Jesus The Messiah

Matthew's Gospel, the first gospel in the New Testament.

Of course, we shouldn't divide our Bibles up, but yet, anyway, Matthew chapter 1.

Matthew 1 · chapter mention

Matthew chapter 1, starting at verse 1.

Matthew 1 · chapter mention

So please follow along with me for the reading.

This is the genealogy of Jesus, the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac, the father of Jacob.

Jacob, the father of Judah and his brothers.

Judah, the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar.

Perez, the father of Hezron.

Hezron, the father of Ram.

Ram, the father of Aminadab.

Aminadab, the father of Nashon.

Nashon, the father of Salmon.

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.

Solomon, the father of Rehoboam.

And Rehoboam, the father of Abijah.

Abijah, the father of Asa.

Asa, the father of Jehoshaphat.

And Jehoshaphat, the father of Jehoram.

Jehoram, the father of Uzziah.

And Uzziah, the father of Jotham.

Jotham, the father of Ahaz.

Ahaz, the father of Hezekiah.

Hezekiah, the father of Manasseh.

Manasseh, the father of Amon.

Amon, the father of Josiah.

And Josiah, the father of Jeconiah.

And his brothers at the time of the exile to Babylon.

After the exile to Babylon, Jeconiah was the father of Shealtiel.

Shealtiel, the father of Zerubbabel.

Zerubbabel, the father of Abinihud.

Abinihud, the father of Eliakim.

Eliakim, the father of Azor.

Azor, the father of Zadok.

Zadok, the father of Achem.

Achem, the father of Elihud.

Elihud, the father of Eleazar.

Eleazar, the father of Matan.

Matan, the father of Jacob.

And Jacob, the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary.

And Mary was the mother of Jesus, who is called the Messiah.

Thus there were 14 generations in all, from Abraham to David.

14 from David to the exile to Babylon.

And 14 from the exile to the Messiah.

Let's pray.

Father, thank you for your word.

Thank you for prophets like Isaiah that we read from earlier,

written hundreds of years ago,

to tell us the truth of one to come.

Thank you for Matthew's gospel,

written to show us who that is.

Father, we pray that as we look at Jesus, the Messiah,

you would give us fresh eyes and fresh hearts

to see who Jesus is.

That we may wonder in amazement

and worship him with all of our lives.

We ask for your Holy Spirit to help us.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Amen.

So who is Jesus?

How would you answer that question?

If somebody came to you and said,

who is Jesus?

What would you say?

Well, Matthew answers that question

by starting with a great long list of names.

Most of them we've never heard of.

And because we can't even pronounce them,

as you discovered as I read through some of them,

no matter how much I practice,

I still messed up.

What are all these names about?

We look at them and we think,

not very interesting.

Let's move on to verse 18.

This is how the birth of Jesus,

the Messiah, came about.

But if we believe that God's word

is written for our good,

then there must be good reason

for Matthew writing all of these names

at the beginning of his gospel.

So this morning we want to take a fresh look

by looking at all of these names

to discover who Jesus is.

Four things we're going to look at together.

First, Jesus is true.

Matthew begins his gospel like this, verse 1.

This is the genealogy of Jesus,

the Messiah, the son of David,

the son of Abraham.

Recently I was filling in some forms

and they were asking for proof of identity

that Johnny Grant actually exists.

And the proof that they were after

was my birth certificate.

And if you open up my birth certificate,

printed on the page in one section,

says Michael David Grant,

father of Jonathan Mark Grant.

It was evidence that I was a real person,

not a made-up person,

like my family think I am sometimes.

I'm actually real and alive.

Well, here at the beginning of Matthew's gospel

is the proof, the evidence.

It's a historical record

of the family line of Jesus.

And with great detail,

Matthew traces Jesus

all the way back to Abraham.

So verse 17,

he says there were 14 generations in all

from Abraham to David,

14 from David to the exile to Babylon,

and 14 from the exile to the Messiah.

That's 42 generations of historical fact.

Hundreds upon hundreds of years.

Well, you say,

Matthew could write anything.

Anybody could just write a list of names.

He might have made all of this up.

Well, recently,

I discovered just this week

that the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin

have put online,

so you can go and check it out for yourself.

It's quite fascinating.

They've put online their collection

of ancient manuscripts of Jesus Christ.

And they have some of the earliest

surviving manuscripts

that are available to us.

Gospels like Matthew,

written within a hundred years

of Jesus' life.

And what's important is

there are actually no first century documents

that ever say

Jesus did not exist.

