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The Gospel of Matthew

Matthew 2:12-3:9

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In this episode, Matthew tells us about the fulfillment of four unusual prophecies relating to the birth of Christ. Each of them seemed to contradict the others when they were given but they were all literally fulfilled, even in a most unusual prophecy, the last one of the Old Testament.

“Speed Slider”

Matthew 2:12-3:9- Transcript

In the last episode we were introduced to the company of wise men who had travelled to Jerusalem in search of the newborn King, the Messiah. It was their enquiry about where the newborn King of Israel could be found that triggered Herod to hatch an evil plot to find and murder this new King that in his mind was a threat to his rule.

The wise men found Jesus, who was no longer a newborn baby but a young child, in a house, not a manger, with His family in Bethlehem. Here they give gifts to the Child along with something even more important. They fall on their faces and worship Him.

Now we’re going to see that these wise men are told by the Lord not to return to Herod as Herod had told them to and we see the Lord Jesus and His family take flight into Egypt to escape the murderous plans of King Herod.

 

We cast off today at Matthew 2 verse 12 and we read,

Then, being divinely warned in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed for their own country another way. 

 

The wise men more than likely believed that Herod was sincere, at least at first, and that he really did want to make the journey to this new King and worship Him.

However, the reality was that he planned killed the Child and if an angel of the Lord hadn’t warned the wise men to go back to their own country by a different route and NOT go back to Herod he surely would have enacted his plan.

Instead of going back the short distance north to Jerusalem they probably went south down to Hebron, then around the bottom of the Dead Sea. They could have then continued back east that way while being out of Herod’s reach altogether.

 

Verse 13,

Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, “Arise, take the young Child and His mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I bring you word; for Herod will seek the young Child to destroy Him.” 

 

An angel of the Lord appeared also to Joseph as well as the wise men and told him to get the Child out of Bethlehem because Herod would attempt to murder Him. Now, notice Joseph’s instant obedience in verse 14,

When he arose, he took the young Child and His mother by night and departed for Egypt, and was there until the death of Herod, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying, “OUT OF EGYPT I CALLED MY SON.” 

 

Here again we see the same pattern as we see all through Matthew. We see the fact, what actually happened and then we see the Old testament prophecy that forecast that fact.

This amazing prophecy is from Hosea 11:1, and it was history at this time as well as prophecy. Out of Egypt the son was called, which was the nation, Israel and we’ll see all that in the next book we study, Exodus. But out of Egypt the Son was called, who was a Person, this Child. So, Joseph took the young Child and the mother to Egypt, and they stayed there until God called Him out of that land back to Judea.

 

Now to Matthew 2:16,

Then Herod, when he saw that he was deceived by the wise men, was exceedingly angry; and he sent forth and put to death all the male children who were in Bethlehem and in all its districts, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had determined from the wise men. 

 

As we’ve seen, the wise men didn’t arrive at the time the shepherds arrived at the stable where the baby Jesus was born. The wise men came later, and, according to Matthew 2:11, the family had moved into a house by then. Now remember that when Herod had his private session with the wise men, he determined from them what time the star appeared. The King James and other translations say he “inquired of them diligently what time the star appeared.”

If it’s true that these wise men came from all parts of the East and had met in a certain place from where they began their trek to Jerusalem by camel we can imagine there was quite a time span since they first saw the star. It would have been a long, hard trip and it would be reasonable to believe that their arrival in Jerusalem may have been a year, or longer, after the star first appeared to them.

 

Now when Herod realised that the wise men weren’t coming back to report to him about the whereabouts of the Child he was infuriated.

It’s quite likely that he thought, “Well, if they said it was a year ago when they saw the star, I’ll just double it and make it two years and kill all the children two years old and younger just to be sure!”

This Herod was actually a madman, and his cruelty was well known so this would have been completely within his character.

 

Verse 17 and 18,

Then was fulfilled what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet, saying: 

“A VOICE WAS HEARD IN RAMAH, LAMENTATION, WEEPING, AND GREAT MOURNING, RACHEL WEEPING FOR HER CHILDREN, REFUSING TO BE COMFORTED, BECAUSE THEY ARE NO MORE.” 

 

Again, Matthew shows where this was prophesied in the Old Testament in this unusual prophecy in Jeremaiah 31:15.

Jeremiah didn’t say that the weeping would be heard in Bethlehem. Now, there certainly would have been a great mourning in Bethlehem. But Jeremiah mentions Rama (spelled R-a-m-a-h in the Old Testament).

Rama was about the same distance north of Jerusalem as Bethlehem was south of Jerusalem and Rama was the prophet Jeremiah’s country.

It’s possible that when the soldiers had been given their orders to slay the children, the captain said to Herod, “Where do you want us to begin?” Possibly old Herod said, “Well, just draw a circle around Jerusalem with the radius as far south as Bethlehem and as far north as Rama”.

Herod slew many children. You can imagine the weeping all the way from Bethlehem to Rama, a radius of about 20 km, or 40 or so km across the whole area. It must have been a heartbreaking time in the lives of these people when they lost their little ones. This prophecy given through Jeremiah was literally fulfilled.

 

There’re no exact descriptions of this event in secular history, and the death of some children may not have been worth recording in such violent times and murderous times as these. However, it’s entirely in character with Herod’s ruthlessness which is well known in secular history.

Anything’s possible from a man who murdered his own wife and sons.

When he knew that his death was near, Herod had many Jewish leaders of Jerusalem arrested on false charges. He ordered that as soon as he died, they should all be killed because he knew that no one would mourn his death, so he was determined that some tears should be shed when he died.

Herod was up there in the same class as Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Mussolini, Idi Amin and Pol Pot and many others throughout history.

 

Verse 19,

Now when Herod was dead, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, 

 

Let’s take notice here that in Genesis chapter 32 we saw that THE angel of the Lord appeared to Jacob at Peniel. Here it is AN angel of the Lord. The angel of the Lord is the pre–incarnate Christ. Now Christ is no longer incarnate. He’s down in Egypt in the form of man.

 

Verse 20,

saying, “Arise, take the young Child and His mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the young Child’s life are dead.” 

 

Now it’s essential to get Jesus out of the land of Egypt and back up into Israel.

The most important reason for this is that He has been born under the Law, and He’s to live under the Mosaic Law. He’s the only One who really ever kept it. He must get out from under the influence of Egypt. He’s not to be raised down there as Moses had been and as the children of Israel had been when they were becoming a nation.

 

Verses 21 and 22,

Then he arose, took the young Child and His mother, and came into the land of Israel. 

But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea instead of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. And being warned by God in a dream, he turned aside into the region of Galilee. 

 

So, this, Archelaus was another Herod, the son of Herod the Great and very brutal.

Joseph had good reason to be cautious regarding Archelaus. He proved to be such an incompetent and violent ruler, that the Jews of Judea pleaded with the Romans who deposed him for misrule and replaced him with a governor appointed by Rome in AD 6.

 

Verse 23,

And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, “He shall be called a Nazarene.” 

 

“He shall be called a Nazarene.” The Hebrew word for Nazareth was Netzer, meaning a branch or shoot. The city of Nazareth was so called because of its insignificance. The prophecies of Isaiah 11:1; Isaiah 53:2-3; and Psalm 22:6 all talk of the insignificance of the Messiah when He appeared, and all these are involved in the term Nazarene.

But the Lord Jesus was given that term not only because He was a root out of the stem of Jesse and fulfilled in Himself those prophecies of insignificance, but also because He grew up in the city of Nazareth, and He was called a Nazarene, which perfectly fulfilled the prophecies.

Now we’ve seen that all four of the prophecies dealing with locations in the birth of Christ were fulfilled in a very normal way. He was born in Bethlehem, called out of Egypt, there was weeping in Rama as His murder was attempted, and He was called a Nazarene.

You see the Lord Jesus was involved in all of these places prophesied in the Old Testament and though they would’ve been a puzzle to those living then, the pieces later fell simply and naturally into place to form the full picture of their reality.

 

And now we come to Matthew chapter 3. Here, the scripture takes a giant leap over the time of Jesus’s birth and the challenges against his very early life, and it lands to the time when John the Baptist walks onto the pages of scripture. He’s the forerunner of the long prophesied King, the Lamb of God who would take away the sins of the world. John announces the Kingdom and baptizes Jesus, the King.

 

Let’s begin Matthew 3:1-3

In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” 

 

If we only had Matthew’s Gospel, then where this man come from and what his background was would be a mystery because Matthew tells us none of that, When you think about it, the reason’s obvious.

As we’ve said many times the Bible only tells us the backstory around the life and times of the people on its pages that’s relevant to the whole story and that story is always centred on Jesus Christ.

 

The prophet Malachi had said in Malachi chapter 3 verse 1 that the messenger would come ahead to prepare the way for the coming of the King. Let’s read it.

“Behold, I send My messenger, And he will prepare the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, Will suddenly come to His temple, Even the Messenger of the covenant, In whom you delight. Behold, He is coming,” Says the LORD of hosts.

This messenger was John the Baptist. You and I don’t need to know about the background of a messenger.

Look at it this way.

Let’s say you order a pizza and ask it to be delivered. When the delivery driver delivers the pizza to your door, do you say to him, “Now, where did your ancestors come from? What’s your background?” You’re not a bit interested in that. You’re interested in the pizza he’s delivering because that’s the only reason for him being there. So, you’d take the pizza, thank him, and dismiss him. You’re finished with him.

 

John the Baptist made it very clear that he was just the messenger, and Matthew’s making that clear, too. So, onto the pages of Scripture he walks, preaching in the wilderness of Judea saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!”

Now, we really need to look hard at these three expressions: “Repent”; “the kingdom of heaven”; and “is at hand.” They’re very important and without a good understanding of them we can get a very distorted view not only of what the Bible is saying but of our own salvation.

“Repent” is an expression that’s always been given to God’s people as a challenge to turn around. “Repent” in the original Greek is metanoia, meaning “to change your mind.” We’re going in one direction then we simply turn around and go in another direction.

Repentance is, first and foremost, for saved people, that is, for God’s people in any age.

They’re the ones who are to repent, to turn, when they become cold and indifferent to God’s reality.

That’s the message to the seven churches of Asia Minor in Revelation 2 and 3, and it’s the message that’s incredibly important to the 7 types of those churches here on earth today. When we get to the Book of Revelation we’ll see that this message was given by none other than the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.

 

We hear so much about repentance today and we should ask the question, “Is the unsaved person supposed to repent.”

Well no. At least not in the sense that most people think.

Let’s ask ourselves if the thief or the murderer were to repent, to turn from their theft and murder, would they be saved?

No. The unsaved person is told that he’s to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. That’s the message of Paul to the jailer at Philippi in Acts 16:25-31.

Here’s a man that handed out brutal treatment to Paul and Silas after they were thrown in prison. When a mighty and miraculous earthquake opened the prison doors and unlocked the chains of the prisoners, this brutal jailer made the move to take his own life knowing that he himself would be subject to torture and death when it became known the prisoners had escaped.

However, Paul said to him, “Do yourself no harm, for we’re all here.”

When the jailer saw this he fell down trembling before Paul and Silas and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”

Paul and Silas told him, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.”

Now, the jailer’s household was not saved merely because he was. Paul came and spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. They were all saved because they all trusted the Word of God and the One who’s revealed through the preaching of that Word, Jesus.

