God's Unique Son - Matthew 1 - 2:23

Matthew, a Jew by physical birth and a Christian by spiritual birth, knew beyond any shadow of doubt that Jesus Christ was the Son of God; and that he was the Messiah that had been prophesied by many of his fore-fathers. He also knew that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, the son of a virgin as had been prophesied. He had walked with Jesus on earth and personally experienced first hand all of the terrible rejection, trial and execution that came about because his own people had absolutely refused to accept Jesus as the Messiah. The Romans were in power, but they personally had no problems with Jesus; his opposition came from the highest level of Jewish leadership who tried every trick in the book to get Herod and Pilate to do their dirty work. They finally succeeded by charging Jesus with the intention of over-throwing the Roman government.

[One of the most amazing things in the Bible is that practically everyone and every thing but the Jewish leadership recognized Christ as King. Think about it; Herod believed and washed his hands—the devil believed him and tempted him to be his follower—the demons called Legion believed him and drowned—rocks believed him and gave forth with springs of water—fire and clouds believed him and led his people day and night—Moses’ snake believed him and ate the Pharaoh’s miracle snakes—a bush believed him and burned brightly but was not consumed—fish and bread believed him and fed 5000 and on and on—but not the priest in his holy temple.]

The greatest burden on Matthew’s heart was his knowing that the blood of Christ was on the hands of his own people—and the greatest desire of his heart was that he could prove to them that they had made the mistake of rejecting their new King, which they denied. The first method he used was to present the genealogy of Jesus back through King David and then to Abraham both of whom were known and accepted as God’s appointed Jewish leaders. The Israelites have always claimed to be the sons of Abraham and have always believed that the new Messiah would be a descendent of both David and Abraham. Matthew wanted to prove that Jesus was a descendent of both and therefore was the Promised One.

Let me ask you a question. Is there any thing in this world more important to you than for you to know without a shadow of doubt that you are a born again Christian? With confidence I predict your answer to be NO. Likewise, there was nothing more important to a Jew than to know that he was one of God’s Chosen People. How could they know this? They knew that Abraham was the father of the Jewish race, and if they could trace their heritage back to Abraham as their fore-father—then they knew they were one of the chosen. For this reason the use of genealogies was of greatest importance to them. Being a Jew, Matthew thought that if he could prove through this genealogy that Jesus was a descendent of David and Abraham, then his people would accept Jesus as the one prophesied to be the coming Messiah.

Last Sunday, we closed a fifteen year study of the Bible with a lesson on the last book in the OT, Malachi. Because of the Jews continued disobedience there were still many problems in the rebuilt city of Jerusalem and throughout Judah, and they were looking for a new Messiah—a new King like David—that would save the nation. When Matthew wrote this book in about AD 60 to 65, over 400 years have gone by since the days of the prophet Malachi. For 400 years, no new prophets appeared on the scene bringing any word from God—there were no angels, no visions or dreams concerning God. God stopped talking to his people. How would you have felt…what would you have thought if your earthly father had stopped talking to you for just 400 hours? As God’s chosen people, they must have thought he had completely forsaken them.

On a few occasions when my family was young and there was too much confusion going on to suit me…I have used this same method to get everyone’s attention. Just stop answering any questions and refused to converse with anyone for a time, and it usually had the appropriate effect. I believe that God had talked, promised, warned, and begged for the respect of his people for over 4000 years and just decided to leave them alone for awhile to let them feel the emptiness of being neglected. He had not forgotten his people…but many surely believed that he had.

Jesus was born and lived about 30 years; a new covenant based on grace and faith was established; his death, burial, resection and ascension all occurred; and there had been about 30 years used by the disciples and other leaders to establish Christian Churches in many areas of the known world at that time. He had given the church the great commission to go into all the world and spread the gospel—and that was what was taking place during this period of time. Matthew had a deep interest in the establishment of the church…did you know that it is the only one of the Synoptic Gospels that mentions the word ‘church’—only Matthew introduces the passage about the church after Peter’s confession at Caesarea Philippi in 16: 13-23 and he is the only one that says that disputes are to be settled by the church in 18: 17. By the time Matthew wrote this book, the church had become the dominant factor in the life of the Christian people—and non-Christian, of course, because of their opposition.

The horror in Matthew’s heart was in knowing that far more gentiles than Jews were being converted; and in knowing that the opposition of the Jews was the greatest hindrance. The majority of the Jews were still denying Jesus as the Messiah—and that to our chagrin has not changed to this day.

Matthew is one of our best authorities on the second coming of Christ. He paid close attention to all that Christ taught about his return to this earth, about the end of the world as we know it, and about the judgment that will take place. Matthew gives the most complete discount of any of the other gospels regarding what Jesus said about the apocalyptic teachings. Only Matthew mentioned the parables of the talents—the wise and foolish virgins and the sheep and the goats.

This book is considered by most scholars as the best of the books for “teachings of Christ”—Jesus probably called him to be a disciple because of his writing ability. He prepared a collection known to be the first handbook of the teaching of Jesus. His book is presented in clusters of knowledge where related ideas have been gathered together so it could be remembered. He started this method when he wrote the genealogy when he broke it down into generations. V. 17—“Thus there are fourteen generations in all from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile to Babylon, and 14 from the exile to Christ.” Other examples are:
1. The Law of the Kingdom or Sermon on the Mount 5-7
2. The duties of leaders 13
3. The Parables of the Kingdom 13
4. Greatness and Forgiveness in the Kingdom 18
5. The Coming of the King 24-25

There were no printing presses, no books, magazines, or newspapers and so few people had access to the written word. Matthew tried to organize his writings in such a way that it would make it easy for his people to commit the gospel to their memories. If you want to know the love of Christ, read John, but if you want to know the majesty and kingship of Christ study Matthew. If you are a sinner or a lonely Christian searching for consolation, read John; but if you are a Christian teacher and want help in teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ, please dig in and stay with us through the study of Matthew. Matthew is the teacher’s gospel. You should read today’s entire lesson as it appears in Matthew 1: to 2: 23.

