The King has Come, and is Coming Again
Text: Matthew 1:1-18
If you will, please take your Bible and open it up to the Gospel of Matthew – the First Chapter. We are kicking off our Advent messages, and as such we’re going to spend some time looking at the comings of Jesus… That word Advent literally means “Coming”… and if you were listening, you would’ve noticed that I said the “coming’s” of Jesus. Jesus came 2000 years ago at His incarnation… but He is coming again. And so, we’re going to be looking at those “comings” during our Advent messages.
This morning we’re in Matthew 1:1-18. Please follow along as I read our text.
(READ)
Now to be honest, I used to struggle with these genealogies in the Bible. To me they were just names. I mean, I understood the historical significance of them, but it was more of an academic thing… but a few years back something occurred to me and it changed how I read through this. What happened was that I was working on a family history for my aunt. She was hosting a family reunion, and she asked me to do some research back into our family line… and so, I did… and as I was going through some of our family history – especially way back in Scotland, I was coming across, not only names and dates, but events. Lives… and stories. I really dug in to where my family originated from, along the north-western coast of Scotland… how some of them migrated to Ireland… and others stayed… and others came here to the USA. How they fought side by side with Robert the Bruce against the tyrant Edward , and later on alongside William of Orange at the Battle of the Boyne, lots of other things… story after story, after story. And each generation added to the story of the whole.
What I’m trying to get at here is that each of these names was a real person, who lived a real life… so imagine for a moment, Joesph talking to Jesus when He was little… And telling Him this genealogy. Joseph probably didn’t just say, “Abraham was the father of Isaac…”. Instead it probably went something more like this, “Abraham… was your great, great… great, great, great (however many it was) grandfather. He lived in a terrible place called Ur, where the people there were trying to build a tower… but God, in His great mercy called Abram out of Ur and changed his name to Abraham…. And let me just tell you – that place Ur… it was bad, wicked. The people there were ruled by a tyrant named Nimrod for a while, and he was not good.”
Or maybe… like when you get down to Josiah. I bet Joseph didn’t just say, “Josiah the father of Jechonia and his brothers”…. Instead, it might have gone like this, “Josiah, he was your great grandfather – 8 times back… and he battled against the Babylonians when they invaded. He was a warrior and fought hard against the invasion.” He might even go into detail about some of Josiah’s heroic deeds.
So, my point is – IS that this is an actual, historic account. It gives us a historic and academic account of the genealogy of Jesus, but it’s also the story of His family line. Those things, those events, those people who have gone on before us shape us, and inspire us, and teach us… sometimes they teach what we should do, and sometimes they teach us what we shouldn’t do, or what we should avoid. Like “David, the father of Solomon BY THE WIFE OF URIAH.”
Our faith is rooted in historical truth! Not in myths or legends, or made up accounts… but in the truth!
Now understand that Matthew’s Gospel was written primarily with Jewish readers in mind. And what this does is establish a direct line from Jesus to David, and to Abraham before that. And that’s important, because Isaiah had prophesied that a King was coming. A Messiah. A Savior. In Isaiah 9 he prophesied that this king would be the offspring of David, and His throne would remain forever. So it wasn’t going to be Solomon, David’s son… or even Solomon’s son Asaph… this was going to be a King who’s reign never ended. It would be an eternal kingdom. And so Matthew was writing, with a Jewish audience in mind, and he was inspired by the Holy Spirit to write this in order to show them, that Jesus is that King. Jesus has a direct line back to David.
And if you look at Luke’s Gospel… in Luke chapter 3 you’ll see another genealogy. It also goes back to David, and Abraham, and even to Adam.
Now if you compare those two genealogies you’ll see that they are different. And skeptics will argue that the Bible contradicts itself here. Some folks have tried to say, “Well Matthew’s genealogy is directly to Joseph’s line while Luke’s is directly to Mary’s line… but I’m not seeing that anywhere in the text. If you do, please let me know… Instead, what I’m seeing is that they both are pointing to Joseph. So… is there a contradiction? Nope.
Remember who Matthew is primarily writing to – Jewish readers… and Luke is writing to a guy named Theopnilus. Luke is writing to give a historical account… Matthew is writing to prove the claim Jesus has to the throne.
So, what we have is that Matthew lists 40 names from Abraham to Joseph –Luke lists 56 names from Abraham to Joseph – What that tells us is that Luke is a lot more detailed historian than Matthew is.
So again, that’s not a contradiction… it just shows how human beings are.
