The Child From the Holy Spirit

Scripture Reading: Psalm 92.

Scripture Reading: Isa 63:11-16.

Sermon:

Good Morning Church! I was Glad when they said to me let us go and worship in the house of the Lord!

Well this morning we continue through beginning of our series through the the Gospel of Matthew. Today we will be looking at Matthew 1:18-25 so 18 to the end of chapter one which we will finish today.

So to begin lets just start by reading this passage. Some parts of this are familiar. We might read this around Christmas time. So lets begin:

READ MATTHEW 1:18-25.

These are the words of the Lord for us this morning. Lets PRAY.

PRAY

So as we look at this passage, Like I said much of it may be familiar to us,. but today I would like to push us just a little, go go deeper and to understand, and really to stand on, this passage more firmly. So I would like to begin with a phrase, one I believe with my whole heart: Theology matters. The men have been going through AW Tozer’s Knowledge of the Holy, (commercial break, chapter three tomorrow, we would love to have all the men come), and the first paragraph of the first chapter begins like this: what a man thinks of when he thinks of God is the most important thing about him. and what we think about when we think about God is fancy way of saying what your THEOLOGY is. And what we believe is not just as tozer says the most important thing about you, but I would argue that what we believe has dire consequences in our lives. Do we believe that God saves, more importantly do we believe God saves us, then we will live like it. Do we believe God is sovereign? then that will inform the things that we do and how we interact with and respond to the people and circumstances around us. and so what we believe about God is of vital importance.

But here is the question: do we really actually believe that theology matters? do we actually think it is important that we get this right? or can you speak your truth about God and I speak mine and that's OK. How important is it that our theological concepts are not just right, but exactly right? I would argue that these things are important enough to say we should strive for exactly right while admitting that as a fallen frail human I might miss that mark. But Thinking rightly about God is vital, and worth striving to get right.

But then we could have an important conversation about how we get there. there was a time in my life where in, if someone disagreed with me on some point of theological doctrine no matter how great or how much it might fall into the category of adiaphora any disagreement was a call to battle. not a physical battle because I am NOT an imposing presence but a battle of Ideas, or really, if we are being frank, these were just arguments. Having matured a little bit I went the far other end of the spectrum. I said you know what we are all friends, we can all get along, its OK that we disagree. fast forward to now and a little bit more maturity and this is what I would say is the truth. there are certain things that are worth fighting over, debate or even in extreme cases I will not back down and this is a call to battle. there are other things that are important and worth a debate however it should not, and we should resolve will not affect our relationship and then there are other things that are not even worth that conversation, (though in all honesty that is a VERY VERY small list).

Well today we have a subject matter that is 100% without a shadow of doubt in my mind in the first category of thing that we MUST fight for. I would say that this is so important that it marks a sort of dividing line, to deny this thought is to prove that you are NOT a christian. This passage was all about the doctrine of the virgin birth. that Mary was a virgin and conceived a child by the Holy Spirit. this child was Jesus Christ our lord. this we say to be true and condemn all who would deny it as (and I do not throw this language around lightly ) heretics. This point, that it was the virgin Mary who became pregnant with our savior is of critical importance. to deny this is to go against the teaching of the UNIVERSAL church, the teaching of Scripture and is to deny a truth about God. We live in a world that says you can define who you are however you want. if you deny this truth you do not get to identify as christian. Sorry that I am not sorry.

Why would I be so bold. Well, we just read it plain as day in Matthew 1:1-18, but there is more defense that can be made. We can look to all the great creeds and catechisms of the church from as far back as the church has been a thing and they ALL hold to and teach the virgin birth.

So start with the most classing the Apostles creed: I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary,

then just a short while later we have the Nicene creed, when the church was battling and having trouble with a whole host of heresies and so they sat down to say: this is what we believe and they say this: I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages. God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father; through him all things were made. For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven, and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man.

my favorite confession of the reformation era is the 2nd London Baptist confession and they say this in chapter 8 (of Christ our mediator) paragraph 2 says: The Son of God, the second person in the Holy Trinity, being very and eternal God, the brightness of the Father's glory, of one substance and equal with Him who made the world, who upholds and governs all things He has made, did, when the fullness of time was complete, take upon Him man's nature, with all the essential properties and common infirmities of it, yet without sin; being conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary, the Holy Spirit coming down upon her: and the power of the Most High overshadowing her; and so was made of a woman of the tribe of Judah, of the seed of Abraham and David according to the Scriptures; so that two whole, perfect, and distinct natures were inseparably joined together in one person, without conversion, composition, or confusion; which person is very God and very man, yet one Christ, the only mediator between God and man.

