Lord Jesus, you came.
Speak to us now from your word.
Exalt your name.
Fill us with gratitude and praise
for what you have done.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Matthew chapter one, verses 18 to 25.
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.
And her husband, Joseph, being a just man
and unwilling to put her to shame,
resolved to divorce her quietly.
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.
She will bear a son,
and you shall call his name Jesus,
for he will save his people from their sins.
All this took place to fulfill
what the Lord had spoken by the prophet,
behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and they shall call his name Emmanuel,
which means God with us.
When Joseph woke from sleep,
he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him.
He took his wife,
but knew her not until she had given birth to a son,
and he called his name Jesus.
This is God's holy and authoritative word.
In Western cultures,
many parents choose their children's names
not based on their meaning,
but for other reasons,
such as to preserve the name of a relative
or for the way it sounds.
But in many other cultures in the world,
including the Jewish culture
that we find here in chapter 1 of Matthew,
parents chose their names based on their meaning.
And at crucial points of the Bible,
God names certain individuals.
For example, in Genesis 17, 1 to 6,
God renames Abram to Abraham
because God will make him a father of many nations.
And in Genesis 32, 28,
God renames Jacob Israel
because he wrestled with God
to ensure, to secure a blessing
that will become,
and he will become the father of the nation of Israel.
So in our passage,
Jesus is named after his birth,
and in his name,
we see clues to his identity and mission,
namely that Jesus is the divine Messiah
who saves his people from their sins.
We'll explore that further
by looking more specifically
at Jesus' identity as the Christ
and as God and as Savior.
So we'll follow that outline.
That Jesus is the Christ,
he's God, and he's Savior.
So let's first look at his identity as Christ.
By beginning his gospel,
as we saw last week,
with the genealogy of Jesus,
Matthew showed us that Jesus really is the promised,
the prophesied Christ, the Messiah.
He was the son of Abraham and the son of David.
There was a slight problem, however,
in that genealogy,
because after carefully tracing Jesus' lineage
from Abraham and through David to Joseph,
Matthew noted in verse 16
that Joseph is the husband of Mary,
of whom Jesus was born.
He specifically didn't say
that Joseph is the father of Jesus.
That was the pattern that was followed
all throughout the genealogy,
so-and-so, the father of so-and-so,
but here he deviates from that to show us
that Joseph was not Jesus' biological father.
Now, since the lineage is traced through the father,
how can Jesus be the Christ
if he is not a child of Joseph
who is descended from King David,
and the Messiah is supposed to be a son of David?
So Matthew answers that question in our passage
by telling us that Jesus was conceived
by the Holy Spirit
and born of the Virgin Mary,
and that Joseph adopted him
and made him a son of David,
in a sense, through that adoption.
So let's look at verses 18 to 19.
It says,
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,
and her husband Joseph,
being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame,
resolved to divorce her quietly.
So some of you might be wondering at this point,
if they were only engaged,
why did Joseph need to divorce Mary?
For Jews during this time,
the marriage process had two formal steps.
The first stage was the betrothal.
It was an agreement to marry,
formalized by the exchange of the bright price
in the presence of witnesses.
And after that engagement,
the woman was considered legally married,
legally to belong to the man.
And they were referred to as husband and wife.
And so if you are to,
so it's not like the engagements nowadays,
which is very public,
but does often get broken off.
The breaking off the engagement
was considered a divorce,
which is why after Joseph finds out
that Mary is pregnant,
he resolves to divorce her.
So betrothal is the first stage
of the marriage process,
and the second stage
was the actual wedding ceremony
and the consummation of the marriage
through physical union.
Now, we know that Joseph and Mary
were at the first stage,
but not yet at the second stage
because verse 18 tells us
that Mary was found to be with child
from the Holy Spirit
before they came together.
That's the second step.
Before they had conjugal relations.
So this tells us clearly
that Mary was a virgin.
She was not pregnant from union with a man.
Rather, conception was from the Holy Spirit.
But Joseph, at this point of the story,
is not aware of the fact
that she had conceived from the Holy Spirit.
And you can imagine how distressing
the discovery of Mary's pregnancy
would have been for Joseph.
Imagine yourself in his shoes.
Here is a woman whom he loved,
whom he courted,
a woman who had been engaged to him,
who belonged to him,
and he to her,
the woman he cherished,
was looking forward to a lifetime of marriage with
and before their wedding day,
before they had enjoyed conjugal relations,
he or she is pregnant.
