Matthew 1:18-25 part b.

In our home we usually tell of the girl’s birth stories once a year. We tell Keelie of our my nervousness and the God-given calmness of Niki right before Keelie came into the world.

We tell her of moms many sleepless nights because of being uncomfortable and plus, she just couldn’t wait to welcome her baby into the world.

We speak of the newness of everything that she experienced and that she was crawling all over the house and how she’s not stopped moving since.

Just so, Matthew features the story of Jesus’ birth, but more, for His birth is merely the beginning.

THESE verses begin by telling us two great truths.

They tell us how the Lord Jesus Christ took our nature upon Him, and became man.

They tell us also that His birth was miraculous. His mother Mary was a virgin.

Matthew describes the beginning of Jesus’ life so that it foreshadows much of the rest of his life. Two very mysterious subjects.

We’re going to look first to God’s CARRYING OUT of His Plan.

— The birth of Jesus Christ came about this way: After his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, it was discovered before they came together that she was pregnant from the Holy Spirit.

— Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet: See, the virgin will become pregnant and give birth to a son, and they will name him Immanuel, which is translated “God is with us.”

The story is told from the perspective of Joseph and that makes sense.

Through Joseph, his adopting father, Jesus receives credentials for His mission.

Through Joseph, he is counted the Son of David.

This carries out the promise made long ago that Israel would have a David-like king, to rule the people with justice ().

The Lord promised this to — “Look, the days are coming”—this is the Lord’s declaration— “when I will raise up a Righteous Branch for David. He will reign wisely as king and administer justice and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely.

Remember, by the time of Mary and Joseph, the line of David had shown its sinfulness, its hopelessness.

Indeed, in its calling to rule Israel, it was exhausted and all but invisible.

For this reason, Matthew reveals that Jesus is from the line of David, but not from the flesh of David.

The promises to David’s line showed that Israel needed a

mighty deliverer, a

great and fearless king, a

warrior to battle foes, and a

man who loved God and His people more than life itself.

Yet the history of Israel had been a sad tale of failed king following failed king.

Human flesh could not deliver God’s people.

They needed something different.

This lesson is universal:

No king or prophet can deliver us,

because flesh and blood, by itself, cannot save.

No politician or physician,

no teacher or preacher,

no father or mother,

can deliver mankind.

Matthew says God has been orchestrating the needed deliverance.

Since the Lord often uses names to reveal his purposes,

he gives baby Jesus more than one name;

no single name could describe all that He is.

The baby is called both Jesus (v21) and Immanuel (v23).

Jesus means “God saves”; the name is given “because he will save his people from their sins” ().

Immanuel means “God with us.”

The name Immanuel, says Matthew, fulfills a prophecy.

— Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet: See, the virgin will become pregnant and give birth to a son, and they will name him Immanuel, which is translated “God is with us.”

This is God’s CARRYING OUT of His Plan.

Then there’s Man’s CONFUSION about His Plan.

Doriani, D. M. (2008). Matthew & 2. (R. D. Phillips, P. G. Ryken, & D. M. Doriani, Eds.) (Vol. 1, pp. 15–16). Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing.

Mary and Joseph are betrothed, not married, when the account of Jesus’ birth begins.

— 18 The birth of Jesus Christ came about this way: After his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, it was discovered before they came together that she was pregnant from the Holy Spirit. 19 So her husband Joseph, being a righteous man, and not wanting to disgrace her publicly, decided to divorce her secretly.

They were sexually pure. They hadn’t yet come together. They didn’t live in the same home.

In Israel, betrothal was much weightier than engagement in Western societies today.

It was so binding that Matthew already calls Joseph “her husband” (1:19).

The couple did not sleep together during their betrothal, yet Mary’s body was swelling.

Her body declared that she was pregnant.

What a crushing blow to Joseph!

He had never been with Mary but, so it seemed, someone else had.

His bride-to-be was pregnant but was not carrying his child.

He was a righteous man and wanted a righteous wife.

If Mary had been unfaithful to him before they even married, what kind of woman was she?

What kind of marriage could they have?

In every moral, emotional, and legal way, he was right to plan to end the betrothal.

Since betrothal was so binding, its termination amounted to a divorce.

He could have exposed Mary, as an unwed mother, to public disgrace and to severe penalties.

A quiet divorce, however, would preserve some of her dignity.

