Matthew 1:1-17

[00:00:00] You are listening to the Through the Bible Studio series with Pastor Nate Holdridge.

[00:00:07] Join us as we continue our study through the New Testament book of Matthew.

[00:00:12] Here's Nate.

[00:00:14] Well, the book of Matthew is a fascinating book to study in large part due to just thinking about the reality that it's very possible that the book of Matthew is the most widely

[00:00:29] read piece of literature in history.

[00:00:34] The reason I say that is simple, you know, the Bible, the greatest selling book of all time.

[00:00:41] And for many people when they begin their initial expedition into the Bible, they begin with the New Testament and the book of Matthew is the beginning of the New Testament.

[00:00:56] As far as our modern Bibles are concerned in the way that we organize them.

[00:01:01] And so to me, it's very possible that the book of Matthew is the most widely read piece of literature in all of history potentially.

[00:01:11] And so it's a very important book.

[00:01:13] Now all of the Gospels serve as a wonderful hinge in God's Word.

[00:01:19] So the Bible from the Old Testament and the foundational things that God is doing there in making the way for the Messiah to come.

[00:01:31] And then in the Gospels, you see the presentation of this Messiah, of this Savior.

[00:01:38] He's got the perfect forms, fulfilling first coming types of prophecies that had been spoken of him in the Old Testament prophets and in the entire Old Testament.

[00:01:51] And so we see Jesus presented here in the Gospels.

[00:01:55] And then you see the birth of the church in the book of Acts.

[00:01:58] And then you see the doctrine and exhortations to his church in the epistles with a final culmination in the book of Revelation concerning future things that the church needed to be aware of and conscious of.

[00:02:17] And so the Gospels are exciting because they are this wonderful hinge in presenting us this turn now in Scripture from days of preparation and promise for a Savior to actually presenting the Savior himself.

[00:02:35] Now the book of Matthew seems to have a Jewish bent to the Gospel.

[00:02:42] The Gospel seems to have a different kind of crowd in mind as it is recorded.

[00:02:48] But the Gospel of Matthew seems to have the Jewish crowd in mind.

[00:02:54] He will mention quite often in this book, prophecies from the Old Testament that have been fulfilled.

[00:03:02] In the Gospel of Matthew, there will be numerous Old Testament scriptures that are quoted where as in the Gospel of Mark, for example, the quoting of an Old Testament scripture is very rare.

[00:03:18] In the Gospel of Matthew, Jewish customs are referenced without detailed explanations as to what those customs were, what they meant and how they were carried out, as is the case in other Gospels.

[00:03:36] And so Matthew seems to have a very Jewish bent sort of showing that Jesus is the Jewish Messiah that has been promised to the nation in the Old Testament.

[00:03:51] And so Matthew is going to focus himself on divine intervention and the fulfilled prophecy that Jesus brings about.

[00:04:01] So let's begin here in Matthew chapter 1 verse 1 and as would be very fitting to the Jewish mindset, we begin the Gospel of Matthew with a genealogy.

[00:04:15] It starts out in verse 1, the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

[00:04:26] Now Matthew and Luke, they are the only Gospels to include Jesus's genealogy.

[00:04:32] Matthew is going to record it from the line of Joseph down to Abraham and Luke would record it from the line of Mary all the way down to Adam with more of a Gentile mindset as he wrote.

[00:04:49] And so here Matthew starts out with a bold declaration that Jesus is the son of David and the son of Abraham.

[00:04:57] These are obviously two Old Testament heavy hitters.

[00:05:01] Now Abraham was the one who received the initial promise from God that through his seed all the nations of the earth would be blessed.

[00:05:12] And this promise was whittled down of course through Abraham and then Isaac and then Jacob and then even whittled down further when you get to David.

[00:05:22] And God promised to David through the prophet Nathan that there would be a descendant from David who would sit on the throne and rule and reign forever and ever and ever.

[00:05:36] So immediately when Matthew points out that Jesus is the son of David and the son of Abraham, he is making a bold claim about the identity of Jesus.

[00:05:49] Now in verse 2 we get the actual genealogy.

[00:05:53] He says Abraham was the father of Isaac and Isaac the father of Jacob and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers.

