God With Us (Matthew 1:18-25)

All right, this evening we're going to continue in Matthew chapter one. So go ahead and turn there. Matthew one, we'll pick up in verse 18, but just a quick review of what we looked at last week. We covered the genealogy of Jesus.

Jesus is called the son of David, which doesn't just mean that he descended from King David. He did obviously, but that is the title or it's a messianic title. So to call him the son of David and to call him the Christ, you're basically saying the same thing.

Jesus is God's anointed. He is God's anointed King. So we saw the genealogy Matthew gives us, and that was through Joseph. We said the genealogy from Luke chapter three is Mary's genealogy. So both of them obviously were descended from King David.

So let's listen along to Matthew one, 18 through 25.

The Virgin Birth and the Kingship of Jesus

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. Then Joseph, her husband, being a just man and not wanting to make her a public example, was minded to put her away secretly.

But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream.

Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary, your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. And she will bring forth a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.

So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet.

Behold, the virgin shall be with child and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel.

Which is translated God with us. Then Joseph, being aroused from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took to him his wife, and did not know her till she had brought forth her firstborn son.

And he called his name Jesus.

Matthew is presenting not only the kingship of Jesus, he is presenting Jesus in his deity as well. I know it's often presented this way. I think I mentioned this last week how Matthew, it said Bible teachers always say this kind of a thing.

Matthew focuses on the kingship of Jesus. Mark, him being a servant. Luke, his humanity. And John, his deity. And that's true. There's something to that. Otherwise I wouldn't mention it. But the fact is all four gospels present Jesus as a divine figure.

And that's what we saw here. Matthew, after giving the genealogy, he's careful that his readers understand that Joseph is not the father. Jesus is conceived by who? The Holy Spirit. Now, does that make the Holy Spirit Jesus' father?

No, we'll talk about that in a second. But the fact that Jesus is conceived of the Holy Spirit and Joseph is not his father, that's proof that he is divine. So it's here on the pages of the New Testament that we start to see this emerging doctrine known as the Trinity.

So as New Testament Christians, we are Trinitarian, right? So that's how we should think of ourselves. We are Trinitarian. We believe that there is one God eternally existing in three persons, father, son, and Holy Spirit.

They did not really understand that. Or I would say they didn't understand that before Jesus was born. But the fact that Jesus is born and he is divine, now you're starting to see that on the pages of scripture.

So we're Trinitarian. You've probably heard of people that are Unitarian, right? You've heard of Unitarian churches. So uni means what? One. Right, a unicycle has one wheel. A unibrow, that's just one eyebrow covering your eyes.

So a Unitarian is someone who believes that God is not a Trinity, that God is one. So Unitarians do not believe that Jesus is divine. And then there's religions that are, in a sense, Unitarian. Judaism is a, we could say a Unitarian religion because they don't believe in the Trinity.

Islam, same thing. They don't believe in the Trinity. They don't believe that Jesus is God in human flesh. But that's what we're seeing here in Matthew chapter one. Look at verse 18. Jesus is called the Christ.

So not everybody believed that Christ was divine, but that idea was certainly present. You can go back and look at certain verses in the Old Testament. Verse 20 says that he was conceived by the Holy Spirit.

And of course, the name Jesus itself means Jehovah saves or Jehovah is salvation. Verse 22 tells of how Jesus is the fulfillment of prophecy. And his birth was a virgin birth. And if that is not enough to prove that Jesus is divine, in verse 23, what is said about him?

That he is God with us. So that's what I've titled this, God with us. That's what Christmas is all about. God coming to earth and becoming a man. So Jesus is God in human flesh. And then of course, Luke's account of all this, if we don't have to turn there, but in Luke chapter one, Jesus is called the son of the highest.

The angel Gabriel comes right out and says that to Mary, that the one born to you, he will be called the son of God. So this is where it's all becoming clear, starting to become clear that God is triune in nature.

And the Trinity really is about Jesus and his divinity. People who reject the Trinity, they reject the divinity of Jesus. What type of groups reject the Trinity? You know of any. But yeah, Jehovah's witnesses, they reject the Trinity.

