The King has Come | Matthew 1:1-17

claiming the good news of Jesus in the way that he did,

because he does go about it in a different way

to the other evangelists being Mark, Luke, and John.

And he did this because they all had

a different audience in mind.

Now, as I said, we will be spending the next few months

in this book and we'll see how tied

to the Old Testament it really is.

And that's what's so interesting

about the gospel according to Matthew,

because the very fact that it is so tied

to the Old Testament tells us something

about his intended audience, doesn't it?

And it's this, he presumes that they knew

the Hebrew scriptures.

And more than that, that he could prove to them

that Israel's Messiah had come because their own scriptures

pointed to Jesus as its fulfillment.

Now, in saying all of this, I will say

this wasn't unique to Matthew.

We do see it all through the New Testament

and there are numerous places

that I could take you this morning.

But for time's sake, I'll just mention two.

For example, Acts 28, 23, when Paul was under

house arrest in Rome, he set up a meeting

with all the Jewish leaders of the city

and showed them from the law and the prophets

that Jesus is the Messiah of God's kingdom.

We also see this in chapter eight of Acts

with Philip the Evangelist when he met the Ethiopian unique

who was a Jewish convert.

It's in that story that we see this man ask Philip

all these questions about Isaiah 53,

which Philip then used to show that Isaiah

was speaking about Jesus the whole time.

And it's a little wonder that the early church did this

because Jesus even said of himself in Luke 24

that the law, the prophets, the Psalms,

they're all pointing to him.

So that's what Matthew's doing here.

He's taking his eyewitness account,

his firsthand experience, he's taking the Hebrew scriptures

and he's showing his original audience

who knew the Hebrew scriptures,

either because they were Jew or converts to Judaism.

And he was showing them why Jesus is the fulfillment

of everything that was promised in their law,

their prophets and the Psalms.

And church, that's why he starts with where he starts

with a genealogy.

Now you might be here this morning and thinking,

well, that's a really funny place

to start with a family tree.

And I would be inclined to agree with you,

but that's why the historical context

is so important for us to understand.

Because Matthew is doing something here.

He's doing something with his original Jewish audience

that would have totally blown them away.

And it's this, he's proving to them right off the bat,

right from the first words that Jesus

is the long-awaited Messiah of Israel

because of where he's come from.

He says he's the son of David,

the son of Abraham, verse one.

And why might that matter to them?

Well, quite simply because God promised

in the Hebrew scriptures a king from Israel

who would conquer the nations

and become the king of all kings.

And he promised that this king would come

from the tribe of Judah.

This is clearly prophesied by Abraham's grandson,

Jacob, while on his deathbed in Genesis 4910

who said the scepter will not depart from Judah

nor the rule of staff from between his feet

until he to whom it belongs shall come.

And this is important.

And the obedience of the nations shall be his.

Do you hear that?

The obedience of the nations shall be his.

That's what Israel was expecting,

a king to come from Judah

who would come and liberate Israel from all her enemies.

So the Messiah not only had to be Jewish,

but he had to come from the tribe of Judah.

That was the messianic expectation.

That's the big picture of what's happening here

with this genealogy.

Matthew is saying to the audience this Jesus,

well, he has the qualifications for the job

because he's from the right nation

and more than that, he's from the right family.

But before we unpack that a bit more,

I want to dive a little deeper here with you this morning

because we have a tendency to skip over things

like genealogies, don't we?

Well, at least I do.

And we try and get to the good stuff.

But as you'll see here,

as we work our way through this beautiful genealogy

this morning, there is so much going on here

that teaches us about God's sovereignty

and his covenant of grace.

So if you have your Bibles,

we're gonna work our way through this.

Let's start from verse two.

We read Abraham was the father of Isaac,

Isaac the father of Jacob,

the father of Judah, and his brothers.

Judah the father of Perez and Zera, whose name was Tamer.

Now I want to pause here for just a second

and I want to point out that Tamer

is the first woman mentioned here.

Now if you remember her name briefly came up

while we were going through our series on Ruth

just a few weeks back.

