?
He made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
This is our King! A King who saves...
The gospel is not merely a story of a king coming…the gospel is a story of a king saving. (GOSPEL)
So who is this King born in Bethlehem? He is the Legal King, He is the Covenantal King, He is the Redemptive King…and finally…
Point #4: Jesus is the Divine King.
You see…there is another disruption in the genealogy, but it is difficult to see in our english translations.
Let me break it down for you…in each of theses instances, when it says the word “Fathered,” in the greek, the word is γεννάω (Gennaõ).
What is interesting is that the same word is used for Mary “giving birth” in verse 16
and Jacob fathered Joseph the husband of Mary, who gave birth to Jesus who is called the Messiah.
Here is where it gets interesting…all of the usage of the word are past tense, all of them are in the active voice, meaning they are the one’s acting, except for one…it is when it says “gave birth.” This time, the word is in the passive voice.
Which means, Mary is not the primary one doing the action when it comes to the birth of JEsus…so then then the question becomes, who is? Because Joseph didn’t father Jesus, and Mary is passive…so what we are left with is the conclusion that this child is unique. This child is not fathered by Joseph and Mary is not the primary one acting…we are left with a different father, with God the Father.
This small nuance, holds within it the greatest truth.
This King, born in a stable, in a little town called Bethlehem is not merely a man…this child born in Bethlehem is divine. He is God in flesh.
Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign: See, the virgin will conceive, have a son, and name him Immanuel.
God sent His son…the fully God, fully man...incarnate word became flesh. This is no ordinary King.
So when Mary and Joseph held their new born baby in their arms, they said what so many parents have said, “He’s perfect.” But for the only time in history…those words failed to capture the glory of baby they were spoken of.
Because this baby was the Legal King...this Baby was the covenantal king…this baby was the Redemptive King…this Baby was God in flesh.
This baby was the King the wise men sought when they said, in Matthew 2, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews”
This baby would one day enter Jerusalem in his triumphant entrance in Matthew 21 and fulfill the prophecy. “‘Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey”
This King would affirm his kingship in Matthew 27:11 when asked by the governor “‘Are you the King of the Jews?’ Jesus said, ‘You have said so.’”
This king would be crowned in his life, not with gold and jewels…but with a crown of thorns, and though mocking, in John 19 Pilate would write the prophetic words in Aramaic, Latin, and Greek that would echo through eternity and attach them to the cross, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.”
But this king would also be crowned in the heavens, as God himself declares of the Son, “Your throne, God, is forever and ever...”
This King came not to be served, but to serve. To offer himself as a sacrifice for our sins…and this king…is the king we worship…this King is the one we love…this king will be our King for all eternity.
What do we do with all this, as we reflect on who this King is:
First, it should drive us to recognize the King.
It should drive us to worship the King
It should drive us to love the King.
In this king we find hope and joy.
Joy to the World…the Lord has come…Let earth receive her KING!