God With Us, Born of a Virgin

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What is Matthew’s purpose in writing the birth narrative accounts in his gospel? Matthew’s account of the birth of Jesus and Luke’s account of the birth of Jesus are very different? Why? They do not contradict each other. Rather they both emphasize different parts of Jesus’s birth. Why? We can learn a lot of the purpose of the gospel writers by noting what they omit as well as what they include. Matthew’s purpose in writing his gospel is much different from Luke’s purpose. What is Matthew’s purpose?
Matthew 1:1 ESV
1 The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
The Gospel of Matthew B. A Demonstration that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah: Five Scriptural Proofs (1:18–2:23)

These 31 verses are therefore essentially an exercise in apologetics. Their aim is to enable Matthew’s readers to recognize in the unlikely person of Jesus of Nazareth the Messiah, son of David. 1:18–25 (together with the “book of origin” which is its basis) deals with the issue of parentage, and chapter 2 with that of place of origin

“The legal and biological connection to Abraham and David was necessary for Jesus to be the fulfillment of the Old Testament promises God had made to Abraham and David concerning their seed, but by itself, descent from Abraham and David was not enough. Abraham had many descendants, as did David. What made Jesus the descendent, who would bless and rule the nations forever? Why not some other descendent of Abraham or David? What made Jesus special and unique as the seed of Abraham and the Son of David?”
How did Jesus prove he was THE descendant of David and Abraham?
His teaching and his ministry including his many miracles
John the Baptist bore witness to him as the Messiah
Final and definitive proof? The resurrection!
Also, the miraculous events and supernatural announcement surrounding Jesus’s birth
That is what Matthew aims to do in vv. 18-25. Matthew wants us to see that Jesus was not just a son of David; he was THE long-awaited descents of David who would fulfill all of God’s promises.
In Matthew 1:16 we saw that Joseph was indeed the “son of David,” the heir to the royal dynasty of Judah.
Matthew 1:16 ESV
16 and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ.
But, Matthew also takes great pains to show us that Jesus has no biological connection to Joseph.
Because Jesus has no biological connection to Joseph, Matthew is keen to show us how Jesus came to be formally adopted and named by Joseph, so that Jesus could become officially “son of David.”
Matthew 1:18 ESV
18 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.
Matthew’s narrative of the birth of Jesus is told from the perspective of Joseph, Jesus’s legal adoptive father.
Luke’s account of Jesus’s birth is told from Mary’s perspective.
Matthew tells Joseph’s perspective because his purpose is to show the Jesus’ legal adoptive right to Joseph’s lineage.
Now, Matthew is very selective in the information he includes in the birth of Jesus Christ.
What does Matthew leave out?
He does not talk about the lives of Mary and Joseph in Nazareth
The appearance of the angel to Mary
Mary’s visit to Elizabeth
The census
The trip to Bethlehem
The lack of room in the inn
or the manger
Matthew does not contradict Luke’s account, but he does omit quite a lot of information. Again, we learn a lot of the purpose of Matthew, not only by what he includes, but by what he purposefully chooses to omit. And when we pay attention to the material Matthew chooses to include in brings it into sharper focus.
Notice where Matthew begins in the timeline of the birth accounts.
He begins after Mary and Joseph had been betrothed, but before they had come together in a consummated marriage.
After their engagement, but before the consummation of the marriage Mary is found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.
Now we have to understand some details about the betrothal period in ancient Jewish custom. It is not like our engagement period in modern times.
Ancient betrothal involved:
A legally binding contract entered into before witnesses
It could be broken only by an official divorce or by death.
If the husband died during the betrothal period the wife was still considered a widow.
Sexual activity during this period was viewed as adultery and could carry the death penalty.
About a year after the engagement (when the wife would be about 13 or 14 years old) would leave her father’s home and go and live with the husband.
This involved a public ceremony like the one recorded in Matthew 25:1-12.
The ceremony is here referred to as “coming together” as recorded in v. 24.
If it were not for the final phrase added in v.18 “from the Holy Spirit” Matthew would be doing nothing more than reporting a small-town scandal about an unfaithful young woman.
This kind of scandal would have brought an incredible amount of shame on the girl’s family and could have resulted in her death.
The final phrase of v. 18, however, changes everything. This is no scandal, but an instance of divine miraculous intervention into human history. The first kind of divine interaction in how many years?
God was finally at work!
How do you think Joseph, Mary’s parents, or the other villagers in her town would have responded to a 13 year old girls insistence that her pregnancy was the result of a divine miraculous act of the Holy Spirit after God had been silent for hundreds of years?
