Immanuel

Scripture Reading

Please turn in your Bibles with me to Matthew chapter 1. This morning, we will be looking at verses 18 through 25. If you are using your pew Bibles, you will find that on page 849. Matthew chapter 1 begins at verse 18.

Brothers and sisters, this is God's perfect word. Let us pay careful attention. Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place as follows. After his mother Mary was engaged to Joseph, before they came together, she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit. Then Joseph, her husband, being a just man and unwilling to put her to public shame, decided to divorce her quietly. But while he was pondering these things, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is of 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 Emmanuel," which means, "God with us." Then Joseph, being aroused from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord commanded him. He took Mary as his wife, and he did not know her until she had given birth to her firstborn son. And he called his name Jesus.

Let us pray together. Father, you have done miraculous and wonderful things, historical moments, done in an instant, but with eternal significance. We pray, asking that your Holy Spirit please help us as we now go through the preaching of this word. We pray that we would understand it better and that your Holy Spirit might so bury it in our hearts that it would become the fabric of our hope and of our being, and that we would then live it out. Lord, we thank you for the gift of your son. We pray that you would help us. Be with me, Lord, a man with sinful and faltering lips. Pray that you would please help me and give me strength and clarity. In Jesus's name, amen.

We come to a very familiar passage in the Bible. If you have read through the Bible or sat through a Christmas service or been at church for any period of time, you will know this story. However, I hope that this does not mean that you just check out or zone out this morning. I think there is a lot more in this passage sometimes than we necessarily give credit for. Therefore, I would like to look closely with you at who this story is about—Jesus—and hopefully bring out to you some of the amazing things about what this birth narrative of Jesus teaches us about why Jesus came and who he is even today.

First Point

So first, look with me at verse 18 to see the context of the story: the conception of Jesus. Verse 18 states, "Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: After His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit." Now we read that quickly, but there is something that you might have missed. The first part of chapter one, from verse two to verse 16, is a giant genealogy. Our word for genealogy comes from birth. That is why women say "gynecologist." It comes from the same Greek word. When it says there is this genealogy, it states, "So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen, and from David until the captivity in Babylon are fourteen generations, and from the captivity in Babylon to the Christ are fourteen." Then comes the birth, the genesis of Jesus. Notice, however, that it says "Jesus Christ." This is not His first name and last name; it is His name and a title. It is saying Jesus, and the angel will explain that Joseph needs to call Him Jesus. Matthew also helps us by saying, "You shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins." But that word "Christ" is a word for "anointed" or "Messiah" in the Old Testament. The whole point of this is that Jesus was going to come to be the anointed king of His people and indeed of the entire world.

When it says, "Now is the birth of Jesus Christ," it is specifically saying, "Now is the birth of the king who descends from the line of David." It is pointing us back to an ancient promise that God had given to David in 2 Samuel chapter seven. In that passage, God promised David that there would be a descendant who would sit on his throne, le'olam, forever, to eternity. Matthew is saying, "The Christ came, the anointed son, the king of the Jews had arrived." That is what chapter one is getting at here.

Now, the birth of Jesus, the Christ, or the Messiah, was as follows. So how did this come about? Well, it did not come about in any ordinary way. It came about through ordinary people, and we are going to see that they had ordinary struggles, common struggles that we would have. However, Jesus's mother, Mary, was betrothed to Joseph. That is an old English word, betrothed. Some of your translations may say engaged to, but our engagement is not the same as what it was back then. This was a legally binding arrangement.

In America, we have what people overseas call love marriages, do we not? You fall in love with somebody, you ask them to marry you, you have this engagement, and so on. But in a country I was in recently, that was not the case. You have some Christians who do love marriages, but most people have arranged marriages. And that is the way it is across the globe a lot right now, but especially in Jesus's time. Family A is really interested in finding a spouse for their son, so they go and approach family B and say, "We would like to have your daughter marry our son." And the parents say, "This is a good arrangement; let us do it." They may or may not consult the children. And then what happens? You get married.

But once that betrothal happens, it is an official binding agreement. To break it off, the dowry becomes an issue. When you break off this formal betrothal-type relationship, there is a lot of family strife that happens. It is a big deal. And so, engagement may be a little too soft of a term here. But anyway, Mary is betrothed. She is in this formal contractual agreement to marry Joseph. But before they came together, before they had a household, and before they became one flesh, before any of this happened, something occurred. She was found to be with child. That is a big problem. If you are in an agreement to marry a man and before you get married, you come home from your cousin Elizabeth's house and he finds out you are three months pregnant, there is some explaining to do. Something has happened; what is going on.

Matthew is very clear here: this is of the Holy Spirit. This did not happen by ordinary means, and we are able to go to Luke and read more about that. I would encourage you to do that this week. Go read this story in Luke's account. But this is a problem. We are going to read about that problem in a moment, but I want to step into this and just say, Mary is a virgin. She has never been with a man. Luke is very clear about it. She responds back to the angel when he says, "You will conceive of a child." She says, "I have never been with a man. How is this possible?" It is because God was stepping in. The Lord God himself was doing something miraculous that had never been done before and has never happened since. He was going to create a child in her womb who was going to be born, not of ordinary generation. He was going to be the God-man himself. God himself was going to come and bridge the gap. God himself was intervening because, see, God had made a promise all those hundreds and hundreds of years back to David, and no king had ever been able to fulfill the promise. So God fulfills it himself by sending forth his Son, born of a virgin.

