Jesus' Legal Right to Messiah's Throne - Part 1

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You probably remember this last February when word came out that King Charles of Great Britain had been diagnosed with cancer.  And immediately, upon that announcement, there was a lot of talk in Great Britain, and of course we heard it on this side of the pond, about the issue of succession.  Who had the legal right to his throne, and in what order do those legal claims come?  Prince William is obviously next in line; there was really no question about that.

But I don't know if you know this or not, but the powers that be in Great Britain then proceeded to map out the succession order down to number twenty-four. I think I wouldn't want to be number twenty-four, but that's what they did.  Because the distinguishing feature of a monarchy is that a king is succeeded by his son, the legal heir to the throne can only be a legally qualified descendant.  So, the question with kings is always a question of ancestry, what blood runs through your veins?  Since the Old Testament is very clear that the Messiah would, in fact, be an eternal king, it's not surprising that the first paragraph in Matthew's Gospel, to which we come in our study today, is a genealogy.

Matthew begins here to build his case that Jesus is the Messiah promised in the Old Testament, and he does so by tracing out His human ancestry; “He is the son of David, the son of Abraham.”  Now let me just remind you, as we've begun this Gospel, of its “Theme.”  The point that Matthew wants us to get is that “Jesus of Nazareth is the promised Messiah of the Hebrew Scripture, the divine Savior and King.”  Every one of those words is important, and Matthew will seek to prove each one of them to us as his Gospel unfolds. 

Now let me give you a little insight into “An Outline of Matthew's Gospel.”  First of all, you need to understand that Matthew is chronological only in terms of the flow of the major events in Jesus' life.  Clearly, he goes from His birth to His childhood, His baptism, His temptation, His ministry, the Passion Week, His death and resurrection.  That is certainly chronological in Matthew's Gospel.  However, Matthew is not strictly chronological in the events that he mentions within the time of Jesus' ministry.  Instead, he often arranges his material thematically, and so he will disagree in the order of those events with the other Gospels at times because he's arranging them to make certain points.  

Now, in light of that, it is notoriously hard to outline Matthew.  In fact, I examined twenty different sources this week and no two of them fully agreed on an outline of Matthew's Gospel. There are a couple of markers that scholars use to try to lay out an outline.  Some do it based on geography because there's a large section of this Gospel, chapters 5 through 18, that happens in Galilee.  There's a large portion of this Gospel, chapters 19 to 25, that happens in Judea. So, some say, “Let's outline it that way.”  Others say, “No, let's do it based on Jesus' major discourses.”  And they can't even agree on whether there are five or six major discourses, but there are major sermons in this Gospel.  You have the Sermon on the Mount, chapters 5 through 7; chapter 10; chapter 13; chapter 18; some think chapter 23; and then of course 24 and 25.  They say, “Let's shape our outline around those discourses.”  A third group says, “No, there's a repeated phrase that occurs twice, ‘from that time.’”  It occurs in chapter 4, verse 17; chapter 16, verse 21.  They say that shows that Matthew's Gospel is divided into thirds by those sayings.  Now let me just be honest with you, none of those, as I looked into them, seemed wholly accurate nor entirely helpful.

So, as I've studied the markers in Matthew's Gospel and considered how Matthew intended to structure his Gospel, let me give you the basic outline of Matthew that we're going to follow over the next several years as we study this Gospel.  You'll see it again but let me give you the sketch of it.  In chapters 1 and 2, we have “The Messiah's Arrival.”  In chapter 3, verse 1, through chapter 4, verse 16, “The Messiah's Preparation.”  Then you have the heart of the Gospel, “The Messiah's Ministry,” chapter 4, verse 17, through chapter 16, verse 20.  That's followed by “The Messiah's Plan,” specifically His plan regarding the cross, which He mentioned several times in this section that begins in chapter 16, verse 21, and runs through chapter 20, verse 34. “The Messiah's Passion,” chapters 21 to 27, where we see the events of the Passion Week unfold as our Lord offers Himself for us.  “The Messiah's Resurrection,” chapter 28, verses 1 to 15.  And then finally, “The Messiah's Assignment,” or we could say commission, in chapter 28, verses 16 to 20.  So that is the outline that we're going to be following as we work through this book together. 

