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 chapter 1, starting at verse 1.
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.
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.
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
and go back
to Genesis chapter 12.
So Genesis chapter 12,
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,
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.
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
chapter 7.
It's on page
310.
2 Samuel
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
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
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
chapter 29
which is
on page
790.
Jeremiah
29
and verse
10.
11.
10.
11.
10.
11.
10.
20.
10.
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.
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,
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.
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.