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Today’s sermon to mark the birth of Christ. Next week Psalm 37 as a New Year’s charge. Then in January we return to the book of Romans. Chapters 6–8. Death to life is chapters 1–5. Chapters 6–8 begins to answer the question, “Now what?” The answer is to “walk in newness of life” (Rom 6:4). A new walk dead to sin, filled with the Spirit, loved by God.
“If you’re able, please stand.” Reading Matt. 1:1–6a. “Thanks be to God.”
In 1903 Howard Pyle, an American author and illustrator, published The Story of King Arthur and His Knights. Pyle’s version was building on history and legend dating back to the 1200s. By the time of Pyle, all the key figures are there—Arthur, Merlin, the sword Excalibur, Gweneviere, Lancelot, the Knights of the Round Table.[1]
The King: "wiser and greater and worthy of praise than was even Uther-Pendragon...order and peace where is now disorder and war."
It is a powerful myth that inspires longing for just such a King. In our passage this morning, we realize such a King has come. Not King Arthur! It's King Jesus!
Matthew Sermon on the Mount series: Living in the Kingdom. This morning we think more about the King of this kingdom. Sometimes what makes the kingdom is more about land and boundaries or an army. But with the Kingdom of God, what makes the kingdom is the King. Where you have the King and someone submitted to him, you have the kingdom.
This morning we're thinking about this King and how to respond to this King.
“Wise men from the east” ask, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews?” (Matt 2:2). But our question this morning is this, “WHO is he who has been born king of the Jews?” Who is this King?
He’s (1) The Davidic King; (2) the Divine King; (3) and The Jewish King.
Prayer
As we look to Jesus’ origin story in Matthew, we see that it doesn’t start with his birth or Mary. It goes back much, much further. Read Matt. 1:1.
The Greek is interesting here: “book of the genealogy” is an exact phrase from the Greek Old Testament from Genesis 2 and Genesis 5.
Moses arranges the book of Genesis with a certain phrase that serves as a kind of chapter break. In Genesis 2:4, “These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created.” In Gen. 5:1, “This is the book of the generations of Adam.”
“The book of the genealogy” in Matt. 1:1 can also be “the book of the genesis of Jesus Christ.”
The story of Jesus is in fact a ‘new Genesis,’ the story of an eschatological redemption that begins the world anew.
Richard B. Hays, Echoes of Scripture in the Gospels[2]
42 generations of Jesus’ ancestors are listed out in 3 groups of 14.
I’ll read just the first “chapter” from Abraham to David. ReadMatt. 1:2–6a.
Each is arranged with 14 generations—Read Matt. 1:17. Matthew skipped certain figures so that the grouping of 3 sets of 14 would be laid out. 14 is not accidental. In the 1st century, numbers were written sometimes as Hebrew consonants. The name “David” was three consonants and their numerical value was “14” (D=4, V=6, D=4, combined is 14).
In these opening verses we are blasted with the idea that Jesus the Christ is Jesus the Davidic King. All connected to 2 Samuel 7:12–13:
When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. (2 Sam 7:12-13)
The promised Son of David would be a King with an eternal kingdom. Jesus is that Davidic King.
But wait a minute! Isn't Jesus the Son of God, and God has always been, is, and always will be King? With an eternal, unchanging, unchallenged kingdom?
As Daniel 4:34 says, “His dominion is an everlasting dominion.” What’s up with that?
Christ as God has a “dominion” that is an “everlasting dominion.” But Christ was also sent by God to earth to save us. And to save us he became King in another sense.
In the Trinity Catechism we describe this part of Christ’s work:
Q28. What offices does Jesus Christ execute as our Redeemer?
A. He executes the offices of prophet, priest, and king, both in his humiliation and his exaltation.
The Trinity Catechism[4]
He was always “the King of glory” (Ps 24:7–10). But to accomplish our redemption he became King through the path of “humiliation.”
