The Life of Jesus The..

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com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. Acts chapter 1, as you know by the grace of God last week we concluded and we finished with the series that we were doing on our study on the Old Testament and as we were trying to find Jesus Christ in the Old Testament and how he was foreshadowed And in the Old Testament, with different people, with different times, with different events in the Old Testament, that was concluded last week by the grace of God. And what we're going to be doing this evening is starting a new series, as we have just mentioned many times now.

The new series is going to be about the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we have chosen seven different moments or seven different points in the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we are going to try to get from those moments, from those points of the life of the Lord Jesus Christ, fulfillments of the Old Testament and to know the Lord Jesus Christ better as the Messiah of Israel and as the Savior of the world. And this evening, the passage that we're actually going to be addressing is found in Matthew chapter 1, but I wanted us to start with an exhortation on understanding better, perhaps, or giving a brief introduction to the series so that we will understand the purpose of what we want to do. And for that reason, we're going to be reading a portion of scripture that is found in the book of Acts in chapter 1.

And that portion of scripture is going to go from verse 1 through verse 11, and there's just simply a couple of points from this passage of Scripture that I want us to meditate upon so that then we can focus on the study tonight, which is in Matthew chapter 1, precisely on the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ, that will be the first moment of the first point of these seven points that we've chosen for this study, and that will be the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. There's a couple of points in this passage that we have here. So let's read carefully these 11 verses. Brother Jesus, would you please help us reading this version of a scripture? In the first book of Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach.

until the day when he was dead, after he had given command through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during 40 days and speaking about the kingdom of God. And whilst staying with them, he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which he said, you heard from me, for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit, not many days from now. Six, so when they had come together, they asked him, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom of Israel? He said to them, it is not for you to know times or seasons that the father has fixed by his own vote, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.

And you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all of Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.' And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. And while they were gazing into heaven, as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes and said, Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven will come in the same way as you saw Him going to heaven. Very good.

Amen. That is the Word of God. Now, brothers and sisters, when we speak of the life of the Lord Jesus Christ, which is the main topic of our series, when we speak of the life of the Savior, we necessarily have to speak of the gospel of the Savior or the message of salvation of the Lord Jesus Christ, the message for which He came to this world to save sinners. That is the message of the gospel. And Scripture is very clear to say that that message of the gospel is the power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.

That gospel of salvation, that message of salvation of the Lord Jesus Christ that is necessarily attached to his life can be received in two different ways. By those who, by the grace of God, have been inserted in the body of the Lord Jesus Christ, Paul says in 1 Corinthians that that message is power for them. But for those who are not united to Christ by grace through faith, namely the lost, those who are in the flesh, that gospel of the same Lord Jesus Christ that is attached to his life and who he is, is foolishness and it's not power. The message of the Lord is received by grace and through faith. And this is not of us, but this is a work of God entirely.

The passage that we have just read here, the Lord Jesus Christ is going to give instruction to his disciples about how that message is going to be spread throughout the world. the order and the sequence of how that power of God unto salvation, the message that belongs to Christ, that is attached to His life, how that message is going to be taken until the end of the earth or at the outermost part of the earth. That is the first point that I want you to pay attention to, because this is the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ before He's taken up in heaven, before He's ascended, and He's going to say two things to the disciples. And the first thing that I want you to pay attention to is the extent, how this message of salvation is going to be spread to the end of the earth. That is what we find in verse 8.

It says, but you will receive power. when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be my witnesses, and it says in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth. Brothers and sisters, there is a sense in which we can say that this message, just as Paul says in Romans 1 verse 16, this message is for the Jew first and also for the Greek. That is for the people of Israel first, namely Jerusalem and Judea. But also this message was for the Gentiles.

And as you progress through the book of Acts, you see that that's actually how the message of salvation of the Lord Jesus Christ was spread first for the Jew, first for the people of Israel, and then the message reached the outermost part of the earth. Namely, the Gentiles. This message was meant to go at the outermost part of the earth, but in the providence of God, he decided that first this message of salvation will come to the Jews and to the people of Israel. Now this is very important because in Jesus Christ there is no distinction and there's no Jew, no Gentile, there's no male, there's no female, there's no free, there's no slave. They are all one in the person of Jesus Christ but the Apostle Paul says that there is an advantage for the Jews because they received the oracles of God in Romans chapter 3.

They received the word of God and this is something that we as Gentiles are to acknowledge that the message of salvation was first given to the people of Israel as we have just read in this portion of Scripture. Now, this is very important because there's a question that the disciples ask the Lord. And from that question, we can understand many things of the current situation of the Jews to whom that message was going to be spread first. That is the second point that I want you to pay attention to, and that is found in verse 6. The disciples are going to ask the Lord Jesus Christ a question.

