The Promised King #1

This testimony from the Gospel of Matthew will strengthen your confidence and should strengthen your assurance of salvation in Christ, who is this Jesus we serve. We don't have to guess we don't have to speculate. We have God's infallible word today on the truth pulpit pastor Don Greene begins a journey through the Gospels to provide portraits of Christ, I am Bill Wright and I am so excited about the series, each gospel writer emphasized a different aspect of our Savior and each writer came from a different background today and for the next few days will see Jesus from the testimony of Matthew, a former tax collector and dons here to tell us what we can look forward to is this message in series unfolds friend. I share Bill's excitement over the next two weeks were going to take a big picture look at all the four Gospels were going to stand, as it were, on the mountaintop of God's word and see the broad Vista of who Christ is today in Matthew will see that he is the king promised for centuries in the Old Testament, and when were done will recognize Christ as the son of God and Son of Man who came to save sinners like you by the sacrifice of himself on the cross, Bill.

Let's get started. Alright then let's join Don now for part one of a message titled the promised King on the truth pulpit were going to look at Christ from a particular thematic way from the Gospel of Matthew and I didn't invite you to turn to Matthew chapter 1 in a particular way in a particular way the gospel of Matthew ties the life of Jesus Christ to the history and promises of the Old Testament. Matthew was a Jew. He was riding primarily to a Jewish audience so it's natural that he would focus on the Old Testament and put Christ in the context of the Old Testament Scriptures, which the Jews knew and as he does that is Matthew does that were going to see that what he lays out the picture that he paints of our Lord Jesus Christ is that Christ the Lord Jesus, Jesus of Nazareth, who walked on the earth with human feet Jesus of Nazareth is the promised king that God had been promising for ages and ages in the past four centuries the prophets had been speaking. Here's a picture of who this Christ will be in for hundreds and hundreds of years the Jews had been looking for this one to appear and Matthew as he writes his gospel makes it plain and makes it obvious that Jesus of Nazareth is the one that we been waiting for. It is a glorious expectation that has now reached its fulfillment in Christ and the force of Matthew's argument is seen in the cumulative impact of multiple fulfilled prophecies about the life of Christ. It is obvious, as Matthew writes his gospel that he wants his audience. He wants us as his readers to understand that Christ is the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies.

Those men of God who without dispute spoke for the living God were mouthpieces of the living God. What they had said over the centuries, and in centuries gone by, found their perfect fulfillment in the life of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Jesus is the promised king that the Jews had been looking for. As you go through the book of Matthew.

You see this laid out in five different areas and orders going to start in chapter want to go through this rather and very much a survey fashion.

I'm really not much of a preacher here that more of a tour guide for you to simply point out highlights along the way that you would see them and that you would be impressed upon and impressed by the perfect way that Christ matches the picture that the prophets painted many years earlier whenever it comes to talking about fulfilled prophecy in the life of Christ.

I like to set a little context like this.

Some of the main prophecies of Christ came from the prophet Isaiah over 700 years before the life of Christ. If you put that in our context, just to give a sense of that length of time 700 years today. Looking back, would precede the date that Columbus discovered America and so if you put ourselves just to give you a sense that of what those who saw Christ at the time they were seeing someone who had been prophesied not only 700 years were just using that as part of the example. It's as if we were seeing today. Someone who had been accurately predicted to come before Columbus crossed the Atlantic Ocean that is remarkable and here's what you need to think about. By way of by way of orienting your mind to receive the word of God in a proper way here today. The only way that could be true. The only way that that kind of perfect prosthetic fulfillment could take place hundreds of years after the prophecies were made were the fact that those prophets spoke by inspiration of a sovereign omniscient God, who knew the end from the beginning. The only way that a man could accurately speak to what would happen 700,000 years after the fact is, if he is not speaking from his own wisdom and insight. He is speaking as the mouthpiece of a holy and sovereign God who had not only the knowledge but the perfect power to bring to pass what he had said through those men centuries earlier hundreds of years earlier. That's what were seeing in the book of Matthew. I say that all by way of introduction, so that you would your heart would be properly prepared for what is about to about to come.

But as you come to this gospel. What you need to see is the context of the life of Christ and what you see by the way, the context of the life of Christ is the context of what we believe as Christians. You see, we have to transcend our ever present Tim Tatian to be fascinated with ourselves. We have to transcend our ever present Tim Tatian to be consumed with this life and to be consumed with what God can do for me today.

You see, we as believers in Christ we stand in a stream of history that far transcends us our lives in a sense of although they have eternal significance because Christ is set his love upon us, our lives pale into insignificance in light of the transcendent work of God that is taking place throughout the course of history and as you grasp that since the transcendent nature of the purposes of God in Christ you're going to have a context to understand your own life and with the right sense of perspective.

The other thing that it will do for you is, is that this testimony from the Gospel of Matthew will strengthen your confidence and should strengthen your assurance of salvation in Christ. Those of us who have repented of sin and put our faith in Christ. Let me say something emphatically from the start.

