Kingdom Mindset: Matthew 1:1-17

CIT: This genealogy introduces us to what Jesus will accomplish in his life, death, and resurrection.

Jesus is the author of a new creation

Jesus is the head of a new Israel

Jesus is the king of a new kingdom

Jesus is the author of a new creation

The opening phrase is identical to Genesis 5:1

The Greek in the GNT and the Septuagint are identical

That phrase in Genesis is used to introduce a new character in the story of redemption. The final time that it is used in the Bible is here for Jesus. Showing that Jesus is the last character in the story of redemption because he alone can accomplish it.

Jesus’s new creation is in us by grace through faith in Christ

2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”

To be in Christ is to, by God’s grace, place our complete and total trust for salvation in Jesus Christ’s work alone.

Jesus is the head of a new Israel

Jesus’s connection with Abraham and Judah shows his headship over Israel

Abraham is the Father of Israel (Genesis 12, 15, 17 ) He is told that through him all the nations of the earth will be blessed, Jesus is the fulfillment of that promise.

Judah, in Genesis 49:8-10, is told that he will be praised, will triumph over his enemies, will reign forever, and that the nations will submit to him. All this is accomplished through Jesus.

Entrance into this new Israel no longer happens through the flesh but by the heart

Genesis 17 shows that entrance into God’s covenant was through circumcision of the flesh. Paul shows us that now the entrance into the New Covenant, and the new Israel, is by circumcision of the heart, that is faith in Christ. Or as Ezekiel 36:26 says, “I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a new heart of flesh.”

Jesus is the king of a new kingdom

Jesus is the fulfillment of the Davidic covenant

2 Samuel 7:13 “He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.”

Jesus is the one who fulfills this

Jesus’s kingdom is not of this world

John 18:36, Jesus’s kingdom is not currently an earthly kingdom, it is a spiritual kingdom

This should give us a new mindset with how we view our place in the world, “If you are a Christian, no earthly city is yours. Even if we control the world, we are still immigrants and foreigners, because our citizenship is in heaven.” - St. John Chrysostom

Jesus’s kingdom brings all peoples in

Look at some of the names of the people in Jesus’s genealogy

Tamar - Canaanite woman

Rahab - Prostitute from Jericho

Ruth - Moabite woman

David - King of Israel

The wife of Uriah - Bathsheba, a Hittite woman

Jesus’s genealogy includes the highest in Jewish lineage and the lowest in their culture.

This shows us that Jesus did not only bring salvation for those who have their lives put together, he also came for the broken, the lost, the poor, the depressed and the abused. This salvation comes simply by trusting in this Jesus the friend of sinners who came for the poor and powerless. So, as we have already begun to learn who this Jesus is, and as we continue to do so for the next year, won’t you trust in him? Won’t you surrender to him? Because he came for you.