In verse 6 it says, So when they had come together, they asked him, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? Will you at this time, after all of these things have taken place, after you have ministered on earth, after you have died, after you have been resurrected, after you have taught us all the things from your holy mouth, is this the time in which you are going to restore the kingdom, not to the world, but restore the kingdom to Israel? Now, brothers and sisters, the question was a genuine question. They were asking if this was the time, this was the season in which the kingdom was going to be restored, not to a spiritual Israel, but actually to the people of Israel, the land of Israel, and the people, the physical people of Israel. And this is a very important question.

And we have to be very careful as Gentiles sometimes to be puffed up with the understanding that we have of the grace of the gospel and then to look back to the Jews and to the people of Israel and say, oh, they were so... They didn't know much about the spiritual things. They didn't know much or they didn't have much understanding about the spiritual matters of the oracles of God. We need to be very careful not to be puffed up in that way because the question that they asked at this particular time, not only was a genuine question, but it was a question that made absolute sense. Brothers and sisters, we have studied the Old Testament now for a portion of time, for a long period of time.

And the way that we concluded the Old Testament was with the people of Israel, with the Jews at least, or let's just call the people of Israel being scattered and going into exile, remember? And then after the exile, they returned to the land. But I said to you that when they returned to the land, they rebuilt the temple and even they rebuilt the walls around the city. But the kingdom of Israel was never, ever the same to what it was in the time of David or in the time of Solomon. And even after the returning from the exile, the people of Israel as a nation, historically, they were under the dominion of other empires and other nations.

The people of Israel genuinely desire and were expecting the restoration of the kingdom of the land of Israel. This was not a question that was based of ignorance of the spiritual things of the law. They had the Old Testament as their scriptures and this is the promises that they had. Go to Zephaniah chapter 3. Let me just show you a portion of the scripture that speaks of the restoration of Israel, independently of what you think about the end times.

This is the scripture that the people of Israel had at this particular time when the disciples were asking this very genuine question to the Lord Jesus Christ. Zephaniah is what you call it? Zephaniah? Zephaniah chapter 3. Sephaniah chapter three.

Now brothers, this is kind of like a song. So the way even, you know, like we read letters and we have that, but there's lots of heart and passion and emotion in the letters that we have in front of us. It says, sing aloud verse 14, chapter, I said three. Chapter 3, verse 14, it says, "...Sing aloud, O daughter of Zion!

Shout, O Israel! Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem! The Lord has taken away the judgments against you. He has cleared away your enemies, the King of Israel. The Lord is in your midst.

You shall never again fear evil. On that day you shall be sent to Jerusalem. Fear not, O Zion. Let not your hands grow weak. The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save.

He will rejoice over you with gladness. He will quiet you by His love. He will exult over you with loud singing. I will gather those of you who mourn for the festival so that you will no longer suffer reproach. Behold, at that time I will deal with all your oppressors, and I will save the lame and gather the outcasts, and I will change their shame into praise and renown in all the earth.

Does this sound as the restoration of a kingdom? Now, verse 20. At that time, I will bring you in at the time when I gather you together For I will make you renowned and praised among all the peoples of the earth when I restore your fortunes before your eyes, says the Lord. Brothers and sisters, the question of the disciples was not a question that was not based in understanding of the Scriptures, of the spiritual things. It was a genuine question and was a question that was based on Scripture.

The people of Israel genuinely desired and were waiting for the restoration of the kingdom, physically, the restoration of the land of Israel for a king like David to come and to restore the kingdom to the people of Israel and to be the renowned of the nations so that the kings of the world will come to see the riches and the wisdom and the things that were taking place in Israel. That question was genuine. And brothers and sisters, the reason why I'm saying all of these things is because when we approach and especially the book of Matthew, as we are going to try to do by the grace of God. And if we go to Matthew chapter one and when we speak of the birth and the life of the Lord Jesus Christ, brothers and sisters, we are to acknowledge that the message of the Messiah was for Israel first, as we heard it, as we read it in the book of Acts, and He is this Messiah of Israel, indeed the Savior of the world. But you see, there is a sense in which when we share the gospel with people, we say that Jesus Christ came to this world and lived a perfect life, and that He went upon the cross, and that He took the wrath of the judgment of God that we deserve, and that He died, that He paid for our sins, and that there is a glorious exchange, and that we are saved by grace through faith in that, in His ascension, on His resurrection, ascension, and His coming back.

This is the definition of the gospel. But brothers and sisters, when the Jews were going to preach the gospel to the Jews? or when the message of Jesus Christ was going to be presented to the people of Israel, there was something else that needed to be explained. There was something else that needed to be pointed. This is the gospel indeed, 1 Corinthians 15, verse 1 through 4.