And finally the Articles of Faith of The BFC, the articles that this church holds to be true we say (article 4 paragraph 1) Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is the Word, the eternal and true God who is of one substance and equal with the father. He took on Himself Man’s nature, with all of its essential properties except sin: Being conceived of the Holy Spirit and Born of the Virgin Mary, He embodied two perfect and distinct natures in one person. He is truly God and truly man, the only mediator between God and man.

As son as we loose the idea of a child conceived from the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary we loose essential and historic Christian faith. To believe anything else is to abandon Christianity. So just to start there, that this is a passage about Jesus Christ who was conceived from the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary, to start there is to start with a theological dilemma.

The THEOLOGICAL Dilemma

And this is what I mean by that, this clearly teaches that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit and not by normal means. The whole point of this passage, written in some sense from Joseph's point of view, is that Joseph is not the father. SO who is? the answer here is that it is the Holy Spirit. Mary has never had any relationship with a man that we would say could bring about a child and yet here she is pregnant.

SO the dilemma is: that's not how things usually work, that's not how things EVER work. So the dilemma is: if we say that we believe that we immediately say that we believe in the supernatural, we believe in the impossible. We believe in things that are far beyond our normal ability to comprehend. And for many of us that it difficult.

You may not know this, but Thomas Jefferson made for himself a bible. He called it”The life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth”. In this work he took out all supernatural things. he wanted a moralistic, naturalistic feel better about yourself type of religion. This passage would have to be one of the first to Go. and as he littlerally cuth this passage out with a razor, so he cut out all hope of the Gospel.

You might here people arguing, well this is an ancient work, more superstitious and less scientifically advanced and so they did not really know how these things work. to which i respond: Really, these grown adults don’t know where babies come from?!? to say it a little nicer, (but just a little) here is blomberg’s quote: it is often said that such a belief [virgin conception] stems from a pre-scientific superstition. But even the relatively primitive stage of first-century science was sufficiently advanced for people to know that in every other known instance it required a biological father as well as a biological mother to produce a human child.

The dilemma is that we cant say They just didn’t know what was gong on, this is an antiquated belief, they just didn’t know virgin’s couldn’t have babies. do we really think we are so much more advanced that we know how babies are made and they didn’t? are we so arrogant to think they couldn’t figure this one out?

We don’t get to say that because Jesus being conceived of the Holy Spirit and Born of the Virgin Mary is one of the central tenants of the Christina faith AND is the foundation in some sense of our salvation. to go back to the Articles of faith of the BFC we read: Being conceived of the Holy Spirit and Born of the Virgin Mary, He embodied two perfect and distinct natures in one person. He is truly God and truly man, the only mediator between God and man.

We have to say that we believe this because Jesus Christ, fully God (conceived of the holy Spirit) and fully man (born of Mary) is our only hope and mediation between sinful humanity and holy God. We have to believe this because anything less than God does not save us and anything that is not man could not save all of mankind. The Gospel, our salvation hinges on this. We do not get to trow it out because it is more convent for us or more scientifically acceptable” to deny the virgin birth.

So then in this doctrine we beautifully begin to see not just the incarnation of the son but the working of the trinity. In this the father sends, the Holy spirit conceives and the Son is Born! So that we continue thoughts of the trinity perfect harmony here, continues into salvation, so that all the father calls the son saves and the spirit seals. to deny the virgin birth is to loose all of this.

Thus the spirit becomes linked with Jesus intimately and beautifully, here at his conception. There was another ancient heresy that coincided with denying the virgin birth, it is that Jesus grew up and then at some point he became the Messiah, at some point (maybe his baptism or right before the wedding at canna) he “became the messiah. that is shown to be wrong here. so again the Christian belief is that Jesus from the moment of conception was Jesus. the holy spirit empowers conceived him and was with him from birth. well actually from about 9 months before birth when he came into being (he another argument just to leave here for you do do with it as you please: Jesus was Jesus from the moment of conception, so you cannot deny the individuality and personhood and therefore rights and need to be protected of the unborn).

JI packer says: It is here, in the thing that happened at the first Christmas, that the profoundest and most unfathomable depths of the Christian revelation lie. Here is our dilemma: are we willing to believe this. Are we willing to say: this is true! or are we going to, like Thomas Jefferson try and cut up and get rid of doctrines and thoughts that are hard or we don't even think is possible. I know here, in this audience I am speaking to, by and large, a people who hold to this, who would say yes I believe this to be true, but is this then a hill you are willing to die on? My argument today is yes, we should.

We must believe this theological point to be true. Mysterious as it is mind bending as it is, as difficult to fathom and comprehend as it is, IT IS TRUE! so the dilemma for us is then not is this true, the dilemma is what do we do knowing that it is. and in this sense it becomes a very PERSONAL DILEMMA.

