The IDENTITY of Jesus Christ
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Biblical accounts of Christ’s Birth answer all the questions we may ask..
HOW? Miraculous intervention of HS, a VIRGIN conceived.
WHY? To usher in the climactic stage of God’s Plan of redemption.
WHEN? WHERE? In Bethlehem, during the reign of Herod the Great...
WHO? WHAT? WHAT CHILD IS THIS?
Starting today… Throughout the Month of December… Looking at Matthew’s Gospel to answer this very question
The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers,
and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram,
and Ram the father of Amminadab, and Amminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon,
and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse,
and Jesse the father of David the king. And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah,
and Solomon the father of Rehoboam, and Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asaph,
and Asaph the father of Jehoshaphat, and Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, and Joram the father of Uzziah,
and Uzziah the father of Jotham, and Jotham the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah,
and Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, and Manasseh the father of Amos, and Amos the father of Josiah,
and Josiah the father of Jechoniah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon.
And after the deportation to Babylon: Jechoniah was the father of Shealtiel, and Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel,
and Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, and Abiud the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim the father of Azor,
and Azor the father of Zadok, and Zadok the father of Achim, and Achim the father of Eliud,
and Eliud the father of Eleazar, and Eleazar the father of Matthan, and Matthan the father of Jacob,
and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ.
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.
Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.
And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly.
But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.
She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”
All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:
“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).
When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife,
but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.
Years ago… wrestling camp… I was one of the better wrestlers there… Guy steps in to spar with me… Throwing me
This guy is probably a Coach and wrestled in College…
Once I found out who he was, I would be able to make better sense of who I’m wrestling...
The gospel of Matthew operates on this very principle. Events make sense if and only if we know who the characters are. Matthew 1 certainly describes some very unusual events. There is a virgin who is pregnant by the agency of the Holy Spirit. An angel appears to prevent a young man from setting aside an unwed mother. Later, an angel picks the name of that child and declares that he will be the Savior.
It’s an incomprehensible story, unless you know the characters. So, then, who is this child? It’s a good question; people ask it over and over in the Gospels:
A storm threatens to swamp a boat and drown everyone on board. Jesus stands up and rebukes the wind and the waves, and they stop at once. His disciples see this and ask, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!” (Mark 4:41; cf. Matt. 8:27).
He forgives sins and they ask, “Who is this who even forgives sins?” (Luke 7:49).
He enters Jerusalem attended by a crowd that lays cloaks and palm branches on the road before him. They call out, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” and the city asks, “Who is this?” (Matt. 21:9–10).
At his trial before the Sanhedrin, the high priest of the Jews says, “Tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God.” The Roman procurator, Pontius Pilate, asks, “Are you the king of the Jews?” (Matt. 26:63; 27:11).
WHY IS IT SO IMPORTANT THAT WE KEEP ASKING “WHO IS THIS?”
MATTHEW IS GOING TO TELL US...
This Child is SAVIOR
This Child is SAVIOR
The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
“The book of the genealogy of JESUS...”
Jesus is a Hebrew name. In Hebrew it is Joshua; in Greek that becomes Jesus. Joshua means “the Lord [Yahweh] saves” or “The Lord is salvation.”
The name Joshua reminds us of the Joshua who succeeded Moses and led Israel into the Promised Land.
In that day, the Lord saved his people physically and materially by giving them their land and ending their years of wilderness wandering.
Jesus does not save us this way.
He did not come to save Israel from military enemies.
His work is not to save anyone from military enemies.
Jesus did save some people from physical illness and danger (8:25; 9:21–22), but physical deliverance is not even the essence of his work.
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.
The genealogy shows that Jesus descended from the line of Jewish kings.
Matthew names fifteen of them, from David to Jeconiah, also known as Jehoiachin.
So Jesus came from a noble line.
But if we look hard, we see that this regal group was not especially righteous.
About half of the kings were men of faith.
Several, including David, Hezekiah, and Josiah, were great men.
Still, even among the believers, some committed striking sins.
Jehoshaphat entered into alliances with wicked men (2 Chron. 20:35–37).