That's the gospel indeed, that Jesus Christ came to the world to die according to the Scriptures, but for the mind of the Gentile, for the mind of the Jew, There were other things in the message of the prophesied Messiah of the Old Testament that needed to be explained and that needed to be clarified. And that is the attempt of the author of the book of Matthew. It is preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, preaching the message of salvation to the Jews. or to the person of Israel is presenting this message of salvation that has saved us by the grace of the Spirit, by the grace of the Father, by the workings of Jesus Christ, present the message of salvation. to the person of Israel.

And this is when it's very complicated because we are Gentiles and our expectations of the way that we see things from the side where we see things in redemptive history is different to where the Jews and the people of Israel were seeing things. We're going to try to make the effort to explain the things that Holy Scripture and the perfection of the Word of God has given to all the people of God and see it from the perception of the people of Israel as the message of salvation was presented to them. So what we're going to be doing is that we're going to be analyzing studying better or meditating upon the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because in the portion of Scripture that we read in Zechariah, there's an expectation that the Lord, the King of Israel, will be in the midst of the people of God, namely Israel, that this Lord will come and will restore these people. So we are going to study how Matthew, the author of this book, is presenting this message of restoration That is ultimate, ultimate restoration to the people of Israel.

And simply what we're going to be doing this evening is just analyzing in a very simple and concise way the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we're going to be doing it in chapter one and depending how it goes, perhaps some comments in chapter number two. But let's start with chapter number one. So, Brother Bernie, will you please help us just reading chapter number one? which is going to speak to us about the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The book of genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, 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 Abinadab, and Abinadab the father of Nashon, and Nashon the father of Salmon, 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. And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah. And Solomon, the father of Rehoboam.

And Rehoboam was the father of Abijah. And Abijah, the father of Asaph. And Asaph, the father of Jehoshaphat. And Jehoshaphat, the father of Joram. And Joram, the father of Uzziah.

And Uzziah, the father of Jotham. And Jotham, the father of Ahaz. And Ahaz, the father of Hezekiah. And Hezekiah, the father of Manasseh. And Manasseh, the father of Amos.

And Amos, the father of Josiah. Josiah the father of Jeconiah and the brother at the time of the deportation to Babylon. And after the deportation to Babylon, Jeconiah was the father of Shelteel, and Shelteel the father of Zerubbabel, and Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, and Abiud the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim the father of Azor, and Azor the father of Zadok. So all the generations from Abraham to David were 14. generations.

And from David to the deportation to Babylon, 14 generations. And from the deportation to Babylon to Christ, 14 generations. Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way, when his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph. Before they come together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly.

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 make Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sin. All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel, which means God with us. When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him.

He took his wife. But he knew her not until she had given birth to a son, and he called his name Jesus. Amen. Thank you, brother. Now, brothers and sisters, as I said, this is the attempt of Matthew to communicate the message of salvation, the message of the Lord Jesus Christ to the Jew, to the person of Israel or to the people of Israel.

Now, the way that we are going to address this chapter is just by simply breaking it into the two sections that are clearly seen in that chapter. And that is the genealogy of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then from the genealogy of the Lord Jesus Christ, we're going to get into the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. And what I want us to do is just simply understand the text and how this would have been How this would have caught the heart and the attention of the Israelites when they were reading the story of this man, Jesus Christ, as now the author here of Matthew is portraying and presenting all of this for the reader. Now, the book is going to start with the genealogy, of course, and something that we must understand, my beloved brothers and sisters, is that genealogies in the Bible, in the times of the Bible, are not given with the same purpose that we actually understand genealogies, like a family tree in which there is a sequence, organized sequence of people and who is the father of who and who is the son of who.

Genealogies in the Bible, and especially in the way that the Israelites will write, always had a purpose. Every time that a genealogy was given for the reader, this will have a purpose. There was an intention in the way that a genealogy was given to the reader. So it was not only with the purpose of telling, this is the father of this person, and this is the father of this person, and this is the father of this person, which in many times in the Bible, that's the case. But there's always a purpose and an intention.

I don't know if you remember, but last week, when we were doing the returning from the exiles, and we were reading the story of Ezra, we read a small genealogy, a short genealogy of Ezra, And the intention of the writer with that genealogy was to point that Ezra was a descendant of who? Of the high priest of Aaron. That was the intention of the author of the book of Ezra in chapter 7, to show that this man that was returning from the exile with these 12 families of Israelites that was going to restitute the Torah or the law and the commandments of the law of the Lord, that he was a descendant of Aaron. That was his intention. So when the author of Matthew is writing this genealogy of the Lord Jesus Christ, we have to acknowledge that there is a purpose.

