LOVE RESPONDS (Matthew 1:18-25)
INTRODUCTION:
This morning we continue our chronological study of the incarnation of Jesus Christ. Each week of advent we have lit a candle with a word associated with it. The first week was the candle of hope and we saw hope renewed as God stepped into history after a 400-year silence and told an aged priest that his wife was going to have a son who would herald the coming Messiah. Hope was renewed that God would keep His promise to send a Deliverer, a Savior, the Messiah. Last week we lit the candle of peace and we saw the peace of God revealed through the faith of young girl, a virgin, when she received the news that she would be the mother of the Son of God and she in faith surrenders herself wholly to the Lord as His bondslave, desiring only God’s will to be done in her life. The peace from her surrender prepares her to bear the Prince of peace.
This morning we lit the candle of love, and that is the theme of my message. The love of a man as he responds to this young woman, and the love of God not only for this young couple, but also for the whole of mankind as He sends His Son to be the Savior of the world.
Before turning to our Scripture this morning let’s pray and ask God to speak His truth into our hearts.
--PRAY--
SCRIPTURE:
Our chronological study takes us to the book of Matthew chapter 1, verses 18-25. Last week I ended my message with the questions that must have been in Mary’s mind concerning her betrothed husband Joseph and what his response and action would be when he found out that Mary was pregnant. Please stand in honor of the reading of God’s Word, this is the true history of the incarnation as we have recorded for us in the Gospels, follow along as I read.
Matthew 1:18-25,
“Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: when His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit. And Joseph her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly. But when he had considered this, 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 who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.’ Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet: ‘Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,’ which translated means, ‘God with us.’ And Joseph awoke from his sleep and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took Mary as his wife, but kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a Son; and he called His name Jesus.” (Matthew 1:18–25, NASB95)[1]
LOVE’S DILEMMAS (Matthew 1:18-19)
The purpose of this passage is to confirm the virgin birth and explain Joseph’s acceptance of Jesus as his son. This is important in order for the prophecies concerning the Messiah to be fulfilled. Let me try to explain two dilemmas that stood in the way of this happening. The first is the dilemma of lineage. God had promised David that his throne would be everlasting, He had promised David that his offspring would sit on David’s throne and reign. David was promised unconditionally that his descendants would be preserved to sit on the throne. Ultimately, these promises were to be fulfilled in the Messiah – David’s “greater” Son. From the Bible we know that David had several sons, but the legal right to sit on the throne passed only to one of them and that one was Solomon. Only those who were of the kingly line inherited the right to sit on the throne. In other words, it was possible to be a physical descendant of David and yet have no legal right to sit on the throne.
The first half of Matthew 1 is the genealogy of Jesus through the descendants of David who were in the royal lineage. This genealogy ends in verse 16 with Joseph, the betrothed husband of Mary, thus this is the genealogy of Joseph. However, the fourteenth descendant of David in the royal lineage was a king called Jeconiah (or sometimes shortened to Coniah). Because of this king’s sin, God had pronounced a curse on him, this is written in the book of Jeremiah 22:30, it says, “Thus says the Lord, ‘Write this man down childless, A man who will not prosper in his days; For no man of his descendants will prosper Sitting on the throne of David Or ruling again in Judah.’” (Jeremiah 22:30, NASB95)[2] This curse placed on Jeconiah by God did not mean that he would never have children, but that none of his children would sit on the throne of David. And since Jeconiah there had not been a king in Israel. Here is the dilemma, an apparently unsolvable one: those who had the legal right to the throne were barred from occupying it. Joseph was a direct descendant of Jeconiah, meaning that although Joseph inherited the legal right to the throne of David because he was of the kingly line of Solomon, he could not sit upon the throne because of the curse God had placed on Jeconiah. This means that if Jesus had been the biological son of Joseph, he, too, would come under the curse and be banned from sitting on the throne of David. This posed a humanly impossible dilemma. Three conditions had to be met to authenticate the Messiah, but they appeared to be impossible to fulfill. The three conditions were: (1) The Messiah had to be in the royal line of David. (2) The Messiah had to be the legal son of Joseph. And (3) The Messiah could not be the biological son of Joseph without coming under God’s curse on the descendants of Jeconiah. For God to show His love to mankind this dilemma had to be solved.
