Dominion Senior Living Christmas Devotional

Pray.

Read Matthew 1:18-25

Main Point: Jesus Christ Came to Save His People from their Sins, so Believe in Him for Salvation from Your Sins

1. Christ’s Coming (vs.18-21)

(Exegesis) Matthew starts out giving us a preface, a title of what is going to happen: “Now the BIRTH OF JESUS CHRIST took place in this way”. No questions asked, after giving the genealogy of Christ, Matthew is going to tell us of the birth of the one the genealogy ends with. His mother’s name is Marry and she is engaged to a man named Joseph. They have not yet consummated their marriage, but Marry is pregnant!

(Continued Exegesis) What a surprise to find out as Joseph! He is thinking “ I have yet to come together with this woman I am soon going to marry, but she is pregnant”. Well, the obvious question to ask then is who’s child is it? Matthew says that the child is from the Holy Spirit.

God sends the Holy Spirit to conceive Mary with Christ. Do you see the trinitarian nature of the birth of Christ? All persons of the Godhead bring salvation! God sends Christ by the Holy Spirit.

The Jewish custom of a man who’s betrothed or wife became pregnant with another’s man’s child would be to divorce her. Joseph was going to be kind about it though, he could have brought Mary to a court to embarrass her and shame her. He could have turned this into a public scandal for all to lay eyes upon. However, he planned to show mercy. The phrase “Joseph being a just man” shows that he was compassionately and righteously dealing with Mary’s alleged unfaithfulness.

So let’s set the stage: The Holy Spirit has conceived Jesus in Mary, Joseph finds out and has in his mind he is going to divorce her. So then what happens? Is he going to divorce her quietly?

Mt. 1:20 “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.”

God directly intervenes by sending an angel telling Joseph that he is to stay with Marry because this is a supernatural birth ordained by God. Mary was not unfaithful, God was faithful. There is a little golden nugget in that the first part of verse 20, let me read it again and see if you can notice it: “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 Marry as your wife”.

Can you hear it? Did you notice it? Joseph is from the line of David! Just a few verses earlier we read this from Matthew’s genealogy: Mt. 1:16 “and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ.”

Why does this matter? Well who’s line is the savior going to come through? Davids! So if you are just viewing this story from a 30,000 feet perspective you know two things: a woman has conceived a child from the Holy Spirit to a man who is a son of David! If you were a Jew at the time and you knew those two facts you would be jumping up and down “that’s the messiah! that’s the messiah!”. And I’m not talking about the straight A Jew that has his OT memorized, I’m talking about the high school drop out Jew who cannot even read, everyone would know that these two things mean the savior is going to be born!

Why is that? God promises to David in 2 Samuel 7 that that he will raise up a savior after David is gone, but he will bring this savior through his family tree 2 Samuel 7:12-14 “When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, 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. I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son”. Then later we will read that the child will come through a virgin.

This child being born to Mary seems to have all the right credentials, let’s keep reading and see if he is who he seems to be… “She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins”

This is him! This is the long awaited Messiah whom the Israelites have been waiting for!

2. Christ’s Salvation (vs. 21-24)

This son’s name is going to be “Jesus” which literally means “savior”. The line “for he will save his people from their sins” is an explanation of his name. Just by his name alone, we know that Jesus is going to accomplish salvation for his people.

If we keep reading, Matthew gives us some extra credit work by quoting from Isaiah 7. Matthew has already made his case and won, but he goes even further to quote Isaiah. Mt. 1:22-23 “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 Immanuel” (which means, God with us).”

That is exactly what happens! The savior is born of a virgin and he is Immanuel, because he is God who has come to earth.

(Application- God has brought salvation)

Residents of Dominion Senior Living, God has not left us without a savior. After Adam and Eve sinned, God did not turn his back on us as he justly could have. God would have been no less loving if he did not send Christ. He would still be the perfect creator God of the universe. I mean, what God would look at a people who have rebelled against his good creation and give his son to die in their place? What God would be faithful even after his people continue to be unfaithful to him? What God would say “All of those sinners on Earth, yet they reject me, I love them?” OUR GOD WOULD! That is exactly what God did in sending Christ.

So what do you have to do to avoid God’s wrath? What does God ask of you? Friends, God asks nothing of you because you can give nothing to God. For Christ, this long awaited savior, to stand in your place, all you do is believe it is true. After all, the gospel is news and what do you do with news? You believe it! So repent from your sin and trust in Christ, this savior given to us by God who was born to Joseph and Mary.

(Application- Be patient in trusting God will accomplish what he has promised)

From spending time with some of you here, I know that God has saved you. You have repented from your sin and trusted in Christ. I want to give you a specific encouragement to trust that God will accomplish what he has promised, even if it does not seem like it from your perspective.