She would bear the consequences of her action, but would not suffer the most public humiliation.

So Joseph settled upon a quiet divorce.

This is Man’s CONFUSION of God’s Plan.

Which leads to God’s COMMUNICATION of the truth of His Plan.

The Lord let Joseph struggle to solve his problem for a season before he revealed a better plan.

— But after he had considered these things, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, don’t be afraid to take Mary as your wife, because what has been conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.

He often works this way. He lets us make plans, then reveals a better way.

When this happens, we must change our plans, as Joseph did.

We must test our plans and purposes against God’s will, as revealed in Scripture.

Sometimes, circumstances unfold in ways that suggest what God’s will may be.

Even plans that look sound must be open to revision.

God wanted Joseph to proceed with the marriage and sent an angelic messenger to tell him why.

Here we must purge our popular images of angels.

Our dead loved one never become angels.

In the Bible, angels are not cute and do not specialize in romance.

They are as likely to say something frightening as to say something comforting.

Their appearance in our realm is a rare, weighty, and awesome event.

Angels are God’s mighty messengers.

There is a cluster of angel appearances near the birth of Jesus because it is such a weighty event.

Here God’s angel intervenes for the sake of Joseph (and for our sake) so he will know what this virgin conception means:

— But after he had considered these things, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, don’t be afraid to take Mary as your wife, because what has been conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.

After having God’s plan communicated to him, Joseph complies. Leading us to:

Man COMPLIES with God’s Plan. — When Joseph woke up, he did as the Lord’s angel had commanded him. He married her but did not have sexual relations with her until she gave birth to a son. And he named him Jesus.

When the angel had finished speaking, Joseph awoke, believed, and “did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him.”

That is, he “took Mary home as his wife” ().

His submission to God was as powerful and complete as that of Mary, who also offered herself as the servant of the Lord.

Joseph refused to be led by shame or anger.

He laid aside the plausible plan of divorce and took Mary as his wife.

To make the supernatural conception of Jesus perfectly clear, Matthew says

Joseph “had no union with [Mary] until she gave birth to a son.”

Literally, Joseph “did not know her until she had given birth to a son.”

Then Joseph took her newborn baby and “gave him the name Jesus” just as the angel had said (1:25).

That’s the flow of the text.

I’d like for us to take the needle and the thread and draw it back through the main thoughts of Christ:

What His mission is: (To save His people).

Who He is (God with us)

God tells Joseph the child is a boy and that His name must be Jesus:

— She will give birth to a son, and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”

Doriani, D. M. (2008). Matthew & 2. (R. D. Phillips, P. G. Ryken, & D. M. Doriani, Eds.) (Vol. 1, p. 24). Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing.

As we have seen, Jesus means “the Lord saves.”

Look very specifically at who He saves. “His people”. This is the people given to Him before the foundation of the world.

The Bible speaks clearly of Jesus laying down His life for His sheep ().

In that context, He says of certain people, “You are not of my sheep” (v. 26).

Scripture also speaks of Christ laying down His life for

the children of God ();

Beeke, J. R. (2008). Living for God’s Glory: An Introduction to Calvinism (pp. 90–91). Lake Mary, FL: Reformation Trust Publishing.

dying for His church (; );

saving His people ();

giving His life a ransom for many ();

seeing His seed (; ); and

redeeming His own from iniquity ()—

all as having already happened ().

In sum, Christ died to satisfy the justice of God for His people’s sins.

He saved a definite number of people whom Scripture refers to as His people, His sheep, and His elect (; ; ).

The Lord saves and delivers His people in many ways:

he gives food to the hungry,

he heals the sick,

he comforts the brokenhearted.

Lane, T. S., Welch, E. T., & Powlison, D. (2013). The Unpardonable Sin: Two Pastoral Applications. The Journal of Biblical Counseling, 27(2), 26.

Many hoped the Messiah would save Israel from their Roman oppressors.

But the angel declares God’s agenda.

Jesus will NOT save his people from physical enemies; he “will save his people from their sins.”

Sin is the root of all other calamities.

Yes, calamity comes from many sources: accidents, forgetfulness, disease.

But the root cause of disorder is sin, and

the greatest disorder is to be at odds with God.

Jesus will save his people from that.

God will do this through forgiving us because of Christ’s atonement (that’s what v21 is about).