There's something that he wants to communicate. There's something that he wants to tell the reader. There's something that he wants to communicate to the person that is going through this genealogy. So it is not only a list of difficult names to pronounce, but it's rather a structured list of names that try to convey a precise and specific message. Now, he's going to start with a very interesting word and he's going to say that this is the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ.

is that this is the book of the Genesis of the Lord Jesus Christ. That this is the book of the beginnings of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that word that we have there in the genealogy is actually an important word because in the Greek translation of the Old Testament is exactly the same word that was used in Genesis chapter 2 to speak of the generations of the heavens and the earth when God created them. the mind of the Israelite when he was going through this would have been taken and cut back to the book of Genesis that these are the beginnings that this is the genesis of the Lord Jesus Christ just in a similar sense as was the generations of the heavens and the earth immediately the attention of the Israelite would have been caught this is a person that is in port and this is the beginnings these are the genesis of one that I need to pay attention to He continues and he's going to give us, of course, the genealogy, the genealogy that is going to be this list of different names. But what I want you to notice, my beloved brothers and sisters, is how tidy and how neat and how well structured this genealogy is given to us.

In verse 17, the structure of that genealogy is given to us. It says, so all generations in verse 17 in chapter 1 says, so all the generations from Abraham to David were 14 generations. And from David to the deportation to Babylon, 14 generations. And from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ, 14 generations. So all of those names that are difficult to pronounce, that we read and we read and we read and we read and we read, they are a structure in groups of 14.

And there are three groups of 14. And those groups of 14 are connected by four important key characters that will help us understand the purpose of this genealogy. The links between those three groups of 14 generations are Abraham, it says, verse 17. So all the generations from Abraham to David, the second one, were 14. Now from David to the deportation to Babylon were 14.

And from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ were 14 generations. So we have four key connecting important elements or words that will help us understand the purpose of this genealogy that is given to us. From Abraham to David, from David to the deportation to Babylon, and from the deportation to Babylon to the time of Christ. What is the intention and what is the purpose of Matthew? What is he trying to say?

What is he trying to communicate to the reader? Brothers and sisters, let me just answer that question with the Scripture. Let me answer that question with the Scripture, because the point that he's trying to make, I think, is very, very clear. If you go to the book of Genesis in chapter 17, when the Lord is establishing his covenant with the first person that is mentioned in this list, Abraham, We are going to be told something very important about the covenant in which God was entering with Abraham. Now, remember, there are four key elements or people or things or items that connect these three groups of 14 generations.

And in chapter 17, in the book of Genesis, We're going to be told something very important that is going to help us connect all of these four items. Chapter 17, let's read from verse 1 to verse 8. Brother Mikey, would you please help me reading those verses? When Abram was 99 years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, I am God Almighty, walk before me and be blameless. that I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly.'

Then Abram fell on his face, and God said to him, Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham. For I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, into kings, and kings shall come from you. and I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your offspring after you.

And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojourners, all the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God. Brothers and sisters, the Israelites were with this genuine Biblical Scripture based expectation that the kingdom of Israel was going to be restored. And when we say the kingdom, that speaks of a king. that the kings that had failed in the times of the exile, they were going to be brought back, that a king was going to be in the midst of Israel and that king was going to restore the kingdom to the people of Israel. And we learned from our previous Bible study series that these kings were instituted by the request of the people of Israel to Samuel, give us a king, give us a king.

Our brother explained that the request of Icahn from the people of Israel was actually prophesied way before it was given to Moses in Deuteronomy chapter 17. That the promise of Icahn for the people of Israel was actually given to the person of Moses. Brothers and sisters, the root of the promise of kings coming for the offspring of Israel was not resting in the person of David and it was not resting in the mouth or in the prophecy given to Moses. But actually, that promise of kings coming from the offspring of the people of Israel or the Hebrews was given to Abraham. Now this is very important because the genealogy that we are reading in the book of Matthew says that Abraham was the father and then he gives the list of all the other names.

we have here in verse 6 if you pay attention it says when God is establishing this covenant with Abraham and he's entering into this covenant that he has been working out from chapter 12 with him and all of these promises of what he's going to do now he says in verse 6 I will make you exceedingly fruitful and I will make you into nations and Kings shall come from you. And just pay attention to the language. And I will establish my covenant between me and your offspring. That is your descendants. That is your sons.

