Matthew 01: King Jesus

The Gospel of Matthew opens with a bold declaration that would have immediately captured the attention of its Jewish audience: Jesus Christ is the rightful King of Israel. Through a meticulously documented genealogy, Matthew establishes Jesus' legitimate claim to David's throne and connection to Abraham's covenant promises—essentially presenting the "smoking gun" evidence for Christ's messianic identity from the very first verses.

Pastor Brandon takes us deep into the cultural significance of Matthew's approach, explaining how family lineage was crucial in ancient Israel for establishing property rights, tribal identity, and royal succession. By tracing Jesus' ancestry through both David (the royal line) and Abraham (the promise line), Matthew leaves no doubt about Jesus' credentials as the long-awaited Messiah. Even more fascinating is the unexpected inclusion of five women—most likely Gentiles—suggesting from the beginning that Jesus' kingship extends beyond Israel to embrace all nations.

As we explore the narrative of Jesus' birth, we discover Joseph's extraordinary character, the supernatural divine intervention through the Holy Spirit, and the fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy about "Emmanuel" (God with us). This theme of divine presence becomes the foundation for Matthew's entire gospel narrative, culminating in the Great Commission where Jesus promises to be with his followers "always, to the end of the age." The profound implications are clear: the King of Kings desires intimate fellowship with his followers and invites us to participate in his mission of bringing God's kingdom to earth.

Whether you're new to Bible study or have been exploring Scripture for years, this fresh look at Matthew's Gospel will deepen your understanding of Jesus' identity and purpose. Join us as we journey through this remarkable account of Christ's life, teachings, and kingdom ministry—and discover how the rightful King still calls us to follow him today.

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Chapters

• 0:48 Welcome to Bible Breakdown Podcast
• 2:52 Background of Matthew's Gospel
• 9:09 Historical Context and Purpose
• 9:37 Five Applications for Modern Believers
• 10:13 The Significance of Jesus' Genealogy
• 15:21 Joseph, Mary, and Divine Intervention
• 17:34 Closing Reflection on King Jesus

Transcript

Speaker 0: 0:24

Well, hello everybody. Welcome back to the Bible Breakdown Podcast with your host, pastor Brandon, today. Matthew, chapter 1. And today's title is King Jesus, king Jesus. I'm going to go ahead and tell you I have been looking forward to the book of Matthew for a really long time, so I cannot wait to get into this. So, if you have your Bibles, I want to open up with me to Matthew, chapter 1. It's the first chapter in your New Testament. While you're doing that, if you're your Bibles, I want to open up with me to Matthew, chapter 1. It's the first chapter in your New Testament.

Speaker 0: 0:49

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Speaker 0: 1:39

Well, as I was telling you earlier, I am really looking forward to the Gospel of Matthew, and if you are part of Real Life Church in Bowling Green, kentucky, or if you've ever looked at any of our content, you know that we went through the book of Matthew a couple of years ago and it took us like two years to go through it, and, man, what a wonderful journey it was, and so I'm looking forward to jumping into this. And so, as always, chapter one is a little bit longer because we're going to give you a lot of background before we jump into the chapter. So here we go. First things first. The overall theme of the Gospel of Matthew is King Jesus, and the reason why that is will become, hopefully, evident in a little while, but the goal of Matthew was to talk about the kingship of the Messiah, jesus Christ. So let me give you some background.

Speaker 0: 2:25

First of all, who wrote the book of Matthew? It was unanimous in the early church that, even though it doesn't say his name within the actual gospel, that it was written by Matthew, also known as Levi. Levi would have been his Jewish name, matthew would have been his Roman name and he was previously a tax collector. And you can read about his story in the Gospels that he was a tax collector, which would have meant he was hated by all the Jewish people. And you know what's really mind-blowing is it's possible that, as a tax collector from the area, he might have been Peter James and John's tax collector, so they would have hated him. They would have saw him as a sellout because he was working with the occupying government, the Romans, and taking taxes away from them. And tax collectors were notorious for also being cheaters, where they would collect more money than they were supposed to, and Rome didn't care as long as they got their money. They turned a blind eye and so they could say you owed $10 when you really only owed five and they'd pocket the other five. So they were hated.

Speaker 0: 3:34

But this is the background of Matthew, also known as Levi before he came to Jesus. He was also just to give you some background. Once he encountered Jesus, he became one of the 12 disciples. He was part of the early church and according to church history, he was martyred in Ethiopia for preaching the gospel. And the way he was martyred was he was most likely stabbed to death with a sword. So he gave everything he had for the gospel.

