Luke begins his gospel with a genealogy that goes back to Adam because he was writing to Greeks and his purpose is to present Jesus as the “ideal man." Mark does not include a genealogy because he is writing to Romans who didn’t care where you came from -- they just wanted to know who you were. John gives us an eternal perspective on Who Jesus is in his Gospel.

Today we are beginning the study of the Gospel of Matthew. He is writing primarily to Jews with the purpose of presented Jesus as the King and Messiah.

Listen to some of these examples Matthew uses to present Jesus as the King.
His ancestry is traced from the royal line of Israel.
His birth is dreaded by a jealous earthly king.
The Wise Men bring the infant Jesus royal gifts from the East.
John the Baptist heralds the King and proclaims that His Kingdom is at hand.
The Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5-7) is the manifesto of the King.
The miracles are His royal credentials, and many of His parables portray the mysteries of the Kingdom.
While facing the cross He predicts His future reign, and He claims dominion over the angels in heaven.
His last words are that all authority has been given to Him in both heaven and earth (Mat. 28:18; NKJV).

To be the Messiah Jesus would have to meet the first qualification of having the correct ancestry; so Matthew begins his gospel with a genealogy. 

These genealogies still existed at this time and were kept in the Temple. (They were destroyed along with the Temple in 70 AD.) The genealogies were a matter of public record and could be checked to verify as to whether a person had a legitimate claim to a particular line or property rights. It's interesting that, although His enemies challenged every move and claim of the Lord Jesus (including providing an alternative theory for His Resurrection), they never questioned His genealogy.

Matt. 1:1-17 (NKJV)
¹ The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham:
²Abraham begot Isaac, Isaac begot Jacob, and Jacob begot Judah and his brothers. ³Judah begot Perez and Zerah by Tamar, Perez begot Hezron, and Hezron begot Ram. ⁴Ram begot Amminadab, Amminadab begot Nahshon, and Nahshon begot Salmon. ⁵Salmon begot Boaz by Rahab, Boaz begot Obed by Ruth, Obed begot Jesse, ⁶and Jesse begot David the king.
David the king begot Solomon by her who had been the wife of Uriah. ⁷Solomon begot Rehoboam, Rehoboam begot Abijah, and Abijah begot Asa. ⁸Asa begot Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat begot Joram, and Joram begot Uzziah. ⁹Uzziah begot Jotham, Jotham begot Ahaz, and Ahaz begot Hezekiah. ¹⁰Hezekiah begot Manasseh, Manasseh begot Amon,and Amon begot Josiah. ¹¹Josiah begot Jeconiah and his brothers about the time they were carried away to Babylon.
¹²And after they were brought to Babylon, Jeconiah begot Shealtiel, and Shealtiel begot Zerubbabel. ¹³Zerubbabel begot Abiud, Abiud begot Eliakim, and Eliakim begot Azor. ¹⁴Azor begot Zadok, Zadok begot Achim, and Achim begot Eliud. ¹⁵Eliud begot Eleazar, Eleazar begot Matthan, and Matthan begot Jacob. ¹⁶And Jacob begot Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus who is called Christ.
¹⁷So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations, from David until the captivity in Babylon are fourteen generations, and from the captivity in Babylon until the Christ are fourteen generations.
(AMP) | (NIV) | (NLT) | (KJV) | (NASB)

Matthew’s abilities as a tax collector are reflected in his Gospel.

• He is very organized and just gives the facts.
• His genealogy gives enough names to show the legal lineage of Jesus; but he purposely organizes Jewish history into three main divisions of 14 generations each so that three names stand out: David, Abraham, Jesus.

 
¹⁷So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations, from David until the captivity in Babylon are fourteen generations, and from the captivity in Babylon until the Christ are fourteen generations. (Mat. 1:17, NKJV)

Matthew’s genealogy is through Joseph (Mary’s husband) and gives the royal lineage of Jesus. Even though Joseph was not Jesus’ biological father, he had the right to David’s throne. Joseph is clearly considered the legal parent of Jesus of Nazareth: “Is this not the carpenter’s son? Is not His mother called Mary….” (Mat. 13:55; NKJV) (By the way, that’s why it's important that later in the chapter Joseph does marry Mary.)

Beginning with this genealogy and continuing through this whole book Matthew is primarily concerned with showing Jesus as the One in Whom the hopes of the Old Testament find their fulfillment. Sixteen times in the Gospel of Matthew we find the phrase or a variation of the phrase “This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet."

The fulfillment of Scripture by Jesus - especially those concerning the Messiah - is Matthew’s focus. Remember that these prophecies would have been given at least 400 years before because that’s how many years elapse between the testaments.

Old Testament prophecies said that Messiah would come through the tribe of Judah (Gen. 49:10, NKJV, 1400 BC). He would be “a stem of Jesse” (Is. 11:1, NKJV, 700 BC). He would be “a righteous branch of David” (Jer. 23:5, NKJV, 600 BC).