I used to work in law enforcement, and sometimes you would have to take statements from people, you know, whether it was an accident or a break in or domestic violence. And you’d talk to one person and they would say, “Yeah, that white pickup smashed into the red pickup on the side.” And the next person would say, “Yeah the red pickup ran the stop light, and then the white pickup smashed into the side of the red pickup.” Some account, more details with the second account. That’s what we have with these genealogies in Matthew and Luke.
Matthew wants to show how Jesus is in the Kingly Line of David. Luke wants to give a historical account of how Jesus is God’s plan for redemption all along, even from the time of Adam. And both of those things are entirely true.
Jesus is the root of Jesse. He’s the offspring of David of whose kingdom there will be no end. He will rule and reign forever. He is the promised Messiah, and promised King, who was to come. Jesus is also the Savior of the world. He is the promised Seed of the Woman who would set right what Adam lost, and crush the head of the serpent. He’s not only going to be the King of Israel, but He is the King of kings, and Lord of lords.
And what’s so interesting to me as I’m looking through Matthew genealogy is how he did it. He mentions four women. Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Bathsheba.
Now most of the time, women aren’t listed in genealogies in the Bible… that’s just not part of the culture. But here Matthew lists four – five if you count Mary at the very end. But four women, and it’s not the four women you would think he would list. Where’s Sarah? Where’s Rebekah? Where’s Leah? Matthew leaves them out, and instead he lists four women 3 OF THEM ARE GENTILES, and the other one was married to a gentile! Three out of the four were involved in immoral scandals or immoral lifestyles before being brought into the line of faith.
Some of the events surrounding these women… if they made a movie about them, it would have to be Rated “R”. But here they are, in the line of Jesus. Scandalous lives and all. And I really think that’s why Matthew puts them in there. Because I want you to notice something.
He starts off this genealogy by saying, “Abraham was the FATHER of Isaac… and Isaac was the FATHER of Jacob… and Jacob was the FATHER of Judah and his brothers… and so it goes down the list. Until we get to Joseph… Verse 16, “And Jacob the FATHER of Joseph, the husband of Mary, OF WHOM JESUS WAS BORN, who is called Christ.”
In the old King Jimmy it uses the word “begat” but it means the same thing… It means to father a child. But Joseph did not “begat” Jesus. Joseph did not “father” Jesus.
Look at verse 18 (READ).
“FROM THE HOLY SPIRIT”
Turn with me back to Luke chapter 1 and look at verses 26-38 (READ Luke 1:26-38).
Tamar, as messed up as she was, had faith. She believed the promise of God… and even though she tried to “help God out” by making it happen… God used even her sin to bring about His Promises. Rahab… even though she had lived and worked in an immoral profession – she had faith… and God rewarded her faith, and spared her life, and used her to bring about His Promises. Ruth – by all accounts a moral and good person, but even she needed a Savior, but she believed, and received the promises of God by faith… And Bathsheba – we don’t see it in her affair with David, but we see it later on in life, when she goes to the prophet Nathan, and tells him, “Uh, hey Nate, old buddy… Mr. Prophet… David is really messing up and he’s going against what the Lord has promised about Solomon, and ultimately about the offspring who will set upon the throne forever, we need to get him straightened out on this.” In other words, Bathsheba had faith, and trusted in the Promises of God.
And here in Luke, we see Mary… verse 38, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.”
FAITH!
What do we see in the genealogy of Jesus? Not only do we see that our faith is built on historical truth, and not only that Jesus has a historical claim to the throne of David… but we see a long line of people, both men and women, who BELIEVED in the Promises of God. Who had FAITH!
They weren’t perfect people. They weren’t without their fair share of sin, and screw ups, and sometimes even downright wicked actions and behavior… but they had faith. They trusted in the Promise of God. The promise that He was going to send a Savior – a Messiah – a King, who would rule and reign, and who would set all things right once more. That He would deliver them from their sin, and restore what was lost.
Church, we have been given promises too. God has promised that Jesus is coming again. Not as a baby laid in a manger. But as the Conquering King! That Day is sooner now than it ever has been.
We also have the promise that if we will turn from sin, and put our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, stop trusting in our ability, our own so called “righteousness” but instead trust in Jesus Christ as both Savior and Lord, we will be saved. We will be forgiven. We will be given eternal life with Him for ever and ever!
And Just as sure as Christ came the first time and fulfilled all of God’s promises, He is coming again. Even so, come Lord Jesus
COMMUNION
CLOSING
