Monday, October 14, 2024
Matthew 1:22-25
Friday, October 11, 2024
Matthew 1:19-21
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19 Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not wanting to make her a public example, was minded to put her away secretly. 20 But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. 21 And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins." ~ Matthew 1:19-21
Today, we return to our study of Matthew 1 where we discover that the mother of the Lord Jesus, Mary, was betrothed to Joseph. To be "betrothed" in the first century meant that they were married but they had not yet consummated the marriage. The consummation would come at the end of the year long betrothal period or their engagement period. Their betrothal was tantamount to a legally binding marriage without consummation. But, Mary was with child.
In v.19 of today's passage we read, "Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not wanting to make her a public example, was minded to put her away secretly."
Mary was with child, and Joseph was not the father. Joseph was a righteous man who loved Mary and wanted to protect her from public embarrassment. So then, he quietly sought a way to divorce Mary. Since Mary’s actions were to result in stoning as required by Deuteronomy 22, Joseph determined to put her away secretly.
In v.20 of today's passage we read, "But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, 'Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.'"
The timing, location, and circumstances of how to divorce Mary weighed heavily on Joseph’s mind. But while he was considering these things, it was then that he fell asleep and had a dream. In that dream "an angel of the Lord appeared to him." The word, dream, here is found in the Bible only six times, and all six usages are found in Matthew’s gospel. In his dream, the angel appeared, "saying, 'Joseph, son of David.'"
It was Joseph’s relationship to King David that precipitated the events that transpired. In order to establish the male line of ancestry leading back to David for the rights of inheritance, Joseph's betrothed wife was selected by God to be the one through whom the Messiah would come into this world. No one else could have fit the bill and because of presumption, Mary was almost disqualified. Through the virgin birth, God went to great lengths to rescue us. He went to great lengths to redeem our broken lives. He went to great lengths to forgive our sins and to bring us back to Himself.
To Joseph the angel said, "do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife." For first-century Jews, betrothal was a legally binding pledge between a man and a woman that they would be married. Once they were betrothed, they were legally bound to one another, so to call the wedding off would be the equivalent to divorce. Their engagement was supposed to last for a year. At the end of the year, Mary was supposed to move into Joseph’s home and the marriage would be consummated at that time. Joseph was not to fear to complete their union, because Mary was already set apart to be Joseph's wife. This is obvious because Joseph was planning on divorcing Mary, something one can only do with a wife. The angel gave unto Joseph the absolute assurance that Mary’s pregnancy was not of adultery but of God.
In v.21 of today's passage we read, "And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins."
The angel’s explanation of the purpose of God entering the world as a baby came in these words: "He will save His people from their sins." God entered human existence in order to save His people from their sins. But wait! The Jews thought that their adherence to the Law of Moses saved them. They believed their obedience to God earned them just enough favor with God to get them into heaven. To this day, observant Jews look at the law as fully capable of saving them. But no amount of human goodness bridges the gap created by our sin. God's standard is perfection and our goodness is far from perfect. When man first sinned all humans were separated from God. This is what is known as "spiritual death." This is why God Himself had to enter into human existence in order to rescue His people. He was born without sin. As He was born to Mary, the espoused bride of Joseph, He was born under the law. The law that He gave to Israel, and which no person under that law had ever been able to fulfill. This is why the burden had to be placed upon Him.
As He was born without sin, He did what no human could do, obey the law perfectly. The Lord Jesus obeyed and substantiated the entire law without erring. This is the ultimate message of the four gospels which were written to give testimony to the life of the sinless perfection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Entrance into the New Covenant is what brings freedom from sin, and it can only be obtained through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is why Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me."
Our sin separated us from God, so, the Lord Jesus Himself ransomed us. In 1 Corinthians 15:3-5 we read, "3 For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve."
Genesis ends with Joseph’s death. Deuteronomy ends with Moses’ death. Joshua ends with Joshua’s death. The Gospels end with Jesus’ resurrection. And that changed everything. Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. He was then buried. Then, He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures. This is the message that we proclaim. God in Christ has done it. He alone prevailed over sin because He had no sin. And He offers His sinless perfection to anyone who will come to Him by faith.
The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the cornerstone of our Christian faith. During the 40 days following His resurrection, the Lord Jesus showed Himself alive from the dead to as many as 500 at one time. He appeared many times and places to many people who told others what they had seen and no one refuted it. I close with a great quote from the late C.S. Lewis who once said, "I believe in Christ, like I believe in the sun — not because I can see it, but by it I can see everything else."