Two-thousand years after Christ’s birth we read of the story of his coming time and time again knowing the savior has already come. But those Israelites in the Old Testament did not have that great privilege. They were waiting and waiting for God to accomplish the salvation he had promised. Many of them died only believing that God would accomplish his promise through Christ and never saw Christ or heard of his coming. Let that be an encouragement to you brothers and sisters to believe that God will fulfill his promises. I am sure so many times in the lives of the Israelites they doubted God would do what he promised in sending a savior, they saw so much evil and sin around them, but they had to trust God’s word.

What promises are you failing to trust brothers and sisters?

How well are you believing Christ promise in Matthew 11:28 “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”?

Do you believe Christ salvation is enough to give you rest? Even when times are lonely, when health is fading, when family is far, Christ offers his eternal rest! Even the good things of the world like good health and family cannot give you rest brothers and sisters because our sins are not saved by those things. So when you have the thought creep into your mind that tells you “Only if I had good health, then I would be so much happier” or “If my kids just came to visit more, then I would be at so much more peace with everything going on” reject them! . Friends in hard times when we are struggling to believe that only Jesus offers rest, look at the long awaited coming of Christ! God made good on his promise to bring Christ for our salvation so we can trust him and find rest in him.

What about in trusting God promise in Psalm 37:23-24 “The steps of a man are established by the Lord, when he delights in his way; though he fall, he shall not be cast headlong, for the Lord upholds his hand.”

Are you trusting that the Lord will uphold your hand, that the Lord will lovingly guide you throughout the rest of your life until you die? Or are you just thinking of these years now as the time in your life God has forgotten you. He has cast you aside now, he has bigger and better things to focus on you. Brothers and sisters trust that the Lord plans our steps and will uphold us. If you are a Christian, then the birth of the one we talked about has taken on the wrath meant for you, so you can trust that God is working everything for your best spiritual good.

I spent some time thinking about you all here this past week. I was reflecting on the importance of the church and how it feeds my soul to gather with my church. Then I thought of you all and realized many of you are unable to gather with your church body. I even thought “God how can it be in your loving hand to take these saints away from such a good thing for their soul”.

So if I have had the thought how could God take you away from your churches, I am sure you all have had that same thought about yourselves. I’ve got to be honest, I do not know the exact reason why the Lord has placed you here unable to gather with your church. I thought to myself this past week it doesn’t seem to be the best thing for your souls, but then I remembered the promises of God like the two we just read, that the Lord is in control of our life and he works to give us rest.

Even when it seems like God has forgotten you, think of the story of the coming of Christ and remember that God sent Christ for you! Remember verse 21 we read, “you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save HIS PEOPLE from their sins”. Who are his people? If you have been saved by God it is you! You are his people. So when that thought creeps into your mind that God does not love you, that he has done something unloving in your life, remember that he sent his son to die for you, so of course he loves you brother and sister. Do not believe the lie from the enemy that he has forgotten you. He remembered you that day when the angel appeared to Joseph telling him that Christ would come, because entire Christ came was for those he has saved.

3. Christ’s Birth (vs. 25)

Lastly we come to verse 25 Mt. 1:25 “but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.”

Isn’t it a little odd how little time Matthew spends describing the birth of Christ? The entire story of his birth is only 8 verses. I mean Matthew’s recording of the rich young ruler and Jesus’ teaching on divorce are both much longer than his birth along with many other stories about Jesus. Then specifically all we get in verse 25 is that Mary and Joseph did not consummate their marriage until after she gave birth to a son and when he was born his name was Jesus. Of course if you keep reading we learn of the wise men and Herod, but compared to the other 26 chapters in Matthew its still a short account, so many details must have been left out. Even if you turn to Luke’s account it is rather short. It may be more detailed, but still not a long account of Jesus’ birth. Maybe between Mark and John they fill out the rest of the details right? Wait, but they don’t even include the story of Jesus’ birth?

So why do the gospel writers and specifically Matthew spend such little time on the birth of Christ in their grand account of his life. From a biblical theological perspective, meaning looking at the entire bible, we have at least two reasons.

A. The Birth of Christ was as sure as the sun setting after it rises.

Though we should be grateful for Christ’s coming, we should not be surprised. Why? Like we talked about earlier, because God promised he would come. In short, the bible expects God’s word to ring true. So the writers of the bible are not surprised when God makes good on his promise. That is one reason the account is so short, because the birth is so surely expected.

B. Matthew is more concerned with the ministry of Jesus, versus his birth, that ministry that fulfilled Mt. 1:21 “She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”. Friends the rest of the book of Matthew is him demonstrating how Christ fulfilled verse 21.

We began our time by reading of the birth of Jesus, so let us end our time reading of the end of Jesus’ ministry and how he ultimately lived up to his name as savior Read Mt. 27:45-54 and Mt. 28:1-10 Trust in this savior who was born, lived a perfect live, then died in our place for our sins and defeated death. Christ is right now sitting at the right hand of the father interceding for all those who put their faith in him. Do not just let this ring in your hearts during Christmas time, when you are lonely, when you are discouraged, when your health is fading, trust in the coming of the savior who takes away all of your sins. Amen.

Pray