Immanuel, JESUS, Savior
Matthew
1:18-25
Introduction: Martin Luther said,
“When I am told that God became man, I can
follow the idea, but I just don’t understand what it means. For what men, if
left to his natural promptings, if he were God, would humble himself to lie in
the feedbox of a donkey or to hang on a cross? God laid upon Christ the
iniquities of us all. This is the ineffable and infinite mercy of God which the
slender capacity of man’s heart cannot comprehend, much less utter—the unfathomable
depth and burning zeal of God’s love toward us... Who can sufficiently declare
this exceeding great goodness of God?”
We can easily be
overwhelmed when we consider the pervasive presence of evil in the world. This
latest act of terrorism in the mass shooting in San Bernadino, CA reminds us
again that all is not right in the world, the effects of the Fall are all
around us. That is the backdrop, that is the motivation for the message of
Christmas. We are living in darkness, the world in a real sense is the “Valley
of Baca,” a “vale of tears’ as we saw two weeks ago in Psalm 84. The world is a
dark place, but, as the prophet Isaiah said, “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in
the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned...” (Isa
9:2, NIV).
Context: After setting forth the genealogy, and the legal
qualification of Jesus as a descendant of David, Now this is how it happened...
The Maine Idea: The miracle of the virgin birth proves who Jesus is,
and it was a prelude to what He came to accomplish: the salvation of a people
for Himself. Come, let us adore Him, Christ, the Lord!
I. In a certain sense this would be a
birth like every other human birth, but in the most profound sense, this
would be a birth like no other
(18-20). There were other births in Scripture that were miraculous. Abraham and
Sarah in their old age having Isaac. Elizabeth, the wife of Zachariah giving
birth to John the Baptist. But this birth was a miracle of a completely
different magnitude!
18 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. 19 And her husband Joseph, being a
just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her
quietly. 20 But as he
considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a
dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your
wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.
The line of the messiah had been traced.
Abraham and David were a part of it, men who believed God, and followed Him, but
men who desperately needed forgiveness and grace in their lives. The family
tree also mentioned four women, which was unusual enough in an ancient near
eastern genealogy, but they were foreign
women, and three of the four guilty of immoral behavior, the other a foreigner
from an accursed nation! By grace they were included. We were being reminded
that grace would extend to the nations, and that grace was greater than all our
sin. If you think you are beyond the reach of God’s grace, that there is no way
you could be forgiven, take a look at the characters in the genealogy of Jesus.
Finally it comes down to Joseph, a carpenter, who would be the step-father of
messiah, and a young woman named Mary.
Verse 18 summarizes that situation. Joseph and Mary were “betrothed,”
they were engaged. More than engagement today betrothal was a commitment to
marriage that actually required a certificate of divorce to dissolve. They had
not yet “come together.” There was no physical, marital intimacy between them.
They were both pious Jews, serious about their faith they knew and sought to
obey the Scriptures. And then Joseph got the heart-breaking, what must have
been unbelievable news: Mary was pregnant. Mary’s encounter with the angel is
not described by Matthew. We have that only in Luke. That scene is described in
Luke 1:30-38,
30 And the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid,
Mary, for you have found favor with God.
31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son,
and you shall call his name Jesus. 32
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, 33 and he will reign over the
house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end." 34 And Mary said to the angel,
"How will this be, since I am a virgin?" 35 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. 36 And behold, your
relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the
sixth month with her who was called barren.
37 For nothing will be impossible with God." 38 And Mary said, "Behold, I
am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word." And
the angel departed from her.
Mary’s
struggle to understand makes sense—what the angel was describing was contrary
to nature, it was unlike any human birth before. She was a virgin! But she
believed this message came from God, and she believed that God could do
anything. So she was available, and willing, “Behold the servant of the Lord...” In our passage, Matthew 1:18, we
are simply told, “...she was found to be
with child of the Holy Spirit...” Apparently she told Joseph about the word
she had received, but he could not believe it. Who would believe such a story?
Joseph is described as a “just man” or “a
righteous man.” In the context the idea seems to be not that he was “perfect,”
but that he believed God and sought to obey His word. He did not want “vengeance,”
that is, to exact the maximum penalty allowed by the Law, but he could not
follow through and marry her if she had been unfaithful. He also loved Mary.