This morning, we begin the first section, “The Messiah's Arrival,” which encompasses chapters 1 and 2.  This section starts by documenting “His Royal Ancestry.”  The first 17 verses of Matthew's Gospel are given to His family tree.  As Matthew writes his Gospel for Jewish believers to prove biblically that Jesus is the Messiah the Old Testament promised, there was really only one place for him to start, and that was with Jesus' genealogy.  Was He Jewish?  Was He a descendant of Abraham?  And was He, in fact, a descendant of King David, and therefore qualified to be the Messiah and to sit on David's throne?  That's how he begins.

Look with me at Matthew chapter 1, verse 1. “The record of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham.”  With those few words, Matthew introduces both his entire Gospel and specifically, Jesus' genealogy recorded in the first 17 verses.  And the point of these 17 verses is to prove that Jesus of Nazareth's Biblical ancestry, in fact, gives Him the legal right to David's throne and, therefore, qualifies Him to be the promised Messiah.

Now when you look at the genealogy in the first 17 verses, there are two basic components of this genealogy.  There is, in verse 1, a title to the Genealogy, and then in verses 2 through 17, we see the actual human ancestors of our Lord.  As we prepare for the Lord's table this morning, I want us just to consider verse 1 and “The Title of Jesus' Genealogy,” the title of Jesus' genealogy. 

Let's start with what is “Its Purpose?”  What role does the first verse serve?  Now there's a lot of disagreement on this.  Different commentators argue that verse 1 introduces only the genealogy in verses 1-17.  Others say, “No, it introduces chapters 1 and 2 and the arrival of the Messiah”  Others say, “No, it's chapters 1 through 4 that it introduces.”  And then some say, “It introduces the entire book.”  

So, let's see if we can understand what the real purpose is.  Let's look at it word by word.  It begins with “the record,” the record.  The Greek word is ‘biblos’ for record.   It usually refers to an entire papyrus scroll or a book.  It's from this Greek word ‘biblos’ that we get the English word ‘Bible.’  I think you understand that when we call that Book you hold in your hand, “The Bible,” we're simply saying it is the Book, the Book above all other books.  The Greek word can refer to any normal book or as with our Bibles, the word ‘biblos’ can refer to a sacred book.  So, it is the record, “the book of the genealogy.”

The word ‘genealogy’ is actually literally, in Greek, the word ‘genesis,’ ‘genesis’ which means ‘origin’ or ‘source.’  Now this word that's translated ‘genealogy,’ the word ‘genesis,’ is used in two ways in the New Testament.  It's used of an account of someone's life, of the history, the story of their life.  It's also used of a list of persons of successive generations forming their ancestry, in other words, a genealogy.  It's used in both ways, and I think the reason for the confusion among commentators is, I think, Matthew intends a word play.  I think he means both here.  So, I think he first uses this title in verse 1 “To Introduce the Entire Gospel.”  Verse 1 says, “The record of the genealogy of Jesus.”  Matthew's entire Gospel is a record, an account, or a book about the history or the life of Jesus; that's the entire Book.  The New Testament, by the way, only uses the word ‘biblos’ to refer to entire Old Testament Books.  So, I think that's at play here.

And literally, listen to the first line in Greek. This is how it reads, literally translated, “A book of the ‘genesis’ of Jesus.”  Now the Greek word, ‘genesis,’ was a word that was very familiar to first century Jewish people.  In fact, the Septuagint, that is the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures that was used in the first century by Jesus and often by the Apostles as well, the Septuagint actually had as the title of the first book in the Bible this word, ‘genesis’, just like in our Bibles.  So, they were very familiar, and this would be in the minds of Matthew's readers.  In addition, this exact same Greek expression occurs in only two other passages in the Septuagint, in the Scriptures.

One of them is Genesis 2:4, where it says, “This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created.”  In Greek, “This is the ‘record,’ (the book) of the ‘genesis’ of the heavens and earth when they were created.”  And then he goes on to give part of the history of creation.  The second place this is used is in Genesis 5:1.  There we read; “This is the book of the ‘genesis’ of Adam.”  It records a record of the ‘genesis’ of Adam, or of humanity, and the expression is followed both by Adam's genealogy, but also, with a narrative account of man's story.  Now I say all that to say this, that is exactly what Matthew is doing in verse 1. He uses the same expression from Genesis about the original creation to describe the new creation that comes with the arrival of the Messiah.  The Gospel of Matthew introduces a new ‘genesis;’ the genesis of Jesus, the Messiah.  