We have not believed in an imposter. We have not followed cleverly devised tales that were spun out of the imagination of some silly old woman a few years ago were not following the that the imaginations of people who today say that God has spoken directly to them because he hasn't where God spoke was God spoke through the Old Testament prophets and in Hebrews chapter 1 it says in these last days, God has spoken to us in his son, who is the fulfillment of those prosthetic proclamations when we preach the Bible when we preach Christ when you walk with Christ and follow him. You're not following something that you designed your not following something that is a trivial piece of religious curiosity you're following the living and true God.

If your faith is in Christ, for your eternal salvation. Your faith is in the king that God promised to be the one and only Savior of mankind, when you see the vast span of history that was fulfilled in the life of Christ, you realized that God in his grace has brought you to the one true Savior, the one true Lord and in that your spiritual confidence takes great root is what Matthew intended for us to see and that's what I'm going to try to guide you through briefly here where we see this fulfillment of prophecy. It's all over the Gospel of Matthew from beginning to end, or going to frame this I think I said around five are going to reframe this around for aspects of the life of Christ. Your to just help us see the Christ is in fact the king that God had promised to Israel and now is the king that is proclaimed to all of the world you see this.

First of all in the person of Christ, who he is in his human lineage, even support number one is the person of Christ.

How do we know the Christ is the promised king will we look first of all, at his person in the Old Testament Genesis chapter 12 God made promises to Abraham that from Abraham would, see the would be a blessing to all the nations. When David became king in second Samuel chapter 7 God promised David that there would be a king that would come from his loins who would reign in an everlasting way. Well, Matthew, and the Jews as they contemplate who is going to be this Messiah are conscious of these Old Testament promises that God had promised a blessing through the line of Abraham. He had promised the king through the line of David and Matthew does not waste any time getting to the point right in Matthew chapter 1 verse one.

He says the record of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah's the word that's usually translated Christ the record of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham and then the genealogy follows in the following 16 verses through verse 16. I should say we won't bother to read each one, but what Matthew is doing here in Matthew chapter 1 is he is meticulously showing the genealogical connection that Jesus had to the promises that were made to Abraham and David.

Jesus was a legal heir to the throne of Israel. He was a descendent of Abraham, through whom the promised blessing would come in so from the very start.

Matthew connects Jesus of Nazareth and says he is in the line of Abraham. He is in the line of David and a Jew reading this would immediately snapped to attention and say hey this matters. And then he goes through and he gives that physical lineage starting from Abraham in verse two all the way down through verse 16 showing that his father Joseph, not his human biological father but the father, the patriarch of his family, to whom, into whose family was borne by the Virgin Mary, is in the line of Abraham. He is in the line of David.

Jesus is entitled to throne. Look at verse 17 so all the generations from Abraham to David are 14 generations from David to the deportation to Babylon 14 generations from the deportation to Babylon to the Messiah 14 generations. Matthew is delineated 42 generations to set the genealogical context for the life of Christ. 42 generations. I can identify maybe seven generations of my parents. Maybe you can identify a few more but in Christ we have not someone who randomly appeared on the scene we have someone who has the genealogical pedigree to be the Messiah. That is significant to understand because not anyone could've been the Messiah. He had to be in the right genealogical line for that to occur. So from the very beginning. Matthew declares that Jesus is the Messiah by Messiah, he means that he is God's anointed one in the Old Testament kings and high priest were set aside.

There were set apart. I should say, often by ceremonies. It involved anointing with oil. What happens here is that Jesus is set apart to be the king of the Jews. His very person speaks to that and so beloved just dealing with this at a very basic fundamental level.

How do we know as Christians that we've looked to the right one for our salvation, how would you, as an unbeliever. No, that what I am saying when I call you to repentance and faith in Christ for your salvation.

How would you know that Christ is the right one to whom you are to look. It starts with this God inspired testimony in the Gospel of Matthew, Matthew's gospel shows that Christ is in the Old Testament line to fulfill what was promised in Jesus Christ we have the promised king that dozens of generations were looking for that many prophets spoke of that the course of history.

Scripture says finds its culmination in him. Here's the beauty of it, beloved, and here's one of the reasons why I love to preach Scripture and I would never preach anything else. You don't have to take my word for it.

Your faith does not rely on anything that I say that you can't verify for yourself in Scripture. You don't have to depend on the word of the human speaker.

In fact, you should tent you should be searching the Scriptures for yourself and say is Christ, the one who is really promised is he the one to whom we are really to put our only faith in is he the one who can truly save me.

Matthew settles that from the beginning saying here's the Messiah. Here's the proof. Here's his genealogical pedigree, but he doesn't stop there as he lays forth the person of Christ. As you walk through the life of Christ.

You see other manner of fulfilled prophecy in Matthew goes out of his way to emphasize this.

Let's look secondly at the youth of Christ. Look at his childhood if we could in Isaiah chapter 7 verse 14. You don't need to turn their the prophet Isaiah foretold that the Messiah would be born of a virgin. Now that's a pretty that's a pretty remarkable prophecy to make that doesn't happen ever.

