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The Nativity Story
(Matthew 1:1-2:17)
Introduction: As we look for a moment at the first verse of the New Testament, you’ll notice the word “generation” in verse 1. This is a word that actually means nativity. And the word “nativity” literally means birth or coming into life, coming into the world. The word “nativity” also refers to the time, place, and manner of a person’s birth. Over the years, this word has come to refer, almost exclusively, to the birth and the events surrounding the birth of Jesus.
So this is the book of the birth of Jesus Christ. This is the record of His nativity. Last year about this time our family went to see “The Nativity Story” at the movie theater, and then again the other night we watched the DVD. While there are some Biblical discrepancies, it is really a moving dramatization of the events surrounding the birth of Jesus.
The Bible says in Matthew 1:1, “The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.” The Greek language scholar A.T. Robertson said that the “usual word for book is a diminutive form biblion, a little book or roll,” but “it is our word ‘Bible’ that is here used.” Robertson said that Matthew is applying this word to “the genealogical table of Jesus Christ (biblos geneseoos Ieesou Christou), ‘the birth roll of Jesus Christ’ as Moffatt translates it.”
Then we are told that Jesus Christ is “the son of David,” and “the son of Abraham. As John MacArthur said, “Jesus was the Son of David by royal descent and Son of Abraham by racial descent.”
This introductory statement in verse 1 lays the foundation for the record of Jesus’ birth. The first chapter of the New Testament is a chapter that is full of birth. In fact, there are 39 “begat”’s in this chapter, each one representing a birth. But the most important birth mentioned in this chapter is the birth of Jesus. And it is referred to almost immediately in verse 1.
Howard Hendricks told the story of a little boy who asked his mother where he came from, and also where she had come from as a baby. His mother gave him a tall tale about a beautiful white-feathered bird. The boy asked his grandmother the same question and received a variation on the bird story. Outside to his playmate he said, “You know, there hasn’t been a normal birth in our family for three generations.”
Well, in Matthew 1, there is the listing of 39 normal births, but after all of these there is the record of a supernatural birth. When we finally come to Joseph, the Bible tells us, not that he begat Jesus, but that he was “the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ.”
Then verse 18 says, “Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost.” The word “birth” here is basically the same as the word “generation” in verse 1. So we might paraphrase verse 18 by saying, “The Nativity of Jesus Christ happened like this.” We’re looking this morning at The Nativity Story, and in this chapter…
I. The Nativity Of Jesus Encompasses The Waiting Generations
To begin a Gospel record with a genealogical listing of names may seem very unusual to us. But Matthew’s gospel reveals Jesus as the King, and through this genealogical record of Jesus’ legal ancestry through Joseph, he skillfully shows how Jesus had a claim to the throne of His ancestor David. You see, while Joseph was not the biological father of Jesus, by taking Mary as his wife before Jesus’ birth, he had essentially adopted Him as his first and legal son. His literal ancestry and bloodline through Mary is recorded in Luke 3, but his legal ancestry is recorded here in Matthew 1. And there is a clearly defined symmetry in this genealogical listing that is summarized in Matthew 1:17.
(Matthew 1:17) So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David until the carrying away into Babylon are fourteen generations; and from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ are fourteen generations.
A. We See Fourteen Generations Of Development Leading Up To A Crown
(Matthew 1:17) So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David until the carrying away into Babylon are fourteen generations; and from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ are fourteen generations.
1. Notice The Patriarchal Fathers In This Listing
(Matthew 1:2) Abraham begat Isaac; and Isaac begat Jacob; and Jacob begat Judas and his brethren;
2. Notice The Particular Females In This Listing
(Matthew 1:3-6) And Judas begat Phares and Zara of Thamar; and Phares begat Esrom; and Esrom begat Aram; {4} And Aram begat Aminadab; and Aminadab begat Naasson; and Naasson begat Salmon; {5} And Salmon begat Booz of Rachab; and Booz begat Obed of Ruth; and Obed begat Jesse; {6} And Jesse begat David the king; and David the king begat Solomon of her that had been the wife of Urias;
There are four women mentioned in these verses, and in a genealogical record that is fascinating in itself, because genealogies tend to give priority to the identity of fathers and not mothers. But all four of these women have tainted records…
Thamar (in verse 3). Her account is found in Genesis 38. As John MacArthur reminds us…
God had taken the lives of her husband, Er, and of his next oldest brother, Onan, because of their wickedness. Judah then promised the young, childless widow that his third son, Shelab, would become her husband and raise up children in his brother’s name when he grew up. After Judah failed to keep that promise, Tamar disguised herself as a prostitute and tricked him into having sexual relations with her. From that illicit union were born twin sons, Perez and Zerah.
Thamar could well be called “The Mischievous”
Rachab (in verse 5). Her account is found in Joshua 2. Rahab was a Gentile inhabitant of the doomed city of Jericho, and she is repeatedly called a “harlot” in the scriptures. We might call her Rahab, The Madam.
Ruth (in verse 5). Her account is found in the book of the Old Testament that bears her name. While there is no moral mark against Ruth, she too was not of the household of Israel. She is Ruth, The Moabitess.
Bathsheba (in verse 6). Though she is not mentioned by name here in Matthew 1, we know that Bathsheba was the wife of Uriah the Hittite. King David committed adultery with Bathsheba and eventually arranged for her husband to be killed in battle to conceal his sin. Bathsheba was The Mistress.