[00:06:02] And Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar and Perez the father of Hezron and Hezron the father of Ram and Ram the father of Aminadab and Aminadab the father of Nashon and Nashon the father of Salman.

[00:06:17] And Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth and Obed the father of Jesse and Jesse the father of David the king.

[00:06:30] So this first little chunk of the genealogy is quite interesting.

[00:06:36] First of all we go down just through the patriarchs there in verse 2 you've got Isaac and Jacob who we covered in our time in the book of Genesis.

[00:06:47] But here you have this wonderful thing in verse 3 where the first woman is mentioned in the genealogy and it's Tamar.

[00:06:57] And of course this was fairly scandalous story out of Genesis chapter 38.

[00:07:05] Tamar had been the wife of Judah's son actually a man named Ur and Ur had some kind of sin in his life.

[00:07:13] God judged him with death.

[00:07:15] Onan then who was Ur's younger brother was required customarily to then go into Tamar and have children have a child with her.

[00:07:26] And that child would be the descendant of Ur who would then receive his father's you know technical father's inheritance and the line of Ur would remain alive.

[00:07:39] Onan was also judged for his wickedness there in Genesis and so Judah then withheld his third son named Shaila from Tamar.

[00:07:52] And so Tamar then deceived Judah through this elaborate plan where one day with his friend Hyrum he goes up to shear his sheep

[00:08:03] and he sees this woman who was a prostitute on the side of the road.

[00:08:07] He pays her to go into her.

[00:08:10] He doesn't have any money with him and so he gives him his staff and ring and other items.

[00:08:16] And then she actually leaves and it was actually Tamar in disguise.

[00:08:21] She becomes pregnant as a result of that encounter.

[00:08:25] Judah wants to kill her in judgment and Tamar then pulls out these items that belong to Judah and say I have become pregnant by the man who owns these items.

[00:08:38] A rather scandalous birth there but Judah the father of Perez and Zara by Tamar.

[00:08:46] Okay, there in verse three.

[00:08:49] But then also we have another woman mentioned in verse five.

[00:08:53] Rahab that Salmon the father of Boaz verse five by Rahab.

[00:09:00] And so Rahab is another fairly interesting figure in that she was actually not an Israelite.

[00:09:09] She was a convert who was originally a prostitute in Jericho and she hid the men who came in Joshua chapter two to spy out the land and made a deal for her safety.

[00:09:24] She was a convert, a proselyte and one sense.

[00:09:28] She feared the Lord.

[00:09:29] She had faith in God but her beginning was that of prostitution.

[00:09:34] And then in verse five we move further down the line and Boaz was the father of Obed by Ruth.

[00:09:43] Alright, now so you have the third woman mentioned Ruth and she's less scandalous but nonetheless she's not an Israelite.

[00:09:51] She's a Moabite.

[00:09:53] She marries into the family.

[00:09:55] The book of Ruth is a wonderful love story where Boaz acquires her to be his wife.

[00:10:02] But you have the mention of Ruth, this Gentile Moabite woman.

[00:10:09] And then it says in verse six moving on in the genealogy that David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah.

[00:10:18] And so the next woman, the fourth woman mentioned is this wife of Uriah and of course she is Bathsheba.

[00:10:28] But the scandal was connected with the fact that David took her to be his wife even though she was another man's wife

[00:10:37] and he had to kill Uriah to obtain her.

[00:10:41] And of course it's one of the most dark moments in the life of God's man David.

[00:10:47] And so the first four women that are mentioned are actually fairly scandalous women.

[00:10:53] And of course it challenges some of our perceptions.

[00:10:56] It challenges our heart toward people who are far from God or appear far from God.

[00:11:03] It's important for us to realize the potential in every single life and the power of God to redeem.

[00:11:12] That which may seem to be an ugly situation God is able to by his grace and by his mercy

[00:11:19] use all things together for good according to his purpose.

[00:11:24] And so just a wonderful little side note here with these four women that are mentioned.

[00:11:30] And so Solomon the father of Rehoboam verse seven and Rehoboam the father of Abijah.

[00:11:36] Now we're into the realm of the season of the kings not the patriarchs.