Wednesday, October 09, 2024
Matthew 1:18
Monday, October 07, 2024
Matthew 1:2-17
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2 Abraham begot Isaac, Isaac begot Jacob, and Jacob begot Judah and his brothers. 3 Judah begot Perez and Zerah by Tamar, Perez begot Hezron, and Hezron begot Ram. 4 Ram begot Amminadab, Amminadab begot Nahshon, and Nahshon begot Salmon. 5 Salmon begot Boaz by Rahab, Boaz begot Obed by Ruth, Obed begot Jesse, 6 and Jesse begot David the king. David the king begot Solomon by her who had been the wife of Uriah. 7 Solomon begot Rehoboam, Rehoboam begot Abijah, and Abijah begot Asa. 8 Asa begot Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat begot Joram, and Joram begot Uzziah. 9 Uzziah begot Jotham, Jotham begot Ahaz, and Ahaz begot Hezekiah. 10 Hezekiah begot Manasseh, Manasseh begot Amon, and Amon begot Josiah. 11 Josiah begot Jeconiah and his brothers about the time they were carried away to Babylon. 12 And after they were brought to Babylon, Jeconiah begot Shealtiel, and Shealtiel begot Zerubbabel. 13 Zerubbabel begot Abiud, Abiud begot Eliakim, and Eliakim begot Azor. 14 Azor begot Zadok, Zadok begot Achim, and Achim begot Eliud. 15 Eliud begot Eleazar, Eleazar begot Matthan, and Matthan begot Jacob. 16 And Jacob begot Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus who is called Christ. 17 So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations, from David until the captivity in Babylon are fourteen generations, and from the captivity in Babylon until the Christ are fourteen generations. ~ Matthew 1:2-17
Today, we continue our study of the gospel according to Matthew who was led to provide us with a descending genealogy of the Lord Jesus Christ which means he started with the beginning and ended with the Lord Jesus. Whereas in Matthew the genealogy of the Lord Jesus led up to Mary's husband Joseph, Luke's gospel starts with the Lord Jesus through his mother Mary and goes back to Adam. The genealogy that Matthew employed reveals the legal descent of the Lord Jesus as the King of Israel, whereas Luke shows us the blood line. The royal line always passes through the father but the Lord Jesus had no human father. So, in order to have the blood line, he had to be a descendant of David through his mother. Through Mary the Lord Jesus had the blood of David, and through Joseph he has the right to reign as King through King David.
In v.16 of today's passage we read, "And Jacob begot Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus who is called Christ."
Matthew did not say he was the father of the Lord Jesus, he said that Joseph was the husband of Mary. The Bible never calls Joseph the father of the Lord Jesus. The prepositional phrase "of whom" was written in the feminine gender, meaning the Lord Jesus was born not of the seed of Joseph. The Lord Jesus was Joseph’s child legally because He was adopted into Joseph's family. And, since the father was the one who granted the royal line, in every way possible Jesus Christ had the right to be the King of Kings.
When the Lord Jesus was born most people thought, at least at the time of His birth, that He was the son of an illicit affair. They called him the son of Joseph because Joseph was constituted his legal father but Joseph was not His biological father.
In v.11 of today's passage we read, "Josiah begot Jeconiah and his brothers about the time they were carried away to Babylon."
Josiah begot Jeconiah. Here, Matthew provides Joseph’s lineage leading up to the birth of the Lord Jesus. This is some very interesting and important information. In Jeremiah 22:30 we read, "Thus says the Lord: 'Write this man down as childless, a man who shall not prosper in his days; for none of his descendants shall prosper, sitting on the throne of David, and ruling anymore in Judah."
The man to whom this refers is Jeconiah, the son of Josiah. God had said through the prophet, "None of Jeconiah’s offspring will ever sit on the throne of David." God said these words because a curse had been placed on Jeconiah due to his evil choices. The problem with this curse is it seems to invalidate the right of the Lord Jesus to the throne of David. The Davidic Covenant promised that the Messiah, "the Son of David," would reign forever on Jerusalem’s throne. If the Lord Jesus were a descendant of Jeconiah, then how could He be the Messiah, since the curse keeps any of Jeconiah’s descendants from assuming David’s throne? That is, if the Lord Jesus had been the real son of Joseph, but He wasn't the descendent of Joseph. God devised a plan by which the Lord Jesus could be the legal heir to the throne through Mary. The plan that God devised was the virgin birth. The purpose for Matthew's genealogy is to present the fact that the Lord Jesus is the One who has the right to reign.