Alexander Maclaren said…
A very significant feature of this genealogical table is the insertion in it, in four cases, of the names of the mothers. The four women mentioned are Thamar a harlot, Rachab another, Ruth the Moabitess, and Bathsheba; three of them tainted in regard to womanly purity, and the fourth, though morally sweet and noble, yet mingling alien blood in the stream. Why are pains taken to show these ‘blots in the scutcheon’? May we not reasonably answer – in order to suggest Christ’s relation to the stained and sinful, and to all who are ‘strangers from the covenants of promise.’ He is to be a King with pity and pardon for harlots, with a heart and arms open to welcome all those who were afar off among the Gentiles.
Just before he died Jacob gathered his sons around him and spoke to each of them. He said to Judah…
(Genesis 49:10) The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.
Shiloh has the idea of tranquility, peace, happiness, safety.
(In Revelation 5:5, Jesus is called “The Lion of the tribe of Juda.”)
As this new nation is developing and growing in the patriarchal age, in the centuries of Egyptian bondage, in the days of the Judges, the promise comes down through the centuries: “Shiloh is coming!”
B. We See Fourteen Generations Of Dominion Leading Up To A Captivity
(Matthew 1:17) So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David until the carrying away into Babylon are fourteen generations; and from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ are fourteen generations.
1. There Was A Davidic Kingdom During This Time
(Matthew 1:6) And Jesse begat David the king; and David the king begat Solomon of her that had been the wife of Urias;
2. There Was A Divided Kingdom During This Time
John MacArthur wrote…
The second period, from David to the deportation to Babylon, was that of the monarchy, when Israel, having insisted on having human kings like all the nations around them, discovered that those kings more often led them away from God and into trouble than to God and into peace and prosperity. That was a period of almost uninterrupted decline, degeneracy, apostasy, and tragedy. There was defeat, conquest, exile, and the destruction of Jerusalem and its Temple.
God told David that He would raise up his seed after him, one that would have an established throne and a kingdom for ever…
(1 Chronicles 17:11-14) And it shall come to pass, when thy days be expired that thou must go to be with thy fathers, that I will raise up thy seed after thee, which shall be of thy sons; and I will establish his kingdom. {12} He shall build me an house, and I will stablish his throne for ever. {13} I will be his father, and he shall be my son: and I will not take my mercy away from him, as I took it from him that was before thee: {14} But I will settle him in mine house and in my kingdom for ever: and his throne shall be established for evermore.
The immediate fulfillment of this promise was Solomon, but One was coming whom the New Testament calls, “the seed of David,” and the “son of David.” And Jesus identified Himself by saying in Matthew 12:42, “Behold, a greater than Solomon is here.”
So while the nation becomes fractured and fickle and faithless in the kingdom age, the promise comes down through the centuries: “A Seed is coming!”
C. We See Fourteen Generations Of Darkness Leading Up To A Christ
1. These Were Years Of Captivity That Commenced With Jechonias
(Matthew 1:11) And Josias begat Jechonias and his brethren, about the time they were carried away to Babylon:
John MacArthur mentions a word about Jechoniah or Jehoiachin…
It is essential to note that in His virgin birth Jesus not only was divinely conceived but through that miracle was protected from regal disqualification because of Joseph’s being a descendant of Jeconiah (v. 12). Because of that king’s wickedness, God had declared of Jeconiah (also called Jehoiachin or Coniah) that, though he was in David’s line, “no man of his descendants will prosper, sitting on the throne of David or ruling again in Judah” (Jeremiah 22:30). That curse would have precluded Jesus’ right to kingship had He been the natural son of Joseph, who was in Jeconiah’s line. Jesus’ legal descent from David, which was always traced through the father, came through Jeconiah to Joseph. But His blood descent, and His human right to rule, came through Mary, who was not in Jeconiah’s lineage. Thus the curse on Jeconiah’s offspring was circumvented, while still maintaining the royal privilege.
Cf. (Jeremiah 22:28-30) Is this man Coniah (Jechonias or Jehoiachin) a despised broken idol? is he a vessel wherein is no pleasure? wherefore are they cast out, he and his seed, and are cast into a land which they know not? {29} O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the LORD. {30} Thus saith the LORD, Write ye this man childless, a man that shall not prosper in his days: for no man of his seed shall prosper, sitting upon the throne of David, and ruling any more in Judah.
2. These Were Years Of Conflict That Culminated With Jesus
During the 400 inter-testament years, the Jews were subjugated by the Babylonian empire, then the Medio-Persian empire, then the Grecian empire, then the Syrian empire, and finally the Roman empire.
As Ray Stedman said…
The pagan empires around had been deteriorating and disintegrating. Their religions had fallen upon evil days. The people were sick of the polytheism and emptiness of their pagan faiths. The Jews had gone through times of pressure and had failed in their efforts to re-establish themselves, and had given up all hope. There was a growing air of expectancy that the only hope they had left was the coming at last of the promised Messiah. In the East, the oriental empires had come to the place where the wisdom and knowledge of the past had disintegrated and they too were looking for something. When the moment came when the star arose over Bethlehem, the wise men of the East who were looking for an answer to their problems saw it immediately and came out to seek the One it pointed to. Thus, “when the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son.”
Shiloh was coming. A Seed was coming. And finally, the Savior had come!
II. The Nativity Of Jesus Encompasses The Worried Gentleman
(Matthew 1:18) Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost.
In verse 18, the Nativity record of Jesus which has been very panoramic up to this point, suddenly becomes very personal. MacArthur states…
Seventeen verses are given to listing Jesus’ human genealogy; but only part of one verse to His divine genealogy. In His divinity He “descended” from God by a miraculous and never-repeated act of the Holy Spirit; yet the Holy Spirit does nothing more than authoritatively state the fact.