Matthew 1:1-25
The Lineage and Birth of Messiah

The Saturday and Sunday editions of the Independent Newspaper provided a booklet and CD to enable you to trace your family history. The BBC is currently running a third series of “Who do you think you are?” this autumn, helping well known personalities trace their roots. Colin Jackson's family history story will appear tomorrow night. Given the popularity of websites such as Genes Reunited and computer programmes like Family Tree Maker, most people do believe that genealogies are important - at least their own - indeed many consider them even profitable. If I were to read in the newspaper that a wealthy man named Sizer had died, and that no heirs had been found, I could get very interested in genealogies.

Genealogies were especially important to the Jewish people. Israel’s king had to be a Jew, and not a foreigner (Deuteronomy 17:15). Later on it was revealed that he must be a descendant of David (2 Samuel 7:14). When the Jews returned from the Babylonian captivity, it was important for these returned exiles to show that their roots were Jewish. No one could serve as priest whose name could not be found in the genealogical records (Ezra 2:62). Herod the Great was half-Jew and half-Edomite. Obviously his name was not in the official genealogies, and thus he ordered that the records be destroyed. If he couldn’t be found there, he did not want to be upstaged by anyone else.

There are two genealogies of our Lord in the Gospels. The first we immediately encounter in Matthew 1; the second is found later on in Luke 3:23-38. Matthew’s genealogy has three divisions. It begins with Abraham and goes forward, ending with the Lord Jesus Christ. Luke’s genealogy begins with Jesus, and then going backward takes us to Adam, the “son of God.” The names in these two genealogies differ. Most probably, Matthew’s genealogy is of Joseph’s family lineage, while Luke’s genealogy provides us with Mary’s ancestry. It is also possible that the distinction between the two lines of descent is not between the ‘legal’ line and the ‘paternal’ line, but between the ‘royal’ line of those who actually sat on the throne and the ‘legal’ line of descent from the one oldest son to the next, even though these did not actually rule as kings.

Learning From Matthew’s Genealogy : Matthew 1:1-17
We can make a number of observations about the rather unusual way in which the Gospel of Matthew, and indeed, the way in which the New Testament begins.

1. There are Clear Parallels between Genesis and Matthew
“This is the record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham(Matthew 1:1). The expression, “the record of the genealogy” in the Greek text reads, somewhat literally, “the book of the genesis of Jesus Christ.” It is nearly identical to the Greek translations of Genesis 2:4 and 5:1: “This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created—when the Lord God made the earth and the heavens…” (Genesis 2:4). (More literally from the Greek: “This is the book of the genesis of the heavens and the earth … .”)

“This is the written account of Adam’s line. When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God.” (Genesis 5:1).

(More literally from the Greek: “This is the book of the genesis/generations of mankind/Adam … .”) Matthew’s words therefore appear to point us to the first genealogy in the Bible which is recorded in Genesis 5. In Genesis 5, Adam has just sinned. God warned Adam that if he (they) ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil he (they) would die (Genesis 2:17). One purpose of the first genealogy, then, is to dramatically underscore the truthfulness of God’s Word. Everyone in Adam’s genealogy died, just as God said. Now, in almost identical words, Matthew introduces his Gospel with the first genealogy of the New Testament. Conclusion: Not only are we reminded that all in this genealogy died; Matthew’s words seem to hint that in Jesus there begins a whole new race of people who will never die. Genealogies almost always contain the record of those who have died. Our Lord’s genealogy is that, but it begins a new line, the line of all who are “in Christ” by faith, who thereby possess the gift of eternal life. Here is an exciting genealogy indeed! Who would not want to be included in our Lord’s lineage?

2. Many of the names in this genealogy are recognizable
These are the names of real people, people who lived many years ago, but real people nevertheless. Conclusion: We learn that Jesus was a human being (as well as divine), a real person, born of a line of real people. The fact of our Lord’s humanity is essential. It separates those who hold to the truth from those who are heretics:

“Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to determine if they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses Jesus as the Christ who has come in the flesh is from God.” (1 John 4:1-2).

