Jesus the Savior

Lord Jesus, you came.

Speak to us now from your word.

Exalt your name.

Fill us with gratitude and praise

for what you have done.

In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

Matthew chapter one, verses 18 to 25.

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 from the Holy Spirit.

And her husband, Joseph, being a just man

and unwilling to put her to shame,

resolved to divorce her quietly.

But as he considered these things,

behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream,

saying, Joseph, son of David,

do not fear to take Mary as your wife,

for that which is conceived in her

is from 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.

When Joseph woke from sleep,

he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him.

He took his wife,

but knew her not until she had given birth to a son,

and he called his name Jesus.

This is God's holy and authoritative word.

In Western cultures,

many parents choose their children's names

not based on their meaning,

but for other reasons,

such as to preserve the name of a relative

or for the way it sounds.

But in many other cultures in the world,

including the Jewish culture

that we find here in chapter 1 of Matthew,

parents chose their names based on their meaning.

And at crucial points of the Bible,

God names certain individuals.

For example, in Genesis 17, 1 to 6,

God renames Abram to Abraham

because God will make him a father of many nations.

And in Genesis 32, 28,

God renames Jacob Israel

because he wrestled with God

to ensure, to secure a blessing

that will become,

and he will become the father of the nation of Israel.

So in our passage,

Jesus is named after his birth,

and in his name,

we see clues to his identity and mission,

namely that Jesus is the divine Messiah

who saves his people from their sins.

We'll explore that further

by looking more specifically

at Jesus' identity as the Christ

and as God and as Savior.

So we'll follow that outline.

That Jesus is the Christ,

he's God, and he's Savior.

So let's first look at his identity as Christ.

By beginning his gospel,

as we saw last week,

with the genealogy of Jesus,

Matthew showed us that Jesus really is the promised,

the prophesied Christ, the Messiah.

He was the son of Abraham and the son of David.

There was a slight problem, however,

in that genealogy,

because after carefully tracing Jesus' lineage

from Abraham and through David to Joseph,

Matthew noted in verse 16

that Joseph is the husband of Mary,

of whom Jesus was born.

He specifically didn't say

that Joseph is the father of Jesus.

That was the pattern that was followed

all throughout the genealogy,

so-and-so, the father of so-and-so,

but here he deviates from that to show us

that Joseph was not Jesus' biological father.

Now, since the lineage is traced through the father,

how can Jesus be the Christ

if he is not a child of Joseph

who is descended from King David,

and the Messiah is supposed to be a son of David?

So Matthew answers that question in our passage

by telling us that Jesus was conceived

by the Holy Spirit

and born of the Virgin Mary,

and that Joseph adopted him

and made him a son of David,

in a sense, through that adoption.

So let's look at verses 18 to 19.

It says,

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 from the Holy Spirit,

and her husband Joseph,

being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame,

resolved to divorce her quietly.

So some of you might be wondering at this point,

if they were only engaged,

why did Joseph need to divorce Mary?

For Jews during this time,

the marriage process had two formal steps.

The first stage was the betrothal.

It was an agreement to marry,

formalized by the exchange of the bright price

in the presence of witnesses.

And after that engagement,

the woman was considered legally married,

legally to belong to the man.

And they were referred to as husband and wife.

And so if you are to,

so it's not like the engagements nowadays,

which is very public,

but does often get broken off.

The breaking off the engagement

was considered a divorce,

which is why after Joseph finds out

that Mary is pregnant,

he resolves to divorce her.

So betrothal is the first stage

of the marriage process,

and the second stage

was the actual wedding ceremony

and the consummation of the marriage

through physical union.

Now, we know that Joseph and Mary

were at the first stage,

but not yet at the second stage

because verse 18 tells us

that Mary was found to be with child

from the Holy Spirit

before they came together.

That's the second step.

Before they had conjugal relations.

So this tells us clearly

that Mary was a virgin.

She was not pregnant from union with a man.

Rather, conception was from the Holy Spirit.

But Joseph, at this point of the story,

is not aware of the fact

that she had conceived from the Holy Spirit.

And you can imagine how distressing

the discovery of Mary's pregnancy

would have been for Joseph.

Imagine yourself in his shoes.

Here is a woman whom he loved,

whom he courted,

a woman who had been engaged to him,

who belonged to him,

and he to her,

the woman he cherished,

was looking forward to a lifetime of marriage with

and before their wedding day,

before they had enjoyed conjugal relations,

he or she is pregnant.