That is your seed. I will establish my covenant with your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant to be God to you and to your offspring after you. The promise of the king for the people of Israel, for those who were on the loins of Abraham, was given to Abraham himself. When David came, the king, after God's own heart, and when the Davidic covenant was given to him in 2 Samuel chapter 7, he was a fulfillment of that. And then the kingly system was a fulfillment of that promise given to Abraham.

brothers and sisters. That system of kings and the kingship of the kingly system given to Israel would eventually fail. If you go back to Matthew chapter 1, the author of this genealogy is very careful in giving us keywords and very important details that will be pointing to this very important detail. He does not only mention Abraham as the one from whom everyone is coming, as the first one, But when he reaches the point in which he's going to name David, who is the second linking item in this structure of this genealogy, in verse 7, he says, verse 6, and Jesse, the father of David, and he calls him the king. Now, brothers and sisters, everyone who comes after David in this list was a king.

But the author of Matthew wants to emphasize that this David that he's quoting and referencing here was not a king, but was the king. But not only that, brothers and sisters, when he has started the first verse and he has spoken as this book, as the genealogy of the Lord Jesus Christ, he calls the Lord Jesus Christ the son of David and the son of Abraham. Now, brothers and sisters, when Matthew is trying to communicate to the reader, It is that this Jesus Christ, that the beginnings of this Jesus Christ is everything about the fulfillment of the King of Israel, the King that was in the loins of Abraham, the King that was going to be according to the covenant given to David, and not a king like all the kings that fail until the point of the deportation to Babylon, because brothers and sisters, The deportation to Babylon represented the end of the kingly system for the people of Israel. After the deportation of Judah to Babylon and then they taking Persia or Persia taking over, there was no king anymore in the land of Israel or Judah. The deportation to Babylon represented in the mind of the Jew the end of the time of the kings and therefore the expectation of the future king that was going to restore the kingdom to the people of Israel.

So when the author is saying from Abraham to David and from David to the deportation to Babylon and from the deportation from Babylon to Christ, he wants to bring to our attention that this Jesus Christ is the King that Israel was expecting. Now, brothers and sisters, this does not produce in us the glorious and gracious emotions that come from heaven because we already know that Jesus Christ is the King of kings. We already know, we use that in our mouth, we say He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords. But the Israelites were eagerly and genuinely waiting for this King to arrive to restore the kingdom. They had spent hundreds of years under the dominating power of empires, physically, not only in an abstract idea.

They had experienced the dominating power of other empires, so they were eagerly waiting. for this King to arrive. And this King is King Jesus. Our Lord Jesus Christ is that King that they were expecting. But brothers, there's something very interesting about this genealogy.

And the author of Matthew is going to present this genealogy in a different way. Because now, if he caught the attention of the reader, he is going to even catch the attention even more. Because Women are not usually mentioned in the genealogies, biblically speaking. But in this genealogy, he is going to mention not only one, nor two, nor three, but he's going to mention four women. Four women are going to be included in this genealogy of the King of Israel, who is the one that's coming to save his people from their sins.

You can see the names and you may remember from our studies in the book of Genesis. If you see, for instance, in book In verse 3, it says, and Judah, in verse 3, and Judah, the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, who is a woman. And then he says, and Perez, the father of Isron, and Isron, the father of Ram, and Ram, the father of Aminadab, and Aminadab, the father of Nashon, and Nashon, the father of Salmon, and Salmon, the father of Boaz by Rahab, another woman, and Boaz, the father of Obed by? Ruth, another woman, and Obed, the father of Jesse, and Jesse, the father of David, the king. And then continues.

And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah. Who was the wife of Uriah? Bathsheba. There are four women that are inserted into this genealogy. And this is going to be something different that would have caught the attention of the reader.

But not only that, there's something even beyond the fact that these women are women and that they're inserted into genealogy. For sure, three of them were Gentile. were Gentile women and Bathsheba more than likely she was also a Gentile because Uriah was a Hittite and the Hittites were Gentiles and more than likely she would have been also a Gentile woman. So now we have here the author of the book of Matthew presenting a genealogy of the King of Israel that is coming to restore the kingdom And he has included in this genealogy not only women, but he has also included women who are Gentiles. Brothers and sisters, we are Gentiles and we have received the grace of salvation.

But this in the mind of the Jew, this in the mind of the person of Israel would have been something very impressive, something that would have caught the attention of this person as he is or she is going through the book. This is the genealogy of the Lord Jesus Christ. But now I want to complete that genealogy of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that is with the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ, because I want you to pay something. I want you to pay attention to something very, very interesting.

He, the author of Matthew or Matthew, has been very careful in defining the relationship between this name as the father and the father, the father and the son, the father of this person, the father to this other person. But when he arrives to the end of the genealogy and he's going to reach to the point of speaking of Jesus Christ, the author is very careful not to call Joseph, Joseph, the father of the Lord Jesus Christ. Pay attention to verse, let's just read it from verse 15. It says, And Eliud, the father of Eleazar, Eleazar, the father of Mathan, and Mathan, the father of Jacob, and Jacob, the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ. So the author is very careful in telling us that this Joseph, who is a descendant of Abraham and therefore of David, that this Joseph, who is the son of Jacob, his father, is the husband of Mary.

