Matthew 1:18-25

Introduction

Matthew 1:18–25 ESV

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 Immanuel” (which means, God with us). When Joseph woke from 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 a son. And he called his name Jesus.

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We live in a culture of people who are far less religious than those of some 2000 years ago.

An example of this can be found in that in the first and second century, to be an atheist didn’t mean that you had no belief in God.

Instead, it meant that you refused to worship another god besides that of your own.

In our generation, to be an atheist means that one doubts the complete existence of any god in any format.

There is a drastic distinction between the two.

In the first century, finding someone with an absolute disbelief in any form of god would have been rare.

There were those who had beliefs which found themselves centered around Greek mythology. Those who vowed an oath to the Roman Pantheon and so much more.

Those who found their gods inside of Greek mythology were those who would have centered their lives around pleasing false gods such as Zeus, Hera, Poseiden and even Artemis.

In fact, we find an account of this type of religion over in where Demetrius, who was a silversmith made silver shrines of Artemis.

To say that the first century world was engrained in paganism and idol worship would be a drastic understatement.

In fact, most people miss this when they read the account of Matthew talking about the Lord Jesus Christ but Matthew addresses this from verse 1-18.

Matthew takes careful consideration to present Jesus as a historical person.

He does this first by laying out the genealogy of Jesus through His would be adopted father Joseph.

But Matthew doesn’t end there.

Look with me at verse 18.

Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way.

What we find in this verse is His birth. In Greek this is the word Genesis. It means, To be, To become, or To Happen.

What Matthew is doing here is twofold. He is giving legitimacy to Jesus from His lineage, but also promoting Jesus within the framework of history instead of mythology.

Removing confusion and grounds for treating Jesus like some other god.

Now you don’t need to be a Greek scholar to pick this up by any means, but this is once again one of those reasons why it is paramount for us to try to understand the original culture of Scriptures.

We don’t walk out of door into a culture of shrines and idols being made, at least not as recognizable as what it was in the first century.

We do have this in our culture, I just think that Satan has done a very good job at disguising the mythology of our time.

What Matthew sets out to do using the language of his day was vital and I would argue that he accomplished it rather well.

He set out to defend the legitimacy of Jesus in History, the supernatural work of God in bringing about the Messiah, as well the Purpose of the Messiah.

As we walk through this text today, those three aspects of Christ will be the issues which we address first.

So the first point was the legitimacy of Jesus in History which we have partially covered and will now continue looking at.

Now this question would be better suited in this way.

Was Jesus born of a divine manner or not?

Is it possible or even plausible that a young teenage woman named Mary chose to have pre-marital sex with someone who was not her betrothed?

I’m saying this in a sarcastic way but there are literally thousands if not millions who believe just that.

Often-times they try to pin their belief of a young woman fooling around on their lack of belief of miracles.

In-fact, for many, they would hold to the belief of Thomas Paine who said that for every one miracle, there are one million lies.

Therefore, it is a one million to one chance that the Gospel’s account of the virgin birth being true is about as likely as being struck by lighting three times, on three separate occasions in the very same spot.

As one who believes that all of mankind is totally depraved, I could understand why he would say such a thing.

People are absolutely wicked!

Even those who try to live their lives in moral ways can often be those who show their wickedness the most.

So in thinking like Thomas Paine who would deny any form of miracles or anything supernatural, from their perspective, I could see why they wouldn’t believe the virgin birth.

Here’s the problem though, the first thing that men like Paine didn’t think about was that this life is not the material that we can visually see.

In all of God’s creation, there is not a naturalistic view taught at all.

Yet that’s what Paine was promoting.

A completely naturalistic approach to understanding all of human existence removes any possibility of a God who reaches into His creation.

This is what man has been trying to do to the Christian faith since the very time of Christ.

There is an entire movement which aims to reduce the Christian faith to a mere natural humanity.

A religion that is like that of all other religions.

Something man-centered with nothing supernatural.

With no God truly reaching into humanity but merely men desiring these things.

Yet all of creation screams that God does just that.

History itself shows that God intervenes through His creation.

If you examine the Exodus and look at the Plagues, it should be evident enough.

Time after time, God reaches into the course of His creation and guides and directs events and people for His glory.

So why would it be so hard for anyone to believe that God would supernaturally impregnate a righteous young woman for the sake of redeeming humanity.

On top of this, look at the evidence given to us from the text.

V.19 says that Joseph, who was her husband by betrothal was a righteous man.

