It's Christmas | Matthew 1:18-25

of the privilege this morning of reading God's word publicly

and we're going to be reading from Matthew chapter one.

If you haven't opened a Bible before,

it is the first book of the New Testament

and we'll be starting from verse 18

and I'll be reading through to the end of the chapter.

Matthew chapter one.

This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about.

His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph,

but before they came together,

she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit.

Because Joseph, her husband was faithful to the law

and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace,

he had in mind to divorce her quietly.

But after he had considered this,

an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream

and said, Joseph, son of David,

do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife

because what is conceived in her

is from the Holy Spirit.

She will give birth to a son

and you are to give him the name Jesus

because he will save his people from their sins.

All this took place to fulfill

what the Lord had said through the prophet.

The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son

and they will call him Emmanuel,

which means God with us.

When Joseph woke up,

he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him

and took Mary home as his wife.

But he did not consummate their marriage

until she gave birth to a son

and he gave him the name Jesus.

As I said before, it's absolutely delightful

to be together this morning

on this very special Christmas day

where all Christians around the world

reflect on the birth of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

And it's my great privilege on this beautiful Christmas day

to explain to you the passage that our text

just yesterday was pointing to,

the prophecy of Isaiah found in chapter seven, verse 14.

A virgin will conceive and give birth to a son

and he will be called Emmanuel.

So church, let's do that now.

Let's step back a bit and have a think

about what God wants us to know

about this child born to this virgin

of whom Isaiah spoke about

and to whom Matthew writes on in the passage

we just heard read for us.

But before we do any of that,

let's ask God to help us in our understanding

of this wonderful, wonderful mystery.

Would you please join me in prayer?

Father, we are indeed in awe of the birth

of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And we asked this morning as we look at these words

from you to us, your people,

that you would help us to understand,

to grasp the magnitude of your work in this world.

We ask, Father, that you would give us ears to hear,

hearts to receive, that you would hold Christ high among us

and that you would draw all manner

of man and woman to yourself.

We ask this for your glory and in the name of Jesus, amen.

Okay, so first things first,

Matthew wants us to know that Jesus

is so much more than a man.

That much is clear as we see in verses 18 and 20

of our text this morning.

I mean, think about what Matthew was telling us here.

Jesus' mother, she was a pregnant virgin.

Now, in saying that, he makes sure to tell us

she wasn't pregnant through anything dodgy,

but that Jesus was actually conceived in her

by the very spirit of God.

So with that understanding,

Jesus is physically and biologically Mary's son,

meaning he is a very real human,

but also completely and very really God.

So that's the first thing to note here.

Matthew wants us to know that Jesus

is so much more than just a man,

but I also want you to notice the second thing

that Matthew wants us to know.

And that's why Jesus came.

We see that in verse 21 and Matthew couldn't be

any more clearer.

Jesus came to save people from their sins.

Church, that is why Jesus came into this world.

That's why he was conceived by the Holy Spirit.

That's why God providentially bought all of this about.

It was to save people from their sins.

Now, let's not miss this wonderful news this morning.

That's why Jesus had to be conceived by the Holy Spirit

and born to the Virgin Mary,

because it is God who saves and not man.

Meaning there is nothing you and I can do

to save ourselves from our sins,

meaning salvation is not a work of man.

No salvation from beginning to end

is the supernatural work of God.

And this is made evident from the very way

that Jesus entered into our world.

He came as fully God and fully man.

It says the church has always confessed

and made clear in the Nicene Creed.

We believe in one Lord Jesus Christ,

the only Son of God, begotten from the Father

before all ages, God from God, light from light,

true God from true God, begotten not made

from the same essence as the Father.

Through Him all things were made.

For us and for our salvation,

He came down from heaven.

He became incarnate by the Holy Spirit

and the Virgin Mary and was made human.

Now, before we go on, I just wanna say

a little bit more about Jesus being made human

because it's very important that we understand

why Jesus became fully human.

The writer, through the Hebrews, says it like this

in the second chapter of his book.

Since the children have flesh and blood,

he too shared in their humanity.

So that by his death, he might break the power of him

who holds the power of death, that is, the devil.

And free those who all their lives were held in slavery

by their fear of death.

