As we continue to reflect on the birth of the Savior, let's take our Bibles and open them up to the book of Matthew this morning.
The book of Matthew. If you're using the pew Bibles there in front of you, you can find that on page 757 of the Bibles there in front of you.
And we will read from verses 18 through verse 25 this morning. Matthew chapter 1 verses 18 through 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 his 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 his son, and he called his name Jesus.
Jesus, and this is the word of God.
Let's bow once more and pray as we open it up this morning.
Lord, again, we thank you for the birth of Christ that we've just read about.
We thank you for your unfailing word and the many ways that you've promised his coming,
and promised his coming, and promised his coming, and now he's here.
And we pray now as we reflect on these words that, again, Lord, you would stir our hearts to worship you.
We pray this in Christ's name.
Amen.
Sadly, I don't have the best memory in the world, but I do distinctly remember the birth of each one of my children.
We have three boys.
You can probably hear them from time to time.
And from time to time, Amanda and I will flip through pages of old pictures and old videos from when they were just born,
and it brings back just the flood of memories of what it was like as we were getting ready for them to come.
Were we ready?
Were we prepared?
Did we have enough supplies?
Did we have enough diapers?
Was there enough of the things that we needed into the house?
We remember the trip to the hospital and me trying not to complain about how cold the room was
or how hungry I was while Amanda was working hard to bring these babies into the world.
And then, of course, the sheer joy of finally laying eyes on our newborn baby, holding him into our arms.
There's absolutely nothing like it.
And we had glimpses along the way.
There were pictures and ultrasound images along the way.
There were the kicks and the bumps that told you that a child was coming.
But that moment when he finally came and you could look him in his eyes, hold him in your arms, look him right in the face,
you just can't take your eyes off of him.
And there's almost no words to express how beautiful of a moment that is.
And we've been through the same experience now three times, but for us, each one was unique and special
and just as exhilarating and exciting as the last.
But, of course, as special as those births were to us, in the grand scheme of things,
they are not really all that unique.
About 385,000 babies are born every day on our planet.
That's over 140 million babies per year.
And all of the stories of how these babies were made, how they were carried,
how they were brought into the world are all, for the most part, going to be fairly similar.
But here at Christmas, we tell the story of the most unique birth in the history of the world.
And this was a birth that was unlike any other.
It was certainly the most unique birth story in the story of mankind.
And if you don't understand what makes the birth of Jesus just so special,
you might be asking this morning,
why in the world do Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus in the way that we do?
Why this one baby out of all the babies born every day throughout the world,
all the babies throughout church history and the history of mankind,
why do we make so much out of the birth of this child, especially here at Christmas?
What makes this birth so special?
And so the answer, of course, is that there has never been a child born like this.
Never has there ever been a child born like this.
So this morning, I want to focus our attention on this question.
What makes this child so special?
Why do we celebrate the birth of Jesus?
What makes this child so special?
Why do we fix our attention on this birth?
Why do we worship this child?
And what we'll see this morning in our time together is three answers to that question this morning.
This will be our outline if you're following along, taking notes.
Three answers to this question.
It's that he was miraculously born,
he was biblically foretold,
and he was purposefully sent.
Three reasons this birth is so special.
He was miraculously born,
biblically foretold,
and purposefully sent.
First,
this child is special because he was miraculously born.
In verse 18 of our passage,
it says that 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.
Now,
some of you,
I know you get so tired of television shows,
things that you watch on television,
books that you read,
because they're just so filled with drama,
and scandal,
and tension,
and so you close,
you turn off the shows,
and you open up your Bible instead.
But here in the very first moments of Jesus' story,
it's a scandal,
drama,
and tension.
Mary and Joseph were betrothed,
and this was similar to our engagement period,
but it was much,
much more formal than that.
People in our culture,
they break off engagements all the time,
and although that is serious,
there's really no consequence,
it's not such a big deal,
but here in this culture,
to be betrothed,
it meant that you were legally bound to be married.
So you weren't husband and wife quite yet,
but you were legally heading that way,
and since they were not officially yet husband and wife,
they were not to come together as husband and wife,
until that moment came.