Repentance is not mentioned here in connection with salvation and yet that vital part of the process is completed when an unsaved person believes in Jesus. When he believes he is repenting.

Faith means to turn to Christ, and when you turn to Christ, you must also turn from something. It’s impossible to turn to something without turning from something. Say you were walking down the footpath and your eyes were on the pavement when suddenly a car screeches to a halt near you. You immediately turn to look at the car. You’ve turned your attention from the pavement to the car.

As far as our spiritual walk is concerned, if we don’t turn from something, then we aren’t really turning to Christ. So, repentance is really a part of believing, but the primary message that should be given to the lost is that they should believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

Some people think that Paul’s invitation to salvation here is too simple, that it’s a too-easy faith or a cheap grace. Because of this people want to do something. It couldn’t possibly be that simple as just believing.

We people to come forward in a service to receive Christ or sign a card signifying that they’ve made that decision or go through some other ritual. However, the important thing is to trust Christ as your Saviour, and if you really turn to Him, you turn from something else. You have repented.

Now if we’re already a child of God, in other words we’ve trusted in the death, burial and resurrection of Christ as the only way to salvation, we can come to times in our life’s journey when our love for God grows cold. This is usually because we’ve let ourselves become conformed or absorbed by the things of this world. We’ve let our eyes wander from God’s truth and looked to the more “in your face” issues that confront us in our day to day world. The truly saved person will always come to a moment when he or she realises this and longs to be back in the peace and joy of His presence. This is where repentance takes place in the fact that we turn our focus from this world to God through His precious Word. There’s nothing more satisfying than coming back, just like the prodigal son who, even though he squandered his inheritance, never lost his position with his father.

 

Now, let’s look at the expression “kingdom of heaven”. As we’ve said before it simply means the rule of the heavens over the earth. The Lord Jesus is the King. You can’t have a kingdom without a king; neither can you have a king without a kingdom. A king must have a kingdom. A king without a kingdom is not a king. He’s a king of nothing.

So, what did John the Baptist mean by “the kingdom of heaven is at hand”? He meant that the Kingdom of Heaven is present in the Person of the King.

Is there a present day reality of the Kingdom of Heaven? Well, yes, there is. Colossians 1 verse 13 in the King James tells us that Those who come to Him as Saviour and acknowledge Him are delivered from the power of darkness and translated or conveyed into the Kingdom of His dear Son. They belong to Him now. And they have a much more intimate relationship than that of a subject with a king. Christ is the Bridegroom, and believers are part of His bride!

Then it would be natural to ask whether we are like subjects in a kingdom because we are to carry out His commands. Again, there’s more to it than that. We’re to obey Him because we love Him. It’s a love relationship. “If you love me, keep my commandments”, Jesus said in John 14:15.

The “kingdom of heaven” is the rule of the heavens over the earth. The physical reality of that is simply not in existence today.

Christ is not reigning over the world now. There must be something wrong with the thinking of those who insist that the Kingdom of Heaven is in existence in our day. Christ is not reigning in any form, shape, or fashion—except in the hearts of those who have received Him.

Now, all things are being upheld by His Word as we’re told in Hebrews 1:3, but He’s not physically ruling on this earth and that’s very obvious. If He was He’d be a monumental failure at it, but He’s not.

However, He is coming someday to establish His physical Kingdom on the earth. When He does, He’ll put down rebellion and believe me, He’s really going to put it down.

The Kingdom of Heaven was at hand, or was present, in the Person of the King. That was the only way in which it was present.

Matthew now tells us again that what he’s recording what was prophesied in the Old Testament, and we read Matthew 3:3

For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying: “THE VOICE OF ONE CRYING IN THE WILDERNESS: ‘PREPARE THE WAY OF THE LORD; MAKE HIS PATHS STRAIGHT.’ ” 

 

The prophet Isaiah, put down this prophecy in Isaiah 40 verse 3.

“The voice of one crying in the wilderness”—all that John the Baptist claimed for himself was that he was a voice crying in the wilderness. And his purpose was to “prepare the way of the Lord.”

 

Verse 4,

Now John himself was clothed in camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist; and his food was locusts and wild honey. 

 

He’s a strange individual, is John the Baptist. He follows a wierd diet and dresses unusually.

His clothes were of camel’s hair, and he had a leather belt round his waist, which was probably a kind of sash, and for food he ate locusts and wild honey. We’re told that he never shaved and had long hair. Here’s an unusual man, for sure, but a man with a mission.

He’s really an Old Testament character, walking out of the Old Testament onto the pages of the New Testament. He’s the last of the Old Testament prophets.

 

Verse 5,

Then Jerusalem, all Judea, and all the region around the Jordan went out to him 

 

Notice that the crowds went out to him. John didn’t rent a stadium or an auditorium or a church, and there was no committee that invited him. In fact, he didn’t come to town at all. If you wanted to hear John, you went out to where he was. Obviously, the Spirit of God was on this man.

 

Verse 6,

and were baptized by him in the Jordan, confessing their sins. 

 

In other words, there was a change in the lives of these people. The fact that they submitted to John’s baptism was an indication that they were leaving their old lives and turning to new lives.

 

Verses 7 to 9,

But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 

Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not think to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. 

 

 

Now look who’s coming!

This is our introduction to these two important groups in first-century Judaism. These two groups were very different, and they were often in conflict with each other. Together they represented the leadership of Judaism.

It was widely taught in that day that Abraham’s merits were enough for any Jew’s salvation and that a Jewish person couldn’t go to hell.

 

The Pharisees believed that a person was made righteous by keeping the law, and they believed that they themselves kept the law to the letter and so were righteous. This of course, couldn’t be further from the truth.

They often misinterpreted the law and they regarded many of their manmade traditions to be equal in authority to Scripture.

They were often hypocrites in their practice and turned from the core and spirit of the law in favour of outward appearances.

The Sadducees denied the miraculous and the supernatural and believed in unrestrained free will and that God had no part in the personal lives of humans. In spite of this they believed strongly in rituals to purify themselves particularly from the Torah, the first 5 books of the Bible. Wealth seems to have been the number one “belief” of the Sadducees.

 

Listen to the way he greets these supposedly dignified visitors, the Pharisees and the Sadducees. He calls them a “Brood of vipers”!

This is really strong language. He’s talking to this bunch of dignified but self-righteous leaders and he’s telling them, “There must be evidence of this new life. You can’t just go through the act of baptism. There must be fruit in your life.”

 

Friends, he’s making a strong statement here! You can understand why he wasn’t the most popular man of the year in Judea.

He’s telling them that eternal life doesn’t come on the basis that they are the natural children of Abraham. He’s saying that this is nothing to God. If God wanted to He could create children of Abraham from the very stones they’re walking on. What’s needed is a complete reversal of their self-righteous arrogance and a putting away of all that they think they are. They need to start looking at who and what they really are in the eyes of God and not at who they are in the eyes of themselves or those around them who they try to impress. They should start realising why The Messiah had to come and to see the utterly hopeless situation they’re in without Him.

John accused these leaders of wanting to appear anxious for the coming of the Messiah, but not truly repenting and preparing their hearts. Therefore, John demanded fruits worthy of repentance.

In the next episode Matthew makes us familiar with this John the Baptist, one of the many fascinating characters of the New Testament. Until then friends may God give you assurance that He causes everything to work together for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.

The Gospel of Matthew

Matthew 2:1-11

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Today we see the visit of the wise men after the birth of the Lord Jesus. We see the family with the baby Jesus on their flight into Egypt to escape Herod’s genocide and their return to Nazareth.

“Speed Slider”

Matthew 2:1-11 – Transcript

As we start off today let’s look again at the verse we finished off with last time, Matthew 16:1.

And Jacob begot Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus who is called Christ. 

All of this that we’re reading in the Gospel of Matthew is a historical record of what took place, but there’s also a back story where a tremendous truth’s being presented, and we don’t want to miss it.

We’ve said before that each of the four Gospels were directed to meet the needs of a particular group of people and that Matthew was written to the nation of Israel. It’s for religious people. We see recorded here the fulfillment of four Old Testament prophecies. To show how these prophecies were fulfilled at the birth of Jesus is the purpose of this chapter.

There were quite likely many people living in Christ’s day who knew and studied scripture and were well aware of these prophecies and they must have wondered how all of them could be fulfilled. It would have seemed difficult, if not impossible.

Let’s see list several of them here here, then we’ll see how they were fulfilled at the time of Christ’s birth: He was to be born in Bethlehem and that’s prophesied in Micah 5:2. He was to be called out of Egypt in Hosea 11:1. There was to be weeping in Ramah so says Jeremiah 31:15 and He was a root from the stem of Jesse and therefore to be called a Nazarene we see in Isaiah 11:1.

Now, since Christ was to be born in Bethlehem, why should there be weeping in Ramah, which is a long way north of Jerusalem? And He was to be called a Nazarene although He’d be born in Bethlehem and called out of Egypt. The question is: How could all of these prophecies be fulfilled in a little baby, especially when the jigsaw peices didn’t seem to fit?

Well, Matthew shows how literally, accurately, and easily all were fulfilled without any strain on prophecy or on history. It just came about as God said it would come about.

In our day there’re certain prophecies that relate to the second coming of Christ, and, just like the times of old, we may find it difficult to align them up and place those jigsaw pieces in the right sequence with what we see in the world today. However, they’ll all be fulfilled in the exact same way that past prophecies were.

More than likely were going to find that it’ll all take place in a normal, natural way without over the top fanfare.

It looks like a jigsaw puzzle to us down here, but, when we get into His presence and it’s all fulfilled, it’ll have been just as natural as the prophecies about His first coming. Every little piece in the jigsaw puzzle will fit into place, and we’re going to wonder why in the world we didn’t see it at the time.

So, we shouldn’t waste or time trying to figure out who the antichrist is or if the rapture’s going to be tonight before dinner. The Lord has it perfectly under control and His timing cannot be interfered with.

 

Now let’s start Mattew 2:1,

Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, 

 

This is the historical record of the coming of the wise men.

Notice here that they came in the days of Herod the king and the one thing Herod did not want was competition. In fact, the one thing that Herod would not tolerate was competition. So, the wise men coming to Jerusalem really alerted him.

Now, no matter how hard you look at this verse you’ll not find anything about 3 wise men.

All the Christmas cards may say that, and every Christmas play, or Christmas display you’ve ever seen may represent that, but the Bible definitely doesn’t.

Many people know more about the Christmas story from Christmas cards than from the Bible, and therefore they have many ideas that’re simply not true. Let’s try and correct several of them in this chapter and let’s keep in mind some very important scripture as we do.

In Mark 7:9 Jesus said to the Pharisees and Scribes, “All too well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition”.

Mark chapter 7 verse 13 talks about making the Word of God of no effect through your tradition which you have handed down.

In other words, we cancel the Word of God, His truth, in order to hand down our own traditions and there are a number of other scriptures which reinforce this. God has no place in the traditions of man.

 

So, the Bible record doesn’t tell us there were three wise men. In fact, it doesn’t give us the number at all. But it does give us a clue. For example, in chapter 3 we see that when Herod the king heard about this company of wise men he was troubled and all of Jerusalem with him.