They believe Jesus is like a divine figure, like an exalted angel, but they don't believe that he is actually Jehovah in human flesh. Any other religions? I mean, Mormons have a totally different idea of father, son, yeah, Christian science.

They don't believe that Jesus is divine, at least not in the same sense that we do. So again, we are Trinity. The Trinity is basically one of the most important Christian doctrines because it's really comes down to who Jesus is.

So we believe in one God, and within that Godhead is father, son, and spirit. Any questions on that? If you've been a Christian for any length of time, you've heard this, but there's always somebody who needs to hear it again.

Old Testament Hints of the Trinity and the Messiah

Now, since God never changes, we're starting to see this doctrine develop in the New Testament. But since God never changes, what does that mean? That in the Old Testament, God has always been a Trinity.

What are some Old Testament verses you could point to to show, well, actually, this is true. It's hinted at even back in the Old Testament. Does anyone have any verses? Well, let's turn to Micah chapter five.

I just want you to see one of these. Micah chapter five. This is another verse that gets pulled out at Christmastime. I remember Isaiah. I think we talked about this last week. Isaiah nine, verse six, six and seven.

He will be called what? The mighty God, everlasting father. So that's one hint. In the book of Genesis, God says, "'Let us make man in our image.'". So he speaks about himself in plural form. But look at Micah chapter five, verse two.

"'But you, Bethlehem, Ephrata.'". So there's more than one Bethlehem. So he identifies which Bethlehem he's talking about. "'Though you are little among the thousands of Judah, "'yet out of you shall come forth to me "'the one to be ruler in Israel.'".

Speaking of the Christ. "'Whose goings forth are from old, even from what?''. From everlasting. So the Messiah, even though he's born in a moment in time, he is from everlasting to everlasting. As Jesus said about himself in the book of Revelation, "'I am the alpha in the omega, the beginning in the end.'".

So Matthew chapter one, this is starting to come out. All right, let's go back to Matthew chapter one. So God never changes. God was a trinity in the Old Testament. Jesus, we've seen this going through Exodus and Joshua.

Jesus does make appearances in the Old Testament. They just didn't call him Jesus. He was the angel of the Lord. Or when Abraham talked to him, he just recognized him as the Lord. And then the name Jesus comes in on the pages of the New Testament.

Look at verse 18. "'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.'". And I said this on Sunday, that since it's Christmas time, we're dealing with passages about Christ's birth.

There are two great doctrines, not the Trinity, but two great doctrines of Christmas. What are they? The virgin birth is one of them. And the other one begins with an I. The incarnation. So the incarnation that God became a man, and then the virgin birth.

Obviously one is dependent on the other because if Jesus had a human father, he's not actually the son of God. But there was another man, just to throw this in there. There was actually another man in the Bible that didn't have a human father.

And that was called the son of God. And who was that? Well, yeah, I'm okay. Some people do say that about Melchizedek, that he didn't have parents. That's sort of debated, but that's a good answer. But I was thinking of Adam, right?

Luke chapter three, verse 38, Adam is called the son of God. Why? Because he didn't, there were no parents. God was in that sense, his father. But Jesus is the only begotten son. So God created Adam, he's a creature.

Jesus comes forth from the father. Jesus shares in the same nature as the father. It's like if a father and son go get a DNA test, it's the same genes, right? It's the same, you're on equal footing. That's the way it is with Jesus.

He is the only begotten. We are called sons of God today. New Testament Christians are in a different sense. We're children by adoption. So Jesus is God's only true son. Look at verse 18 again. Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows.

After his mother, Mary was betrothed. Does anyone have a different word for that? Espoused? Engaged. Okay, well, that's what it means. I don't think too many people use these other words, betrothed or espoused.

Yeah, they were engaged. So Mary and Joseph were engaged. Before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit. So this would have been scandalous in that culture. In this culture, that kind of thing isn't really scandalous, but back then it was.

Why was it scandalous? Because Mary, this wouldn't have just been fornication. This would have been considered adultery. But it says that she was with child, from, or of, or by, or through. These are all different ways it's phrased.