Under normal circumstances,

that can only mean one thing,

infidelity.

She had betrayed Joseph's trust

and given her body to another man,

is what Joseph would have thought.

And according to Old Testament law,

Deuteronomy 22, 13 to 24,

a woman who was discovered

not to have been a virgin

at the time of her wedding,

or a woman who slept with another man

during her betrothal period,

was to be stoned to death

to purge the evil from among them.

And since under Roman rule,

Jews had no right

to mete out capital punishment,

by the first century,

the usual punishment was not death,

but divorce.

So at this point,

Joseph had a couple obvious choices before him.

He could have hidden Mary's pregnancy

to save face

and just married her

and then despise her

for the rest of his life.

Or he could expose Mary's infidelity

through a public trial

and divorce her,

which would have been a normal process.

That would have brought great shame

not only upon Mary,

but also on Joseph

and Mary's entire family.

But Joseph opts for neither of these options.

Verse 19 says,

and her husband Joseph,

being a just man

and unwilling to put her to shame,

resolved to divorce her quietly.

The fact that he was a just man

does not mean that he was merciful

or considerate toward Mary.

The word just means righteous.

It means to do what the law requires.

And because Joseph was a just man,

Joseph resolved to divorce Mary.

That was the right thing to do.

The lawful thing to do.

However,

because he was unwilling to put her to shame,

Joseph resolved to divorce her quietly.

So the conjunction translated,

and there is probably better translated

as an adversative,

yet or but.

Her husband Joseph,

being a just man,

yet unwilling to put her to shame,

resolved to divorce her quietly.

That's exactly how the New International Version

translates it.

It says this,

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.

Joseph was a just man

and yet a merciful man.

He's a great guy to be named after.

He had in mind to divorce her quietly.

But if Joseph actually divorced Mary,

that would have been a disaster

because Jesus,

being the messianic son of David,

depended on him being adopted legally by Joseph,

who was descended from David.

So the angel of the Lord intervenes,

verses 20 to 21.

But as he considered these things,

behold,

an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream,

saying,

Joseph,

son of David,

do not fear to take Mary as your wife,

for that which is conceived in her

is from the Holy Spirit.

She will bear a son

and you shall call his name Jesus,

for he will save his people from their sins.

It was the legal responsibility of the father

to name his child

and in naming the child,

he was acknowledging that the child is his heir.

And so that was the official process.

And so we see that concept displayed

in the Old Testament as well.

In Isaiah 43, verse 1,

Isaiah 43:1

what does God say to his firstborn Israel?

He says,

I have called you by name

to the nation of Israel.

I have called you by name,

you are mine.

It's by naming that you claim an heir

as a child, as a son.

And so the angel here addresses Joseph

specifically as a son of David

to confirm exactly what is at stake.

Nothing less than Jesus' very Davidic lineage,

his messianic heritage,

is at stake.

And this is why Joseph's role

in this birth narrative is indispensable.

So despite Joseph's reservations,

the angel commands him to do this,

do these things.

Take Mary as your wife first

and then name the son

she will give birth to Jesus.

I know there are some of you

who have been adopted.

I think it's cool that our Savior

was adopted in this way.

Verses 24 to 25

tells us of Joseph's obedience

by echoing the angel's commands.

It says,

when Joseph woke from sleep,

he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him.

He took his wife,

but knew her not

until she had given birth to a son,

and he called his name Jesus.

It's by Joseph's naming

and claiming Jesus as his own

that Jesus officially becomes

the son of David.

And as we saw last week,

Jesus is the one

who fulfills in this way

God's promise to David

in 2 Samuel 7, 12 to 14.

I will raise up your offspring after you

who shall come from your body,

and I will establish his kingdom.

He shall build a house for my name,

and I will establish the throne

of his kingdom forever.

Jesus is the one

who establishes God's kingdom forever.

Jesus is the prophesied Christ.

He is the king,

the anointed one,

the ruler.

His subjects, then,

we exist to honor him,

to love and serve him.

Those of you who have put your faith

in Jesus Christ

and are therefore living,

or those of you who have not done that

and are now living in disobedience to God

are under the tyranny of Satan.

You're still under the dominion,

the domain of evil,

the evil one.

And that's why this world

is full of rebellion.

Everywhere we turn,

we meet cultural forces

that are hostile to God

and his purposes and priorities.

Everywhere we turn,

we meet,

we hear the name of our king,

Jesus,

used as a curse word.

