This Child Is King Series

1. God’s plan for a ruler through promise (1)

2. God’s plan for a ruler through people (2-16)

3. God’s plan for a ruler through providence (17)

This morning we’re starting a three-part series called, “Who Is This Child?” In today’s world, it’s hard enough to see Jesus at Christmas time through all the commercialism. But even when we do see Him, all too often, we see Him as only a baby in the manger. As we go through this series, I want us to not only see the Baby in the manger this Christmas. I want us to see so much more. I want us to see Jesus for who He really is. He is our King. He is our Savior. And He is our God. This morning we’re going to be looking at Jesus our King.

MATTHEW 1:1-17

I told my daughter that our text this morning was going to be the first part of Matthew. She thought about it for a second and then her eyes got real big. She said, “You’re not going to preach on the begats, are you?” Someone was telling me once about how faithful they were in reading the Bible through every year. Then they said that they just read some parts a whole lot faster than others. That’s what we tend to do with genealogies—or as my daughter calls them, “the begats.” If we read them at all, we just breeze through them. That’s understandable. The names are hard to pronounce. Most of the time they’re names of people we don’t have any historical context for. We don’t know who they are. But it’s different if you look at your own family tree. Looking at your own family tree is fascinating because it always ends up in stories. You’re not looking at a bunch of names on a piece of paper. You’re remembering stories. Stories that bring meaning and context to who you are and where your family has come from. That’s why God spent valuable space in His Word passing these genealogies to us. The genealogy we’re looking at this morning in Matthew is very important as we enter this Christmas season. It’s important, because it shows us that Jesus’ lineage was no accident. Jesus didn’t just show up one day in a manger in Bethlehem. He was born to fulfill a specific plan of God. In a specific time. In a specific place. From a specific line of people. It had to be this way, because God promised that Jesus would be born a ruler. Not just an ordinary ruler, but King of kings and Lord of lords. This morning we’re going to be looking at God’s plan for a ruler. And as we do, I want each of us to begin to see Jesus Christ for who He is. He’s not just a baby in a manger. This morning and for all eternity, He’s our King. In order to see Christ as our King, we’re going to look at three phases of God’s plan for a ruler. His first phase is that God planned a ruler through promise.

MATTHEW 1:1

God planned a ruler through promise. The God of the Bible is a God who makes promises. He makes promises and He is faithful to keep them. The Old Testament is full of promises that God made to His chosen people. But out of all those promises, two stand head and shoulders above the rest. Those two covenants are the Abrahamic covenant and the Davidic covenant. Now, Matthew lists them in reverse order here in verse 1. He says that Jesus is the son of David first. Then the son of Abraham. He reverses the covenants. Matthew does that because his purpose in writing his gospel was to show how Jesus is Messiah—King of the Jews. And that’s what the Davidic covenant was about. It was about establishing the throne. Turn with me to 1 Chronicles 17:11-14. In this passage, God is speaking to David through Nathan the prophet. He reaffirms His promise of the land to Israel and He promises David an eternal throne.

1 CHRONICLES 17:11-14

By saying that Jesus is the Son of David, Matthew is saying that He is the fulfillment of God’s prophesy to David. Jesus is the One whose throne is established forevermore. He is the seed of David that God would raise up and establish His Kingdom. As the Baby Jesus lay in that feed trough in Bethlehem, He was the eternal heir to the throne of David. Isaiah spoke of this promise in Isaiah 9:6-7. “For unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given. And the government shall be upon His shoulder. And His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end. Upon the throne of David, and upon His kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.” Jesus was the literal fulfillment of God’s promise to David. But the Davidic covenant is not the only one Jesus fulfilled. He also fulfilled the Abrahamic covenant. Not only did Jesus fulfill God’s promise for a throne, He fulfilled God’s promise for a seed. In Genesis 12:1-3 God tells Abraham, “Get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee. And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee and make thy name great and thou shalt be a blessing. And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee. And in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.” God told Abraham that through his lineage, all the earth would be blessed. That didn’t happen through Isaac. It didn’t happen through Jacob. It didn’t even happen through Judah, or David, or Solomon. The blessing happened through Jesus Christ. Galatians 3:13-14 says, “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. For it is written, cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree. That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.” And later on in verse 16, Paul says, “Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, “and to seeds,” as of many, but as of one, “and to Thy Seed,” which is Christ.” Jesus is the seed of Abraham by which the whole world is blessed. Not just the nation of Israel—the whole world. God planned a ruler through His promise to David. Jesus fulfills that covenant God made with David. In Jesus, David’s throne is established forever. God planned a ruler through His promise to Abraham. Jesus fulfills that covenant God made with Abraham. He is Abraham’s seed and the whole world is blessed through Him. But not only did God plan for a ruler through promise, He planned for a ruler through people. Those people are listed in verses 2-16. We have already read through them once this morning, so I won’t try you by going through the entire list again. Follow along in your Bibles though as we will pick out certain names as we go along.