Sermon Tone Analysis

Setting

Setting

Joseph and Mary probably had plans, but the plans were simple.

They would marry, have children, and continue to live the simple life as residents of Nazareth.

Nothing in Scripture indicates anything otherwise.

But God had other plans for these two.

Matthew’s Purpose and Audience

Matthew crafted his account to demonstrate:

Jesus’ messianic identity

His inheritance of the Davidic kingship over Israel, and His fulfillment of the promise made to his ancestor Abraham () to be a blessing to all the nations ().

Thus in large part Matthew’s Gospel is an evangelistic tool aimed at his fellow Jews, persuading them to recognize Jesus as their long-awaited Messiah.

Matthew identifies Jesus as Messiah-King through his lineage, birth, and childhood.

Matthew’s record of Jesus’ genealogy shows that Jesus is the sacrificial Son of Abraham, a legitimate descendant of David, and the rightful heir to the messianic throne.

The events surrounding Jesus’ birth and childhood prove him to be the promised Savior.

As Matthew launched the account of Jesus’ birth, note that he was careful to highlight the title Christ—the title he used in the preceding passage that demonstrated Jesus had the right to claim deity.

Watch for Matthew’s use of this title throughout his Gospel.

His purpose in writing was to make the case for Jesus as the promised king.

Someone read

What did it mean to be betrothed back then?

Was it different than our custom today of engagement?

Matthew crafted his account to demonstrate Jesus’ messianic identity, his inheritance of the Davidic kingship over Israel, and his fulfillment of the promise made to his ancestor Abraham () to be a blessing to all the nations ().

Thus in large part Matthew’s Gospel is an evangelistic tool aimed at his fellow Jews, persuading them to recognize Jesus as their long-awaited Messiah.

Matthew identifies Jesus as Messiah-King through his lineage, birth, and childhood.

Matthew’s record of Jesus’ genealogy shows that Jesus is the sacrificial Son of Abraham, a legitimate descendant of David, and the rightful heir to the messianic throne.

The events surrounding Jesus’ birth and childhood prove him to be the promised Savior.

As Matthew launched the account of Jesus’ birth, note that he was careful to highlight the title Christ—the title he used in the preceding passage that demonstrated Jesus had the right to claim deity.

Watch for Matthew’s use of this title throughout his Gospel.

His purpose in writing was to make the case for Jesus as the promised king.

What did it mean to be betrothed back then?

Was it different than our custom today of engagement?

Mary was betrothed to Joseph, a relationship in that era and culture that was as legally binding as a fully consummated marriage.

Customarily the parents of a young man chose a young woman to be engaged to their son.

A second stage of betrothal involved official arrangements and a prenuptial agreement before witnesses, which was a legally binding contract and could be broken only by a formal process of divorce.

Mary is about four months pregnant, having spent three months with Elizabeth, her “relative” (look at , ).

Jewish marriage practices had the groom taking the initiative in approaching the father of the prospective bride.

If the bride’s father agreed to the marriage, the groom paid a price called a mohar, a sort of reverse dowry that compensated the bride’s family for any financial loss they might incur without her help in the family business.

The couple exchanged vows and was considered legally married.

Dissolution of the marriage during betrothal required formal divorce.

The couple did not cohabit for a year while the groom prepared living quarters, often attached to his father’s house.

After the year the groom and his friends would surprise the bride and her family, the wedding feast would begin, further vows would be exchanged, and the marriage consummated.

It was during the year of betrothal that Mary’s pregnancy was discovered.

A betrothed couple was as good as married, and breaking off the relationship was seen as divorce, even though the couple had not yet been married (look at divorce laws in ).

It also helps us gain a better perspective of the emotional state of Mary and Joseph when we realize that she was probably in her teens at the time of these events.

The minimum marriageable age in Israel was twelve for women and thirteen for men.

Why is it so important that the Christ, the promised king, be born to a virgin?

The virgin birth is more than a miracle to draw attention to the unique nature of this child.

Because Mary was a virgin, only God could have been the father of Jesus, making Jesus the one and only God-Man in all the universe.

God’s plan would have been impossible if Jesus had been anything less.

