claiming the good news of Jesus in the way that he did,
because he does go about it in a different way
to the other evangelists being Mark, Luke, and John.
And he did this because they all had
a different audience in mind.
Now, as I said, we will be spending the next few months
in this book and we'll see how tied
to the Old Testament it really is.
And that's what's so interesting
about the gospel according to Matthew,
because the very fact that it is so tied
to the Old Testament tells us something
about his intended audience, doesn't it?
And it's this, he presumes that they knew
the Hebrew scriptures.
And more than that, that he could prove to them
that Israel's Messiah had come because their own scriptures
pointed to Jesus as its fulfillment.
Now, in saying all of this, I will say
this wasn't unique to Matthew.
We do see it all through the New Testament
and there are numerous places
that I could take you this morning.
But for time's sake, I'll just mention two.
For example, Acts 28, 23, when Paul was under
house arrest in Rome, he set up a meeting
with all the Jewish leaders of the city
and showed them from the law and the prophets
that Jesus is the Messiah of God's kingdom.
We also see this in chapter eight of Acts
with Philip the Evangelist when he met the Ethiopian unique
who was a Jewish convert.
It's in that story that we see this man ask Philip
all these questions about Isaiah 53,
which Philip then used to show that Isaiah
was speaking about Jesus the whole time.
And it's a little wonder that the early church did this
because Jesus even said of himself in Luke 24
that the law, the prophets, the Psalms,
they're all pointing to him.
So that's what Matthew's doing here.
He's taking his eyewitness account,
his firsthand experience, he's taking the Hebrew scriptures
and he's showing his original audience
who knew the Hebrew scriptures,
either because they were Jew or converts to Judaism.
And he was showing them why Jesus is the fulfillment
of everything that was promised in their law,
their prophets and the Psalms.
And church, that's why he starts with where he starts
with a genealogy.
Now you might be here this morning and thinking,
well, that's a really funny place
to start with a family tree.
And I would be inclined to agree with you,
but that's why the historical context
is so important for us to understand.
Because Matthew is doing something here.
He's doing something with his original Jewish audience
that would have totally blown them away.
And it's this, he's proving to them right off the bat,
right from the first words that Jesus
is the long-awaited Messiah of Israel
because of where he's come from.
He says he's the son of David,
the son of Abraham, verse one.
And why might that matter to them?
Well, quite simply because God promised
in the Hebrew scriptures a king from Israel
who would conquer the nations
and become the king of all kings.
And he promised that this king would come
from the tribe of Judah.
This is clearly prophesied by Abraham's grandson,
Jacob, while on his deathbed in Genesis 4910
who said the scepter will not depart from Judah
nor the rule of staff from between his feet
until he to whom it belongs shall come.
And this is important.
And the obedience of the nations shall be his.
Do you hear that?
The obedience of the nations shall be his.
That's what Israel was expecting,
a king to come from Judah
who would come and liberate Israel from all her enemies.
So the Messiah not only had to be Jewish,
but he had to come from the tribe of Judah.
That was the messianic expectation.
That's the big picture of what's happening here
with this genealogy.
Matthew is saying to the audience this Jesus,
well, he has the qualifications for the job
because he's from the right nation
and more than that, he's from the right family.
But before we unpack that a bit more,
I want to dive a little deeper here with you this morning
because we have a tendency to skip over things
like genealogies, don't we?
Well, at least I do.
And we try and get to the good stuff.
But as you'll see here,
as we work our way through this beautiful genealogy
this morning, there is so much going on here
that teaches us about God's sovereignty
and his covenant of grace.
So if you have your Bibles,
we're gonna work our way through this.
Let's start from verse two.
We read Abraham was the father of Isaac,
Isaac the father of Jacob,
the father of Judah, and his brothers.
Judah the father of Perez and Zera, whose name was Tamer.
Now I want to pause here for just a second
and I want to point out that Tamer
is the first woman mentioned here.
Now if you remember her name briefly came up
while we were going through our series on Ruth
just a few weeks back.