[00:11:40] And Abijah the father of Asaph and Asaph the father of Jehoshaphat and Jehoshaphat the father of Joram.

[00:11:47] And Joram the father of Uzziah and Uzziah the father of Jotham and Jotham the father of Ahaz

[00:11:54] and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah.

[00:11:57] And Hezekiah the father of Manasseh and Manasseh the father of Amos and Amos the father of Josiah

[00:12:03] and Josiah the father of Jechaniah and his brothers at the time of the deportation to Babylon.

[00:12:11] And so the first little section goes from Abraham to the time of David as king.

[00:12:16] The second section goes from the time of Solomon as king all the way up to the time when Nebuchadnezzar

[00:12:23] and the Babylonians came and took the southern kingdom Judah away captive into slavery

[00:12:32] as God had promised as a result of Israel's failure for 490 years to keep the seven year Sabbath

[00:12:41] every seven years they would give the land rest.

[00:12:43] They hadn't done it for 490 years which would have meant 70 Sabbath years they'd avoided.

[00:12:49] And so God promised I'm going to get those 70 years back and He did that through Nebuchadnezzar

[00:12:55] and the Babylonians.

[00:12:57] And so the second little chunk of this genealogy is found during the time of the kings

[00:13:04] the history of the nation of Israel.

[00:13:08] And I wish we had time to look at each one of these kings and their history.

[00:13:13] So many of them were good kings faithful kings some of them were unfaithful and evil kings

[00:13:21] just a wonderful history and heritage.

[00:13:24] And Matthew is basically just tracing down this line of Christ.

[00:13:28] Now it's important to note that as he is moving down this line he is doing something that is very acceptable

[00:13:35] and understood and received in Jewish culture.

[00:13:38] He's making a neat little division as I'll show you in a couple of verses.

[00:13:43] But in order to package it nice and neat there are times where he is actually skipping a generation here or there.

[00:13:52] And if you actually went back into the history of the kings you would see a few little moments where he's skipping different characters

[00:14:00] but it's all with the purpose of having a neat and easily memorized genealogy for people to go by.

[00:14:10] Now in verse 12 it says that after the deportation to Babylon

[00:14:13] Jechaniah was the father of Shaltiel and Shaltiel the father of Zerubbabel

[00:14:19] the father of Abbiud and Abbiud the father of Eliachim and Eliachim the father of Azor

[00:14:25] and Azor the father of Zadok and Zadok the father of Achaem

[00:14:29] and Achaem the father of Elieud and Elieud the father of Eliezer

[00:14:33] and Eliezer the father of Methon and Methon the father of Jacob

[00:14:37] and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary of whom Jesus was born who is called Christ.

[00:14:44] And so we have the post deportation to Babylon section of Jesus's genealogy.

[00:14:52] Some of this is found in the Old Testament scripture and much of this is found in the blank space

[00:14:59] in between the book of Malachi and the book of Matthew but Matthew records it for us.

[00:15:04] The line of Joseph who was the husband of Mary of whom Jesus was born who is called Christ.

[00:15:11] So verse 17 all the generations from Abraham to David were 14 generations

[00:15:18] and from David to the deportation to Babylon were 14 generations

[00:15:23] and from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ 14 generations.

[00:15:28] So as I said Matthew goes to great pains to you know even remove a character or a generation here or there

[00:15:36] in order to connect and build these 14, 14, 14 generational three groups of 14 all together

[00:15:45] for a nice little package concerning the genealogy of Jesus.

[00:15:51] Moving on into verse 18 we actually get into the narrative and the story of the life of Christ.

[00:15:59] So now the birth of Jesus Christ verse 18 took place in this way.

[00:16:06] When his mother had been betrothed to Joseph before they came together

[00:16:12] she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.

[00:16:17] Now a couple of things to note first of all Mary at this point was a very young woman

[00:16:24] and it says here that she was betrothed to Joseph.

[00:16:29] Betrothal was an interesting thing similar perhaps to my culture the engagement period

[00:16:39] where you are engaged to be married but much more legally binding than that engagement period.

