Matthew 1:18-25
On the Sunday before Christmas, a reverend was
walking down a street on his way to see a
parishioner.
However, he wanted to mail a letter urgently so he
asked a young boy where he could find the post
office. When the boy had directed him, the
reverend thanked him and said, ‘If you’ll come to
the Church this evening, you can hear me telling
everyone how to get to heaven.’
The boy replied, ‘I think I’ll give your sermon a
miss. If you don’t even know your way to the post
office, how will you lead me to heaven?’
This morning we begin a 4 week study of the Christmas
story.
The first two weeks we will be talking about the Miracle of
Christmas. This week we will see the miracle of the virgin
birth from Joseph’s perspective. Next week we will look at
it from Mary’s viewpoint.
Let’s pray and ask God to reveal Himself through His
word this morning.
Matthew 1:18-20
The Miracle of the Virgin Birth
The word Matthew uses for birth is genesis, which is also
used in Genesis 2:4 to describe the creation of heaven
and earth.
We shouldn’t think of this as the beginning of Jesus,
because we know from other places in Scripture that
Jesus was with God in the beginning at the creation of
the earth.
And we shouldn’t think of Jesus being beget like Matthew
describes the genealogy of Jesus in the previous 17
verses.
Rather, we should view the birth of Jesus as a miracle
that God performed by causing His only Son to take on
flesh and be born of a virgin.
Next, Matthew points out that Joseph had not known
Mary, or the marriage had not been consummated yet.
They were still betrothed. We know that a betrothal is
different from an engagement as we are familiar with it.
Betrothal was agreed upon by the families of the man
and woman typically while they were still children. It was
a legally binding agreement.
Once they reached the marrying age, the betrothal
started.
It lasted for a year and ended with the wedding and then
consummation of the marriage. The only way out of the
betrothal was a divorce.
If the woman was found to be unfaithful, she could even
be stoned.
The Scripture says that before Joseph and Mary came
together, she was found to be with child from the Holy
Spirit.
At this time Joseph didn’t know that the child was from
the Holy Spirit.
God Sends and Angel
While Joseph was trying to figure out what he was going
to do, God sent an angel to speak to Joseph in a dream.
Joseph was planning on divorcing Mary quietly because
he was unwilling to put her to shame. He loved her and
didn’t want anything bad to happen to her.
The angel told Joseph not to be afraid to take Mary as his
wife, because the baby was conceived by the Holy Spirit.
We have heard the Christmas story so many times it’s
easy to let the wonder slip away. Think about it for a
moment.
God caused a virgin to become pregnant by the Holy
Spirit!!
What a miracle!
More description is found in Luke where the angel Gabriel
describes the situation to Mary in more detail, but we will
look at that next week.
Matthew 1:21
The Miracle of Salvation
The angel told Joseph what to name the baby.
The name Jesus means Yahweh saves.
And that is exactly what Jesus is going to do – save the
people from their sins.
Let’s take a few minutes and talk about the theology of
the virgin birth.
Grudem explains the importance of the virgin birth with
three points.
- It shows that Salvation comes from the Lord.
God promised in Genesis 3:15 that the seed of woman
would destroy the serpent.
The virgin birth is a reminder that salvation is not by
human effort. It is by the work of God Himself. We are
saved by the blood of Jesus who went to the cross on our
behalf so that those who believe in Him would be
reconciled to the Father.
Salvation is by grace through faith, not by our works.
- It shows the full deity and full humanity of
Jesus.
If God sent Jesus to earth with no human parents it
would be difficult to see the humanity of Jesus. He would
not be part of the human race.
If God gave Jesus two earthly parents it would be difficult
to see the deity of Jesus. He would be like us in every
way.
But with an earthly mother and a heavenly Father, we see
Jesus as He really is. Fully God and fully man.
- Shows Christ’s true humanity without inherited
sin.
The sin of man is passed by the father. Since Jesus had a
heavenly Father, He inherited none of the original sin of
Adam.
2 Corinthians 5:21 reminds us “For our sake he
made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him
we might become the righteousness of God.”
And Colossians 1:19-20 “For in him all the fullness
of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to
reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or
in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.”
While we are on the subject of doctrine, we should
mention the incorrect teaching of the perpetual virginity
of Mary.
Just from looking at two verses of our text we can prove
this to be false.
Verse 18 – before they came together
Verse 23 – he knew her not until she had given birth to a
son.
Other Scriptures mention the brothers of Jesus.
Joseph and Mary had other children. Mary was not a
perpetual virgin. But she was a virgin when the Holy
Spirit came upon her and conceived the baby Jesus.
Matthew 1:22-25
The Miracle of Fulfilled Prophecy
Matthew uses the phrase, “this took place to fulfill what
the Lord had spoken by the prophet” several times in the
Christmas story.
His point is that God planned the birth of Christ from
before the foundation of the world.
God told the prophet Isaiah to write about the virgin birth
hundreds of years before it was to happen.
And now we can look at all of the things that Isaiah wrote
about the Messiah and we can confirm that they were
fulfilled just as God has said.
Some folks think the OT is not relevant; that could not be
further from the truth. The OT helps us understand the
New Testament. We must study and listen to God as we
read the OT.
In two weeks we will discuss the meaning of Christmas
as we dive into the name Immanuel.
We must not become desensitized to the miracle of
Christmas.
Even though it is a familiar story, the fact is that God did
something that has never been done and will never be
repeated.
He caused His Son to be born of a virgin.
He provided a way of salvation before we knew we
needed it.
He keeps on doing miracles even today.
God might not send you an angel, but He is definitely
involved in your life.
And He wants our complete obedience.
APPLICATION
Sometimes God Changes our Plans
Joseph was considering divorcing Mary quietly, but God
had another plan.
We can’t be so rigid with our plans that we miss out on
what God wants to do for us and through us.
What plans of yours is God changing this Christmas?
Are you enjoying the miracle of Christmas?