3. All those listed in Matthew’s Gospel were sinners, and some were dirty rotten scoundrels
Here is one of the problems with genealogies – they inform us that some of our forefathers were not such fine people. Jeremy Paxman was in tears when in the first series of “Who do you think you are?” when he discovered that his great grandmother was denied financial assistance because she had had an illegitimate child. She refused to be separated from her children and go to a work house and with the help of the Salvation Army emigrated to Canada. You and I will very likely find some skeletons in our genealogical closets. If our great grandchildren knew everything about us, they might feel the same way about us too. Even the best of those listed in this genealogy were far from perfect. We only need to remind ourselves that even David and Solomon failed miserably. There are many skeletons in this genealogical closet! Yet they are listed because of the grace of God. Conclusion: The blessings of God on His people had nothing to do with the good works of men, but can only be explained in terms of the mercy and grace of God. God’s blessings would be poured out on sinful men, in spite of their deeds, based upon the grace of God in Jesus Christ. The genealogy of our Lord underscores the doctrine of the depravity of man. I like the way Frederick Bruner summarizes this:

“One gets the impression that Matthew pored over his Old Testament records until he could find the most questionable ancestors of Jesus available in order, in turn, to insert them into his record and so, it seems, to preach the gospel – the gospel, that is, that God can overcome and forgive sin, and can use soiled but repentant persons for his great purposes in history.”

4. Matthew includes four women in his genealogy
This is indeed a rare thing, especially for a Jewish genealogy. One would be more likely to expect women to be included in Luke’s genealogy, knowing that Luke is much more likely to put a woman in the spotlight. But it is in Matthew’s much more Jewish Gospel that we find these four women. These women would not generally be regarded as the most noble women of the Old Testament. Three of them were Gentiles by birth, and the fourth – Bathsheba – was a virtual Gentile by her marriage to Uriah the Hittite (Matthew 1:6; 2 Samuel 11:3). Conclusion: God’s promise of salvation through the Messiah was for unworthy sinners, including Gentiles.

The four model matriarchs of Jewish history were Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel, and Leah, the wives, respectively, of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. These four women are conspicuous by their absence here. Their husbands are all here, and so there was opportunity for Matthew to include the good wives. But Matthew gives the church four new matriarchs, and all of them preach the gospel of the deep and wide mercy of God.

These four scandals in their own way preach the gospel of divine mercy, which is Matthew’s whole mission to proclaim. Matthew will later teach us that Jesus came ‘not for the righteous, but for sinners’ (Matt 9:13); but already in his genealogy Matthew is teaching us that Jesus came not only for, but through, sinners. God did not begin to stoop into our sordid human story at Christmas only; he was stooping all the way through the Old Testament. The mercy of God is the deepest fact Matthew finds in his Hebrew Scriptures and in Jesus (cf. 9:13; 12:7), and so through the four women he highlights this mercy in the first line of his genealogy.

But this first genealogy in the New Testament has the surprising office of teaching us that the line that led from Abraham to Jesus, the Son of David, was intersected again and again by gentile blood. King David himself had a Canaanite great-great-great-grandmother, a Jerichoite great-great-grandmother, a Moabite great-grandmother, and a Hittite ‘wife.’ Matthew wants the church to know that from the start, and not just from the Council of Jerusalem (Acts 15), God’s work has been interracial, and that God is no narrow nationalist or racist.

5. Matthew is careful to show that our Lord’s lineage makes Him both a “son of David,” and a “son of Abraham”:
“A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham (Matthew 1:1) Abraham and David are the two Old Testament men with whom God made the most important covenants of all time, so far as the coming Messiah was concerned.

“Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go out from your country, your relatives, and your father’s household to the land that I will show you. Then I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you, and I will make your name great, in order that you might be a prime example of divine blessing. I will bless those who bless you, but the one who treats you lightly I must curse, and all the families of the earth will pronounce blessings on one another using your name” (Genesis 12:1-3).

“The Lord declares to you that he himself will build a house for you. When the time comes for you to die, I will raise up your descendant, one of your own sons, to succeed you, and I will establish his kingdom. He [Solomon] will build a house for my name, and I will make his dynasty permanent. I will become his father and he will become my son. When he sins, I will correct him with the rod of men and with wounds inflicted by human beings. But my loyal love will not be removed from him as I removed it from Saul, whom I removed from before you (2 Samuel 7:11b-15).

In the first of these covenants, the Abrahamic Covenant, God promises the then childless Abram a son. Through the seed of Abraham, God promised to make a great nation. And through this “seed” God covenants not only to bless Abraham, but also the nations. This promised “seed,” the source of all blessings, is ultimately our Lord Jesus Christ:

“Brothers and sisters, I offer an example from everyday life: When a covenant has been ratified, even though it is only a human contract, no one can set it aside or add anything to it. 16 Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his descendant. Scripture does not say, “and to the descendants,” referring to many, but “and to your descendant,” referring to one, who is Christ” (Galatians 3:15-16).

