Matthew 1:1
“The Promise Fulfilled”
Robert Warren
Westmoreland Church of Christ
February 20th, 2004
Matthew 1:1, “A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham:”
We Christians are a funny bunch. Have you ever stopped to think that we are the only religion that has the main religious work of another religion within our own bible? Think about it. What we call the Old Testament is really the holy book of the Jewish religion, and the New Testament is the holy book of the Christian religion. Yet, when you pick up just about any “Holy Bible” there they are, both books, given equal importance. That’s pretty strange: you wouldn’t dream of finding a Muslim Koran in the same book as a Buddhist holy work. But the Christian bible has the Jewish bible almost as an introduction to it, bound in the same leather. That has confused a lot of people in the past. I’m sure many a person has started to read the bible to learn more about Jesus and like most people would, have started at the beginning. You would read for a long time before you would even come across the name Jesus if you did that...over half the book goes by before you ever hear about Jesus. There have been people throughout the ages who have tried to make the case that the Christian bible would be better off without the Old Testament, but they have never gotten very far, and for good reason.
You see, by and large, the Christian bible does not make much sense without the Jewish bible: that is to say, you need to have the Old Testament to understand what God is doing in the New Testament. Even though Jesus came from heaven, he didn’t just drop into the world unannounced and unforeseen. Oh no, God had Jesus in mind from the time that Adam and Eve first sinned in the Garden of Eden. All throughout the Old Testament God had been telling us that he would send a savior to save us from our sins. In the first book of the Old Testament, Genesis, God said to the devil in Genesis 3:15, “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” In other words, there will be hatred between us and the devil, and even though the devil struck at his head on the Cross of Calvary, Jesus rose from the grave and will ultimately crush his head in the final victory. Then, in the last book of the Old Testament God promises that He will send a savior. Malachi 4:2 speaks of Jesus when it says, “But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings.” So, from beginning to end and all in between the Old Testament tells us that God is sending a savior for the world, and that savior is Jesus. So, that’s why we have the Jewish holy book in our own bible, for sets the stage for Jesus coming into the world. You can’t understand the New Testament unless you understand the Old Testament: the God described there, the sin described there, the promises described there, and most importantly, the savior described there.
And that’s where the book of Matthew comes in. It is the first book of the New Testament for a reason because what it does is to provide a bridge from the Old Testament to the New Testament. Ultimately, Mark, Luke and John tell the same story, but Matthew alone is careful to show that Jesus is the savior that was foretold in the Old Testament. The first readers of Matthew were Jews who had converted to Christianity... or were thinking about converting. They had to be convinced that Jesus was a part of God’s plan. They were very religious people, and they wouldn’t just believe any new religion. They only way they would worship Jesus was if they were sure that Jesus was the Messiah, the Savior, that God had promised from Genesis to Malachi. So, Matthew is very thorough in showing how Jesus fulfilled the prophecies of the Old Testament. Over and over Matthew quotes the Old Testament to prove that Jesus is the Savior foretold by God so many centuries before his birth.
You might be thinking, “That’s all fine and good, but I’m not Jewish and don’t really need to be convinced to change from Judaism to Christianity.” That may be true, but Matthew is still very interesting for us Gentiles, for it shows that Jesus was foretold many years before his birth. It also shows us the reason for why we need a savior in the first place, for it is in the Old Testament that we read the stories of mankind’s sin and rebellion that led to our distance from God. But most importantly, we obtain from Matthew and the Old Testament a picture of who Jesus really is. There are a lot of images of Jesus that we take for granted which come straight from the Old Testament. Savior, Messiah, Lamb, Shepherd, Promise, and King are all titles that only make sense when you understand the story of the Old Testament.
And that brings us to today, and our verse. That’s right, one verse: a sermon on one verse. Matthew 1:1, “A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham.” Believe it or not, there is a whole message, and a very important one at that to be found in this one verse. (I know what you’re thinking: at this rate we will be in the book of Matthew for a century!). Yes, this one verse says a mouthful and it has a message for us today.
But, to understand this message, you have to know a bit about the Old Testament...that’s why we’ve included it there in your bible. So, you could go home and read the whole Old Testament, or you could give me a few moments to explain why this verse is so important.
I’ll explain it. You will quickly see that Matthew is going to use one image in particular over and over in his gospel, and that image is the Kingdom. Over and over Matthew will talk about Jesus being the King. He will stress that the Kingdom of God is here now that Jesus is here, though the Kingdom won’t be completely here in all of its glory until Jesus returns again to crush Satan’s head once and for all. Our goal is to become a part of this kingdom and to serve the king, and so Matthew will try to show us that we should give our lives to this king and be a part of his kingdom, for this is truly the Kingdom of Heaven.