And her name came up because she tricked Judah

into thinking she was a prostitute.

Anyway, to cut a very long and awkward story short

because of those actions,

Judah and Tamer had a son, Perez,

who was the great-great-grandfather of Boas,

who was the guardian redeemer of a limulex family.

And it's there that we saw an incredible picture

of a man who risked it all to redeem his family

which had become so lost,

who gave it all so that he could redeem his people.

Let's continue verse three.

Perez, the father of Hezeron,

Hezeron the father of Ram,

Ram the father of Amidadab,

Amidadab the father of Nashon,

Nashon the father of Salman,

Salman the father of Boas,

whose mother was Rahab.

Who we know from the book of Joshua

was a heathen prostitute who helped the Hebrews

who were spying out her own land.

Boas, the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth.

And we remember from that series that we went through,

she was a Gentile woman who came back

from pagan Moab with her mother-in-law.

Obed, the father of Jesse and Jesse,

the father of King David.

Okay, we're starting to get a picture already, aren't we?

From Abraham to David.

Maps use including all sorts of characters for us

so that we can see a picture of God

working through both Jews and Gentile outcasts.

Because God is bringing something about.

Let's continue, verse six.

David was the father of Solomon

whose mother had been Uriah's wife.

Now this is the fourth mentioned woman here,

Uriah's wife.

And we know who that was, right?

Her name was Bathsheba.

And we know that by reading through 2 Samuel

that Solomon was brought into this world

through adultery and murder.

Horrible stuff.

Then Matthew turns his attention to the sons of David,

which I won't read out here,

but king after king,

right up to the time of the Babylonian exile,

we have things mentioned here to verse 11.

So already in this family line,

leading up to the Messiah,

we're seeing some names that are listed

which bring to mind how God did such incredible work

through such sinful people

to bring about such amazing things for his glory.

But again, let's think about Matthew's original audience here.

Every single one of these names

must have been triggering images

and stories in their minds, right?

I mean, think about that second list

from David onwards in verses seven through to 11.

Think about what those kings had done to their own people.

Most, not all, but most of those people were wicked kings

who let their ancestors astray

and straight into destruction.

And so those names must have been cited emotion

and Matthew's audience who knew the scriptures.

This isn't a boring list of names.

Every single one of these names has stories attached to them

and put together, we're meant to see how God

has guided his people

and bought about his plan

despite the circumstances and the people involved.

And then after that, you've got from verses 12 through to 17,

the exile in Babylon back to Jerusalem

and more specifically to Joseph and Mary,

which I'll speak on a bit more next week.

Brothers and sisters, might I say,

this is one messed up family tree, right?

Goes without saying, in other words,

this is no perfect pattern of righteousness

in the lineage of Jesus.

We have adulterers, prostitutes.

We have some heroes.

We have Gentile outcasts.

We have deceivers.

They're all found in the genealogy from Abraham onwards.

It's messy.

But in saying that, this is the family tree

through which God chose for his son

to come into human history.

So we might ask here this morning, why is this important?

Why was it important for Matthew

to start his gospel this way?

Why was it important for the original recipients

of this letter to hear any of this?

And why is it important for you and I

in this room this morning to know any of this?

Well, it's as I said before,

it's because God promised a king from Israel

who would conquer the nations

and become the king of all kings.

And he promised that this king would come

from the tribe of Judah.

And that's what's so important about this list

because there's not one person,

not one king who even came close to fulfilling

what God had promised to these people and to the world.

That's why Matthew's opening words are so powerful

and so potent.

He starts by saying, this is the genealogy

of Jesus the Messiah.

A church, even the name Jesus means savior.

That's what it means, it means Yahweh saves.

But notice Matthew's bold assertion here.

He says that this Jesus, this man that he followed

that he dropped everything for

as he'll go on to tell us in chapter nine.

Well, he's the Messiah.

Meaning Jesus is the anointed one,

the one that was promised to come

who would deliver God's people in power.