And her name came up because she tricked Judah
into thinking she was a prostitute.
Anyway, to cut a very long and awkward story short
because of those actions,
Judah and Tamer had a son, Perez,
who was the great-great-grandfather of Boas,
who was the guardian redeemer of a limulex family.
And it's there that we saw an incredible picture
of a man who risked it all to redeem his family
which had become so lost,
who gave it all so that he could redeem his people.
Let's continue verse three.
Perez, the father of Hezeron,
Hezeron the father of Ram,
Ram the father of Amidadab,
Amidadab the father of Nashon,
Nashon the father of Salman,
Salman the father of Boas,
whose mother was Rahab.
Who we know from the book of Joshua
was a heathen prostitute who helped the Hebrews
who were spying out her own land.
Boas, the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth.
And we remember from that series that we went through,
she was a Gentile woman who came back
from pagan Moab with her mother-in-law.
Obed, the father of Jesse and Jesse,
the father of King David.
Okay, we're starting to get a picture already, aren't we?
From Abraham to David.
Maps use including all sorts of characters for us
so that we can see a picture of God
working through both Jews and Gentile outcasts.
Because God is bringing something about.
Let's continue, verse six.
David was the father of Solomon
whose mother had been Uriah's wife.
Now this is the fourth mentioned woman here,
Uriah's wife.
And we know who that was, right?
Her name was Bathsheba.
And we know that by reading through 2 Samuel
that Solomon was brought into this world
through adultery and murder.
Horrible stuff.
Then Matthew turns his attention to the sons of David,
which I won't read out here,
but king after king,
right up to the time of the Babylonian exile,
we have things mentioned here to verse 11.
So already in this family line,
leading up to the Messiah,
we're seeing some names that are listed
which bring to mind how God did such incredible work
through such sinful people
to bring about such amazing things for his glory.
But again, let's think about Matthew's original audience here.
Every single one of these names
must have been triggering images
and stories in their minds, right?
I mean, think about that second list
from David onwards in verses seven through to 11.
Think about what those kings had done to their own people.
Most, not all, but most of those people were wicked kings
who let their ancestors astray
and straight into destruction.
And so those names must have been cited emotion
and Matthew's audience who knew the scriptures.
This isn't a boring list of names.
Every single one of these names has stories attached to them
and put together, we're meant to see how God
has guided his people
and bought about his plan
despite the circumstances and the people involved.
And then after that, you've got from verses 12 through to 17,
the exile in Babylon back to Jerusalem
and more specifically to Joseph and Mary,
which I'll speak on a bit more next week.
Brothers and sisters, might I say,
this is one messed up family tree, right?
Goes without saying, in other words,
this is no perfect pattern of righteousness
in the lineage of Jesus.
We have adulterers, prostitutes.
We have some heroes.
We have Gentile outcasts.
We have deceivers.
They're all found in the genealogy from Abraham onwards.
It's messy.
But in saying that, this is the family tree
through which God chose for his son
to come into human history.
So we might ask here this morning, why is this important?
Why was it important for Matthew
to start his gospel this way?
Why was it important for the original recipients
of this letter to hear any of this?
And why is it important for you and I
in this room this morning to know any of this?
Well, it's as I said before,
it's because God promised a king from Israel
who would conquer the nations
and become the king of all kings.
And he promised that this king would come
from the tribe of Judah.
And that's what's so important about this list
because there's not one person,
not one king who even came close to fulfilling
what God had promised to these people and to the world.
That's why Matthew's opening words are so powerful
and so potent.
He starts by saying, this is the genealogy
of Jesus the Messiah.
A church, even the name Jesus means savior.
That's what it means, it means Yahweh saves.
But notice Matthew's bold assertion here.
He says that this Jesus, this man that he followed
that he dropped everything for
as he'll go on to tell us in chapter nine.
Well, he's the Messiah.
Meaning Jesus is the anointed one,
the one that was promised to come
who would deliver God's people in power.
And Matthew was saying just in this title,
this is the one we've been waiting for.