The PERSONAL Dilemma

It is interesting for me as I started thinking through walking through this passage in this way I was struck. so for us it is personal thinking through what will I do with this. but this passage, what we read, was written by and large through the eyes of Joseph. and they describe the scandal of this situation. he says this: So then, do you see the scandal of it all? Mary is pregnant, yet she is betrothed to Joseph. Joseph is not the father of this baby. Now, if this scenario is still scandalous in our anything-goes, play-by-your-own-rules culture, imagine how it would have been in their anything-does-not-go, abide-by-God’s-rules culture. For Joseph this is a huge scandalous problem. Lets read the beginning of this passage again, taking out a critically important thought that we the reader know to place ourselves in Joseph's shoes for a moment verse 18-19 would read like this:

READ

for Joseph here is the personal dilemma: I have not been with Mary in any way that would cause her to be pregnant. so while we, the reader might know that this child is conceived of the Holy Spirit all Joseph knows is that Mary is pregnant and he is not the father. I can think of dilemmas that could be more personal. so he resolves to fix this personal dilemma, he resolves to divorce her quietly.

oh but now we, even the reader are faced with an even greater dilemma. we covered this last week, but we get to Jesus being the messiah by way of the adoption of Jospeh. but if he were to divorce Mary, if he were to reject this child, well in some sense he has taken care of his own personal dilemma in a way that condemns the rest of mankind. Joseph goes through with this divorce and Gone is our Messiah, we have no savior, we loose hope, healing and restoration.

But then, as he is considering these things and behold an angel of the Lord appears: Matthew 1:20. So now here is a more profound in some sense personal dilemma, and I believe our way to really relate to this story. It goes like this:;

On one hand here is everything Joseph has seen and known his whole life about where this child is most likely from, lumped in with that are personal feelings of betrayal and abandonment, probably feeling like he has been taken advantage of, we could list more things that make this hard for Joseph. on the other hand here is this dream, an angel of the Lord appears to him and says: everything you are feeling, everything you are contemplating, don't do it.

and here is what we can think about, there is a thought, it is going to cost you to not believe all the things that you used to think, to trust this “angle of the Lord” it might hurt. Believing this will cost you, maybe the people around you do some math, like people tend to do, and maybe people realize that when this kid is born and when you marriage was the numbers don’t add up, so maybe they know the kid is not his, or maybe for the rest of his life people will be whispering behind his back about the “sins of Joseph and Mary”. But the angel of the lord doesn't seem to care about those consequences, he says: be not afraid to take Mary as your wife, consequences don’t matter, just do it.

So the dilemma for Joseph is: what do i do? Will I believe what God has said or do i believe what I feel? this too is our dilemma.

I opened this sermon by saying that theology matters. So we believe that God is sovereign, that he rule the universe and nothing but nothing happens without his explicit permission everything happens according to his will, but do we believe that? If so does it impact how we deal with the circumstances and things that surround us? God is sovereign, do we believe that over coronaviris? God is sovereign, do we believe that over this country, no matter which way we think it is going no matter which way we think it has gone do we believe that God is still sovereign? God is sovereign do we believe that over MY life, do I believe that even in the face of difficulties, sickness, diagnoses that I do not want to hear, do I believe that God is sovereign?

On top of that, do I believe that God is loving kind, gracious, abounding in steadfast love even in this things, do we believe that. If we did, I submit to you that we would be more quick to stand up like James did in James 1 and say that we count it all joy when we face trial of many kinds because we know that this is God working in us, shaping us, growing us, sanctifying us and making us more into the image of Jesus Chrsit our Lord. SO we face trial and challenges not as trials and challenges in and of themselves, but as a way by which God will sanctify and heal me. and by heal I do not necessarily mean some sort of physical healing but that he will heal my soul as it is made ever more into the image of my savior. Do I believe that?

The personal dilemma before me is: will i believe what I feel, will I believe what I think, will I believe what I have experienced or will I believe what God has said? that is OUR personal dilemma. and for us in this story we do have an example. the example comes to us in the form of Joseph and his QUIET OBEDIENCE

The Example: QUIET OBEDIENCE

In church tradition, if you were to look at church history, Joseph the father of Jesus has earned the nickname of “Quiet Joseph” this is quiet Joseph as opposed to, for example Joseph with his coat of many colors. he talked a lot, (which got him in trouble with his brothers) and he talked to pharaoh, he talked. But here, quiet Joseph earners that nickname because he actually never speaks in Scripture. We have no recorded words of Joseph. Mary speaks often in Scripture, she even sings a song, its in Luke its called the Magnificat and it gives us the answer to the age old question of Mary did you know, yes, yes she did. the wise men speak, lots of people in birth narratives speak, but not Joseph.