And Matthew was saying just in this title,

this is the one we've been waiting for.

This is him.

How do we know?

Because he's the son of David.

Why mention David?

Well, as I said before,

the gospel according to Matthew is extremely tired

to the Old Testament.

And if you don't know what's going on here

in the background, you could skip right over

this important name drop that Matt's kind of dropped here.

And so we need to see what Matthew's doing here.

Just a bit of a background here,

David was a king that was raised up by God

to look after his people, to rule them and shepherd them.

And there came a time where David wanted

to build a temple for the Lord.

But the Lord said to him,

and we see this in 2 Samuel,

that he wasn't going to do that, but his son would.

That Solomon, his son, he would build the temple.

But what's astounding as you read through 2 Samuel 7

is that God entered into a covenant with David.

And it's there that he promised him,

and this is what's so important.

It's there that he promised David

that he would establish the throne of his kingdom

forever, 2 Samuel 7, 13.

That's why Matthew mentions David,

because David was made a promise from God,

given a covenant from the Almighty

that he would always have a son on the throne.

There's something incredible about that word forever.

That's the word he uses.

I mean, you don't need to be a genius

to figure out that God was making a promise here

in 2 Samuel that is still in effect today.

Those words were literally shaping eternity.

God said to David forever,

which meant that a son of David

would endure on the throne for all time.

This is why the genealogy is so important here in chapter one,

because after David, we see that Solomon came to the throne,

but then other men came to the throne and kept coming.

Why? Because they all died.

Meaning none of those kings were the son

that God was talking about as they all came

and they all went because they all died.

None of them took the throne forever.

Now church all throughout scripture,

God revealed more and more about this coming king

who would come from the line of David to his people.

Little details like how a child would come into the world,

grow up that he would be called the mighty God

and prince of peace among other things.

And how he would take the throne of his father, David

and the spirit of God,

the Holy Spirit would rest on him.

This is found in Isaiah chapter six and 11.

Jeremiah adds in chapter 23 of his book

that there would come a day where the righteous branch

of David would be raised up

and he would reign as king in his days.

And in his reigns, the people of God would be saved

to which Ezekiel adds in chapter 37 of his book

that those things look dire for the exiles,

that those things look destroyed for the moment,

God's promises stand and that God's servant

shall be king one day.

And God's people, they'll all have one shepherd.

Church, that's why Matthew named drops David

because the people of God were expecting

for generations are king to come from the line of David

who would gather his people, save them and be their shepherd.

Matthew's not just giving a list of names here.

He is shouting in a very loud voice

that the son of David,

the one who will sit on the throne forever, he's here.

He's come in Jesus, the Messiah.

He is the son of David that we've all been waiting for.

The next name he drops that we need to pick up is Abraham.

Why is he mentioned?

Well, because Abraham is the father of the people of Israel

and it was to him that a promise was made by God Almighty,

that a covenant was made by God that from him

a great nation would come and that God would bless

all the families of the world

through someone who would come from Abraham's family.

It's as you mine the text of Genesis 12, 15 and 17,

you see these promises from God to Abraham

that he's going to form a covenant people for himself

and that he would give them a promised inheritance on earth

and they would be a blessing to all nations.

And it's in this covenant that Abraham is promised

that through his line that God will one day bless

the entire world through someone in Abraham's family.

It's in you, says God.

It's in you that all the families of the earth

will be blessed, Genesis 12, verse three.

So what's going on here?

What's going on here in chapter one of Matthew's gospel?

Well, essentially this.

Matthew was showing his original audience

and by implication us here this morning

two incredible themes.

The first is that nothing in history happens by accident.

It's all intentional.

Every single detail, including that police siren,

every single, it's getting closer, isn't it?

Every single detail in the Old Testament

from the very beginning is under the sovereign hand of God.

The Bible is his story.

And that it's all pointing to a king who would come

and Matthew was saying this Jesus who's the son of David,

who's the son of Abraham, he is at the center of it all.

That's what's going on here.

That's the claim that Matthew was boldly making in chapter one.