Yet,
even though they were not officially husband and wife yet,
according to Mosaic law,
any sexual unfaithfulness during this betrothal period
constituted adultery,
and if punished to the fullest extent,
would result in the death penalty,
by stoning for the guilty party.
This was a scandal.
It's a young, unmarried couple,
a pregnant wife-to-be,
the threat of death,
public embarrassment,
and Joseph,
being a much better man than me,
verse 19,
says he resolved instead to divorce her quietly.
He didn't want to bring any public shame on Mary.
But as he considered these things,
an angel of the Lord came to him in a dream,
saying,
Joseph,
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.
In other words,
this birth,
this child,
is not the result of infidelity.
This child is unique.
There's something special here
that's utterly unique to Jesus.
No other baby in the history of the world
came into the world like this.
He was conceived of the Holy Spirit,
not by natural means,
but conceived of the Holy Spirit,
and born of a virgin.
And of course,
theologically liberal scholars
have gone to town with this,
coming up with reason after reason after reason
why this just could not be true.
Nobody is born of a virgin.
Simple science tells us that that is impossible.
Virgins don't have babies.
So this is just a story that the church has come up with
to promote the name of Jesus.
And in one sense,
we have to agree with them that,
yes, this is not ordinary,
or natural,
or scientifically probable.
It is, by definition,
a miracle.
And without it,
this baby would not be worthy
of our worship.
Scientifically speaking,
I'm not sure if you've had this talk yet or not,
but here we go.
Stick with me.
Every child has to have both a mother and a father.
You've got to have both.
Both of those are required to have a baby.
And babies come into the world
with characteristics
from both their mother and their father.
So they might have their father's eyes,
and their mother's nose,
and their father's ears,
and their mother's hair.
And as they get older,
you start to see that develop
in their personality as well.
So people that know the family well
might say something like,
wow, she talks just like her,
mom.
Or a grandparent might say,
I remember when you used to walk around
and do exactly what he's doing.
All of us,
born of human flesh,
we inherit
what we call a sin nature.
We are born into sin.
So every man,
every woman
that is descended from Adam,
we inherit from our father,
Adam,
his sinful nature.
And so we act like our father.
We talk like our father.
We think like our father.
We get his sinful ways
passed down to us.
But not Jesus.
Not Jesus.
Jesus was different.
He was born of a virgin.
Conceived by the Holy Spirit.
Joseph,
although he was not the physical father of Jesus,
he adopted Jesus as his own.
He was not his biological father.
He did not inherit Adam's sin nature.
Jesus was totally God
and totally man.
That is a miracle.
And unlike you and me,
he did not come into this world
with a nature corrupted by sin.
He came in with a real humanity
inherited from his mother's side.
And on his father's side,
he was as he has always been.
The eternal son of God.
Infinite.
Eternal.
Unchangeable.
Holy.
And righteous.
In this birth,
God became man.
He took on our human nature.
The eternal son of God
stepped into our mess.
He took on our weak human flesh
to live in our place.
And see,
because he did not have a sin nature
like you and me,
he was able to resist it.
To overcome it.
But because he was fully human
like you and me,
he was able to redeem sinful man.
He was able to succeed
where Adam and you and I have failed.
He was able to live perfectly
in the place of sinners
like you and me
who have failed over and over
and over again.
And without this perfect life
from a perfect sinless child,
we could not have any hope
of salvation.
Without the virgin birth,
we could not be saved.
If he was just another child
born in just an ordinary way,
descended from Adam,
born into sin,
friend,
there would be no hope of salvation.
There would be no reason
to make much of this birth.
There would be no reason
to celebrate the birth of Christ.
But we praise God
that this child is special
and his birth was miraculous.
Second,
this child is special
because his birth
was biblically foretold.
Matthew highlights this for us
in a couple of ways here.
One is by just repeatedly telling us
that this child is a son of David.
He's a son of David,
son of David,
son of David.
Matthew has that track
on repeat for us here.
In verse 20,
the angel appears to Joseph
and refers to Joseph
as Joseph,
son of David.