Under normal circumstances,
that can only mean one thing,
infidelity.
She had betrayed Joseph's trust
and given her body to another man,
is what Joseph would have thought.
And according to Old Testament law,
Deuteronomy 22, 13 to 24,
a woman who was discovered
not to have been a virgin
at the time of her wedding,
or a woman who slept with another man
during her betrothal period,
was to be stoned to death
to purge the evil from among them.
And since under Roman rule,
Jews had no right
to mete out capital punishment,
by the first century,
the usual punishment was not death,
but divorce.
So at this point,
Joseph had a couple obvious choices before him.
He could have hidden Mary's pregnancy
to save face
and just married her
and then despise her
for the rest of his life.
Or he could expose Mary's infidelity
through a public trial
and divorce her,
which would have been a normal process.
That would have brought great shame
not only upon Mary,
but also on Joseph
and Mary's entire family.
But Joseph opts for neither of these options.
Verse 19 says,
and her husband Joseph,
being a just man
and unwilling to put her to shame,
resolved to divorce her quietly.
The fact that he was a just man
does not mean that he was merciful
or considerate toward Mary.
The word just means righteous.
It means to do what the law requires.
And because Joseph was a just man,
Joseph resolved to divorce Mary.
That was the right thing to do.
The lawful thing to do.
However,
because he was unwilling to put her to shame,
Joseph resolved to divorce her quietly.
So the conjunction translated,
and there is probably better translated
as an adversative,
yet or but.
Her husband Joseph,
being a just man,
yet unwilling to put her to shame,
resolved to divorce her quietly.
That's exactly how the New International Version
translates it.
It says this,
because Joseph,
her husband,
was faithful to the law
and yet did not want to expose her
to public disgrace,
he had in mind to divorce her quietly.
Joseph was a just man
and yet a merciful man.
He's a great guy to be named after.
He had in mind to divorce her quietly.
But if Joseph actually divorced Mary,
that would have been a disaster
because Jesus,
being the messianic son of David,
depended on him being adopted legally by Joseph,
who was descended from David.
So the angel of the Lord intervenes,
verses 20 to 21.
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.
She will bear a son
and you shall call his name Jesus,
for he will save his people from their sins.
It was the legal responsibility of the father
to name his child
and in naming the child,
he was acknowledging that the child is his heir.
And so that was the official process.
And so we see that concept displayed
in the Old Testament as well.
In Isaiah 43, verse 1,
what does God say to his firstborn Israel?
He says,
I have called you by name
to the nation of Israel.
I have called you by name,
you are mine.
It's by naming that you claim an heir
as a child, as a son.
And so the angel here addresses Joseph
specifically as a son of David
to confirm exactly what is at stake.
Nothing less than Jesus' very Davidic lineage,
his messianic heritage,
is at stake.
And this is why Joseph's role
in this birth narrative is indispensable.
So despite Joseph's reservations,
the angel commands him to do this,
do these things.
Take Mary as your wife first
and then name the son
she will give birth to Jesus.
I know there are some of you
who have been adopted.
I think it's cool that our Savior
was adopted in this way.
Verses 24 to 25
tells us of Joseph's obedience
by echoing the angel's commands.
It says,
when Joseph woke from sleep,
he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him.
He took his wife,
but knew her not
until she had given birth to a son,
and he called his name Jesus.
It's by Joseph's naming
and claiming Jesus as his own
that Jesus officially becomes
the son of David.
And as we saw last week,
Jesus is the one
who fulfills in this way
God's promise to David
in 2 Samuel 7, 12 to 14.
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.
Jesus is the one
who establishes God's kingdom forever.
Jesus is the prophesied Christ.
He is the king,
the anointed one,
the ruler.
His subjects, then,
we exist to honor him,
to love and serve him.
Those of you who have put your faith
in Jesus Christ
and are therefore living,
or those of you who have not done that
and are now living in disobedience to God
are under the tyranny of Satan.
You're still under the dominion,
the domain of evil,
the evil one.
And that's why this world
is full of rebellion.
Everywhere we turn,
we meet cultural forces
that are hostile to God
and his purposes and priorities.
Everywhere we turn,
we meet,
we hear the name of our king,
Jesus,
used as a curse word.
Ministers of the gospel
are but of a joke,
and the word of God
is scorned and mocked.
But we are a people
who must plant our flag
and declare that we follow
a different king,
that we have the king,
Jesus,
the Christ who has come.