Through the Holy Spirit. So I want you to explain to me, because you already answered the question and you answered it rightly. It says, well, if she's conceived by the Holy Spirit, isn't the Holy Spirit the father?

Why not? Because she came from God. Anyone else want to give a stab at that? Why, if she's conceived, if Jesus is conceived through or by the Holy Spirit, why isn't the Holy Spirit the father? Some people say this.

I've heard this said before. Yeah, Janet.

The Holy Spirit is. Yep. So that would make the Holy Spirit God, and God is Jesus' father.

Yeah. Okay, so when we talk about the Trinity, it can get kind of confusing. I admit, at first, it might seem logical to say the Holy Spirit is Jesus' father. But it's not, because, well, the simple answer that I would give is the Bible says that God the father is his father.

So, I mean, to me, that's the answer. Well, the Bible calls the father the father, right? The Holy Spirit is never called the father. And I make that point because you don't want to blend. Well, they're all God.

Well, yeah, they are, but they're all distinct. You can't say that God at some times is the spirit, and the spirit became the son, and the son kind of morphs into the father. That's not what happens. There's a word for that belief.

What is it? It's called modalism, that God changes forms, that he is in one mode, one time, the father, then he changes modes and becomes the son. What's the problem with that idea? Well, at the baptism of Jesus, all three members of the Trinity show up at once, right?

Jesus is there being baptized. The father's voice is heard from heaven, and then the Holy Spirit descends in bodily form like a dove. So this isn't God in different form. They're all present. All right, look at verse 19.

So we're Trinitarian. We're not modalists. We're not oneness. We're not Trinitarian, not Unitarian. Verse 19, then Joseph, her husband, being a just man and not wanting to make her a public example, was minded to put her away secretly.

So he finds out Mary is pregnant, and he doesn't want to make this a huge thing. Did you notice something about that verse though? What did we already say? That they are engaged. Well, what does it say here?

Joseph, her husband. Well, which is it? Are they engaged, or is he her husband? Both. Both, okay. How is it that it's both? Well, 2 ,000 years ago, the Jews, they treated marriage and the whole process, it was different, right?

They looked at it differently. So basically, being engaged was just as legally binding as being married. Today, people get engaged, and it's just kind of a verbal agreement. But back then, being engaged was, I mean, you had to get a certificate of divorce to break off the engagement.

So in that sense, even though they hadn't come together yet, Joseph could be called her husband. So when Mary becomes pregnant before the marriage is consummated, Joseph can only assume one thing, right?

There's never been a virgin birth. Can you imagine? I don't, we don't know that they talked about this, but can you imagine the conversation if she said, oh, honey, this is a virgin birth? I mean, it's not, I mean, I don't know.

This has never happened before, and it's never happened since. So he assumed, like, there's only one possibility. But again, it wouldn't have just been fornication. It would have been adultery because it's legally binding.

And adultery in Israel was a capital offense. In theory, you could get the death penalty for adultery. You remember in John chapter eight, the woman caught in adultery. What did they do? They dragged her to Jesus, and they were, the way it looks, they were ready to stone her.

Now, how often that actually got carried out is another story. You know, it's like our country. We have a lot of laws, and we all know what the laws are, but whether those laws actually get enforced is another situation.

So I think that's the way it was in Israel that, yes, in theory, she could get stoned to death. Probably wouldn't happen, but there was that threat. Yes, Larry.

I believe that it was both parties had to be present, the man and the woman, and capital offense for both of them, stoning for both. But when they showed up with just her, that was a setup. Right, right.

Trying to set up Jesus.

Yeah, yeah, and that may be, and they were trying to trap him. But the point is, it was understood by the general public, like, this is a super serious thing, and in theory, Mary could have been stoned.

But remember, the Jews are under Roman occupation. So the Roman Empire is in charge in Judea, so nobody, this is the way it was supposed to be, nobody could be put to death. The Jews could not put anyone to death without the Romans approving of it.