In the second covenant, the Davidic Covenant, God promises David that his dynasty will be eternal. It is through David’s “seed” that Messiah’s reign will be forever. And so it is that our Lord is referred to as the “son of David” (Matthew 9:27; 12:23; 15:22; 20:30, 31; 21:9, 15; see also 22:42-46).

Conclusions: (1) Jesus is both the “son of Abraham” and the “son of David.” Jesus is the fulfillment of both the Abrahamic (see Galatians 3:15-16) and the Davidic (see Matthew 22:42-46) covenants. Jesus is the legitimate heir to the throne of David; He is the king of Israel. (2) When we see that the covenant promises to Abraham and David were fully and finally fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ, we are once again assured by God’s Word that God always keeps His promises. What He says, He will do. On the cross of Calvary our Lord cried out, “It is finished” (John 19:30). God always finishes what He starts (Philippians 1:6).

6. Matthew’s Gospel, more than any other, emphasizes the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies:
Matthew contains at least forty formal quotations from the Old Testament, and the formal introductory formula ‘all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying…’ occurs no less than sixteen times.

Conclusion: Matthew’s genealogy goes beyond the author’s claims elsewhere in this Gospel that Jesus’ incarnation and ministry fulfills individual Old Testament prophecies and even the Abrahamic and Davidic covenants. This genealogy informs us that Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of the entire Old Testament. No matter where we turn in the Old Testament, Christ is there.

What an amazing way to start a Gospel – with a great long list of names! But for the Jew that was not surprising at all, as we shall see. It sets Jesus of Nazareth in the context of what God had been doing for his people from the earliest days. It ushers in the theme of fulfilment which is so prominent in this Gospel. The climax of God’s work for mankind throughout the centuries is – Jesus.

The Divine Origin of Messiah
Matthew 1:18-25

The genealogy of verses 1-17 demonstrates the humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ. Matthew shows that our Lord is the descendant of Abraham and of David, and thus the fulfillment of the covenants God made with each. Having proved the humanity of Jesus (and the right human pedigree), he must now disclose the divine origin of the Messiah. The Messiah was not only human; He must also be divine – God with us. Verses 18-25 describe the process by which Mary became pregnant, not by Joseph, but by the Holy Spirit:

1. Notice how Matthew focuses the reader’s attention on Joseph, while Luke places the spotlight on Mary.
The end result is a very balanced account of our Lord’s conception and birth. But why would Matthew feel it necessary to draw our attention to Joseph? For one thing, it is through Joseph that the legal line passes from David to Jesus. While Joseph was not the biological father of Jesus, he was the legal father, and thus Jesus was the “Son of David” through him.

Matthew makes a point of emphasizing the fact that Joseph was a “righteous” man (1:19). He was indeed. I fear that we may fail to grasp the important role that Joseph played in the early life of our Lord. While we cannot be dogmatic about this, it seems to be generally accepted that Mary was quite young when she had Jesus – probably a teenager. It is usually thought that Joseph was somewhat older (it seems that he must have died before Jesus began His public ministry). I believe that Joseph was righteous when he purposed to divorce Mary privately, rather than to seek the full penalty of the law. It took a righteous man, a man of faith, to believe the angel’s words to Joseph in his dream, informing him that Mary had become pregnant through the Holy Spirit. It would take a righteous man to marry this young woman even though she was already pregnant, knowing that everyone would wrongly conclude that he was the father. He knew that people would conclude that he and Mary had sinned. It took a calm and stable man to deal with the traumatic circumstances surrounding the birth of Jesus (having to travel to Bethlehem, having no place to stay). Joseph was able and willing to pull up stakes, leave Israel, and take his family to safety in Egypt. He acted with wisdom, and he obeyed the guidance God gave him through a sequence of several dreams. What a gracious provision of God Joseph was to Mary, to assure and comfort her, to share her secret, and to protect her and her baby!

2. Notice how careful Matthew is to clearly declare the virginal conception of our Lord.
In verses 1-17, Matthew demonstrated the human origins of our Lord, as well as His genealogical relationship to Abraham and David. Now, Matthew makes it clear that Jesus is not only human, He is also divine. The deity of our Lord is the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy (Isaiah 7:14, cited in Matthew 1:23). The deity of our Lord is also declared by the angel. Mary became pregnant, the angel insisted, not by any human agency, but by the Holy Spirit (verses 20-21). We are clearly but delicately informed that there was no way that Joseph could have been the father of Jesus.