The second dilemma relates to the first and was Joseph’s dilemma, he was betrothed to Mary, which as I said two weeks ago was a legal contract between Joseph and Mary that declared them already as husband and wife. They were still in the one year waiting period from when the betrothal had been made until the actual wedding when they would consummate their marriage. Until then they lived in the homes of their parents.
Matthew tells us in verse 18 that before Joseph and Mary came together as husband and wife, that is before they consummated their marriage, Mary was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. Remember that Mary had left Nazareth very soon after the angel left her and traveled to southern Israel to be with Zacharias and Elizabeth and had stayed with them for three months until John was born. By the time she returned to Nazareth she was in her third or fourth month of pregnancy and definitely showing. I’m sure she went immediately to Joseph to tell him of her condition and the miraculous events surrounding her pregnancy. This explains the second dilemma, how could he believe Mary’s story, simply put virgins cannot and do not conceive.
Joseph was torn between love and duty, his love for his betrothed wife and his duty to the Law of Moses. We are told that Joseph was a righteous man, which means that he believed the promises of God to send a Savior, who would be Israel’s Messiah and he sought to follow God’s Law, but was it to happen this way, was Mary telling the truth? If she was, maybe he was not to marry her if she was the mother of the Messiah. If she was not telling the truth, then she had been unfaithful to him, and he could carry out the full extent of the law and make a public example of her by having her stoned by the men of the city. What was he to do?
Joseph’s response was prompted by his love for Mary and his devotion to God, he would not carry out the full extent of the law by making her a public spectacle and having her stoned. He loved her too much to disgrace her family, and if she were telling the truth what good would it be to have her stoned. Matthew has already let us know that Mary has not been unfaithful to Joseph, she was still a virgin, the child she carried was through the Holy Spirit. But because Joseph truly loved Mary and because he was a righteous man, he did not want to expose her or her family to public disgrace. His decision was to divorce her quietly, take care of the matter quickly and with the least amount of publicity. Here is a man that shows grace to someone he loves even though from outward appearances she has not loved him or been devoted to him. Here is how Joseph’s decision relates to the first dilemma, if he were to divorce Mary her Son would not have the legal right to the throne of His father David.
Here are two dilemma’s that seem impossible to solve that are related to one another, let’s see how God in His love intervenes in both to bring about an answer.
GOD RESPONDS IN LOVE TO JOSEPH (Matthew 1:20-23)
As I said last Sunday Mary had completely surrendered herself to God and was willing to have God’s will done in her life just as Gabriel had told her. She trusted God to care for all the details, and she was at peace in whatever way God carried out His purpose for her. She surely had wondered what would happen once Joseph found out. She knew the law and she knew what he could do, but she also believed the promise of God to use her to bring the Messiah into the world. Mary knew how much Joseph loved her and what a righteous, godly man he was and that he would never be a part of anything that went against God’s will. She trusted God with the details, maybe she even knew that Joseph had decided to divorce her quietly and maybe she rejoiced that her family would not be subject to any further public disgrace. But God needed Joseph if Jesus was to be the rightful heir to David’s throne. God had not finished with His birth announcements; God was about to intervene even in the details of Joseph and Mary’s marriage.
We are told that after Joseph had considered divorcing Mary quietly, he was visited by the angel of the Lord in a dream with a message from God. We are not told who this angel was, but I would not be surprised if it was Gabriel again. The angel says to Joseph, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:20b-21, NASB95)[3] Notice that the angel begins by calling him Joseph, son of David pointing to the fact that he was in the kingly lineage of David and a son born into his family would have the legal right to the throne of David. Then the angel tells him to not be afraid to take Mary as his wife, she has not been unfaithful to you, the Child that she carries has been miraculously conceived by the Holy Spirit. Earlier the angel had told Mary what to name this Son, now he tells Joseph that he is to name the Son that Mary will have. He is to name him Jesus, which means “God is salvation;” Jesus will save His people from their sins. With this name and the explanation of what this Child would do Joseph would have understood immediately that this Child that Mary carried was the promised Messiah. Mary, his beloved Mary, was going to give birth to the Messiah, to the Promised One of God, to God’s Son. She would give birth to the One who would be the Savior, the One who could restore man’s relationship with God by saving us from our sins.