That means he set aside the rights and privileges of his eternal dominion to become a servant. A Jew. An embryo inside the womb of Mary.
He was eternally the Son of God. But he then became “the son of David.”
He entered into a genealogy. A genealogy filled with the whole spectrum of humanity. Heroes and villains. But even the heroes sometimes act like villains. And villains occasionally act like heroes.
Jesus is called “the Son of David”—but right there in Matthew 1, we read that “David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah” (Matt 1:6), Uriah the Hittite.
A few generations before there is the great man Boaz, the hero of the book of Ruth. But in this listing of genealogies, who is the mother of Boaz? She’s “Rahab” (Matt 1:5), as in “Rahab the prostitute” from the city of Jericho (Josh 6:17).
And the list goes on. Jesus taking on flesh and blood is doing what ancient philosophers thought was despicable—a God taking on flesh.
People today might think it’s impossible that a God would take on flesh. The ancients thought it was despicable, because bodies are so weak, so sensual. They thought the soul was somehow pristine and pure, but the body was base and despised. A philosophical mind floating in space was kind of the ideal.
Yet, “God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong” (1 Cor 1:27).
God became man in Jesus to save us. The eternal Son of God took on flesh to become “the son of David,” the Davidic King.
“Who is he who has been born king of the Jews?” That’s the first answer. He’s the Davidic King.
But Jesus “the Christ,” Jesus the Messiah, is unlike any other King. He may have come from this line of 42 generations, but he was unlike any of them in some profound ways.
The second part of the passage makes it clear. Read Matt. 1:18–25. Now we see that this King is also the Divine King.
Joseph the carpenter was engaged to Mary. We know Joseph was handsome and strong, and Mary was young and beautiful—because we’ve seen the pictures?!?!
Well, no. There are no pictures. We have no idea what they looked like. But we can say this, they looked like a fairly typical Jewish man and Jewish young woman. They weren’t white. Neither had blue eyes. They looked like the Jews they were descended from for thousands of years.
Fortunately, picture Bibles and depictions are starting to get this right. For centuries that wasn’t true, and it reinforced a lot of sinful racism. But that’s another sermon.
Joseph this young man was excited to marry his young bride. And then something really unexpected happened.
“She was found to be with child” (Matt 1:18). She was pregnant. To Joseph this was the end of the relationship. They were legally committed (“betrothed”) to be married, and she was pregnant—but not by him. Whatever the reason, he couldn’t marry her.
But, he still loved her. He wasn’t a cruel man. He didn’t want her to be humiliated, certainly not punished criminally. So, he “resolved to divorce her quietly” (Matt 1:19).
And then the angel came to him in a dream. Several times in these early years of Jesus’ life an angel would speak this way to him:
Joseph is called “a just man,” a “righteous man” (Matt 1:19). This was proven by the fact he listend to God’s messenger the angel.
The angel tells Joseph the real story of how Mary came to be “with child.” Matt. 1:20.
No other man was involved in this conception. The Holy Spirit caused an embryo miraculously to be formed in Mary’s womb. It wasn’t there, and then suddenly it was. The embryo that would become the fully grown man Jesus simply appeared in her womb and began to grow.
Now Mary wasn’t chosen because she was sinless. She was a righteous young woman, but not sinless.
Her faith and adoration of God is evident in her response to her calling from God. She was willing, humble, and in faith for it. And like so many other major moments of life: She was willing and in faith, even though she had no idea what would be required of her—or her Son.
That’s the first thing the angel says, he will be “conceived...from the Holy Spirit.” The Divine King had a divine conception.
Then the angel speaks to Joseph about Jesus’ mission. Read Matt. 1:21.
His name “Jesus” is the Greek version of the Hebrew “Joshua.” “Joshua” means “Yahweh is salvation.”
But this “salvation” wasn’t a deliverance from the Romans or foreign occupation. It wasn’t a military salvation at all.