So, what's the purpose then of the title in verse 1?  It is to introduce the entire book, and it is introducing it as a book of the history or the story of Jesus, the Messiah.  So, Matthew uses his expression then to introduce his entire Gospel, but secondly, the purpose of this title is also at the same time “To Introduce Jesus' Ancestral Record.”  “The record,” verse 1 says, “of the genealogy of Jesus.”  Matthew also clearly uses this Greek word for ‘genealogy’ here, the word ‘genesis,’ to refer to a list of persons of successive generations forming His ancestry, His lineage, His family line.  That's clearly going on because that's what the next sixteen verses unfold.  So that's the purpose then of the title of Jesus' genealogy. 

But the rest of verse 1 lays out “Its Case,” its case.  The rest of verse 1 lays out the case that Matthew intends to prove both in the genealogy and in the rest of his book.  Look at verse 1 again, “The record of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham.”  This title, the following genealogy and the entire book, notice first of all, and this is obvious, but I don't want you to miss it, is about one person–it's about Jesus.  He's the hero of the story, and every expression then in verse 1 tells us who Jesus is and what Matthew intends to prove about Him.  So, let's look at it.

Here's the case.  Matthew intends to prove, first of all, “His Historical Identity,” His Historical Identity.  He uses Jesus' human personal name; He's Jesus.  Go down to verse 21 of this same chapter.  Gabriel said to Joseph, “You shall call the child that Mary is bearing in her womb ‘Jesus’” (Paraphrase).  This was Jesus' human name, and this is how Matthew refers to our Lord 150 times in his Gospel.  This is Jesus of Nazareth; this is a real living, breathing Human Being.  Now, you understand this, but the English word ‘Jesus’ is the Latin form of the Greek word ‘Iesus.’  When you read the Greek Testament, every time you come to what we say is ‘Jesus,’ in Greek it's ‘Iesus,’ which in turn is from the Hebrew word ‘Yeshua’ or ‘Joshua,’ the shortened form of the longer ‘Yehoshua.’  Now, ‘Yehoshua’ means ‘Yahweh is salvation;’ that long form means ‘Yahweh is salvation.’  The shorter form, ‘Yeshua’, means ‘He will save,” both of them emphasizing that He rescues, that He saves.  But this was Jesus' human name.  Just like many other children in the first century, He was given the name Yeshua’, Joshua. Or in Greek, ‘Iesus,’ in English, Jesus.  

You see, Matthew intends to prove, in his Gospel, that the subject of this book is a real historical man who lived in the first century.  Jesus is not a legend; He's not a myth.  You can visit the place where he lived.  You can walk the streets He walked.  You can see the places that He frequented.  Jesus of Nazareth is a real person who lived; and Matthew will lay out evidence to prove that.

He also sets out to prove that to Him, to Jesus, rightly belongs “His Official Title.”  Look at verse 1 again, “Jesus the Messiah.”  Now the word ‘Messiah’ in Greek is ‘Christos.’  It's clear that the eighteen times Matthew uses this word for Jesus in his Gospel, he uses it, not as a second name, but as a title.  Look down in verse 16, “Jesus…who is called the Messiah.”  Now ‘Christos,’ or Messiah, is the Greek translation of the Hebrew word, ‘Mashiach.’  When ‘Mashiach,’ the Hebrew word, is translated into Greek, it's ‘messías;’ and when that in turn is translated into or transliterated into English, it becomes ‘Messiah.’  But whether in Hebrew or Greek or English, the word means ‘anointed one,’ a person ordained and set apart because they are qualified to serve in a particular office. 