Of all similar documents

written at the same time,

not one of them say

Jesus did not exist.

All the early records say

he existed.

No one disputes it.

And that's what Matthew wants us to know.

Right at the very start

of his Gospel.

He starts with a genealogy.

Here is a true record.

This is the true account,

the evidence,

proof that Jesus

is a real person.

He is not made up.

But Jesus is more than just a person.

Second, Jesus is God.

Look at how Matthew starts.

Verse 2.

Abraham was the father of Isaac,

Isaac the father of Jacob,

Jacob the father of Judah

and his brothers

and so on

as we read

one after the other.

The father of,

the father of,

the father of.

Pick it up in verse 15.

Elihood the father of Eleazar.

Eleazar the father of Matan.

Matan the father of Jacob.

And Jacob the father of Joseph.

And Joseph the father of Jesus.

Is that what it says?

It's what we think it should say.

But it doesn't.

Suddenly,

but yet quite naturally

without any kind of awkwardness

or any kind of like,

oh now let me tell you this.

It's all quite natural.

Matthew highlights the divinity of Jesus.

The God nature of Jesus.

Look at what it says in verse 16.

And Jacob the father of Joseph.

Joseph the husband of Mary.

And Mary was the mother of Jesus

who is called the Messiah.

He wants us to know that Jesus

is not the biological father of Jesus.

Mary is the biological mother of Jesus

because she became pregnant supernaturally.

Matthew will tell us a bit further on

in verse 18.

Have a look there.

This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about.

His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph.

But before they came together,

before they were married,

before there was a sexual union,

she was found to be pregnant

through the Holy Spirit.

Now we've got to be clear,

it wasn't a supernatural birth.

Mary went through the same physical pain

of having her child

as every other mother would.

Probably more.

She didn't have gas and air

and she didn't have an epidural.

But it was a supernatural conception.

And Matthew's point in bringing us to this

is to show us that Jesus

is none other than God

in human form.

Jesus is the God-man.

He tells us that.

Alex actually referred to it

in the prophecy of Isaiah.

But here we have it in Matthew 1, verse 23.

Matthew 1:23

Quoting from Isaiah 7.

The virgin will conceive

and give birth to a son

and they will call him Emmanuel,

which means God with us.

So in one sense,

Jesus has a very human account.

We can trace his family line

all the way back to Abraham.

He's a real person,

a historical figure.

But yet the supernatural conception

shows us that Jesus is God

come to the world.

Now no other person

can claim this.

Jesus is utterly

and completely unique.

As the Christmas carol puts it

as we sing,

Veiled in flesh

the Godhead see,

hail the incarnate deity,

pleased as man with man to dwell,

Jesus our Emmanuel.

Jesus is true.

He's real.

He's a person.

But he's much more than that.

Jesus is God

in human flesh.

So,

Jesus is true.

Jesus is God.

Jesus is

the Messiah.

Now we're going to spend

a little bit longer

looking at this.

He wants us,

Matthew wants us to know

who

Jesus

is.

So verse 1,

this is the genealogy

of Jesus

the Messiah.

Now what does it mean

Jesus is the Messiah?

We hear that word a lot

at this time of year.

Well, I expect

you probably have

a little note

at the bottom of your Bible.

You might have a little letter

beside Messiah

and then down at the very bottom

of the page

you've probably got a little note

where it tells us

that Messiah,

Messiah is simply

a Hebrew word

and the Greek

corresponding word

is Christ.

So Hebrew was,

the Old Testament

was written in Hebrew,

the New Testament

written in Greek.

Greek

and they both mean

anointed one.

It's simply,

Messiah is simply

a title.

Sometimes we see

in the New Testament

Jesus Christ.

It means Jesus

the Messiah,

the anointed one.

But more specifically,

Messiah

is a king

who is chosen,

specially chosen

by God,

set apart

by God,

for God.

and all the way

through the Old Testament,

God had promised

that a king

would come

chosen by God

to bring salvation.

And Matthew

is claiming

at the beginning

of his gospel

that Jesus

is the Messiah.

Messiah,

if you like,

with a capital M,

the ultimate

and final Messiah.

Messiah.

And to help us

grasp this,

Matthew orders

his genealogy

very carefully.

So he tells us

in verse 17,

there were 14 generations

from Abraham

to David,

14 from David

to the exile

to Babylon,

and 14 from exile

to the Messiah.

He divides it up

intentionally,

and the beginning

of each section,

Abraham,

David,

and the exile

are all significant.

So let's have a look

at them in turn

to help us understand

who Jesus is

as the Messiah.

