MPC, 4th May 2003.Matthew 1 - "What's in a Name?"
Phil Campbell MPC, 4th May 2003.
New Scientist magazine calls it nominative determinism. It's the theory that your name can have a huge influence on your future career. And so you when you notice Mr Baker the local baker and Mr Butcher the local butcher, New Scientist magazine in a feature article suggested that there's some sort of psychology at work. That it's more than just co-incidence, but a sort of subconscious choice going on. As you choose your career.
And so you end up with the American hockey coach Jim Playfair. The Chinese opthalmologist in Canberra called Dr. Wong See. Or the optometrist whose sign I've seen in Lismore who is Doctor Tester. Not sure if his first name is Ian, but that would be too good to be true; going to have my eyes tested by Dr I Tester.
There's another optometrist whose name is Hugh Seymour; there's the guy who works in a credit card company whose name is Robin Banks. And John Bullock who's the spokesman for the Australian Meat and Livestock Commission. And finally Scott Constable, who of course became a policeman. And so was known as "Constable Constable".
Well, one more I found. Nita House. Nita is a real estate agent.
Now it's hard to say. Sometimes I guess your name shapes your choices. Sometimes maybe your name even shapes your personality. Sometimes maybe there's a genetic link that goes back generations. The very first Mr Baker loved making bread, and so do you.
But here in Matthew chapter 1 there's a very specific naming. That's a prime example of a name that fits the future. For the very simple reason that God has a plan. And the baby boy we meet in Matthew chapter 1 is right in the centre of it.
Meet Jesus. A name specified in advance by an angel.
Joseph is engaged to be married to Mary. A long process in those days involving a binding betrothal. That could last up to two years. And Mary, without any outside intervention, Mary, before they came together, was to the huge embarrassment of everyone, discovered to be pregnant.
Joseph, in verse 19, wants to keep it quiet. Mary could be publicly disgraced. Even stoned to death. But Joseph is opting for a quiet divorce. When a messenger from God, an angel, stops him in his tracks.
And I want you to notice what the angel says.
You'll see it from verse 20. "Joseph, son of David, don't be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. Because he will save his people ... from their sins."
Now did you get that? Give him the name Jesus. Because he will save his people... from their sins. Helps if you know a little bit of Greek and Hebrew. Which you can usually find in the footnotes. Call him Jesus, because Jesus is the Greek form of Joshua. And Joshua means God saves. Call him God saves. Because that's exactly what he's going to do. Save his people. From their sins.
But there's more. Because Matthew in a curious way wants to add another name. Which you'll see in verse 23, which he pulls from the Old Testament. Isaiah 7. The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son. and they will call him Immanuel. Which means God with us.
Now here's a child not even born. Not even any ultrasound to show if it's a boy. But Joseph has been told, call him God saves us. To which Matthew adds, and you can call him God with us as well.
Which sets the tone at the very opening of Matthew's gospel to watch the unfolding story of an unfolding career that very much matches the names. Because God planned it that way. And Israel's history has brought everything to exactly this point. At exactly this time.
You are to give him the name Jesus... because he will save his people from their sins.
Now as we start our tour of the first section of Matthew's gospel over these next few weeks, it's a good time to get our bearings. And to ask the question, why? What is it about his people Israel that means at this point they so much need saving? From their sins or anything else?
The angel says "He's going to save his people." And we're reminded very clearly in the first half of the chapter that his people are the people of Israel. But we need to pick up some important clues about the problem... they need saving from.
And maybe most of his people don't even realise they need saving at all.
But as Matthew opens with a detailed look at the family line of Jesus who's going to save them, he loads it with clues. To Israel's problem.
The good news is, we don't even have to dig too deep in the list of names to see what he's pointing to. I know, some people love genealogies. Especially their own. But I just find them confusing. And so at the big family gathering we went to a couple of weeks ago, all the photos of the ancestors were up on a board, and all the aunties were hovering around pointing out who was who in the photos from 1910. And how the Campbells and Secombs were related two ways because one brother married a Secomb sister, and the other brother married a cousin. And I just thought, there's no way I can get my head around this stuff.
Now you can put as long as you like in getting your head around people like Amminidab and Jeconiah and Akim and Eliud. And with almost all of them, you can find their stories back in the Old Testament.
But I want to suggest the most important point Matthew's making in his first 17 verses is spelled out in the first verse, and spelled out in the last verse. Which summarise the way he's laid it all out. And the point he wants to demonstrate. For which you do need a working knowledge of the Old Testament. And the story of the nation of Israel.
Because in the sea of names from Ahaz to Zadok, in the piles of ancestors of Joseph the father of Jesus, there are two that stand head and shoulders around the rest. As landmarks in the history of Israel. Abraham. And David. There are two other landmarks as well, which we'll come to in a moment.
But verse 1 singles them out. A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David... the son of Abraham. Here's a family line that stretches all the way back to Abraham. As every Israelite could. Because Abraham was the forefather of the nation. But it's a line that very specifically runs through king David. Their greatest ever King.
But if you're looking for landmarks, here are some more. And it's in the summary you get at the end of the list in verse 17.
Here's the way Matthew looks at history. More specifically, how he looks at the history of Israel. The people of God.
He says, "Thus, there were 14 generations in all from Abraham to David... which he's spelled out for us in verses 2 to 6... fourteen more generations from David to the next landmark, the exile in Babylon... which he's covered in verse 7 to 11; and fourteen more from the exile to the Christ. Verse 12 to 16.
The four great eras of the history of Israel. Neatly packaged in a family line. Four landmarks. Which spell out the rise, and the fall, of Israel. And set the scene for the Christ.