And Mary is the mother of this Jesus Christ or this Christ. But he's very careful not to mention or not to say that this Joseph is the father of Christ. This is very important. And please pay attention to this, because when we come to the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ, we know the glorious story of the divine conception of our Lord Jesus Christ. We know that Jesus Christ, that our Lord, that He was conceived of the Spirit.

And that will not move, sadly, our hearts as it should. But when the Israelites would have read these things, his heart would have been also caught by surprise. But there's something that I want you to see first, because the situation that is taking place here teaches us a lot of things. Joseph and Mary, they were, in our terms, engaged. They had not been married yet.

It says here that she was betrothed to Joseph. And this engagement, if you allow me to use this contemporary word to speak of that first century type of relationship, engagement in the first century was equivalent to marriage. It was a legal contract that it was exactly the same as if they were married. So then when Joseph realized that Mary was pregnant, this would have been a very difficult thing, not only for his mind to comprehend, but also for his heart. the woman that he loves and that he's engaged to or that he's going to marry, that they are legally united, now has proved that she's pregnant and therefore, in his eyes, she has committed adultery.

Now, be with me here, brothers and sisters, because there's a very important lesson in what Joseph is going to do and then what Joseph and Mary represent for our Lord Jesus Christ. Brothers and sisters, according to the law, a woman that was caught in adultery or an adulterous woman was to be put to death and shame will come upon the woman. Now Mary, in this case, in the eyes of Joseph, she was pregnant, so therefore obviously she had committed adultery. Now it was all the right of Joseph to put this woman to death, to actually make all of this situation public and to bring it to the gate and this woman would have been stoned and then the law would have been applied to her. That was actually the allowance of divorce that Moses had given to the people because those engagement relationships were equivalent to marriage.

So, therefore, to break an engagement relationship, if I can use that word, was equivalent to divorce that person. We are told something very interesting in the text about Joseph, that when Joseph knew of Mary being pregnant, that he decided not to make this public, right? He decided not to make this public, but he wanted to divorce her quietly. But there's something more interesting that is said about Joseph. Let's just read the portion that starts in verse 18.

Now, the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother, Mary, had been betrothed to Joseph, and continue paying attention how the author does not call Joseph the father of Christ, of the Lord, before they came together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit, pregnant. And her husband, Joseph, you see, not the father of Christ, but her husband, Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. Now, brothers, we have a little bit of a conflict here because we are told that Joseph is a just man and this just man or this term is a righteous man in the sense that he's a law-fulfilling, law-abiding man. That is, that he submits himself to the law that was given to Moses.

And the law said that if a woman was caught in adultery, and in his eyes there was clearly a proof that she had committed adultery or fornication, that that woman was to be put to death. That was the penalty of the law. Yet the Bible calls Joseph a just man and the action that comes from his righteousness or from being a just man is that he decides to divorce Mary quietly, but says something very interesting before that, that he was unwilling to put her to shame. Now, brothers and sisters, perhaps you understand better this than me, but shame in the Middle Eastern context is not a temporary state of your face that you become red. Shame is a social status.

It's about reputation, a social reputation. So to make this public would have been shame not only to her, she would have died, but it would have been also shame for her family. It says that he was unwilling to put Mary to shame, but rather he was going to fulfill the law, but he was going to do it quietly by giving her a letter of divorcement or a letter of divorce by separating from her. What actually he's doing is something very interesting and very loving. He's not following the letter of the law but rather he's feeling or he's following the spirit of the law.

He knew that she had done something wrong in his eyes But instead of putting the shame on her and her family, he decides to take that shame on him because he would have been the one that would have been object of shame in society by giving her a letter of divorce when there was already a contract that they were going to be together. Plus, We are told in the text that he was filled with fear. He was a righteous man. He did not know what had taken place. He thought that she, the love of his heart, had indeed committed adultery.

We're told that the Spirit comes to heal and the angel of the Lord, if you pay attention to verse 20, says, but as he considered these things, And just think about that, considering the fact that the woman that he loved had potentially, in his eyes for sure, committed adultery. As he considered these things and he suffered in his heart, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream saying, Joseph, son of David. 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. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.

All this took place to fulfill that which the Lord had spoken by the prophet. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel, which means God with us. Now pay attention. When Joseph woke from his sleep, When he walked from the sleep after he had received this communication from the angel of the Lord, when he was informed that she had not committed adultery, that she had not violated the law, that she had not committed a sin, then he believed what it was told him, what it was spoken to him, and he obeyed. It says, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him.

