The King Has Come Pt. 10 | Matthew 1:1-17

October 5th, 2025

The Gospel of Matthew begins with the genealogy of Jesus Christ. Within this list of names are types and shadows of the gospel which he is revealing. We see how God is preserving the promised Seed throughout the generations and how He is bringing forth His chosen people. God saves His people by mercy, as seen in the flow of redemption. God shows His covenant love toward those whom He has elected for salvation and, as He calls them to salvation there is a conversion from desiring the things of the world to desiring Him. Two men in the line of Judah that are prominent in today’s message are Amminadab and his son, Nahshon.

Repeatedly, Matthew shows us that salvation is initiated by God. Nahshon’s name means hemmed in and is reflective of the fact that God hems His people into a covenant relationship with Him. Because of His foreknowledge, God sends out a life-giving call that is saturated in love. The loving Shepherd breaks into time and space and calls His sheep by name and they respond to Him.

As we move from Nahshon to Amminadab we move from God’s calling to their repentance. There are various understandings of repentance. Some would say it is sorrow over sin. Second Corinthians 7 makes it clear that repentance is more than this. Rather than repentance, some think in terms of the concept of Catholic penance, which might include abusing oneself. Some think of repentance in terms of behavior modification. Ezekiel 18:21 says "But if a wicked man turns from all his sins that he has done and keeps all my statutes and does justice and righteousness, he shall surely live; he shall not die.”  Biblical repentance is forsaking sin and receiving the Lordship of Christ. When we share the gospel, we must be careful not to convey the idea that forsaking sin is the vehicle of salvation; rather, forsaking sin is a result of salvation. With a proper understanding of repentance, we have no problem praying for lost souls. The gospel is not about doing; it is about what has been done.

Repentance is not an optional thing, it is not an extra thing, and it is not self-atonement or self-punishment. It is a spirit born in response to the call of the regeneration of the gospel of Jesus Christ that is taking place within the heart of man. It is the first step by God that turns us from our sin and toward Him. John Murray says this: “Repentance is the twin of faith. Saving faith is permeated with repentance and repentance is permeated with faith.” Our challenge is to understand biblical repentance, how it begins in our life and how it becomes the rhythm of our life. We then live by the fruit of repentance as we grow in sanctification. All of this can be seen in two names listed in Matthew’s genealogy: Amminadab and Nahshon.

Amminadab was the father of Nahshon and also the father of Elisheba who married Aaron, Israel’s first high priest and brother of Moses. Matthew’s purpose here is to join Judah’s line with the royal priesthood of Aaron, which converge in Jesus Christ. The name, Amminadab, means my kin is noble or my people are willing. Amminadab’s name appears in Song of Solomon, Chapter 6, verses twelve and thirteen, yet it doesn’t appear there. Should it be there or not? This seems like a controversy, but it is a matter of interpretation. The Song of Solomon is primarily a dialog between King Solomon, the bridegroom, and his Shulammite bride. Verse twelve speaks of the bride being set among the chariots of her noble people. She is greatly surprised as she is being swept away by the love she has for her bridegroom. Though some people believe that this passage is referring to the actual chariots of Amminadab, the best understanding is that this is a description of the believer’s love for God. 

Here Solomon is drawing an analogy to the human soul being united with divine love and carried away or propelled to the highest height. The Shulammite, surprised by the depth of her love for her bridegroom, then hears an entourage of women crying, “Come back, come back, O Shulammite.” These women are captivated by her beauty and her dance with the bridegroom, and they desire to enjoy her more. However, Solomon claims her as his own and doesn’t want to share her with anyone. Historically, this dance is often understood as a dance of reconciliation, reconciliation with the Divine and separation from the earthly. 

In this poetic imagery of the bride and bridegroom and the understanding of Amminadab, we are able to comprehend repentance. In the way that a man selects his bride and sets his electing love on her, God chooses those for whom He sets his elective love and salvation. Sinners are able to reject God’s general call for repentance and faith because they are spiritually dead; the Holy Spirit must first make them alive spiritually. Then they will respond to the effectual call of God because the gospel came to them not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit. (1 Thessalonians 1:5) Subsequently, the sinner willingly, volitionally, drawn by grace believes the gospel, repents, and is saved. John 6:37 says “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.” 