Ministers of the gospel

are but of a joke,

and the word of God

is scorned and mocked.

But we are a people

who must plant our flag

and declare that we follow

a different king,

that we have the king,

Jesus,

the Christ who has come.

We're no longer under the rule

of the prince of the power of the air,

the evil spirit.

In other words,

nations and kingdoms,

geopolitical entities,

militaries, political parties,

various philosophies and ideologies

that clamor for our allegiance,

that clamor for our votes

and our subscriptions,

our money,

and our obedience,

that fight for our allegiance

to their flags,

must recognize

and hear our declaration

that we have pledged allegiance

to a different king.

And that we can partner

with the people of this world

only in so far

as they are advancing

the purposes

and priorities

of our Lord.

This is something

that's important for us

to remember

as we live as Christians.

It's Christ's priorities

that must define our lives

because Christ is our king

and the gospel

is our charter.

The word of God

is our constitution.

Worship is our anthem.

So Jesus is the Christ.

He's the king that has come

and he will come again

to exert full authority

and power over the earth.

And in addition

to being the Christ,

Matthew tells us

that Jesus is also God.

He is the incarnate God,

the son of God

who has taken on human flesh.

This is hinted at

in verses 18 and 20

where twice we are told

that Jesus was conceived

in Mary

from the Holy Spirit.

I mean, imagine that.

No wonder Joseph

was hesitant

to approach Mary

and to have conjugal relations

with her

even after the wedding ceremony.

Right?

It said in verse 24 to 25,

Joseph took his wife

but knew her not

until she had given birth

to a son.

The word know

is a biblical euphemism

for sexual intimacy.

For example,

Genesis 4 once

says,

Now Adam knew Eve,

his wife,

and she conceived

and bore Cain.

Joseph refused

to know his wife

even when it was appropriate

for him to do so

until she had given birth

to Jesus.

Matthew is making it

extra clear

that Jesus is not

a child of Joseph

and Mary's sexual union.

It's not hard

to understand

why Joseph

was apprehensive

about approaching Mary

in this way.

This virgin

is pregnant

from the Holy Spirit.

Something sacred

has taken place

inside her.

Something holy

has happened to her.

Something divine

is in her womb.

How can I,

a mere man,

Joseph the carpenter,

approach her

and have conjugal relations?

Some people will say

that it is impossible

for a man

who is lawfully wedded

to a wife

to be sexually inactive

for such an extended

period of time,

but Joseph's example

teaches us

that self-control

is possible.

And notice how delicate

and restrained

Matthew is

in his description

of Mary's conception.

Ancient Greco-Roman

mythology

is full of lurid tales

of Greek

and Roman gods

impregnating

human women,

thereby producing

demigods

who are partly

God and partly human,

inferior deities.

But such myths

have more in common

with the disobedient

angelic beings

taking human wives

for themselves

and giving birth

to the Nephilim

in Genesis 6,

and it's quite far

removed from

this account

of Mary's conception.

Matthew's unadorned

account of Mary's

conception

is a stark contrast

to these elaborate

mythologies.

Look at how he

so carefully avoids

any insinuation

of sexual activity.

Rather,

he says,

the angel simply says,

that which is conceived

in her

is from the Holy Spirit.

I'll add that

there's no mention here

of the Catholic doctrine

of immaculate

conception,

claiming that Mary

was born without

original sin

and never sinned

personally.

Mary was not sinless.

Jesus is the only

sinless human.

In fact,

to claim that Mary

was sinless

and that only

a sinless woman

could give birth

to Jesus

runs in the face

of Jesus' genealogy,

which we looked at

last week,

which showed that

Jesus is descended

from incestualists

and murderers

and adulterers

and idolaters

child sacrificers

and prostitutes,

among other things,

to show that

Jesus really did

take on humanity

with all its

sinful history,

its sordid history

upon himself.

And that in his

saving grace,

that Jesus really did

and really embraced

sinners

and saved them

by dying on the cross

for them.

There's also no hint

of the Catholic doctrine

of Mary's

perpetual virginity,

the claim that

Mary remained a virgin

for the rest of her life.

Verse 25 does not say

that Joseph never slept

with Mary for the rest

of her life.

It says,

Joseph knew Mary not

until she had given

birth to a son,

which implies that

after Mary gave birth

to Jesus,

Joseph and Mary

assumed normal

marital relations

like any couple.

people.

That's why later

in chapter 13,

verse 55-56,

Matthew notes that

Jesus had brothers

and sisters.

