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April 23, 2023
Matthew 1

Author

Matthew, the Apostle of Jesus (also called Levi), was a tax collector for Rome. It would seem then that Matthew would have been a good writer,¹ and he would have keep accurate, detailed records, which severed him well as he wrote his account of the gospel.

Personalities bleed out in authors’ writings, Matthew is no exception. "There are more references to money… —in [his account], than in any of the others."² It has been estimated that about one-fifth of Jesus’ teachings dealt with money matters (Blomberg, Preaching … p 83).

There is no record of Matthew every speaking in the Gospel accounts.

According to tradition and evidence, Matthew witnessed about Jesus in Palestine for several years after Jesus’ ascension. He also visited Persia, Ethiopia, Syria, and Greece.³

Audience

Matthew’s Jewish audience would have related to Matthew the best, as it has a focus on making the connection between the promises to the Jews and their fulfillment in Christ (Blomberg, Matthew p 21). Matthew also contains the greatest number of citations to the Old Testament (cf. Blomberg, Matthew p 21).

On the other side of the coin. Matthew includes features that prove Jesus’ expansion of ministry aimed directly at the Gentiles. Only Matthew includes the Gentile Magi who came and worshiped. In the Great Commission, the Disciples are commanded to make disciples of every race on the planet (Blomberg, Matthew p 26).

Key Features

It has been put forth --and rightfully so-- that, the Gospel accounts are the most important parts of the Bible. In them, we of course find humankind’s most important person, Jesus Christ our Lord. All the Old Testament led up to these writings “and all that follows emerges from them.” All of the other books of the Bible find their value from the Gospels.⁴

Matthew’s account was ordered first among the four Gospel accounts, "because when the church established the canon, Matthew was believed to have been the first one written, and the one with the most developed connection to the Old Testament."⁵ Matthew’s gospel is what Wiersbe called "the bridge that leads us out of the Old Testament and into the New Testament."⁶

Matthew recorded more warnings about the Sadducees than all the other New Testament writers combined.⁷ Matthew’s account of the Gospel was usually the most popular in the first several centuries of the church. It includes Jesus’ most famous sermon, the Sermon on the Mount, which includes some of Jesus’ most quoted teaching, like the Beatitudes and the Lord’s Prayer. Matthew’s Gospel has one of the famous “Christmas stories”, it is full of Jesus’ parables, and one of its biggest standouts is the Great Commission in the last chapter (Blomberg, Matthew p 21 f).

READ

The Title of the Sermon is “Jesus: Messianic King.”

1 The Genealogy of Jesus.
2 The Davidic lineage emphasized.
3 The purpose of Jesus’ coming.
4 The beginning of the fulfillment of God’s plan.

1 The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. 2 Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, 3 and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram, 4 and Ram the father of Amminadab, and Amminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon, 5 and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, 6 and Jesse the father of David the king. And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah,

TEACHING POINTS

• A summary is given in verse 1:1 to highlight the key connection Matthew is after.
• “It is generally concluded that Matthew gave our Lord’s family tree through His foster father, Joseph …” (cf Wiersbe, p 1:12, et al.).
• Genealogies were very important to the Jewish nation at the time. Without them they could not prove their rights to an inheritance (Wiersbe, p 1:12). So in that sense they were the birth certificate of the day.
• The genealogical record was instrumental in establishing Jesus’ rightful place in the fulfillment of the Law and Prophets regarding Messiah’s entrance into the world.
• So, rightfully so, from Matthew’s point of view, Jesus was inseparable from His Jewish genealogy as were all Jews.
• Of course all the Tribes of Israel traced their lineage back to their great - grandfather Abraham, but few traced their lineage back to David.
• These two patriarchs are to this day the most important people to Judaism.
• Abraham, the grand-daddy of all the patriarchs.
• “David the king” tied Jesus to the Davidic throne directly.
• Apart from King David, we also find the most notable characteristic of Matthew’s genealogy, the introduction of five women. This was “both unnecessary” to do and unusual in Jewish genealogies. The women are Tamar (in v 3), Rahab and Ruth (in v 4), Bathsheba (referred to as “Uriah’s wife”) (in v 6) and Mary, (listed in verse 16 later) (cf. Blomberg, Matthew p 55).
  • Why are the first four of these women included? Here I see Schaberg’s point somewhat: it seems the only factor that clearly applies to all four is “suspicions of illegitimacy surrounded their sexual activity and childbearing” (Although Ruth’s is debated for sure.) Which Mary’s pregnancy would have been regarded as scandalous too. ^{(Blomberg, Matthew 55 f; Blomberg referenced J. Schaberg).}
  • Matthew tells it like it is…There were people in Jesus’ genealogy that would raise Jewish eyebrows.
  • And that is how real life is as well.
  • 1000 years of any family tree would be filled with a few black sheep.
  • People family trees are filled with sinful people. So was half of Jesus’ genealogy.
  • This reminds me that, God’s ways are not our ways. We might have chosen to include a woman more like Deborah, the Judge.

