“The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ. The son of David, the son of Abraham.” – Matthew 1:1
Oh, these introductory words, this introduction to Jesus is nothing short of breathtaking. You think about what that verse means. We learn at least five things from this one verse about Jesus. Think about it, the genealogy of Jesus. So this is his name, Jesus, which we see later in Matthew Chapter I, but his name literally means savior. He’s the one who will save us from our sins.
Matthew’s genealogy identifies Jesus as the promised Savior and the center of history.
You’ve got 39 books in the Old Testament before this talking about, showing us the sinfulness of man before a holy God, and then bursting onto the first verse, the first chapter of the New Testament we see that God has sent Jesus to save us from our sins. He’s the savior, He’s Jesus Christ. So contrary to popular opinion, Christ is not his last name. Christ actually means, The Promised One, The Messiah, who was promised all throughout the Old Testament. God had given promise after promise after promise in the Old Testament saying, “A Messiah would come who would save His people from their sins,”
Matthew 1:1 Promises Jesus as the Savior
And so from the very first verse of Matthew, Matthew is saying, “The Promised One has come.” He’s the savior, He’s the Messiah, The Promised One, the Number Three, He’s the Son of David. He’s from the kingly line of David going all the way back in the Old Testament to Israel’s most famous king, most noteworthy king, and God’s promise to sinned one from the seed of David, who would be the king over all the nations. And then he’s the son of Abraham. Matthew takes us all the way back to Genesis and the father of the people of Israel to say from the very beginning all of history has been pointing toward him and that’s the big picture reality we have here in Matthew chapter 1.
Jesus is the culmination and the center of all history. Everything before Him was pointing forward to Him, and everything in history since Him has pointed back to Him. Jesus is at the center of it all. You’re not at the center of history, I’m not at the center of history, our generation is not at the center of history, the United States of America is not at the center of history. Throughout history, billions of people have come and billions of people have gone. Empires have come, empires have gone. Countries, nations, kings, queens, presidents, dictators, rulers, have come and gone. At the center of it all stands one man, Jesus Christ, the savior, the promised one, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
Matthew 1:1 Gives Us Hope of Salvation
And so we pray. Oh God, we praise You for sending Jesus to save us from our sins. We thank You for not leaving us alone. In a world of sin and suffering, thank You for coming to be with us. Just like we read later in Matthew chapter 1, “His name shall be called Emmanuel, which means God with us.” Thank You for coming to be with us, to live among us, Lord Jesus and to pay the price for our sins so that we could have your salvation. We praise You, Lord Jesus, You are the promised one, the Messiah, whom all history was looking forward to before You came and all history looks back to since you came and even as we praise You for Your coming 2,000 years ago we pray for Your coming again. Lord, we know you have promised to return.
We know that you are at the Father’s hand right now, and one day you are coming back here. So, we pray, come Lord Jesus, come quickly. We cling to Your promises today, that you will return, that you will bring a full and final end to sin and suffering in this world. So, come quickly, we pray and help us to follow You faithfully until that day. We praise You, Jesus, as the center of all history and we pray that our lives today would bring You glory, that our lives today would point people along with all history, to You. In your name we pray, Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
