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The Birth

Matthew's Nativity

Dec 8, 2019


by: Jack Lash Series: Matthew's Nativity | Category: Advent | Scripture: Matthew 1:18–25

I. Introduction
A. Matthew 1:18–25 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. 19 And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. 20 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. 21 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” 22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: 23 “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us). 24 When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, 25 but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.
B. I am fascinated by the Christmas story. I think it’s one of the greatest stories ever.
C. It’s important that we don’t let our imaginations run wild, but it’s also important that we look closely at the text and try to pick up every clue we find there.
D. Nativity means birth, so Nativity has come to mean THE birth. So, Matthew’s nativity means Matthew’s version the story of the birth of Christ.
E. Matthew and Luke are the two gospels which include the story of Christ’s birth.
1. Besides the fact that He was conceived by the HS and born in Bethlehem of the virgin Mary who was married to Joseph, there is virtually no overlap between the two accounts.
2. For instance, here are some things not included in Matthew’s nativity:
a. Gabriel’s announcement to Mary
b. Any mention of Zacharias or Elizabeth
c. Any reference to traveling to Bethlehem, or lying in a manger
d. Shepherds or angels declaring peace on earth
e. No appearance in the temple, no Simeon or Anna
3. So, you’ll have to wait till next year to hear about all that.
F. Let me say one more thing about the difference between Matthew’s nativity and Luke’s nativity. It seems that Matthew contains Joseph’s perspective, whereas Luke has Mary’s. In other words, wherever Matthew got his facts from directly, they seem to have originated from Joseph.
1. Actions and words can be witnessed by others and written in the historical record. Not so thoughts and dreams and motivations, the very things we are told about concerning Joseph. They are the very things you can’t know without that person telling you, or telling someone who tells you.
2. Now, it’s unlikely that Matthew got his facts straight from Joseph since Joseph seems to have died before Matthew served as a disciple of Jesus.
3. So, most likely Matthew got his information from someone who’d gotten it from Joseph, like James or Jude, Joseph’s two sons, who were prominent leaders in the church and likely wrote the NT books James and Jude. Or maybe Joseph heard it from Mary, who’d heard it from Joseph.
II. Let’s think about a few questions from the text:
A. How was Mary “found to be with child” ?
1. The word means belly. This may imply that she looked pregnant.
2. Mary left immediately (Luke 1:39) to visit Elizabeth after Gabriel told her about Jesus
3. She returned a little over 3 months later, as her pregnancy was beginning to show itself. And either then or shortly thereafter, she was, it seems, found to be with child.
B. Why was an angel necessary to inform Joseph that Mary’s baby was from the HS? Why didn’t Mary just tell Joseph? Maybe she did, maybe she didn’t. It doesn’t matter because Joseph wouldn’t have believed it either way. I wouldn’t have believed her, and I don’t think you would either.
1. You see, when God has to say something this big, He can’t just say it through an ordinary person.
2. There has to be something miraculous in the communication, or no one will believe it.
3. All it took for Joseph to believe that Mary was pregnant was to see her swollen belly. But, even though Mary was an honest person, it took a lot more than Mary’s word for Joseph to believe the HS had make his virgin fiancee pregnant. An angel, though, did the trick.
C. What does it mean that Joseph took her but knew her not?
1. It means they married and lived together but didn’t have a sexual relationship until the birth.
2. Why did they marry?
a. Probably to protect Mary from persecution.
b. To publically declare his belief that Mary had been faithful and that the baby was not illegitimate.
3. And why did they abstain? Not because Mary was too holy to engage in a sexual relationship, but to make it clear that the baby was from God, that this was indeed a virgin birth.
D. Why does it say in v.25: “When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, 25 but knew her not UNTIL SHE HAD GIVEN BIRTH TO A SON.”
1. Some claim that Mary remained a virgin her whole life. This teaching is called “the perpetual virginity of Mary.” But if this is true, why did Matthew say that Joseph knew her not until she had given birth?
2. There are three indicators that Joseph & Mary had a normal, active sexual relationship after Jesus was born. The first is this statement here in Matt.1:25.
a. The second is in Luke 2:7, which refers to Jesus as Mary’s firstborn son.
b. The third is all the NT references to Jesus’ brothers and sisters (Matthew 13:55-56; Mark 3:31-32, 6:3; Gal.1:19; 1Cor.9:5)
3. It is correct that none of these are 100% airtight.
a. “He knew her not until she had given birth” isn’t exactly the same as saying that he did know her after she gave birth.
b. Nelson Raley is the Raley’s firstborn son even though he’s also their only child.
c. And there are times when the Greek word for brother and sister was used to refer more generally to a relative like a cousin.
4. But two other things are also true:
a. There is no hint in the NT that Mary remained a virgin throughout her life. If she had done so on her own, it would have been sinful, since that is an essential part of marriage. The evidence on one side may not be completely airtight, but on the other side, there is no evidence at all!
b. To say things this way if Mary remained a life-time virgin would be misleading if not erroneous. Why would you say things this way, which suggest and imply something – if it weren’t true?
E. Why was He given the name Jesus?
1. In obedience to the angel, Joseph named Jesus. We see in the story of the birth of John the Baptist that it was the father’s job to name the child.
a. In the phrase, “you shall call his name Jesus,” the ‘you’ is singular.
b. It shows that by marrying Mary, Joseph was also adopting Jesus. Joseph (otherwise Joseph’s genealogy is meaningless).
2. ‘Jesus’ was a common name at the time.