We know that because they wanted to kill Jesus many times, but they had to go through the proper channels, and they had to go through Pontius Pilate to get approval. So Mary was probably safe, but you never know.

Matthew writes that Joseph was a what? Because he was a? Just. Just man. Just man. He didn't want to make a public example of her. I find that interesting, because if he did make a public example of her, he would have been following the law of Moses.

But he says that because he was a just man, he didn't do that. Has that thought occurred to you? Well, it occurred to me. So a just man, what does that mean that he was a just man? This is a, it's called a Hebraism.

Basically, it's a Jewish way of saying that Joseph was a true believer. So he was a just man, he's a, we would say today, this guy is a true Christian, right? He's a true believer. And while God's law did call for stoning of adulterers, what else did God's law talk about?

God loves mercy. God loves mercy. So while Joseph, being a godly man, he wasn't about to marry someone that he believed at this time that she is an adulteress. So he's a godly man, he's not gonna marry her, but at the same time, he doesn't wanna see her dead.

He doesn't wanna see her publicly humiliated. And I think we can learn something from this, that we personally can uphold God's standard without using the word of God as a club. So we can uphold the standard in our own life without taking the word of God and using it in such a way to punish people that we're maybe upset at or hurt by.

Because that was more common thing that the Pharisees would do, right? They would try to find any little thing to kind of pin you on and they'd go after you. The Pharisees were not known for showing mercy, but because Joseph was a just man, he loved mercy.

So I think that's the explanation of why he can be called a just man and not actually see the law upheld. Does that make sense to you? All right. So what does Joseph assume of Mary? That she has, she's cheated on him.

She's committed adultery. And of course, in reality, she has done nothing wrong at all. Look at verse 20. But while he thought about these things, and that kind of gives you the impression that he's struggling with this.

Like there's no other explanation, but it just doesn't seem like something she would do. So there's some inner conflict, I think, going on. But while he thought about 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 to you Mary, your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.

The Greek word, again, thought on, can also be translated deliberate. So he's trying to figure out what to do. I think he knows Mary well enough that this just doesn't seem in line with her character.

Like, it just doesn't seem like she would do that. Which at this point, the angel comes and visits him. How did the angel visit him? In a dream. Now, this doesn't mean that God, any dream you have. I had a really strange dream last night.

I won't tell you what it was. But somebody is about, well, nevermind. But sometimes you could look at a dream and read into it. Maybe God's trying to tell me something. Because he did do that in the Old Testament, right?

Hebrews 1 says that God, various times, various ways, spoke to the fathers by the prophets.

What's that? The young men shall dream dreams. Yeah, okay.

In the future, I would say during the tribulation, at the end of days, there'll be a restoration, maybe, of some of those things. So I wouldn't rule it out going forward. But generally, when you have a dream, you know, you don't.

He knew this was of God. So this isn't like any dream we have had. So he tells Joseph, take Mary as your wife. For that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. And this happens a lot in Matthew's gospel.

So the angel appears to him in a dream here. In chapter two, the wise men are divinely warned, remember, in a dream, to go home a different way, to escape King Herod. Joseph is warned in a dream to take his family to Egypt, to escape Herod.

And then when he's in Egypt, what happens in Egypt? An angel comes in a dream and tells him that it's safe to go back. So a lot of messages in dreams in Matthew. And I was thinking about this because Gabriel approached Mary while she was awake.

Like he was there face-to-face with Mary, but God communicates to Joseph through dreams. And I thought, why? Why is it one way with her and another way with him? And I don't know if you have any answers, but I couldn't find any answers.

Any thoughts on that? Okay. Okay, you have to think about it. I've been thinking about it. I can't come up with anything. The scripture doesn't give us an answer. So I guess that's, we just don't know.

All right, he tells him in verse 21, that Mary will bring forth a son and you shall call his name Jehovah Saves, Jesus. Why? Because he will save his people from their sins. So this is what the Messiah is coming to do, to save the people from their sins.

The Israelites have been looking for, the Jews have been waiting for the Christ to come. Are they waiting for the Christ to come so he can save them from their sins? No, no. What are they waiting for the Messiah to come to do?

