Son of David, Son of Promise, Son of God - Matthew 1
INTRODUCTION:
Christmas is almost upon us, in just two days the day which we have set aside to celebrate the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ will arrive. As I began studying this week for this morning three themes kept jumping out at me that were prophecies in the Old Testament that had to be fulfilled in the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ for Him to be the promised Messiah, the Deliverer that was to come.
First, He had to be the Son of David, He had to have a right to the throne of David legally. In 2 Samuel 7 the LORD promised David that his kingdom and throne would be established forever, and he would have a descendant to sit on his throne forever, this would be the Messiah.
Second, the Messiah, the Deliverer would be the Son of promise, first promised to be the Seed of the woman who would crush the serpent’s head spoken of in Genesis 3:15, then in Genesis 12:3 God promised Abraham that in him all the families of the earth would be blessed, from Abraham’s line would come a Son of promise that would bless all the families of the earth.
Third, our Scripture reading from this morning in Isaiah 9:6-7 prophesied of a Son given who would be called Mighty God. The Messiah would have to be the Son of God.
As we come to the first chapter of Matthew, we find that Jesus Christ is the Son of David, the Son of promise, and the Son of God. Let’s pray this morning that the Lord would open our hearts to His Word.
--PRAY--
SCRIPTURE:
Our Scripture for this morning all comes from Matthew 1, but I am not going to read the whole chapter. First, I will read verse 1, then skip to verses 11-12, then skip down and verse 16, finally verses 18-25. Please stand if you are able for the reading of God’s Word.
Matthew 1:1,
“The record of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham:” (Matthew 1:1, NASB95)[1]
Matthew 1:11-12,
“Josiah became the father of Jeconiah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon. After the deportation to Babylon: Jeconiah became the father of Shealtiel, and Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel.” (Matthew 1:11–12, NASB95)[2]
Matthew 1:16,
“Jacob was the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, by whom Jesus was born, who is called the Messiah.” (Matthew 1:16, NASB95)[3]
Matthew 1:18-25,
“Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: when His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit. And Joseph her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly. But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.’ Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet: ‘Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,’ which translated means, ‘God with us.’ And Joseph awoke from his sleep and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took Mary as his wife, but kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a Son; and he called His name Jesus.” (Matthew 1:18–25, NASB95)[4]
SON OF DAVID (Matthew 1:1; 11-12; 16)
The book of Matthew opens the way many of the Old Testament genealogies begin by introducing us to the book or record of the genealogies or generations of someone. Matthew begins by writing that this is the book of the generations or the record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ. Matthew points out that Jesus Christ is the son of David, and the son of Abraham. He descended from Abraham which established the fact that He was an Israelite, as a descendant of David He was from the royal family, but was He from the kingly line?
God had promised David that his throne and kingdom would be everlasting, God had promised David that his offspring would sit on his throne and reign. God promised that David’s line would be preserved so that there would always be a royal line. Ultimately, these promises would be fulfilled in the Messiah. From the Scriptures we know that David had several sons, but the legal right to sit on the throne passed only to one of them and that right was passed to Solomon. Only those who came through the line of Solomon, the kingly line, could pass the kingship onto their firstborn son. In other words, it was possible to be a physical descendant of David and yet have no legal right to the throne.