Fulfills .

Verse 19 says something of Joseph’s character.

What was it and for the men here, how would you have reacted?

Sexual unfaithfulness during betrothal was considered adultery, and under the Mosaic law carried the death penalty by stoning () or at the very least public disgrace.

Joseph intended to maintain his personal righteousness, yet he desired to show compassion even though Mary appeared to be an adulteress.

Joseph lived by the law but did so with compassion and mercy.

Do we reflect the same character when confronted with those who live in opposition to God’s laws today?

Can we win others to Christ by shaming them?

Let’s move to

Dreams

Angelic visitation and dreams are a common means of supernatural revelation in the sacred literature of this time.

In , Pilate’s wife urges him to not be involved in Jesus’ sentencing because of a dream she experienced the night before.

Other visions or dreams, such as those in Daniel and Revelation, often were mediated through angels (see ; ; ).

The angel of the Lord is Gabriel (cf. ).

Notice how the angel addressed him as “Joseph, son of David”.

Why is that important?

Matthew is writing to a predominant Jewish audience so he continually makes reference to the authenticity of Jesus as rightful king through the lineage of David.

Verse 21

Imagine having to deal with the responsibility of parenting the promised Messiah!

Mary, initially fearful of being an unwed mother, accepted God’s revealed intentions for her.

And Joseph, initially not all that sure himself about the “virgin birth,” was originally thinking divorce, albeit quietly and with no public scandal.

But when Joseph was approached by God through the angel, he accepted his role and did precisely as he was instructed by God.

He kept Mary a virgin until after Jesus was born, after which their normal marital relations produced other children who were the half-brothers of Jesus.

What lesson can we learn from these two at this juncture?

Trust and Obey.

What’s in a name?

In antiquity, names were often thought to be emblematic of the character or calling of the individual.

The name Jesus chosen by God for his Son was, in that day and for centuries before, a common name with special meaning.

Jesus is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew Joshua, meaning “Yahweh is salvation.”

(look at ).

The name Jesus was given to sons as a symbolic hope for the Lord’s anticipated sending of salvation through a Messiah who would purify his people and save them from oppression.

But the angel points to a more important theme: to save his people from their sins.

Salvation from sins was a repeated promise in OT prophets (e.g., ; ; ; ; ; ).

“Christ” is the New Testament designation of Old Testament “Messiah”, meaning “anointed”).

Not what they were expecting in a Messiah:

The salvation of which the angel spoke differed vastly from Jewish expectations of the Messiah; Jesus brought forgiveness of sins, not expulsion of the occupying Roman army or political-religious restoration.

As the time drew near for Jesus to be born, a mandatory Roman census made it necessary for Joseph to return to his ancestral home of Bethlehem.

There Mary gave birth to Jesus, and later, wise men from the east came to worship him.

The wise men’s recognition of a new king, however, troubled King Herod and the ruling establishment in Jerusalem, and Herod sought to kill Jesus.

Joseph and his family escaped to Egypt and remained there until Herod died.

When they returned to Palestine, they settled in the remote district of Galilee, where Jesus grew up in the northern village of Nazareth, to avoid the attention of the rulers in Jerusalem.

In verse 23, Matthew provides the first of many direct quotes from the Old Testament, and the first of many Old Testament prophecies fulfilled by the earthly life of Jesus.

Why is that important?

These Old Testament quotes and prophecies show, in part, the linkage and unity between the Old and New Testaments, helping us understand how God was preparing the way for the Christ from centuries past.

They also validate the identity of Jesus as the promised Messiah, strengthening our faith in him.

Matthew is quick to support the doctrine of the virgin birth, and his quote in 1:23 is from , originally written by the prophet Isaiah over seven hundred years before Jesus’ birth.

What’s in a name: Immanuel

The linguistic components of the name Immanuel and their individual translations—Im = “with,” anu = “us,” and el = “God”

—make it clear that Isaiah’s original prophecy could refer in its fullest sense only to the promised Messiah.

Tie this to God’s original plan.

Look at , , and

The book of Isaiah as a whole connects Immanuel with the Messiah figure from David’s line () and by extension the Suffering Servant ().