[00:16:47] You know in my era you know you get engaged, you get closer to your wedding day

[00:16:52] you maybe go to the county courthouse, you get a marriage license

[00:16:57] you bring it with you to your wedding the official or the minister signs it

[00:17:02] and you become officially married once that document is mailed in

[00:17:07] but if you were to get engaged and break off an engagement there is no official accounting

[00:17:12] or reporting that takes place but this betrothal actually carried that kind of legal weight.

[00:17:19] If you were to break off a betrothal it would be similar legally to a divorce in that culture.

[00:17:27] And so Mary who was you know perhaps 13, 14, 15, 16 years old at this point

[00:17:35] is betrothed to this man who would be older than her named Joseph.

[00:17:40] Ready to be married and before they came together verse 18

[00:17:46] so before they were married and before they had a sexual relationship

[00:17:52] she was found to be with child she is pregnant from the Holy Spirit.

[00:17:59] Alright so she becomes pregnant and this is a pregnancy that she receives

[00:18:04] not from her husband Joseph but from the Holy Spirit himself.

[00:18:09] Okay so this is obviously a reference to the incarnation that God became flesh

[00:18:17] and dwelt among us which we'll see in just a moment.

[00:18:21] Now obviously Joseph like any man in his position would is a little shocked by this

[00:18:28] upset by this this isn't news that he is happy to hear

[00:18:33] and obviously the first thing in his mind isn't well I wonder if maybe this is a miraculous pregnancy.

[00:18:41] You know obviously to him he knows the birds and the bees he knows how things work

[00:18:45] and so he sees she's pregnant he knows it wasn't him

[00:18:49] and so it says in verse 19 that her husband Joseph being a just man

[00:18:55] and unwilling to put her to shame resolved to divorce her quietly.

[00:19:02] As I said to break off even a betrothal would be considered a divorce

[00:19:08] but he wanted to put an end to this betrothal because you know in his mind obviously

[00:19:13] he's thinking well she doesn't want me and she's not the kind of woman that I thought she was

[00:19:19] and so because he's just and because he doesn't want to make a big deal about her

[00:19:25] and put her to shame he decides to divorce her quietly.

[00:19:32] Just a good man but as he considered these things verse 20 behold

[00:19:37] an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream saying Joseph son of David

[00:19:42] do not fear to take Mary as your wife for that which is conceived in her

[00:19:48] is from the Holy Spirit.

[00:19:51] And one thing I so appreciate about this man Joseph is that he actually considered

[00:19:57] these things for a moment he was a cool headed man.

[00:20:02] I think so many men would you know immediately just fly off into a rage

[00:20:09] or anger or tirade upon receiving this kind of news but not Joseph

[00:20:15] it says that Joseph considered these things he thought about it

[00:20:20] and in the space that he thought about it and considered it

[00:20:24] this angel of the Lord appears to him in a dream and is able to speak to him.

[00:20:30] In other words he gave it some space he gave it some time

[00:20:34] he thought about things and he even slept on them.

[00:20:39] He's just a just good man

[00:20:43] and what we'll see of Joseph throughout his life

[00:20:47] whenever we see him we'll see a man who God is speaking to through angels

[00:20:52] and dreams God is speaking to his heart

[00:20:56] and God didn't tell Joseph the entire plan ahead of time

[00:21:00] he experiences a little trial here but then God steps in

[00:21:05] and gives him the clarity and I love that Joseph did not act rashly

[00:21:10] he waited and he thought and gave God the space to speak into

[00:21:15] his life and into his heart. Now Joseph outside of this particular text

[00:21:20] is an interesting man we learned from Matthew 13

[00:21:24] that Joseph was a carpenter that this was his profession and job

[00:21:29] perhaps working with wood but also potentially being a mason basically

[00:21:34] working with the material that the land provided

[00:21:38] and working with stone and rock and fashioning you know furniture

[00:21:43] and all of that with stone and rock.

[00:21:46] So a hard working man and it appears that he died before

[00:21:52] Jesus went to the cross. In John 19 when Jesus is dying on the cross

[00:21:58] he looks at his disciple John and asks John to care for his mother Mary

[00:22:06] and so that would seem to be an odd request if Joseph were still around

[00:22:12] so perhaps an older man perhaps something happened

[00:22:15] but eventually it appears that Joseph dies and is off of the scene

[00:22:20] but here he's presented as this good calm headed cool headed kind of man

[00:22:27] willing to wait and allow the Lord to speak into his life and heart

[00:22:31] and so this angel comes to him and says you know don't be afraid to take her as your wife

[00:22:36] because that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.