Now in the Old Testament, prophets were anointed, Psalm 105:15; priests were anointed, Leviticus 4:3; and kings were anointed, 1 Samuel 6:13.  And that's appropriate, isn't it, because Jesus is our Prophet, Priest, and King?  And so, He is not ‘an anointed one,’ He is ‘The Anointed One.’  You see, in the Old Testament, eventually ‘The Anointed One’ came to designate not just any person, but rather the Messiah who was to come.  For example, in Psalm 2, verse 2, it says, “The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers take counsel together against the LORD (Yahweh) and against His Anointed…” Psalm 2 goes on to say that this person is God's Son who will inherit the entire universe; He is ‘The Anointed One.’ Daniel 9, verse 25, calls Him ‘Messiah,’ the anointed one, the ‘Prince’ who was to come. So, in the epistles, when you read our Lord's name and you see him called Jesus Christ, don't think of Christ as like His second name.  You know, I'm Tom Pennington; ‘Pennington’ is just my second name.  ‘Christ’ is not just Jesus' second name; whenever it's used, it always retains its basic meaning, ‘Jesus is the Messiah.’ 

Now let me just stop here and make an important point.  It's common among certain Messianic Christian groups to argue that Christians should never refer to our Lord as ‘Jesus.’  You've probably read some of this online or people in your life have said this to you.  They say, “Instead, we should refer to Him by his Hebrew name, ‘Yeshua.’” And they argue we should never call Him ‘Christ,’ but ‘Messiah’ or ‘Hamashiach.’  Some say it's unbiblical, even pagan, to refer to Jesus with those words.  But the truth is, those who make such arguments are themselves very unbiblical because the New Testament authors, writing under inspiration and under the direction of our Lord, always refer to Him by the Greek version of His name, ‘Iesus,’ not the Hebrew, ‘Yeshua.’  Those same writers refer to Him only two times in the New Testament with the Hebrew ‘Messiah,’ and that's in John 1:41 and John 14:5. But 531 other times, they refer to Him using the Greek word ‘Christos.’ 

Now why do I say all that?  Don't be intimidated by those arguments that you're just not a biblical Christian because you're not using Hebrew words.  Listen, the truth is, it is biblical to call our Lord ‘Yeshua,’ and it's biblical to call Him ‘Jesus.’  It's biblical to call Him ‘Messiah,’ and it's biblical to call Him ‘The Christ.’   So, he wants us to know that He is the Messiah. 

Thirdly, as Matthew makes his case in this Gospel, he intends to prove “Jesus' Biblical Credentials.”  Jesus has two biblical credentials that qualify Him to be the promised Messiah.   The first credential is that He is the “Son of David,” the son of David.  Now, Matthew uses this expression nine times in his Gospel. Once of Joseph, Jesus' adopted father, in chapter 1, verse 20; but the other eight times, he uses it of the ‘Messiah.’  And by using this phrase, Matthew gave Jesus a clear messianic title.  How do we know that?  Well, in chapter 21, verse 15, you remember at the Triumphal Entry, there were children, young men saying, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” speaking of Christ. And the religious leaders get angry because they recognize that those people were referring to Jesus by a messianic title.  ‘Son of David’ is reserved, in that sense, for the Messiah.  But this phrase, “Son of David,” also means that Jesus descended from the royal line of David; He is a direct descendant of David.  And that was crucial because to qualify to be the Messiah, you had to be a descendant of David.  It goes all the way back to what's called the “Davidic Covenant” in 2 Samuel, chapter 7, where God tells David this in verse 16, “Your house and your kingdom shall endure before Me forever; Your throne will be established forever.”  David's rule would endure forever, not through him or through his immediate human descendants; this is a promise that the Messiah would come from one family in the tribe of Judah, and that is the family of David.  To be the Messiah, Jesus had to be a descendant of David, and He is.  And Matthew will set out to prove that immediately in his genealogy that follows. 

Jesus' second biblical credential that Matthew sets out to prove to show that Jesus can be qualified, is qualified to be the Messiah, is that He is the “Son of Abraham,” the son of Abraham.  Now, this phrase obviously points out His ethnicity; He's Jewish, that's clear and obvious, but that's obvious in the phrase “Son of David, so why add this?  Why include this phrase “son of Abraham?”  I think, and agree with many, that it's to show that Jesus is the fulfillment of what's called the “Abrahamic Covenant.”  There is a portion of the promise God made to Abraham, in Genesis 12, that Jesus the Messiah fulfills.  What is that promise?  Genesis 12:3, God says to Abraham, “…in you (that is in your seed, in your descendants) all the families of the earth will be blessed;” people all over this planet will receive spiritual blessing.  God promised to bring that blessing, not through the Jews generally, but through one descendant of Abraham.