Once again, in v.16 of today's passage we read, "And Jacob begot Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus who is called Christ."
Mary was unknown before this. She was also a sinner who needed a savior and the Lord Jesus Christ had to be her savior.
In v.17 of today's passage we read, "So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations, from David until the captivity in Babylon are fourteen generations, and from the captivity in Babylon until the Christ are fourteen generations."
Here, Matthew provided three sections of 14 generations. There are 42 generations listed from Abraham to Christ. The first period began with Abraham and ended with David, the period of the great patriarchs and the great judges. The second period is the period from David to the carrying away of the people to Babylon, which was a period of spiritual decline. The first was a period of ascendency, as Israel grew as a people group. The second period was the period of the monarchy. And as soon as the monarchy came things started to go downhill because the people began to look to man for direction and meaning rather than from God.
From David following, we were given the glory days of Solomon. But after Solomon, tragedy upon tragedy came. It was a period of apostasy that ultimately ended up in the destruction of Israel and their captivity in Babylon. The third period was from their captivity in Babylon to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. This was a period shrouded in darkness. It was 600 years of datelessness. We don’t even know the names involved. The story of Israel is the story of three eras. And, even though the whole nation went down the tubes, it is nevertheless through that nation that the Messiah came to redeem us.
The odds that the Lord Jesus Christ overcame in order to fulfill the predictions made in the OT are overwhelming. The odds that the Lord Jesus would fulfill just 8 of the 300 Old Testament prophecies was one and ten to the 17th power. If we were to take the entire State of Texas and fill it with silver dollars two feet thick. If we were to pre-marked one silver dollar and blind-fold a man and send him throughout the state of Texas to find the silver dollar we marked, the odds would be one and ten to the 17th power, the same odds of the Lord Jesus fulfilling just eight Old Testament prophecies. Staggering! And most interesting, this provides us a peek into the greatness of our God. We should never doubt Him. His track record speaks for itself.
Friday, October 04, 2024
Matthew 1:1
Today, we begin a new study of the Gospel according to Matthew. Four hundred years separated the Old Testament from the New Testament. This is why that period of time is called the 400 silent years. God didn't say anything to man during those 400 years. He sent no angels, no prophets or no message. After the last Old Testament prophet, Malachi, God pushed the pause button on special revelation. God did this anticipating the forerunner John the Baptist.
In Malachi 3:1 we read, "'Behold, I send My messenger, and he will prepare the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple, even the Messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight. Behold, He is coming,' says the Lord of hosts." The last prophecy in the Old Testament was that someone would come heralding the coming of the Messiah. And that Herald was the cousin of the Lord Jesus, John the Baptist.
The New Testament is in the Old Testament contained while the Old Testament is in the New Testament explained. The first four books of the New Testament are all called gospels. Gospel means good news. The good news is that God sent His Son to this earth to die in the place of sinful man on the cross of Calvary. Our problem is that we do not understand the enormity of that which has been done to us by Lucifer. Sin is often seen as "something bad" but that view limits our understanding. Until we see sin as a fatal illness that causes terrible side effects or utter wickedness, we will not appreciate our salvation through the cross of the Lord Jesus.
Sin begets sin, evil spreads through evil. Think of all the cyclical expressions of evil in this world, everything from physical abuse to murder to drug abuse which all morph themselves into the most horrid sins. This is the nature of sin, it progressively becomes more and more raunchy. The Bible directs our attention to the source of this progression and the source is the powers and principalities of darkness actively fighting for rule over all. Sadly, even though they gain more and more control they will never be satisfied in their pursuits because sin never satisfies.
So when we look at the four Gospels, it is as if the Holy Spirit was the producer of the film of the life of the Lord Jesus, and He filmed through four different camera angles. The first three Gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke, are called Synoptic Gospels, because they follow a synopsis. The synoptic gospels all have basically the same material. In his gospel, John departed from the synoptic approach.