Repentance represents a turning of direction. Jesus is jealous for His bride, and He doesn’t want her to dance for anyone else. We cannot dance for Jesus and for the world. The soul of 

the Shulammite was surprised by the dept of her love for her bridegroom, and this perfectly represents the first phase of repentance. Repentance has two phases and four components. Understanding repentance in a biblical way helps us see our salvation, which will then help us worship God and fuel our prayers. Question 87 of the Westminster Shorter Catechism defines repentance as follows: “Repentance unto life is a saving grace, whereby a sinner, out of a true sense of his sin, and apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ, doth, with grief and hatred of his sin, turn from it unto God, with full purpose of, and endeavor after, new obedience.” The two phases and four components are seen in these Westminster Standards. The first phase is awakening, as when the Shulammite realized the depth of her love; with the awakening there is illumination and affection. The second phase of repentance is turning, which is a volition and a continuation.

In 2002, Paul Washer preached a message from Matthew 7:13-27 that shocked the world. The core of his message is verse 21: “Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of Heaven. But he who does the will of my Father who is in Heaven will enter.” He also said that “…salvation is by faith and faith alone in Jesus Christ. And faith alone in Jesus Christ is preceded and followed by repentance.” Later he confessed that he hadn’t explained repentance correctly. He said that in repentance there is a desire to turn, but before the desire to turn, something happens within you, an awakening of the soul. The awakening of the soul is the realization that your standing before God is perilous, and you need to be saved. We see God and His righteousness, and we see our sinfulness. The awakening comes when we realize that we are lost, in desperate need of a Savior, and we cannot save ourselves.

Simultaneously when we are awakened to God’s holiness and our sinfulness, a true affection for God develops as we ask ourself why would He love me. When we hear the effectual call of God, our first inclination is to want to give Him our life. This is repentance, the initial change of mind. Because of our depravity, only God can change our heart; He must do the awakening thereby enabling us to love Him. Scripture is clear that when we are awakened, we understand our new position before God, our newfound love for Him, and we know that we need to turn from sin. When Peter had finished his speech in Acts 2, verse 37 says, “Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, ‘Brothers, what shall we do?’" There had been an awakening in their souls, and Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized…” When the awakening occurs, the holiness of God becomes real, and the depth of our sin becomes apparent, and the reality of our faith lies before us, and the magnitude of God’s love and mercy are on display, and all we see is grace everywhere.

When we are awakened spiritually, we experience a flood of emotions: our need for God, a love that we have never experience before, a hatred for our sin, a grace that permeates everything, and a cosmic understanding of our faith. The natural response is, what next? This Philippian jailer asked, “What must I do to be saved?” (Acts 16:30) and the tax collector said to God: “be merciful to me, a sinner.” (Luke 18:13) These reactions, common to all true believers, gives way to godly grief and affection toward God. The unconverted may have deep sorry for their sin and its consequences, but they don’t love God. 2 Corinthians 7:10 says, “For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation...” 

True believers have a love for God that is shown in their “turning from idols to serve the living and true God.” (1 Thessalonians 1:9) This, then, is a result of the awakening, the first phase of repentance. The bride says, before I knew it, my soul set me among the chariots. The repentant sinner recognizes that he needs God above all else, and there is a turning. This brings us to Nahshon, whose name means to divine, or to glean or to shine, or to radiate. It has been interpreted as being akin to a snake bite that makes someone shine or stand out. In Numbers 1:7, Nahshon is exalted to the head of Judah, the line leading to Christ, of whom the scepter would never depart. Numbers 2:3 describes him as being the chief of the people of Judah. Numbers 7 tells us that the tribe of Judah was the first to bring an offering to the altar, and Numbers 10 tells us that Judah, led by Nahshon, was the first to set out when God led the nation to the Promised Land. According to Jewish tradition, Nahshon first stepped into the Red Sea, then Moses raised his staff and God parted the waters. Nahshon is known throughout Jewish history as one who shines forth piercing the darkness. 

When we think about repentance and its connection with Amminadab and the inward awakening that occurs, a man recognizes God and his position before Him. Then the man acknowledges his love for God and understands that repentance isn’t complete until it moves his heart to obedience.  Conviction of sin must result in obedience. When sharing the gospel, we are satisfied with conviction; the person is convicted of their sin, they confess, then say the prayer, then we tell them all is good. If the person is not certain that they love God, we tell them work harder to do good things and don’t worry about it. Referring to the idea of the Westminster Standard, repentance unto life is a saving grace whereby a sinner recognizes the heinousness of his sin but also understands the mercy of God in Christ (the two components of phase one) and turns to God out of a hatred of his sin and seeks to live in obedience to God (the two components of phase two). 