Instead, “Jesus...will save his people from their sins.” What did Joseph think about this description of his mission? How could a man born to a woman save people their sins? Was he a priest offering sacrifices of some kind?
What did Joseph think? We don’t know. But the mission of Jesus was clear. His life and work will result in “his people” being saved “from their sins.”
He would save his people from their sins because he took on human flesh. Jesus as God the Son couldn’t die and so couldn’t pay the penalty that “his people” owed.
But Jesus as “the Son of Mary,” conceived in her womb and taking on human flesh, could die. Because he could die for sinners, he could save them from their sins.
When you believe in Jesus as your Savior and follow him as your King, you are “his people” and receive his salvation.
Then Matthew makes it crystal-clear who this King is. Read Matt. 1:22–23.
Jesus is “Immanuel,” a Hebrew name that means “God-with-us.”
The fact he is “God with us” will become evident when he begins his ministry. His teaching will show everyone that this is no usual teacher. His miracles will show everyone that this is no usual worker of miracles. His resurrection will show everyone that he is exactly who he said he is: Immanuel!
He is not only the Davidic King, he is the Divine King! King Immanuel!
Good to see again the humanity of this opening chapter of Matthew.
But then we see he is also a Jewish King. Of all the races on earth, God chose to send Jesus to be a Jewish King—at a time when a Jewish King would have absolutely no respect by any other nation. No great inheritance in terms of wealth, power, and property.
Nonetheless, he was “born king of the Jews” (Matt 2:2). Read Matt. 2:1–12.
He was the Davidic King (reigning as King for our redemption), the Divine King (Immanuel), and now the Jewish King.
How is this Jewish king perceived? Let’s look at the reactions.
Herod is called her “Herod the king,” and in some ways he was. But he was a so-called “king” only beneath the rule of the Roman Emperor. Caesar Augustus used such “client kings” to maintain order. Caesar gave them privileges (educating children in Rome, the protection of the Roman army) in exchange their loyalty. The favor of the emperor was something that had to be continually earned, and Herod was good at earning it.[5]
His political savvy enabled him to stay in power as successive emperors reigned. He governed from 37–4 BC, dying just after Jesus was born. He was known for (1) impressive building projects, including a large expansion to the Second Temple; and (2) heavy taxation of his own people; and (3) being ruthless and suspicious, qualities that led to murdering his own wife, several sons, and many others.[6] He ordered the killing of hundreds of Jewish leaders on the day of his death.[7]
Daniel Doriani writes:
Suffice it to say that his order to kill all the young males of Bethlehem (2:16), in the hope of killing Jesus, is wholly consistent with history’s portrait of Herod, a talented but violent and immoral ruler.
Daniel M. Doriani, Matthew[8]
To this ruthless man, Jesus is a THREAT that needed to be terminated. Though he was close to death himself, such a threat could not be endured. That’s why Herod would order the killing of boys in Bethlehem 2 years and younger (Matt 2:16–18).
But like the poet Malcomb Guite wrote,
But every Herod dies, and comes alone
To stand before the Lamb upon the throne.
Malcomb Guite, “Refugee”
Herod asks where the king is to be born, and these Jewish scholars give the correct answer. They know Micah 5:2 and why it’s important. They can nail any Bible trivia game.
But when these “wise men from the east” basically say that we think the fulfillment has happened, what do they do? What is their response?
They shrug their shoulders, “Meh. Whatever. It’s nothing to get too riled up about.”
They answer Herod and then disappear from the scene entirely.
Daniel Doriani reflects on their response:
After the scribes and priests give their answer, we hear no more of them. They expect their deliverer and here are reports that fit the prophecy. Yet, Matthew implies, they do nothing. They do not rejoice; they do not join the Magi. They do not go to Bethlehem to worship this shepherd and ruler or even to investigate the report. They answer the king and go home.
