Whose Son is HE? God
Matthew 1:18-25
Whose Son, is HE?
Matthew 1:18-25, 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. 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. 20 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. 21 And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” 22 So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying: 23 “Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us.” 24 Then Joseph, being aroused from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took to him his wife, 25 and did not know her till she had brought forth her firstborn Son. And he called His name Jesus.
The Jewish people were looking for their Messiah as the Saviour who will save them by coming on the Kingly line.
Matthew 22:42, saying, “What do you think about the Christ? Whose Son is He?” They said to Him, “The Son of David.”
They were looking for son of David but as divine. Virgin birth is the central to the Christianity and foundational doctrine. If we do not accept this foundational doctrine, then the super structure will be shaky. Recent study among the clergy’s is quite alarming.
About 1/3 do not believe in virgin birth. Little higher in the Bible college students. The Jewish were ready accept Him as the son of David, but not the Son of God.
Christ by highest heaven adored. Christ the everlasting Lord. Late in time, behold him come. Offspring of the virgin’s womb. Veiled in flesh, the Godhead see. Hail the incarnate deity.
Pleased as man with men to dwell. Jesus, our Immanuel. Hark, the herald angels sing Glory to the new-born king.” Son of God, Divinity. Son of David, humanity. Both of those are essential to an understanding of the incarnation.
Jesus is God in a human body, humanly through the lineage of David he gains the right to rule the world. Jesus is God’s Son in the form of deity, He gains the very essence of the nature of God by having been born without a human father through the agency of the Spirit of God himself.
Matthew in writing his Gospel squarely faces his Jewish readers and all the readers of all the ages, and he gives them the answer. The genealogy of Jesus tells us that He is the son of David. The birth of Jesus tells us that He is the Son of God.
Now if Matthew 1:1-17, the genealogy, were all that could be said, then Christ may have had the legal right to be the king, but he could have never redeemed men.
He could have never conquered death. He could have never conquered sin. He could have never conquered Satan and hell. To do that, he had to be God. So, Jesus was the God-Man, 100 percent deity, 100 percent humanity. That is the message of chapter 1 of Matthew.
Matthew splits his chapter into two parts, dealing with the human and then the divine. Always counterfeit to the virgin birth by Satan. Alexander the great another example. Philip Macedon and Olympias parents of Alexander the Great.
Zeus god took the form of snake and produced the child.
Romans 3:3-4, For what if some did not believe? Will their unbelief make the faithfulness of God without effect? 4 Certainly not! Indeed, let God be true but every man a liar. As it is written: “That You may be justified in Your words, And may overcome when You are judged.” In the Old Testament it was prophesied.
Isaiah 7:14, Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel. Miracle of virgin birth. 1. Conceived V 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. Mary is a virgin and bible does not give many details about her.
Luke 1:35-38, And the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God. 36 Now indeed, Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age; and this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren. 37 For with God nothing will be impossible.” 38 Then Mary said, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her. Mary was a woman of faith. She believed God. Mary was righteous and wonderful obedient person to God and His word.
She was betrothed to Joseph. Two stages in marriage in Hebrew marriage. 1. Kiddushin
2. Hupah, or the chuppah
The kiddushin was the betrothal.
Deuteronomy 20:7, And what man is there who is betrothed to a woman and has not married her? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle and another man marry her.’ A binding contract. If at any time during that contract of betrothal period you violated that marriage vow, you had to be divorced officially. They were constituted legally married, though there were no physical relationships whatever.
It was a normally 12-month period, and it was a period of protection for the would-be husband and wife so that there would be a period in which to prove a fidelity. So that if the girl were pregnant, that would become very manifest in that period. If anybody were going to be unfaithful or there were going to be problems, there was a period in which that could be worked out.
During that period, there was no social contact at all. They still maintained a certain distance. It was simply a promise that was made, a contract that was made.
Hupah/Chupah
Now, at the end of the period, it could go maybe 12 or 6months, the chupah took place. That was the wedding. Weddings lasted approximately seven days. The marriage at Cana. Remember they ran out of wine, celebrations lasted for 7 days.
The betrothal period, then, was the period prior to the chupah or the wedding, when the marriage was consummated physically and all. The betrothal period was a period of testing, a period of probation to ensure the bride’s virginity and the fidelity of the husband and the wife.
But they used the term “husband and wife” because it was as good as valid, just not consummated. V 25, “and did not know her till she had brought forth her firstborn Son. V 18, “Before they came together.”
Joseph was a godly man, a righteous man, who would not have violated God’s standard. God looks with great concern on purity and virginity is of high value to God. Angel Gabriel announced to Mary that she will have a son by the Holy Spirit.
It was very bold of Mary to accept the offer from Gabriel.
