"18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: when His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit. 19 And Joseph her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly. 20 But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. 21 She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” 22 Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet: 23 “Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which translated means, “God with us.” 24 And Joseph awoke from his sleep and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took Mary as his wife, 25 but kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a Son; and he called His name Jesus."
As you will remember, in our last message, we began our study in the Gospel of Matthew. I must confess, each time I study Matthew, I am in awe that as messed up as humanity is, God’s promises are always kept. Even the best of men, are miserable sinners, who fall far short of the glory of God. In fact, Romans 3 says "There is none who does good, There is not even one." God’s standards are high, you must be absolutely perfect. This all sounds rather hopeless doesn't it? Because we have all have sinned, and we cannot help ourselves. Fortunately, there's some good news in Romans chapter 5. "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." In other words, we do not have to stay under its control of sin or face its penalty. That is unless we choose to. Our futures will be dramatically affected by the choices we make.
Let us pray
Father, we thank You for Your Word. We ask for your wisdom to be made evident in this season. Clear away the confusion that plagues our nation and the world, and usher in Your provision and restoration. Lord, we pray for all of those in authority over us, we ask that You would direct their steps and guard them from deception. Speak to our hearts, give us the discernment to see Your activity in all the chaos that is before us. O gracious God, pour out your Spirit upon us. Grant us the courage and the boldness to proclaim the truth, unlike anything this world has ever witnessed. Lord, You are rich in mercy and delight in showing grace. Look upon Your people now.
In Christ's name we ask and pray
Amen
Today's Message: The Incomprehensible God
Open your Bibles with me to the book of
Matthew chapter 1, verses 18 through 25, where we find this detailed
announcement of the virgin birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. And, He will save His people from their sins. This is very important passage. I invite you to follow along with me as I read, to set the text in our minds, while we prepare our hearts for what the Lord is saying to each of us. Listen for the voice of our Lord. Matthew 1:18-25.
"Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: when His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit. And Joseph her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly. But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet: "Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel," which translated means, "God with us." And Joseph awoke from his sleep and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took Mary as his wife, but kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a Son; and he called His name Jesus."
Here, God emphasizes, through the angel, that Mary has been betrothed to Joseph,
she is pregnant with child, not because of any immoral union with Joseph or
anyone else, but by the Holy Spirit. We learn that Joseph is called
the "son of David," which is a curious thing and that the son that will be
born will be called Jesus and He will save his people from their sins.
Then, we're told that this Jesus was to be the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy,
a prophecy of a virgin birth, the birth of a son whose name would also
be called Emmanuel, meaning God with us. The detailed information that we
have before us was extremely important to the Jewish people of that
day because they would later need to verify His claim to be the Son of
David, the Messiah king.
Later, in Matthew's gospel, Jesus asked a question of the Pharisees, that has been asked of every generation ever since, "What do you think about the Christ, whose son is He?" They *said to Him, "The son of David." So, I ask all of you today, "Whose son is He?"
To be clear, the Jewish leaders believed that the promised Messiah would be from the royal lineage of David, they believed he would be the son of David. Quiet honestly, they weren’t sure of much more than that. By the way, the Jews of that day kept meticulous genealogical records. As we discussed previously, this very important. Jesus went on to demonstrate, not only that He must be the Christ, the physical descendant of David, but He would be the Messiah, the Son of God. Frankly, this was something that the Jews really didn’t understand. They rejected the idea that the Messiah would be God in human flesh. Therefore, they accused Him of blasphemy.
Today, I believe that many people today are content to let Jesus be a royal seed. They are content to let Him be a son of David. They are still denying that He is deity, God in human flesh. It’s all right for Him to be the son of David, but not the Son of God.
It is deeply disturbing to me, that in many aspects, even the evangelical church is not even ready to accept the deity of Jesus Christ, or His virgin birth. I would to add, do not ever base your theology on majority rule. I believe more often than not, that is the most serious error of all. The incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ is the central theme to Christianity. It is the foundation on which Christian theology depends. Jesus is God in human flesh. If Jesus were simply born of human parents, there is no way to explain His supernatural life.
Interestingly enough, after Jesus asked the Pharisees the question, "Then how does David in the Spirit call Him ‘Lord,’ The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at My right hand, Until I put Your enemies beneath Your feet”’?" Verse 46 says "No one was able to answer Him a word, nor did anyone dare from that day on to ask Him another question." Jesus was not only underscoring His royal lineage, but also asserting His deity. The virgin birth, His substitutionary death, the resurrection, and His Second Coming are all a complete package of His deity. You either believe all of them or you believe none. Therefore, each and every one of us must face the question that Jesus posed to the Pharisees, "Whose son is He?"