V-1 may surprise you as the way to begin a book, but to a Jew this was always the most interesting way to start telling the story of any man’s life. The Jewish people were exceedingly interested in genealogies. The purity of lineage was of utmost importance because just one mixed marriage caused the children to lose their pure heritage as a Jew.

The genealogy is arranged in three sections, each section containing fourteen names, and is based on one of the three great stages in Jewish history. 1. The first section gives the history from Abraham to David—the birth and reign of Israel’s greatest king. 2. The second section takes the story of the human race down to the time of the Babylonian exile. This is the story of the nation during its greatest sin and shame, its tragedy and complete disaster with the temple destroyed. 3. The last section of the genealogy bridges the gap from the return and rebuilding of the temple to the birth of Christ—the New Messiah that turned the tragedy of the Jew into the triumph of all men regardless of race or creed.

These three stages not only bridge 42 generations of physical men on earth but it also represents three stages in the spiritual history of mankind. 1. Man was born for greatness. “God created man in His own image, in the image of God he created him” and he willed that man be his kindred people to bring him joy through fellowship and worship. 2. Man lost his position of greatness through sin and disobedience and rather than kindred to God he became a slave to sin. Man became what he was never meant to be. But—But—3. Man can regain his greatness. God has never abandoned us, he did not allow us to destroy ourselves through our ignorance and rebellion, but instead—because of his love for us, he sent his son to die on the cross to assure that our sins were paid in full. He has then made it plain and easy for each of us to understand that by our repentance for sin, and acceptance of Christ and what he did on the Cross for us, we can now be saved.

“In this genealogy Matthew shows us the royalty of kingship gained; the tragedy of freedom lost; the glory of liberty restored. And that, in the mercy of God, in the story of mankind, and of each individual man.” Quoted: author unknown.

There is one more unique thing about the genealogy that I want to mention. As you read please note that in every case but on—the very last one—it reads like this. Abraham was the father of Isaac. David was the father of Solomon. Jacob was the father of Joseph. And then the change came when Matthew says that Joseph was the HUSBAND of Mary of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ. This is of grave importance because the whole gospel of salvation is based on the one imperative fact that his mother Mary was a virgin. If Joseph was not his father God had to be his father. Christ has to be both man and spirit…man and God…in order to be God’s son.

We must understand the Jewish marriage customs of that day in order to understand some of the statements Matthew makes about what happened. It was their custom for a man and woman to first be betrothed or engaged for a period of time. The engagement was as binding on both as was the marriage which came later. There could be no intimate sexual relationship during the betrothal period. Mary was still a virgin when she was found to be with child. Even her husband Joseph did not understand what had happened until the angel explained God’s plan to him. A son was to be born to a virgin and named Jesus because he will save his people from their sins.

“All of this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet.” [“The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel.”] Immanuel means “God with us.” The name Jesus is the Greek form of the word Joshua, which means the Lord saves. See Isaiah 7-14. Joseph was secretly thinking of putting her away [divorce] until the angel visited him while he was asleep. When he awoke he understood, and took her as his wife but they had no sexual relations until after Jesus was born. After Jesus Christ was born, Joseph begat children that are half brothers to Christ.

2: 1-6—Matthew starts building his case by mentioning the birthplace, Bethlehem of Judea, because it fulfilled the prophesy in the OT—the birth of Christ was the fulfillment of all the prophetic intentions of the coming Jewish Messiah.

I will digress for a purpose. I have always thought of Jesus being born in AD 1 and crucified in AD 30 at the age of 30 years. I now believe that he must have been born in either AD 5 or AD 6, and I have no earthly idea why the new century started in AD 1—maybe someone can help me. Why the change of thinking? In verse 3 King Herod enters the picture. There were several different men with this name. This was Herod the Great [also mentioned in Luke 1: 5] and his father was a Jew, Antipater II, a descendent of the Edomites and related to Esau and Jacob. He had gained influence under the Roman Empire and used it to help his son Herod rise to power in positions in Galilee and finally in Judea where he ruled from 37 to 4 B.C. According to the historians who wrote books on the history of Rome and Italy, including Josephus, Herod the Great died in 4 B.C. History books also record that the Emperor was so pleased with Herod that he gave him the title of “king of the Jews” and this may have been the reason he became so disturbed when he heard about a new King of the Jews—Jesus.

My question is: actually my dilemma is: how did Herod question the Wise Men, and make plans to visit Jesus while he was in the manger, if he died in 4 B.C.? Jesus must have been born in 6 or 5 B.C. If so, he would have been either 35 or 36 years old when he died in AD 30.

If anyone has a full understanding of the time change from BC to AD I would like for you to explain it to me. What event triggered the change? It seems reasonable that the date counted down to the year BC 1 and on the 365th day of year BC one—the time changed to the first day of AD one [1]. If so, did it change at midnight as we count time today? I have always assumed that this was the case—and that the change came on the day that Christ was born. Now I am confused. Help!