And so it is God who will redeem by having Mary conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit; it is not of her own doing, but a choice of God. Now I must say, we are going to wrestle with this in a moment, but I have wrestled with how Mary must have felt in all of this. She is very humble; you can read her Magnificat in Luke, where she sings about God's faithfulness and glory and things like that. But I wonder, when this moment came, as she was with Elizabeth and on her way home, would Joseph believe her? Or would people call her all sorts of names, look down on her, and distrust her?

Well, notice how Joseph responds in verse 19. Then Joseph, her husband, see how seriously they take betrothal? He is already being called her husband, and they are not yet married. So, then Joseph, her husband, being a just man. That word "just" is the same word for righteous. He is a righteous man. He is a just man. And many times when people think of justice, they think of someone breaking the law and receiving the full extent of the punishment of the law. But that is not justice. Many times, justice also looks like showing a measure of mercy and self-control. And that is what we find in this man's character. Joseph is a just man. He is a righteous man. But he does not want to make her a public example. See, because of how seriously they took betrothal, if it was seen that she had come with child, what does that mean? It means she had an affair while they were betrothed. And what is the penalty for that? The maximum penalty is death by stoning. And he does not want that for her. He does not know how he can stay married to her, but maybe he will just put her away quietly. He does not want to bring shame on her. The trust issue has been so broken that he is not sure how he can marry her or go forward with this, so he will break the contract instead. And they will just go their own ways. That is what it is saying when it says, "and not wanting to make her a public example, was minded to put her away secretly."

As he is wrestling in his mind and putting together this plot, how can he both not say that what has happened is okay, but yet also show her mercy and love her? So this is what he is planning. And this was probably Mary's fear. How will my future husband take this? What is going to happen? But we see his noble character. We see his measured mercy and justice. We see his planning and his love for her. But then something happens. As he is wrestling in his mind and his heart about what to do, verse 20 happens. The angel comes and gives him a message. Look with me at verses 20 and 21. But while he thought about these things, by the way, that is a really helpful thing that Matthew tells us. He had not come to a conclusion yet; he was still mulling it over. He had not set the legal paperwork in order. He was just still thinking about it. And he goes to sleep. I am sure he is still anxious and worried and heartbroken, trying to work this out. And all of a sudden, an angel shows up. And he has something that is going to stop him dead in his tracks.

"Behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, 'Joseph!' By the way, that is a good sign. When the angel calls you by name, it means the message is really for you. Joseph! Notice what he says next, though. 'Son of David.'"

Joseph is originally from Bethlehem. Joseph is from the city and of the lineage of David, the king to whom God had given that promise all the way back in 2 Samuel chapter 7. "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to yourself Mary, your wife." He deals with his internal struggle. He labels it as fear. And what he is about to do is going to bring, I am sure, a whole lot of people in his family and the community thinking, "What are you doing? If he does not put Mary away, if he does not do anything about it, oh, you are just going to put up with sin like that? You must not be righteous. How is his reputation, how is his standing in the community going to be?"

The angel says, "Do not worry about that. Do not be afraid. Do not be afraid to take Mary, your wife." And then he tells him what Mary already knew. He confirms this message. For that which is in her is conceived of the Holy Spirit.

Now, I know that there are some people who are like, "Well, how does that happen? How does she conceive by the Holy Spirit?" And there are all sorts of theologians who will say, "Well, it must have happened with her egg," but then they will get into all this biological stuff and say, "Whoa, time out. Dude, it's called a miracle for a reason. It's never happened before, it's never going to happen again. God did it one time, and we don't have to get into all the genetic anomalies of how this happened. The point is, God made his son in the flesh. Now, he was eternally begotten, but he was incarnate here. In his humanity, he was conceived of the Holy Spirit.

It tells Joseph, "Do not be afraid. You can trust her. You can take her to be your wife. You can love her. There will be whispers. Do not worry about it. There will be people who will think she's a liar and you're a fool. Trust the Lord instead. Do not be afraid. This is not ordinary. It is miraculous. They had never been together. She had never been with any other man.

But notice what he tells him after this. In verse 21, "and she shall bring forth a son." By the way, we've been surprised with the gender of four of our five children. All right, I hope they didn't, like, this is like the first time I think anybody's maybe known before. There was no gender reveal party or something, right? They're just, "You're going to have a son." Boom, they knew it. "And she will bring forth a son, and you shall call his name Jesus."