And what he did is going to be described here. Now pay attention because this is very important. He says, And he took his wife, but he knew her not until she had given birth to a son, and he called his name Jesus. The obedience of Joseph is going to be manifested in three things. The first thing is that he is going to accept her as his wife, Therefore, he knows that there's no sin that has been committed.

He accepts there's no violation. There's no breaking of the law. Now, he is not going to have intimacy with her until the birth of the Son, Jesus. And he is going to, the third thing, name or call him the name Jesus. When Joseph does this, He becomes in the eyes of the people of Israel, the legal father of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, brothers and sisters, this is very important because when we read the New Testament, Paul speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ as the offspring, as the descendant according to the flesh from David. But in the flesh, speaking physically in the flesh, he was not through the flesh of the descendants of David. He was through the flesh of Mary. Joseph was the son of David. Joseph was not the biological father, of course, of the Lord Jesus Christ, but when he accepted And when he named the Lord Jesus Christ, in the eyes and according to the law, he became the legal father of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Lord Jesus Christ will become the offspring of David because he's Joseph, the one that is the son of David. Now, brothers and sisters, this is very important because for a king to be a king, he has to be a descendant of the promise that was given not only to Abraham, but also to David. Just as the high priest was supposed to be a descendant and the offspring of Aaron and Zadok and all of these high priests, also the king was supposed to be a descendant according to the flesh of Abraham and David. And when the obedience of Joseph was manifested, Legal terms were fulfilled and the Lord Jesus Christ that was born according or biologically speaking of Mary by the conception of the Holy Spirit now became legally had the right to be the king of the people of Israel. This is glorious brothers and sisters because in the mind of the Jew two things are happening here.

Not only that this Jesus Christ it is a descendant of David through Joseph but that this Jesus Christ is conceived of the Spirit. This would have been the mind-blowing thing for the Jew, for the Israelite, that He is conceived of the Spirit. So when he was writing, he was very careful to say the son of Abraham and the son of David. And this is completed with the son of God, the son of the spirit. He was conceived of the spirit of God.

So now this king that is coming to restore the kingdom to Israel, it is not only legally a descendant of David, but he's also the son of God. He's also divine. He's also out of the scheme or the system of the flesh. This would have completely caught the attention of this person. But not only that, brothers and sisters, we are so used to name the name of our Lord Jesus.

But here we have the clear instruction that is given to Him. You will name Him Jesus. And we are given a definition or explanation of what is said there in verse 21. It says, She will bear a son, and you will call His name Jesus. for He will save His people from their sins."

Now, brothers and sisters, Joseph would have not understood what you and I understand for saving of sins. The people of Israel, as we read in Zechariah, they were expecting to be restored from the judgments of the oppressions of the enemies, from the things of their flesh, from their sickness, from all the things that were afflicting them, not only in the flesh, but the oppressions of their enemies. So the salvation of this king or the restoration of the kingdom was to remove the oppression of the enemies And there was to bring the blessings of the fulfillment of the requirements of the law that were given to Moses. That was the expectation. But as he is going to progress through the book, now he's going to say that this was to fulfill the prophecy that was given to the prophet Isaiah that a virgin, namely in this case, Mary, was going to conceive.

And the name of this child was not only Jesus, But it was Emmanuel, God with us, the Lord in the midst of you, the Lord in the midst of Israel, Yahweh in the midst of Israel, the God in the midst of the people, not only in the tabernacle, but in the midst of the people of Israel. Now, brothers and sisters, we are used in our hearts and in our minds to repeat and to hear all of these things. But that is a glorious truth. It is a glorious truth that God decided to came to this world through a woman, a virgin woman, and that that would be the means not only to restore the kingdom for the people of Israel, but to be the savior of the world and brothers and sisters if we were going to continue with chapter number two then the author of Matthew is going to give us even clues that is going to blow the mind of the reader especially for the jew because the first people that are going to acknowledge that a king has been born are pagan gentile wise men that are coming from the east, that God in His providence decided to show pagan Gentile wise men, students of the heavens and students of the stars, that the king had been born. And not only that, they will come to inquire to Herod, who was the king.

And Herod will go and call the high priest or the priest and the scribes, and he will consult with them. Where is this Christ or where is this king going to be born? And the fulfillment of the prophecy, it says in verse 1, in Bethlehem, they will say to Herod, I don't understand. I was telling Jasmine, I don't understand how the priests and how the scribes did not do anything. when they had wise men coming from the east saying and announcing to everyone, where is this king?