But here we see in Matthew chapter 1. Beginning in verse 18 that Jesus Christ was the fulfillment of that very unique prophecy. Now were just gonna start reading Scripture passages together by large here. Matthew chapter 1 verse 18 now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit in verse 19, chapter 1 and Joseph her husband, being a righteous man, and not wanting to disgrace her plan to send her away secretly when it considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife for the child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.

Stop right there for just a moment. Notice that the part of a that central aspect of the coming of Christ was to come to save people from their sins, his people from their sins run to pick up on that later. I just want to highlight it right here that it's woven into the very introduction about the life of Christ back verse 21 she will bear a son will call his name Jesus. Bree will save his people from their sins and watch this verse 22 now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, behold, the virgin shall be with child, and shall bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel, which translated means, God with us.

What I want you to see there there so many things you can focus on in that passage, but for today's message. What I want you to focus on is verse 22.

All of this all of the birth of Christ took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet. This the birth of Christ took place to fulfill prophecy, the birth of Christ took place in this manner. At this time to fulfill what the prophet had said 700 years earlier 700 years earlier. Isaiah said a virgin will be with child now in the life of Christ 2000 years ago.

From our time perspective that has been fulfilled. The impossible thing that God promised through the prophet Isaiah has just happened in a virgin is with child and that child is the promised king has spoken by the prophet Matthew then goes on. Is he expands on the youth of Christ the childhood of Christ shows that the very place of Jesus's birth fulfilled another prophecy, this one from Micah chapter 5 turn to Matthew chapter 2 verse four. Actually, let's start in verse one. Now, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying, where is he was been born king of the Jews. Verse three when Herod the king heard this because a another king would be a threat to his own throne, he was troubled and all Jerusalem with him and so Herod verse four, gathering together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born.

Verse five they said to him in Bethlehem of Judea for this is what has been written by the prophet, and then you see in the most of your Bibles will be in, WHICH is representing the fact that it's a quotation from the Old Testament verse six he says, and you, Bethlehem, land of Judah, are by no means least among the leaders of Judah for out of you shall come forth a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel. Micah was a contemporary of Isaiah in round numbers 700 years again before the time of Christ.

He prophesied that the Messiah would be born in the little town of Bethlehem, just that a village of a few hundred people.

You never would've guessed it, let alone to guess at 700 years in advance. The fact that Christ was born in Bethlehem was Mark that God had orchestrated history in order to fulfill what his prophets and said to honor his word which he spoke through the prophets, and you see Matthew again saying this fulfilled the prophets. This fulfilled the prophets, and he's not done saying that even about the youth of Christ Herod search for Jesus to destroy him and Joseph and Mary fled to Egypt again in fulfillment of prophecy the Matthew chapter 2 verse 14 Herod had threatened to kill all of the babies that were two years and under. And so in verse 14 Joseph got up and took the child and his mother while it was still night, and they left for Egypt.

He remained there until the death of Herod. Verse 15. Here you see it again. This is a theme throughout the gospel of Matthew. This was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet out of Egypt I called my son three times at the end of chapter 1 and in chapter 2 describing the life of Christ to fulfill what the prophet said to fulfill what the prophet said to fulfill what the prophet said no. The Bible only has to say something one time for to be important because all Scripture is inspired by the spirit of God when it says something repeatedly all the more.

Are you to make the connection all the more. Is it to grab your attention. God was keeping his promise to send a king and events which Jesus humanly could never have controlled on his own believes only an infinite God was orchestrating to be the fulfillment of the prophecy so that Israel could know this was really there. King so that we now 2000 years later can look through Scripture and say Jesus has to be the one. There was never another one like him, and there never will be another one. Therefore, our faith in him could not possibly be misplaced. That's the thing that's what were supposed to see Jesus Christ is the promised king. Now you take these things and you meditate upon them. You set aside the things that trouble you about earthly life. You look beyond your own life you look beyond your own circumstances and you see this magnificent Christ being raised up, being lifted up in the pages of Scripture and the effect that that is to have on us is to give our exclusive attention to him to recognize that he is the Messiah.

He is set apart. There is no one else like him, and there never will be. That's done green founding pastor of truth Community Church in Cincinnati Ohio with part one of the promised king the first of four portraits will see in the four Gospels over the next couple of weeks here on the true pulpit. It's an incredible journey.

We hope you will travel on with us all the way done.

You told us again today how much you love teaching straight from Scripture because you need only stand in the scream of history that God is orchestrated to accomplish his word. What about those who can't seem to find a church with the same outlook will my brother or sister in Christ. I understand the frustration that that can cause when you don't have a good Bible teaching church in your life.

I can't say everything a little spot like this, but here are three quick thoughts to help you. First of all find the best teaching church you can in your area even if it lacks in other ways. Just find the best one that's available and go with it.

Secondly, let your hunger drive you to read God's word each day. You can understand more than many pastors. If you simply meditate consistently on God's word in your life.

And finally, let me invite you were here to be a friend to you use are many free resources to supplement your spiritual diet pill will be happy to help you find them on our website. Just visit us@thetruepulpit.com to find those resources. That's the truth. Pulpit.com I go right will see you next time of the truth pulpit done green