Now that is an important part for a man who is afraid, because for him to call, meaning for him to name this boy, is for him to own him as his legitimate heir. For him to say, "This is my son, I am going to give him a name." What is the name that he is to give him? Joshua. That is what your Bible says, right? Joshua. That is his name, you know that, right? His name is Joshua. It is pulled into Greek to be Jesus. But see, when Moses met young Joshua and he became this helper in the tent and so on, his name was Hosha. And so that means saving. But Moses said, "That is not clear enough. We are going to, I am going to rename you Joshua. It is Yah who saves. It is Jehovah who saves his people." And so when this is given that he is to be called Jesus, he is going all the way back even to Moses and to Joshua.

And this is the part that is interesting to me as I think through this. What did Joshua have to be told time and time again? "Be strong and of good courage." And now Joseph is being told to call his son Joshua. Because this is the one who is going to save his people from their sins. This is the one who is going to, even though the people's sins were as scarlet, he would be the one who would wash them as clean as snow. He would be the one who would finally be the last and final sacrifice. This Jesus would be the rescuer, the redeemer, the savior of God's entire people.

God himself is at work in this. And he saves people from their sins. See, in this passage, it is this amazing thing where Joseph is going to have to endure a certain amount of shame for all this to come about. Mary is going to endure a certain amount of shame for how all this is going to come about. But their son would endure the greatest shame of all, the shame of dying on the cross. And he would save real people from real sins. He would save us from the due penalty of our sins. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

This is about God bringing a king in an extraordinary way. This king would lay down his life for his people, save them from their sins, and then reign forever. Do you trust that king? Is that your hope? Do you believe that God cares enough about you to orchestrate this entire story and work through real human history and hearts to redeem you?

Matthew continues and explains why all this is happening, in verses 22 through 23. So all of this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet. The prophet, Isaiah, said, "Behold, the virgin shall be with child and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel, which is translated 'God with us.'" It had not been since the Garden of Eden that God had walked with men. And yet when Jesus was born, the people could say that God had truly been with them. Jesus himself is the fulfillment of Isaiah chapter seven, verse 14.

God himself, by the way, that whole passage in Isaiah chapter seven is about the prophet Isaiah talking to King Ahaz and how God was going to bring a king. And yet this is the new king, this is the new mighty one, this is the one that two chapters later in Isaiah would be called the prince of peace, would be God with his people, would be everlasting father, who would be the mighty one himself. God was fixing the problem that people created by sending his own son. God himself would be with his people.

And then in verses 24 and 25, we see Joseph being obedient. By the way, Joseph did not have to be. He could have just told the angel no. He could have sinned. He could have disbelieved. However, I think the Holy Spirit had been working in his heart, softening his heart for this moment. Then Joseph, being aroused from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord commanded him. And he took to him his wife and did not know her till she had brought forth her firstborn son. And he—that is, Joseph—called his name Jesus. Joseph is obedient. He is courageous. He is filled with faith. He has pushed out the fear and does what God has told him to do. He takes Mary to be his wife, but notice he still shows her respect and did not know her till she had brought forth her firstborn son.

They went through all the legal things. They performed the ceremony. They had the feast. The wine was flowing. However, when it came to the honeymoon night, he said, "No, we are going to wait. We will wait until the baby is born." Now, we know that they had other children later, and we can discuss that at another time. But the point here is that Joseph shows her respect and waits. He holds off even earthly desires or pleasures and waits.

And she has Jesus. And when he sees him for the first time, this is the one who will save God's people from their sins. We are going to name him Joshua. We are going to name him Jesus. I do not know how all this works out, but I know that an angel told me that God is with us because this one is coming into the world.

Mary and Joseph endure the shame. However, they are not afraid of it. Their fear is pushed out by faith. And God himself works to bring about this new king, not just the king of the Jews, but the one who will become the king of kings and the Lord of lords. He brings about the king who would save his people from their sins.

This is the good news. This is why people walk around saying "Merry Christmas" right now. "Merry" just means, "Stop being grumpy and be happy." The King has come. The Lord of glory is here. The long-awaited Son of David has been conceived by the Holy Spirit, was born by the Virgin Mary, and He has conquered sin and saved us on the cross. He said, "It is finished."

And that's why I think it's a beautiful thing that the Lord and His providence postponed us from coming to the Lord's Supper for the last three weeks. But as I was preparing the sermon, I thought, "What a beautiful picture." From cradle to the cross, the purpose was that He would save His people from their sins. And He's still our King today.

So when we come together in a moment to take the Lord's Supper, we do it remembering Him until our King comes again. I don't have a fancy conclusion for you. This is where my notes end. The King has come. The Lord of glory has arrived. Our true Joshua conquered sin and death.

Do you believe in Him? Do you rejoice? Is your heart merry that Jesus came and is still with us today? Let us pray.

Father, we thank You for Your word. We thank You even more for Your Son. Lord, we pray that we would rejoice with exceedingly great rejoicing, and that our hearts would be glad because You have sent Your Son, and with Him there is no shame. There's no fear, for perfect love casts out fear. We thank You that we can stand before You, even with all of our sin and of our guilt, and we can know that You have washed us clean. You remember our sins no more, because You sent Your Son, our Savior, and You have buried our life in Him.

So God, we pray that You would please give us joy, give us hope, give us peace, because Your Son has come. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.