The Gospel of the King – the Gospel of Matthew!
The Gospel of the King!
This Sunday we begin the Gospel of Matthew, often called the Gospel of the King. It begins with what many people often view as a dull list of names, a family tree.
Many skip this section and dive straight into what they deem as more ‘meatier’ sections of the beginning of the gospel. But this list of names, this genealogy is in fact indispensable for each and every one of us who would call Jesus Lord and Saviour.
Matthew traces Jesus genealogy, which is the evidence that Jesus inherited the LEGAL right to the throne of David through His stepfather, Joseph. For it is this genealogy that traces the LEGAL descent of Jesus as King of Israel.
The other gospel that has a list of names, another genealogy is found in Luke’s gospel. Luke traces Jesus LINEAL descent as Son of David. Matthew’s genealogy follows the ROYAL line through his son Solomon, the next king; Luke’s genealogy follows the BLOOD line from David through another son, Nathan. This genealogy concludes with Joseph, of whom Jesus was the ADOPTED Son; the genealogy in Luke 3 traces the ancestry of Mary, of who Jesus was the REAL Son.
A millennium earlier, God had made an unconditional agreement with David, promising him a kingdom that would last forever and a perpetually ruling line.
This was fulfilled in Jesus Christ!
He is LEGAL heir to the throne of David through Joseph and the actual seed of David through Mary!
But I want to point out one other major point in Matthew’s list of names – the name of a king called JECONIAH mentioned in verse 11 as JECHONIAS. This king found in Jeremiah 22:30 – 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.
If Jesus had been the REAL son of Joseph, He would have come under this curse. Yet He had to be the LEGAL son of Joseph in order to inherit the rights to the throne of David.
The problem was solved by the MIRACLE of the VIRGIN BIRTH: Jesus was the LEGAL heir to the throne through Joseph. He was the REAL Son of David through Mary.
The curse on Jeconiah did not fall Mary or her children since she did not descend from Jeconiah.
What a story this list of names tells – join us this Sunday morning as we discover some other amazing treasures in what seems a “dull family tree” as we begin our series in the Gospel of the King!