Matthew chapter 1 • Genealogy and

Birth of Jesus
Teacher: Pastor Paul LeBoutillier
Life Bible Ministry

Let's begin reading here in verse 1. It says,

“The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of
Abraham.

2
Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the
father of Judah and his brothers, 3 and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by
Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram, 4 and
Ram the father of Amminadab, and Amminadab the father of Nahshon, and
Nahshon the father of Salmon, 5 and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and
Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, 6 and Jesse the
father of David the king.

And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah, 7 and Solomon the
father of Rehoboam, and Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father
of Asaph, 8 and Asaph the father of Jehoshaphat, and Jehoshaphat the father of
Joram, and Joram the father of Uzziah, 9 and Uzziah the father of Jotham, and
Jotham the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah, 10 and Hezekiah the
father of Manasseh, and Manasseh the father of Amos, and Amos the father of
Josiah, 11 and Josiah the father of Jechoniah and his brothers, at the time of the
deportation (your Bible may say, exile) to Babylon.

12
And after the deportation to Babylon: Jechoniah was the father of Shealtiel,
and Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel, 13 and Zerubbabel the father of Abiud,
and Abiud the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim the father of Azor, 14 and Azor the
father of Zadok, and Zadok the father of Achim, and Achim the father of Eliud,
15
and Eliud the father of Eleazar, and Eleazar the father of Matthan, and
Matthan the father of Jacob, 16 and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of
Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ.” (ESV)

Yeah, thank you. I know we got through it. For those of you having babies, pick
a name, any name.

Life Bible Ministry • [Link] • ©2025

Verse 17. “So all the generations from Abraham to David were fourteen
generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon fourteen
generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ fourteen
generations.” Stop there.

Now, if you're one of those people, and I know they exist, they don't really like
to study the Old Testament, you might get done reading the names that are
listed in this genealogy and wonder what this is all about. And you wonder, of
all, I mean, it's an interesting list of names and so forth, but you might be
wondering what benefit is this to me? I mean, I'd rather just start getting into the
action. Let's start getting into the story. These genealogies are boring.

Well, actually, they're really important. And if you knew the Old Testament and
studied the Old Testament, you would know that these genealogies are
predicated upon a particular promise, unconditional promise, I'll add, that was
given to David related to his lineage of the Messiah. And that promise was
made to David and recorded for us in the book of 2 Samuel. Let me put it on the
screen for you. It goes like this. It says,

2 Samuel 7:12-13 (ESV)

When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up
your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish
his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the
throne of his kingdom forever.

When your days are fulfilled (the Lord speaking here to David) and you lie
down with your fathers, (which of course is a euphemism for death) I will raise
up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish
his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the
throne of his kingdom forever.

Now some of you might read that and say, well, now why couldn't that apply to
his son Solomon because his son Solomon built a house for the Lord, the very
temple there on Mount Zion.

Well, there's one element of this promise that Solomon could not be a part of
and that was a kingdom that would last forever. You're going to see in a
moment here, as we get further into Matthew chapter 1, that this will be
referenced that Messiah’s Kingdom is an ongoing kingdom, an unending
kingdom.

Life Bible Ministry • [Link] • ©2025

Now the Jews always recognized this promise that we just read in 2 Samuel as a
Messianic promise and therefore they knew that the one who would come as the
Messiah must be of the lineage of David. That was vitally important.

And you see what Matthew is doing is, he's starting off his gospel account by
proving that Jesus is in that lineage. And it records for us here in Matthew, the
royal line of David through his son, Solomon, that then comes to Joseph. And
you'll see here again, a little bit later in Matthew 1, how Joseph is even referred
to as a son of David.

Now, some of you might be thinking now, wait a second here, pastor Paul, not
too fast. There's a problem with this. Joseph wasn't really Jesus's father. How
can the lineage that that is given here that relates to Joseph apply to Jesus? I
think we have a problem here.

Well, no, we don't. And the reason we don't is because under Jewish law, an
adopted son has the legal standing of his father in Israel. It doesn't matter if he is
biologically connected or not, as long as he is adopted at least, he has all the
legal rights of his father. Therefore you see, this genealogy proves that Jesus
had a right to the throne of Israel from that legal position.

Now, there's another interesting element to this prophecy into this lineage and
genealogy that is given here in the Book of Matthew and that is something that
is mentioned in verse 11. I don't know if you caught this, but did you notice that
there's a name there in verse 11, which, by the way, you might recognize again,
if you study the Old Testament, and it's the name Jechoniah. Did you catch that
in verse 11?

Well, Jechoniah was one of the sons of David, not immediate sons of David, but
in the lineage of David. He was a king, and he was a nasty character, and a man
whom God cursed. That curse is recorded for us in the Book of Jeremiah up on
the screen for you so we can see it together.

