Sermon Central
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The Coming Of The King Series
Contributed by Steve Malone on Jan 6, 2022 (message contributor)
Summary: Matthew kicks off his Gospel with his genealogy, because he wants everyone (including us today) to know that Jesus is the Christ, the son of David... the King! And as King Jesus has - the authority to speak, the power to rule, the desire to include and the right to reward.
The Coming Of The King
OKAY MG – welcome to church!
Welcome to a gathering of people…
• Whose past is forgiven
• Whose future forever in heaven is secure, and
• Whose present is all about, pursuing Jesus and the life He created us to live!
YEAH – His church, no better place to be, AMEN?!
NOW – this morning we are kicking off a new message series “Matthew, The King And His Kingdom”
IT – is going to be a chapter by chapter, verse by verse study that will probably take up most of the year 2022.
Should be fun, challenging, life-changing, city on the hill impacting.
Prayer
OKAY – let’s do this, Matthew chapter one verse one
AND HEY - after this verse, we will only have 1,070 more verses to go.
NOW UNDERSTAND MGCC - as we dive into Matthew we need to keep in mind that whenever you are reading the Scriptures that one rule of thumb, that one rule of interpretation.
IS THAT – ideas or themes that are presented at the very beginning or the very end of a book of the bible or a biblical text have added weight or importance.
LIKE - how a writer begins… matters, is significant.
• Paul an apostle (okay, that’s a big deal I guess)
• Paul a slave of Christ Jesus (well okay, so that is an idea that he wants to get across).
AND SO – Matthew is going to do just that.
He is going to say something right up front that is very significant and important to him.
OKAY – so let’s jump into our text, Matthew 1:1-17…
AND SEE – what it is, that Matthew is trying drive home, what it is, that he is underlining and wants us to understand, and take home with us today.
This is the genealogy (The ancestor.com if you will)
of Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham:
OKAY – here’s the deal…
Matthew in his opening salvo, Matthew as he (inspired by the Holy Spirit) begins writing his Gospel…
IS - telling us right out of the gate, ‘This’ is who Jesus is.
Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham
AND LISTEN– the word ‘Christ’ matters.
I MEAN - it’s not Jesus of Nazareth, where He was born
It’s Jesus Christ…
A word that comes from either the Greek or Latin Cristos. And I get that, Cristos (Christ)
NOW - in Hebrew they would take that same word and it would be Messiah. So you can say ‘Jesus Messiah.’
The Messiah… the promised one, whose name is Jesus.
AND - the English would be Jesus ‘the anointed one.’
QUESTION – who do you anoint? You anoint KINGS.
UNDERSTAND MGCC – in the very first verse of His Gospel Matthew wants us to know that Jesus in the Christ (the Messiah, the anointed one),
AND NEXT – Matthew says he is the son of who? of DAVID, AND WE - know who David was, he was “the KING.”
AND – Jesus the son of Abraham (the Father of the promise)
A promise that God made to Abraham 2000 years before the birth of Jesus… that Abraham would have descendants as numerous as the stars in the heavens and the sand on the shore and that all the nations of the earth would be blessed through him.
AND THEN – beginning in verse 2 we have Matthew Genealogy… which I know we all enjoy reading, right?
NOW – before we read it… I want to point out a few things
• Matthew’s genealogy is broken down into 3 groups of 14… (Abraham – David) (David – Exile) (Exile – Jesus)
QUESTION – why 3 groups of 14?
OKAY – now, this is pretty cool, like, I did not know this until I began studying for this message.
Understand – the Jewish people and even Christians in the first century placed meaning on both names and numbers.
IN FACT – they even applied number values to names
The name David only has 3 letter in Hebrew (no vowels)
D – dalet (4)
V – vav (6)
D – dalet (4)
OKAY – here’s the deal… Matthew chooses to group Jesus’ genealogy into 3 groups of 14 to underscore and drive home the truth that Jesus is the Son of David… and the true heir to the Davidic throne. To underscore and drive home the truth that Jesus is King.
• NOW - another thing that Matthew’s Genealogy underscores is the faithfulness of God.
How God kept His promises, working through different people (the good, the bad and the ugly)
and ever changing circumstances (peace, war, famine, prosperity, conflict, occupation and exile)
FROM Abraham TO (Joseph, Mary and Jesus) 2000 years later.