It’s very doubtful whether three wise men would have disturbed Herod or excited the whole of Jerusalem in such a way. The number was more than likely closer to three hundred men than three and they certainly would have troubled the king and the city, and we can especially see that when we understand who they were and where they came from. There’s a deep history at the back of who these men were and that history goes right back to the book of Daniel. Like many subjects we’ve looked at in our study so far, we can’t derail the study of the Gospel itself to delve deeper into the subject. Many of these subjects we encounter as we go through the Bible take us down rabbit holes that lead into a maze of truly amazing subjects. However, if we went down those rabbit holes we’d spend an entire lifetime getting through Matthew.

These travellers are called wise men, which in the ancient Greek is magoi which we know as magi. Misconceptions and legends abound about these wise men. They were not kings as tradition holds but wise men, which means they were astronomers. They were not followers of the pagan astrology that’s rampant today, but they understood God’s plan of salvation that’s clearly seen in the stars. This is what’s known as the Mazzaroth.

The Mazzaroth is 12 constellations that circle the earth and in it God’s entire plan of redemption is displayed including the virgin birth of Christ.

My friend, the heavens really do declare the glory of God; And the firmament shows His handiwork as Psalm 19 verse 1 tells us.

These wise men came from the East. Notice that they were from the east, and we’ll see why that’s important shortly. They evidently came from different areas but from the east. They’d been studying the stars, the Mazzaroth and when this new star appeared, they joined forces and came to Jerusalem. As we’ve said, we don’t know how many there were, but we can be almost certain it wasn’t three. Probably three hundred would be more near the truth, and if they were the powerful group of kingmakers, and nation builders that we understand them to be from a deeper study, there could have been a thousand or more of them and they would have more than likely been travelling with a powerful armed escort.

Now that certainly would have disturbed Herod and the whole city.

But the wise men came in verse 2,

saying, “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him.” 

 

These men were looking for a King, and that certainly got Herod’s attention.

“We have seen his star in the east.” They said. Here’s another misrepresentation that we’ve got from manmade Christmas tradition.

If they’d seen His star in the east and it had been an eastern star, the wise men would have ended up in India or China because, you see, they were already in the east. East of where? Well, Jerusalem. So, if they followed a star that appeared in the east of where they were, then obviously they would have travelled further eastward from their already eastern position. That would have taken them in the exact opposite direction to which they actually travelled.

No, the star was in the west! Again, the wise men were situated in the east. The star was in the west, and they followed it. They came west, not east. The text in the verse basically says that, while these chaps were in the east, they saw a star. It wasn’t a star hovering over the east as we tend to think.

 

Now, how did they associate a star with a King, and how did they identify it with Israel?

Well, we’ve only got speculation to go on here but these men probably new the Mazzaroth as well if not better than most people of the day and they knew full well the prophecies about the coming King.

Also, in that section of Israel in the East, the people had a prophecy given by Balaam, which is recorded in Numbers 24:17,

“I see Him, but not now; I behold Him, but not near; A Star shall come out of Jacob; A Sceptre shall rise out of Israel, And batter the brow of Moab, And destroy all the sons of tumult.”

The prophet Balaam specifically gave this prophecy concerning the nation Israel.

And a Sceptre shall rise out of Israel. The star and the sceptre go together. The wise men in the East had that prophecy, along with a knowledge of the coming Messiah, The King that would rule Israel.

There’s been all sorts of speculation throughout the ages as to which star within our planetary system this was and some weird and wonderful concepts have been put forward, however, this was no ordinary star from the night sky.

In verse 9 of this chapter we read that the star went before them (that’s the wise men), till it came and stood over where the young Child was.

Has any star from our planetary system ever done that? No!

This was a supernatural phenomenon that God used to guide these men and it’s almost certain that these men would have been fully aware of that.

 

Verse 3,

When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. 

 

So then, when this very impressive delegation of wise men converged on the city of Jerusalem asking a question like this, “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews” the whole city was disturbed.

Herod wanted to know about this. This man Herod was Herod the Great, and he was a very superstitious man.

A good Bible dictionary will tell you a lot about the Herod family. They were as bad a bunch as there’s ever been, very cruel and power hungry and Herod the Great was the biggest scoundrel of them all. He was an Idumaean, meaning an Edomite, who had bought his position from the Roman government, so he wasn’t of Israel at all, and he was really anxious to locate this One who appeared to be a rival for his throne.

 

Matthew 2:4

And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. 

 

He was basically saying to the chief priests and scribes, “I know that you have the Scriptures and in them you have a record of a Messiah that’s coming. I want to know where He’s to be born.” One of the amazing things is that they were able to tell him.

 

Verses 5 and 6,

So they said to him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written by the prophet: 

‘BUT YOU, BETHLEHEM, IN THE LAND OF JUDAH, ARE NOT THE LEAST AMONG THE RULERS OF JUDAH; FOR OUT OF YOU SHALL COME A RULER WHO WILL SHEPHERD MY PEOPLE ISRAEL.’ ” 

 

When Herod asked the scribes this question, they didn’t have to search the Scriptures for it; they knew exactly where it was, Micah 5:2.

They didn’t need to even turn to the scriptures and scroll through them, or do a phrase search on the computer, because they knew it off by heart.

They could quote it. They knew all about the coming of the Messiah. The problem was that their knowledge was academic rather than personally meaningful to them. If this knowledge had been within their hearts and not just their heads they would have already been on their way to Bethlehem themselves.

Since the scribes knew the Old Testament Scriptures so well, you’d have thought that they’d have gone to the wise men and said, “How about letting us ride down with you guys? We are looking for the Messiah too!”

They’re examples of folk who know the history contained in the Bible and they know certain factual truths, but these things carry no personal meaning for them.

How many of us are really looking for the coming of the Lord?

We talk about it, and we study a great deal about prophecy. We know about the antichrist, and we can speculate for hours about the one world government, a cashless society, and the horrors of the great tribulation but how many of us really want to see Him right now, today?

Would He be an interruption to what we’re currently doing? Would we say to Him, “Could you postpone your visit till some other time, maybe after I’m finished what I’m into at the moment”?

 

Herod got the information he was after from the scribes we see in verse 7,

Then Herod, when he had secretly called the wise men, determined from them what time the star appeared. 

 

We see here that the star had appeared sometime before the wise men arrived in Jerusalem. Remember that they made the trip by camel and it would’ve been a long, hard trip!

Most likely, they didn’t arrive in Jerusalem until at least a year after the appearance of the star. This wasn’t just a little Christmas celebration for them. As they travelled the long, weary miles, they had been hanging on to the hope of seeing Him, the new King that was born, and presenting their gifts to Him.

In the King James and most other translations, Herod “inquired diligently” or “determined exactly” the time of the star’s appearance. This’ll be an important fact later in the story.

So, Herod sends the wise men on to Bethlehem in verse 8 and we read,

And he sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the young Child, and when you have found Him, bring back word to me, that I may come and worship Him also.” 

 

Herod’s being as subtle as the old serpent that he was.

He well knew that he couldn’t say what was on his mind, which was to find this new King and get rid of him for good by murdering Him.

He knew that they never would have allowed him to get his hands on the Child because He would have been hidden.

He knew that the clever way and the best way was to let the wise men go down and find the child and then come back and tell him. He said he wanted to go down and worship Him, but of course what he really wanted to do was to murder Him.

 

Verses 9 and 10,

When they heard the king, they departed; and behold, the star which they had seen in the East went before them, till it came and stood over where the young Child was. 

When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy. 

 

Now the star appears again, and this indicates that they travelled a lot of the way without seeing the star all the time.

That should be enough to put paid to the nonsense we often hear about today about planetary movements that occurred at this time in history that revealed a star that the wise men followed.

Matthew makes it clear that this star was a very unusual star; in fact, it was a supernatural star. It was miraculous, and we simply don’t need to try to find some sort of natural explanation for it. Now, it may be, as many astronomers think, that there was quite a movement in the heavens at that time. When He came, heaven and earth both responded to His coming into this world. It’s entirely possible that many unusual natural phenomena did take place, however, what the wise men saw was a supernatural star.

 

Verse 11,

And when they had come into the house, they saw the young Child with Mary His mother, and fell down and worshiped Him. And when they had opened their treasures, they presented gifts to Him: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. 

 

 

When these wise men arrived, Jesus wasn’t in the stable behind an inn.

The great movement of people into the city of Bethlehem was now over. Everyone had gone back to their homes because the enrolment for taxes as ordered by Rome was over and that was the reason that town had been packed full of people

Probably such a perilous and rough trip for the family looking after a newborn Little One would have risked His life. So, they’d stayed in Bethlehem and had, by this time, moved into a house.

The wise men found the family in a house. Again, the Christmas cards show the wise men coming into the stable. Well, unless Joseph gave these men a sightseeing tour of where the Baby Jesus was born, they never even knew where it was. They came to the house.

Here we must note that when they saw the young child with Mary His mother, they fell down and worshiped Him, that is the Child.

If there was ever a time when Mary should have been worshiped, this was it. But they didn’t worship her, they were wise men!

They worshiped Him and presented to Him their treasures: gold and frankincense and myrrh.

It was common in the East in that culture that you’d never appear before royalty or a person of importance without bringing gifts. Considering who these wise men believed the young Child to be, it’s not surprising that they gave such lavish gifts.

The idea that there were three wise men comes from the fact that there were three gifts mentioned in the Bible.

The precious gifts were not presented to Mary or Joseph, but to Jesus Himself. Yet undeniably, the infant Jesus did not use or spend any of these precious gifts, but His parents used them, hopefully wisely, on His behalf and to His benefit.

Gold speaks of royalty, the frankincense speaks of divinity, and myrrh speaks of death. Yet it’s more than likely that the Magi weren’t aware of this.

How useful would this gold have been to Joseph in the following months. God knew what their needs would be, and He met them.

Also, we must note that the wise men, the magi, didn’t worship a newborn baby, but a young child.

At this time, He was probably between 6 and 18 months old. Also notice that the Child is mentioned before the mother which was against the custom.

These wise men gave more important gifts than the gold, frankincense, and myrrh. They gave Jesus their worship. They fell down and worshipped Him. It must have been a strange sight to see these very impressive and important men bowing before a young child.

 

This chapter shows three different responses to Jesus, and we could categorise how everyone responds to Him from one of these three ways.

  1. Herod displayed an open hatred and hostility toward Jesus.
  2. The chief priests and the scribes were indifferent toward Jesus, while still clinging to their religious respectability.
  3. The wise men sought out Jesus and worshipped Him – even at great cost.

 

It’s very interesting to study the facts concerning Jesus’s second coming as they’re related to us in Isaiah 60:6 which reads,

The multitude of camels shall cover your land, The dromedaries of Midian and Ephah; All those from Sheba shall come; They shall bring gold and incense, And they shall proclaim the praises of the LORD. 

What gift is left out at His second coming? Myrrh! They don’t bring myrrh because that speaks of His death. When He comes the second time, nothing will speak of His death. As we’ve said Gold speaks of His birth. He’s born a King. Frankincense speaks of the fragrance of His life, His divinity. Myrrh speaks of His death. All of this is indicated in the gifts that were brought to Him at His first coming. But at His next coming, myrrh will not be brought to Him. He’s already been through the doorway of death, but death could not hold Him because death is the wages, the payment, for sin and He had not and could not sin. Therefore, He was resurrected, defeating death and the grave. The next time He comes, He won’t come to die on a cross for the sins of the world. He’ll be coming as King of kings and Lord of lords.