Jeremiah 22:30 (ESV)

Thus says the LORD: “Write this man down as childless, a man who shall not
succeed in his days, for none of his offspring shall succeed in sitting on the
throne of David and ruling again in Judah.”

Thus says (YAHWEH) the LORD: “Write this man down as childless,
(referring to Jechoniah, He says,) a man who shall not succeed in his days,
(look at this) for none of his offspring shall succeed in sitting on the throne of
David and ruling again in Judah.”

Life Bible Ministry • [Link] • ©2025

That's the curse, you see, that was put upon Jeconiah and his lineage. That none
of them would sit any longer on the throne of David, so that's what's interesting
about the genealogy. Had Jesus been the biological son of Joseph, He would
have been disqualified because Joseph carried on that lineage of Jeconiah.

The problem is ultimately solved by the fact that Jesus was the biological son of
Mary, and with Mary, there was no such curse. In fact, We have a different
lineage, genealogy that is given to us in the Book of Luke that we believe to be
Mary's lineage. And that lineage also goes through the line of David, but instead
of going through Solomon, it goes through a different son of David. Bypassing
Jeconiah and therefore bypassing the curse that would have otherwise been on
him and so forth. And so Mary didn't pass along to her children, the curse that
was pronounced on Jeconiah.

Let's keep reading. Matthew goes on in verse 18 saying, “Now the birth
of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been
betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with
child from the Holy Spirit.” I'm going pause there again for a moment because
there's two things I want to talk about.

First of all, it's this statement that Mary and Joseph were betrothed. You need to
understand what that means because we don't have an equal to that in our
culture. The closest we have is two people becoming engaged to be married, but
that's a different thing.

In Israel to be betrothed was to be called husband and wife. You literally would
refer to your betrothed as your spouse, even though you had not come together
in marriage, you had not consummated the relationship and you were not living
together, but you were betrothed. And therefore, in a very real sense, they
referred to each other as husband and wife.

And here's the big deal. In order to break a betrothal, you had to get a divorce,
right? I mean, in our culture, if you're going to break an engagement, you
basically just have to, all you have to do is break somebody's heart. Right. I
mean, you just go to the person and say, I don't want to marry you anymore.
Can I have the ring back? If it's the guy, I suppose, breaking the thing. And
that's it. It's done, it's over. Nobody's going to say anything about it. Say, well,
they were engaged, but they broke it off.

Well, it was a big deal in Israel. I mean, you literally had to go through a
divorce to break a betrothal. So you need to understand that going into it.

Life Bible Ministry • [Link] • ©2025

The second thing we need to talk about is this statement that Mary “was found
to be with child.” And that of course means that she's starting to show. I mean,
they didn't have a way of going to the doctor and having a test to find that
somebody was pregnant. They just started showing. Right? You get a baby
bump.

And so it says, “she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.” Now
you'll notice Matthew doesn't explain that. He doesn't say what “from the Holy
Spirit” means. We know how people conceive and have throughout since the
beginning. But how is this conception from the Holy Spirit work?

Well, actually it's Luke who does a better job of bringing some sort of an
explanation to it. Up on the screen, from Luke chapter 1, it says,

Luke 1:30-35 (ESV)

And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor
with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you
shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the
Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David,

And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor
with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you
shall call his name Jesus. (we will talk about the meaning of that in just a
moment) He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the
Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David,

Now there you'll notice that the angel is confirming that David's, or excuse me,
Jesus is in the lineage of David. All right. Which means Mary has to be also.
And he goes on to say,

Luke 1:30-35 (ESV)

and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will
be no end.” And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a
virgin?” And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you,
and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be
born will be called holy—the Son of God.

and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will
be no end.” And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a
virgin?” (she’s asking the same question everybody else is) And the angel
answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most

Life Bible Ministry • [Link] • ©2025

High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—
the Son of God.

And if you know anything about the concept of being the Son of God, that
means equal to God. The work of the Holy Spirit is referenced here by Luke's
record as the Holy Spirit coming upon and overshadowing Mary.

And that's the best we can do because this is a supernatural explanation for what
would otherwise be a natural occurrence. And again, we know how it naturally
works. Supernaturally, it's the best we're going to get. Interesting here that Mary
remained a virgin and yet was pregnant and with child.

So here's the question. Did Mary remain a virgin after the birth of Jesus? Of
course not. She was married to Joseph and they had children. And we're going
to see that actually, as we go a little bit further on in this chapter. We won't
necessarily won't reference the children, but it will reference them coming
together after the birth of Christ.

