“This is the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ”
– Matthew 1:1
Matthew 1:1, the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Thus begins the first chapter of the first of four gospels, gospel, meaning good news, the greatest news in the world described in the birth, the life, the death, and the resurrection of Jesus.
Focusing on the Gospel Through Bad News
And over the course of the coming months in these Pray the Word Podcasts, we’re going to walk through a verse from each chapter each day of all four gospels and just let good news soak into our hearts and drive us to pray. Amidst a barrage of bad news over recent months, even as I am reading this first on this day, it’s around day 100, since at least in the United States, things have pretty much shut down and things are starting to open back up, but we have walked through and are still walking through a global pandemic, unlike anything, any one of us has seen in our lifetimes.
And add on top of that, all kinds of tensions, and most recently over the last week, protests and riots. Like you scroll through your news app or just look at the news online or on TV, and there is so much negative, so much discouraging. And so to spend time in God’s word each day and just to soak in good news of how Jesus has come. He has lived. He has died. Jesus has risen from the grave and Jesus has changed everything.
Matthew 1:1 Explains the Genealogy of Jesus Christ
And so Matthew 1:1 announces this. This is the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ. So Jesus, the one who will save us from our sins. That’s what His name means. Christ, Christ is not his last name. Christ means the Messiah, the promise one. As you read all throughout 39 books in the Old Testament, spanning centuries, you see promise after promise after promise that God will not leave His people alone in sin and suffering, hat God is not distant from us in our rebellion against Him and our suffering apart from Him, that God is coming to us.
The Messiah Has Come
And Matthew 1:1 announces He has come, the Messiah, Jesus Christ, the son of David, the one from the line of king David, the one who is king of Kings and Lord of Lords, the son of Abraham, the promised Abraham, all the way back in Genesis 12, that through his line would come blessing for all the nations. This is good news. And you read later on in Matthew 1, His name will be called Emmanuel, which means God with us. Like let this soak in wherever you are right now. In a world of sin and suffering, in a world of pandemic and protests and riots, God is not distant from us. God has come to us.
God has committed to ultimate act of condescension and has put on a robe of human flesh, born in a manger. See that in Matthew 2. And why has He come? He has come to save you and me from our sins. Jesus has come to fulfill His promise to bring salvation, not just to any type of person, but to every type of person among all the nations. He has come as the sovereign king and ruler who reigns overall.
Matthew 1:1 Praises the Acts of Jesus
So, Jesus, we praise You. We lift our eyes to You right now, to the one whose name means salvation. We praise You for saving us from our sins. Jesus, we praise you for coming to this earth to live the life we couldn’t live, to die the death we deserve to die, to conquer the enemy we could not conquer, sin and death itself. We praise You as our savior, as the Messiah, the promised one around whom all of history revolves.
We praise You as the king of Kings and the Lord of Lords, as the one who holds presidents and prime ministers and dictators and rulers in the world in the palm of Your hands. You alone are king and You are the one who brings the blessing of God, the Father, to the nations, to all peoples, regardless of skin color, regardless of language, regardless of tribe, or ethnicity. All people experience blessing in you.
Jesus, we exalt You and we pray that over the course of these coming months, as we look at your life and pray according to what the gospels teach us about You, we pray that You would fill our hearts with the good news of who You are in ways that compel us to make this good news known in the world around us. We praise you, Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. In Your name, we pray. Amen.