In a couple of weeks I will be begin teaching through the Gospel of Matthew for the third time. In light of that I will be posting some of my old sermon notes from previous trips through this wonderful book. Feel free to share, use, and comment below. God bless you my friends.
Matthew 1-2
Any Sherlock Holmes movie fans out there this morning? Remember the “Hounds of the Baskerville? In that movie Sherlock Holmes and his faithful sidekick Dr. Watson went on a camping trip.
After a very good evening meal cooked and ate around an open fire the 2 went to sleep in their tent. Some hours later, Sherlock nudged Watson and said “Watson, look up at the sky and tell me what you see.”
Watson replied, “I see millions and millions of stars.”
So Sherlock asked, “What does that tell you?”
Watson pondered for a moment and then said, “Well, astronomically, it tells me there are millions of galaxies and potentially billions of planets. Astrologically, I observe that Saturn is in Leo. Horologically, I deduce that the time is approximately a quarter past three. Theologically, I can see God is omnipotent and that we are small and insignificant. Meteorologically, I suspect that we will have a beautiful day today. What does it tell you?”
Sherlock paused and then replied, “It tells me someone stole our tent.”
Ok, I made the part up about this scene being in the movie but the point is we often miss the most obvious truths don’t we?
Following on the heels of our study in Romans, we could say that Matthew will present the obvious truth that Jesus is Savior and Lord to the whole of creation.
Matthew is one of 4 books known as the “gospels.” Gospel means “good news.” The gospels are often referred to as the “biographies of Jesus” because they record the life and ministry of Jesus Christ.
While sharing the same subject matter the 4 gospels do differ in their presentation and intended audience.
Matthew presents Jesus as the Promised King and was written for a Jewish audience. Mark presents Jesus as the suffering servant and was written to Gentiles. Luke portrays Jesus as the Son of Man. John declares Jesus to be the Son of God.
Matthew begins with a genealogy because that was important to the Jews and was a means to establish Jesus’ royal heritage as David’s heir to the throne of Israel.
Mark on the other hand does not include a genealogy because a servant isn’t concerned about such matters.
Luke presents Jesus’ humanity and historicity and so traces His ancestry all the way back to Adam, the first man.
Because John was concerned about the divinity of Christ he includes no human genealogy. Instead John declares Jesus to be God and thus eternal.
Some background information is in order as begin our journey through the gospel of Matthew.
At the time of Jesus’ birth, Israel had been occupied by the Romans for about 6 decades. The Romans were just the latest in a long line of occupation forces. Before them were the Greeks, the Persians & Medes, and the Babylonians.
A common feature throughout the Roman Empire was their system of taxation. An empire as expansive as the Roman needed to generate a vast amount of revenue.
The Romans utilized 2 basic taxation structures. One was similar to an income tax. The second was like a property tax. Nothing unusual there right?
What made the Roman system inherently evil was it was designed to encourage oppression, extortion, and intimidation.
Roman Senators and other high-ranking officials would purchase from the government the rights to collect taxes in a particular country, province, or region, at a particular rate for a particular period of time.
It was perfectly legal in this system to collect amounts above the fixed rates of the purchased contract. The Romans called this profit. We would call it extortion.
There is one other feature about this system of taxation that is important for you to know. These senators and government officials didn’t move to the country or province to collect the taxes under their contract. They “outsourced” this work to local citizens.
In the Jerusalem of Jesus’ time and Matthew’s writing the citizens that worked for Rome in the collection of taxes were called “publicans” or more often just simply “tax-gatherers.”
There are many references in the pages of the NT to these tax-gatherers – none of them good. In fact the Jews lumped together tax-gatherers with sinners, prostitutes, and Gentiles. This was obviously not a positive comparison.
This makes Jesus’ decision to call Matthew whom the Bible tells us was a tax-gatherer, as a disciple, a radical decision in the least.
So, let’s get started – Matthew 1:1
Matthew says this is the book – the “biblos” – of Jesus Christ. This is the record, the account of Jesus Christ.
- Jesus is Greek for Hebrew Jeshua – “Jehovah saves”
- Christ is Greek for Hebrew Mashiah – “anointed one”
So from verse 1 Matthew tells us this is the book that records the life of the Messiah, God’s anointed One who brings salvation – Jesus Christ.
Now before we launch out into the list of names starting in verse 2, I want to make sure we don’t miss that Matthew “cuts to the quick” and lists the biggest names in verse 1 – David and Abraham. Why did he do this? Because these names were synonymous with God’s deliverance of His people through a Great Deliverer, the Messiah of Israel. And you have to admit they are attention-getters.
Verses 2-17
What a testimony to God’s grace. I love the fact that Matthew doesn’t try and hide any skeletons in the closet. This is a colorful list to be sure.
