Strathalbyn Church of Christ

Sermon Mt 1:18-25. (2nd reading: Isaiah 9:6-7) Theme: Supernatural Son. Sermon by Pastor David Williams. Strathalbyn Church of Christ. 12 Dec 2021.

There are four parts to this story: the Scandal, the Spirit, the Saviour and the Surrogate

The Scandal

Luke’s story of Jesus is through the eyes of his mother Mary. But Matthew’s story is through the eyes of Joseph. And it began with a scandal.

18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found to be with child …. 19 And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, decided to divorce her quietly.

Jesus’ birth began with a scandal. Mary was betrothed to Joseph. Betrothal was much stronger than an engagement. It was a legally binding marriage but without the sex. Betrothed couples were called husband and wife, and the only way to break it was through divorce.

Sex during the betrothal was not permitted. That was bad. But sex with another man deserved the death penalty. So, you see Joseph’s difficulty. Mary was pregnant but not to him. Being a just man, he had to honour the Jewish law and have Mary stoned (Dt 22:23-27). But being compassionate and unwilling to publicly shame her, he decided to divorce her quietly with a paper of divorce.

The Spirit

But this was no ordinary pregnancy. I skipped a phrase in the reading to highlight the scandal. Adding the phrase back in, it reads,

When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.

But Joseph was not yet aware of that. The story continues:

20 But as Joseph considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. For the child within her was conceived by the Holy Spirit.

Five startling things happen here. All tell Joseph this is God’s doing and something remarkable is happening.

1. An angel – a messenger of God appeared. Angels appeared at momentous times in Israel’s history. Angels appeared to the father of the Jews, Abraham, and to King David (Gen 18:1-16, 22:11-18, 1 Chr 21:15-16).

2. The angel appeared in a dream. Again, God used dreams to bring special news. An earlier Joseph had dreams that resulted in that Joseph saving his brothers from death by famine (Gen 37, 40, 41, 50:21).

3. Joseph is told that the child is from the Holy Spirit (v18, 20). Rarely, God sent angels and dreams. But never before or since has a virgin given birth. This pregnancy is unique. It is as profound as the act of creation. God created the earth, with the Spirit hovering over the face of the waters (Gen 1:2). Now God’s Spirit hovering over Mary’s womb, created God in human flesh (Lk 1:35). God who created the world and who we will all meet as its judge at the end - this eternal God entered space and time as a baby. God entered our world in the womb of a young peasant girl 2000 years ago.

The problem for us is not whether we can stretch our credulity to accept a virgin birth, but whether we can deny God. If we can accept God, then what would be more normal than that God might intervene in his world to sort out the mess that we have made of it. And if God did intervene, why not in a unique, miraculous manner? Why would you expect anything else?

4. Joseph is addressed as “Joseph, son of David”. That is, he had the royal blood of David in his veins. David was promised that a king, a Messiah, would be his descendant. A son of David who would bring universal peace. Now Joseph would have known, like every Jewish boy, his own family lineage – and he would have known that he, a simple carpenter, was a son of David. But no one was ever addressed in this way. People in the line of David didn’t address each other as “Son of David”. The Son of David was a title reserved for the Messiah. So, to be addressed as Son of David must have made Joseph sit up and take notice. Could this child be the long-expected Messiah?

5. This suggestion is then confirmed with a prophecy, given hundreds of years before by Isaiah. A prophecy about God’s Messiah.

22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: 23 “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).

Isaiah’s prophecy was spoken to the house of David (Isa 7:13; 9:7). Isaiah leaves no doubt as to who this son is, for he calls this child

Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Isa 9:6

This was no ordinary child.

The Saviour

So, we have a miraculous birth – a unique birth where the eternal God himself intervenes in history by becoming a baby. What will this baby do? He will bring about a grand rescue, a rescue summed up in these words:

21 Mary will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.

There are four clues given about this rescue:

1. Jesus

The name means God Saves. This is then explained:

2. He will save his people from their sins

Now sin, what is it? We don’t talk about it much these days and we don’t understand it. Sin at its heart is ignoring our creator, turning our back on the God who made us and going our own way. Saying to God, “Forget it God. We know how to run our lives. You stay away and we will call you if and when we think we need you”. A single mother slaved away in poorly paid cleaning work, in dangerous parts of town. Wrecking her body and ruining prospects of marriage – all so that her son could get a decent education. Not long after he enrolled, he trashed the school on a drunken spree, was expelled and the mother was left with an impossible debt to pay off. That about sums up what we as a race have done with God’s creation – the people and world he has set us in. We cannot live lives ignoring God and expect to face no consequences.