Daniel M. Doriani, Matthew[9]
They are astrologers from a palace court in the east. Nebuchadnezzar had them in Babylon when Daniel was taken there (Dan 2:2). With Daniel they were his opponents and enemies. But here we are centuries later. These “counselors to kings”[10] were seeking the Christ.
They had traveled a massive and expensive distance to get to Jerusalem. Hundreds of miles across rugged and barren land. Their entourage was great enough and lavish enough, that they gained an audience with Herod without any trouble.
Though the Christmas carol says, “We Three Kings,” we don’t know if there were three. Only that they offered three types of gifts.
Here they are seeking the Christ. And why? “We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him” (Matt 2:2).
Somehow God spoke through the constellations and stars in their alignment and told these pagan counselors to a pagan king: A special king has been born, and you must go to him!
Psalm 19 says “the heavens declare the glory of God” (v. 1). Now we see the heavens declaring the birth of the Christ.
Everything is screaming that this King born to Mary is no typical king. Something different is happening.
The worship of these kings is arresting.
Even before they entered the house, their hearts are revealed. Read Matt. 2:10.
“They rejoiced exceedingly with great joy.” Matthew is emphatic about how great their joy was. At least, after a journey that could have taken months, their search was over.
When the wise men come before the one born the king of the Jews, what do these Gentile, idol-worshippers do? When they come to “the house” where Jesus was, they react immediately:
Read Matt. 2:11:
We have no idea what they understood about who Jesus was. But Matthew sets them up for us as heroes in a story of villains.
“Who is he who has been born king of the Jews?”
What do we do with this? Rejoice in our King of kings! Be like the Magi!
Hear that in 1 Peter 1:8:
Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory. (1 Pet 1:8)
And if you lack joy in this King of kings, may God’s Holy Spirit baptize you in a fresh way with such a joy.
Your life is a wreck, that’s true. But rejoice! You continue to sin, that’s true. But rejoice! You have many, many unanswered prayers, that’s true. But rejoice!
The King of David, Immanuel, has saved you from your sins!
I began by looking at King Arthur. An inspiring myth. When CS Lewis was converted he had a famous conversation with JRR Tolkien. What Tolkien explained changed his life.
C.S. Lewis in a letter explained what J.R.R. Tolkien taught him:
Now the story of Christ is simply a true myth: a myth working on us in the same way as the others, but with this tremendous difference that it really happened.
C.S. Lewis, Letter to Arthur Greeves[11]
Christianity is the glorious “myth” that inspires and changes us—because it’s the “true myth.”
Let’s be like the Magi, “Come and worship, come and worship, worship Christ the newborn King!”
Prayer and Closing Song (“Angels from the Realms of Glory”)
[1] For a free version of Pyle’s work (without illustrations), see https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/60184/pg60184.txt. Also available for purchase.
[2] Richard B. Hays, Echoes of Scripture in the Gospels (Waco: Baylor University Press, 2016), 110.
[3] On this three chapter idea, see Hays, 110.
[4] With our Q28 we have followed almost exactly The Westminster Shorter Catechism Question 23, “What offices doth Christ execute as our Redeemer? A. Christ, as our Redeemer, executeth the offices of a prophet, of a priest, and of a king, both in his estate of humiliation and exaltation.”
[5] From Martin Goodman’s Herod the Great as reviewed by Ben Kolbeck in the Times Literary Supplement, Aug 16, 2024 (21).
[6] Doriani, Matthew, 29–30.
[7] Carson, Matthew, 84.
[8] Daniel M. Doriani, Matthew, REC, Vol. 1 (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R, 2008), 30.
[9] Daniel M. Doriani, Matthew, REC, Vol. 1 (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R, 2008), 31.
[10] Daniel M. Doriani, Matthew, REC, Vol. 1 (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R, 2008), 28.
[11] See Justin Taylor’s https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/evangelical-history/85-years-ago-today-j-r-r-tolkien-convinces-c-s-lewis-that-christ-is-the-true-myth/.
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