We're no longer under the rule
of the prince of the power of the air,
the evil spirit.
In other words,
nations and kingdoms,
geopolitical entities,
militaries, political parties,
various philosophies and ideologies
that clamor for our allegiance,
that clamor for our votes
and our subscriptions,
our money,
and our obedience,
that fight for our allegiance
to their flags,
must recognize
and hear our declaration
that we have pledged allegiance
to a different king.
And that we can partner
with the people of this world
only in so far
as they are advancing
the purposes
and priorities
of our Lord.
This is something
that's important for us
to remember
as we live as Christians.
It's Christ's priorities
that must define our lives
because Christ is our king
and the gospel
is our charter.
The word of God
is our constitution.
Worship is our anthem.
So Jesus is the Christ.
He's the king that has come
and he will come again
to exert full authority
and power over the earth.
And in addition
to being the Christ,
Matthew tells us
that Jesus is also God.
He is the incarnate God,
the son of God
who has taken on human flesh.
This is hinted at
in verses 18 and 20
where twice we are told
that Jesus was conceived
in Mary
from the Holy Spirit.
I mean, imagine that.
No wonder Joseph
was hesitant
to approach Mary
and to have conjugal relations
with her
even after the wedding ceremony.
Right?
It said in verse 24 to 25,
Joseph took his wife
but knew her not
until she had given birth
to a son.
The word know
is a biblical euphemism
for sexual intimacy.
For example,
Genesis 4 once
says,
Now Adam knew Eve,
his wife,
and she conceived
and bore Cain.
Joseph refused
to know his wife
even when it was appropriate
for him to do so
until she had given birth
to Jesus.
Matthew is making it
extra clear
that Jesus is not
a child of Joseph
and Mary's sexual union.
It's not hard
to understand
why Joseph
was apprehensive
about approaching Mary
in this way.
This virgin
is pregnant
from the Holy Spirit.
Something sacred
has taken place
inside her.
Something holy
has happened to her.
Something divine
is in her womb.
How can I,
a mere man,
Joseph the carpenter,
approach her
and have conjugal relations?
Some people will say
that it is impossible
for a man
who is lawfully wedded
to a wife
to be sexually inactive
for such an extended
period of time,
but Joseph's example
teaches us
that self-control
is possible.
And notice how delicate
and restrained
Matthew is
in his description
of Mary's conception.
Ancient Greco-Roman
mythology
is full of lurid tales
of Greek
and Roman gods
impregnating
human women,
thereby producing
demigods
who are partly
God and partly human,
inferior deities.
But such myths
have more in common
with the disobedient
angelic beings
taking human wives
for themselves
and giving birth
to the Nephilim
in Genesis 6,
and it's quite far
removed from
this account
of Mary's conception.
Matthew's unadorned
account of Mary's
conception
is a stark contrast
to these elaborate
mythologies.
Look at how he
so carefully avoids
any insinuation
of sexual activity.
Rather,
he says,
the angel simply says,
that which is conceived
in her
is from the Holy Spirit.
I'll add that
there's no mention here
of the Catholic doctrine
of immaculate
conception,
claiming that Mary
was born without
original sin
and never sinned
personally.
Mary was not sinless.
Jesus is the only
sinless human.
In fact,
to claim that Mary
was sinless
and that only
a sinless woman
could give birth
to Jesus
runs in the face
of Jesus' genealogy,
which we looked at
last week,
which showed that
Jesus is descended
from incestualists
and murderers
and adulterers
and idolaters
child sacrificers
and prostitutes,
among other things,
to show that
Jesus really did
take on humanity
with all its
sinful history,
its sordid history
upon himself.
And that in his
saving grace,
that Jesus really did
and really embraced
sinners
and saved them
by dying on the cross
for them.
There's also no hint
of the Catholic doctrine
of Mary's
perpetual virginity,
the claim that
Mary remained a virgin
for the rest of her life.
Verse 25 does not say
that Joseph never slept
with Mary for the rest
of her life.
It says,
Joseph knew Mary not
until she had given
birth to a son,
which implies that
after Mary gave birth
to Jesus,
Joseph and Mary
assumed normal
marital relations
like any couple.
people.
That's why later
in chapter 13,
verse 55-56,
Matthew notes that
Jesus had brothers
and sisters.
But Jesus was set
apart from all of them.