If you die tonight, how will you stand before your maker? What could you possibly say to him to account for the way you have lived the life that he has given you? If God really came to live and die as one of us, what will you say when God asks you, why did you not accept my Son. Why did you not accept his free salvation?

Jesus will save his people from their sins. How will he do this?

3. God with us, Immanuel.

God came to live with us as one of us. He came not to a castle but to a cattle trough. Not through a princess, but a peasant girl who now had a marred reputation. We see the face of God in his son Jesus. We know God by knowing his son. Jesus is God with us. God is not an absent God, not an aloof God, not an unknowable God. God in his kindness, in his love became one of us. He became one with us. We could not breach the divide, no way; we could not deal with our sin, but God has.

There is nowhere so low that Jesus has not been. He has already gone there before us - Jesus the friend of publicans and prostitutes. If you think your family tree is a mess, Jesus’ family looks more look more like a criminal line-up. The list at the start of Matthew includes murderers and cheats, cowards and adulterers, harlots, and liars. Beat that!

What then is the result of this rescue?

4. There is a final clue back in Isaiah’s prophecy. For Isaiah says,

His government and its peace will never end.
He will rule with fairness and justice from the throne of his ancestor David for all eternity. Isa 9:6,7

The Messiah will bring eternal peace. Through his death and resurrection, he will rule justly and fairly for all eternity.

The heart of the Christmas story is not a baby. Christmas is not about a baby but that baby’s mission. You need to understand how his life ended to understand the significance of its beginning. Jesus’ entry and exit were both miraculous and unique. God came to live with us so that he could die for us. In dying on that cross, Jesus became one with us, God with us, in our fear, our shame, our guilt and our sin, and even in our death. Jesus saved us from our sin.

The Surrogate

Joseph has just been informed that his fiancé’s child is God himself, the long-awaited Messiah, the one who will bring eternal peace.

Joseph, not Mary, is in focus in this passage for Joseph too had a critical role. What do you think that was? He wasn’t the father, so what was it. We know little of Mary’s ancestry. We do know that her cousin Elizabeth was descended from Levi, not David. There are two genealogies of Jesus given by Matthew and Luke, but both seem to be through Joseph’s line, with some variations. But Joseph was not the father of Jesus. How then can Jesus be a son of David? You see the problem. And remember, Jesus cannot be Messiah unless he is a Son of David, so it is a really critical point.

For the answer we resume our reading:

24 When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, 25 but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus

Joseph did two things to ensure that Jesus would be accepted as Messiah

- He took Mary as his wife, and

- He named him Jesus.

In other words, Joseph adopted Jesus, by taking Mary and naming Jesus. Joseph adopted Jesus as his own. He adopted him into the house of David.

Many church leaders are embarrassed about the Virgin Birth. They deny it as unscientific. Yet Matthew had no problem with it. CS Lewis condemned chronological snobbery - that we are so much cleverer today than people in the past, those primitive people. We say ageism is a form of discrimination. Yet we discriminate against the dead. Isn’t it pompous to assume that we are far superior to ancient cultures?

We assume that at 2000 years from the actual events, we somehow have a better understanding of them than the actual eyewitnesses. Imagine if a judge said, any eyewitnesses – please leave the court. I will resume the case in 25 years and anyone who has a theory as to what happened can come and I will be glad to listen to you then. Absurd. Joseph did not believe in virgin births any more than we do. Yet he accepted the evidence from the angel, the dream and the prophecy. Also, he also knew Mary’s character - she was not the sort to sleep around. He accepted the evidence and believed.

Christianity is no leap in the dark but based on the evidence of eyewitnesses. Eyewitnesses of Jesus’ birth, life and death. Will you consider their testimony? This is the most important birth in history, and it launched the greatest rescue mission in history. You owe it to yourself to at least consider the evidence. Copies of accounts of Jesus’ life are available free at the back of the church.

Thank you, Jesus for coming as God with us. Thank you for dying for my sin and rebellion against you. Thank you that I can share in your eternal peace. Amen.

Sources:

Dick Lucas https://www.st-helens.org.uk/resources/talk/4686/audio/

Dick Lucas https://www.st-helens.org.uk/resources/talk/2060/audio/

Paul Harrington https://www.trinitycity.church/sermons/2-god-solves-biggest-problem/

O’Donnell, D.S. (2013). Matthew - All Authority on Heaven and Earth (Preaching the Word Series). Crossway Books

Series: Matthew

Topics: #Matthew , #Christmas