Speaker 0: 3:59

Now where is Matthew likely at when he is writing this? He is likely in Syria or Antioch or somewhere in Palestine. So Antioch isn't really talked about that much outside of the book of Acts, but it was one of the early main cities for the gospels. As a matter of fact, when the people spread out from Jerusalem, when a lot of persecution started, antioch was one of the first places they all kind of congregated, and so it's likely that Matthew spent a lot of his time there.

Speaker 0: 4:29

Now here's the difference between Matthew and the other Gospels. Matthew was primarily written to the Jewish nation, and here's the reason why Because, as the Gospel began to spread for a while, primarily the early church was trying to reach the Jewish church, because they were the ones that Jesus first came to the Jewish people, because it was through the Jewish people that God was going to bless the whole world, and so Matthew spends a lot of time really talking about the gospel from the point of view of Jewish culture. And so we're going to see that throughout the book of Matthew, including chapter one. And when you understand the to see that throughout the book of Matthew, including chapter one, and when you understand the background, you realize that Matthew comes out swinging man I mean, he is in their face. From chapter one.

Speaker 0: 5:16

It was most likely written between 60 and 70 AD, and what's really interesting is there's more Old Testament connections than any other gospel, and that's because he's trying to appeal to the Jewish audience. But what's also interesting is a lot of scholars are beginning to think that what Matthew actually did was at first he would put out little, almost like pamphlets, like little booklets of the different aspects of Jesus' life, and he would have put out about five of them. And eventually Matthew put all of these little pamphlets that he would be passing around into one gospel narrative, and that's where we get the gospel of Matthew. But it's also why the gospel of Matthew very neatly fits into five different sections, and so the big idea of Matthew once again is that Jesus is the promised king and Messiah who brings the kingdom of heaven to earth. He begins with Jesus' lineage to prove his authentic right to rule the earthly kingdom and the heavenly kingdom, and we'll get into that in just a second. The reason why Matthew is so important is because it shows how Jesus fulfills God's promises, about how he is the fulfillment of the Old Testament. It teaches how faith in Jesus transforms every part of life. He models what it is to be a citizen of God's kingdom and it also provides the great commission at the very end, which is now kind of our marching orders as Christians nowadays.

Speaker 0: 6:36

Now what's going on during the time of Matthew elsewhere in the world is the Roman Empire, is the dominant world power At the time when Matthew was being written. Nero is Caesar and there's also massive persecution going on everywhere. Tensions are rising between the Jews and Rome. That leads actually to the Jewish war that culminates with the destruction of the temple in 70 AD. Christians are starting to face massive persecution and being pushed out of Jewish synagogues. So one of the reasons why Matthew is probably writing to them is maybe because he no longer has access to the Jewish synagogue. So he's writing to the Jewish people to try to tell them who Jesus is and what he came for. And also, this is a time when a lot of people are being martyred, so this would have been written about the time when Paul and Peter are being martyred for their faith and all these different things, and many of the Jewish Christians are struggling with their identity. Are they Jewish? Are they supposed to keep the law? How does Jesus fulfill the law? All those kinds of things that Matthew's gospel answers, because Jesus answered it during his public ministry.

Speaker 0: 7:42

Other facts that are interesting about the gospel of Matthew is Matthew is the only place that uses the phrase kingdom of heaven, whereas the other gospels talk about the kingdom of God. The Sermon on the Mount, chapter five through seven, is the longest continuous section of Jesus' teaching. In the Bible we see places like in the Gospel of Luke where there is a summary of the teaching of the Sermon on the Mount, but the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7 is the longest place. And here's the interesting thing is, even secular philosophers will study the Sermon on the Mount, because it is also thought to be one of the greatest works of literature to ever exist. Another one is Matthew organizes his Gospel into five major teaching blocks. We talked about that a minute ago and Matthew is the only place to include the story of the Magi or the wise men visiting Jesus.

Speaker 0: 8:34

So let me give you five ways we're going to apply the gospel of Matthew, and then we're going to jump right into chapter one. Number one is we can apply the gospel of Matthew by living kingdom-minded as disciples. Number two is we can practice authentic faith that is not just outward but is about an internal fellowship with God. We can trust Jesus as Lord, savior and King, not just as a good teacher, and we are commissioned by the end of Matthew Matthew 28, to make disciples and then to pray and live with the expectation of Jesus' return as king. So let's dive into chapter one.