Where is this king? And not only that, but Herod in chapter 2 says that he actually believed that he was going to be the king because he acted upon it. He sent to try to kill all the children that were two years old or under. He believed that this was the king and that his kingdom was threatened, yet the scribes and the high priest did not do anything. Now brothers and sisters, This would have been mind-blowing to the mind of the Israelite, to the perception of the Israelite.

Because now this king that is going to restore the kingdom for the people of Israel, it is a descendant not only of Jews and Israelites. He does not only come from the loins of Abraham and David, but also from women and they are Gentiles. And God has decided to show and to manifest in His providence the birth of these men, God, the Son of Abraham, David, and Son of the Spirit, also to the Gentiles. Why? Because there's something very interesting and very important that the disciples and the people of Israel had not understood, which is also contained in the first section or in the portion of Scripture that we read in the beginning in Acts chapter 1.

If you go to Acts chapter 1, when they ask the question, I don't know if you notice, but the author of Acts is very careful in giving a contrast between what the Lord was teaching and what they asked. what the Lord was teaching them about and what the disciples asked about. It says, let's just read it again. It says, in the first book of Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day when he was taken up after he had given command through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God."

Speaking about the kingdom of God. The Israelites or the disciples who are Jews or people from Israel will ask the question, When will you or will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? The Lord had been teaching them about the kingdom of God. about the kingdom of God that is established on earth. And now, brothers and sisters, the kingdom of Israel is not antithetical to the kingdom of God.

But the kingdom of God is the ultimate accomplishment of salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ was speaking of something that went beyond of what the disciples understood. The Lord Jesus Christ came to accomplish something beyond of what the Israelites understood in Scripture and what they were expecting. The Lord Jesus Christ came to accomplish not only the restoration of a land or a kingdom for a people, but he came to accomplish the inauguration and the establishment of the kingdom of God, and that it is by destroying death, by removing sin, and by saving his people from their Sins. Brothers and sisters, as you progress through the book of Acts, and even as we will progress through the book of Matthew, you will see how this message of the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven, it is slowly and step by step, presented to the reader in a deeper sense and in a more clear sense, pointing to this Jesus Christ, not only as a physical King that is going to come to restore a kingdom for the people of Israel, but something that He is going to do beyond that, beyond the restoration of something physical, the restoration of something spiritual.

So then when the prophets spoke of the Lord in the midst of His people, They were indeed speaking of the abiding of this Yahweh in the midst of their people, fulfilling or accomplishing the prophecy or the fulfillment of what is given to us in Revelation chapter 21. If you read it with me, please. Revelation chapter 21, and we will conclude there. Matthew said this is the genealogy or the genesis or the beginnings of the generations of Christ. And indeed, when the Lord Jesus Christ came to this world was the genesis, the new genesis, the new beginnings of the new 21 it says, Then I saw a new heaven, a new earth.

For the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, the dwelling place of God is with men. Emmanuel, God with us. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.

He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. Brothers and sisters, that our hearts may not stop, being amazed with the truth that the God of this universe, that the creator of heaven and earth, the one that is infinite, the one that has no rest, the one that is holding everything by the power of his mouth, by the power of His Word, that that God, the one that can see it all, the one that is almighty and all-powerful, the one that is the owner of the past, of the present, of the future, the one who holds in His hand all the wisdom, that He decided to become one of us. that He decided to enter into our creation, that He even in His heart had the desire to save a people unto Himself, that He will send prophets to prepare a people for the Lord, to have a people unto Himself that will be His bride, in which He will dwell in the heavenly Jerusalem, in the eternal Zion that would dwell with them eternally to remove all the oppressors. to remove all the foes, to remove all the enemies, not only of the flesh, but those enemies that cause eternal death are seen. This is the love of God for His people that He sent His begotten Son, Son of the Spirit, to not only be the King of Israel, but brothers and sisters, indeed, as we Gentiles say, to be the King of kings and the Lord of lords.

And when He visited us or when He comes to us, He does not come in terror as the King of kings with judgment. He does not come to us like the Lord of lords in terror, in judgment. When He comes to us, He comes as our Savior. as a Redeemer, with His burden that is easy, with His yoke that is light, with His burden that is light, He comes to us with the sweetness of His words, that we may not stop being amazed, that because when Christ indeed visits and comes as the King of kings, He is going to visit some in terror. He's going to visit some in judgment as the Lord of lords.

and he's not going to be in the midst of them but they are going to be removed and judgment will come upon them. If we are not those, it is not because we deserve it, but it is because of the abundant grace of the Triune God that even before the foundation of the world chose us in Jesus Christ and has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies, in love, He chose us to be washed through the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. Brothers and sisters, that your hearts might be caught and captured by this Jesus. Amen.