So first,

we have Abraham

in verse 2.

Abraham was the father

of Isaac

and Isaac the father

of Jacob.

Now why Abraham?

Well,

remember God's

promise to Abraham.

We're going to do

a bit of flicking

back and forth here,

so keep your finger

in Matthew chapter 1

Matthew 1 · chapter mention

and go back

to Genesis chapter 12.

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

So Genesis chapter 12,

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

God's promise here

he was called

Abraham,

later changed

to Abraham.

So let's read

verse 1,

chapter 12.

The Lord had said

to Abraham,

go from your country,

your people,

and your house,

father's household,

to the land

I will show you.

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.

It's hard to miss it,

isn't it?

God is going to bless.

It's the opposite

of the curse.

Instead of death

and disorder,

there will be joy

and beauty

and that blessing

is going to come,

have a look at verse 3 again,

to all peoples

or to all the nations

on the earth

and all the nations,

all the people

on the earth

will be blessed

through you.

God is promising

that he is going

to raise up someone,

one specific person

from the family

of Abraham

who is going

to reverse the curse

and bring blessing

to the nations.

So when we are back

in Matthew chapter 1,

Matthew 1 · chapter mention

we see that Matthew

starts his genealogy

of Jesus

with Abraham

to show us,

to trace all the way back,

to show us

that Jesus

is the promised one

from Abraham's

family line

who is going

to bring the blessing

to reverse

the curse.

Jesus.

And then we have

in the next section

David.

David,

the king.

We have been

learning about him

from one king.

So let's pick it up

at the beginning

of verse 6,

Matthew chapter 1.

Matthew 1 · chapter mention

And Jesse,

the father

of King David.

And David

was the father

of Solomon.

Well,

why has he

included David?

Well,

God also promised

something to David.

Remember what God

had said to David.

Have a look back

in 2 Samuel

2 Samuel 7 · chapter mention

chapter 7.

It's on page

310.

2 Samuel

2 Samuel 7 · chapter mention

chapter 7,

which is on page

310.

So we're building

a picture here

to understand

what it means

that Jesus

is the Messiah.

He's the promised

one

to bring blessing

from Abraham's

family line.

And now we have

something God

said to David.

2 Samuel

2 Samuel 7:12

chapter 7

verse 12.

God's speaking

to David.

He says,

when your days

are over

and you rest

with your ancestors,

in other words,

when you die,

I will raise up

from your offspring

to succeed you

your own flesh

and blood

and I will establish

his kingdom.

Verse 16.

Your house,

your family

and your kingdom

shall endure

forever

before me.

Your throne

shall be established

forever.

God is promising

to David

he is going

to raise up

a king

from the line

of David

but an eternal king.

Now this isn't

different to the

promise to Abraham.

It's a continuation

and an extension

of the promise

to Abraham.

From the line

of King David

will come a king

and that king

is going to bring

blessing

to all the nations.

a king

will come

who is going

to reverse

the curse

and bring

blessing.

So as Matthew

continues his

genealogy of Jesus

from Abraham

down to David

he does so

to show us

that Jesus

is this promised

king

to bring

blessing.

The third

division

is the

exile.

Have a look

at Matthew

Matthew 1:11

chapter 1

verse 11

we have

Josiah

the father

of Jeconiah

and his

brothers

at the time

of the exile

to Babylon.

After the

exile to Babylon

Jeconiah

was the father

of Shealtiel.

Now it might

seem strange

Matthew

doesn't use

a name here.

He had Abraham

he had David

why didn't he

use another name?

Instead

Matthew

has chosen

to use

an event.

He says

after

the exile.

Now the

exile was

a major

event in

the history

of God's

people Israel.

Because the

people had

disobeyed

God

and failed

God

they were

whipped off

into exile

by the

Babylonians.

And for

those who

were put

in exile

it seemed

like everything

was over.

It had all

finished.

The promises

that God

had made

in the

past of

a king

who was

going to

come and

bring blessing

was all

over.

It was

finished.

Any chance

of things

being put

right was

all gone

because they

were now

in exile.

Everything

had been

destroyed.

But God

spoke into

that situation

to the people

when they

were in

exile with

a promise.

Not a

new promise

but a

reminder of

the same

promises he'd

been making

all the way

along.

A

continuation

of the

very first

promise.

Let's see

what God

spoke to

those people.

Have a look

back at

Jeremiah

Jeremiah 29 · chapter mention

chapter 29

which is

on page

790.

Jeremiah

29

and verse

10.

10.

10.

10.

10.

10.