Right, to be a king, yep. And Jesus is a king, but in their mind, a king is going to, yeah, he's gonna grow up. He's gonna take the throne. He's gonna restore the kingdom to the glory days, like it was back in David's time and Solomon's time.

So he's gonna elevate Israel on the national stage and make them the top nation again. Yeah, and drive out the Romans and bring in peace and prosperity and all the things that kings try to do. The Israelites, the Jews are not interested in being saved from their sins.

I mean, obviously many of them are, some of them are, but the majority were not. They were looking for a king in a different sense. So they're not totally wrong though, because Jesus will do all of those things, won't he?

He will rule on a physical throne, will rule with a rod of iron. He's called the Prince of Peace. He is going to usher in a kingdom of peace. He's gonna eliminate all of the enemies of the Jewish people.

Isn't that going to happen? It just wasn't at the first advent. That happens when? At the second, yeah, after the second advent. So here's what the Jews didn't understand. And here's even what the disciples didn't really understand.

You can't get the kingdom without the cross. They just didn't get it. Remember when Peter first heard that Jesus was going to die? He told him, and Peter said, nope, that'll never happen to you, you will never die.

And Jesus said, where have I heard that before? This is what Satan tempted me with in the wilderness, that if you just bow to me, I'll give you the kingdoms of the world without the cross. And then Peter was acting as sort of a mouthpiece for Satan.

So who's the biggest enemy? I mean, really, the biggest enemy is not the Romans. The biggest enemy is not a bad economy. The biggest enemy is sin and death. So David, what did David get? David got victory over the Philistines.

David got victory over the Jebusites. That's one thing. Jesus, though, got victory over death. David defeated men. Jesus defeated the devil once and for all. Look at verse 22. So all of this was done that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet saying, behold, the virgin shall be with child and bear a son, and they shall call his name, what?

Emmanuel, which is translated God with us. Okay, let's turn to Isaiah chapter seven and we'll close here. Isaiah chapter seven. So if you think of those great Christmas verses, there's Isaiah nine, six, and seven, and then there's Isaiah seven, verse 14.

And that's what we're gonna look at. As you're turning there, when Joseph woke up from his dream, what did he do? He did as the angel said, he took Mary to be his wife. So the divorce proceedings were all canceled.

And it says, he did not know her, which is a euphemism for knowing her carnally. It says he did not know her until. Now, what does that tell you? He did not know her until. Yeah, well, it tells you that they did eventually, right?

Which tells you they were a normal married couple. They had physical relations. I mean, that's partly what marriage is about. If there's none of that, then you're more like friends, right? And the only reason I point this out is because of the teachings of the Catholic church that say that Mary was a perpetual virgin.

That she was not just the Virgin Mary when she gave birth to Jesus, which we agree with, but they say she was a virgin her entire life. Matter of fact, they teach that she was a virgin while giving birth, that Jesus sort of just beamed out of her that he didn't actually come out the normal way.

I know you think I'm kidding, but that's a teaching within, because Mary is so exalted, she can't be corrupted in any way. Not that that's corruption, because God's the one who came up with the idea, but so he did not know her until.

So Mary was a virgin while she gave birth to Jesus, but not afterwards. And Matthew, I shouldn't have had you turn there so quick, but Matthew also said that she brought forth her firstborn son. What does that tell you?

That there were other sons. Jesus is just the firstborn. And then in Matthew 13, 55 and 56, the people say about Jesus, is this not the carpenter's son? Is not Mary his mother and his brothers, James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas, and his sisters, are they not all with us?

So according to Matthew chapter 13, Jesus has four brothers and at least two sisters. So this whole idea that Mary is the perpetual virgin, it's not biblical. The Bible teaches the exact opposite, sort of like, remember on Wednesday nights, we went through the faith matters column and just week after week after week, they were teaching the exact opposite of what the Bible says, just consistently.

So why did Rome do that? Well, basically they tried to make Mary out to be like some sort of goddess figure, going as far as to call her the queen of heaven, where people bow and pray to her. More recently, just a couple more comments.