And we see him extending grace, not wanting to “subject her to public humiliation...” he decides to quietly “divorce”
her. But God had a plan. Joseph would be the “step-father” of this child, he
too was chosen to raise the Son of God. So God spoke to him through an angel in
a dream and confirmed the amazing truth, “That
which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit...” This was a pregnancy
like no other! The messiah would come in human form, but, like the first Adam,
with a human nature unaffected by sin. The ancient Apostles' Creed summarizes, He was "...conceived
by the Holy Spirit, and born of the virgin Mary..." The miracle of the virgin birth proves who Jesus is, and it
was a prelude to what He came to accomplish: the salvation of a people for
Himself. Do you believe that? Then, “Come, let us adore Him, Christ, the Lord!”
II. This
child would do what we could not do for ourselves (21).
21 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name
Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins."
V.21 makes it clear that God was in
control. “She will bear a son...” There were no ultra-sounds in those days, and
God didn’t give Mary and Joseph as choice about waiting to see the sex of the
child, it would be a son. The “Son of David” who was promised who would have an
eternal kingdom. The Seed of Abraham, who would be a blessing to the nations.
The Seed of the Woman who would crush the serpent’s head. The Son of God, who
one day will rule the nations with a rod of iron. His birth would be like no
other, and He would do what we could not do for ourselves (see 21b).
Names are interesting, our parents give
them to us for all kinds of reasons. It may be a family name. Maybe it’s a name
that is taken from a character in literature or film or history. Maybe it’s a
name that one parent or the other just liked the sound of. Occasionally a name
might say something about the faith of the parents or their hopes for the child
(perhaps why we sometimes see Bible names). Within the Bible, names seem to
more frequently reflect something of the character (or destiny) of the person.
Abraham had his name “updated” by God himself, since he would be “the father of
a multitude.” “Isaac” meant “laughter” and Sarah laughed at the idea of and her
having a child in their old age. “Jacob” was the “heel grabber” or supplanter,
and he was born holding onto his brother’s heel, and he would one day “supplant”
him by trading for his birth right, and by stealing the blessing of the
firstborn. You remember that in Acts one
man was such an encourager that the disciples named him “Barnabas,” i.e., “Son
of Encouragement.” The name “Jesus” was
related in Hebrew and in Aramaic to the verb yasha, “he saves,” and the word “Yeshua,” in Hebrew meant “salvation.” The angel’s words would have
immediately been understood by Joseph,
“...you shall call
his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins."
Now this pronouncement might have been shocking in the
historical context, not only in terms of the miracle that was being explained,
but also in terms of what this messianic figure would accomplish. Remember the
history; David had been a military leader who led the army of Israel to victories
over their pagan enemies. The nation had been re-established in the land, but
had experienced oppression over the centuries. It was widely expected that the
Messiah would come and deliver them from their enemies and restore their
security and blessing and prosperity in the land. This was a new focus: “He will save his people from their sins...”
I was thinking this week that we tend to be quick to criticize the
Jewish nation of Jesus’ day for losing sight of the miracle of grace that was
at the heart of Jesus’ mission. You remember when Jesus fed the multitude in
John 6, a few verses later they wanted to come and make him king by force. A
king that fed them, that was a king they could deal with! And then there were
those loathsome Romans, marching around like the land was theirs. Disrespecting
the Jews and the promises of their God! But
rather than coming on a battle horse with a sword, Jesus came on a donkey, in
humility, as a servant, as a suffering
servant, the people hastened his execution by proclaiming, “We’ll not have THIS
man to be our king!” They lost sight of what was most important, they seemed to
minimize what they should have known to be their greatest need: forgiveness of
their sins and reconciliation with God.
But here
we are, 2,000 years later. What do we look to God for? When do we usually give
testimony and acknowledge that “God is good”? We pray for healing. We pray for
help with our finances. We pray for work so that we can feed our families. We
pray about decisions we need to make. We look to Him for a lot of our needs,
and all of that is good, after all every good thing comes from above. He gives us our daily bread, and so we thank Him, and say "God is good." But
what about the father in Sudan who is barely feeding his family, or the Syrian
Christian who has a sword put to his neck but refuses to deny Christ? We have
no promise of health and prosperity in this life (in fact, he assures us, “In the world you will have tribulation...”!).
One day sin will be eradicated and our Enemy will be judged, and God will dwell
among us and wipe the tears from our eyes. But not today. Today we are
pilgrims. We are still in the Valley of Baca, bad things happen all the time,
to believers and unbelievers alike. But
God is still good, and worthy of our praise!