Next, Matthew turns his attention to the events surrounding the birth of Christ.
Verse 18
Ancient customs in the Middle East were and in some cases still are very different from ours today. Marriages were “arranged” often without the consent of the bride and groom.
During this time marriage involved 2 steps.
- The groom or groom’s family bartered over what was called a “mohar” or dowry with the bride’s family. When an agreed upon price was attained the “mohar” was paid immediately. The couple was then officially “betrothed.”
But we should not confuse the betrothal with our modern-day engagement. In the Jewish culture of that time the betrothal was viewed as a legally binding action.
That’s why we read later in this account that Joseph’s first reaction was to contemplate divorce. It would take a legal procedure to nullify the betrothal.
- The 2nd step was the actual marriage feast & celebration. But again this could take years to occur since some marriages were arranged when the intended bride and groom were adolescents.
So after the betrothal but before the marriage feast and celebration, Mary comes to Joseph and says “I’m pregnant.”
Verse 19
This is love folks. Joseph did not want to embarrass or disgrace Mary even though he had sufficient reason to believe she had been unfaithful. He wanted to be very discreet so as not to bring criticism or worse upon Mary.
While he is contemplating what actions to take he was visited by a messenger from the Lord – verses 20-21.
I would think this would be enough to guarantee a sleepless night.
Verse 22
This is one of the key phrases in the book of Matthew, occurring 16 times. Why? Because it was written to a Jewish audience and what the prophets had to say was very important.
Joseph heeded the instructions of God’s messenger.
Verses 23-25
Now let me point something out here folks. Verse 25 clearly implies that Joseph and Mary had normal marital relations after Jesus’ birth. This verse effectively proves false the Roman Catholic dogma of the perpetual virginity of Mary, which did not appear earlier than the fifth century after Jesus.
The perpetual virginity of Mary should be placed with all the dogmas of Mary including the Immaculate Conception, assumption into heaven, and present role as a mediator for believers. Each one of these is man’s invention, meant to exalt Mary in an unbiblical manner.
In chapter 2 Matthew continues to present evidence that proves Jesus is God’s Savior. But in spite of this people today continue to miss the obvious.
Chapter 2, Verses 1-2
These verses are a prime example of tradition trumping fact. The church has built up a body of tradition surrounding the birth of our Savior that just doesn’t hold up to a careful investigation of the Scriptures.
For instance, many Christians believe that the wise men were actually kings. Christmas carols such as “We Three Kings of Orient Are” aid in this misunderstanding.
Magi is a good interpretation. Simply the word means wise men. We derive our English words magic and magician from this root word.
Now, what this means is that they were essentially astronomers – star watchers. Historians state that the magi were a caste of men specializing in astrology, medicine, and natural sciences.
Also, there were most certainly not three in number, but probably a great company. They did not come on the birth night, but many days or even months later. Notice that verse 1 says plainly “Now after Jesus was born” and verse 2 says they asked Herod “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews?”
Did you notice the reason that the magi came to Jerusalem seeking the “King of the Jews?” It was because they saw His star and they came to worship Him.
Now I ask you how in the world astronomers from a distant land would identify one particular star as being associated with the birth of a King. And what made them understand that this King was born to be worshipped?
Have you ever contemplated these things?
Let’s unpack this a bit. Verse 1 says these astronomers arrived from the east. What was east of Jerusalem? Most scholars believe this is a reference to Persia (modern-day Iraq).
Jewish tradition says and some Bible scholars believe that the prophet Daniel, as an official of the Persian government, founded this order of Magi (wise men), and instructed them to watch for the Messiah through the generations.
We read of Daniel’s promotion to this role in Daniel 2:46-49, which took place after Daniel interpreted Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of the statue of gold, silver, bronze, and clay:
“Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell on his face and did homage to Daniel, and gave orders to present to him an offering and fragrant incense.
The king answered Daniel and said, “Surely your God is a God of gods and a Lord of kings and a revealer of mysteries, since you have been able to reveal this mystery.”
Then the king promoted Daniel and gave him many great gifts, and he made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon and chief prefect over all the wise men of Babylon.
And Daniel made request of the king, and he appointed Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego over the administration of the province of Babylon, while Daniel was at the king’s court.”
So, it is possible that the influence of God through His prophet Daniel taught the magi the Holy Scriptures so that they were watching for evidence of the birth of the world’s Savior. Very interesting.
Now can you imagine the reaction they must have had when they arrived in Jerusalem after a long journey? Surely the birth of this great King would be cause for excitement, celebration, and anticipation.
What did they find? Verse 3
Herod as well as all the people of Jerusalem said a collective “huh?” And then worry set in. What could this mean? How could we have missed this? Herod especially had to be thinking “what will this mean to my rule as King?”
This Herod is the 1st of several Herod’s mentioned in the Bible. He was greatly disliked by the Jews for at least 2 reasons.