When we get to the Gospel of Luke, in chapter 2 verses 15 to 20 we’ll see that a bunch of shepherds visited Jesus after His birth but before the wise men.

In comparing the visit of the wise men to the earlier visit of those shepherds we see:

  • Jesus came to the Jew first, then to the Gentile.
  • Jesus came to the humble and ignorant first, then the honourable and learned.
  • Jesus came to the poor first, then the rich.

 

Also, we can learn something from the wisdom of these wise men.

  • They weren’t satisfied with just looking at the star and admiring it; they did something about the star and set out and followed it.
  • They persevered in their search by following after the star.
  • They weren’t discouraged in the search by clergy and doubtful religious leaders.
  • They rejoiced at the star.
  • When they arrived at the destination the star led them to, they entered in.
  • When they entered in, they worshipped.
  • They sensed an urgency to worship Him now and not wait till later.
  • When they worshipped, it was to give something – not empty-handed adoration.

There’s a wonderful pattern in this account. Those who look for Jesus will find him: those who truly find him will worship him: those who worship him will dedicate all they have and all they are to Him. They’ll give Him the glory for all they’ve been provided with in this life and for the hope and the joy and the rest and peace that they know they have throughout eternity because of His sacrifice.

 

Until we take up the rest of this most incredible of all stories my friends may God bless you and keep you and may you trust in Him and in His goodness in your life.

The Gospel of Matthew

Matthew 1:17-25

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The deeper we go into this Gospel of Matthew the more we’ll understand that not just the Gospel of Matthew, but the entire Bible is a remarkable and supernatural Book with an Author from outside of our time dimension and it’s the message about the Lord Jesus Christ.

He’s the central figure of all history especially here in Matthew as we see Him as the long promised Messiah and the King of Israel.

In this episode we come to what surely must be the most remarkable event to have ever occurred, the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Was Jesus born of a virgin?

Countless numbers of people down through the ages have believed that He was, and many of those people have suffered incredibly for that belief even to the point of torture and death.

There’re also countless numbers who deny that this is true and many also say that the Bible doesn’t even teach the virgin birth.

Well, let’s see shall we?

“Speed Slider”

Matthew 1:17-25 – Transcript

As we start off today let’s look again at the verse we finished off with last time, Matthew 16:1.

And Jacob begot Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus who is called Christ. 

Now after the long list of people who begot the next person in the genealogy we come to this verse, verse 16 and if the normal pattern were being followed it should read, “And Jacob begot Joseph the husband of Mary, and Joseph begot Jesus who is called Christ.” But, it doesn’t say that does it?. There’s a complete change, a break in the routine, or the flow if you like, of the genealogy.

The wording of this verse makes it clear that Matthew does not regard Jesus as Joseph’s son physically.

It’s absolutely crystal clear that the genealogy was intended to be that of Jesus’ ‘legal’ ancestry, not of his physical ancestry.

Both the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Luke declare that Jesus was virgin born.

Joseph was not His father, but Mary was not unfaithful to Joseph. Jesus is not an illegitimate child. This is something completely new in the world.

Now, I personally have never object to any person saying that he doesn’t believe in the virgin birth. Every person man has the right to disbelieve, it’s his free choice. However, I’ve got a big problem with a pastor, a preacher, a minister, or a priest who makes their living teaching the Word of God denying the virgin birth. That person, even though he may have a knowledge of the Bible as a book, has no revelation knowledge, no understanding of the Word behind the typed pages. He hasn’t met the Author and he doesn’t know the One who spoke the words and he’s definitely not in the right job. I’ve had these people come across my path a number of times and usually they are much harder to get along with than the unbeliever. For a person to set themself up as an authority on something when they’ve completely misunderstood the foundation of what they’re supposed to be an authority on, takes a special kind of pitiful soul.

 

There are many people who say that the Bible doesn’t teach the virgin birth, but this immediately places them in the same camp. There’s simply no evidence of a Jesus who claimed to be the Jewish Messiah, The Christ who was born through the normal human birth method.

These people have fallen into the great trap of humanity. They believe that their puny, frail, and incomplete human knowledge is so great that they know everything about everything and that by rationalising according to that human knowledge they can become absolutely certain of anything.

Nothing can happen in the universe outside of that human knowledge and understanding. How wrong this is. Despite that belief, even in our natural world, new discoveries are being made almost daily which prove that current human understanding was incomplete or just downright wrong. These poor souls genuinely believe that we humans are at the highest point of knowledge possible, even though this’s shown to be wrong every day.

The human race does not have the power to create anything at all from absolutely nothing and neither is there a power anywhere that can do that other than our all-powerful, all knowing God. God’s the Creator of natural laws. He can either use those natural laws or He can set them aside in order to accomplish His purposes.

The record given to us by God clearly states that Jesus Christ was virgin born and as we continue on we find there could be no other way that salvation could come to man than through the virgin birth that detoured around the seed of sinful man.

 

In verse 17 we find a statement which will explain something in the genealogies, and we read,

So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations, from David until the captivity in Babylon are fourteen generations, and from the captivity in Babylon until the Christ are fourteen generations. 

 

Matthew puts the genealogy into groupings to give an overall view of Old Testament history.

One era extends from Abraham to David, another from David to the Babylonian captivity, and the third from the captivity in Babylon to the birth of Jesus Christ. Obviously, he has omitted some names from the genealogy in order to fit fourteen into each period. The question is, why did he do this? Apparently, the number fourteen (twice seven, seven number that means “completeness”) offers some proof concerning the accuracy of this genealogy.

Now that Matthew’s shown that Joseph’s not the father of Jesus, he’s going to give us an explanation.

 

Already in the Old Testament, a supernatural birth has been predicted by God. Jeremiah is talking to the nation Israel in Jeremiah 31 verse 22 where he says,

“How long will you gad about, O you backsliding daughter? For the LORD has created a new thing in the earth—A woman shall encompass a man.”

Now a quick glance at this verse, especially in its English form, might cause us to skip over and miss what the Lord is saying here through the prophet Jeremiah.

The backsliding daughter here is Israel the nation.

A woman shall compass a man means the female shall protect the strong man; the weaker nature that needs help will surround the stronger with loving and fostering care. As we go into verse 31 of this chapter in Jeremaiah we see that the Lord is promising

 

The words are the Lord speaking to the nation of Israel through Jeremaiah and He asks the nation Israel, who are coming out of captivity, why they keep going around looking everywhere and to anyone for help and comfort except to Jehovah, God.

Then the Lord tells them to keep pinning their hopes firmly on Him. He tells them He hasn’t run out of resources to help Israel and humanity. A new era is approaching, an era of grace and that grace is in Christ. A new creation will mark that era, the Incarnation of Christ; when the Virgin Woman shall compass a Man, and give birth to “the Man, Christ Jesus.” This new covenant will be ratified with Christ’s blood. 1 Corinthians 11:25 says,

“In the same way he took the cup, after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me’”.

The ancient Jews acknowledged this as the correct interpretation and applied the words to the coming Messiah.

Most of the early Christian fathers regarded the verse as predicting the event of the Virgin Mary compassing Christ in her womb.

The virgin birth of the Lord Jesus is the “new thing” which God promised here.

 

Now to Matthew 1:18,

Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: After His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit. 

 

“The birth of Jesus Christ was as follows.” Matthews saying, “Here’s the way it happened.” When His mother, Mary, was espoused to Joseph, that is, she was engaged to him, before they came together, in other words before they had any sexual relationship, she was found with child, pregnant, of the Holy Spirit.

 

Verse 19,

Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not wanting to make her a public example, was minded to put her away secretly. 

 

The Mosaic Law was very specific about this situation. It said that a woman who was guilty of being unfaithful should be stoned to death. Punishments were a serious business in ancient Israel.

But this man Joseph was a no ordinary man, in fact he was a pretty remarkable man. We devote a great deal of attention to Mary, and that’s entirely as it should be.

Non Catholics should be careful not to throw the baby out with bathwater where Mary is concerned. It’s true that the real Mary she has no resemblance to the Roman Catholic one.

Roman Catholic dogma states the perpetual or never ending virginity of Mary.

Verse 25, which we’ll come to shortly clearly shows that sexual intercourse did take place between May and Josph after Jesus’s birth. There’s simply no bases in the Bible for the Catholic tradition of the ‘never ending or perpetual virginity’ of Mary.

This is an unbiblical doctrine which didn’t appear till five hundred years after Jesus’ birth. It should be placed with the other Roman Catholic dogmas of Mary’s Immaculate Conception, her assumption into heaven, and her present role as a mediator for believers. Each one of these is man’s invention and they’re not in the Bible. They’re meant to exalt Mary in an unbiblical manner.

However, we shouldn’t be put off from giving Mary a great deal of credit. She was a remarkable person.

Remember that she was the one whom God chose to be the mother of our Lord, and God didn’t make a mistake. He picked the right girl. While all this is true, we need to remember that God also chose Joseph. God didn’t make a mistake in choosing him either. A hot–headed type of bloke would have immediately had her stoned to death or would have made her a public example by exposing her. But Joseph just wasn’t that kind of man. He was a gentle person. He was in love with her, and he didn’t want to hurt her in any way, even though at that moment he felt that she’d been unfaithful to him.

So, rather than put her through awful shame and punishment he thought to himself that he’d take her somewhere and secretly hide her from the locals who would no doubt condemn her and call for her punishment.

 

Matthew 1:20,

But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. 

 

In order to prevent a tragic situation, the angel appeared to Joseph to make clear to him what was taking place.

 

Verse 21,

And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins.” 

 

If ever there was a name that was packed with meaning, it’s the name Jesus.

Scripture, in Philippians 2:9–10, says Jesus has been given, quote, “the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth.”

Why is our Lord’s name so powerful? What does the name Jesus mean? In short it means Saviour or “Yahweh saves” or “Yahweh is salvation.” Yahweh is the Jewish name for God. In Hebrew and Aramaic, the name is Yeshua and it’s a combination of Ya, an abbreviation for Yahweh, the name of Israel’s God from Exodus 3:14, and yasha, meaning “rescue,” “deliver,” or “save.”

The name of Jesus is important because of its meaning and because of who it represents. There’s power and authority in the person of Christ Jesus, and the person is described by the name.

 

Verse 22,

So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying: 

 

Matthew, who is writing for the nation Israel, points out that all this was done so that it might be fulfilled as the Lord had spoken.

Matthew’s appealing to the nation Israel to understand that this One who had come is the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy.

There’re over three hundred prophecies concerning the first coming of Christ that have been literally fulfilled and we have an attachment under the Notes and outlines tab on this page showing 351 of them. We’re not sure how many of them are in this Gospel of Matthew, but we do know that Matthew quoted more from the Old Testament than the other three Gospel writers put together.

Matthew records things and then confirms them from the Old Testament. You see he’s not so much trying to give a sort of biography of the life of Christ but instead he’s showing the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies concerning Him.

Now, in verse 23, he states the prophecy which was given in Isaiah 7:14,

“BEHOLD, THE VIRGIN SHALL BE WITH CHILD, AND BEAR A SON, AND THEY SHALL CALL HIS NAME IMMANUEL,” which is translated, “God with us.”

 

Now let’s look at this a bit deeper because it’s very important.

The liberal theologian, the so-called broadminded, permissive minister whose motivation is to please the world has, of course, denied the virgin birth of Christ, and he’s denied that the Bible teaches His virgin birth.