How likely would you have been to believe Mary’s story?
Mary was in a very difficult, shameful, and potentially dangerous situation. Who in the world would believe a word she said?
Matthew 1:19 ESV
19 And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly.
Here is v. 19 we are introduced to Joseph. Matthew calls him a just man.
Just- upright, fair, righteous, one who is careful to keep the law.
Of course the law in Mary’s case demanded that Joseph repudiate his fiance for her immorality. This would have been done in a public trial for adultery.
Colossians 2:15 (ESV)
15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.
Here Jesus makes a public example of the rulers and authorities. This is what Joseph is expected to do. Put Mary to open shame for her adultery. And yet Joseph was unwilling to put her to shame, and he resolved to divorce her quietly.
The Mishnah allowed for Joseph to divorce his fiance as a suspected adulteress before just two witnesses. However, even with just two witnesses to such a scandalous divorce, word was sure to spread in such a small town community.
Matthew 1:20 ESV
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.
While all of this is going on in Joseph’s mind, God intervenes and sets Joseph on a course that he would never had chosen if left to himself.
An angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and presents Joseph with additional information that he must now take into careful consideration.
Notice firstly, that the angel addresses Joseph as, Son of David. This reminds us what is at stake in the decision Joseph must soon make. If Joseph divorces Mary and refuses to adopt Jesus as his legal son, Jesus would loose the royal pedigree of Joseph’s line.
Then the angel calls upon Joseph to take two decisive actions.
1). Do not fear to take Mary as your wife. Why? Because the child that Mary carries is not the result of immorality, but rather the activity of the Holy Spirit.
This would never have happened without divine intervention. Yet God confirms that the child is of divine origin.
Matthew 1:21 ESV
21 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”
2). The second action that Joseph must take is to give Mary’s son a name. Now why is it important for Joseph to give Mary’s son a name?
God specifically told Joseph to name Jesus. Why? This ensured the official status of the son as heir.
Isaiah 43:1 ESV
1 But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.
So, not only is the name “Jesus” full of theological significance, but the fact that Joseph is commanded under divine direction to name Jesus is also very important. It was through this act of Joseph that Jesus also becomes “son of David.”
When Joseph gave Jesus a name he formally and legally adopted Jesus and thus gave Jesus the official rights to his family line as “Son of David.”
Now what is the significance of the name Jesus?
The Greek name Jesus is equivalent to the Hebrew name Joshua, which means “Yahweh saves,” or “Yahweh is salvation.”
Jesus’s name points to God’s willingness and ability to save his people.
Jesus was a common name in the first century Palestine. Many parents named their sons Jesus as an expression of their hope that God would one day act to save and deliver his people as he had promised.
So Joseph is commanded to name Mary’s boy Jesus because he will be God’s agent of salvation.
Isaiah 53:6 ESV
6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
Matthew 26:27–28 ESV
27 And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, 28 for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.
Matthew 9:6 ESV
6 But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he then said to the paralytic—“Rise, pick up your bed and go home.”
This is a major theme in the gospel of Matthew. Jesus fulfills the promise of his name, “Yahweh saves!” Jesus saves us from our sins.
Matthew 1:22–23 ESV
22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: 23 “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).
In these verses we find the first of Matthew’s numerous fulfillment quotations.
“Each individual narrative concerning Jesus’s infancy in Matthew’s Gospel explicitly centers on the fulfillment of Scripture. Whereas the genealogy broadly presents Jesus as the fulfillment of the entire history of God’s people contained in the Old Testament, these individual quotations focus on specific elements of Jesus’s birth that fulfilled Old Testament prophecies.”
Matthew’s first fulfillment is centered on Isaiah 7:14.
Isaiah 7:14 ESV
14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
Theologically, this is significant because Matthew draws our attention to the importance of the virgin birth.
Why is the virgin birth so important to our theology?
John Frame lists these reasons:

1). The doctrine of Scripture

If Scripture errs here, then why should we trust its claims about other supernatural events, such as the resurrection?

2). The deity of Christ

While we cannot say dogmatically that God could enter the world only through a virgin birth, surely the incarnation is a supernatural event if it is anything. To eliminate the supernatural from this event is inevitably to compromise the divine dimension of it.

3). The humanity of Christ

This was the important thing to Ignatius and the second century fathers. Jesus was really born; he really became one of us.