What does that mean?

In Biblical terms, it means that he was a Jew who was a man which loved the Lord and the Law.

And as a righteous man, when he believed that the woman he was set to marry had been unfaithful, he knew that in order to stand right before the Lord, he would have to divorce his wife.

Now several things have to be addressed here real quick.

The first is that a betrothal in the first century was not like an engagement in our time.

In today’s generation, you can break off an engagement and there would be no issues or complications.

Yet in the first century, a betrothal was so set in stone that it was just as a marriage.

When you were betrothed to someone, you were set apart for that specific person.

The dowry had been given and the agreement had been reached.

The only thing that was lacking was for the bride to move out of her fathers house and into her husbands home to actually make the marriage complete through the sexual union.

And in order to break off an betrothal, a certificate of divorce would have had to been granted.

And in this specific case, Mary would have been presumed to have committed adultery.

Which, per the Old Testament Law would have required her to what?

Death!

Leviticus 20:10 ESV

“If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.

Leviticus 20:1

It specifically states that the punishment for adultery is death.

This means that Joseph had to make a choice.

He could have flaunted her to all the world so that the Law of God would be magnified.

Yet instead, Joseph’s mercy and love for his wife was so great that he didn’t want that for her.

Yet, he also didn’t want to dishonor God in any way.

So instead of flaunting her publicly to all the world to be put to an open shame, he decided to show her mercy and put her away quietly without dishonoring God.

Think about this mans character for a minute.

He not only cares about the glory of God and walking in obedience to the Law, but he also has mercy on this woman whom at this moment, he believes to have committed adultery.

I have no doubt that as a righteous man, as Scripture explicitly calls him, that he went before the Lord moment after moment seeking the wisdom of the Lord.

And in all of this, he felt the most righteous thing to do to glorify the name of the Lord and walk in obedience to the Law was to divorce her discreetly without making a scene.

I have no doubt that this was an extremely difficult choice for this man.

Yet he felt it to be the most admirable and God honoring move to divorce her.

So here is my question, what would make a man of such great conviction change his mind to something that he felt might dishonor God?

Look at verse 20.

But as Joseph considered these things, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph 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.”

Now I’m not sure about y’all, but I think an angel of the Lord appearing to me in a dream would most definitely make me change my mind about something.

And that’s precisely what it did to Joseph.

Prior to the appearance from this Angel, there was no question in the mind of Joseph about what Mary had done.

Yet here we find a righteous man being forced to make a choice.

Is he going to believe in the naturalistic approach such as men like Paine?

That the odds of a miracle in this situation is one million to one?

One million lies for every one miracle.

Or, is Joseph going to submit to the miracles being laid out before his very eyes and believe that there is much in this life that deals with the supernatural.

The very end of verse 20 answers this question for him.

“For that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.”

Now this righteous man knows without question that the woman that he desperately loves did not commit adultery.

As we all know from the historical account of Scripture, “When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him.”

So here is my question, if this was enough for the man in the situation, why isn’t it enough for the skeptics of today?

When we as Christians look at the historical records of what transpired in the lives of those who followed Christ and gave up their lives for the Gospel, we find person after person who would have denied Jesus at one point, only to die for Him in the next.

The Apostle Paul is a great example of this.

The man lived his life persecuting Christians as blasphemers of God, only to turn around and live out his days in torment for Christ.

Being beheaded by the emperor Nero all for what Paul himself had put men to death for!

There is only one thing that will make this change in a persons life.

Only one thing will force a person to go against their deeply held personal convictions and do all that they said that they never would.

That is the God of all of creation reaching into the hearts and minds of people, changing their minds.

Doing a supernatural work which causes them to go against all that they believe in order to walk in obedience to Him.

That is the only thing that changes the hearts of men.

The Lord changed the heart of the Apostle Paul on the road to Damascus.

He changed the heart of Peter.

And He changed the heart of Joseph about Mary.

This is how God works.

For us as believers, it shouldn’t matter to us what all the rest of the world believes concerning the immaculate conception of Jesus.

For us, those who’ve had changed hearts, we can fully endorse a miraculous birth divinely worked by the Lord.

Technically, we covered the supernatural work of God in the first point, but we need to address another aspect before we move on.

The reason that the birth of Jesus had to be a supernatural work of God pertains to our sin nature.

Jesus could not be born of a natural means because in doing so, it would transfer the sinful nature in the Adamic state onto Jesus.

