Matthew 1:1 The Geneaology of Jesus Christ

But Jesus’ genealogy, and in fact this single verse of Jesus’ genealogy is absolutely jam-packed with theology that tells us who Christ is, what He did, and what makes Christmas so glorious in the first place.

He is the Christ. The Son of David. And the Son of Abraham.

Each of those are loaded with the good news that Jesus Christ saves sinners from their sins.

So let’s look at each one. And we are going to go through these in reverse order.

We are going to start with how Jesus, as the Son of Abraham, is the promised blessing to all nations.

Number 2. How Jesus as the Son of David is the King who makes all things New.

And Number 3, How Jesus is the Christ, the Anointed One, the Messiah, who would save all of God’s people from their sins.

Let’s start with point number 1...

I. Jesus is the Son of Abraham Who Blesses the Nations with Salvation

To understand what it means that Jesus is the Son of Abraham, you have to go all the way back to the very first book of the Bible; the book of Genesis.

In the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth (Gen. 1:1). He created everything that was made, including us.

Genesis 1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

Everyone was made in the Image of God. We were created to reflect the glory of God to love Him and worship Him with all of our life.

But Adam and Eve, the first man and woman God created were tempted by the Devil and sinned against God.

And because Adam is our Father, we all sinned in him. We all inherited a sinful nature. We are sinners by birth.

The Bible says all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Rom 3:23).

And to make bad news worse: For the wages of sin is death (Rom. 6:23).

All of us, every single one without exception, has sinned against God and deserve to die for that sin.

In fact, death proves we are all sinners. Romans 5:12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.

The fact that all of us are going to die proves that we are all condemned in our sin.

And when we die we will face God’s judgment to give an account for our life, and without Christ we will suffer the wrath of God against our sin for all eternity in Hell.

And you might ask, why does God have to judge sin at all? Why can’t He just forgive? Because He is holy, and if He did not judge sin, He would not be Holy and therefore He would not be God.

Now all of that is really bad news. I thought this was a Christmas sermon! Well here’s the good news.

Immediately after Adam and Eve sin, God curses the Serpent, the Devil who tempted us into sin and in cursing the Serpent He promises to us Salvation.

Genesis 3:15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.

This is the first promise of Christ in the Bible. He is the offspring.

And that promise sets up the whole rest of the story of the Bible.

Death and curse would not be the last word for the people of God.

God would save His people. He would crush the head of the serpent once and for all through the Messiah, the Christ, the promised offspring who would save His people from their sins.

And that takes us to the Son of Abraham.

If you read the Bible that word, offspring, comes up again and again and again promising Christ.

And in one of the most important verses of the whole Bible, we see this promise renewed to a man named Abraham.

In Genesis 12, God made a covenant with Abraham and promised that in Him all the families of the earth would be blessed, and specifically as God builds on this covenant throughout the book of Genesis that this blessing to all nations would come through Abraham’s offspring ultimately culminating in Genesis 22:17-18.

Genesis 22:17-18 I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.

The New Testament tells us this passage was fulfilled in Christ (Galatians 3:16).

He is the promised blessing of all nations. All the families of the earth.

Why? Because He is the offspring God promised all the way back in the Garden of Eden who would crush head of the serpent and save us from our sins.

In fact, in Galatians 3 Paul even calls this promise the gospel preached beforehand to Abraham.

So what does all this mean?

That Christ, as the Son of Abraham, is the promised blessing to all nations and that blessing is salvation and the forgiveness of our sins.

We do not earn God’s forgiveness by obeying Him or being a good person. No amount of good works can wash away even one sin.

We are saved by Grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.

God gives us grace as a gift through faith in Jesus Christ.

Faith that Jesus died in our place for our sins and rose again three days later to give us eternal life.

We said earlier that the wages of sin is death. Well Christ died our death on the cross.

He paid the penalty for our sin; He took our curse so that in Him we might have eternal life.

Or as Galatians 3:13-14 says Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree” [THAT’S THE CROSS] — so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham [SALVATION] might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.

If you want to be saved from your sins, you must believe in Christ. Repent of all of your sins and put your faith in Him.

And God promises to give you the blessing of salvation in the greatest gift anyone could ever be given.

Point number 2...

II. Jesus is the Son of David Who Makes All Things New

Again we see this theme of offspring in God’s covenant with David harkening back to that promise in Genesis 3:15, so this promise to David is another promise of the Messiah.

2 Samuel 7:12-14 When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son.

Now we don’t have time to get into all the passages and all the promises throughout all the Old Testament that explain what all goes into this promise of the Son of David.

But suffice it to say, this hope throughout the Law and the Prophets grew and grew and grew into a hope for a King who would ultimately rule the nations, save His people and make all things new.

A King who would conquer God’s enemies and shower everyone in His Kingdom with blessing and rest.

A King who would build God a House, a Temple, where God would dwell with His people and His people could draw near worship God.

This King was a King of salvation, and His salvation and blessing would go beyond the Jews to all the nations of the earth because God promised that He would lead the nations to worship God and teach them God’s Law.

And that He would not grow faint or weary until He had established justice, obedience to God’s Law, in all the earth.

In short, this King would save the world and make all things new just as they were before the Fall.

He would heal everything broken by sin and the curse to remake the world into what God created it to be.

A brand New Eden.

This King would bring His people back into the life and blessing we had with God before sin ever entered into the world.

This is why God promised that the King all throughout the Old Testament would be a shepherd to God’s people.