The first half of Matthew 1, verses 1-16 is the genealogy of Jesus through the descendants of David who were in the royal lineage that came through Solomon. The genealogy ends in verse 16 with Joseph, the betrothed husband of Mary, this is the genealogy through Joseph. Listen again to verse 16, “Jacob was the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, by whom Jesus was born, who is called the Messiah.” (Matthew 1:16, NASB95)[5] But within this genealogy we have a dilemma. First, we know that Matthew did not include all the descendants that sat on the throne, he skipped some generations to keep the genealogy to three sets of fourteen, this made memorizing it easier. In verses 11-12 we have the 14th descendant of David through Solomon. In Matthew he is named Jeconiah, he was not the son of Josiah, he was the grandson of Josiah. His father was Jehoiakim who was king during the first phase of the Babylonian captivity which began in the third year of his reign. Nebuchadnezzar in this first phase carried off some of the nobles and people to Babylon, this is when Daniel and his companions were carried into captivity. When Jehoiakim died his son Jehoiachin sat on the throne as king. Jehoiachin is also called Jeconiah and Coniah, all three names refer to the same king. He was a wicked king and did evil in the eyes of the LORD, because of his wickedness the LORD through the prophet Jeremiah pronounced a curse on Jeconiah, this is found in Jeremiah 22:30, it says, “Thus says the Lord, ‘Write this man [Jeconiah] down childless, A man who will not prosper in his days; For no man of his descendants will prosper Sitting on the throne of David Or ruling again in Judah.’” (Jeremiah 22:30, NASB95)[6] This curse placed on Jeconiah by the LORD did not mean that he would never have children, but that none of his children would sit on the throne of David. He was carried into exile to Babylon just three months and ten days after he began to reign and none of his descendants ever ruled as a king in Israel or Judah. They were the kingly line, but the curse barred them from occupying the throne of David. Joseph was a direct descendant of Jeconiah, he was of the royal lineage from Solomon, but he could not sit on the throne because of the curse placed upon Jeconiah and his descendants.
This means if Jesus would have been the biological son of Joseph, then He, too, would have come under the curse and been banned from sitting on the throne of David. This posed a humanly impossible dilemma. Three conditions had to be met to authenticate the Messiah, but they appeared impossible to fulfill. The three conditions are: (1) The Messiah had to be in the direct line of David. (2) The Messiah had to be the legal son of Joseph. (3) The Messiah could not be the physical son of Joseph without coming under the LORD’S curse on the descendants of Jeconiah. Only God could fulfill all three of these conditions. Remember these three conditions and we will go on and see how God fulfills them through the rest of this passage.
THE SON OF PROMISE (Matthew 1:1; 18-21; 24-25)
Matthew 1:1 not only tells us that Jesus is the Son of David, but Matthew also tells us that He is the Son of Abraham. This genealogy begins with Abraham and ends with Joseph. The promise made in Genesis 3:15 is that One would come from the seed or offspring of a woman and would crush the head of Satan, would deliver us from our sin. Then in Genesis 12 Abraham was promised that one of His descendants would bring blessing to the whole world. This Son of Promise had to be both a descendant of Abraham, but at the same time be the offspring of a woman.
Matthew 1:18 says, “Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: when His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit.” (Matthew 1:18, NASB95)[7] A betrothal was like what we call an engagement, but much more binding, at this time who you would marry was arranged by your parents and when you were old enough to marry you and your spouse would be betrothed for one year, you were considered husband and wife, but the bride still lived with her parents and the groom lived with his parents preparing the place where he and his bride would live, usually an extension to his father’s house. If during this one year the bride was found to be unfaithful the groom could carry out the full extent of the law and have her disgraced and stoned to death, or he could write her a certificate of divorce.
This was the dilemma that Joseph was left in when it was found that Mary was pregnant during this one year waiting period. Joseph being a righteous man wanted to do the right thing. He wanted to carry out the law, but because of his love for Mary he did not want to disgrace her and have her killed and bring disgrace on her entire family, so he planned to divorce her quietly and privately, this phrase “send her away” in my Bible is the phrase used when you were to divorce someone. This is the phrase used by Jesus when he speaks of divorce.
The passage goes onto tell us that after Joseph had made this plan to divorce Mary quietly and privately that an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream while he slept. This angel addressed him as Joseph, son of David recognizing that he was of the royal lineage, then the angel tells him that he does not need to be afraid to take Mary as his wife, she has not been unfaithful to you, the Child conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. This Child that Mary was to have did not have an earthly, biological father, but in telling Joseph to take Mary as his wife the angel was telling Joseph to accept this Child as his child, to be His earthly father. The angel tells Joseph, “She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:21, NASB95)[8] By telling Joseph that he was to name this Son which Mary would have, the angel was telling Joseph to make Mary’s Son legally his Son.