10.

10.

10.

10.

10.

10.

10.

10.

11.

10.

11.

10.

11.

11.

11.

10.

20.

10.

20.

20.

11.

21.

the Lord says, verse 10, when 70 years are completed for Babylon, after 70 years of being

in exile, God says, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place.

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you.

Plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me and I will

listen to you. You will seek me and find me and when you seek me with all your heart,

I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and will bring you back from captivity. Literally,

I am going to restore you. I will gather you from all the nations and the places where I have banished

you, declares the Lord, and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.

What a promise! God will keep his promise to raise up a king to bring blessing of restoration

and of hope. And the plans, verse 11, the plans God has for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper

you and not to harm you, are not just good things happening in your life and wealth and money and

pleasure and all these sorts of things. The plans to prosper you is a person. The person of Jesus,

the King, the Messiah. So Matthew carefully orders his genealogy to show us that Jesus is the Messiah.

Jesus is the promised one from the line of Abraham. Jesus is the King who's come to bless.

Jesus is the one to restore us from exile. Because in a sense, we are all in exile from God because of our sin.

And Jesus is the Messiah come to restore us. The chosen one set apart by God to bring salvation.

So Matthew works his way through his genealogy. And he shows us he's from Abraham, David, from the exile to the Messiah,

Jesus himself. So in summary, with all of this, we could say Jesus is the Messiah to bring about a new beginning,

a fresh start. Look again at how Matthew starts his genealogy, verse 1.

This is the genealogy of Jesus. Literally, it says, this is the book of genealogy. This is the book of genealogy of Jesus, the Messiah.

Now Matthew chooses his words very carefully. Because there are only two other times we actually get this introduction

in the whole Bible, and they both come in Genesis. I want us to see a connection here.

Go back to Genesis chapter 2, at the beginning of your Bible.

Genesis 2 · chapter mention

So keep in mind how Matthew is introducing it. This is the book of genealogy of Jesus, the Messiah.

And then we go to Genesis 2. So chapter 1 of Genesis is all about God's creation,

and how God began everything, how everything was good and beautiful.

And then we read in chapter 2, verse 4,

this is the account of the heavens and the earth.

Now I'm not a Hebrew scholar. I trust the experts on this.

But they tell us that it is exactly the same as how Matthew starts his gospel.

This is the book of the genealogy of the heavens and the earth.

You might be saying, well, what's so interesting about that?

Well, Matthew picks up the same phrase and applies it to Jesus.

Just as there was a genealogy, just as there was a beginning to the heavens and the earth,

the creation, Jesus, the Messiah, is the one who's going to come and bring about a new creation.

Jesus is the Messiah, God's King, who's going to bring blessing and restoration.

He's going to reverse the curse. He's going to make everything new.

He's going to bring a fresh start to all those who have been broken by sin.

Just as God spoke into creation and brought everything new and beautiful,

so God has brought his Son into the world to bring about a new beginning, a fresh start.

So can we see what Matthew is introducing us to?

Jesus is true.

But he's not just a person. He is God.

The promised Messiah come to put everything right and make everything new.

Which means that Jesus is our Saviour, which is good news for everyone.

Early genealogies that we have, looking at Matthew chapter 1,

Matthew 1 · chapter mention

were written not only to identify a person,

but it was also written to highlight your status or your pedigree.

So if you could find somebody important in your family line,

well, then it gave you extra clout and kudos.

You know, people looked up to you.

If you could find royalty in your line,

well, you are somebody great.

In fact, historians tell us that Herod the Great,

king at the time of Jesus,

actually changed his genealogy.

He took all the bad names out,

all the people he didn't like,

who had bad character,

to make sure he just had a nice family line.

The kind of people you don't want in your family,

he removed.

He cut them out.

Now look at the genealogy of Jesus.

We've got some really important names.

We've looked at them.

Abraham and David.

But look who else turns up in this big long list of names.

Look at verse 3.

Judah, the father of Perez,

and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar.

Matthew includes a whole load of mothers, women.

So we have Tamar.

And then verse 5.

We have Salmon, the father of Boaz,

whose mother was Rahab.

And Boaz, the father of Obed,

whose mother was Ruth.

And then in verse 6,

we have Jesse, the father of King David.

And David was the father of Solomon,

whose mother had been Uriah's wife.

Do you remember Uriah's wife was Bathsheba?

So we've got Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Uriah's wife.

Not only are they all women,

which was completely unheard of.

You didn't find women written in genealogies.

They were considered unimportant back then.