In foolish pride, Hezekiah showed the treasures of Israel to her powerful enemies, who later plundered them (2 Kings 20:12–18).
After years of successful rule, Uzziah became proud and dared to usurp the role of a priest and entered the Lord’s temple to burn incense on the altar (2 Chron. 26:1–22).
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 (Jehoiachin) 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.
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:
and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram,
Tamar the daughter-in-law of Judah, who was the son of Jacob; she played the role of a prostitute (Gen. 38).
and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse,
Rahab, the prostitute from Jericho, who helped Israel’s spies (Josh. 2, 6).
Ruth, the Moabitess who was adopted into the family of Boaz (Ruth 1–4).
and Jesse the father of David the king. And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah,
Bathsheba, the paramour of David and the wife of a Hittite (2 Sam. 11–12).
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).
and Josiah the father of Jechoniah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon.
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 branch 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.
We too have lowlifes in our family, and we have done things that fit a lowlife-laden family.
Those are the people Jesus came to save, then and now.
As the name “Jesus” announces salvation… Jesus, fittingly, in his incarnation has come to save people from their sin.
THE CHILD IS SAVIOR
The Child is ANOINTED
The Child is ANOINTED
The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
“The book of the genealogy of Jesus CHRIST...”
Though “Jesus” was his given name, Christ eventually became Jesus’ second name in Christian usage, but it originally was a title for messiah.
CHRIST - Anointed One
To be anointed is to be set apart and empowered by God for a task he appoints.
In Israel, priests were always anointed (Ex. 28–30),
kings were always anointed (1 Sam. 9, 16),
and prophets were sometimes anointed (1 Kings 19:16).
In Jesus’ day, “Christ” came to signify a specific king, one anointed with God’s strength to deliver the people.
The people thought of the Christ as a king because they hoped for a military victory and release from Rome.
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 prophet, anointed to tell the truth about humanity and himself.
He is the priest, anointed to offer a sacrifice to remove the guilt of sin.
He is the king, anointed to defeat our greatest foes—sin and death.
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.
APPLE ILLUSTRATION
The title “Christ” signifies a man who is anointed with oil to consecrate him for a special office.
Jesus was commissioned by God for a special task.
It is vital that we let God define that task.
In Jesus’ day, most Israelites believed God’s Messiah would free them from Roman domination and, somehow, triumph over unrighteousness and purify the nation.
We now know that these hopes were partly right and partly wrong.
Jesus did triumph over sin and purify the nation, but he did not liberate Israel from Rome.
When Jesus failed to deliver the people the way they expected, some adjusted their expectations, but many others concluded that he must not be the Messiah.
The problem of misguided expectations is common to mankind.
We regularly trust the wrong people or expect them to provide what they cannot or should not give.
Some Americans expect our superior armed forces to keep us perfectly safe.
Some expect their skills to make them prosperous and secure.
Jesus says the wise man builds his house upon the rock—not “a” rock, but “the” rock, that is, Jesus, the Christ (Matt. 7:24).
Still, even those who try to build on the rock can suffer disappointment, if they remake Jesus in their image.
How so? They may expect Jesus to make life easy. They may think they can know Jesus as Savior but not as Lord.
But we must let him define himself: he is both Savior and Lord.
WRESTLING CAMP… THROWN AROUND… WHO ARE YOU?
“TOM”
“You’re really Good”
“Thanks”
“You wrestle in college?” He laughs
Gathers group together and hands me a box with a gold medal in it… NCAA Medal or something…
ATLANTA 1996 - TOM BRANDS - OLYMPIC GOLD MEDALIST - NOW I KNOW WHY I’M GETTING TOSSED AROUND..
HE WAS THE BEST IN THE WORLD. NOW THAT I KNEW WHO HE WAS, I COULD MAKE BETTER SENSE OF HIM...
THE BETTER WE KNOW WHO JESUS IS, THE BETTER WE CAN WORSHIP AND ADORE HIM...
WHAT CHILD IS THIS? JESUS CHRIST - SAVIOR, ANOINTED ONE