The King's Inauguration

Intro

If you could have an angel appear to you, how would you want that to go? What good news would you want them to bring you? How would you react if it was something impossible?

Today we’re taking a look at the angel appearance we celebrate for Christmas, the one announcing the birth of Jesus.

Matthew 1:18–25 NASB95

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.

#1: Betrothal

Tell me the ingredients of a proposal. You need what? The ring, some flowers, people like to pop champagne, and then you need the wedding.

The marriage process looked different in 1st century Judaism compared to today.

According to Craig Keener in the Dictionary of New Testament Background:

When a couple got betrothed (engaged), they were basically married. The only way they could call it off was through divorce.

They also gave gifts back then called a dowry (a gift a husband would give to the parents), and if Mary had cheated on Joseph, he could’ve gotten his money back. But, him deciding to quietly call the thing off was him forfeiting that money back in order to protect Mary, even though he probably thought she had cheated.

One thing we can do with this is decide to have that same care for people. Even when someone hurts us, let’s decide to still fight for them and to love them in how we react.

#2: Jesus or Immanuel?

Someone tell me, what is the name of the child in verse 21? What about in verse 23? Why are there two different names?

We’re given two names for Jesus in this passage, first in Matthew 1:21 ““She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”” and then in Matthew 1:23 ““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.””

Why don’t we call Jesus Immanuel?

Jesus: Aramaic Yeshua, Greek Iesous

Means “God saves”, we see throughout Scripture that names are meant to highlight the person, like when Jacob was renamed Israel because he wrestled with God. In fact, Yeshua would translate in modern times to Joshua. Joshua in the Old Testament was also seen as a sign of God saving. Whenever we say Jesus’ name, we proclaim that God rescues.

Immanuel: “God with us”

Matthew The Birth of Jesus Story, 1:18–25

The reference to the name “Immanuel” is a reference to a throne name for a king rather than a personal name, and as Chrysostom observes it is the name by which he was to be acclaimed as a result of the outcome of his life, death, and resurrection (Hom. Matt. 5.2–3).

This idea of taking a throne name is common throughout history, and even gets continued in modern times, like when Cardinal Ratzinger took the name Pope Benedict when he became the pope.

Cultural Takeaway: Both of Jesus’ names show his purpose and his identity: The God that saves has come among us. Everytime we say Jesus, let’s recognize what that is saying about his story. That he is GOD coming to save us.

Wrap Up

Honestly, there are passages that are a lot easier to make a sermon about. Jesus just gives a command and whoever is preaching to you guys can be like “What he said!”.

But how does the story of Jesus’ birth change how we live? How we follow Jesus?

There’s a couple things

Joseph gives a really good example of loving even when we’re hurt, I want to try and imitate him.

Now every time I say Jesus or Immanuel, I remind myself of the good news we’re always talking about.

Finally, I think we see that Jesus is the only way. You’re going to have people tell you that all religions are true or that all of them end up with God, but I think we can see here that that isn’t true right? There’s only one God baby that was born, there’s only one savior, there’s only one way to the Father, and that’s Jesus. So I think this can overall lead us to really hold onto Jesus tighter than we did before.

ANY QUESTIONS?

Sources

Witherington, Ben, III. Matthew. Ed. P. Keith Gammons and R. Alan Culpepper. Macon, GA: Smyth & Helwys Publishing, Incorporated, 2006. Print. Smyth & Helwys Bible Commentary.

Morris, Leon. The Gospel according to Matthew. Grand Rapids, MI; Leicester, England: W.B. Eerdmans; Inter-Varsity Press, 1992. Print. The Pillar New Testament Commentary.

Blomberg, Craig. Matthew. Vol. 22. Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1992. Print. The New American Commentary.

Augsburger, Myron S., and Lloyd J. Ogilvie. Matthew. Vol. 24. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Inc, 1982. Print. The Preacher’s Commentary Series.

Porter, Stanley E., and Craig A. Evans. Dictionary of New Testament background: a compendium of contemporary biblical scholarship 2000: n. pag. Print.

Keener, Craig S. “Marriage.” Dictionary of New Testament background: a compendium of contemporary biblical scholarship 2000: 680–693. Print.

Keener, Craig S. The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament. Second Edition. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic: An Imprint of InterVarsity Press, 2014. Print.