By telling Joseph to make this Son legally his, the angel is telling Joseph to fulfill a number of conditions. First, this would mean that Jesus would be the legal Son of Joseph and therefore have the right to the throne of David, but He would not be the biological son of Joseph so the curse on Jeconiah’s descendants would not affect Jesus. Lastly, he had to be a direct descendant of David, we know from Luke 3 that He is a direct descendant of David because we have the genealogy of Mary, not through Solomon but through another son of David named Nathan, so He is a direct descendant of David biologically. The three conditions that needed to be met to authenticate Jesus as the Messiah.
Mary’s genealogy goes all the way back to Adam. So, both genealogies, Mary’s and Joseph’s show that Jesus is a descendant of Abraham. The fact that He can be traced all the way back to Adam and that He was born of the virgin Mary without an earthly, biological father meets the need to be the offspring of the woman promised in Genesis 3:15 that would crush the serpents head, and deliver mankind from our sin. The fact that both Joseph and Mary are descendants of Abraham means that Jesus is the Son of promise who will bless all the families of the earth. The angel told Joseph this as well when he said that the Son was to be named Jesus, which means “Yahweh saves”; He is to have this name for He will save His people from their sins.” He will fulfill the promise made to Adam and Eve in the garden in Genesis 3:15 and the promise made to Abraham in Genesis 12 because He will be the Savior that brings blessing on all those who will put their faith in Him, families from all over the earth.
Would Joseph do what the angel said, would he take Mary as his wife and make her child His legal Son? Verses 22-23 are a footnote put in by Matthew, we will come back to them, let’s skip down to verses 24-25 to see what Joseph did. Matthew writes, “And Joseph awoke from his sleep and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took Mary as his wife, but kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a Son; and he called His name Jesus.” (Matthew 1:24–25, NASB95)[9] Joseph when he awoke did exactly as the angel commanded, he didn’t wait for the year of betrothal to be finished he took Mary as his wife and brought her into his home, by doing this he was saying that he believed what the angel said and he would legally make the Son born to Mary his own Son. We see him carry this out when it says that he (Joseph) called His name Jesus when He was born, in naming the Child he was legally making Him his Son. Thus, authenticating that Jesus is the Messiah because He is the Son of David and the Son of Promise.
THE SON OF GOD (Matthew 1:18, 20, 22-23, 25)
The third prophecy that authenticates Jesus as the Messiah is that He has to be the Son of God. Isaiah 9:6-7 tell us that a Son will be given to the world, and that Son will be called Mighty God. As a matter of fact, all the names that Isaiah says the Son will be called can only refer to God, He shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father and Prince of Peace. All these names or titles that point to this Son as the Son of God. There are several things in Matthew 1 that point to the fact that Son born to Mary is the Son of God.
First, verse 18 tells us that Mary was betrothed to Joseph, but before they came together as husband and wife in the same house Mary was found to be with child (pregnant) by the Holy Spirit. This is our first indicator that this child was the Son of God. He does not have an earthly, biological father, He was conceived in Mary’s womb by God, the Holy Spirit. When the angel Gabriel visited Mary to tell her that she would be the mother of Jesus, Mary asked in Luke 1:34, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” (Luke 1:34b, NASB95)[10] She understood that for a baby to be conceived she needed to have sexual relations with a man, as a virgin this had never happened. Gabriel answered her and said in Luke 1:35, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God.” (Luke 1:35, NASB95)[11] The angel told her that God would be the father of her Son and because God was His Father, He would be the Son of God.