He came to save his people from their
sins. Listen: “For by grace you have
been saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God.”
That is reason to worship Him, to love Him with your whole heart, and to spread
His fame to those around you! Christmas
is not about jolly red suited elves and reindeer, it’s about God entering our
story to do for us what we could not do for ourselves. The miracle of the virgin
birth proves who Jesus is, and it was a prelude to what He came to accomplish:
the salvation of a people for Himself. Come, let us adore Him, Christ, the
Lord! A birth like no other, of a child who could do for us what we could not
do for ourselves, because...
III. This child would be like no other: the promised savior, the great I AM, who took on a
human nature: God became a Man! (22-25).
22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had
spoken by the prophet: 23
"Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his
name Immanuel" (which means, God with us).
24 When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the
Lord commanded him: he took his wife, 25
but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name
Jesus.
This
child was the fulfillment of the promises of God (22-23a). One of the results of seeing the many
prophecies that were fulfilled in the birth, life, death, and resurrection of
Jesus is realizing and understanding that God was in control, the life of Jesus
unfolded in every detail exactly as the father had planned it. It also serves
as evidence that Jesus is the promised messiah. If the messiah was to be born
of a virgin, born in Bethlehem, exiled to Egypt, raised in Nazareth, rejected
by his own people, and ultimately crucified and resurrected, all those things,
in precise detail happened in the life of only one man: Jesus. According to one
count, over 300 predictions were fulfilled in Jesus’ life and death! That is
beyond any reasonable mathematical probability. There is only one explanation: In
the fullness of time, God sent forth His Son.
This
child would be God, incarnate (23b). Like Luther said, “...the idea that God became
a man, I can follow the idea...” but in truth it is a difficult concept to
grasp! Like Paul said of Him in his
letter to the Philippians, “...who,
though He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as
something to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant...”
God became man, “...the Word was made
flesh and dwelt among us...”
This
child would be human, born of a woman. In one of his sermons Augustine
eloquently described the wonder of the incarnation as follows...
The Word of the Father, by whom all time was created,
was made flesh and was born in time for us. He, without whose divine permission
no day completes its course, wished to have one day for his human birth. In the
bosom of the Father He existed before all the cycles of the ages; born of an
earthly mother, he entered upon the course of the years on this day.
The Maker
of men became man that He, the ruler of the stars, might be nourished at the
breast; that He the Bread, might be hungry; that He, the fountain, might
thirst; that He the Light, might sleep; that He the Way, might be wearied on
the journey; that He the Truth, might be accused by false witnesses; that He
the Judge of the living and the dead might be brought to trial by a mortal judge;
that He Justice, might be condemned by the unjust; that He, Discipline, might
be scourged by whips; that He, the
Foundation, might be suspended on a Cross; that Courage might be weakened; that
security might be wounded; that Life might die.
To endure these and similar indignities for
us, to free us, unworthy creatures, He who existed as the Son of God before all
ages, without a beginning, deigned to become the Son of Man in these recent
years. He did this, although He who submitted to such great evils for our sake
had done no evil, and although we, who were the recipients of so much good at
His hands had done nothing to merit these benefits... (from Sermons on
Liturgical Seasons).
What grace! What love! He did all of that willingly,
for us. He came to take our sins in His own body on the Cross—to be “...made sin for us, that we might be made the
righteousness of God in Him...” God became
a man to make a way for us to have peace with God.
This
child would be Jesus, the One and only Savior. Notice the obedience of Joseph.
“He did not know her until she gave birth
to a Son...” There would be no questions, no doubt about the virgin birth.
And He obeyed the word of the Lord, and named Him “Jesus.” And there is no
other name under heaven, given among men, by which we must be saved. So Joseph
believed God, and He obeyed Him.
What is God
saying to me in this passage? The
miracle of the virgin birth proves who Jesus is, and it was a prelude to what He
came to accomplish: the salvation of a people for Himself. Come, let us adore
Him, Christ, the Lord!
What would God have me to do in
response to this passage? The central goal of my preaching is always to
help us see God more clearly, to know Him better, because to know Him is
to love Him. Love for God is also our motivation to seek to “make Him known,”
to spread His fame through our region and ultimately the world. This second
Sunday of Advent, as we share the Table, let us remember why He came, let us
remember who He is and what He did. Christmas should stir our hearts to love
Him more. Let us worship Him together. Come
worship the King! AMEN.
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