So begins Matthew’s gospel, and Matthew never lets go of it.

When Jesus healed a paralytic, Matthew records Jesus’ words, “Your sins are forgiven” (9:2).

Through this healing Jesus proclaimed that He did, indeed, have authority to forgive sins.

Then Matthew closes his gospel in a similar way that he began it.

Immediately before Gethsemane, Jesus revealed the deeper meaning of Passover when he said, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” (26:28).

Forgiveness of sins is the heart of Matthew’s gospel, as it is the heart of Scripture.

There is nothing stingy about Jesus’ offer of forgiveness.

Doriani, D. M. (2008). Matthew & 2. (R. D. Phillips, P. G. Ryken, & D. M. Doriani, Eds.) (Vol. 1, pp. 18–19). Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing.

When you ask for forgiveness, God forgives.

This is fundamental to Matthew and all of Scripture.

This birth of Jesus begins the unfolding of God’s salvation; it also fulfills Scripture.

The precise words are instructive: — Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet:

That is, the prophet, Isaiah in this case, spoke as God moved him ().

These are God’s very words, spoken by a prophet, to prepare the way for God’s salvation.

The birth of Jesus shows that God is with us.

In important ways, God is always with us.

We can never flee from his presence.

He is in the heavens and the depths, on land and at sea ().

We can ignore God, we can deny God, we can curse God.

But he never disappears.

His reign extends over all creation, even, in a way, over hell itself.

God is omnipresent.

Nevertheless, Matthew says that with Jesus’ birth, God entered human history in a new way.

Christian Standard Bible. (2017).

He is with us, in power, for blessing.

Three times in the Gospel of Matthew we hear that Jesus is God with us:

in the beginning,

Doriani, D. M. (2008). Matthew & 2. (R. D. Phillips, P. G. Ryken, & D. M. Doriani, Eds.) (Vol. 1, p. 19). Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing.

Doriani, D. M. (2008). Matthew & 2. (R. D. Phillips, P. G. Ryken, & D. M. Doriani, Eds.) (Vol. 1, p. 19). Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing.

at its midpoint, and

at the end.

It is a crucial moment each time.

In the beginning, we hear that Jesus is Immanuel, God with us, to save His people from their sins (1:21).

In the middle, we hear that Jesus is Immanuel, God with us, to purify his church. Jesus promises,

— For where two or three are gathered together in my name, I am there among them.”

We often use this verse to find assurance that God hears when we gather for prayer, and rightly so.

But in its original context, Jesus had a specific prayer in mind.

In the agony of church discipline,

when a Christian persists in sin and will not repent,

when the leaders deal with such rebellion,

Jesus is Immanuel, God with us, to preserve the purity of the church.

At the end of Matthew, Jesus is Immanuel, God with us, to expand the church.

Just before he ascended into heaven, Jesus directed His disciples to go and make disciples of all the nations.

It is a vast task, therefore Jesus declares, “remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Jesus is Immanuel, God with us, to empower the church to make disciples.

What a comfort to know that Jesus is God with us.

Our passage is the account of the virgin conception or virgin birth of our Lord Jesus.

The virgin birth is a sign of God’s judgment on human nature.

Doriani, D. M. (2008). Matthew & 2. (R. D. Phillips, P. G. Ryken, & D. M. Doriani, Eds.) (Vol. 1, p. 17). Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing.

T

The race needs a redeemer, but cannot itself produce one:

not by its own decision or desire,

not by the processes of education and civilization.

The redeemer must come from outside.

Here, as elsewhere, ‘all things are of God’. He provides the lamb ().

Human nature possesses no capacity for becoming the human nature of Jesus Christ.

The virgin birth is also a sign that Jesus Christ is a new beginning.

He is not a development from anything that has gone before.

He is a divine intrusion: the last, great, culminating eruption of the power of God into the plight of man: Man is involved only in the form of non-willing, non-achieving, non-creative, non-sovereign man, only in the form of man who can merely receive, merely be ready, merely let something be done to and with himself.

Jesus is a divine intrusion:

the last, great,

culminating eruption of the power of God

into the plight of man:

Man is involved only in the form of

non-willing,

non-achieving,

non-creative,

non-sovereign man,

only in the form of man who can

merely receive,

merely be ready,

merely let something be done to and

with himself.