But Jesus was set

apart from all of them.

He was conceived

like no other human

being in history

because even though

he was truly man,

a son of Mary,

he wasn't merely a man,

he was conceived

from the Holy Spirit.

And the prophecy

from Isaiah 7-14,

which Matthew cites

in verses 22-23

confirms this reality.

Matthew is known

for often citing

Old Testament scriptures

and then demonstrating

how Jesus fulfilled it.

He does this over 10 times

throughout his Gospels

and five of them occur

right here in the birth narrative.

And so sometimes

people call this

the formula quotations.

It's the fulfillment

formula quotations.

So he'll show us,

we'll see these

throughout chapters

one and two.

But the one that he

has in view here

is Isaiah 7-14.

Read verses 22-23 with me.

All this took place

to fulfill what the Lord

has 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.

The word translated

virgin here

refers in scripture

to a young woman

of marriageable age

that is not married.

So someone who has not

known a man sexually.

For example,

in Genesis 24-43,

Abraham's servant

who is searching

for marriageable women

for Abraham's son Isaac

asks God specifically

to reveal to him

the virgin

that he has prepared

for Isaac.

I don't have the time

to get into

how this prophecy

was fulfilled

in the immediate context

of Isaiah,

but this prophecy

finds its ultimate fulfillment

in the coming of Jesus.

And it predicts

the nature of Jesus' birth

with remarkable

specificity

and precision.

The virgin

shall conceive

and bear a son.

And here's another name

by which Jesus is known,

Emmanuel,

which means God with us.

Because Jesus is

the son of God himself,

because Jesus is conceived

from the Holy Spirit,

when Jesus is born,

God is with us.

Jesus is not only fully man,

but he is fully God.

He's the incarnate God,

the God who has taken

on human flesh.

And this is why

Jesus does not stop

people from worshiping him

throughout his lifetime

on earth.

All pious people,

all godly people,

in case you didn't know this,

if people start

bowing down to you

and worshiping you,

you're supposed to stop them.

Because you're not supposed

to be worshiped.

Acts 10, 24 to 26,

Cornelius falls

at the feet of Peter,

worships him,

lifts him up,

saying,

Peter lifts him up,

saying,

stand up,

I too am a man.

Don't worship a man.

Even angels

refuse to be worshiped.

In Revelation 22,

Revelation 22:8–9

verses 8 to 9,

when John falls

and worships

at the feet of an angel,

he says to John,

you must not

do that.

I am a fellow servant

with you

and your brothers,

the prophets,

and with those

who keep the word

of this book.

Worship God.

The great apostle Peter

refuses to be worshiped.

Even the angels

refuse to be worshiped.

And here is Jesus

throughout his life.

People bow down to him

and worship him

and he receives it.

Matthew 2, verse 11,

Matthew 2:11

the wise men come.

They fall down

and worship him.

Matthew 14, 32,

after Jesus walks

on the water

and calms the wind,

he says that his disciples

worshipped him,

saying,

truly,

you are the son of God.

Jesus does not

correct them.

In Matthew 28,

Matthew 28:9

verse 9,

when Mary Magdalene

and the other Mary

that's with her

visiting Jesus'

empty tomb

encounter Jesus,

the resurrected Jesus,

he says that

they came up

and took hold

of his feet

and worshipped him.

In Matthew 28,

Matthew 28:17

verse 17,

it says that Jesus'

eleven disciples,

when they saw

the resurrected Jesus,

they worshipped him.

And that is right.

Because Jesus is God.

If he were not God,

that would be idolatrous.

It would be the height

of human pride

and presumption

to receive worship.

But Jesus is Emmanuel,

God with us.

That's why it's not only

appropriate,

but necessary.

It is incumbent upon us

to worship him.

So Jesus is the Christ,

the Messiah,

and not just a human one.

He is the divine Messiah.

And that brings us

to my third point

that Matthew tells

about Jesus,

that he is Savior.

The angel who appears

to Joseph says

in verse 21,

Mary will bear a son

and you shall call

his name Jesus.

For he will save

his people

from their sins.

The name Jesus

means the Lord saves.

And since Jesus

is Lord,

Emmanuel,

God with us,

it is Jesus himself

who will save

his people

from their sins.

This is wonderful.

It's wonderful

that he's named Jesus,

isn't it?

Jesus could have been named

a lot of other things.

He could have been named

Neziah,

the one who conquers.

He could have been named

Daniel,

the God who judges.