This is him.
How do we know?
Because he's the son of David.
Why mention David?
Well, as I said before,
the gospel according to Matthew is extremely tired
to the Old Testament.
And if you don't know what's going on here
in the background, you could skip right over
this important name drop that Matt's kind of dropped here.
And so we need to see what Matthew's doing here.
Just a bit of a background here,
David was a king that was raised up by God
to look after his people, to rule them and shepherd them.
And there came a time where David wanted
to build a temple for the Lord.
But the Lord said to him,
and we see this in 2 Samuel,
that he wasn't going to do that, but his son would.
That Solomon, his son, he would build the temple.
But what's astounding as you read through 2 Samuel 7
is that God entered into a covenant with David.
And it's there that he promised him,
and this is what's so important.
It's there that he promised David
that he would establish the throne of his kingdom
forever, 2 Samuel 7, 13.
That's why Matthew mentions David,
because David was made a promise from God,
given a covenant from the Almighty
that he would always have a son on the throne.
There's something incredible about that word forever.
That's the word he uses.
I mean, you don't need to be a genius
to figure out that God was making a promise here
in 2 Samuel that is still in effect today.
Those words were literally shaping eternity.
God said to David forever,
which meant that a son of David
would endure on the throne for all time.
This is why the genealogy is so important here in chapter one,
because after David, we see that Solomon came to the throne,
but then other men came to the throne and kept coming.
Why? Because they all died.
Meaning none of those kings were the son
that God was talking about as they all came
and they all went because they all died.
None of them took the throne forever.
Now church all throughout scripture,
God revealed more and more about this coming king
who would come from the line of David to his people.
Little details like how a child would come into the world,
grow up that he would be called the mighty God
and prince of peace among other things.
And how he would take the throne of his father, David
and the spirit of God,
the Holy Spirit would rest on him.
This is found in Isaiah chapter six and 11.
Jeremiah adds in chapter 23 of his book
that there would come a day where the righteous branch
of David would be raised up
and he would reign as king in his days.
And in his reigns, the people of God would be saved
to which Ezekiel adds in chapter 37 of his book
that those things look dire for the exiles,
that those things look destroyed for the moment,
God's promises stand and that God's servant
shall be king one day.
And God's people, they'll all have one shepherd.
Church, that's why Matthew named drops David
because the people of God were expecting
for generations are king to come from the line of David
who would gather his people, save them and be their shepherd.
Matthew's not just giving a list of names here.
He is shouting in a very loud voice
that the son of David,
the one who will sit on the throne forever, he's here.
He's come in Jesus, the Messiah.
He is the son of David that we've all been waiting for.
The next name he drops that we need to pick up is Abraham.
Why is he mentioned?
Well, because Abraham is the father of the people of Israel
and it was to him that a promise was made by God Almighty,
that a covenant was made by God that from him
a great nation would come and that God would bless
all the families of the world
through someone who would come from Abraham's family.
It's as you mine the text of Genesis 12, 15 and 17,
you see these promises from God to Abraham
that he's going to form a covenant people for himself
and that he would give them a promised inheritance on earth
and they would be a blessing to all nations.
And it's in this covenant that Abraham is promised
that through his line that God will one day bless
the entire world through someone in Abraham's family.
It's in you, says God.
It's in you that all the families of the earth
will be blessed, Genesis 12, verse three.
So what's going on here?
What's going on here in chapter one of Matthew's gospel?
Well, essentially this.
Matthew was showing his original audience
and by implication us here this morning
two incredible themes.
The first is that nothing in history happens by accident.
It's all intentional.
Every single detail, including that police siren,
every single, it's getting closer, isn't it?
Every single detail in the Old Testament
from the very beginning is under the sovereign hand of God.
The Bible is his story.
And that it's all pointing to a king who would come
and Matthew was saying this Jesus who's the son of David,
who's the son of Abraham, he is at the center of it all.
That's what's going on here.
That's the claim that Matthew was boldly making in chapter one.