The prophecies extended to his birth in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2, NKJV, 700 BC), that kings would come with gifts at this birth (Ps. 72:10; NKJV, 1400 - 600 BC); that he would begin his ministry in Galilee (Is. 9:1, NKJV, 700 BC). The Bible prophecies his parables (Ps. 78:2, NKJV), miracles (Is. 35:5-6, NKJV), a stumbling block to Jews (Ps. 118:22, Is. 8:4;  NKJV), a light to Gentiles (Is. 60:3, NKJV), his death and resurrection (Ps. 16:10, NKJV), and ascension (Ps. 68:18, NKJV). In his book, Evidence That Demands A Verdict, Josh McDowell^*  outlines 61 prophecies that could only be fulfilled in one person - Jesus of Nazareth.

The Jews were expecting a King. Kings must have a royal lineage. God had promised through the Old Testament prophets that the King would be from the tribe of Judah through Jesse and David.

No one disputed Jesus Christ’s claim to be a “Son of David."

II.  Son of Abraham
”Son of Abraham” would have solidified Jesus’ Messianic claims by placing Him securely in the nation Israel as a Jew.

In Genesis 22:18 (NKJV, 1400 BC) God had promised Abraham, “In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you obeyed my voice.” God is here saying that He has sworn that one person (seed - singular not plural) would fulfill this promise. This is exactly the conclusion that the Apostle Paul comes to in Galatians 3:16 (NKJV):

”Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, ‘And to seeds, as of many, but as of one, ‘And to your Seed,’ who is Christ.”

While Matthew’s main purpose with this designation is no doubt to further establish Jesus’ Messianic claims, it is possible that he has another purpose as well. The promise from Genesis 22 says that in this Seed, all nations would be blessed. This extends salvation through Christ to the Gentiles as well and further explains why Matthew says “Son of David" then “Son of Abraham.” Salvation would come through the Jews; but be available for all people.

To further support this claim are four striking examples from Matthew’s genealogy. Four women - all Gentiles: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba. If you wanted to include women, why these?

• The story of Tamar is in Genesis 38 (Gen. 38:6-30; NKJV) and is one of the most sordid chapters in the Bible in which she tricks her father-in-law, Judah, to sleep with her to produce a child.
• Rahab was a prostitute in Jericho (Joshua 2:1-24; NKJV).
• Ruth seems like an OK choice until you find out about the origins of her people - the Moabites. (Ruth 1:1-4:22; NKJV)
• Bathsheba was used by King David to satisfy his own lust and was his motivation to have her husband, Uriah, killed. (2 Sam. 11:1-27; NKJV)

Even the genealogy of Jesus is an illustration of redemption.
We can’t pick our family - our relatives - but as Almighty God, Jesus did.
He chose flawed people - people who had experienced the depths of sin.

In the next few weeks we will learn that Jesus takes people like a demon-possessed woman (Mary Magdalene), and redeems their lives. How thrilling it must have been for Matthew to tell these stories, especially the one about the hated Jewish tax collector - his own personal testimony. Jesus delights in rescuing lost people. 

His name shall be called Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.
Jesus is the One through Whom all nations will be blessed - He is Son of Abraham.

Matt. 1:18-25 (NKJV)
¹⁸ Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: After His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit. ¹⁹Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not wanting to make her a public example, was minded to put her away secretly. ²⁰But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. ²¹And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins."
²²So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying: ²³"Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel," (Is. 7:14; NKJV, 700 BC) which is translated, "God with us."
²⁴Then Joseph, being aroused from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took to him his wife, ²⁵and did not know her till she had brought forth her firstborn Son. And he called His name JESUS.
(AMP) | (NIV) | (NLT) | (KJV) | (NASB)

1. The Scriptures predicted that a virgin would give birth to a child (Is. 7:14; NKJV). The suggestion that this prophecy could mean any “young lady” (almah, Hebrew) does not hold water. Besides, what kind of sign would that be - that happens all the time. A virgin birth could not be faked by would-be messiahs.
2. Jesus is human so He had to have a human mother.
3. Jesus is God so He could not have any earthly father. The sin nature is Adam’s sin and is passed down through the father, i.e. Adam's seed.

The Christian who has experienced the new birth does not find the Virgin Birth all that difficult.
If God can make me a new creature in Christ, then the Virgin Birth is certainly not too difficult.
He is Emmanuel - God with us!

There are two books: 
How did you and I get into Adams’s book? By physical birth.
But Scripture tells us that “in Adam all die” so Adam’s book is a book of death. (1 Cor. 15:22, NKJV)

Then there is the other book, the book of the generation of Jesus Christ.
How do you get into that book? By the new birth.
Jesus says that we must be born again to see the kingdom of God (John 3:3, NKJV).

That puts us in the Book of Life and we get there by placing our trust in the One who Matthew describes in this genealogy - Jesus Christ.

On this Sunday before Christmas, I trust that your name is in the Book of Life.

^{* McDowell, Josh. (1972) Chapter 9:  The Messianic Prophesies of the Old Testament Fulfilled in Chirst. In:  Evidence that Demands a Verdict. Campus Crusade for Christ, Inc.}