Now, here’s where we need to be careful with the different Bible translations because a number of them were published in order to try to support these liberals and their views that deny the virgin birth.

For example, if we look at this verse, Isaiah 4:7, which Matthew in chapter 1 verse 23 is quoting we see it reads, quote, “BEHOLD, THE VIRGIN SHALL BE WITH CHILD, AND BEAR A SON, AND THEY SHALL CALL HIS NAME IMMANUEL,” which is translated, “God with us.”

However, in the BBE – Bible in Basic English, ERV – Easy Read Version, ISV – International Standard Version, GNB – Good News Bible, RSV – Revised Standard Version and a number of other translations, this verse is completely changed to read, quote, “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, a young woman shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.”

Notice that in Isaiah they substituted “young woman” for the word virgin, even though in Matthew 1:23 they used the word virgin, which is a fulfillment of Isaiah 7:14!

 

The prophecy of Isaiah 7:14 was given as a sign. My friends, it’s not a sign from God in any way at all for a young woman to conceive and bear a son. It’s ludicrous. They translated it “young woman” to tone down that word virgin.

Let’s look at Isaiah 7:14 in the original Hebrew language.

The word used for “virgin” is almah. The translators of these bibles mentioned went to the writings of a chap named Wilhelm Gesenius, who was a great scholar and he admitted that the common translation of the word is “virgin,” but he said that it could also be changed to “young woman.” The reason he said that was because he rejected the miraculous, especially the virgin birth, so these new translation and others who  followed him, have attempted to say that almah means “young woman” and not “virgin.”

 

Let’s turn back to Isaiah 7 and study the incident recorded there and in the context it was given. This was during the time when Ahaz was on the throne. He was one of those who was a long way away from God. He was one of the bad kings.

God sent Isaiah to bring a message to him, but he wouldn’t listen. We read this in Isaiah 7:10-12,

Moreover, the LORD spoke again to Ahaz, saying, “Ask a sign for yourself from the LORD your God; ask it either in the depth or in the height above.” But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, nor will I test the LORD!”.

 

This was an act of pretended godliness, and it was hypocrisy for this Ahaz to say what he did.

God had asked Isaiah to meet Ahaz to deliver God’s message to him that God would give victory to Ahaz. However, Ahaz wouldn’t believe God and so, in order to encourage his faith, Isaiah tells him that God wants to give him a sign. In his over the top pretence of godliness Ahaz says, “Oh, I wouldn’t ask a sign of the Lord.” Isaiah answered him by saying well alrighty then, “God’s going to give you a sign whether you like it or not. The sign isn’t just for you but for the whole house of David.” Now here is the sign: “… Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel”, our classic and beautiful prophecy of Isaiah 7 verse 14.

Obviously, if this refers to a young woman, it would be no sign at all to Ahaz, or to the house of David, or to anybody else.

It wouldn’t have been out of the ordinary at all. God may as well have said I’ll send you a sign, a baby will grow up to be teenager or I’ll send you a sign an old man’s hair will turn grey; but if a virgin conceives and bears a son, that, my friend, is a sign. And it’s a sign so far and away outside any other possibility other than it was given by Almighty God Himself. And that’s exactly what it means.

When the word almah is used in the Old Testament, it means a virgin. Rebekah was called an almah before she married Isaac.

Look at it this way. Suppose you went to visit a friend of yours, particularly a generation ago, who had three daughters and two of them were married and one was still single. He would say, ‘These two are my married daughters, and this young lady is my third daughter.’ Do you think he would mean a prostitute when he said, ‘young lady’?

If you implied that she was anything but a virgin, he’d probably have given you the fivefold ministry, a fist in the nose.

 

I would hate to be those who deny the virgin birth of Jesus Christ, especially when they mistranslate the Bible and teach it to God’s people.

They must come into the presence of the Son of God one day and on that day they’re going to wish they could somehow take back the things they said to misrepresent God.

This is the one big concern I have putting this stuff together for the group, that I’ll miss the mark and say something that’s not right. I pray over every episode that God gives me the correct words.

The fact that the word almah means “a virgin” is also proven by the Septuagint.

During the 400 year period between the Old and the New Testaments, seventy–two Hebrew scholars, six from each of the twelve tribes, worked down in Alexandria, in Egypt, on the translation of the Hebrew Old Testament into the Greek language. When they came to this “sign” in Isaiah, those seventy–two men understood that it meant “virgin,” and they translated it into the Greek word Parthenos. That’s the same word which Matthew uses in his Gospel. My friend, Parthenos does not mean “young woman”; it means “virgin.” For example, Athena was the virgin goddess of Athens, and her temple was called the Parthenon because Parthenos means “virgin.” It’s absolutely crystal clear that the Word of God is saying precisely what it means.

 

Now notice something wonderful. “Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.”

It looks as if there’s a problem here. Where in the Bible was Jesus was ever called Emmanuel? No, He’s called Jesus because that’s His name. He was given this name because He shall save His people from their sins. By the way, Christ is NOT Jesus’s surname it’s His title; Jesus is His name, Jesus THE Christ. But it says here that He shall be called “Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.”

Friends, here’s one of the most wonderful things in the entire Word of God.

Let’s look at this. Emmanuel means “God with us.” He can’t be Emmanuel, God with us, unless he’s virgin born. That’s the only way! If He came through the normal channels He wouldn’t be Emmanuel, God with us AND unless He IS Emmanuel, He cannot be Jesus, the Saviour. The reason they call Him Jesus, Saviour, is because He IS God with us. This truth about the One who came down to this earth is the most wonderful thing in the Bible. A man who was born the same way as you and I, down through our ancestors from Adam, could never pay the wages for sin because we’re all guilty. We’re all born sinners so in death we’re just paying those wages of sin. We can’t save anybody, including ourselves.

Hebrews 2:9 says,

But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone. 

You see He had to be a sacrifice that was acceptable. As we’ve just said, you or I couldn’t die for the sins of the world. We can’t even die a redemptive death for our own sins. But He can!

How can Jesus be a Saviour? Because He IS Emmanuel, God with us.

How did He get with us? He was virgin born.

We’ll say it again, He was called Jesus. He was never called Emmanuel. But you cannot call Him Jesus unless He is Emmanuel, God with us. He must be Emmanuel to be the Savior of the world. That’s how vitally important the virgin birth is.

Can a person be a Christian and deny the virgin birth?

We need to be very careful about this. It is possible to accept Christ as your Savior without knowing much about Him. You may not even know that this record of His virgin birth is in the Bible. But after you’ve become a child of God, you will not and cannot deny the virgin birth of the Lord Jesus.

You may not have to know it to be saved, but as a child of God you cannot deny the virgin birth of Jesus Christ.

This may sound very dogmatic and it sure is. It’s critical.

We need a Saviour who’s able to reach down and save you and me. If He’s just another man like us, then He’s not going to be able to do that. But if He’s Emmanuel, God with us, virgin born, then He IS my Saviour. Is He your Saviour today? He took upon Himself our humanity in this way so that He might taste death for us, that He might die a redemptive death on the cross for us.

 

Finally, we read verses 24 and 25,

Then Joseph, being aroused from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took to him his wife, and did not know her till she had brought forth her firstborn Son. And he called His name JESUS.

 

All these things that God instructed Joseph to do through this angel he did. He took Mary for his wife despite the awful gossip and jeers they both would have suffered when the population made their false and wrongful assumption that she was unfaithful to him. What a great man of faith this man was. Joseph would not even enjoy a sexual relationship with May until after Jesus was born. This is further emphasis from Matthew that Jesus was conceived miraculously. Thank God the He is our Emmanuel.

Until next time my friends I pray Numbers 6 verses 24 to 26 for each of you. May The LORD bless you and keep you; May The LORD make His face shine upon you, And be gracious to you; May The LORD lift up His countenance upon you, And give you peace.

The Gospel of Matthew

Matthew 1:1-16

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We saw in the introduction last time that Matthew was a publican. Don’t be confused with today’s terminology which describes a publican as a pub owner. In that day a publican was a tax collector.

As a former tax collector, Matthew was qualified to write an account of Jesus’ life and teachings. As a tax collector, or a publican, he was contracted by the Roman government to collect taxes and as a Jew, stepping into this job was an act of betrayal to his people so he would have been very much disliked at best or even bitterly hated by his fellow Jews.

“Speed Slider”

Matthew 1:1-16 – Transcript

A tax collector of that day must have known the Greek language and been a literate, well-organised man.

Some think that Matthew was the “recorder” among the disciples and took notes of Jesus’ teaching.

Matthew was also known as Levi.

We also see that Matthew is deeply critical of the Jewish leadership and their rejection of Jesus. To say that Matthew’s “pro-Jewish” is incorrect; it’s better to say that he’s “pro-Jesus,” and presents Jesus as the authentic Jewish Messiah, whom sadly many of the Jewish people (especially the religious establishment) rejected.

When I think about Matthew the man, I see a despised tax collector who would have probably lived his life scoffing at the criticisms from his fellow man. He would have needed to walk down the street with no fear at all of the people around him. He probably had as much contempt for them as they had for him. He did have a lot of associates in his field of tax collecting because he holds a great banquet for them as we’ll see when we get to Luke 5:27 to 29.

Maybe the population around him were even downright scared of him because he would have needed to be quite a ruthless man to hold down this especially hated job and continue to survive. It would be easy for me to imagine little kids running for cover when he walked nearby. I see this man as one tough cookie as well as a very well educated, highly intelligent man who had very little, if any, respect for the religious leadership of the day.

Then something happened deep down inside him that gave him the incredible insight and the complete change of heart to be one of the most dedicated disciples of our Lord. He met Jesus, he heard Jesus, he put together the words Jesus spoke with what he already very well knew about his Jewish heritage, then he believed Jesus. Then, when Jesus asked Matthew to follow Him then he just got up and followed Jesus.

He became one of the unbreakable links in a long chain of souls who knew that their encounter with Jesus was greater than anything this world could possibly offer.

We’ve said that Matthew originally wrote his gospel in Hebrew, and it was then translated into Greek. There are some scholars who say there’s no concrete evidence for this because there’s never been a discovery of an early Hebrew manuscript of Matthew.

Whether he wrote in Hebrew or not The Jewishness of Matthew’s gospel is evident and its remarkable. It’s intensely concerned with issues related to the Jewish nation. This is plainly seen even in the opening genealogy, which Matthew traces back as far as Abraham as opposed to Luke’s Gospel which shows Christ as the Redeemer of humanity and goes all the way back to Adam. Matthew’s purpose is to demonstrate that Christ is the King and Messiah of Israel. This gospel quotes more than 60 times from Old Testament prophecies, showing how Christ is the fulfillment of all those promises. Matthew tells the story about Jesus’s miraculous conception and birth; the importance of liturgy, which is church service, law, discipleship, and teaching; and shows us Jesus’s life and death.

The Gospel of Matthew has long been considered the most important of the four Gospels.

The genealogy which opens the Gospel of Matthew, and the New Testament is in many respects the most important document in the Scriptures.

We should always remember one of the key verses in our Why God study which is 2 Timothy 3:16,

All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.

The genealogy in Matthew fits into this description of “All Scripture” therefore, even though we might see it as boring list of hard to pronounce names, it’s there to instruct us.