Matthew then gives us the prophecy of Isaiah that was being fulfilled. Isaiah had prophesied in Isaiah 7:14 that a virgin, one who had never had sexual relations with a man, would bear a child and give birth to a Son who would be called Immanuel which means “God with us.” This name Immanuel was a revelation about the person of Jesus and not the name that He historically bore. It is a name that informs us who Jesus is, He is God in the flesh, God with us. It is not clear if the angel spoke this prophecy to Joseph or if it was inserted by Matthew. If the angel did speak it to Joseph, it would have proved beyond doubt that Mary was the one chosen to bring God into the world in human flesh.
LOVE RESOLVES THE DILEMMAS (Matthew 1:24-25)
Matthew reveals a little bit more about Joseph’s character and faith by his actions upon waking up from his dream. He believed what the angel told him, he trusted God’s Word given to him in the dream and he went against the custom of the day of waiting for at least one year before bringing his bride home. Joseph loved Mary and recognized that what she needed at that moment was to feel secure and protected from society and their rumors and gossip. Joseph did as the Lord said and brought Mary into his home as his wife. Matthew is quick to inform us that Joseph kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a Son, and he called his name Jesus. This final verse is the summary of Matthew’s purpose to confirm the virgin birth and that was done by Joseph, he had no sexual relations with Mary until after Jesus was born. Secondly, Matthew’s purpose was to explain Joseph’s acceptance of Jesus as his Son. That too is confirmed by the fact that this final verse says that Joseph called His name Jesus.
Joseph’s dilemma was resolved by receiving a message from God that he could take Mary as his wife without fear because she had been faithful to him, she had been truthful to him and Joseph’s love for Mary responded by immediately taking her home to be his wife.
At the same time, we see the first dilemma resolved by the miracle of the virgin birth. As I already mentioned the genealogy of Jesus in the first part of Matthew 1 is traced through Joseph. Jesus, however, was not the biological son of Joseph and we know this for certain because at the time of Jesus’ birth, Joseph had never had sexual relations with his wife Mary. Because Joseph had taken Mary home to be his wife and had named the Son at His birth, Jesus then became the legal Son of Joseph, even though He was not his biological Son. By doing these two things Joseph showed that he accepted Jesus as his firstborn Son with all the legal rights that belong to the firstborn. So legally Jesus had met two of the three conditions that authenticate Him as the Messiah. (1) He was the legal son of Joseph. (2) He was not the physical or biological son of Joseph; thus, He did not fall under God’s curse on the descendants of Jeconiah. One condition still had to be met, the prophets of Israel prophesied that the Messiah would be a direct descendant of David. Was the condition met? The answer is found in the book of Luke, where we have the genealogy of Mary, the biological mother of Jesus. This genealogy in Luke 3 beginning in verse 23 records that Mary was a direct descendant of David, but not through the lineage of King Solomon, upon whom the curse of Jeconiah fell, but through another son of David named Nathan (Luke 3:23-31). Therefore, the curse did not affect Mary or her actual Son. In this we see God’s love for mankind that He might meet all of the conditions that His Son would be the Messiah, and thus the Savior of the world, dying for man’s sin, taking our punishment on Himself so that we might have our sins forgiven and be restored in our relationship with God.
CONCLUSION:
To summarize the truth we learned this morning:
- Jesus was a direct descendant of Mary, and therefore a direct descendant of David.
- In Jesus, God’s promise to David (that he would have a Son to sit upon his throne) is fulfilled.
- Jesus was the legal son of Joseph and thereby inherited the legal right to sit on the throne of David. However, Jesus was NOT the biological son of Joseph, and thereby escaped the curse of Jeconiah.
This was all made possible by the miraculous virgin birth of the Son of God. The virgin birth is not an option to be considered, but a truth to be believed. It is an essential part of redemptive history, to disregard it, to not believe it means there is no redemptive history.
This part of the chronological history of the incarnation of Jesus Christ is vital in confirming Him as the Messiah. In this event we see God’s great love and God’s great design to bring together all of the right pieces at the right time so that you and I 2000 years later can have a Savior, can be justified before God through the death, burial, and resurrection of Immanuel, God with us. Truly this history is “Love’s Response.”
[1]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. LaHabra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995
[2]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. LaHabra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995
[3]New American Standard Bible : 1995 Update. LaHabra, CA : The Lockman Foundation, 1995