That's what Paul says in Galatians 3:16, he says, “the promise wasn't made to seeds (plural), but to seed, one (singular) meaning Christ, meaning the Messiah” (Paraphrase).  Where does God promise to bring spiritual blessing through one Jewish descendant, one descendant of Abraham, and that is the Messiah?  It's in Genesis 22; I don't have time to take you there, but jot it down, Genesis 22, verses 17 and 18.  The first part of that passage speaks in general terms about all the descendants of Abraham, but it goes on to say this, “…your seed shall possess the gate,” literally in Hebrew, “of his enemies.”  One person, one descendant, we're talking about, He will possess the gate of His enemies, and in Him, “all the nations of the earth shall be blessed.”  In that one descendant, in Messiah, all the nations will be spiritually blessed. 

But how exactly would the Messiah bring spiritual blessing to the world?  The answer is found buried in His name.  Verse 1 says He is “Jesus the Messiah.”  But go down to verse 21, there Gabriel says to Joseph that Mary “…will bear a son; and you will call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”  Now, you understand that from the time of the Old Testament and Joshua, Moses' successor, many Jewish boys had been named ‘Yeshua’ or Joshua.  It was a way to remember that God saves His people.  

But notice, this child was to be named Jesus for a different reason, because “He will save.”  The angel says, “Name the boy Jesus, ‘Yahweh saves,’ because this Boy Himself will save His people” (Paraphrase).  He will do what only Yahweh can do.  You see, Jesus is the only one qualified to be the Savior, because He Himself is Yahweh.  John 8:58, Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.”  That's the other great part of Matthew's case, he wants to prove to us that Jesus is not only the Messiah; He is God Himself.  So, Jesus the Messiah brings spiritual blessing to us by saving us from our sin and God's wrath.  And how does He do that? –through His righteous life, through His substitutionary death for sin, and His glorious resurrection!

Listen, friend, if you're here this morning, and you're not a follower of Jesus Christ, you need to understand there is only one mediator between you and God.  There's only one person that can bring you to God, and that is Jesus Christ.  He said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one (And you won't be the exception.) comes to the Father but through Me.”  That means you have to be willing to confess your sin, to acknowledge your brokenness, and to seek the forgiveness that can only be found in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  You need to believe in your heart the Gospel that He brought, and you need to confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, your Lord.  That's faith, and that's what's required to receive the spiritual blessing that comes through the Messiah.  It's that truth, the truth buried in Jesus' name, that we celebrate in the Lord's Table.  Take a moment and prepare your heart as the men come to serve us.

Our Father, we come overwhelmed by your goodness to us, that you would send Your Son, and that He would save us, His people, from our sins, and He would do so by the sacrifice of Himself, that He would suffer the wrath our sins deserved, so that you could be just and forgive us.  Lord, we thank you.  We praise you for the Gospel.  We thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ, Jesus the Messiah, the one anointed and appointed by You to be the Redeemer, the Savior.  

Lord, we come to remember Him, to celebrate Him.  I pray, Lord, for us who know and love Him, that you would help us to honestly confess our sins.  Lord, thank you that you have forgiven our sins judicially, that as the judge, the gavel has come down, and “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,” once and forever.  But Father, now we come seeking your forgiveness, not as our Judge, but as our Father, because the same sins that you have forgiven in Christ, once and for all, grieve you.  And so, Lord, we come asking that you would forgive, that you would cleanse us, that you would set us back on the path of righteousness, that we would walk in obedience, even as our Lord did.  Lord, right now, I pray that you would bring to our mind’s, sins of thought, and word, and action, and that we would be willing to confess them now.  

And Father, I pray for those here this morning who don't know You.  May they respond to the Gospel they have heard, and now that they're about to see in the Lord's Table.  Lord, may you draw them to Yourself.  Receive our worship as we offer to You our praise, in Jesus' name, Amen.