The beginning of the book of Matthew,
the genealogy.
He traces the genealogy
of Jesus Christ.
What does it say?
The son of David.
Verse 17,
it says the generations
from Abraham to David.
You see where he's focusing
our attention here.
From Abraham to David
were 14 generations.
And then from David
to the deportation
to Babylon,
14 generations.
And from the deportation
to Babylon
to the Christ,
14 generations.
It's so easy to skip over
that part of Matthew
and just pass right by it.
But Matthew is going out
of his way
to show us
that this child,
even though Joseph
was not his physical father,
because Joseph adopted him
as his own,
he has full legal claim
to the throne
of David,
the king.
And this was significant,
of course,
because God had promised
David something
in 2 Samuel chapter 7.
Back in the Old Testament,
thousands of years
before Christ arrived,
he promised David
a child
from his line
who would come
and reign forever.
The throne
of his kingdom
would be established forever
and his kingdom
would never end.
Matthew,
in his own way,
is drawing a line,
as it were,
from this promise
in Samuel
all the way
to the birth
of Christ,
saying,
this is him.
This is the one.
This is the king
that we've been waiting for.
This is the Messiah.
This is the long-awaited ruler
of the world
whose kingdom
will never end.
This is the birth
of the promised one.
He also draws
a line
to a prophecy
from Isaiah.
We've been spending
some time
reading from Isaiah
last night
and this morning.
Here in verse 22,
he says,
all of 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.
You see,
the writers
of the New Testament,
they did a much
better job
interpreting
their Old Testament
than we tend to.
Right?
We read our Old Testament,
we tend to read it
just as stories
with morals,
kind of disconnected
stories about what
God has done
and events
that happened
in the past.
But what it really is
is a story
of preparation
for the coming Messiah.
So ever since
the entrance
of sin
into the world
back in Genesis
chapter 3,
God has been
making promises
that he would
one day
send a child.
One who would
break the curse
of sin.
One that would
crush the head
of the serpent.
One who would
come and rule
and reign
and redeem
what has been
lost by sin
and all the way
through the Old Testament
there were these
faint images,
bumps,
and kicks
of a child
on the way.
And now Matthew
says that time
has finally come.
The child
is here.
He's here.
The promised one
has come exactly
as God has told us
again and again
and again.
He has come
exactly as the
word of God
has foretold.
You see,
the Old Testament
is written
in the key
of anticipation.
It's constantly
leaning forward
and waiting
and anticipating
this promised
coming
Son of God.
We have to read it
and understand it
this way,
leaning towards
the promised Messiah.
J. Barton Payne,
he says that there
are as many
as 574 verses
in the Old Testament
that in some way
point towards
the coming Messiah.
Alfred Edersheim,
he says that there
are 456 verses
in the Old Testament
that in some way
anticipate this
coming Messiah.
And even the most
conservative
estimates
say that there
are at least
300 prophecies
that Jesus fulfilled.
and I would be
inclined to go
on the high end
of those estimates.
And I just want you
just to stop
and think about
how incredible
that is
for a minute.
Maybe you've never
thought about this
or maybe
it's been a while
since you've thought
about this.
And maybe that you
don't even believe
a word that I'm saying
or maybe you're
getting ready
to leave here
and go spend
some time with family
who you know
don't believe a word
that we're saying
here.
Listen to this.
I've never been
great at math
and I'll leave
that to the experts
but some mathematicians
have taken it
upon themselves
to try to
mathematically
understand
the probability
of just one person
fulfilling these
prophecies
about the Messiah.
Dr. Peter Stoner
was one of them.
You may be familiar
with his work
with this story.
Dr. Stoner
was the chairman
of the departments
of mathematics
and astronomy
at Pasadena City College
and was the chairman
of the science division
at Westmont College.
In other words
he was way smarter
than me.
Okay?
One of those
big brain academics.
And he set out
to find
the probability
mathematical probability
of one person
fulfilling
just eight
of the clearest
Old Testament
prophecies
of the Messiah.
Just eight.