Speaker 0: 9:12

Let me give you a little bit of background before we do this. So when the nation of Israel settled into what was called the Promised Land during the time of Joshua and they separated out the land, that was God keeping his promise to the nation of Israel, and so family lineage was extremely important because it proved that you are part of the Jewish nation, it proved that you had a right to the land, and then afterward, when they started having kings. It also would track the lineage of royalty and so family and all of that was very, very important to the Jewish people. That is how they would make claims on all kinds of different things, and so one of the ways you would prove who you were was by being able to have a record of your family history. And so the reason why chapter one starts the way it does is because, right out of the gate, matthew is saying I'm going to tell you exactly who Jesus is. Now, let's be honest Chapter one we normally skip, don't we? If you just want to be honest with me, I'll be honest with you.

Speaker 0: 10:15

Most of the time, when I used to read through the book of Matthew, I started with chapter two, and here's the reason why, because there is a bunch of very hard names and, to be honest with you as well, many times I just didn't get it. I was like, okay, great, he had a family, that's fine. But here's the thing when someone would want to claim to be a status of a leader or something like that, the first thing they would say is well, what's your family? Because you had to be able to prove lineage. And so immediately what happens is. Matthew is coming right out of the gate and he is saying Jesus is the king and I got the proof. It literally is the smoking gun. If you were to be in a capital murder trial and people are like, well, I don't know if he did it, I don't know if, whatever, and let's say you come out with a literal picture of somebody holding the gun, like you go, here's your proof, like I can prove he did it. Right, that's what Matthew is doing. Is he is saying I can promise you that he is the rightful king of Israel because I've got the names to prove it. So actually, he is putting it in their face right away and he is making no distinction at the very beginning Jesus is the king. Okay, so here we go.

Speaker 0: 11:29

Matthew, chapter 1, verse 1. Let's read this is a record of the ancestors of Jesus the Messiah, the descendant of David and of Abraham. Now pause. You notice that right there he is saying he is the Messiah because he is a descendant of David, which is the line of royalty, and the descendant of Abraham. That's the descendant of David, which is the line of royalty, and the descendant of Abraham, that's the descendant of the promise. So he's saying he is the rightful king. Here we go.

Speaker 0: 11:53

Abraham was the father of Isaac, isaac the father of Jacob, jacob the father of Judah and his brothers. Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar. We'll come back to that in a second. Perez was the father of Hezron. Hezron was the father of Ram, ram was the father of Abinadab, and Abinadab was the father of Nahashon. Nahashon was the father of Solomon, and Solomon was the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab, and Boaz was the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth. Obed was the father of Jesse. Jesse was the father of King David. So there's the lineage straight through and then all the way down to Jesus.

Speaker 0: 12:34

David was the father of Solomon, whose mother was Bathsheba, the widow of Uriah. Solomon was the father of Rehoboam. Rehoboam was the father of Abijah. Abijah was the father of Asa, asa, the father of Abijah. Abijah was the father of Asa, asa, the father of Jehoshaphat, jehoshaphat, the father of Jehoram, jehoram, the father of Uzziah. Uzziah was the father of Jotham, jotham, the father of Ahaz, ahaz, the father of Hezekiah, hezekiah, the father of Manasseh, manasseh, the father of Ammon. Ammon was the father of Josiah. Josiah was the father of Jehoashin and his brothers born about the time of the exile to Babylon, after the Babylonian exile. Jehoashin was the father of Shehiltil. Shehiltil was the father of Zerubbabel. Zerubbabel was the father of Ebuid. Ebuid was the father of Alekhim. Alekhim was the father of Azor. Azor was the father of Zadok. Zadok was the father of Achim. Achim was the father of Eluid. Eluid was the father of Eleazar. Eleazar was the father of Matan. Matan was the father of Jacob. Jacob was the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, and Mary gave birth to Jesus, who is called the Messiah.

Speaker 0: 13:44

All those listed above included 14 generations, from Abraham to David, and 14 generations from David to the Babylonian exile, and 14 generations from the Babylonian exile to the Messiah. Now pause. So once again, the point is, matthew is saying that he is the rightful king because he is the heir of Abraham, which is the promise, but because he is the heir of Abraham, which is the promise, but he's also the heir of David, which is the royalty, and so he has. So, before he even establishes him as God, he establishes him as the rightful king of Israel. It's also interesting to notice, if you did, there were five names of women that were there, which would have also been very interesting because in lineages it was the male firstborn son that was in the lineage, and every one of those has an amazing story. And also all of those women other than Mary were most likely Gentiles. And so right away he is also giving a little bit of a hint to say he's not just the rightful king of the Jewish nation, but he's a rightful king of all people, including the Gentiles. They have a right to the kingship of Jesus. All right, let's keep going.