Because the names in verses 2 to 6 that take us from Abraham to David are the story of the rise of the nation of Israel. And the fulfilment of God's great promises.
Genesis 2, God chooses the one man Abraham; and says, I'm going to make you a nation. And give you a land. And out of all the peoples of the earth, you're going to be my treasured possession. You will be my people. And I'll be your God.
God's saying that to an old man with no kids. And the book of Genesis traces out the surprising way God keeps his word. With the birth of Isaac. And Jacob. The names you see as you work down the list from verse 2. Judah and his brothers who give their names to the twelve tribes of Israel.
And then the book of Exodus. Spelling out how God leads them from Egypt where they're slaves... into the promised land. Where he's said he's going to bless them.
And you get Perez in verse 3 and Ram in verse 4 and Boaz in verse 5 who we've met in the book of Ruth... all the way to Obed and Jesse and king David. The landmark. Who for generations to come is famous as Israel's greatest king. Here's the time when everything goes right. The time when if you looked around you from horizon to horizon, you'd see the promised land at peace. And prospering. And blessed by God.
Except it doesn't last. And so the track from Solomon in verse 7 through the names of the Kings like Rehoboam and Asa in verse 8 and Uzziah and Ahaz in verse 9, it's all downhill. As the Kingdom of Israel splits in half; and then in 587BC, Jeconiah and his brothers are dragged into exile.
Can you see we've gone from Judah and his brothers at the start of the cycle in verse 2... to Jeconiah and his brothers in verse 11. At the time of the exile in Babylon. Which the prophets had threatened, right from the start.
Because instead of being the people of God, Israel had become a detestable place. Full of idols. Full of greed. Full of lust. Full of sin. Fourteen generations to blessing in David. Fourteen Generations downhill to destruction.
Fourteen more generations from the exile... says Matthew. To the Christ who's going to save them.
Go back to your Old Testament and read sometime, the story of what happens next. Verse 12 picks it up. After the exile to Baylon, Jeconiah was the father of Shealtiel, Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel... and they do their best to rebuild.
The nation's in ruins. Most of the Israelite's when they're told they're free to leave Babylon, they've been 70 years there already. Second and third generation. And they've settled in. Hardly be bothered going back home.
And the big problem is, the prophets keep telling them they haven't learned their lesson. I mean, they were crushed because of their sin in the first place. And they haven't really changed.
There's a passage I want to highlight. And you can see it on the screen. A passage they should have always had in mind. Words from God when they first came into the promised land.
It's the passage that's like the talk you have with your kids in the car when you're going to visit the aunty with the fine bone china. Be careful. Don't break anything.
Right back at the start, God said this. if you ignore me when you're in the promised land, I'll scatter you everywhere. But then this...
...when you and your children return to the Lord your God and obey him with all your heart and with all your soul according to everything I command you today, then the Lord your God will restore your fortunes and have compassion on you and gather you again from all the nations where he scattered you. Dt 30:2-3
And the big question in the time after the exile is exactly that. When they come back to the promised land, are they returning to the Lord their God? Or just to a broken down city? Are they turning back to God in genuine repentance, or just reclaiming some real estate?
And the answer is disappointing. Whether it's Azor in verse 14 or Eliud in verse 15, Israel's still in a mess. No sign of God's compassion at all. Because no repentance. They're back in the promised land. But the promised land's occupied by rome.
And Israel is waiting. Waiting for their promised Christ. Who'll restore their former glory.
The question is, are they interested in solving the real problem? Or just the symptoms? It's a question we're going to see answered as Matthew's gospel unfolds. Because at last the Christ they're waiting for has come.
His name is Jesus. Because fourteen generations after the exile, God is stepping in to save his people from their sins. With consequences that are going to flow to every other nation as well.
And so Joseph, heavy hearted from the news that his intended wife is already pregnant, hears from the angel in his dream that this is the announcement Israel has been waiting for... wakes up from his sleep in verse 24, and takes Mary home as his wife. And she gives birth to the promised son. And he gave him the name Jesus.
Now I wonder if it ever occurs to the world today, I wonder if it ever occurs to you, that it's actually sin that we need to be saved from?
Because I've got a feeling that Israel back then didn't exactly see it that way.
I've got a feeling that the average Israelite would have preferred the words, call him Jesus, because he's going to save his people from these Roman occupation forces. Which isn't what Jesus is about. Call him Jesus... because he's going to save his people from the economic downturn. Which is all governments are interested in, anyway.
The root cause of Israel's mess is that they turned away from their God. They turned away from the God who made them. Even more than that... they turned away from the God who'd called them to be unique, and given them their land. Which is the absolute essence of what sin's all about. Turning away from God and doing whatever you like.
And the problem we've got to solve isn't a problem of education. Which the humanists say it is. And it isn't a problem of just needing the freedom for more self expression. As educationists might say it is. And life won't just be reduced to economic rationalism as so many politicians want to say it is. And whether we splice genes or whether we don't, whether we cure every illness or whether we don't, whether on a personal level you advance in your career or you don't, whether you finally achieve financial security or whether you don't, ultimately, they're not the big issues. You've seen the ads. Aussie Home Loans. At Aussie, we'll save you.
Well they won't. And they can't. Not from anything that matters, anyway.
Because in the end nobody has been better named for the job he's coming to do than the baby we meet in Matthew chapter 1. And when you realise you've got a sin problem you need saving from, we're going to see as Jesus comes to his people Israel here in Matthew, that there's no better name to turn to than the one they called God saves. Because he'll save his people from their sins.