He just quietly obeys. Heres how this is relayed to us: verse 24. that's it. He gets up and does exactly as he is told without hesitation or question. he gets up, and says “OK” Ill stand on what God has said. and so beautifully here, jospeh gets up, takes Mary as his wife, he does not divorce here and then this last little though at the end of verse 25 it is Joseph that names this child from the Holy Spirit: Jesus. In many ways this is the last step of the adoption process, and this traces it’s history back to The Old Testament specifically places like Isaiah where God says to the people you are my people I have called you by name. and so to be the one who names a child is to claim that child as your own. And so it is no accident that our story ends with Joseph naming Jesus, Jesus. He obeys.

and I would note here there is no hemming and hawing. this is reading a little into this passage, but I believe this is a correct and right reading. he gets up and he does what the Lord commanded him. Elsewhere we have examples in scripture of people that follow what God has said, but only after a while, and with some hesitation. We have “doubting Thomas” in the NT. we have Gideon in the OT where God says your gonna do this and Gideon says, well-ll, I'm gonna need some proof so they do the fleece thing and Then Gideon says, well, I'm gonna need more that that so can you do the exact same thing just the opposite. Even in the story of someone like Moses we have this. Moses is called ad Moses says, How will they know and Moses is given the signs of the staff into a snake and his leprosy hand and then moses still thinks: I'm not good at talking and so we get AARON, and we have cases of people being used by God even in the midst of their doubt. So first of all thanks be to God that he can use us even when we don’t respond as we should.

But all that to say we ave example after example of God calling and people making excuses or needing to be prodded, we do not get that with Joseph. Joseph in one moment has made up his mind he resolved to divorce Mary, he has made up his mid this is what he will do but then, all of the sudden an angel of the Lord appears. And then Joseph says”OK”. how did Joseph handle the dilemma? he followed the words of God.

It is very interesting: verse 21-23. and what is interesting is that there is disagreement and really a question, we don’t really have a universal answer to this: this sort of: here is what the prophet says interlude, is that a continuation of what the angel said to Joseph or has Mathew stepped in and inserted some reflection for us. And my answer to this question is: probably both. and here is what I mean by that. I don’t know if the angel of the Lord spoke to Joseph directly and quoted Isaiah 7 to him. I don’t know if that is what directly what was said or what Matthew thinks, but either way here is the truth This message here is given us by Matthew under the direct inspiration of the Holy spirit to say there is a correspondence here. Isaiah corresponds to the message such that: in the face of such a bold and unnatural claim (here the claim that a child will be born of a virgin, again that was our whole theological dilemma) in the face of this bold and unnatural claim what is what underpins that claim? it is scripture. Virgin having a kid, how can this be, Isaiah 7. that's how!

The Isaiah quotation underlines the assurance that this is from God. So what I do know is that Joseph was assured by the angel that this is from God. Did he use this verse, did he calm his should in some other way, that I do not know, nor do I think it matters, because here we have the truth relayed to us as it always in. in Scripture.

So here is the beauty, and I will end with this thought: as we think through maybe some personal dilemma in our life: what is God calling me to do. And you are struggling with: is this a feeling from God or is this just some burrito I ate. Joseph had this dream, and did he wake up and say: that was a weird dream I really need to not eat taco bell before I go to sleep. no! he saw that this was from God, and so he wakes up and he does it, but how did he know it was from God, because this is what Scripture testifies to. The message of the angel was backed by scripture. so the call today is to stand on the authority of scripture to stand on all that scripture has said, but when you hear the call of God, confirmed by his word you obey.

SO will you do what has been asked of you. Our example here in Joseph, quiet Joseph, is a sort of quiet obedience. there is not telling of Joseph taking some bold stand. Standing up in the streets and saying, hey I was going to divorce here, because I want you all to know this is not my kid, but God told me to marry her so I'm going to, so now you must praise me or pity me. we don’t have that. He just did it.

So to make this personal for just a minute. what is god calling you to do today? For some of us it may be that he has called us to more readily and quickly commit our lives to him will you do that today? Who has he called you to go speak to, to share the hope and the healing of the Gospel? what person has he called you to reach out to ti invite to hear the gospel message proclaimed! what people has god placed in your life and for what purpose has he placed them there, how has he called you to obey? what has he asked you to obey? and will we follow the example here. Knowing that we are asking to be in belief of things that are difficult and sometimes hard to wrap our minds around. if scripture teaches it we must stand on these truths. as we weigh what God has said verses what I feel which one will I give more power and credence to? will you obey?

Lets PRAY