The entire Word of God and His truthfulness and greatness rest on the accuracy of this genealogy because if God couldn’t get this right what else couldn’t He get right. God displays His supernatural might and power in the incredible accuracy of this genealogy that gives us the bloodline of the Lord Jesus Christ, The One Who the entire collection of the 66 books of the Bible is about.

You and I may find the genealogy and the “begats” boring but if we see through the meticulous giving of the names to the purpose it was given we get a much greater appreciation of why God took such great pains to bring it to us. That purpose is purely and simply to show us, you and me, the incredible power of God that made all of these people traceable and to make it crystal clear that every link was perfectly placed to bring Jesus, Who is the Jewish Messiah, The Christ, The Saviour into our world.

Notice that this genealogy has three divisions:

  1. The genealogy from Abraham to David in verses 1 to 6.
  2. The genealogy from Solomon to the Babylonian captivity in verses 7 to 11.
  3. The genealogy from the Babylonian captivity to Joseph, the carpenter in verses 12 to 17.

We saw in our journey through Genesis that it was a book about families and the genealogies there are very important, because it’s here, in Matthew at the start of the New Testament, that we see the purpose for them unfold.

Now, it’s true that at a first glance this genealogy looks a bit boring.

If you just threw someone a copy of the New Testament without any explanation to go with it, they’d begin here in the Gospel of Matthew with this genealogy consisting of a long list of names who begat so and so who then begat another so and so.

Truly, they’re not going to get very far into it, and we can’t blame them.

We need to use a bit of wisdom in what literature we give out to people. The average person should start first in any one of the other three Gospels, preferably Mark, rather than the Gospel of Matthew. But that in no way lessens the importance of this genealogy.

As we’ve said, the entire New Testament rests upon the accuracy of this genealogy because it establishes the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ is of the line of Abraham and of the line of David. Both are very important. The line of Abraham places Him in the nation, and the line of David puts Him on the throne. He’s in that royal line. Of course, the genealogies also show us how God’s promises to Abraham, Issac and Jacob and to King David were fulfilled to the letter.

The genealogies were very important to the nation Israel, and through them it could be established whether a person had a legitimate claim to a particular line and to a particular tribe. For example, when Israel returned from the Babylonian captivity, we find in the Book of Ezra in Ezra 2 verse 26,

These sought their listing among those who were registered by genealogy, but they were not found; therefore they were excluded from the priesthood as defiled. 

You see, it was possible in Ezra’s day to check the register of the tribe of Levi and remove those who made a false claim.

Evidently these genealogies were kept by the government and were accessible to the public.

They were more than likely kept in the temple because Israel was a theocracy which means a state where God and the government are one. The ultimate marriage of church and state if you like to put it that way.

This genealogy was obviously on display and could have been copied from the public records until the temple was destroyed with the rest of Jerusalem in A.D. 70.

The enemies of Jesus could have checked these records at any time, and they definitely would have.

Now, this is interesting and important because the religious rulers challenged every move of the Lord Jesus, and they even offered excuses and explanations for the Resurrection, which incidentally were quite silly, but they never questioned His genealogy.

They never accused Him of not being of the line of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and then from the line of King David. Why? Because they checked it out against the written records that were freely available, and they found that it was accurate.

This is incredibly important because it puts Jesus in a very unique position. You remember that He said the Shepherd of the sheep enters in by the door, but the thief and the robber climb up some other way to get into the sheepfold? We see that in the Gospel of John chapter 10 and verses 1-2. Well, that “fold” He’s talking about is the nation Israel.

He didn’t climb into the fold over a fence in the back, and He didn’t come in through the alley way. He came in through the front door. He was born in the line of David and in the line of Abraham. This is exactly what this genealogy in Matthew’s showing us. He’s the fulfillment of everything that had been mentioned in the Old Testament, right down to the tiniest detail. In fact, I’ve got a list of just 351 of these fulfilled prophesies with the verse of the prophecy in the Old Testament, the prophecy itself and the verses that show its fulfilment. You can see this list below the Notes and Outlines tab below this list of broadcasts.

So, the enemies of Christ never could challenge Him in regard to His genealogy. They had to find other ways to challenge Him, and, of course, they did.

Some people deny that Jesus claimed to be God. But anyone who says this simply hasn’t read the Bible. His claim to be God was the very reason they crucified Him. The Jewish religious leaders knew full well of His claims that He was God and accused Him of blasphemy and put Him to death. The issue is not whether Jesus claimed to be God, he certainly did, the issue is were His claims valid? The eternal destiny of each one of us hinges on our answer to that question.

We’ve often said during our Bible studies so far that God ‘s gone to great lengths to include only those things that are relevant to Jesus and His redemption. If that’s true then why do so many of us disregard the genealogy of Matthew or treat it very lightly or as if it’s just not necessary for it to be there?

Well, if God gave this much valuable space to it then it must to be vitally important don’t you think?

Let’s at least agree that the simple fact that this genealogy exists in the Bible at all makes it very important indeed.

So then, this is the genealogy of the Lord Jesus on Joseph’s side. We’ll have another one when we get over to Luke, and that’ll be from Mary’s side.

So, let’s start at the beginning, Matthew Chapter 1 verse 1,

The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham: 

 

“The book of the genealogy ” or as the King James version has it “The book of the generation ” is a phrase which is a unique expression found in the New Testament only here in Matthew.

We don’t find it anywhere else in the New Testament. But, if we start going back through the Old Testament, in fact all the way back to Genesis chapter 5 verse 5, we find that expression again,

This is the book of the genealogy of Adam…

There’re two books: the book of the generations of Adam and the book of the generation of Jesus Christ.

All of us without exception got into the family of Adam by birth. We personally had nothing to do with it, but that’s the way you and I got into the family of Adam, by birth.

The trouble is Romans chapter 5 verse 12 tells us something very frightening, and we’ll read from the NLT version where it’s as plain and pointed as it’s possible to be,

When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned. 

Adam’s book is, in effect, a book of death.

Then there is the other book, the book of the generation of Jesus Christ. How do we get into that family and into that genealogy?

Well, we also get into that book by birth, the new birth. The Lord Jesus says in John chapter 3 verse 3 tells us that and I quote His Words,

“Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” We must be reborn spiritually, in that deep part of us that’s the real us, the spirit.

That puts us in to the genealogy of the Lamb’s Book of Life, The Lamb being none other than Jesus, The Christ, and we get there by trusting Christ, by believing that what we read here in this Bible is truth. When we believe, our birth into the genealogy, the family of Jesus Christ is as sure and certain as our living body that’s walking around today is in the genealogy, the family of our ancestor Adam.  We’re all in the first book, the book of the generations of Adam, and I trust that you, my friend, are also in the Lamb’s Book of Life.

 

Matthew says in this first verse that Jesus is “the son of David, the son of Abraham.” Didn’t Matthew know that Abraham came before David? Of course, he did because he makes that clear in the rest of the genealogy. Then why did he put it this way, in this order?

Well, He’s presenting the Lord Jesus as the Messiah, the One who is the King, the One who’s going to establish the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. And that comes first. He must be in the line of David in fulfillment of the prophecies that God made to David. He’s the Son of David.

He’s also the Son of Abraham and it’s very important that He be the Son of Abraham because God had made a promise to Abraham in Genesis chapter 22 verse 18 and we read the words of that promise with the knowledge that Our God simply cannot lie,

“In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed…”.

And then, in Galatians 3 verse 16 Paul explains who that “seed” is, and we read,

“Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, “And to seeds,” as of many, but as of one, “AND TO YOUR SEED,” who is Christ.”

So, Jesus Christ is the Son of Abraham as well as a son of David.

 

Now let’s see verses 2 to 6,

Abraham begot Isaac, Isaac begot Jacob, and Jacob begot Judah and his brothers. 

Judah begot Perez and Zerah by Tamar, Perez begot Hezron, and Hezron begot Ram. 

Ram begot Amminadab, Amminadab begot Nahshon, and Nahshon begot Salmon. 

Salmon begot Boaz by Rahab, Boaz begot Obed by Ruth, Obed begot Jesse, and Jesse begot David the king. David the king begot Solomon by her who had been the wife of Uriah. 

 

As we’ve just come from the Book of Genesis many of these names should be familiar to our ears.

A careful look at the genealogy that follows is not only interesting; it is actually thrilling when we see it for what it really is, the revealing of Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, through the human line.

Four names stand out like neon lights because we wouldn’t expect to find them included in the genealogy of Christ. First, they’re the names of women and second, they’re the names of Gentiles.

 

It wasn’t in the custom of the day for the names of women to appear in Hebrew genealogies. It’s similar today in the sense that we have the same thing in marriage. In a marriage the name that the couple takes is mostly the name of the man. They don’t take the name of the woman because her line ends whereas his goes on. That’s the way we do it today, and that’s the way they did it then.

Our custom is to take the name of the man, and it is the man’s genealogy that’s given.

In Jesus’ day it was very unusual to find a woman’s name in a genealogy, and yet here we have four woman’s names. But, they’re not only four women; they’re four Gentiles.

As you know, God in the Law said that His people were not to intermarry with tribes that were heathen and pagan.

Even Abraham was instructed by God to send back to his people to get a bride for his son Isaac. Also, the same thing was done by Isaac for his son Jacob. It was God’s arrangement that monotheism, in other words One Living and True God and no other, should be the belief of those who were in the line leading down to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Yet in His genealogy are the names of four gentile women. Two of them were Canaanites, one was a Moabite, and the fourth was a Hittite! You would naturally ask the question, “How did they get into the genealogy of Christ?”

“Thamar” is the first one, and she’s mentioned in verse three. Her story is in Genesis 38, and there she’s called Tamar. That chapter is one of the worst in the Bible. Thamar got into the genealogy because Tamar as she’s called in Genesis was the wife of Judah’s son and that son was wicked, so God put him to death. History kept repeating and Tamar was doubtful she would get a child because Judah wouldn’t give his youngest son to her, which was the custom of the day. So, what did Tamar do? She disguised herself as a prostitute and waited for Judah to come by. Judah falls for the plot, has sex with her and Tamar gets pregnant. She gives birth to Perez and Zerah. Perez is the one through whom Jesus comes.

“Rachab” is the next one mentioned in verse five. She’s not a very pretty character in her story back in Joshua chapter 2 where she’s called Rahab, the harlot. But she did become a wonderful person after she came to a knowledge of the living and true God.

Hebrews 11:31 tells us,

“By faith the harlot Rahab did not perish with those who did not believe, when she had received the spies with peace.” 

You see, she got into the genealogy of Christ for the simple reason that she believed. She had faith. Notice the progression here. Come as a sinner, and then reach out the hand of faith to which God in turn extends His mercy and grace.

“Ruth” is the next one mentioned in verse five and she’s a truly lovely person, and we won’t find anything wrong with her, in fact the story of Ruth is one of the great love stories of history and when we see the picture it paints of our Lord it is the greatest love story ever written. But at Ruth’s time there was the Law which shut her out of the nation of Israel because the Law in Deuteronomy 23 verse 3 said,

“An Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter the assembly of the LORD; even to the tenth generation none of his descendants shall enter the assembly of the LORD forever, 

Although the Law kept her out, there was a man by the name of Boaz who came into his field one day and saw her. Boaz loved Ruth at first sight, and he extended grace to her by putting his mantle around her and bringing her, a Gentile, into the congregation of Israel. It’s exactly like the Lord. Boaz pictures Jesus Christ and Ruth pictures us, the Church, the gentile Bride of Christ.

