Introduction And Intertestamental Age

Questions This Sermon Answers:

1. What were the four hundred silent years between the Old and New Testaments?

The intertestamental period is the roughly four centuries between Malachi, the last Old Testament prophet, and the coming of John the Baptist and Christ. Scripture records no canonical prophetic word during this time, which is why it is called "silent." Yet God was not absent. He providentially ordered the rise of Greece and Rome, the spread of a common language, and the synagogue system, preparing the world for the gospel. Malachi closed by promising a forerunner: "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet" (Malachi 4:5, NKJV).

2. What does Matthew 1:1 mean by "the Son of David, the Son of Abraham"?

Matthew opens, "The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham" (Matthew 1:1, NKJV). These two titles summarize the whole Old Testament hope. As Son of Abraham, Jesus is the promised seed in whom all nations are blessed. As Son of David, He is the rightful King of the everlasting throne promised in 2 Samuel 7. Matthew is announcing that the covenant promises made to Abraham and David are fulfilled in this one person.

3. Why does Matthew begin his Gospel with a genealogy?

To establish Jesus' legal and covenantal credentials as Israel's Messiah. A genealogy proves royal descent and demonstrates that Jesus stands in the documented line of promise, not as a sudden newcomer. Matthew structures it deliberately: "from Abraham to David... from David until the captivity in Babylon... and from the captivity in Babylon until the Christ" (Matthew 1:17, NKJV). The list is theology in the form of names, tracing God's faithfulness from Abraham to the arrival of the King.

4. Who is the "Seed" promised to Abraham, and how does Christ fulfill it?

Paul interprets the Abrahamic promise as pointing finally to one person: "He does not say, 'And to seeds,' as of many, but as of one, 'And to your Seed,' who is Christ" (Galatians 3:16, NKJV). The promise to bless the nations through Abraham's offspring was never about mere physical descent alone but reached its goal in Jesus. Matthew 1:1 names Jesus "the Son of Abraham" precisely to identify Him as that long-awaited Seed in whom the promise is kept.

5. Why did Israel fail to recognize Jesus as the promised King?

Many in Israel expected a political and military conqueror who would overthrow Rome and restore national glory. They wanted a deliverer from earthly oppression, not a Savior from sin. So when the true King came in humility, born into an ordinary family and going to a cross, He did not match their expectations. Scripture had foretold a suffering Servant as well as a reigning King, but those texts were neglected. The King arrived; His people, by and large, did not recognize Him.

6. Why does Matthew's genealogy include women like Tamar, Rahab, and Ruth?

Ancient genealogies rarely named women, so their inclusion is intentional. Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and "her who had been the wife of Uriah" (Matthew 1:6, NKJV) include Gentiles and those touched by scandal and sorrow. Their presence displays God's sovereign grace working through unlikely people and points ahead to a salvation that reaches beyond Israel to the nations. The line of the Messiah is a line of mercy, not human merit.

7. Does the church replace Israel in God's plan?

No. The Reformed position is not replacement but fulfillment and inclusion. Paul uses the image of an olive tree: believing Gentiles, "being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and with them became a partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree" (Romans 11:17, NKJV). There is one covenant people across both Testaments. The Westminster Confession (7.6) teaches one covenant of grace administered differently under the law and the gospel, not two separate peoples.

8. What is the "one people of God," and how are believers part of it?

The one people of God is the company of all the elect of every age, Jew and Gentile, saved by grace through faith in Christ. Believers are joined to this people not by ethnicity but by union with the promised Seed: "And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise" (Galatians 3:29, NKJV). Gentile Christians are grafted into the same tree of promise, sharing the inheritance first announced to Abraham.

9. How does the genealogy show God's faithfulness across generations?

The genealogy spans roughly two thousand years and many flawed individuals, exiles, and crises, yet the promise never fails. Through patriarchs, kings, the Babylonian captivity, and the silent years, God preserves the line until "Jesus who is called Christ" (Matthew 1:16, NKJV) is born. The list testifies that God keeps His word over centuries, working His sovereign purpose through ordinary history. What looked like silence was the steady outworking of a promise God always intended to fulfill.

10. What does Matthew 1 teach Christians today?

It teaches that God is faithful to His promises even through long seasons of apparent silence. The same God who ordered four hundred years of waiting to bring the King at the right time governs every season of the believer's life. It also grounds assurance: salvation rests on God's covenant faithfulness in Christ, not on human worthiness. Believers united to Christ belong to the one people of God and are heirs of every promise secured in Him.