Continuing on here in Matthew, verse 19, “And her husband Joseph, being a
just man (your Bible may say, a righteous man) and unwilling to put her to
shame, resolved to divorce her quietly.”

There's where you see they're not married yet. They're just betrothed. But it says
here that he “resolved to divorce her.” We've already talked about that. The
point I want to bring up here is that he “resolved to divorce her quietly.”
Quietly.

And what's important about this, is that this had to have been a very difficult
situation for Joseph. I mean, here's a man who's betrothed to this beautiful
young girl. And as far as he, I mean, she starts to have a baby bump and he
knows he hasn't been with her. And the only other possible explanation is that
she's been unfaithful to him and there's been some kind of stuff going on. He
knows not what and this is a very, very, hurtful situation.

And what does he do? He protects her. People, he had every right to not only
expose her, but under the law to have her put to death for her fornication, or
what he perceived at this time to be fornication. He had that right, but rather
than taking that right, even as hurt as he was. Wounded, emotionally, as he was,
he chose to protect this woman.

And I emphasize that here this morning, because that's just so opposite what we
see in our culture today. When people get hurt, they want to hurt back. And

Life Bible Ministry • [Link] • ©2025

that's just the common response we've learned. We hear about it in the news.
Some guy has a girlfriend and she cheats on him with another guy so he goes
and he kills them both. And then he usually turns the gun on himself. Isn't that a
lovely story to see on the headlines? Double murder, suicide. We're so used to
it. We're so used to it. We see it in the news. We're like, oh, that's too bad.
That's what people do.

Well, not Joseph. He was a righteous man. And even being wounded, his effort
was to protect this young girl. That's it. That blows me away, you guys. I mean,
I'm looking forward to meeting this man someday in the kingdom of God. And
I'm going to shake his hand and I'm going to say, well done, mister, because
that's not that's not typical human behavior. You went above and beyond.

God chose the right man to be able to deal with that sort of a burden. So he
“resolved to divorce her quietly.”

Matthew writes in verse 20. “But as he considered these things, behold, an

angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David,
(notice that the angel acknowledges that Joseph too is in the lineage of David)
do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from
the Holy Spirit. 21 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he
will save his people from their sins.”” Stop there, please, for just a moment.

Jesus is the Greek form of the Hebrew name, Yeshua. We also read about it in
the Old Testament. The name is Joshua, same name. What's interesting though,
about the naming of, this is a fairly common name. But what is so interesting
about this is that the name means, the Lord is salvation and I love that.

I mean what a great name for the Son of God who had come to die on the cross
for our sins. The Lord is salvation. Not just the Lord brings salvation. Not just
the Lord accomplishes salvation. The Lord is salvation. He is that for you and
me. Right? It's a beautiful, beautiful naming of this child.

Verse 22. And it says, “All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken
by the prophet:

23
“Behold, the virgin shall conceive (that's talking about a miracle there and)
and bear a son,
and they shall call his name Immanuel”

(which means, God with us).”

Life Bible Ministry • [Link] • ©2025

Some people read this passage and they get confused. They're like, so just
where is it in the Bible where they call him Immanuel? I don't ever remember
reading that. Well, you have to understand that to take that literally as if they
went around calling him Immanuel, that's incorrect.

In the Bible names were more than just a moniker, something that was given to
someone in order to call them in for dinner. A name has meaning and what this
meaning is, and that's what Matthew gives us, parenthetically in the text, at the
end of verse 23, is the name means, “God with us.”

And what that means is, they shall say of Him, God is with us. That's what it
literally means. Right? It's the meaning of the name that is important here. They
will say of him, God is among us. God is with us. And frankly this name,
Emmanuel, is a declaration of His deity and nothing less.

Verse 24. “When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord
commanded him: he took his wife,” And I love that. See, that's a statement of
obedience.

Once again, you're seeing the heart of Joseph. He's been hurt. He has felt
betrayed. And yet when an angel appears to him and tells him, this is what's
really going on and this is what I want you to do. Joseph doesn't hesitate. He's
not going to stay in his pity party, even though we may want to.

Have you ever noticed that? We do. When we get hurt by someone? It's fun,
isn't it just to simmer in your pity party. And you don't even want anybody to
apologize because it's, I'm not done being mad.

I was telling our first service crowd that Sue and I, we've been married a long
time and sometimes when we hurt each other's feelings, we have this thing,
we'll go up to one another and say is it too early for me to apologize? Or maybe
you're not done with feeling sorry for yourself, sort of a thing. And sometimes
we'll even say, yeah, give me an hour. I'm not, which is wrong. By the way, I'm
not telling you to do that. Pastor Paul said, no…

I love the fact. That Joseph responds immediately with an attitude of obedience
and he just moves out to do exactly what the Lord told him to do. It says, “he
took his wife,…” Look at verse 25, it says, “but knew her not (now that's an
ancient way of saying that they did not have marital relations. But for how
long? Look what it goes on to say,) until she had given birth to a son.”