- He was a puppet king of the Romans.
- He was not a Jew; he was an Edomite (historic enemies of the Jews).
Historians tell us that this Herod was a Jekyll and Hyde kind of character. On one hand he could be very benevolent.
For example:
- During times of economic hardship he returned some tax money to the people of Judea.
- During the great famine of 25 BC, he melted the gold objects in his palace to buy food for the poor.
- He built theaters and other civic structures. In 19 BC he authorized the rebuilding of the Temple; and he built the beautiful port city of Caesarea that we read about in the NT.
But Herod was also very cruel, jealous, and suspicious.
- He ordered the execution of his brother-in-law who happened to be the high priest.
- He had his wife, her mother, and 2 of his sons killed over a period of a couple of years.
- About 5 days before his own death he had a 3rd son executed.
- At the same time he had dozens of the most prominent citizens of Jerusalem imprisoned with orders to have them executed when he died in order to insure there would be morning in Jerusalem even if it wasn’t for him.
So Herod could not be trusted.
Verses 4-8
Verses 4-5 are amazing. The answer was right under their noses. The prophet being spoken of here was Micah who foretold of the birth of the Messiah in Bethlehem. The obvious implication is the people did not care about such things.
Once they knew though, did this cause an outbreak of celebration among the Jews? Sadly, it did not.
Instead a demonic plan is hatched by Herod. This is revealed by the fact that Herod called them to a secret meeting and wanted them to tell him exactly when Christ had been born.
He tries to convince the magi to let him know where the Christ child is so he can travel to worship him also.
Verses 9-12
Time had passed because Joseph and Mary had found a house to live in by this time.
What’s interesting to me is the relationship between worship and obedience. The wise men 1st worshipped and then they were obedient to God’s warning. Worship makes us much more sensitive to God’s leading doesn’t it?
The next warning we see was to Joseph and Mary – verses 13-15.
Joseph had learned to trust God from his earlier experience concerning Mary’s pregnancy and so when the angel of the Lord appears to him again he gets up immediately – the implication is in the middle of the night – and packs up his family and leaves for Egypt.
Again we see that this event was a fulfillment of prophecy, specifically those found in Hosea and Numbers.
It didn’t take long for King Herod to figure out that the magi were not coming back. When he did he became furious.
Verses 16-18
John MacArthur writes on this passage:
“Enraged or angry is in the passive voice, indicating that Herod had lost control of his passion and now was completely controlled by it. . . He did not bother to consider that because the magi did not return to him, they probably had guessed his wicked intent and that, if so, they would surely have warned the family. The family would have in turn long fled Bethlehem and probably the country. In light of Herod’s perverted mind however, he probably would have taken the same cruel action out of the same senseless rage and frustration – even had he known that the primary object of his hatred had escaped. If he was not able to guarantee killing Jesus by killing other babies, he would kill them in place of Jesus.”
Now you need to see this for what it was. This was not an isolated incident of a deranged King. This was simply one more manifestation of the war between the forces of our enemy and God. And again, it fulfilled God’s prophetic word spoken through the prophet Jeremiah.
Verses 19-23
Ok, here is a warning – what I’m about to share is not for the weak of stomach. Josephus, the Jewish historian shares these details concerning Herod’s death:
“Herod dies of this – ulcerated entrails, putrefied and maggot-filled organs, constant convulsions, foul breath, and neither physicians nor warm baths led to recovery.”
Well, good riddance right? Right, but that was not the end of the trouble for this passage tells us that Archelaus was now the King. He was a son of Herod and succeeded his father because he was just as cruel.
When Joseph heard this he was already on his way back to Israel, probably headed back to Bethlehem. But he was warned again and went instead to Nazareth. And again we see that this was a fulfillment of prophecy.
What a magnificent story of the first years of our Lord’s life. What can we take away from an understanding of these events?
The most obvious point that Matthew sets out to establish is this – Jesus Christ is the promised Messiah, the Redeemer of all of God’s creation. He proves this by relating the OT prophetic utterances with the life of Christ.
The idea of a coming King is the centerpiece of the OT, and finds it’s fulfillment in the NT in Jesus Christ.
Throughout these 1st 2 chapters Matthew reiterates 2 points:
- The divine revelation and instruction that surrounded the birth of Jesus.
- The perfect fulfillment of every OT prophecy concerning the Messiah is found in Jesus.
The implications for us are clear. As we work through this book we will find Jesus asking the Pharisees a very important question. Namely, “What do you think about the Christ? Whose Son is He?”
The point is that it does matter what you believe concerning Jesus.
Is He God’s Son, our Redeemer, Savior, and Lord? Scripture is clear – “He is the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
I pray that knowledge will so permeate our thinking that it manifests itself in all we do and say.