A simple definition of repentance is a change of direction that comes from perception. Your perception has to change but only God can change your perception. Then from that change in perception you turn and are reoriented. We now turn from volitional turning, the first component of phase two, to continuation, the second component. Paul Washer came to understand that a believer’s obedience is not complete at the moment of redemption. Repentance is a singular event, when you recognize that you need to be saved. You think to yourself:  I love God, I see my sin, and I want to turn from that sin. There is a reorientation of the heart from the world toward God, but the world doesn’t want to let go; it continues to cry out, come back, come back. Paul describes his reorientation beginning in Acts 26:12 where Jesus appeared to him on the road to Damascus. God awakened Paul’s heart and revealed Himself to him; He said, “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.” Jesus, then, gave Paul his assignment which was to testify about Him to both Jews and Gentiles.

When God changes our heart, He reorients our worship, our affection, and our direction. However, we still have around us the same people and problems; our external circumstances have not changed, but everything looks different. We don’t want to continue living the way we were. Initial repentance is a once-for-all break with sins committed in our life. Because of our regeneration, we can see our sins correctly. For the believer, the direction of life has undergone a permanent change, then decisions and actions begin to follow. David loved God but he wrestled with the sin within. This is why he prayed in Psalm 51:10, “Create in me a clean heart, O God.” 

The life of the believer should be one of continual repentance. In the Puritan John Owen’s book The Mortification of Sin, he said that believers must be constantly killing sin, or it will kill them. Psalm 32:5 says, “I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,’ and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.” We read in 1 John 1:8, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves…” Then verse nine says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us…” Repentance, which is inward (Amminadab) and outward (Nahshon) is action. There must be an ongoing confession and repentance in the believer’s life.

Ephesians 1:15-23 says, “For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, 16 I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, 17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, 18  having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints”,--- [Paul prays for God to enlighten the believers to understand more about heaven, about glory, and the realities of their salvation.] --- “19 and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might --- [God works to produce the things within believers.] --- “20 that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. 22 And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.” Paul gives the Ephesians a glorious picture of who Christ is, what He has done, what He is doing now, and what is our position before Him.

Remember, at one time, you were dead in sins and trespasses, but because of His great love, He made us alive in Christ – by grace you have been saved. An understanding of where we once stood, where we stand now, and what God has done, leads to a life of obedience. Even though the orientation of our heart is correct but , if we fail to remember these things, we will not walk in obedience to God. Sharing the gospel is one aspect of life at which many Christians fail. If we believe that hell is real and that Jesus is the only Savior for sinners, then we should be driven to share the gospel. For example, if we encounter a person pumping gas next to us, we can pray that God would prepare their heart, then begin a conversation, hoping it will lead to spiritual matters. Acts 17:31 declares that there will be a day of judgment and we want to warn everyone. Not only are we to call the world to repentance, but we are also to call ourselves and each other to repentance.

We need to call others to repentance with the Word, with love, and with hope. If God can save us, He can save anyone. Paul Washer said that there is a danger in calling others to repent. He said the mistake we often make is that we expect new converts, especially young converts, to live like those who have been believers for decades. We tend to forget how patient God has been with us through the years. 

Even many church leaders are confused concerning confession and repentance. For the believer, there is ongoing confession and ongoing repentance. Repentance is the reorienting of the heart away from the world to the One you love. Confession is saying the same thing as God or agreeing with God. Confession is the verbal expression of repentance, a listing of the specific sins from which we are turning. Often in life, the reason we do not have spiritual success is because we have repentance without confession or confession without repentance; however, the two go hand-in-hand. If, when we are confronted with sin, what is our first reaction? Do we make excuses, give a reason, or give an explanation, or do we hear the truth? If we call our sin the same as Scripture names it, then repentance will have its full effect, and we will be able to walk away from that sin. Confess that sin by name, turn from it, and walk away with renewed hope and joy.

Selah

1. Describe how you first heard God’s call. What was your response at that time?

2. If God’s call has been effectual, how has your life changed?

3. How have your confession and repentance changed as a result of hearing this sermon?