3. In these verses, Matthew describes the person and work of our Lord by the two names He is given in this passage.
In the genealogy of verses 1-17, Matthew links Jesus with two major Old Testament personalities: Abraham and David. Jesus is shown to be “the son of David” and the “son of Abraham,” and thus the fulfillment of both the Abrahamic and Davidic covenants. Now, in verses 18-25, Matthew describes the person and work of our Lord by means of two of the names He was given: (1) Jesus (Joshua = Yahweh saves); and, (2) Emmanuel (“God with us”).

The names of our Lord depict His character and His work. Jesus comes from the Hebrew word Joshua, which means “Jehovah is salvation.” As the angel informed Joseph, the child that would be born to Mary would be named “Jesus,” “because he will save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). Jesus is God’s salvation, the One by whom God would accomplish salvation for lost sinners. He alone was qualified to accomplish salvation because He was both God and man. He was without sin, and thus the perfect “Lamb of God,” without blemish. His death on the cross of Calvary was not for His sins, but for ours. Every time we celebrate communion, we worship Jesus as our Savior, as the One who saved us from our sins.

Jesus was also to be called “Emmanuel,” based in part on the prophecy of Isaiah 7:14. Time does not permit us to consider this prophecy in detail. It is likely that Isaiah did not understand his words here to refer to the Messiah who was to come in the future (see 1 Peter 1:10-12). As with other Old Testament texts that Matthew cites, there is a veiled, future reference to the work of the Messiah, which goes beyond the immediate, literal, meaning of the text. This veiled meaning was not usually made known until after its fulfillment in Christ, and that by the Holy Spirit. “Emmanuel” means “God with us.” In the incarnation, God came to earth in human flesh, to dwell among men.

God’s presence with us was not just for the few years that our Lord walked on this earth. The very last words of Matthew’s Gospel assure the reader that He will be present with us until the end:

Then Jesus came up and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:18-20).

We come to church, assured that He is present with us. We do not have to offer animal sacrifices. We do not have to keep our distance. And while God is with us when we meet as a church, He is always dwelling within us by His Spirit. He is with us always, even to the end of this age. The One who saved us is the One who abides with us.

In a few weeks time we will be singing a special hymn once again inspired by this passage inb Matthew 1.

O little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie;
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep the silent stars go by;
Yet in thy dark street shineth the everlasting Light;
The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee to-night.
For Christ is born of Mary; and gathered all above
while mortals sleep the angels keep their watch of wondering love;

O morning stars! Together proclaim the holy birth,
And praises sing to God the King and peace to men on earth.
How silently, how silently the wondrous gift is given!
So God imparts to human hearts the blessings of His heaven;
No ear may hear His coming ; but in this world of sin
where meek souls will receive Him still, the dear Christ enters in.

O holy child of Bethlehem, descend to us we pray;
Cast out our sin, and enter in--be born in us today!
We hear the Christmas angels the great glad tidings tell--
Oh come to us, abide with us, Our Lord Immanuel.

So Matthew sounds the note from the very beginning. God has visited this planet in order to redeem people from their sins. It all began with the extraordinary birth through a virgin, Mary, which had been foretold centuries earlier. Everything about this incarnation was to be supernatural, or it could not happen. And so from the outset we are confronted with the divine nature of Jesus the Messiah, and with the purpose of his coming into the world.

As Isaiah said, this would all be a stumbling block to some, but a foundation stone to those who believe. Whether people believe this first sign or not, the point is clear as to what the Word of God is clearly saying about Jesus. Matthew will now build on this introduction through the chapters.

The first chapter of Matthew reveals that the works of God are always supernatural, and so the revelation about His works must be studied in order to discern what the divine plan is and how it should be embraced by faith. Those who believe in the Lord will receive His Word and obey it. May God bless you as you journey with him through Matthew this term. And the next time you look at the genealogy of Jesus in the opening verses of Matthew, remember it is not just the family line of Jesus, but of yours also.

Lets pray.

 

This presentation for CBSI draws heavily on material made available by Bob Deffinbaugh and Allen Ross found on the NET Bible website www.bible.org and is used with grateful thanks.