For surely it's not angels he helps,

but Abraham's descendants.

For this reason, he had to be made life them,

fully human in every way,

in order that he might become a merciful

and faithful high priest in service to God

and that he might make atonement

for the sins of the people.

Hear what the writer to the Hebrews is saying here.

Jesus is fully human in every way

in order that he might become a merciful

and faithful high priest in the service of God

and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people.

All this to say, church, Jesus is not unlike us

trying to do something for us.

No, Jesus is a true representative of us

before the heavenly father, our heavenly father.

Meaning we have a savior, a high priest

who is very, very much familiar with our struggles,

physically, mentally and emotionally.

We have a savior who is familiar with our sorrows

and trouble who knows intimately what we are going through.

We have a savior who is familiar with suffering

who is able to identify with you and me

because he was physically born of a woman

in that little town of Bethlehem just 2000 years ago.

He was born like us,

meaning he possesses the full range

of human characteristics like us.

Yet in saying all of that, Jesus is fully divine.

We see that in our passage this morning,

his humanity and his deity together.

Jesus is fully man like us,

but, and this is incredibly important to get,

he is also fully God.

Now we could go all through the New Testament

and see this as he was able to forgive sin

and was sinless himself.

We can see that he was able to heal diseases

and give sight to the blind with just the word of his mouth,

that he had command over nature

and could rebuke demons and make them flee in a word,

that he could even bring people back from the dead,

not to mention the clear and plain teaching

that we heard just read in our midst this morning,

which tells us in the beginning was the word

and the word was with God, the word was God.

It's clear, Jesus isn't just a man,

but fully God.

And this passage that we have before us this morning,

this extraordinary miracle gives us an insight

into what we call the incarnation,

that interesting word that we heard just read now

in the Nicene Creed.

That's what we have before us.

Matthew was showing us that this Jesus,

this babe born in a manger, this child born to a virgin,

well, he wasn't just a man, but God,

fully man, fully God in the one person of Jesus Christ.

Now, if you're sitting there this morning

and thinking to yourself, how does this all fit together,

this God and man and Jesus?

Well, you're not alone.

Don't feel like you have to totally understand

this great mystery that you are hearing this morning.

Church, this is why we ask for God's help

to understand this word.

His mystery is revealed to us because they are just that,

things that are not part of our everyday life.

This is a miracle.

In fact, it's one of the most incredible miracles

that we are talking about this morning.

God becoming man and dwelling with us.

It's little wonder that the apostle Paul said it like this,

beyond all question, the mystery

from which true godliness springs is great.

He appeared in the flesh, was vindicated by the spirit,

was seen by angels, was preached among the nations,

was believed on in the world, was taken up in glory.

First Timothy 3.16.

Yet in saying that, just because we don't fully understand

what's going on here, just because this is a mystery to us,

it never means that we should discard or deny it.

Why?

Because God has revealed to us in his word

that this Jesus, well, he didn't just appear

out of thin air.

Now we clearly see it here in our text.

This morning, he was conceived of the Holy Spirit

and born to a woman.

This is the wonder and awesome mystery of our God.

In his perfect wisdom and in his creative sovereignty,

he ordained a virgin birth to be the avenue

through which Jesus would come into this world.

So that he would be fully man from the virgin

and fully God from the Holy Spirit.

Also that he could save us from our sins.

That's what we're meant to see.

And it is indeed glad tidings

on this wonderful Christmas morning.

Now I just wanna say one last thing about all of this.

And I hope that you'll be encouraged by it.

You see, Matthew makes it clear to us

that whenever God makes a promise in his word,

he fulfills it in his world.

Let me say that again.

Whenever God makes a promise in his word,

he fulfills it in his world.

And that's what I wanna end on here.

You see, that's why Matthew includes Isaiah chapter seven,

verse 14 for us.

Let me explain what I'm trying to say here.

You see, just as we heard yesterday,

nearly 700 years before Jesus walked the earth,

there was a prophet in Israel named Isaiah.

And through him, God made a promise to the king

at that time that a virgin would conceive

and bring forth the sun.

And essentially, the promise was made to ensure the king

that God wouldn't let Israel's enemy come in

and trample them so that they could remember

to be still and know that he is Lord.

