Matthew 1:1-17 - The Geneaology of Jesus

Theological meaning that the gospel writers are not just wanting to present facts about Jesus; they want you to wrestle with who he is theologically, so that you are challenged to respond to him

Matthew is the first of four gospels in the Bible

It was not necessarily written first, it is just first in our Bibles

Why are there four gospels? Because four authors wanted to tell the story of Jesus Christ with four unique perspectives and purposes in mind

This does not mean they are trying to trick people; it just means they are telling the same story through four different lenses in order to reflect on nuanced, unique implications of the life and work of Jesus

Matthew on fulfillment

One of the most common phrases you will find in Matthew is “this happened to fulfill...”

Matthew has 129 OT references

By comparison, Mark 63, Luke has 67, John has 43

Matthew’s genealogy is structured to make this exact point Matthew 1:17

Matthew 1:17 ESV

17 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.

Matthew is not trying to trick his readers

Some people like to point to this and say “hey look there’s a contradiction because the genealogy in Luke is different!”

Genealogies were not about giving a strict, exhaustive generational record and family tree

Genealogies were about connecting a person to an important ancestor or an important purpose

So what statement is he trying to make?

Purpose of Matthew’s genealogy

To present Jesus is the fulfillment of the story of the Hebrew Bible

Hebrew Bible = the Old Testament, but “Old Testament” is almost a derogatory term in our culture that rampantly idolizing all that is “new” and denigrates all that is “old”

In Jewish thinking the number 7 represents perfection, completion

This is why the Sabbath day is holy, because God rested on the 7th day from all of his work

So Matthew, by organizing his genealogy in 14 generation chunks, is saying something: the coming of Jesus is the ULTIMATE fulfillment, the ultimate perfect completion

Of what?

In this case, fulfillment of the story of the Hebrew Bible, a story about a good world gone horribly wrong that God is working to redeem through the people of Israel

Matthew is saying that in the person of Jesus, we find an ending to that story

This is why we cannot, as some people (even pastors!) have suggested, “unhitch” the New Testament from the Old Testament

This means that for Christians, when we read the Hebrew Bible, we should be asking ourselves, how is this fulfilled in the person and work of Jesus Christ?

To illustrate that this story is about a Jewish Messiah but it is certainly not only for Jews

Matthew’s genealogy is remarkable in this regard, because he is a Jew writing to Jews about the fulfillment of all of their hopes and dreams, but he includes

Women and Gentiles

Tamar, who pretended to be a prostitute (vs. 3)

Rahab, the Canaanite woman who lived in Jericho (vs. 5)

Ruth the Moabite who married Boaz (vs. 5)

Bathsheba whose husband was murdered by king David (vs. 6)

Mary, an unmarried Jewish girl (vs. 16)

Matthew did not have to include these names in his genealogy

From a Jewish standpoint, the addition of the names of these women didn’t add anything, and it in fact might have taken away

But for Matthew to include them is in fact a powerful statement

This Jewish Messiah is the savior of the whole world, and this story is about all of humanity

To present Jesus as the offspring of Abraham and Son of David Matthew 1:1

Matthew 1:1 ESV

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

In presenting Jesus as the fulfillment of the story of the Hebrew Bible, he points us toward two main figures

Abraham, the patriarch of the Jewish people

David, Israel’s greatest king

I. Jesus the son of Abraham

Genesis theme: blessing and curse

God created a good world that he blessed

His world flowed out of and was connected to him as the source of all life and goodness

His world had his favor

Humans rejected God’s authority and goodness in favor of their independence and self-governance

Humans therefore introduced “cursedness” into the world

Human self-centeredness, selfishness, pride, autonomy, independence, whatever you want to call it; that is at the root of the brokenness of the human condition

Genesis 1-11 depicts the tragic downward spiral of a cursed world ran by a cursed humanity

Violence, hatred, abuse, pride, selfishness

This culminates in the tower of Babylon in Genesis 11:4

Genesis 11:4 ESV

4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.”

“Come, let us make a name for ourselves” - this sums up the curse of humanity

Human idolatry of self and insistence on self-governance is really this quest for significance

We are in a constant state of striving to “make a name for ourselves” - cultivate a reputation, a picture of what we want other people to think about us

Genesis 12 narrows the focus down to one man and his family, Abraham Genesis 12:1-3

Genesis 12:1–3 ESV

1 Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

God will make Abraham a great nation, and he will make Abram’s name great

He will bless Abraham so that Abraham will be a blessing

God will bless those who bless Abraham, and curse those who curse Abraham

Why? For Abraham’s benefit? No, so that in him and his family “all the families of the earth will be blessed”

Abraham’s family is the means by which God is going to defeat the curse and bring blessing back to his cursed world

Jesus Storybook Bible - God is going to “make all of the sad things come untrue.”

How is God going to do this? Through a family. Through Abraham’s family, through a person who would come from that family that came to be known as the Messiah, or God’s anointed one

Jesus, says Matthew, is that son of Abraham. He is the promised Messiah.

How is God going to bring about this blessing? Through a king.

II. Jesus the son of David

David wanted to build God a house

1 Chronicles 17:1-2

1 Chronicles 17:1–2 ESV

1 Now when David lived in his house, David said to Nathan the prophet, “Behold, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of the covenant of the Lord is under a tent.” 2 And Nathan said to David, “Do all that is in your heart, for God is with you.”