In Ruth 2 verse 10 we hear Ruth asking Boaz,

“Why have I found favor in your eyes, that you should take notice of me, since I am a foreigner?” 

You and I can ask that same question of God regarding His grace to us.

 

Again, we see the sequence. We come as sinners and hold out the hand of faith, and He, by His marvellous grace, saves us.

 

“Bathsheba” is not mentioned by name but in verse 6 we see her very clearly as she’s spoken of as quote, “her who had been the wife of Uriah.”

 

Her name isn’t mentioned because it wasn’t her sin. It was David’s sin, and David was the one that really had to pay for that sin. And boy did he did pay for it.

Bathsheba got into the genealogy of Christ because God doesn’t throw one of His children who sins overboard.

A sheep can get out of the fold and become a lost sheep, but we have a Shepherd who goes after those sheep and always brings them back into the fold. He certainly brought David back. So, this is the whole story of salvation right here in this genealogy.

 

Now there are some other interesting things about this genealogy. If we compare this genealogy here in Matthew with the one in 1 Chronicles 3, even though some of the names are spelled differently, we’ll find that in verse eight of Matthew, the names of Ahaziah, Joash, and Amaziah are left out.

This shows us that genealogies are used to give us a view of a certain line of descendants and that every individual is not necessarily named in every genealogy of the Bible.

We should remember this in the genealogies given to us in Genesis before the Flood. They’re not necessarily complete genealogies, but they’re given to trace a certain line for us to see.

 

Verses 10 to 11,

Hezekiah begot Manasseh, Manasseh begot Amon, and Amon begot Josiah. 

Josiah begot Jeconiah and his brothers about the time they were carried away to Babylon. 

 

In verse 11, we find that Matthew skips Jehoiakim but includes Jechonia. Now we should pay special attention to this chap Jechonia because God had said that none of his seed would sit on the throne.

Let’s see that in Jeremiah 22:24,

“As I live,” says the LORD, “though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, were the signet on My right hand, yet I would pluck you off.”

Wow, these are the strongest possible words that the Lord Himself could have uttered. This chap was destined to be King, quote, “the signet on God’s right hand”, but God removed him.

It gets worse. The Lord calls this man Coniah. His name is Jeconiah, but God took the Je off his name because it’s the prefix for Jehovah, and this man was extremely wicked so God will not have His name associated with this man. Nor will he have him anywhere in the line to Jesus.

Then the LORD says of this man in Jeremiah 22:30,

‘Write this man down as childless, A man who shall not prosper in his days; For none of his descendants shall prosper, Sitting on the throne of David, And ruling anymore in Judah.‘

Because of the sin of this man Jechonia, neither he nor anyone from his line could ever sit on the throne of David.

 

Joseph, Jesus’ earthly father is in this line, but Joseph’s not the natural father of Jesus. This is one of the most remarkable facts in the Scriptures, and Matthew’s trying to make it clear to us.

Joseph gave the title, the legal title, to the throne of David to Jesus because Joseph was the husband of Mary who was the one who bore Jesus.

Jesus Christ is not the seed of Joseph, nor is He the seed of Jeconiah. But both Joseph and Mary had to be from the line of David, and they were, but through two different lines from two different sons of David.

We’ll find when we get to Luke that Mary’s line comes from David through his son Nathan, while Joseph’s line comes through the royal line through Solomon. So, Joseph and Mary both had to go to Bethlehem to be enrolled for taxation because they were both from the line of David.

You see how fascinating, and all important these genealogies are and why they’re worth our study.

Now the genealogy finishes with verse 16,

And Jacob begot Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus who is called Christ. 

You see how this breaks the pattern which began as far back as verse 2 where it says that Abraham begat Isaac. From then on it was just a whole lot of “begetting,” and then verse 16 begins by saying, “And Jacob begat Joseph.” You would expect it to continue by saying that Joseph begat Jesus, but it doesn’t say that. Instead, it says, “Jacob begot Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ.”

Obviously, Matthew’s making it clear that Joseph’s not the father of Jesus. Although he’s the husband of Mary, he’s not the father of Jesus.

What is the explanation of this? Well, Matthew in the rest of this chapter will give us the explanation and will show us exactly how it fulfills Old Testament prophecy.

 

So, this ends our first steps into the Gospel according to Matthew.

Next time we’ll come to what has to be the greatest miracle and the most momentous event that’s ever taken place, the virgin birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. The day God clothed Himself with flesh and became a man.

Until then my friends may God strengthen and bless you as you learn more about Him.

The Gospel of Matthew

Matthew Introduction

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We’ve now completed the 54 episodes it’s taken us to go through the Book of Genesis and so the Why God Home Bible Study Group is heading to the New Testament and the Gospel according to Matthew. If you’ve been with us for a while you’ll know that we’re going to be weaving between the old and the new testaments until we finish all 66 books of the Bible.

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Matthew Introduction – Transcript

This is truly a life changing book, and we urge you to not only listen to these episodes but to open the book for yourself and read it.

Also, just like we say about the whole Bible, it’s vital to look at the whole Gospel as an entire, fully integrated story to really know the message it’s giving to us. We can’t get that very important understanding by picking verses here and there and seeing them on their own, as powerful, and truthful as those verses may be.

The body of Christ today has a verse mentality if we could put it that way. Our theology, our knowledge of God is restricted to knowing verses but so often those verses are not seen woven into the entire story. What we get is a generation that has a heap of verses that form the foundation of our belief but because they’re not seen in the context of the entire story we risk getting a confusing picture of God’s Word at best and downright error at worst.

This is how the charlatan and the false preachers that are rampant today can have their followings of millions of people because those followers have little or no real understanding of God’s Word. If they did these false preachers would be bankrupted.

Believe me friends I know this to be true because my early Christian life was just like that, tossed about by every wind of doctrine. We must see how the Gospel of Mathew is so tightly linked to the Book of Genesis and to the Old Testament as a whole in order to have that lightbulb of understanding flash on in our minds. And this is true of every one of the 66 books of the Bible.

In coming to the first book of the New Testament from the first book of the Old Testament we need to be aware that between these books there’s a gap of 400 years where God is silent, at least as far as the written Word of God’s concerned.

Then one day that silence was broken when a priest named Zaccarius was praying at the alter in Jerusalem and the Angel of the Lord interrupted him and announced the coming of John the Baptist who would be the forerunner of the Lord Jesus Christ and the Gospel of Matthew will let us see how important that event was.

Now although there was no scripture written during this 400 year so called silent period, a lot happened.

In some respects, this 400 year period was the most action packed period in history for these people of Israel who had gone through so much. It was both a terrific time and a tragic time.

A brief understanding of this period will make it a lot easier to see the New Testament of the Bible in its correct context. In other words, we’ll be able to better understand the political and social climate of the time the Gospels and the epistles were written.

World history went through massive changes in this period. The condition of Judah was radically transformed. A new culture, different institutions, and unfamiliar organisations rose up in this period and they appear in the New Testament.

The Old Testament closed with the Medio-Persian Empire being the dominant political power of the day and Egypt was still a power to be reckoned with in world politics. During this period between the Testaments, both faded from the scene as powerful nations.

World power shifted from the East to the West, from Asia to Europe, and from the Medio-Persian empire to Greece.

However, when the New Testament opens, a new power, Rome, is the world ruler.

Now we don’t want to bore you but some of these historical incidents are things we need to know so let’s look at some dates that’ll show the rapid sequence of the major events in this time period. It’ll give us a bit of a Birdseye view of this transition period between the Testaments.

 

If we go back to 480 BC Xerxes, the Persian, was victorious against the Greeks at Thermopylae, but he was defeated at the battle of Salamis. It was actually a storm that defeated him, and this was the last bid of the East for world dominion.

Then in 333 B.C. from out of the west came the male goat that Daniel records in Daniel 8. This was Alexander the Great, the goat with the great horn of Daniel’s prophecy who led the united Greek forces to victory over the Persians at Issus.

Then in 332 B.C. Alexander the Great visited Jerusalem. He was shown the prophecy of Daniel which spoke of him and because of his utter amazement at seeing himself written about centuries before he was born, he spared Jerusalem, which was probably one of the few cities that he ever spared.

And then, in 323 B.C. Alexander died over in Persia. He apparently intended to move the seat of world power there. After his death the world empire of both East and West was divided among Alexander’s four generals.

Then in 320 B.C. Judea was annexed to Egypt by Ptolemy Soter.

In 312 B.C. Seleucus, who was one of those four Generals of Alexander the Great, founded the kingdom of the Selucidae, which is Syria, and he attempted to take over Judea. Judea became the battleground between Syria and Egypt and became a buffer state between the two. It endured the constant attacks backward and forward between Egypt and Syria.

In 203 B.C. Antiochus the Great took Jerusalem, and Judea passed under the influence of Syria.

And then in 170 B.C. Antiochus Epiphanes took Jerusalem and defiled the temple. He’s mentioned in Daniel 8 verse 9 as the little horn. He’s been called the “Nero of Jewish history.”

And then in 166 B.C. Mattathias, the priest of Judea, raised a revolt against Syria. This is the beginning of the Maccabean period. The Jews have never suffered more than during this era, and they were never more heroic than in this interval. Judas Maccabaeus, also known as “the hammer,” was the leader who organized the revolt.

Then in 63 B.C. Pompey, the Roman, took Jerusalem, and the people passed under the rulership of this new world power, where they were at the time of the birth of Jesus and all the way through the New Testament period.

In 40 B.C. The Roman Senate appointed Herod to be King of Judea and there’s never been a man or a family more brutal or more wicked and evil than this lot.

37 B.C. brings us to when Herod took Jerusalem and slew Antigonus, the last of the Maccabean king-priests.

In 31 B.C. Caesar Augustus became emperor of Rome, and 19 B.C. was when the rebuilding of the Herodian temple, Herod’s temple, was begun. It was never completed, and construction was still going on when Jesus was born.

Then in 4 B.C. The Lord Jesus was born in Bethlehem.

These experiences of the nation of Judea during this time between testaments affected its internal life, and a radical change took place. After the Babylonian captivity, the Jews turned from idolatry to a frantic striving for legal holiness. That is, they attempted to follow the Law of Moses to the letter. The Law became an idol to them. We’re not just talking about the 10 commandments but the law that included the entire Torah, or the first five books of the Old Testament as written by Moses.

In other words, they knew the “does and don’ts” but they didn’t know the author, God Himself.

The classic Hebrew language gave way to the Aramaic language in their everyday speech, but the Hebrew language was kept for their synagogues. The synagogue, which seemed to have come in right after the Babylonian captivity between 597 BC and 538 BC and became the center of their life in Judea and everywhere else they went into the world.

Many different parties and sects appeared among the nation. In Judea there were several very noticeable ones. They were:

Firstly, the Pharisees — The Pharisees were the dominant party, and they arose to defend the Jewish way of life against all foreign influences. They were strict legalists who believed in the keeping of the law of the Old Testament.

They were nationalists in politics, that is that they wanted to restore the kingdom of Judea to the line of David. So, they were a political/religious party who were at the far right of politics.

Then you had the Sadducees — The Sadducees were made up of the wealthy and socially minded who wanted to get rid of tradition. They rejected the supernatural and they were opposed to the Pharisees who accepted the supernatural.