He was conceived
like no other human
being in history
because even though
he was truly man,
a son of Mary,
he wasn't merely a man,
he was conceived
from the Holy Spirit.
And the prophecy
from Isaiah 7-14,
which Matthew cites
in verses 22-23
confirms this reality.
Matthew is known
for often citing
Old Testament scriptures
and then demonstrating
how Jesus fulfilled it.
He does this over 10 times
throughout his Gospels
and five of them occur
right here in the birth narrative.
And so sometimes
people call this
the formula quotations.
It's the fulfillment
formula quotations.
So he'll show us,
we'll see these
throughout chapters
one and two.
But the one that he
has in view here
is Isaiah 7-14.
Read verses 22-23 with me.
All this took place
to fulfill what the Lord
has spoken by the prophet.
Behold,
the virgin shall conceive
and bear a son
and they shall call
his name Emmanuel,
which means God with us.
The word translated
virgin here
refers in scripture
to a young woman
of marriageable age
that is not married.
So someone who has not
known a man sexually.
For example,
in Genesis 24-43,
Abraham's servant
who is searching
for marriageable women
for Abraham's son Isaac
asks God specifically
to reveal to him
the virgin
that he has prepared
for Isaac.
I don't have the time
to get into
how this prophecy
was fulfilled
in the immediate context
of Isaiah,
but this prophecy
finds its ultimate fulfillment
in the coming of Jesus.
And it predicts
the nature of Jesus' birth
with remarkable
specificity
and precision.
The virgin
shall conceive
and bear a son.
And here's another name
by which Jesus is known,
Emmanuel,
which means God with us.
Because Jesus is
the son of God himself,
because Jesus is conceived
from the Holy Spirit,
when Jesus is born,
God is with us.
Jesus is not only fully man,
but he is fully God.
He's the incarnate God,
the God who has taken
on human flesh.
And this is why
Jesus does not stop
people from worshiping him
throughout his lifetime
on earth.
All pious people,
all godly people,
in case you didn't know this,
if people start
bowing down to you
and worshiping you,
you're supposed to stop them.
Because you're not supposed
to be worshiped.
Acts 10, 24 to 26,
Cornelius falls
at the feet of Peter,
worships him,
lifts him up,
saying,
Peter lifts him up,
saying,
stand up,
I too am a man.
Don't worship a man.
Even angels
refuse to be worshiped.
In Revelation 22,
verses 8 to 9,
when John falls
and worships
at the feet of an angel,
he says to John,
you must not
do that.
I am a fellow servant
with you
and your brothers,
the prophets,
and with those
who keep the word
of this book.
Worship God.
The great apostle Peter
refuses to be worshiped.
Even the angels
refuse to be worshiped.
And here is Jesus
throughout his life.
People bow down to him
and worship him
and he receives it.
Matthew 2, verse 11,
the wise men come.
They fall down
and worship him.
Matthew 14, 32,
after Jesus walks
on the water
and calms the wind,
he says that his disciples
worshipped him,
saying,
truly,
you are the son of God.
Jesus does not
correct them.
In Matthew 28,
verse 9,
when Mary Magdalene
and the other Mary
that's with her
visiting Jesus'
empty tomb
encounter Jesus,
the resurrected Jesus,
he says that
they came up
and took hold
of his feet
and worshipped him.
In Matthew 28,
verse 17,
it says that Jesus'
eleven disciples,
when they saw
the resurrected Jesus,
they worshipped him.
And that is right.
Because Jesus is God.
If he were not God,
that would be idolatrous.
It would be the height
of human pride
and presumption
to receive worship.
But Jesus is Emmanuel,
God with us.
That's why it's not only
appropriate,
but necessary.
It is incumbent upon us
to worship him.
So Jesus is the Christ,
the Messiah,
and not just a human one.
He is the divine Messiah.
And that brings us
to my third point
that Matthew tells
about Jesus,
that he is Savior.
The angel who appears
to Joseph says
in verse 21,
Mary will bear a son
and you shall call
his name Jesus.
For he will save
his people
from their sins.
The name Jesus
means the Lord saves.
And since Jesus
is Lord,
Emmanuel,
God with us,
it is Jesus himself
who will save
his people
from their sins.
This is wonderful.
It's wonderful
that he's named Jesus,
isn't it?
Jesus could have been named
a lot of other things.
He could have been named
Neziah,
the one who conquers.
He could have been named
Daniel,
the God who judges.
He could have been named
a lot of other things.
