According to Wikipedia there have been hundreds of people who have claimed to be the Messiah. That article divided those false Christ’s into four groups – Jewish, Christian, Muslim and “other.” And it might surprise you when you hear some of their names. Among the Jewish Messiahs there was Simeon of Peraea at the same time as Jesus. One of the last Jewish Messiah’s died only a few years ago. Menachem Mendel Schneerson was a rabbi who claimed to be preparing the way for the Messiah, but his followers later said that he was the Messiah. Among those under the “Christian” umbrella, there was Simon Magus in the first century. One among many was Ann Lee, a woman Messiah who was in the American Shaker movement. Hong Xiuqhan of China claimed to be the younger brother of Jesus – he died in 1864. There was Bahua’ullah, born a Shite Muslim, but who started the Christian heresy called “Bahai.” There were William W. Davies, a Morman, who died in 1906, and Father Divine, a black man. Sun Myung Moon, Yahweh ben Yahweh, and David Koresh of the Branch Davidians all claimed to be the Christ. Some other names you might know are – Haille Salassie of Ethiopia, and the Teacher, the Maitreya of the New Age prophet Benjamin Creame. David Shayler worked for MI-5, the British equivalent of the CIA, but later he claimed to be the Messiah. Then there was Charles Manson – yes, that Charles Manson, who also claimed to be Satan.
The reason that I bring these names up is to point out that Jesus of Nazareth has had many rivals. In fact, the Saviour even warned us about this – “Many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ.” This is a tragedy in itself, but the Lord went on to say, and they “shall deceive many.” This means that it is important that we know how to identify the one true Christ. This is a part of the reason that these names have been given to us here in Matthew 1.
Of course this identity is vitally important – eternally important. Not only is Jesus the Messiah – the anointed one – but He is the eternal Son of God. Misidentification of this Christ will be disastrous. And not only will the Messiah physically rule over His creation during the time that we call “the Millennium,” but this Messiah is also the God-ordained Saviour. “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.”
One of the things which this list of names accomplishes is to give us some of the credentials of the Messiah. Someone’s credentials are those things which make that person worthy of our attention or respect. One person’s credentials might involve a list of academic accomplishments. Another person’s could include his work-related resume. Someone else might share with us a list of mutual friends. In the case of the Messiah, God slowly revealed to various people of the Old Testament some of the personal relations – the kin folk – of the Saviour. By the process of elimination, those false Christs which I just named, should never have been given the time of day – not one of them had the proper credentials. But about 2,000 years ago a man came into the world, who did have the proper Messianic pedigree. Let us leave aside, for the time being, all the other things which corroborate Jesus’ divinity and calling. We’ll come back to those things, but this evening we begin at the beginning – by looking backward
Obviously, this comes to us from Matthew, one of Jesus’ disciples. It is often said by critics that Jesus never claimed to be the Messiah. They say that it was His disciples like Matthew and John who made that declaration on His behalf. I personally think that the disciples – the Apostles of Christ – are worthy witnesses, and I believe them. Along with those men, as we shall see, angels and even demons testifying to same truth. While ordinarily demons cannot be trusted, when they testified of the nature and authority of Christ, the circumstances demanded the truth.
In addition to these, Jesus Himself made the claim to deity and Messiahship. Perhaps one of the clearest declarations is found in John 4:25-26. While speaking to the Samaritan woman at the well in Sychar, she said, “I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things.” (This scripture points out that the titles “Messiah” and “Christ” mean the same thing.) “The woman saith unto him, I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things. Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he.” Clearly and undeniably Jesus said that He was the Christ, the Messiah – the Anointed One. I will have much more to say about this as our study continues, but tonight we have Matthew’s initial reason for saying that Jesus is the Christ. He begins with all humanity and through the process of elimination eventually comes down to Jesus.
Several years ago, Judy and I got to take a tour of the mail processing plant over in Airway Heights. All the mail posted in northen Idaho and eastern Washington goes through that distribution center. The speed and accuracy with which that plant operates is quite amazing. And generally, most of us never give it a thought. Recently we sent a check to Dr. Charles K. Johnson, 5502 Thornrose Rd., N.W. Roanoke, VA 24012-1406. Out the 7 billion people on earth that letter reached him – safe and sound. That sorting plant initially separated our envelope from all mail that leaves the country. Then it was routed to one state out of fifty, then one city out of a couple hundred cities in Virginia. Using the nine-digit zip code it was directed to one street and ultimately to one house. It was addressed to only one person out of the three people and one dog who live in that house. And finally if there was any doubt, it reached the Baptist preacher with the Lutheran Doctorate who lived in that house. I picked out one person out of seven billion upon this planet, and my letter reached him perfectly.