Second, when the angel visited Joseph in his dream, he told Joseph the same thing, that the Child who has been conceived in Mary is of the Holy Spirit. Third, we have Matthew’s footnote in verses 22-23 and he writes, “Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet: ‘Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,’ which translated means, ‘God with us.’” (Matthew 1:22–23, NASB95)[12] Matthew points us to another prophecy made by Isaiah in Isaiah 7 that spoke of a virgin being pregnant with a child and that the child would be called Immanuel. This name Immanuel was a revelation about the person of Jesus and not the name that He historically bore. Because Matthew translates the name for us, which Isaiah does not, this name informs us who Jesus was, He was God in the flesh, God with us. John describe God with us in these words in John 1:14, “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14, NASB95)[13] John tells us that He took on flesh, but we still beheld the glory of His deity, the fact that He was God.
Finally, so that no one can claim that this baby had an earthly, biological father verse 25 tells us that Joseph had no sexual relations with Mary, he kept her a virgin until after she gave birth to a Son, whom Joseph called His name Jesus. To authenticate that Jesus was the Messiah, Matthew went to great lengths to show that the father of Jesus was God Himself. Twice he mentions that the Child conceived in Mary was conceived by God, the Holy Spirit. Once He tells us that the conception and birth of this child fulfilled prophecy that this Child would be Immanuel, God with us. Finally, he told us that Joseph had no sexual relations with Mary, he kept her a virgin until she gave birth to Jesus Christ. Clearly and without doubt, Jesus is the Son of God.
CONCLUSION:
We set out this morning to see if three prophecies were fulfilled proving that Jesus Christ was the Messiah. If these prophecies could not be fulfilled, then Jesus is not the Messiah.
First, the Old Testament said that Jesus Christ would be a descendant of David with the authority to sit and rule on David’s throne. We learned that Joseph was a descendant of David’s and he descended through the royal line of Solomon, but His line was cursed because of the wickedness of Jeconiah and none of his descendants could sit on the throne and none had since he went into exile to Babylon. Joseph legally made Jesus his Son, which gave Jesus the right to the throne, through Mary Jesus was a direct descendant from David. Because Joseph was not the biological father of Jesus, just his earthly father, the curse on Jeconiah’s descendants did not extend to Jesus. As such He had the right to sit and rule on David’s throne. Gabriel told Mary in Luke 1:31-33, “And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end.” (Luke 1:31–33, NASB95)[14]
Second, as a descendant of Adam and a descendant of Abraham and because He was born the offspring of a woman, He fulfilled the promises made to Adam and Eve and made to Abraham. Jesus Christ is the Son of promise, the one who crushed Satan’s head through His death and resurrection. The way to God and freedom from Satan and sin was now available through faith in Jesus Christ, believing that His death paid the penalty for sin and His resurrection proved sin was paid for and eternal life was available to all who put their faith in Jesus Christ. He truly is the Son of promise that all families of the earth would be blessed through Him because He makes salvation available to all who believe.
Third, to be the promised Messiah Jesus Christ had to be the Son of God. Matthew goes to great length to show us that He is the Son of God. Twice He tells us that He was conceived of God, the Holy Spirit. He tells us that He is the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy that a virgin would have a Son and He would be God with us. Finally, to take away all doubt we are told that Joseph kept Mary a virgin until the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God was born.
Jesus’ birth perfectly fulfilled these prophecies, praise God because He is the only one who can save us from our sins. We only looked at three prophecies concerning His birth this morning, but every prophecy made about Him concerning His first advent were fulfilled perfectly in Jesus Christ. Rejoice the Savior is born, the only One who could die in our place and pay the penalty required for our sin. Have you placed your faith in Jesus Christ?
[1]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. La Habra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995
[2]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. La Habra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995
[3]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. La Habra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995
[4]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. La Habra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995
[5]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. La Habra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995
[6]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. La Habra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995
[7]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. La Habra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995
[8]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. La Habra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995
[9]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. La Habra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995
[10]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. La Habra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995
[11]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. La Habra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995
[12]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. La Habra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995
[13]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. La Habra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995
[14]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. La Habra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995