Deuteronomy 22:13-14, “If any man takes a wife, and goes in to her, and detests her, 14 and charges her with shameful conduct, and brings a bad name on her, and says, ‘I took this woman, and when I came to her I found she was not a virgin,’
Deuteronomy 22:2, then they shall bring out the young woman to the door of her father’s house, and the men of her city shall stone her to death with stones, because she has done a disgraceful thing in Israel, to play the harlot in her father’s house. So you shall put away the evil from among you. Death would have been what happened then, and Joseph was literally rocked to the very core of his heart. He loved Mary. Mary had absolutely no way under the sun to protect her reputation. If Jesus is an ordinary man then we can say he was probably born like all the other men, but he is not like anybody else.
If Jesus is simply the illegitimate child of Mary’s infidelity, or if he is the child of Joseph’s natural sexual activity with Mary, then He is not God. If Jesus is not God, then His claims are lies. So, Matthew records for us clearly that God entered the flesh by a virgin in which seed was planted by the Holy Spirit.
No human can explain the Holy Spirit work. How we cannot explain the creation we cannot explain this either.
Galatians 4:4, But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law
2. Confronted
Joseph, a just and righteous man, no doubt deeply committed to Mary, waiting with anticipation the day when they both are proven during the period of betrothal and can come together to consummate the marriage. V 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.
Joseph must confront this thing. He must face it. Two participles describing the character of Joseph.
➢ He was a just man, and ➢ He was not willing to make her a public example. According to the Jewish law in the book of Deuteronomy he either make it public and punish her or do it secretly. Put her away is nothing but divorce her.
3. Clarified V 20-21, 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. 21 And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”
Joseph fell asleep, began to dream, and his dream turned to a reality. Branch of David.
Isaiah 9:6, For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
In Hebrew, Jeshua, Joshua, Jehoshua, which means “Jehovah shall save.” The Bible is very careful about never naming Joseph as the father of Jesus. Matthew 2;13, Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, “Arise, take the young Child and His mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I bring you word; for Herod will seek the young Child to destroy Him.”
Matthew 2:20, saying, “Arise, take the young Child and His mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the young Child’s life are dead.” Only the name of Jesus, the one God-man.
God alone who saves. Psalm 20 says, there are some people who trust in horses, and some people who trust in chariots, and some who trust in physical strength, and some who trust in their knowledge, and their intuition, and their reputation, and their prestige, their position, machinery, friends, whatever it is, education, but only Jesus can save.
He shall save his people from their sins. Only HE is mighty enough to save.
4. Connected V 22-23, So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying: 23 “Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us.”
All through Matthew, 50 times in the Gospel of Matthew he quotes the Old Testament, 76 additional times he alludes to it. Matthew quoting the Prophet Isaiah 7:14. There is the virgin birth connected to the Old Testament.
This is not an afterthought. This is not from the legend out of the air. This is the promise of God fulfilled! The setting of Isaiah’s prophecy is very simple. King Ahaz was terrified that the kingdom of Judah might be destroyed by Syria and Israel. Ahaz is in the bottom of the southern kingdom and he is worried about up north here’s Israel and over here is Syria.
He is afraid they are going to come down and going to wipe out the kingly line. So, he is afraid that they will lose the kingly line.
God gives the prophetic word saying that a promise that nothing is going to happen to the kingly line. Nothing is going to take away the kingly line. Here is a sign. A virgin shall be with child and that child will be Immanuel, God with us.
God says to him that you look down the history and there will be a virgin born child and he will guarantee you that David’s line will never be broken. Jesus came into the world as the fulfilment of that prophecy given by Isaiah to Ahaz, to show that God will keep his promise and the throne of David will never be broken forever.
So, the virgin birth is clarified.
Call His name Immanuel? God with us. El, the last two letters of that word, are the name for God. Immanu means “with us.” God with us.
Conclusion
V 24, Then Joseph, being aroused from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took to him his wife, When Joseph got up and it was all clear! I am not just marrying Mary. I am getting the Son of God thrown in on the deal.
Can you imagine the almighty God of the universe depositing his only Son in the home of a man who wouldn’t be a good father? I do not feel bad about Joseph at all! I am sure he was also. I am certainly wanting to meet Joseph when I get to heaven!
The virgin birth consummated. They had the wedding, but he never touched Mary physically until after that baby was born. People always ask, “Do you think they had other children?” We know they had other children. The Bible gives the names of the other children. In John 7 talks about Jesus’ brothers.
V 25,and did not know her till she had brought forth her firstborn Son. And he called His name Jesus. Once Mary had brought forth her firstborn son, he was in the habit of knowing her. That is the rendering of the Greek. They had a normal human relationship physically which produced many other children.
At the start of his life, the Jews said Jesus was the son of a man who seduced Mary.
At the end of his life, they said the disciples stole his body and faked the resurrection. Matthew begins with the answer to the first slander and ends his Gospel with the answer to the last slander. Matthew spends the rest of the middle of it fighting all the other slanders against the dear Lord Jesus Christ.