Now, this is a concept that the Jewish people would have been familiar with, for they had once been a great kingdom. There was a time when they were a unified kingdom with a great king. They were so great, in fact, that even the Queen of Sheba came to pay respect to their kingdom and their king. Sadly, that had been a long time ago, but they could still hope that there was coming a day when all that would be true again.
In fact, that was one of the things that they looked forward to in the coming savior. One word that they used for the king that they were awaiting in prophecy was Messiah, which means anointed one. The Jews believed, and for a good reason, that God would send a king to them to save them and to restore the kingdom that they had once remembered and with it the glory that they so longed for. And so, they awaited a king.
When Matthew began his gospel of Jesus, he did so in a strange way. He started by telling the genealogy of Jesus. That is, he showed the ancestry of Jesus all the way back to Abraham. In our day and age genealogy is not that important except for those who are curious about their roots or who want to be snobby and claim that they descended from Thomas Jefferson or someone like him. But in ancient days genealogy was everything. If you could show that you came from royal roots you were somebody, otherwise you were just a commoner. The difference between a nobleman and a mere peasant was huge. Your genealogy, in their way of thinking, was a way to show that you came from good stock. Matthew shows us the genealogy of Jesus to show that he was from a very important family. But this wasn’t about being snobby. No, Matthew was showing that Jesus was the fulfillment of a promise of God’s...and not just one promise, but two. The Kingdom that the Jews was looking for would not come until these promises were met, for only someone who could bring the two promises together could be the King that would save the people.
And this is where we need to understand some of the Old Testament history. Did you notice the two names that Matthew points to in Jesus’ genealogy? They are Abraham and David. There’s a reason for that. These aren’t just two random names pulled out of the list of names in Jesus’ past. No, these are two very important men in the history of the Jews. Both of these men were given promises by God. Let’s look at them, and see why they are important for you and me today.
First, Abraham. Abraham is called the father of the Jews because he was the first person called by God to be a part of this chosen nation. We don’t know a lot about Abraham, other than that he was a man living in Chaldea, which is in present-day Iraq. One day, for reasons we will never know, God decided to pick Abraham to be the father of his chosen nation. Genesis 12:1 says simply, “The Lord had said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.” Just like that God created his promised people the Jews. God was calling Abraham to pick up everything in his life and go off to the Promised Land to be His people. Why? God had a plan. Out of all the nations of the earth, he was going to choose one, the Jews, to be His people. They would be blessed by God and would live as an example for the rest of the world to follow. The world could look at the Jews and see God’s power, His law, His love, His majesty, His holiness, and His care. And most importantly, it was from the Jews that the Savior of the world would come.
When God called Abraham, he made him a promise. And we can read that promise in the same section where God calls Abraham, in Genesis 12:2-3, “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 people on earth will be blessed through you.” God promised Abraham that he and his nation would be a blessing to the entire world...all people on earth would be blessed through him. He repeated that blessing in Genesis 18:18, “Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him.” All nations on earth would be blessed through Abraham.
But there was one other time that God promised Abraham that he would be a blessing to all nations, and this one was the most touching. God called Abraham because he knew that Abraham was willing to trust him. After all, he was willing to give up everything to follow God. But was he really willing to trust God completely? Well, there was an incident that tested Abraham’s willingness to follow God. Abraham did not have any children for a long time...not until he was over 100 years old. Finally, Abraham and his wife Sarah had a son, named Isaac. Obviously, after waiting so long, Abraham loved and treasured his son very much. Besides, Isaac was a part of God’s promise to Abraham. God had promised that Abraham would be the father of a great nation. But he couldn’t be the father of a great nation if he wasn’t the father of at least one child, now could he? So, when he had Isaac, he was overjoyed.
And then, one day, God told Isaac to go and sacrifice his son on a mountain. God was never a God who demanded human sacrifice, but he wanted to see if Abraham would trust him enough to obey him. Sure enough, though it broke his heart, Abraham obeyed God and headed up a mountain with his son. At the last moment, though, God stopped Abraham from sacrificing his son, and he provided him with a ram instead. Abraham had stood the test, he was willing to sacrifice even his son if God asked it. Following that test, God said in Genesis 22:15-18, “The angel of the Lord called to Abraham from heaven a second time and said, “I swear by myself, declares the Lord, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.” Take note of that promise: “through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed.” One of his offspring will be the source of blessing not just for the Jewish nation, but for all nations on earth.
Who did Matthew say Jesus was descended from? Matthew 1:1, Jesus Christ, the son of Abraham.