But each one of them is written in,

specifically and intentionally,

because each one is a story of brokenness and sin.

Tamar, that we read about in verse 3,

was she was the daughter-in-law of Judah.

And if we read the account in Genesis,

it tells us that Tamar tricked her father-in-law

into sleeping with her by dressing up as a prostitute.

The whole family was about deceiving and deception and lies.

Their whole family was an utter mess.

And then we read about Rahab in verse 5.

Rahab, do you remember her?

She was the one who let the spies in when they went to explore the land.

But she was a prostitute.

Now there's nothing glamorous about that.

In those times, as is mostly the case today,

it wasn't by choice.

It was something done as a last resort.

You lived your life in danger, used and abused.

You tried to trick people.

You were responsible for breaking up families.

And yet Rahab is here.

Ruth, verse 5,

where she was a foreigner and an outsider.

People who came from her country,

the country of Moab,

were despised.

They were the enemy.

You kicked people like that out.

And then in verse 6,

we have Uriah's wife.

We know her as Bathsheba.

In verse 6.

She was involved in one of the greatest scandals

in the whole Bible.

We know the story, don't we?

David used his power as king

and her vulnerability

and went off and had an affair with her.

And everything was all fine.

It was all nice and secretive

until she became pregnant.

Now what was he going to do?

Well, David arranged to have her husband

knocked off in battle.

Get him out the way.

Kings could do that, you know.

So in this story of Jesus' family line,

we have incest.

We have outsiders.

We have prostitutes.

We have adultery.

We have murder.

They're all sinful, broken people.

They're the kind of people

who you kind of don't want

in your family history.

You don't like to talk about it.

You don't mention it.

You get a big black pen

and you cover over their names.

You don't want their shame

hanging over you.

Well, we might write them off.

But God writes them in.

They're all included

into the family of Jesus.

You see, Jesus is good news.

Can you see what Matthew is telling us

about Jesus?

Jesus is true.

Jesus is God.

The promised King

to bring the blessing of restoration,

to make everything new.

I'm the Messiah

who's come to bring

a new beginning,

a fresh start

in the lives of those

broken by sin.

You see, sin exiles us from God.

But God has promised us

through Jesus

to bring us back.

Jesus came for us

to die for us,

to take the blame

for our past

and to restore us to Himself.

Jesus came not to exclude people,

but He came to welcome people

into His family.

There is no person

that is so far outside of God,

their past so broken

and so messy

that He cannot bring them in.

No matter what your gender identity,

no matter what your nationality

or your culture,

no matter what your life's experience,

no matter what your past is,

no matter your private

and secret sins

that weigh you down

and keep you awake at night,

Jesus welcomes you.

And it's the same today.

Jesus the Messiah

has come to give people like us

a new beginning,

to be a new creation.

When we repent of our sin,

when we entrust our life to Jesus,

we receive a new beginning.

The past,

all of it,

is covered over.

The shame is removed.

We are given a new record.

Our names are now written in bold

into the family line of Jesus.

We belong to Him.

And here's even greater news.

Even when we sin now.

Even as people

who may belong to Jesus

and part of His family.

Even when we mess up

today, tomorrow,

our names remain

in His family.

It's like they have been

written down

with permanent ink.

No sin,

no doubt,

no failure

can rub our names

out of God's family.

As we sometimes sing,

my name is graven

on His hands.

My name is written

on His heart.

I know that while

in heaven He stands,

no tongue

can bid me thence depart.

Nobody can tell me

I'm out.

Nothing.

Not even my sin.

No one.

Not even Satan himself.

Not even

death

can take you

out of God's family.

Why?

Because Jesus

is the Messiah.

God's promised King

who has come

to bring the blessing

of restoration

to people like us.

To give us

a new beginning,

a fresh start,

a new creation

to live life for Him

in the new world.

world.

As we said earlier,

one day

we will see

our brother

Jesus

face to face

in the eternal

kingdom.

kingdom.

We will be with Him.

We will talk to

His Father

and the nations

that have come

to Jesus

from all history

and all time

and all places.

Those who have

trusted in Jesus

the Messiah

will be with Him,

His eternal family,

forever and forever

in His eternal kingdom.

So who is Jesus?

Well, let's not ignore

these wonderful names

that God has put

intentionally

and deliberately

at the start

of Matthew's Gospel

to tell us

that Jesus is true,

a real person,

not made up.

He's God,

the Messiah.

He is good news

for people like us.

Good news for the world.

Good news to tell people

about Jesus.

Let's pray.

Good news to tell people

that God can zob

on through.

Good news.