7 and Solomon the father of Rehoboam, and Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asaph, 8 and Asaph the father of Jehoshaphat, and Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, and Joram the father of Uzziah, 9 and Uzziah the father of Jotham, and Jotham the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah, 10 and Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, and Manasseh the father of Amos, and Amos the father of Josiah, 11 and Josiah the father of Jechoniah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon.

TEACHING POINTS

• Abraham > David = In about 1000 years the nation of Israel started with its first celebrated patriarch and became a powerful nation that served the Lord under King David. >>
• But the nations decline started shorty thereafter.
• We see from David to 400 years later a Babylonian deportation in 586 BC (A VERY KEY DATE) = In 400 years, Judah (w/ Benjamin) was the last tribe to decline into sin and destruction. The 10 Northern tribes were concurred into oblivion about 140 years before.
• The Jews knew to be out of the land was for the nation to be under God’s curse.
• Blomberg took note, The Babylonian exile appears centrally here, “perhaps because Jesus is seen as the climax of restoration of the nation of Israel from exile” (p 53).
• But even during the excile, “The Jews were a waiting people.” They always considered themselves to be the people of God. Their history was one of many “series of disasters,” and although in the first century they were again a people subjected to a Gentile government, to the Romans at that time, they never forgot their what their destiny was. There was always the hope that a descendant of David would lead them to the glory they once enjoyed and read about and told their children about. (Barclay).

12 And after the deportation to Babylon: Jechoniah was the father of Shealtiel, and Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel, 13 and Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, and Abiud the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim the father of Azor, 14 and Azor the father of Zadok, and Zadok the father of Achim, and Achim the father of Eliud, 15 and Eliud the father of Eleazar, and Eleazar the father of Matthan, and Matthan the father of Jacob, 16 and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ. 17 So all the generations from Abraham to David were fourteen generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ fourteen generations.

TEACHING POINTS

• Babylon happened, but God was not done with the nation of Israel.
• Babylon deportation > Jesus
• We see “three epochs” to Jesus’ entry into the history of humanity as recorded by Matthew (Bradley, p 1).
  • Barclay saw these three epochs as symbolic and paralleling human history:
  • 1 “Man was born for greatness.”
  • 2 “Man lost his greatness.”
  • 3 “Man can regain his greatness.”
• That greatness of course is found in our Hero and it was promised through Him.
  • Jesus = God delivers (saves).
  • Christ = Anointed One

APPLICATION

• Jesus was the fulfillment of God’s promise to the nation and to all people of the world.
• God did what He said.
• A promise that started 4000 years earlier in the Garden came to pass just as God said it would.
• The promise was given due to human need.
• We are children of the promise if you know the Lord Jesus through faith.

TRANSITION

We see that Matthew established Jesus heritage to Abraham and David and beyond. We will now see one of the Christmas accounts and the birth of the Promise of God. Verse 18.

18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. 19 And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. 20 But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” 22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: 23 “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us). 24 When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, 25 but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.

• Betrothal > usually 1 yr. > considered to be “virtually” married > lived separately.[118] During that year, the couple could only break their engagement with a divorce." (Constable) >>
• Usually women married at about 13 or 14 years of age,[119] and their husbands were often several years older.
• The virgin conception of Jesus was considered to be no more plausible in the 1st century as the 21st century. (Blomberg, Matthew p 58)

Joseph was called a righteous man = God fearing, man of faith, devout Jew.