Shepherds feed the sheep. They Love the sheep. They Care for the sheep.

The Protect the sheep from predators and anything that would ever try to harm them.

They lead the sheep to green pastures and still waters.

In other words, all the blessings of paradise and eternal life. All things new.

After all David was a shepherd. So his Son would be the Great Shepherd.

The Shepherd King who would save his people and bring healing to the nations.

That was the hope for the Son of David.

The One who would reign forever and make all things new.

The One who would heal everything broken by the Fall lead God’s people back to worship Him just as God created us too.

And Jesus is that Son of David.

That’s what all of His miracles were all about.

We usually miss this because we usually just see Jesus’ miracles, healings, and casting out demons as demonstrations of Jesus’ power or proof of His divinity which they certainly are.

But they are also so much more.

Let’s just stick in Matthew. Do you know how many times Matthew associates Jesus’ healings or casting out demons with someone calling Him the Son of David? Here are just a few.

In Matthew 12 there was a demon possessed man who was blind and mute and when Christ healed Him, the Bible says All the people were amazed, and said, “Can this be the Son of David?” (Matthew 12:22-33).

In Matthew 20 there were two blind men, and when they heard the Lord passing by they cried out Lord, Son of David! Have mercy on us! Have mercy on us and Matthew says Jesus in pity touched their eyes, and immediately they recovered their sight and followed him (Matthew 20:30-34).

Even the last week of Jesus’ life in Matthew 21, Jesus was ministering in the temple and many who were blind and lame came and were healed by Him. And when they saw Jesus heal all these people they cried out Hosanna! Praise! To the Son of David (Matthew 21:14-15).

None of that is an accident. Matthew was saying something.

The Son of David, Jesus, the one who would save His people and make all things new, the One who would heal the world from sin and death, had finally come!

All the miracles, deliverances, and healings were just the Kingdom of God breaking it this broken world to begin healing everything touched by the curse and the Fall ultimately pointing to the fullness the healing, blessing, and redemption Christ would ultimately bring in His life death and resurrection.

Jesus is the King of David who gives us rest from all our enemies.

On the cross Christ conquered Satan, sin, and death.

He crushed the head of the serpent.

He forgave every single one of our sins so that now through faith in Him there is no condemnation for everyone who believes in Jesus Christ (Rom. 8:1).

He conquered death to give us eternal life by rising from the grave.

And in Him we have the fullness of life and every spiritual blessing (John 10:10, Ephesians 1:3).

2 Corinthians 1:20 even says that All the promises of God find their Yes and Amen in him.

All things made new.

Salvation is in Him alone. He is the only one that can heal everything broken by the Fall and that includes you too.

Here’s what that means. First you must believe in Him. Jesus said I am the good shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep (John 10:11).

But He also said no one can even see the Kingdom of God unless they are born again (John 3:3).

You must believe in Christ.

And if you believe in Christ that means you will also follow Him as your great Shepherd-King.

My sheep hear my voice...and they follow me (John 10:27).

If Christ is your Savior, He will also be King of your life.

And as the Son of David, we should submit to Him and obey Him in everything that we do.

We stop living for ourselves and we live for Him.

True faith, living faith, a faith that saves always trusts in Christ alone as Savior and follows Him as King.

Finally, number 3...

III. Jesus is the Christ Who Alone Can Save Sinners

Matthew says the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ.

Even the very name of Jesus proclaims the good news of God’s grace.

Jesus in Hebrew literally means the LORD saves. In Matthew 1:21 the angel tells Joseph to name Him Jesus because He will save his people from their sins.

And Christ means the Messiah or Anointed One. The One chosen and set apart by God to save His people from their sins.

And as the Christ Jesus is the only one who can save us from our sins.

That’s why 1 Timothy 2:5 says...

1 Timothy 2:5 For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.

The eternal Son of God took on human flesh, God became a man in Jesus Christ, to bear our sins. To reconcile us to God.

Man owed God a life of perfect obedience, and man as a sinner owed God his life as payment for our sins.

And through faith in Christ, the GodMan, God supplies both.

He lived a perfect and sinless life we failed to live and He died in our place for our sins so that we could be forgiven and justified in Him.

The Lord saves and He saves only in Jesus Christ the one mediator between God and man.

Well what should be our response?

Remember the wise men from the Christmas story.

They rejoiced exceedingly with great joy (Mt. 2:10).

They fell down and worshiped Christ (Mt. 2:11). They gave Him glory. They bowed down to say we are low, you are high. We are nothing, you are everything. You are great, and we are your servants.

And then they gave Christ great sacrificial gifts. Gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh (Mt. 2:11).

Well what does the Bible say? Offer yourselves as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God as your spiritual worship (Rom 12:1).

Worship Christ with all of your life.

Conclusion

The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

Jesus is the Son of Abraham who blesses everyone who believes in Him with salvation.

And so we should put all of our faith in Him.

He is the Son of David who makes all things new.

We should submit to Him and obey Him as King. We should follow the good shepherd’s voice.

And He is the Christ, the GodMan, the sole mediator between God and men, the only one who can save us from our sins.

And so, we should worship Him with all our life.

He bore our flesh that He might bear our sins. That’s what Christmas is all about.

Jesus Christ was born to save sinners.

That’s why the Angel announced the birth of Christ saying

Behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” (Luke 2:10-14).

Let’s Pray

Scripture Reading

John 3:16-17 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

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