As we study our passage today, we find the divine answer, in verses 18 through 25. "Whose son is He?" The first thing I'd like you to notice, is that immediately following the genealogy of Jesus, Matthew gives the account of the birth of Jesus. Look at verse 18, "Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: when His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit."
Notice Matthew immediately squarely faces his Jewish readers and readers of all ages by giving them the answer to the question, "Whose Son is He?" The genealogy of Jesus tells you whose son he is, David. And, he immediately follows with the birth of Jesus to tell you whose son he is, God. The genealogy proves Christ may have had the legal right to be the king, but He could have never conquered death. He could have never conquered sin. And, He could have never conquered Satan and hell. For that, He had to be 100 percent man and a 100 percent God. Matthew may be writing in an apologetic manner, but he was in no way apologetic.
The word apologetics comes from a Greek word, "apologia," which means a speech in defense of. Matthew, then, was not writing his gospel just to point out the facts, he is also writing to counter slanderous beliefs. I believe this is amazing. Allow me to add that it was never, ever disputed by the Jews. The virgin birth is essential enough for the Apostles’ Creed to speak of Jesus as "conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary." This has always been attacked by false religion and false doctrine. I believe that as Christians, we are acutely aware of that fact. Any rejection of Christ’s supernatural origin, is to deny His supernatural power to save and overcome death. Because Satan is the master counterfeiter and he is behind all false religions. In fact, later in Luke chapter four, you will recall Jesus
was teaching in the synagogue there in Nazareth and the people were
speaking well of him and they were saying, "Is this not Joseph’s son?"
In Matthew's gospel we then see the virgin birth conceived, the virgin birth confronted, clarified, connected, and consummated, because there were so many virgin birth myths floating around, an attempt to make claims of many other virgin births of other famous people. The ancient Babylonians claim to have had a virgin birth, as did the ancient Sumerian and Akkadians, even the Buddhists and the Hindus and the Greeks, all had their version of a virgin birth. Matthew's account then serves to refute some of the claims. This would pose a huge problem, because of Jesus' claim to be the King of Israel, and the Messiah. So, Matthew gives us a detailed account of His divine conception and His virgin mother Mary. I believe this is truly exciting when you understand it.
Alexander the Great, was claimed to have a virgin born. A serpent, snake, was once seen sharing the bed of Olympius. If you know anything about Greek legend, then you know who that snake was. It was Zeus, who was taking the form of an animal for some strange cohabitation. Whenever there’s some sexual deviant behavior, you can always figure that it was Zeus. In the Greek culture, this is what they claimed occurred in the case of Alexander the Great. Zeus in the form of a snake, in bed with Olympias and made Olympias pregnant. Olympias, by the way, was the wife of Philip of Macedon. And, she cohabitated with a snake. This is obviously filthy and vile, and is not to be compared with that of the Word of God.
The Word of God is fact, it is truth. Throughout the Old Testament gives evidence that the Messiah would be God. That the Messiah would be deity. But, because it was veiled, they didn’t really see that. It wasn't until the New Testament, that the mystery of godliness, that God was manifest in the flesh, was fully unveiled. In the New Testament, it became clear in that Jesus is God in human flesh.
Verse 18, "Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: when His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit." Here, we have the virgin birth conceived, that Mary was impregnated by the Holy Spirit. By the way, the word used for birth, is the same Greek word that we see in verse 1 of chapter 1.
We know that Mary's early life was spent in Nazareth. She was probably poor, probably hard working and very religious. We know that Mary had a sister, also named Mary, the wife of Cleophas. We know she had a cousin named Elisabeth. If we take the genealogy of Luke, we know her father’s name was Heli. So we know a little bit about her family, but we don’t know much about Mary.
In Luke, in verse 35, "The angel answered and said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God." And, in verse 38, "And Mary said, "Behold, the bondslave of the Lord; may it be done to me according to your word." And the angel departed from her." I believe there is an very important message in this for all of us today, here we see, that Mary submitted. Not only did she submit to the Word of God, she was a woman of faith. Now, look what verse 45 says "And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what had been spoken to her by the Lord." Allow me to remind you, the kind of faith that submits to the authority of the Word of God, who lives by faith in that Word, even when it makes no sense, is characteristic of a righteous person. They not only accepted it, they say it is true!