But his name
is Jesus.
the one who saves.
One who will save
his people
from their sins.
The Jewish people
were familiar
with political subjugation
and military conquest.
I mentioned
that they were conquered
and oppressed
by many foreign nations,
Assyrians,
Babylonians,
Persians,
Greeks,
Romans
at the time of Jesus.
But what caused
their subjection
and their oppression
was their own sin
and idolatry.
Because they were
unfaithful to God.
Because they were
an adulterous people.
Because they were
disloyal and treasonous
toward God,
their king.
They experienced
the curse
of the covenant.
And so the obstacle
that God's people faced
was far bigger
than the Roman Empire.
They needed nothing less
than to be saved
from their sins.
In our day too,
we have our own share
of suffering
and oppression.
We want to be saved
from a housing crisis,
from a climate catastrophe,
from a global pandemic,
from economic depression,
from social injustices,
from world hunger,
from a mental illness epidemic.
There's a lot of things
we want to be saved from.
But there is one thing
that is more urgent
and more pressing
and consequential
than any of those things.
And that is
that we must be saved
from our sins.
Because sin is the cause,
the root of our alienation
from God.
Sin is the reason
for people's
eternal damnation.
Sin is the root
of all the diseases
and disasters
and deaths
that have entered our world.
sin is the reason
for the hostility
and hatred
between peoples.
Do you give appropriate attention
to dealing with the sins
in your own life?
Or are you more preoccupied
with your suffering,
with your external circumstances?
sickness and sufferings
do not separate people
from God.
But sin does.
And sin is not something
we can never,
sin is not something
we can ever contain
by quarantining.
Sin hides.
Sin lurks within us.
Sin spreads.
Sin infects.
Sin kills.
Not only physically,
but even more gravely,
spiritually.
In his book
of the mortification of sin,
17th century English theologian
John Owen says this,
Do you mortify sin?
Do you kill sin?
Do you make it
your daily work?
Be always at it
whilst you live.
Seize not a day
from this work.
Be killing sin,
or it will be killing you.
For those of you
who are not yet followers
of Jesus,
what is your solution
for sin?
Do you have a way
making atonement
for sin?
Do you have a way
of earning forgiveness
from God,
of being reconciled
to Him?
Romans 6, 23
tells us that
the wages of sin
is death.
Hebrews 9, 22
tells us that
without the shedding
of blood,
there is no
forgiveness of sins.
The inescapable punishment
for sin is death.
And the holy wrath
of God cannot be appeased
without the shedding
of blood.
But the good news
for all of us
is that
because God
so loved us,
He sent
His son,
only son,
His only son
named Jesus
to save His people
from their sins.
Jesus does this
by shedding
not our blood,
but His own blood
on the cross.
Jesus dies
in our place
as the substitutionary
sacrifice
is by His death
that He takes,
makes atonement
for sin,
and He is raised
from the dead
to show us
one sin for all
that He has defeated
sin.
that all who trust
in Him
can be guaranteed
resurrection,
eternal life,
be united
with Jesus
through faith.
That was Jesus'
mission on earth.
Jesus did many
good works
during His time
on earth.
He healed the sick,
He even raised
the dead,
but Jesus'
central mission
was not any
of those things.
It was to give
His life
as a ransom
for many,
as Matthew 20,
28 says.
It was to save
His people
from their sins,
Matthew 1,
21.
Likewise,
then,
we as Christians
should love
our neighbors
and do many
good works
wherever we are,
in the classrooms,
in the libraries,
in the labs,
in the courts,
in the banks,
in the offices,
in the studios,
in the homes,
in the marketplaces.
We should abound
in good works,
do many
of these good works,
but the central
mission of the church
is to proclaim
the name of Jesus,
is to make disciples
of Jesus Christ.
So let's not lose
sight of that mission
that the Lord Jesus
has given us.
Let's not forget
the good news
that Jesus is
the divine Messiah
who saves people
from their sins
and declare that news
to all nations
to the end of the earth.
Let's pray.
God,
we thank you
for
giving your son
the name
Jesus.
it's a name
we could say
to ourselves
over and over again.
We could sing
the praises
of that name.
That name
can be on our lips
all day long,
every day.
Amen.
And it would not
lose its sweetness.
Because you have
saved us
through Jesus
from our sins.
Lord, we praise you.
Help us
to remember that.
To live in light
of that.
In Jesus' name
we pray.
Amen.