In other words
he wanted to make this
as agreeable
as he possibly could
to non-believers
to skeptics
so the clearest
possible
eight messianic prophecies
in the Old Testament
that undeniably
happened
in Jesus' life
put the two together.
What are the odds
that one person
could fulfill
just eight
of these prophecies?
So for those of you
who are keeping score
this is what they
looked for.
What is the probability
that one individual
would be born
in Bethlehem
as Micah 5.2 foretold?
That there would be
a forerunner
of that individual
a prophet
who would come
announcing his coming
as Malachi 3.1 said?
That this individual
would enter Jerusalem
on a donkey
as we see
in Zechariah 9.9
that he would be
betrayed by a close friend
as we see
in Psalm 41.9
that he would be
betrayed for just
30 pieces of silver
as Zechariah 11.13
tells us.
That this same individual
would remain silent
during his trial
although the consensus
would be that he
later would be deemed
innocent
as we see
in Isaiah 53.7
and that this same
individual
would eventually
be crucified
on a cross
as Psalm 22.16
foretold.
What's the probability
of one person
doing all of this
exactly as these
eight prophecies
foretold?
And again
it's undeniable
just from a
sheerly historical
standpoint
that all eight
of these events
were true
of Jesus'
life.
This was as
conservative
as he could
possibly get.
What are the odds
that one person
could fulfill
eight undeniable
Old Testament
prophecies?
And they determined
this.
This is what he said.
The chance
that any man
might have
fulfilled
all eight prophecies
is one
in ten
to the
seventeenth.
That would be
one in
one hundred
quadrillion.
Okay?
So if you're
writing down notes
that's one
with seventeen
zeros
followed
at the end
of it.
One with seventeen
zeros
at the end.
Just to put that
in perspective
for you
the odds
of us
any one
of us
getting struck
by lightning
sometime
in our life
is one
in fifteen
thousand
three hundred.
The odds
of any of us
winning the
Powerball jackpot
are one
in two hundred
ninety-two
million.
That's just
six zeros.
The odds
of one man
fulfilling
just eight
of these
prophecies.
One
in one
hundred
quadrillion.
Ten
to the
seventeenth.
Stoner
says that
if we were
to take
ten
to the
seventeenth
silver
dollars
and lay
them over
the face
of the
state
of Texas
they would
cover
the entire
state
two feet
deep.
And then
he says
now mark
one of
these
silver
dollars
stir
the whole
mass
thoroughly
blindfold
a man
and tell
him he can
travel as
far as
he wishes
and just
pick up
one silver
dollar
and it
must be
the one
that was
marked.
What chance
would he have
of getting
the right
one?
He says
just the
same chance
that the
prophets
would have
had of
writing
these eight
prophecies
and having
them all
come true
in one
man
provided
they were
writing
in their
own
wisdom.
But as
we know
they were
not
writing
in their
own
wisdom.
These
were the
very
words
of God
foretelling
promising
anticipating
waiting
expecting
the birth
of this
son
of God.
When is
the last
time you
just
marveled
at what
a miracle
that is?
The
word of
God
promising
a
Messiah.
And just
thank God
for sending
his son
his faithfulness
to promise
and to
fulfill
and to
speak
and to
send.
Church we
worship
this
child
because
he
is
the
promised
Messiah
foretold
by the
scriptures
and sent
into the
world
by God
in order
to redeem
it.
Which is
the third
reason
this birth
is so
special.
The third
reason
this birth
is so
special
is because
this
child
was
purposefully
sent.
Purposefully
sent.
He was
born
with a
redemptive
purpose.
We
worship
this
child
not just
because of
how he
came into
the world
miraculously
but because
of what
he came
into the
world
to do.
Most of
the time
in our
culture
it's a
pretty big
deal to
name a
child.
You spend
months and
months
thinking about
it.
Oftentimes
the mother
has already
had a name
picked out
since she
was a
child and
so the
husband
doesn't
have to
do too
much
thinking
about it
at all.
But there
is always
thought and
purpose and
significance
to the
name that
is given
to each
individual
child.
The same
is true
for Hebrew
culture but
even more
so in a
strange way
a lot of
times biblical
names are
not only
descriptive
they're also
prescriptive.