And brothers and sisters, this isn't a boring list of names

or just an interesting family tree.

Now this is Matthew's bold claim that Jesus is the one

to whom everyone and everything revolves.

Matthew was saying that Jesus is the expected king

and he is the one whom God has sent to bless the nations.

So if this is true, if this is as Matthew says here,

that Jesus is the Messiah, that he is the son of David,

that he is the son of Abraham,

this has huge implications for every single person

because it means that Jesus has rule

and he has reign over your life and my life.

And the reason for our lives is because we have been made

to know, to worship and to follow this king.

That's what Matthew chapter one

verses one through to 17 is all about.

And why he started this way because he sets the stage

for the picture of the kingdom of heaven

that he's going to expand on in the rest of his book.

So as we end our time here this morning,

how does any of this apply to us this morning?

Well there's two things that I want to point out to you, Church.

The first thing is that God is sovereign.

This is clearly shined throughout this first chapter,

through this whole genealogy.

God is shined to be totally sovereign

and always faithful to his covenant promises.

You look at this list and it's full of evil kings

and sinful men and women.

Even those who we might say are the best people on the list.

Like Abraham, well he was a polygamist

who lied about his wife to people.

David, well he was an adulterer and murderer.

This list is full of men and women who rebelled

against the Lord time and time again

but in spite of Israel's sinfulness,

in spite of God's own people rebelling hard against him,

God still bought the savor of the world into the world

to save sinners like you and me.

Brothers and sisters, God has not lost control

and he is faithful to his covenant through it all.

We see it here in our text before us this morning.

Like with the women I mentioned earlier,

it's clear that Jesus came through

and for the outcast.

They're all in this family tree to show us

that God is sovereignly at work through it all

and though we might not see it clearly

in our own lives for the moment,

no matter what you're going through,

God has not lost control.

He's bringing about his glorious plans through it all.

That's not to say we are not responsible for the evil we do.

We are, yet in the midst of all the evil

that we or others commit,

God is working in and through it all

to accomplish his good purpose

because he is a covenant making and keeping God.

He is faithful to his people.

So the second thing that we see here in chapter one

is that God is the saviour of his people,

Jew and Gentile alike.

That's the very reason,

the very reason by his grace alone,

he made a covenant with Abraham.

It was so that the nations might be blessed through him.

But in the same breath, we might ask why,

why did God choose Abraham?

Was it because Abraham earned it?

No, it was because of God's unmerited favour and love

that he chose Abraham for Jesus to come

into the world through this man,

through the nation that he would make of him.

Meaning, and we've seen it clearly today,

God doesn't make promises and covenants with people

because they've earned it.

Oh, it's all by God's grace alone.

That's why God made a covenant with Abraham,

a covenant to bless and save anyone

from anywhere who comes up to him, comes to him.

That's why Jesus says, I will in no wise cast anyone

who comes unto me.

And let me say, if you were here this morning

and you are unsure about all of this,

then let me encourage you,

as we slowly make our way through this wonderful good news

over the next few months,

you will indeed see that Jesus is the promised messiah

to which the scripture points and that he is the king

who was promised and that he is worth bowing the knee to

and following with all we are.

Let me encourage you to keep coming.

Keep hearing.

Keep asking questions and explore these claims

that God Almighty is making about his son through Matthew.

Matthew, would you pray with me, Church?

Father, we thank you that you have indeed sent

to Savior into the world,

that you sovereignly, providentially,

have brought about Jesus,

God the Son made flesh

to live perfectly on the count of his people,

to be crucified for their sin, to be raised victorious.

Father, we thank you for this passage

that we've gone through this morning

and I ask for your people.

I ask for your church to grasp the gospel in a way

that it comes out of them with all those around them.

We ask Lord that as we think of even the last words

that we would be a people that would go

and make disciples of you, Lord Jesus,

help us all to understand the gospel.

And Father, by your providence, by your sovereignty,

please put people in our path to share this good news with.

We ask for this in Jesus' name, amen.