Each of the four have a particular emphasis. Matthew emphasizes the Lord Jesus as the sovereign King, Mark presents Him as the Servant of God. Luke portrays the Lord Jesus as the Son of Man. And, John places the spotlight on the Lord Jesus as the Son of God. Mark wrote to the Roman mind while Luke wrote to the Greeks. While John wrote his gospel to all mankind, Matthew, wrote his to the Jews.
There is one particular sentence that Matthew penned 16 times in his gospel. That sentence is "This was done so that it might be fulfilled what was written by a prophet." Matthew proves the Lord Jesus fulfilled many Old Testament prophecies. Also, Matthew emphasizes the words the Lord Jesus employed as He communicated with all of mankind. This is why in his gospel Matthew included the long sermons of the Lord Jesus like the Sermon on the Mount and the Upper Room Discourse.
Matthew was a Tax Collector who worked for the Roman version of the IRS. This meant everybody hated Matthew. In those days, the Jews hated the IRS in Rome because the Romans occupied their land and they took advantage of their people financially. Matthew collected taxes for Rome from his countrymen and they saw him as their sworn enemy.
The book of Matthew begins with a genealogical record of the lineage of the Lord Jesus Christ. Interestingly, women were included which was not something done in those days. People claim that the Bible represses women. The reality is that the Bible is a document that was way ahead of its time. The fact that women were included in the genealogy of the Lord Jesus was counter cultural because in that day no one valued women. In Matthew 1:3, we see "Tamar" mentioned. In v.5, both "Rahab" and "Ruth" are mentioned. Bathsheba or the woman known as "the wife of Uriah" is mentioned in v.6. "Mary," the mother of the Lord Jesus is mentioned in v.16. These are all in the genealogy of the Savior of the world. That speaks volumes about God's mercy and grace.
Throughout the Old Testament, the Jews meticulously maintained their genealogical records from Adam until the Lord Jesus Christ, ensuring to us that the Messiah could be absolutely identified when He appeared. In AD 70, all of the genealogical records of Israel were destroyed when the temple was burned by the Romans. As this is so, the only source for the genealogies of the world are maintained in the pages of the Bible. And the full genealogical record of only one Jew remains to this day, the Lord Jesus Christ who alone can be identified as the Savior who has come to take away the sin of the world.
Matthew’s Gospel account specifically notes that the Lord Jesus Christ is the true promised Messiah of Israel and the Christ of the world. To further establish this, he identified the Lord Jesus as "The Son of David." David means "beloved." Matthew purposefully highlighted that the Lord Jesus came through the genealogy of King David to begin his narrative in order to establish that the Lord Jesus is fully entitled to the rights of the Davidic throne as promised in 2 Samuel 7.
Matthew then identifies the Lord Jesus Christ as "the Son of Abraham." When the disciples were disheartened and thought that all was lost because of the crucifixion of the Lord, they were gathered together. At that time, just after hearing from two men on the road to Emmaus who had seen the risen Lord, Luke records in Luke 24:36-39 these words, "Now as they said these things, Jesus Himself stood in the midst of them, and said to them, ‘Peace to you.' 37 But they were terrified and frightened, and supposed they had seen a spirit. 38 And He said to them, 'Why are you troubled? And why do doubts arise in your hearts? 39 Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself. Handle Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have.'"
Doubts arise in every heart regarding these matters. The words of reality speak to our hearts at this very moment. Given the state of our world, we naturally wonder if God is there. So many things in this world seem out of control. We naturally find ourselves discouraged as the world spins into chaos all around us. One of the main reasons the Lord has given us His Word is to ensure that He is aware of everything that is happening and that there are many purposes that are coming to fruition even through calamity. Our problem is that we do not have His vantage point. This is why our faith in Him is so important.
These carefully recorded words of Matthew 1:1 should fill us with the most joyous hope. We don’t need to wonder, worry, or wobble in our faith. We also do not need signs or wonders to convince us that God is here with us. Rather, God has given us His word and He asks us to believe in Him. Christianity is a person. If it were just a teaching or a philosophy then historical events in the Bible would not matter. If Christianity was merely a new outlook on life, then dates would be of concern. Since Christianity is based upon and concerned with the person of Christ, one can recall that there was a given day when He was born. If we were to take away Christ, there would be no Christianity. In God’s covenant with King David, He established that it would be through his posterity that His universal kingdom would be fulfilled. And, through the Lord Jesus it has been.