[00:22:40] She verse 21 will bear a son and you shall call his name Jesus

[00:22:45] for he will save his people from their sins.

[00:22:49] Now the name Jesus means savior and so the very name that Jesus receives

[00:22:54] is the mission that he is on and so he's to give him the name Jesus

[00:22:59] and all this verse 22 took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet.

[00:23:05] You remember Matthew he has the Jewish mindset in mind

[00:23:09] if they hear of an event like this they're going to be wondering

[00:23:12] well does the Old Testament tell us that this would actually happen

[00:23:16] and Matthew says all this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet.

[00:23:22] Behold verse 23 the virgin shall conceive and bear a son

[00:23:26] and they shall call his name a man you will.

[00:23:30] Okay so he quotes from Isaiah 7 verse 14

[00:23:34] now the interesting thing about this is that in Isaiah 7 verse 14

[00:23:38] the word for virgin could be translated or used in a couple of different ways

[00:23:44] you could use it just simply to describe a young woman

[00:23:48] but you can also use it to describe an actual virgin sexually

[00:23:53] and so you know some who have wanted to devalue the miraculous in Scripture

[00:24:03] have looked at that and said well you know it's simply saying

[00:24:07] that Jesus would be born of a young woman but it doesn't mean that she was a virgin

[00:24:12] it doesn't mean that it was the immaculate conception

[00:24:15] it doesn't mean any of that it just means that she was a young woman

[00:24:20] when she became pregnant somehow some way

[00:24:24] but the problem with that view is that this is not a sign

[00:24:30] this is not some miraculous thing you know all this was done to fulfill

[00:24:35] that which the prophet said someday a young girl is going to have a baby

[00:24:40] that's not a miraculous sign in the slightest

[00:24:44] no it's the virgin birth that is impressive

[00:24:48] and so Matthew goes back to that from Isaiah

[00:24:52] to illustrate that this is an amazing miracle and sign that has taken place

[00:24:57] and they verse 23 will call his name Emmanuel

[00:25:01] now we just learned that his name would be Jesus

[00:25:04] but one of the titles that he would receive is that of Emmanuel

[00:25:09] which means God with us

[00:25:12] he explains in parentheses at the end of verse 23

[00:25:16] and so the simple reality as I mentioned earlier of the incarnation

[00:25:21] that God as John wrote became flesh and dwelt among us

[00:25:26] and Paul in Philippians chapter 2 has one of the greatest expressions

[00:25:31] of how this process took place that he set aside his garments of privilege and deity

[00:25:37] without setting aside his deity he set aside his glory

[00:25:42] became flesh became a fully man and fully God

[00:25:46] and dwelt and lived with us and we'll see why as these chapters unfold

[00:25:52] and when Joseph woke from his sleep verse 24

[00:25:56] he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him

[00:25:59] he took his wife but knew her not sexually

[00:26:03] until she had given birth to a son

[00:26:06] and he called his name Jesus

[00:26:09] and so we don't get the account of Jesus's birth

[00:26:13] that we would find in a place like the gospel of Luke

[00:26:17] but we'll get a little more detail next time we're together in Matthew chapter 2

[00:26:22] but suffice it to say that Joseph was a man who obeyed the Lord

[00:26:28] he wakes from his sleep and he does everything the Lord commands him to do

[00:26:32] Mary's his wife, Mary she has a son

[00:26:36] names him Jesus, Joseph is an obedient man

[00:26:41] and the thing about obedience is that you're simply putting yourself

[00:26:46] in the place where God's grace and favor is found

[00:26:51] it is a rewarding experience to live an obedient life to the Lord

[00:26:56] because that's the place where God's grace and mercy and favor can be most freely found

[00:27:02] and so Joseph was an obedient man at all costs

[00:27:07] may we live for the Lord in obedience to him

[00:27:10] God bless you and amen

[00:27:12] thank you for listening

[00:27:14] for additional resources and teachings or to contact us

[00:27:18] please visit us at NateHoldridge.com