David says he wants to build God a house

God says he has been camping in a tent since the days of Moses and has never been bothered by it, nor has he asked for a house to be build for him

1 Chronicles 17:7-8

1 Chronicles 17:7–8 ESV

7 Now, therefore, thus shall you say to my servant David, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, to be prince over my people Israel, 8 and I have been with you wherever you have gone and have cut off all your enemies from before you. And I will make for you a name, like the name of the great ones of the earth.

God has been faithful to David and he will continue to be faithful him

God will make for David “a name”

God makes a name for people, not themselves

1 Chronicles 17:9-14

1 Chronicles 17:9–14 ESV

9 And I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them, that they may dwell in their own place and be disturbed no more. And violent men shall waste them no more, as formerly, 10 from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel. And I will subdue all your enemies. Moreover, I declare to you that the Lord will build you a house. 11 When your days are fulfilled to walk with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, one of your own sons, and I will establish his kingdom. 12 He shall build a house for me, and I will establish his throne forever. 13 I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. I will not take my steadfast love from him, as I took it from him who was before you, 14 but I will confirm him in my house and in my kingdom forever, and his throne shall be established forever.’ ”

God will make David a house

That is, a family, a dynasty

God will give David a son to sit upon his throne

His throne will be established forever

He will reign forever

Again, the entire problem of humanity is that we have rejected God’s reign in favor of our own self governance

Here God tells David that he will put one of David’s sons upon the throne forever

He will reign with truth and justice

He will have authority and power

The means by which God will bring blessing back to all the world through Abraham’s family is by putting the Son of David upon the throne.

That is to say, God’s promise to Abraham is fulfilled in God’s promise to David, which is fulfilled in Jesus

So Matthew is presenting Jesus right from the beginning as the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham to bring blessing to the entire world through his promise to David to establish the throne and the reign of one of his sons forever.

What does this mean for us, then?

Application: Jesus is the fulfillment of our greatest hopes

For significance

The quest for a “name,” for significance in ourselves apart from God, has ruined our world

We all want to matter, and this is at once not a bad thing and the most subtle, insidious idol of all

It’s not wrong to want to matter, but the Bible continues to hold forth the truth that the end of our quest for significance, to matter, lies in God himself

But in our idolatry, we fall prey to the lie that we only matter if we matter independently of God

It has resulted in our rampant idolatry of self that causes us to govern ourselves autonomously in an unending and ultimately futile search for significance that doesn’t come outside of Jesus

It affects everything, and it twists good things into terrible idols

You may come to find your significance and your identity in all kinds of things which may not be wicked in and of themselves

You might think the most important thing about you is the school you went to, the grades you got, the degree you earned, the job you work, the friends you have, the toys you play with, the reputation you have cultivated

What is most important thing about you this Christmas season?

It is not the presents you receive, the presents you buy others, the meals you host, the traditions you observe, the crazy schedule you keep, the lights on your house

Illustration in Competitions of Gift giving

The “why” is far more important than the “what”

So slow down, look deeper, under all of the glitter and noise of the Christmas season, under all of the presents and cookies and eggnog and parties (that we can’t have) and lights and shopping

Take some serious time to pray, to read the Bible, to consider and meditate upon the birth of Jesus and how you

Check out the advent reading calendar

For healing of our broken world

The righteous and just reign of Jesus is the true hope for our broken world

But there’s a trick; the reign of Jesus is not just an outward reality, or not even primarily an outward reality right now

The reign of Jesus is in the hearts and minds of his people

That is to say, Jesus is not interested merely in making people not do selfish things - he is interested in making people not be selfish.

So to submit to Jesus is not simply about doing different things, it’s about submitting to Jesus and allowing him to transform you and make you be different

This is why the fundamental call of the Christian life is to come and die

This is how the Christian worldview is so fundamentally different than a secular humanist perspective

SH recognizes the human proclivity toward selfishness, but lacks any ability to effect an inward change

So the answer is the enforcement of external behavior standards

In essence, “We will force you do not act selfishly because we cannot cause you to not be selfish.”

This also gives Christians a sober look at the reality of the Christmas season

Christmas is a time when our world convinces itself that it’s better than it really is

Our inward selfishness is masked in a shiny facade of generosity

Our world has a profound ability to convince itself than things are other than they really are

But what is post Christmas blues? It’s when we come into January and realize that the world is still just like we left it in November

Beware that the joy of this season doesn’t trick you into thinking that the world is other than it really it

The world is broken and in terrible, desperate need of a savior, the Son of Abraham, the Son of David, the Son of God

Jesus is not just interested in making people act better; he wants to make better people, to transform lives, to give new hearts

Conclusion

Jesus is how the sad things come untrue.

Jesus is how the curse of our world is broken.

It is in his righteous reign in our hearts and in our world that we find true hope, for significance and for healing of all that has gone wrong.

Jesus is the fulfillment of not just the OT but of all of our longings, hopes, and dreams.

Jesus storybook Bible, page 36

As we enter into this Christmas season, may we spend it not in an unending business trying to get to all the things in order to satisfy our own desire for significance, but rather in wonder and reverence of Jesus.

Dismissal

Congregational Meeting Next Sunday, December 13th after church

Prayer meeting Friday, December 18th at 6:30pm

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