In a strange
way they
sometimes tell
us a bit
about what
a person
will be
like.
For example
Jacob
you see it
means heel
or trickster
and of course
he was a
trickster.
He tricked
Esau out
of his
birthright.
Jonah
means dove
it was a
word in
that culture
for foolishness
fleetiness
and as we
know Jonah
the prophet
was told
to go one
way and
he fled
and went
the exact
opposite
away from
the call
of God.
Moses
it means
to pull
or to
draw out
and as we
know the
birth story
of Moses
he was drawn
out of the
water but
also he
would be
the one
to draw
Israel
out of
slavery
in Egypt
and here
we're given
two names
for the
Christ child
two names
that tell us
not only who
he is but
what he
came to
do.
The first
of course
is the
name of
Jesus.
Look there
to verse
21.
The angel
came to
Joseph to
talk him
off the
ledge
convince him
not to
divorce his
wife
that his
child was
no product
of infidelity
but rather
this is the
promised Messiah
come into
the world
and look at
what he says
in verse
21.
She will
bear a
son and
you shall
call his
name Jesus
for he
will save
his people
from their
sins.
As we
know the
name of
Jesus it
literally means
the Lord
saves.
It means
the Lord
is salvation.
The Lord
has come
to seek
and to
save
the lost.
We see a
second name
given here
in verse
23 as
Jesus fulfilled
the Old
Testament
prophecy of
Isaiah.
The angel
makes this
connection
that this
child in
the manger
his name
shall be
called
Emmanuel
which
means
God
with us.
You see
baked into
his very
name is
his purpose.
Not just
who he is
but also
what he
came to
earth
to do.
We celebrate
the birth
of Jesus
because this
child has
come to
seek and
to save
the lost.
His birth
was no
accident.
He was
sent with
a purpose.
He was
sent to
die in
the place
of sinners.
He was
sent to
restore what
has been
broken and
lost by the
curse of
sin.
He's
come to
put an
end to
suffering
and disease
and distress
and death
and to rise
from the
dead to
finally put
an end
to sin
and death
and the
grave for
all who
come to
him and
know him
and love
him by
faith.
That's why
he's come.
Because we
have strayed
far from
God.
God has
taken it
upon himself
to draw
near to
us in
Christ.
I can
think of
no better
way to
honor him
this Christmas
than to
honor the
purpose for
which he
came.
He came
that we
might believe
and by faith
in his name
that we
might have
our sins
forgiven.
Receive the
gift of
eternal life.
Have you
received that
gift?
Are you
rejoicing in
it this
Christmas?
See Christmas
time is a
time when
we remember
that out
of his
unfathomable
mercy and
grace God
looked down
upon our
sinful state
and said
they can't
come to be
with me.
Their sin
is too
great so
I will send
my son down
to them to
bring them
up to
me.
So we
worship this
child because
he is
Emmanuel.
God with
us.
Come to
save his
people.
from their
sins.
Church this
is a story
of a birth
like no
other.
As we
ponder the
miracle of
the birth of
Christ this
Christmas let's
give him
honor and
glory and
praise and
worship him
as he
deserves.
And as we
go from this
place this
morning to
whatever we
have planned
to do for
the rest of
the day let's
do as Mary
did and
treasure these
things up in
our hearts.
Take this
miraculous story
of this
incredible
birth and
behold this
child.
Hold him
close in
wonder and
rejoice and
then go and
spread the
word that
the Savior of
the world has
come.
Amen.
Let's pray.
Lord we
do rejoice
that the
Savior has
come and
we do
rejoice that
out of your
sheer mercy
and grace not
because of our
goodness not
because of
anything in
us but
because of
your mercy
and grace you
took it upon
yourself to
send your
son to
save sinners
like us.
What good
news of
great joy.
And we
pray Lord that
as we go from
this place that
those words would
be fresh on our
lips as we
gather with
friends and
family as we
reflect on the
birth of Christ.
Help us to be
quick to share
the good news
of what you've
come to do.
We love you.
We pray this in
Christ's name.
Amen.