Mary said to the angel, "‘How can this be, since I am a virgin?’" And, when the angel explained, even though it made no sense to her, she believed. And, she went on to praise God for what for what He was doing. And, what a marvelous thing God did!
She was betrothed to Joseph, who was undoubtedly hard working and poor. He, too, was a godly man. We see that in verse 19, "And Joseph her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly." Joseph was a true Old Testament saint. They were likely older teenagers, because of the tremendous maturity of Joseph and Mary. We won't go into all the details of betrothal and marriage, we've gone over that several times, in previous messages. It was a normally 12 month period, they were separated, there was not a lot of social contact, the groom would go and prepare a place for them to live. And, if the girl was pregnant, it would become manifest during that time.
It was during the betrothal period that Mary was made to be with child by the Holy Spirit. In order that there would be absolutely no question whether or not Joseph was the father. Mary’s pregnancy then, would require a great deal of explanation. Imagine if you are Joseph, if you find that your beloved bride to be is pregnant and you knew you weren’t the father. But being a righteous, godly man, we read his reaction in verse 19. Joseph knew the quality of her character, it didn't make sense.
Notice what happens in verse 20, "But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit." Now, Joseph knew understood what Mary had been trying to tell him. What the angel had spoke to her, recorded in Luke 1, Mary would be with child by the Holy Spirit. Here, the virgin birth is clarified. As a footnote, we don’t have the Luke account.
Luke 1:26, "Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the descendants of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. And coming in, he said to her, "Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you." But she was very perplexed at this statement, and kept pondering what kind of salutation this was. The angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary; for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end."
The Bible is very clear, the marriage was not consummated. If Jesus had been born like anybody else, then He is not God. Matthew very clearly records that God entered the flesh by a virgin in which seed was planted by the Holy Spirit. By the way, don't ask me how that works, I don't know. But I do know the work of redemption demanded a God-man, an intermediate between God and the flesh, a theanthropos. In all of human history there has never been a virgin birth. God had to make provision to become flesh that He might make us partakers of the divine nature and grant us the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. In Genesis 1, He created the universe out of nothing, why shouldn't we expect that He is able to create the marvelous miracle of the virgin birth?
Notice in verse 21, "She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins." Scripture is very careful about never naming Joseph as the father of Jesus. Joseph is always removed from actual fatherhood. Notice chapter 2, verse 13; "Now when they had gone, behold, an angel of the Lord *appeared
to Joseph in a dream and said, "Get up! Take the Child and His mother
and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is going
to search for the Child to destroy Him." Notice, He didn't say "Take your wife and your child."
In verses 22 and 23, the narrative breaks and Matthew comes in with a commentary. The angel isn’t speaking anymore. Fifty times Matthew quotes the Old Testament, and another seventy-six times he alludes to it. "Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet: "Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel," which translated means, "God with us." It is astonishing to think about the two natures of Christ. His human nature ascended into heaven and His divine nature continues to be omnipresent. Not only was Jesus Christ the Messiah, the King of Israel fully God, fully man, born of a virgin, but, He is the eternal Son of God
before He was conceived and born. He did not become the Son of God at
the incarnation. The Bible clearly teaches the Father-Son relationship has always existed in eternity past. By the way, Immanuel is not a reference to His name, it is a description of who He is.
Look at Isaiah 6, "Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?" Notice He didn't say Me. Many attempt to refute this by citing Psalm 2 as proof. "I will surely tell of the decree of the Lord: He said to Me, ‘You are My Son, Today I have begotten You." The problem with this is that it was the Holy Spirit, not the Father, who conceived the incarnate Christ.
Then, in verse 24, the virgin birth consummated. "And Joseph awoke from his sleep and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took Mary as his wife, but kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a Son; and he called His name Jesus. A man had to be our substitute to bear the punishment for man, and only God could fully bear the full force of the Father’s wrath. Human flesh had to go to the grave, and only God could overcome the grave. A mystery beyond our ability to fathom. Verse 25 tells us once she had brought forth her firstborn son, they had a normal human relationship physically which produced many other children.
In Closing..
Matthew begins his gospel with the answer to the first slander and ends with the answer to the last slander and he dedicates the middle of it fighting all the other slanders against the dear Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus came to dwell with the sick, to heal them. To dwell with the lepers, to cleanse them. To dwell with the hungry, to feed them. And, He came to dwell with the lost, in order to save them. Immanuel, God with us, assumed our human nature, took our guilt, He bore our griefs, and He carried our sorrows. He was was wounded with our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities, and He ascended to heaven to prepare a place for us. And, He will some day come to take us to be with Him.
May it be so..
the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.
Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen
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