Speaker 0: 14:54

Verse 18.

Speaker 0: 14:55

This is how Jesus, the Messiah, was born. His mother, mary, was engaged to be married to Joseph, but before the marriage took place, while she was still a virgin, she became pregnant through the power of the Holy Spirit. Joseph, to whom she was engaged, was a righteous man and did not want to disgrace her publicly, so he decided to break the engagement quietly and pause. It's important to realize that in Jewish culture, the moment you became engaged, it was basically like you were married. You couldn't just break off an engagement for no reason. It was a really big deal to break off an engagement, and many times if you broke off an engagement because of infidelity like this, in some of the more extreme cases the woman could be put to death or the man. I mean, it was a really, really big deal. And so you can see the amazing heart of Joseph, because he did not want that to happen to Mary, and you imagine how his heart was probably broken, because he doesn't know yet that the Holy Spirit has done this. So, even though his heart is likely broken and he feels like she has been unfaithful, he's such an amazing man of integrity he doesn't want her to be killed, so he is wanting to try to find a quiet way to dissolve the relationship.

Speaker 0: 16:09

But look at this, verse 21. Excuse me, verse 20. As he considered this, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, joseph, son of David. The angel said do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child within her was conceived by the Holy Spirit. Look, all of this occurred to fulfill the Lord's message through the prophet. Look, the virgin will conceive a child, she will give birth to a son and you will call him Emmanuel, which means God with us. When Joseph woke up, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded and took Mary as his wife, and he did not have sexual relations with her until her son was born, and Joseph named him Jesus. Wow.

Speaker 0: 17:02

Well, there's so much there to unpack, but the main thing I want to lean on is two things. First of all, some people get confused when it says you're going to give him the name Emmanuel, but yet they named him Jesus. And so basically, what the scripture is saying is you're going to give him the name Emmanuel. Emmanuel means God with us, so it was almost like a nickname, it's like how he would be known, and so I want to make sure you kind of understand. It's not saying that Jesus had multiple names. It was just saying he will represent God being with us, and that is the point that Matthew is going to spend the rest of his gospel sharing with all of us.

Speaker 0: 17:42

And you can see that from chapter one, that, when you understand the background, matthew is not messing around. He is literally waving the papers in front of the audience and he is saying I can prove that Jesus is the Messiah. So it's almost like in chapter one he says okay, that's settled, he has a right to claim the earthly throne. I'm gonna spend the next 27 chapters showing you that he is more than just an earthly Messiah, that he's also God with us and we're going to see as it continues to unfold. The kingdom is coming to earth, and so what do we do with this today?

Speaker 0: 18:19

And that is this Can I tell you that your king, if you're a Christ follower, your king, king Jesus, wants to have fellowship with you. If you think about it, jesus came and died on the cross for you. If he did that, what would he not do to be close to you? As we're going to look at through the gospel of Matthew, jesus walked among the people. We're going to look at, maybe, a different way to see what happens when he's debating with the Pharisees people. We're going to look at, maybe a different way to see what happens when he's debating with the Pharisees, and we're going to look at some different things that maybe you've never heard before.

Speaker 0: 18:50

But the one thing I hope you have heard before and I want to double down on it one more time and that is this your king, king Jesus, wants to walk with you, and here's the great news he doesn't just want to walk with you, but he wants for you to be able to be part of his mission, to be part of the kingdom of God. He's going to end all of this with saying the thing that I've done in you. Go do it in other people's lives. Go make disciples of all nations. God's got a big idea for us, and he's also got a big idea that we get to share in to the rest of the world, and I can't wait for us to get further into it in the Gospel of Matthew. Let's pray together right now.

Speaker 0: 19:28

God, thank you so much for today. Thank you for the Gospel of Matthew, because it reminds us that, jesus, you're not just a good teacher, you weren't just a good man, you're king. You're the king over all, you're the king of our lives, and I pray that, as we dig into the gospel of Matthew, we'll come to know you more, we'll come to love you more and we will long to serve you more. In Jesus' name, we pray Amen and amen. Well, the theme verse of Matthew is going to be Matthew 28, verse 19, when it says all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations. My prayer is that you fall in love with Jesus and then you fall in love with the ability to make him known into all the world. I love you. I'll see you tomorrow for Matthew, chapter two.