The Sadducees were closely akin to the Greek Epicureans. The Epicureans believed in eat drink and be merry for tomorrow we die. They were attempting to live the good life and they thought that the way to get over this body of ours was to give it unbridled freedom. Lots of people think that today of course. Do whatever feels good no matter what the consequences. Of course, it didn’t work for them.

The third group are the Scribes — They were a group of professional promoters of the Law or lawyers as we might say. They stemmed from the days of Ezra.

Ezra was one of several leaders called to lead a remnant of Jewish exiles back to Jerusalem from captivity in Babylon/Persia. Under

Ezra’s leadership, Israel would learn to rebuild their lives on the Word of God, rediscovering their identity in God’s promises, God’s law, and stories of God’s goodness and faithfulness. However, by this time in history that we’re talking about now, they’d become “hair-splitters” and were more concerned with the “letter of the law” than with the “spirit of the law.” When Herod called in the scribes and asked them where Jesus was born, they knew all the prophecies word for word, but they knew it from head knowledge only. The Word of God wasn’t in their hearts.

Then there was the Herodians — The Herodians were a political party who wanted to keep the family of Herod on the throne for their own personal benefit. Herod was a sort of a puppet king of Judea under the rule of the Roman empire. The Herodians were very active in the days of Jesus’s ministry here on earth.

There were great advances in literature during this period in spite of the fact that there was no revelation from God.

The Old Testament was translated into Greek in Alexandria in Egypt during the period 285-247 B.C. It was made by six members from each of the 12 tribes of Israel and that’s how this translation got its name “Septuagint,” meaning seventy.

The Apocrypha of the Old Testament was written in this era. These are 14 books that bear no marks at all of God’s inspiration. They are: 1 and 2 Esdras, Tobit, Judith, 2 Esther, Wisdom of Solomon, Ecclesiasticus, Baruch, Song of the Three Holy Children, History of Susannah, Bel and the Dragon, Prayer of Manasses, and 1 and 2 Maccabees. There are two books that bear the names of two characters of the Old Testament, but there’s no evidence that these two were the writers. These two books are the Psalter of Solomon and the Book of Enoch.

Although these 400 years make up a period marked by the silence of God, it’s evident that God was preparing the world for the coming of Christ. The Jewish people, the Greek civilization, the Roman Empire, and the seething multitudes of the Orient were all being prepared for the coming of a Saviour. These events produced the scene the great apostle Paul labelled “the fulness of time.”

The four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are directed to the four major groups of that day.

The Gospel of Mathew was written for the nation Israel. It was written in Hebrew at first and it was written mainly for the religious man.

The Gospel of Mark was directed to the Roman. He was the man of action. He believed that government and law and order was the way to control the world and of course many people feel that’s the way it should be done today. Well, of course there must be law and order but the Romans learned that you couldn’t rule the world through the power of human government alone. The world needed to hear about One Who also believed in law and order but, additionally, He believed in the forgiveness of sins and the grace and mercy of God and that was none other than our Lord Jesus as He was presented in Mark.

The Gospel of Luke was written to the Greek, to the thinking man and of course we’ll see that when we get to it.

The Gospel of John was written to believers but also the Orient and its millions who were crying out for deliverance and who’re still crying out today for a deliverer.

The religious man needs Christ and not religion, the man of power such as the Roman needs a Saviour who has power to save him and the thinking man needs One who can meet all of his mental and spiritual needs and certainly that great Orient with the wretched man needs to know about a Saviour who not only saves him but can build him up and bring him to a place where he can live for God.

That gives us a bird’s eye view of the Gospels.

Now let’s get back to the Gospel of Matthew.

Matthew was written by a publican, and he was a person who the Lord Jesus had put his hand on, and he became a follower, an apostle. He wrote in Hebrew as is confirmed by historians and church fathers. He wrote in Hebrew for the nation of Israel who were of course religious people and we’ve already seen that.

God had prepared this whole nation for the coming of Christ into the world. Salvation is of the Jews, Jesus said. In fact, God prepared the Redeemer Christ, The Messiah who would pay for the sins of the world to come from this nation.

This book is remarkable because it swings back into the Old Testament and gathers up more Old Testament prophecies than any other book. Of course, you’d expect this because it’s revealing our Saviour Jesus Christ who was foretold from ancient times.

It also moves further into the New Testament than any other Gospel moves. For instance, no other Gospel writer that is Mark, Luke or John mentions the Church by name, but Matthew does. He’s the one who gives the Word of the Lord on this in Matthew chapter 16 verse 18 when he says to the apostle Peter,

And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. 

Famous sceptics have even been known to comment that this Gospel is the most important book in Christianity, some even say the most important book that’s ever been written.

So, this converted publican, Matthew, was the choice of the Holy Spirit to give this Gospel primarily to these people, Israel.

This Gospel presents the program of God.

The Kingdom of Heaven is an expression that’s unique to this Gospel. It occurs 32 times and the word Kingdom by itself occurs 50 times.

My friends, a correct interpretation of the meaning of this term, The Kingdom of Heaven is absolutely vital to understanding this Gospel and also the whole Bible.

Now, we really need to be perfectly clear on one vital thing, The Kingdom and the Church are NOT the same.

If we don’t see that a lot of confusion will surround the Bible.

The Church is IN the Kingdom, but the Church is NOT the Kingdom.

It’s just like Brisbane is in Queensland Australia but Brisbane is NOT Queensland Australia.

Queensland is NOT Australia, but Queensland is IN Australia, in fact it’s only one 7th of Australia.

Same with the Church. The Church is in the Kingdom but it’s not the kingdom.

The Kingdom of Heaven simply stated is the reign of the heavens over the earth. Many theologians and Bible scholars have put a confusing veil over this expression, The Kingdom of Heaven and all that’s succeeded in doing is to make what’s very simple complicated.

Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is the reign of the heavens over the earth.

That’s the great theme of this Gospel of Matthew. The One Who’s going to establish that Kingdom on the earth is the Lord Jesus, and that Kingdom is all important.

The three major discourses, or speeches if you like, in the Gospel of Matthew all concern the Kingdom.

You have the so called sermon on the mount which is the law of the Kingdom and it’s probably only a partial list.

Then we have the Mystery Parables in Matthew 13 that concern the Kingdom. The Lord said the Kingdom is like a Sower, and the Kingdom is like a mustard seed and so on.

And then we have the great Olivet discourse which looks forward to the establishment of the Kingdom here on this earth. This is so important for us to see.

We’re not going to talk about the Kingdom of Heaven today because we don’t have time but in this Gospel we can see different divisions.

The outline of the Gospel of Matthew is “Behold Your King”. Matthew presents the Lord Jesus Christ as the King. J Vernon McGee gives this outline so well.

In Chapters 1, 2 we see the Person of the King.

In Chapters 3:1 — 4:16 we see the Preparation of the King.

In Chapters 4:17 — 9:35 we see the Propaganda of the King,

In Chapters 9:36 — 16:20 there is the Program of the King,

Chapters 16:21 — 27:66 show us the Passion of the King,

And Chapter 28 displays the Power of the King.

So the divisions are all of the King, Jesus, and they show us His Person, His Preparation, His Propaganda, or His announcements if you like, His Program, His Passion and His Power.

Throughout the Gospel of Matthew there’s a movement between the subjects and we should learn to think our way through the entire Gospel from the first chapter through to the twenty-eighth chapter and see it as an integrated message and not as a bunch of disjointed stories.

What I mean here is to view it as a whole story as if you were looking at a history book of someone’s life, say a great grandparent. We’d see the whole story from their birth, through the years as a toddler, then up through school to the career they chose. Then to the meeting of their spouse and their marriage, family life, highlights from the dramas and the joys through to retirement and then their death. You see, it’s a complete picture. This is how we’d get to know to really know them.

We simply must know Matthew to be able to understand the Bible. We can no more understand the Bible without understanding the Gospel of Matthew than we could write without an alphabet.

Let’s attempt to grasp here how this movement through the book unfolds.

Chapter 1 has the genealogy of Jesus and the record of His virgin birth.

In Chapter 2 we have the visit of the wise men, the family’s escape to Egypt and their return to Nazareth.

Chapter 3 introduces John the Baptist, the forerunner of the King, who announces the kingdom and baptises Jesus, who is the King.

Chapter 4 shows us the testing of the King in the wilderness; the beginning of his public ministry at Capernaum; and the call of the disciples.

In chapters 5, 6 and 7 we have the Sermon on the Mount.

In chapter 8 are six miracles of the King that demonstrate the enforcement of the Sermon on the Mount.

Chapter 9  Shows the Lord performing six more miracles, calling Matthew, and contending with the Pharisees.

In chapter 10 Jesus commissions the twelve apostles to preach the gospel of the kingdom to the nation Israel.

In chapter 11 Jesus is quizzed by the disciples of John the Baptist, he rejects unrepentant cities and issues a new invitation to individuals.

Chapter 12 Shows the conflict and the final break between Jesus and the religious rulers.

In Chapter 13 we have the Mystery parables of the kingdom of heaven.

Chapter 14 is where John the Baptist is beheaded, Jesus feeds the 5,000, sends his disciples into a storm at sea and walks to them on the water.

In the 15th chapter, Jesus denounces the Scribes and Pharisees, heals the daughter of the Syrophoenician woman and multitudes of others and feeds 4,000 people.

Chapter 16 shows the conflict with the Pharisees and the Sadducees, a confession of faith from the disciples with Peter becoming their spokesman. Jesus first confronts them with the idea of the church, His death and resurrection.

In chapter 17, we have the transfiguration, the demon-possessed boy and the temple tax money provided by a miracle.

Chapter 18 Jesus likens those who will see the Kingdom to a little child, we see the parable of the lost sheep, the conduct in the coming church and the forgiveness parable.

Chapter 19 gives God’s standard for marriage and divorce; little children are blessed, we meet the rich young ruler and we see the apostles’ position in the coming kingdom.

Chapter 20 gives us the Parable of the laborers in the vineyard, Jesus makes the 4th and 5th announcements of His approaching death, the mother of James and John requests places of honour for James and John in the kingdom and Jesus restores the sight of two men.

Chapter 21 The King offers Himself publicly and finally to the nation, He cleanses the temple, curses the fig tree, condemns the religious rulers with the parables of two sons and householder.

In chapter 22 we have the Parable of the marriage feast for the king’s son, Jesus answers and silences the Herodians, the Sadducees, and the Pharisees.

In chapter 23 Jesus warns against and pronounces woes upon the Scribes and Pharisees, and He weeps over Jerusalem.

Chapters 24 and 25 gives us the Olivet Discourse: Jesus answers questions about signs of the end of the age and signs of His coming, we see the parable of the ten virgins, the parable of eight talents and the judgment of the sheep and goat nations.

In chapter 26 Jesus is plotted against, He’s anointed by Mary of Bethany, He’s sold out by Judas Iscariot, He observes the last Passover and the first Lord’s Supper, He agonises in the Garden of Gethsemane and is arrested and tried in illegal trials by the religious rulers and then disowned by Peter.

Chapter 27 takes us through the trial, death, and burial of the King.

And chapter 28 gives us the Resurrection of the King and His great commission.

In the next episode we’re going to open the Gospel itself where we’ll start at the genealogy of our Lord and it’s a vital puzzle piece that needs to put in place in order for us to understand this wonderful Gospel and this incredible collection of 66 books we call the Bible.

Until then my friends may the Lord comfort you and give you surety that He’s with you always.