But wait, there’s more. He also said that he was the son of David. Why is this significant? Remember, Matthew is going to stress that Jesus is the promised King who is bringing in the new Kingdom, and David was the greatest king that Israel had ever had. David was a man after God’s own heart and was during David’s reign that Israel was at its finest. Under David the borders of Israel stretched the furthest, its influence was the greatest, its glory was the brightest. Even though David was very human and made some mistakes– and some very big sins– he loved God with all his heart and God loved David in return.
He loved David so much that he made a promise to him. God made this promise in 2 Samuel 7:16, “Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever.” God promised David that his kingdom would endure forever, that one of his household, or descendants, would be king forever. There would never be a time when the throne of David would be without a king.
God’s promises will never be broken, but let me tell you, there was a time when it seemed that this promise would not stand the test of time. After David’s death, his son caused a rift in the nation, and by the time of his grandchildren the nation of Israel had split apart. Before too long there were two nations, Israel and Judah. And then, in the course of time, the two nations would be destroyed, carried off into exile. It would seem that God did not keep his promise, because there was no earthly throne and no earthly king from David’s line. But God was sending a king, and he would indeed be descended from David. Matthew 1:1, A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David. The son of who? That’s right, David.
So, God had made two promises to Israel: because of Abraham’s faith and sacrifice Israel would be a blessing to all nations,
and a king would come from David’s household to reign forever. Those are pretty big promises, but God is a pretty big God.
For years and years, centuries and centuries it seemed as though God had forgotten his promise to Israel. Because of their rebellion and sin against God the nations of Israel and Judah had disintegrated, swept up by more powerful nations and carried into exile. There was no king from David’s house on the throne...there wasn’t even a throne. And forget about Israel being a blessing to all nations, they weren’t even a blessing to themselves. But God had not forgot. In God’s time the answer to these promises would come.
As Galatians 4:4-5 says, “But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under to law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of son.” In the fullness of time God sent his son. He sent Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
That’s why this one verse deserves a whole sermon, for this one verse shows how Jesus came to answer all of God’s promises once and for all, not just for Israel, but for the whole world. For from the time that man sinned in the Garden of Eden, God had two things that he intended to accomplish:
• He wanted to redeem his fallen people.
• He wanted to reclaim the world for His glory.
And you know what, he did both of these through Jesus Christ, as an answer to the promises to Abraham and to David.
He promised to Abraham that he would be a blessing to all the nations of the world, because Abraham was willing to make a sacrifice. Instead, God sent his own sacrifice, who is Jesus. Jesus came to be the sacrifice for the whole world, so that all nations on earth would be blessed by the descendant of Abraham. By dying on the cross this son of Abraham is a blessing to every nation on earth, for God so loved the world that he sent his only son.
Through Jesus, God has made a way to redeem every person on earth who would call upon his name. This son of Abraham has truly blessed ever nation on earth. That’s one promise fulfilled.
But Jesus came to do more than redeem fallen man. He came to take back from the devil this world which has plunged into sin because of Satan’s lie in the Garden of Eden. That’s why this son of David came to be a king. No, he does not sit on an earthly throne, there is no king in Israel to this day. But he is the King of kings who sits on a heavenly throne and who will rule for all eternity. And he was descended from King David in fulfillment of the promise to David that one of his descendants would rule forever. This son of David has come and he will come again to rule forever.
The first time Jesus came he came as the son of Abraham to bless all nations on earth by being the sacrifice of God.
The next time Jesus comes he will come as the son of David, the victorious king who will rule forever, taking back the world for God’s glory.
That’s why it is so important that Matthew prove from the Old Testament that Jesus was descended from both David and Abraham, to show that he was the fulfillment of God’s promises to both these men. For, when all nations are blessed and God’s king from David’s house is in place over the earth, then the Kingdom of God has come.
And that’s the Good News for us today. Jesus was the son of Abraham, who has come to bless all nations of the earth...and you, by being the perfect sacrifice to save us from our sins. Jesus was also the son of David, who has come to be the king of our lives.
You can be a part of this promise, by making Jesus your sacrifice and your king.
As you can see, God always keeps his promises. They may take a long time to be fulfilled, by human standards. They may seem impossible to keep. They may come about in surprising ways. But God always keeps his promises.
And one of the most important promises of God is that if you will let Jesus be your king, you will be given eternal life and be blessed for all eternity. The son of David and the Son of Abraham can be your king for all eternity. And the way to be a part of this promise is to make Jesus your king, to bow before him and claim your allegiance to him.
And you can do that today very easily, as God has outline:
• Believe that Jesus is the son of Abraham and the son of David, the Christ of God, the savior of the world.
• Repent of your sins and promise to obey Jesus as your king.
• Confess to the world that Jesus is your new King.
• Be baptized for the remission of your sins as a sign and seal of your entrance into Jesus’ kingdom
• Continue to live for Jesus all the days of your life as a loyal subject.