4). The sinlessness of Christ

If he were born of two human parents, it is very difficult to conceive how he could have been exempted from the guilt of Adam’s sin and become a new head to the human race. And it would seem only an arbitrary act of God that Jesus could be born without a sinful nature. Yet Jesus’ sinlessness as the new head of the human race and as the atoning lamb of God is absolutely vital to our salvation (Rom. 5: 18– 19; 2 Cor. 5: 21; Heb. 4: 15; 7: 26; 1 Pet. 2: 22– 24).

5). The nature of grace

The birth of Christ, in which the initiative and power are all of God, is an apt picture of God’s saving grace in general of which it is apart. It teaches us that salvation is by God’s act, not our human effort.
John M. Frame, “Virgin Birth of Christ,” in Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, ed. Walter A. Elwell, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2001), 1249– 50.
So this is the theological significance of Matthew’s use of Isiah 7:14.
Matthew 1:22–23 ESV
22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: 23 “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).
Matthew wants us to understand theologically that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit and thus born to a virgin.
There is also a historical issue related to these verses. The historical question is this, “Is Jesus’s birth a legitimate fulfillment of Isaiah 7:14?
Isaiah 7:14 ESV
14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
In order to answer this question we need more historical context of Isaiah 7.
Does anyone know the context of this prophecy?
Between 740 and 732 BC, Syria and Israel tried to force king Ahaz of Judah to join their military coalition against Assyria. When he refused to join their alliance, they invaded with the intention of deposing him and setting up a king in Judah who would join their side. Rather than trusting God, Ahaz appealed to Assyria for help. Assyria did help but at a very high cost: in essence, Judah became a vassal state of Assyria and was forced to pay heavy tribute. This series of events is known as the Syro-Ephraimite War.
In the midst of this crisis, the prophet Isaiah came to King Ahaz with a word of encouragement and an invitation to trust God: “Be careful, be quiet, do not fear, and do not let your heart be faint. . . . It shall not stand, and it shall not come to pass. . . . If you are not firm in faith, you will not be firm at all.” Ahaz, however, doubted God and did not think God would deliver. In Ahaz’s mind, his only hope was Assyria. Ahaz refused to trust God or receive a sign of God’s commitment to rescue, and Isaiah responded:
Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
Isaiah 7:15–16 ESV
15 He shall eat curds and honey when he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good. 16 For before the boy knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land whose two kings you dread will be deserted.
The historical question here is what is the connection between Matthew 1:22-23 and Isaiah 7:14? In what sense is Isaiah 7:14 fulfilled with Jesus’ virgin birth?
Three view exist:
1). Isaiah’s prediction only has Jesus in view
2). His prediction had multiple fulfillments or referents in view
3). There is a divine correspondence in view
Read Vlach- 144-145.
Matthew 1:24–25 ESV
24 When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, 25 but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.
When Joseph awakes from the dream in follows the instructions of the angel.
He took his wife. What does that mean?
About a year after the engagement (when the wife would be about 13 or 14 years old) would leave her father’s home and go and live with the husband.
By the way, who knows absolutely for certain that Jesus’ conception was not the result of adultery, but rather the involvement of the Holy Spirit. Who knows this for certain?
So what happens to the lives of Joseph and Mary once Joseph takes her as his wife and the community find Mary to be with child and does the math?
If he proceeded with the marriage and pretended that the child was his, he could have exposed himself to public shame, since it was generally viewed as immoral to engage in sexual activity during the betrothal period.
Then Matthew adds the editorial comment in the first part of v. 25- he knew her no until she had given birth. Why state this? Presumably to take away any doubt as to the supernatural origin of Mary’s child.
Then the account confirms that Joseph names Jesus. Joseph called his name Jesus.
The Gospel of Matthew 1. Joseph, Son of David, Accepts Jesus as His Son (1:18–25)

The pericope concludes triumphantly with the naming of Jesus. Verse 21 has explained the theological significance of the name, and the whole chapter so far has set up the problem of legal parentage to which this is the essential answer. Jesus of Nazareth is now securely adopted as “son of David.”

So Matthew’s account of Jesus’ birth is filled with rich theological truths. Jesus is now the securely adopted Son of David and has legal right to David’s throne as the Messiah.
Jesus is also Immanuel, God with us! Conceived of the Holy Spirit. Born of a Virgin.
Jesus is the one who came to save us from our sins. And this is a wonderful thought to reflect on this Christmas season. O the blessing of having our sins forgiven.
Romans 4:6–8 ESV
6 just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works: 7 “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; 8 blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.”
The celebration of Jesus’s birth is a celebration of the completion of the purpose of his life. He came to save his people from their sins! Have you experienced the joy of knowing that your sins have been forgiven by God?
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