Not that God couldn’t somehow supernaturally overcome whatever state or situation concerning the sinful nature of man and how it would work with Jesus.

But God set a precedent in the Old Covenant of what was required for a sacrifice.

The Lord required the lamb to be without spot or blemish.

1 Peter 1:19 ESV

but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.

This comparison shows us that Jesus was without spot or blemish and the reason which He was without spot or blemish was because He didn’t have the natural state of man.

The Adamic nature would have placed upon Jesus a blemish which would have prevented Him from being able to atone for sin.

Therefore, God supernaturally overcame this issue by supernaturally impregnating Mary through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Now a side note needs to be made here about this.

In the Mormon religion, they teach that the God had a physical sexual union with Mary in order to impregnate her.

This is not only downright preposterous, its anti-Biblical.

Scripture states that Mary was a virgin in the deepest of definitions.

Not to mention, that the Mormon teaching walks hand in hand with Greek mythology.

We’ve already discussed how Matthew was very careful not to place the birth of Jesus into mythology but instead, showed the historical accuracies of Jesus’ birth.

Yes it is supernatural, but Scripture does not teach a supernatural sexual union between Mary and God.

So let’s move into the last point of the text.

The purpose of Jesus.

I want you to notice in the text that Joseph didn’t name Jesus.

Why do you think that is?

Throughout all of history, it has been the pleasure of the Father and Mother to name their children.

The idea of giving something or someone a name reminds you of authority.

Think back to the Garden after creation.

Who named all of the animals, God or Adam?

God created the beast of the earth and placed them under subjection of man, and man named them all.

Yet throughout history, there have been times where God has intervened and commanded that a son be named whatever He commands.

Genesis 17:19 ESV

God said, “No, but Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him.

1 Chronicles 22:9 ESV

Behold, a son shall be born to you who shall be a man of rest. I will give him rest from all his surrounding enemies. For his name shall be Solomon, and I will give peace and quiet to Israel in his days.

1 Chronicles

1 Kings 13:2 ESV

And the man cried against the altar by the word of the Lord and said, “O altar, altar, thus says the Lord: ‘Behold, a son shall be born to the house of David, Josiah by name, and he shall sacrifice on you the priests of the high places who make offerings on you, and human bones shall be burned on you.’ ”

Each of these men were named by God, and in their naming, their purpose is revealed.

For Isaac, the purpose was the Covenant which God was making with His people.

With Solomon, the purpose was for rest for Israel.

Each of these men were named with a specific purpose for the will of the Lord.

It showed that each of them had a purpose that went far beyond that which any of their fathers here on earth would have thought.

The same applies for Jesus.

God naming Jesus reveals Jesus’ purpose for His coming to earth.

And it is very specific.

He shall save His people from their sins.

And that He did.

He was conceived through a supernatural process.

Lived a holy and righteous life, faithfully obeyed the Law of God.

He took on the salvation of His people from their sins on the cross of calvary where he died after enduring the wrath of God.

He was buried in a tomb for three days where we see that Christ not only conqoured the sin which held mankind captive, but also triumphed over the consequences of that sin which was death.

He did so in His resurrection and is now seated with the Father, interceding for you and for me.

So how do we make this applicable?

For the unbeliever its simple, wherever you are today, you’re not right with God.

Yet He has made a way for you to be forgiven.

Jesus came to save His people from His sins and today, you can be forgiven by looking unto the one who forgives sin.

For us believers, I want to apply this in two ways.

The first is that your faith in the accuracy and historicity of the Word of God would be reaffirmed and strengthened.

The second though looks at the heart of Joseph.

You see, Joseph wasn’t the only one that Scripture say’s is righteous.

Mary was a devout woman before the Lord as well.

Yet when Joseph thought that a fellow sister had sinned against him and the Lord, look at how he treated her.

Joseph didn’t throw her out to wolves or mock what he thought to be a drastic moral failure.

Instead, Joseph revealed a heart which had true care for his sister in the Lord.

He didn’t need to budge on his views before the Lord and he was also able to show mercy to Mary.

Sometimes our perception of the situation of our brothers and sisters is not what we think it to be.

We would all be better off if we truly showed absolute compassion for our brothers and sisters without jumping to conclusions.

Let’s pray

Yet he loved his betrothed as well.

A poll conducted by the Pew Research Center found that in 2017, only 66% of those who identified as Christian believed in the virgin conception of Jesus.

An astonishing 50% of clergy in England would deny the doctrine altogether.