Life Bible Ministry • [Link] • ©2025

So how long did they abstain? Until after the birth of Jesus. She was a virgin.
All the way, the virgin shall conceive, give birth but after that, he's married to
the woman. And they're going to have relations, and they did, and they had
children. And we even have a couple of books in the New Testament that were
written by Jesus’ half-brothers, James and Jude. So there you go.

If anybody tells you she remained a virgin perpetually, I'm sorry to burst the
bubble. It's just simply not true. So, “until she gave birth to a son (and again)
And he called his name Jesus.”

As I read through this chapter, and I was thinking about it, I was just, oh, just
thinking again about Mary and Joseph and what incredible people they were to
be called to this place in life to deal with this kind of stuff. They both had a lot
to lose.

This was a hard road that God gave them to walk. In fact, it didn't get any easier
even after this point. Even after this thing was resolved by the angel that
appeared to Joseph, and they were married, and they went on, and things were
hard. Things were difficult.

The journey to Bethlehem because of the taxation issue that came up, you guys
know about this story, we read it every Christmas. And then even when they
brought up Jesus to dedicate Him to the Lord, Mary received a prophetic word
about Jesus. And one of the things that the Lord spoke prophetically to her was
that a sword would pierce her heart.

And we're not even sure what that even means, except, I mean, we deduce what
we think is the meaning of it. That it probably meant that she would live long
enough to watch her son suffer on the cross for the sins of the world. And
perhaps that was in fact, the sword that pierced her heart. We don't know. All
we know is, I mean, a sword piercing your heart doesn't sound like fun.

My point here is that these two people were put through some pretty incredibly
difficult circumstances and yet they were both chosen for the task. That was
God's plan. That was God's purpose.

And I guess if there's one thing the story of Joseph and Mary, it teaches us is
that we should never allow ourselves to believe that God's calling will never be
demanding, or even dangerous. Because in our American way of interpreting
the will of the Lord, sometimes we just don't think that difficulty should come
with the package. I've had people say to me, pastor Paul, I'm not sure I'm doing

Life Bible Ministry • [Link] • ©2025

what the Lord wants me to do. Well, why? Well, because it's so hard. I'm going
through such a hard time.

Well, what does that have to do with anything? Aren't you glad people like
Jeremiah didn't take that attitude? Or the apostle Paul, when he went through a
couple of shipwrecks, beatings, scourgings, and all the other things that went
along with his apostolic ministry. It was hard. It was difficult and yet it was the
path of the Lord. It was the path of the Lord.

Guys, like the Bible tells us, when you go through trials of many kinds, don't
think that something strange is happening to you, as if this shouldn't be
happening. (1 Peter 4:12) And somehow God missed the boat on this one. The
plan of the Lord many times is a challenging and sometimes even a dangerous
one.

But let me just tell you here, whatever path the Lord puts you on, that's the best
one for you to be on. That's the one where you need to stay put because that's
where God is with you. And He has promised never to leave you nor forsake
you. You don't need to run away from that path. You just need to invite the Lord
and surrender to the Lord to walk down that path with you. And He will, He'll
take care of you. He's good at that, amen. Let's stand together. We'll close in
prayer.

As we typically do here at Calvary Chapel, when we're done with our service,
we'll have some folks right down front here. We call them our prayer team, and
they'll be available to pray with you if you have a need. If you came in here
burdened, don't walk out burdened, because you and I both have this wonderful
invitation from our Savior.

He says, come to Me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I'll give you
rest. For my yoke is easy, My burden is light. It doesn't mean it's not going to be
challenging or dangerous, but with the power of the Lord, with the grace of God
in your life, you'll make it through. He'll help you to make it through.

Father, thank You so much for our time this morning. Thank You, Lord, that we
can come together and worship, sing songs of praise and adoration, and
remembrance.

Thank You, Father, God, that we could enjoy celebrating a reminder of what
Jesus did for us on the cross through communion.

Life Bible Ministry • [Link] • ©2025

Thank You, Lord God, for these times of prayer, for these times of study
through the Word. And thank You, Father God, for these times of fellowship
where we can just enjoy one another's presence.

We rejoice, Lord God, in the faithfulness that You display every time the body
of Christ comes together in obedience to Your Word.

Continue, we pray, to strengthen our hearts as we walk through the path of life
that You've appointed for us. We ask you to guide and direct us in the name of
Jesus Christ, our Savior, and all God's people said together, amen.

God bless you.

Have a good rest of your day.

Life Bible Ministry • [Link] • ©2025