He could have been named

a lot of other things.

But his name

is Jesus.

the one who saves.

One who will save

his people

from their sins.

The Jewish people

were familiar

with political subjugation

and military conquest.

I mentioned

that they were conquered

and oppressed

by many foreign nations,

Assyrians,

Babylonians,

Persians,

Greeks,

Romans

at the time of Jesus.

But what caused

their subjection

and their oppression

was their own sin

and idolatry.

Because they were

unfaithful to God.

Because they were

an adulterous people.

Because they were

disloyal and treasonous

toward God,

their king.

They experienced

the curse

of the covenant.

And so the obstacle

that God's people faced

was far bigger

than the Roman Empire.

They needed nothing less

than to be saved

from their sins.

In our day too,

we have our own share

of suffering

and oppression.

We want to be saved

from a housing crisis,

from a climate catastrophe,

from a global pandemic,

from economic depression,

from social injustices,

from world hunger,

from a mental illness epidemic.

There's a lot of things

we want to be saved from.

But there is one thing

that is more urgent

and more pressing

and consequential

than any of those things.

And that is

that we must be saved

from our sins.

Because sin is the cause,

the root of our alienation

from God.

Sin is the reason

for people's

eternal damnation.

Sin is the root

of all the diseases

and disasters

and deaths

that have entered our world.

sin is the reason

for the hostility

and hatred

between peoples.

Do you give appropriate attention

to dealing with the sins

in your own life?

Or are you more preoccupied

with your suffering,

with your external circumstances?

sickness and sufferings

do not separate people

from God.

But sin does.

And sin is not something

we can never,

sin is not something

we can ever contain

by quarantining.

Sin hides.

Sin lurks within us.

Sin spreads.

Sin infects.

Sin kills.

Not only physically,

but even more gravely,

spiritually.

In his book

of the mortification of sin,

17th century English theologian

John Owen says this,

Do you mortify sin?

Do you kill sin?

Do you make it

your daily work?

Be always at it

whilst you live.

Seize not a day

from this work.

Be killing sin,

or it will be killing you.

For those of you

who are not yet followers

of Jesus,

what is your solution

for sin?

Do you have a way

making atonement

for sin?

Do you have a way

of earning forgiveness

from God,

of being reconciled

to Him?

Romans 6, 23

tells us that

the wages of sin

is death.

Hebrews 9, 22

tells us that

without the shedding

of blood,

there is no

forgiveness of sins.

The inescapable punishment

for sin is death.

And the holy wrath

of God cannot be appeased

without the shedding

of blood.

But the good news

for all of us

is that

because God

so loved us,

He sent

His son,

only son,

His only son

named Jesus

to save His people

from their sins.

Jesus does this

by shedding

not our blood,

but His own blood

on the cross.

Jesus dies

in our place

as the substitutionary

sacrifice

is by His death

that He takes,

makes atonement

for sin,

and He is raised

from the dead

to show us

one sin for all

that He has defeated

sin.

that all who trust

in Him

can be guaranteed

resurrection,

eternal life,

be united

with Jesus

through faith.

That was Jesus'

mission on earth.

Jesus did many

good works

during His time

on earth.

He healed the sick,

He even raised

the dead,

but Jesus'

central mission

was not any

of those things.

It was to give

His life

as a ransom

for many,

as Matthew 20,

28 says.

It was to save

His people

from their sins,

Matthew 1,

21.

Likewise,

then,

we as Christians

should love

our neighbors

and do many

good works

wherever we are,

in the classrooms,

in the libraries,

in the labs,

in the courts,

in the banks,

in the offices,

in the studios,

in the homes,

in the marketplaces.

We should abound

in good works,

do many

of these good works,

but the central

mission of the church

is to proclaim

the name of Jesus,

is to make disciples

of Jesus Christ.

So let's not lose

sight of that mission

that the Lord Jesus

has given us.

Let's not forget

the good news

that Jesus is

the divine Messiah

who saves people

from their sins

and declare that news

to all nations

to the end of the earth.

Let's pray.

God,

we thank you

for

giving your son

the name

Jesus.

it's a name

we could say

to ourselves

over and over again.

We could sing

the praises

of that name.

That name

can be on our lips

all day long,

every day.

Amen.

Amen.

And it would not

lose its sweetness.

Because you have

saved us

through Jesus

from our sins.

Lord, we praise you.

Help us

to remember that.

To live in light

of that.

In Jesus' name

we pray.

Amen.