How do we know that Jesus is the Christ – the Messiah? Matthew used the same kind of procedure. Jesus has many credentials, and here are a few of them.
As I say – to some ears it might sound kind of strange that the Messiah would have to be a human being. But it is not strange at all, because God had a vast creation with which to work on this matter. This verse declares that no angel – whose righteous far out-weigh men’s – no angel would be the Messiah. It also says that no animal could be used to actually and completely redeem the sinner either. In time the Lord will use animals to illustrate the sacrifice of Christ, but they were nothing but shadows. “Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.” “For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.” Neither did Lord use anything bloodless to be our Saviour, although He could have. In other words, “neither silver nor gold hath obtained my redemption.” Neither can water “wash away my sins, nothing but the blood of Jesus.”
There is another important lesson in this before we narrow our search for the true Messiah. Despite the fact that Jesus Christ was and still is divine – God – a divine Messiah was not sufficient. God could have delivered and saved his elect out of nothing but His own heart, but that was not His choice. As we shall see it was imperative that our Saviour be one of us – another human being like ourselves. This was essential in order for him to be a proper substitute for the human sinner.
But then Christ was limited to only one family of the Shemites, the family of Abraham. We read of this in Genesis 12:1-3 – “Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.” I can just hear someone argue – but this doesn’t say anything about a Messiah or Christ. How do we know that this is a promise of the Messiah? Galatians 3:6 – “Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed. So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham. Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.”
It was required in the coming Messiah that He be one of the descendants of Abraham. And Matthew 1:1 says that Christ was a son of Abraham. But there is still a huge problem, there have been millions of sons of Abraham. And that includes the people of Ishmael, and thus many of our modern Arabs.
Is there any New Testament corroboration that this deals with the Messiah? Certainly. The Bible talks about the lineage to Christ as the “seed.” And Hebrews 11:18 reminds us that Abraham initially had two sons, but “in Isaac shall thy seed be called.” And in Romans 9 Paul spends considerable ink developing this theme. “Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called. That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed. For this is the word of promise, At this time will I come, and Sara shall have a son.”
The Old Testament teaches that the Messiah would be a son of Eve, a son of Abraham, and a son of Isaac. So thus far we have eliminated billions of people from the possibility being Messiah. But there are still millions left.
This “star” and “sceptre” refer to the Messiah, and He shall come out of Jacob. This eliminates all the rest of the Arab people from any claims to Messiah. There are also other scriptures which eliminate them from any claims to the land of Canaan. But there are still many sons of Jacob; who exactly shall be grandfather to Christ?
Genesis 49:10 shows us that only the tribe of Judah would carry that precious Seed. “Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise: thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies; thy father’s children shall bow down before thee. Judah is a lion’s whelp: from the prey, my son, thou art gone up: he stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as an old lion; who shall rouse him up? The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.” There is a lot of great preaching material in these verses, but we need notice only a couple of points. A sceptre is a symbol of sovereign rule. This verse says that Judah shall possess self government for a time. But before the end of that government “Shiloh” will come. “Shiloh” means either “peace” or “the One who brings peace” – it refers to anointed Messiah. Later Paul adds, “It is evident that our Lord sprang out of Juda.” Revelation concurs when it speaks about the Messiah, saying, “Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David…”
So we see that Christ will be of the tribe of Judah, but is that enough to pin-point him?
But Jesse had eight sons, so the Lord designated only one, David. In speaking to David the Lord said in II Samuel 7 – “Since the time that I commanded judges to be over my people Israel, and have caused thee to rest from all thine enemies. Also the LORD telleth thee that he will make thee an house. And when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build an house for my name, and I will stablish the throne of his kingdom for ever.” The kingdom of the son of David would be an eternal kingdom. The Book of Romans begins with the words, “Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, (Which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures,) Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh; And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.” There were many people in Jesus’ day, who knew Him as the Son of David. For example there was the man of Luke 18 – “He cried, saying, Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me. And they which went before rebuked him, that he should hold his peace: but he cried so much the more, Thou Son of David, have mercy on me.”
But wealthy king David also had many, many sons; which of them would bring Christ into the world? Solomon.
Only one person, before all the modern medical manipulation, has ever been born of a virgin, and I still have my doubts if there ever has, or will ever be, another real virgin birth. Jesus of Nazareth is the only one who could possibly be the Messiah. He is the only Person who can save His people from their sins. And that is the primary lesson Matthew is telling us in these seventeen verses and in what follows.
If your hope for Heaven and forgiveness of sins is in anyone other than Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God, the God-anointed Messiah, then you are going to be eternally disappointed. “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.”