I think it's good that you know this because I've been preaching, last week I preached on Mary to a large degree. She found favor with God. And then my Christmas sermon is also on Mary. And sometimes Protestants and evangelicals don't like that too much when you talk about Mary.

She does hold it in a very important place. So I wanna make sure everybody knows I'm not buying into all the hype. But in more recent history, the Catholic church in 1854, declared that Mary was sinless.

In 1950, it was made a dogma that instead of dying and being buried, Mary was taken up into heaven. You see what they're trying to do? All the things that Jesus did, Jesus was sinless, well, she's sinless too.

Jesus ascended into heaven, well, she did too. Jesus was born of a virgin. They say Mary was immaculately conceived. Did you know the immaculate conception? Most people think that refers to Jesus being born of a virgin.

No, the immaculate conception is in reference to Mary's birth, that she was born perfect and without sin. So, and then there are current discussions right now in the Catholic church to declare Mary as co-redeemer.

If all of that wasn't bad enough, they want many people within the Catholic church want to make it a dogma that Mary is co-redemptrix, that Mary and Jesus together have saved the human race. So it's unfortunate to say the least, but at least that has not yet been declared.

But it may in the future. So with that said, this is one extreme. The reason I bring that up, this is one, this is a lot of false doctrine about Mary that you might hear this time of year. That's one extreme.

What's the other extreme? So the Catholics are on one extreme. Sometimes Protestants take, the pendulum swings too far in the other direction. And the way that Protestants and evangelicals talk about Mary, it's like they want to kind of knock her down a few pegs and speak disparagingly of her.

Should we do that? No, because as the scripture says, Mary was blessed among women. Mary was highly favored by God. Mary was a chosen vessel. And why I told you to turn to Isaiah 7, 14, this is something we often don't think of.

Mary was actually an object of prophecy. We don't usually think of it in that sense, but look at Isaiah 7, 14. Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold the virgin. Okay, now who's the virgin?

Okay, so Mary is prophesied of in the scripture. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Emmanuel. So that's where Matthew is quoting from. Emmanuel, God with us, this comes from Isaiah 7, 14.

Now, I'm not going to pick on you if you have a translation that says this, okay? But does anyone have a different word when it says behold the virgin? Does anyone have a different word? All your translations say virgin?

Yeah. Okay. Okay. Is anyone aware of where I'm going with this? Does anyone know of the problem with this verse? This Bible version isn't really that popular these days. It used to be, but who's heard of the revised standard version, the RSV?

Okay, in the revised standard version of the Bible, if you read it, it says, behold, the young woman will conceive. And liberal ministers will latch onto that and they'll say the virgin birth, behold the virgin, that's the wrong translation.

It should be behold the young woman. Well, because remember, they don't think that Jesus is God. They don't believe in the virgin birth. They don't think that Mary was a virgin, that the young woman will conceive.

So the Hebrew word, here's the thing about that. The Hebrew word Alma can be translated young woman, but it can also be translated virgin. So in fairness, it could go either way because back then young maidens were typically virgin.

So it can go either way. How do we know it's virgin? Yeah, that's one thing in the text. The Lord will give you a sign. That's the word for miracle. A young woman giving birth isn't a miracle. It might've been uncommon in those days, it's not a miracle.

What's another way that we know for a fact that the proper translation is virgin? Because Matthew writing under inspiration of the Holy Ghost in the Greek, he uses the word for virgin. So if there's any confusion, Matthew clears it up in the New Testament by stating explicitly that Mary is indeed a virgin.

He quotes this verse and says, behold the virgin. So it will be a sign and the child will be called Emmanuel, meaning God with us. So in conclusion, the takeaway is this. When Jesus came into the world, that was God coming into the world.

God came into the world to be with us. So if there's anyone who is far from God, or if there's anyone who feels far from God, remember this, that Jesus is God with us. In the person of Jesus Christ, God has come near to you.

Jesus has bridged the gap between heaven and earth so that what we celebrate at Christmas, God became a man to bring men closer to God.