This is why v23 is so important. God is with us. He’s with us Redeemer Church. Do you know and believe that?

Take

Let’s close by taking apart this little phrase: “God is with us.”

Take the first word GOD.

The simple meaning of Christmas is the Creator King of the universe has become a human being.

Keller, T. J. (2013). The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive. New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church.

That’s the message & meaning of Christmas.This is the first place where Jesus is introduced, the beginning of Matthew.

Right away we’re told he’s God.

Keller, T. J. (2013). The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive. New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church.

All the way through the text, all the way through the New Testament and many places in the Old Testament,

it’s told to us in every possible way … Jesus is God.

They’re always going around in the Gospels saying, “Who is this? Who is this? Who is this?”

Do you know what the final answer must’ve been in their hearts?

They must’ve said, “What’s the only answer that can possibly account for the data?

This guy cannot be a great Man only because he claims to be God, and therefore, He is who he says He is.

They believed.

The people who were the last people in the world to believe, the people who lived with Him,

were the people who were willing to die, and they did die

for their conviction that he is who he said he is.

How do you deal with that?

Have you wrestled with it the way they did?

Are you willing to put your life on the line for it the way they did?

Keller, T. J. (2013). The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive. New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church.

One thing is for sure; this explains the irritating exclusivity of Christianity.

The second phrase “is with”. Jesus is God with us.

This is beautiful.

This great God, with all of His majesty, infinitely greater than the universe, has put himself into a form of “with-ness.”

He has come alongside. He has entered into an intimate personal relationship with us. He is God with us.

Think in the OT, every time God’s presence would come near, it was absolutely terrifying!

Macleod, D. (1998). The Person of Christ. (G. Bray, Ed.) (p. 37). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.

Doriani, D. M. (2008). Matthew & 2. (R. D. Phillips, P. G. Ryken, & D. M. Doriani, Eds.) (Vol. 1, p. 15). Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing.

In the Old Testament, when he appears to Job, what does he appear as?

A whirlwind, a tornado, a hurricane. I’ve seen a tornado. There is nothing more terrifying than that.

When he appeared to Abraham, he appeared as a smoking furnace moving through the air.

Macleod, D. (1998). The Person of Christ. (G. Bray, Ed.) (p. 37). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.

We’re not really sure what in the world that means, but there was an incredible heat.

There was an incredible blaze.

When Abraham met God, he saw something that looked like a smoking furnace passing between the pieces of the dead animals he had cut up.

When he appeared to Moses and to the children of Israel, he was a pillar of fire.

When He entered the temple, He was the shekinah glory cloud, so powerful and so majestic and so great

that when it came down nobody could even go into the temple.

Every time God had ever shown up, He was terrifying.

Now here’s the point: It’s one thing to experience God (and a lot of you have); it’s another thing to be with Him.

It’s another thing to meet Him personally. There’s a big difference.

Up until the time Jesus showed up, to get into the presence of God was totally terrifying.

A smoking furnace, a pillar of fire, a tornado or a whirlwind!

When Moses asked to see the presence of God, to see the face of God, to actually meet God personally

when he was on the mountain,

do you remember what God said?

He says, “No, but I’ll show you my hind parts.

I’ll put you in the cleft of the rock. You can’t see my face. It would kill you,

but I’ll show you my hind parts.”

We’re told even because Moses just saw God’s hind parts (whatever that means), his face was so bright

when he came down the mountain,

he had to put a veil over his face for several hours or days until the glory went away.

The people of God could not look at Moses just from the radiance of the face that had just looked on

the hind parts,

the outskirts,

the heels of God.

Now can you imagine if Moses was here and he suddenly began to hear the message of Christmas?

: “And the Word was made flesh, and [tabernacled] among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) …”

“For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.”

Or if he heard the message of Christmas in and 4, where Paul says, “Moses had to put a veil over his face, but Christ has removed the veil because ‘… God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.’ ”

Moses would be jumping up and he’d be saying to every one of you,

“Do you realize what this means?

This is the very thing I was denied!

This means that through Jesus Christ you can meet God.

You can know him personally without terror.

He can come into your life.

All of that majestic glory can come and embrace you.

Do you realize what’s going on?

Where’s your joy?

Where’s your amazement?

Why isn’t Jesus the driving force of your life?”

He indwells all that are born of His Spirit. Those marked by repentance and faith.

God is with us.