• Constable noted, “Joseph, being a righteous (Gr. dikaios) man, could hardly let his fiancée’s pregnancy pass without action, since it implied that she had been unfaithful and had violated the Mosaic Law.”
• "Joseph had three choices concerning how to proceed: First, he could expose Mary publicly as unfaithful. In this case she might suffer stoning, though that was rare in the first century.[123] [She would have suffered shame of a public divorce.] (Constable; edited for clarity).
• “A second option was to grant her a private divorce, in which case Joseph needed only to hand her a written certificate in the presence of two witnesses (cf. Num. 5:11-31).[124] His third option was to remain engaged and not divorce Mary, but this alternative appeared to Joseph to require him to break the Mosaic Law (Lev. 20:10)” (Constable).
• Resolved to divorce her quietly > No shame for Mary.
• But God stepped in to save the marriage.
• It is interesting why God chose this way. >>
• He could have visited with Joseph and said, after you take Mary into your house do not have relations with her until my Son is born. But He didn’t. His ways are higher than our ways.

The so called Christian skeptics deny the miraculous birth to this day. Some claim God made the universe but did not make a woman conceive.

• "God has four ways of making a human body.
• He can create one without the agency of either man or woman as He did when He made Adam out of the dust of the ground.
• Then God can form a body through the agency of just a man as He did when He formed Eve from the rib taken from Adam’s side.
• A third way is through the agency of both a man and a woman. This is the common way, the way we have received our bodies.
• But God can also form a body through the agency of just a woman, and that is the way our Lord received His body—born of a virgin."[114, R. I. Humberd, The Virgin Birth, p. 19.]
• What is too hard for God?

The Virgin Birth is central to the Christian faith. This is orthodox, dogmatic Christian doctrine.

• The sin nature is passed from men to their children.
• The only way God could give the last Adam, that is Jesus, the same opportunity as the first Adam was to take inherited sin out of the equation.
• Also, Jesus is the only Begotten of God. He is unique: 100% God and 100% Man. This too is orthodox, dogmatic Christian doctrine.
• Although hopes of what Messiah would usher into the nation of Israel varied at times depending on the experiences of the day, there was always a common thread: liberation of Israel from its enemies.⁸
• And while they were thinking of a political Savior, God was thinking about the Propitiation> Explain
• The Incarnation was a spiritual plan. A plan for God to save His people from our greatest enemy. Their sins See it in verse 21.

APPLICATION

• Our sin is our biggest enemy. There is nothing that exacts such a large payment from humankind than personal sin.
• The Jews often had their minds on politics and governments. Personal sin is each of our Trojan-horses within each of us.
• A Savior is what we need the most. Everything else doesn’t even register as a problem really comparatively speaking.

TRANSITION

Now that we see God’s purpose in Jesus’ coming, let’s look briefly at His birth.

2:1 Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, 2 saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”

• Whatever the star was, it was this same star that guided the Magi to Jesus’ house in Bethlehem, or at least to Bethlehem.
• It seems to me that it was a miraculous moving star that clearly lit the way to the Miraculous Child.
• The Magi’s question was not, “Where is He who has been born to become King of the Jews?” but, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews?” Here, Jesus is formally acknowledged King of the Jews by the Gentiles. [167]
• Jesus’ position as King did not come to Him later in His life. He was born with it. (Constable)
• These men’s commitment to worship is the reason they are talked about today.
• They chose worship as their response.

3 When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him; 4 and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. 5 They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet: 6 “‘And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.’”

• Herod assembled Israel’s leaders to investigate the Magi’s question further.
• The chief priests were mostly Sadducees at this time, and most of the scribes were Pharisees.
• The scribes were the lawyers of their day. (cf. Constable)
• It remains remarkable that the chief priests and scribes apparently made no effort to check out Jesus’ birth like the Magi did.
• The chief priests and the scribes indifference stands in the utmost sharp contrast with the Magi’s commitment to worship. We hear of nothing further from them.
• And “Jerusalem … was the very centre of the circle of Old Testament illumination. It had all possible advantages, over every other place in the world, for knowing when and how the Christ should come. Yet, when He did come, the people of Jerusalem know nothing about it, but had [to have it announced] … from strangers who had come from the far East to seek Him.” (EBC)

7 Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time the star had appeared. 8 And he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him, bring me word, that I too may come and worship him.” 9 After listening to the king, they went on their way. And behold, the star that they had seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. 11 And going into the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. 12 And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way.

