Exposition of Matthew 1:16-17

Written by Jimmie Burroughs

Review of Matthew 1:1-16

Last time we learned the importance of studying God’s Word:

• God commands it.
• It is our handbook on how to live successfully.
• It is our source of God’s mercy and His comfort.

Mathew is believed to be the most important book of the Bible and the best book ever written.  Why is it the most important book? First of all, it is a transition or a bridge between the 400-year interlude between the Old Testament and the New Testament. It connects the Old Testament to the New Testament by showing how the prophecies of the Old are fulfilled in the New. Matthew uses more from the Old Testament than the three following Gospels put together. Matthew is also a foundational study, which is a basis for understanding the remainder of the New Testament. One needs a thorough understanding of Mathew in order to understand Paul’s writings, which include 14 of the 29 books of the New Testament.

We also talked last time about the church and when it was established: Jesus established the church when He was on the earth. The logic behind that is twofold: First, why would Jesus wait until after the ascension to establish something of such importance as His church; that is not logical. Second, He said “I will build my church…” “And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” Matthew 16:18.

Peter was not the foundation of the church, or the first Pope,as Rome would have us believe. The whole meaning of the verse above is this: “Peter, you are a solid rock. I will make you the honored instrument of making known my gospel first to Jews and Gentiles, and I will make you a firm and distinguished preacher in building my church, which is built upon myself, an unmovable boulder.”

Ephesians 2:19-20 clarifies upon whom the church was built: “Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God; And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;” Jesus is the essence of the foundation, the cornerstone, which supports the foundation and holds it together.

Some believe that the day of Pentecost was the birth of the church. That is okay, since it makes little difference when the church was started; it is not a doctrinal issue. Nevertheless, the day of Pentecost is very important. It actually was the consummation of the church or its formalization. The comforter, that Jesus promised, the Holy Spirit, indwelled the 12 Apostles and the remainder of the 120 in the upper room on that day.

What is the day of Pentecost, some may ask? Originally, Pentecost was a Jewish celebration of the beginning of the wheat harvest, which was 7 weeks or 50 days after the pass over. The Lords last supper was during the feast of the pass over. It was then that Jesus instituted the Lords Supper as a memorial of his death, burial, and resurrection. The pass over was a celebration of the night that the lamb was slain and the blood was placed on the door post to identify those that were spared when the death angel passed over the night before Israel embarked on their exodus from Egypt. It actually looked forward to the time that the Lamb of God, Jesus, offered Himself as a sacrifice for the sins of man, and for all who believe, it is a protection from the second death, which is the spiritual death that separates man for all eternity from God. Jesus fulfilled the pass over by His own death. He instituted Lord’s supper, which is the memorial of His deth, burial and resurrection. Some Christians celebrate Pentecost today, 50 days after Easter, as the day the Holy Spirit indwelled the church, .

We talked about the two generation: One of Adam ,which relates to the physical birth, “All in Adam die,” Romans 5:12. “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” Romans 3:23. “For the wages of sin is death” Romans 6:23. The other generation is of Christ, which relates to the spiritual birth; “Ye must be born again.” This places the believer into the lambs book of life.

Then we talked about the two genealogies: One traces the genealogy of Joseph and one traces the genealogy of Mary. Joseph’s is the royal line. Mary’s is the kingly line.

We talked about the 4 gentile women who were included in the genealogy of Christ: There is a reason why they were included. Quickly let me explain.

• Tamar, the daughter-in-law of Judah begot Phares because of the sin of adultery with Judah after the death of her husband and therefore entered the genealogy.
• By faith Rahab protected the spies who came to spy out Jericho and later married into the genealogy.
• Ruth married Boas, which put her into the genealogy.
• Bathsheba, wife of Uriah the Hittite, became David’s wife after David had Uriah killed in battle, which put her into the genealogy.  

Now as we continue:

Matthew 1:16 – 16. “And Jacob begat Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ.” Notice how the pattern of the genealogy changes here: One head of family begets the other until it comes to Joseph and then it changes to Joseph being the husband of Mary of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ. Matthew is making sure it is known that Jesus is not the seed of Joseph. In the rest of this chapter Matthew will show us how Jesus is the virgin born Son of God, the promised Messiah as foretold from Old Testament Scriptures.

The Virgin Birth of Jesus Christ:

Both Mark and Luke, the third gospel, uphold the virgin birth. Luke was a doctor and certainly understood obstetrics, the branch of medicine and surgery concerned with childbirth. Yet, he along with Matthew upholds the doctrine of the virgin birth of Christ. Many years ago, when I was attending college and a member of Belview Baptist Church in Memphis, Tennessee, Dr. Adrien Rogers’ daughter was attending Union University, at Jackson, Tennessee. She came home one weekend and told her dad that one of her professors was teaching that the virgin birth of Christ was false. Dr Rogers got together with some other prominent leaders in the Southern Baptist Convention and were able to weed out the liberal Professors in the Baptist Colleges and seminaries, returning them to the conservative institutions they were created to be. Please don’t misunderstand; each person has a right to believe or not to believe in the virgin birth, but to call themselves a teacher or preacher among those who believe in the inspiration of Scripture is out of place in my opinion.

I want to make it clear that a person doesn’t have to understand or know everything about Jesus in order to trust in Him for salvation, but once they have, it would be a contradiction of what the Bible teaches not to believe in the virgin birth, and to me, evidence they truly had not had a saving experience at all. Once again it is a person’s right to believe that the Bible does not teach the virgin birth; however, the only Jesus we have record of is virgin born. Those who believe otherwise have established their belief on nothing more than a personal supposition without any evidence whatsoever; whereas we, who are believers, have the evidence of scripture.

Some say the virgin birth is just impossible. When I was growing up, people thought television was impossible. I agreed until I saw one for myself, and then I still thought it might be a hoax. Today, a lot of things exist that once were deemed impossible. People are prone to believe what they have read or been taught. I read about a scientist, who was an atheist, who believed in evolution because that was what he was taught. When he began to read the Bible, and see the truth, and was enlightened by the Holy Spirit, he was converted to Christ and denounced his belief in evolution.

Certainly, the virgin birth was a new thing in the New Testament; no one had ever witnessed it before. Jeremiah spoke of this new thing in Jeremiah 31:22, “…For the LORD has created a new thing in the earth – A woman shall encompass a man,” [Go around a man]. God is the author of natural laws, but He also has the power to set them aside to accomplish His purpose. The record we have of Jesus is that He was virgin born. There is no other record in history that proves otherwise.

The Divisions of generations: 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.

Perhaps this is something you never thought of before: Matthew had to eliminate some names in order for this to come out an even 14 in succession 3 times from Abraham to Jesus Christ.