And brothers and sisters, this isn't a boring list of names
or just an interesting family tree.
Now this is Matthew's bold claim that Jesus is the one
to whom everyone and everything revolves.
Matthew was saying that Jesus is the expected king
and he is the one whom God has sent to bless the nations.
So if this is true, if this is as Matthew says here,
that Jesus is the Messiah, that he is the son of David,
that he is the son of Abraham,
this has huge implications for every single person
because it means that Jesus has rule
and he has reign over your life and my life.
And the reason for our lives is because we have been made
to know, to worship and to follow this king.
That's what Matthew chapter one
verses one through to 17 is all about.
And why he started this way because he sets the stage
for the picture of the kingdom of heaven
that he's going to expand on in the rest of his book.
So as we end our time here this morning,
how does any of this apply to us this morning?
Well there's two things that I want to point out to you, Church.
The first thing is that God is sovereign.
This is clearly shined throughout this first chapter,
through this whole genealogy.
God is shined to be totally sovereign
and always faithful to his covenant promises.
You look at this list and it's full of evil kings
and sinful men and women.
Even those who we might say are the best people on the list.
Like Abraham, well he was a polygamist
who lied about his wife to people.
David, well he was an adulterer and murderer.
This list is full of men and women who rebelled
against the Lord time and time again
but in spite of Israel's sinfulness,
in spite of God's own people rebelling hard against him,
God still bought the savor of the world into the world
to save sinners like you and me.
Brothers and sisters, God has not lost control
and he is faithful to his covenant through it all.
We see it here in our text before us this morning.
Like with the women I mentioned earlier,
it's clear that Jesus came through
and for the outcast.
They're all in this family tree to show us
that God is sovereignly at work through it all
and though we might not see it clearly
in our own lives for the moment,
no matter what you're going through,
God has not lost control.
He's bringing about his glorious plans through it all.
That's not to say we are not responsible for the evil we do.
We are, yet in the midst of all the evil
that we or others commit,
God is working in and through it all
to accomplish his good purpose
because he is a covenant making and keeping God.
He is faithful to his people.
So the second thing that we see here in chapter one
is that God is the saviour of his people,
Jew and Gentile alike.
That's the very reason,
the very reason by his grace alone,
he made a covenant with Abraham.
It was so that the nations might be blessed through him.
But in the same breath, we might ask why,
why did God choose Abraham?
Was it because Abraham earned it?
No, it was because of God's unmerited favour and love
that he chose Abraham for Jesus to come
into the world through this man,
through the nation that he would make of him.
Meaning, and we've seen it clearly today,
God doesn't make promises and covenants with people
because they've earned it.
Oh, it's all by God's grace alone.
That's why God made a covenant with Abraham,
a covenant to bless and save anyone
from anywhere who comes up to him, comes to him.
That's why Jesus says, I will in no wise cast anyone
who comes unto me.
And let me say, if you were here this morning
and you are unsure about all of this,
then let me encourage you,
as we slowly make our way through this wonderful good news
over the next few months,
you will indeed see that Jesus is the promised messiah
to which the scripture points and that he is the king
who was promised and that he is worth bowing the knee to
and following with all we are.
Let me encourage you to keep coming.
Keep hearing.
Keep asking questions and explore these claims
that God Almighty is making about his son through Matthew.
Matthew, would you pray with me, Church?
Father, we thank you that you have indeed sent
to Savior into the world,
that you sovereignly, providentially,
have brought about Jesus,
God the Son made flesh
to live perfectly on the count of his people,
to be crucified for their sin, to be raised victorious.
Father, we thank you for this passage
that we've gone through this morning
and I ask for your people.
I ask for your church to grasp the gospel in a way
that it comes out of them with all those around them.
We ask Lord that as we think of even the last words
that we would be a people that would go
and make disciples of you, Lord Jesus,
help us all to understand the gospel.
And Father, by your providence, by your sovereignty,
please put people in our path to share this good news with.
We ask for this in Jesus' name, amen.