Now for whatever reason, there's no chapter in verse

in the rest of the book of Isaiah

that seems to completely fulfill what was said

on that day to that king.

But what is absolutely clear is this.

Matthew, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit,

shows us here in his gospel that Isaiah's prophecy

finds its fullest expression,

its fulfillment in Jesus Christ.

That's what's important.

That 700 years before Jesus came on the scene,

God gave a promise to his people

that a virgin would conceive and have a son

and that people would call him Emmanuel,

which means God with us.

And church, Matthew says that that was fulfilled

in the person of Jesus Christ.

Brothers and sisters, if you walk away from anything

with anything this morning, then it's this.

The infinitely great God who is mighty in power

and awesome in wonder out of his love for us

has come to us for us.

That's right, our almighty God has come to us

to save us from our sins.

That's what Matthew wants us to see here in this passage.

God and Jesus came into this world

and came to rescue the lost.

And this is the incredible reality of the gospel,

the good news, the glad tidings.

God took on flesh and came into a sin-stained world

for you and me.

Stained, shattered, broken men and women like you and me

to take the penalty of our sin in our place.

Think about that for a moment.

You and I with our sinful nature,

naturally separated from God, condemned before God,

cut off from God, deserving wrath and eternal death.

Well, God didn't leave us.

God didn't forsake us.

No, he promised to come and he came to us

in the virgin birth.

Brothers and sisters, he came among us to us

and lived the life we never could.

He died the death we deserved

and then rose from the grave, conquering the enemy

we never could.

Church, there is no greater story.

There is no greater reality than seeing the truth of this.

There is eternal consequences.

This is our God, this is Jesus Christ,

this is the gospel.

So how does any of this apply to us this morning?

Well, I just wanna say two things here.

First, if you have never called upon the name of the Lord,

then friend, you are here by no accident

on this wonderful Christmas morning.

In God's sovereignty over all there is, over all history,

you have been led here this morning to hear glad tidings,

forgiveness of sins, reconciliation to your creator,

the gift of eternal life.

It is really, truly being held out to you this morning.

I would plead that you don't walk out of this place

without asking more questions about what that means.

If that's you, if you want to know how to receive Christ,

then please come and speak to me after the service.

Second, brothers and sisters,

for those who would confess Christ,

who would say, yes, Jesus is Lord.

Well, we've seen something this morning.

The God, our God who spoke a promise

in the seventh century before Christ,

he fulfilled it in Christ.

And so with that picture,

we can know right where we're sitting this morning,

that the God who gives us his promises in his word,

even though we might not see it clearly in the present,

will always prove faithful to what he has said.

The God who says, I will never leave nor forsake you,

will absolutely prove faithful to that promise.

The God who says, I will supply all your needs

according to the glorious riches of Christ Jesus,

will prove faithful to that promise in your life.

The God, our God who says neither death,

nor life, neither angels nor demons,

or the present or the future,

or any powers, neither hide nor death,

nor anything else in all creation,

will ever be able to separate us from his love,

will absolutely be faithful to that promise.

And the God who has promised that there is coming a day

to wipe away every tear from our eyes,

where there will be no more mourning,

no more crying, no more war, no more pain,

no more sickness, no more sin,

with the all gone and the new come,

the God who promised that will prove faithful

to that promise.

You can, dear ones, no matter what it looks like right now,

bet your life for all eternity on the reality

that God will always, always be faithful to his promises.

And we see that no more clearly than in the life,

death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Would you pray with me this morning?

Father, we are indeed thankful

for these wonderful truths.

Truths that we haven't made up,

truths that we haven't conceived ourselves,

but truths that you have given us,

that you have held out to us.

Father, we began our time by asking

that you would hold your son high in our midst this morning,

that you would draw all manner of people to yourself.

Father, you know the hearts and minds

of every single person in this room.

We ask that you would reveal Christ,

that they would know Christ,

that we would love Christ,

that you would change us, conform us to the image

of our Lord and Savior.

Father, we thank you for your mercy.

We thank you for your grace.

We thank you for the birth of Jesus,

fulfilling your promises.

We thank you that he died on the cross for our sin.

And that eternity in your presence

is what we have to look forward to.

We thank you for all of this in Jesus' name, amen.