• The Magi’s commitment to seek out for good the Messiah of Israel stands in sharp contrast to Herod’s ungodly desire to kill.
• Of course we know of Herod’s plan of great tragedy.
• He set himself up against the Creator of the universe in the best ways he knew how.
• He was the first of many antichrists.

CONCLUSION

• Several contrasts in this section reveal Matthew’s emphases. Herod, the wicked … king, contrasts with the perfect King Jesus. “The great distance from which the Magi traveled to visit Jesus, contrasts with the short distance Israel’s leaders would have had to travel in order to see Him.” (Constable)
• “No sooner was Jesus born into this world than we see them [these leaders] grouping themselves into these three groups in which men are always to be found regarding Jesus Christ.”[191]
  • The indifferent: John 1:11, He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.
  • The antichrists: 1 John 2:18, Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour.
  • The worshipers: John 9:31, We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him.

APPLICATION

• We have a King who rightfully belongs on the throne.
• A righteous King, who does good and gives to everyone what they deserve.
• We serve a God who has proven Himself to us, though He need not do it.
• He foretold of the things that would happen and happen they did.
• We serve a mighty God.
• We are going to see again, just how mighty in the weeks ahead.

Notes

¹ Cf. Goodspeed, Edgar Johnson. Matthew: Apostle and Evangelist. Philadelphia & Toronto: John C. Winston Co., 1959, pp 101, 108, 117. A reference from from Constable.

² Constable. Constable referenced Werner G. Marx, “Money Matters in Matthew,” Bibliotheca Sacra 136:542 (April-June 1979):148-57. Edited for clarity.

³ Constable. Constable referenced Warren W. Wiersbe. The Bible Exposition Commentary. 2 vols. Wheaton: Scripture Press, Victory Books, 1989, 1:13 (page number should be 2:13 perhaps).

⁴ Constable. Constable referenced W. Graham Scroggie. A Guide to the Gospels. N.c.: Pickering & Inglis Ltd., 1948. Reprint ed. Westwood, N.J.: Fleming H. Revell Co., 1962, p 476. Reference from from Constable.

⁵ Constable. Constable referenced Bock, Darrell L. Blasphemy and Exaltation in Judaism and the Final Examination of Jesus: A Philological-Historical Study of the Key Jewish Themes Impacting Mark 14:61-64. Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament, number 106. Tübingen, Germ.: Mohr Siebeck, 1998, p 31.

⁶ Constable. Constable cited Warren W. Wiersbe. The Bible Exposition Commentary. 2 vols. Wheaton: Scripture Press, Victory Books, 1989, p 2:10.

⁷ Constable. Constable referenced Donald A. Carson. “Matthew.” In Matthew-Luke. Vol. 8 of The Expositor’s Bible Commentary. 12 vols. Edited by Frank E. Gaebelein and J. D. Douglas. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1984, pp. 20-21.

⁸ Blomberg (in Matthew) referenced Horsley. See R. A. Horsley, The Liberation of Christmas (New York: Crossroad, 1989, p 59, 121 et al.).

Works Cited

Scripture quotations [unless otherwise noted] are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Click here to access the works cited web-page for this document, save those marked as “Notes” or “Other Works Cited”–if any. Most of these cited works correspond to the verses they are outlined with. In the case of general background information and references, one will find cited material with the Bible books the citations are associated with. ¶ Furthermore, there may be numbered notes that are URL linked; these are usually retained numbered notes from Thomas Constable’s, “Dr. Constable’s Expository (Bible Study) Notes.” These links are preserved “as is” at the time of this work’s formation and sometimes include other citation information from Constable.

Other Works Cited

Blomberg, Craig L. Matthew. New American Commentary, vol. 22, ed. David S. Dockery, et al., Broadman Press, 1992. Sourced from archive.org.
(https://archive.org/details/matthew0000blom)

________. Preaching the Parables: From Responsible Interpretation to Powerful Proclamation. Baker Academic, 2004. Sourced from archive.org.
(https://archive.org/details/preachingparable0000blom/page/82/mode/2up)

Bradley, Marshell C. Matthew: Poet, Historian, Dialectician. Studies in Biblical Literature, ed. Hemchand Gossai, vol. 103, Peter Lang, 2007.

Evans, Craig A. The Bible Knowledge Background Commentary: Matthew-Luke. Victor, 2003. Sourced from archive.org.
(https://archive.org/details/bibleknowledgeba00crai/mode/2up)

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