3. Joshua: warrior, conqueror – “Yeshua, let me tell you the story of Yeshua.”
4. “God is savior”
5. What a perfect name for Him! No one’s life says “God is savior” more than the life of Jesus!
III. Though this is a supernatural story, it is also a very human story. It involves real people with real struggles. There are lessons we can learn here about living a life of faith.
A. Think about Joseph. Your fiancee goes away for six months to visit a relative. When she returns, she’s obviously pregnant. And Joseph knew it wasn’t from him.
B. The English translation here, I think, is somewhat misleading in v.20.
1. “But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream”
2. The problem is with the phrase “as he considered these things” and the verb “consider” in particular.
3. It would be easy to get the impression by this translation that Joseph was just confused about what to do. But the word implies more than that. The root word is THUMOS, which is used 18 times in the NT, and is translated five different ways: wrath, fury, anger, enraged, passion. Do you see a pattern there? But the word here is not found in its root form. It has a prefix on it. And in THIS form it is only used twice in the NT, here and in Matthew 9:4. But even if you look at other ancient uses of this word, it is never unemotional consideration of a dilemma. It is always an intense struggle, always involving deep emotion.
C. We can understand Joseph’s heartbreak. You know what it’s like at that stage of a relationship, when you carried along on the glow of love & anticipation. And then in a moment it’s shattered.
1. And think about the agony of his perplexity. What was he to do now? He cared deeply about Mary, and had no interest in shaming her, no matter how she had gotten pregnant.
2. Breaking up with her quietly was the final gift his wounded heart could give her.
D. Was this pain and heartbreak really necessary? Why didn’t God give him the dream before Mary came back? It would have saved him so much heartache.
1. If our happiness in this life was God’s ultimate goal, He would act like this. If sparing us from unpleasant emotional experiences is God’s goal, He’s not doing a very good job. But it isn’t, is it?
2. This life is our training ground, where we learn through failure, pain and disappointment.
a. And God in His perfect love and wisdom knows how to tell His story in our lives.
b. And though it’s unpleasant, it’s so good for us to experience hard things.
(1) It’s so good for us to get really sick sometimes.
(2) It’s so good for us to have really intense financial struggles sometimes.
(3) It’s so good for us to fail sometimes, or to get rejected.
(4) It’s so good for us when really hard things happen to our spouses or our kids.
c. Through all these things, God teaches us to trust in Him. God teaches us what’s important. God teaches us that our happiness can’t be based on the circumstances of our lives, that we can’t look to country or family or career or health or possessions. We can only look to Him.
IV. The second lesson is about humility.
A. We hail Joseph as the heroic man who served as the father of Jesus, but his life included no fanfare. It was a life of serving God humbly in the face of many difficulties and perplexities.
B. It’s the same for us.
C. The world says, Take charge of your life!” But God is training us to serve Him humbly and let Him be the boss.
D. Joseph called to play second fiddle to Mary in the story.
1. He’s not included when Gabriel tells Mary she will conceive the Son of God.
2. Simeon addresses Mary and not Joseph in the temple.
3. He’s not mentioned in the magi visit.
4. In fact, Joseph is remarkable in what he doesn’t do. He gets sort of left out.
5. Mary’s the one who gets all the attention. And she’s the one who does all the speaking.
6. And later, Joseph even had to bow to the authority and receive the correction of his own Son.
7. You see, a few times, Jesus pulled rank on His parents.
a. He did it at age 12 in Jerusalem.
b. He did it at the wedding in Cana when Mary asked Him to help with the refreshments.
c. There may have been other times as well.
8. That’s what happens when you are parenting the Son of God. You are unworthy even to untie His little shoes, even though as His parent you must.
E. To be the godly head of a home, a man needs to be able to lead, to make hard decisions, even to put his foot down when necessary. But I would suggest the most important ability needed to be the head of a home is to be able to submit, to be able to say 'yes, Lord.'
1. For although a man is the head of his home, before he is the head, he must be under THE Head, for there is a Head of the head.
a. Sometimes God will speak to him through his wife, and he needs to be able to say “Yes, Lord” when God speaks to him through his wife.
b. Sometimes God will speak to him through his child, and he needs to be able to say “Yes, Lord” when God speaks to him through his child.
2. Joseph demonstrates godliness by letting go of his own agenda in order to let God accomplish His.
a. A father's job as head of his home is not to impose his own will, but to seek God's will.
b. If he can’t, then it’s not godliness by which he rules his household, but pride.
3. A good father needs patience, good humor, wisdom, courage, compassion, consistency. But the most important characteristic of all is humility.
a. This is hard for us sometimes, because we want to be the big boss.
b. Joseph had to be a humble man, he had to be willing to bend his will to God's. He had to be willing to let God be the head of his home.
4. The godly father knows he’s not his family’s messiah. He knows his job is to humbly point his family to the true Messiah.
F. Joseph's humility can also be seen in his grace toward Mary, when he was unwilling to put her to shame, and resolved to divorce her quietly.
1. Joseph must have been shaken to the core when he found out Mary was pregnant.
2. And yet, we are struck by the manner in which Joseph considered divorcing Mary.
a. Joseph refused to publicly disgrace Mary, even though it appeared she had been unfaithful, which was publically humiliating to him.
b. And here we can see that what lies at the heart of this man is not timidity but grace.
3. We see here that Joseph as a righteous man was not unwilling to face the sin of another, but that he did so in the most loving and respectful way possible.
a. A righteous man respects even those who have fallen into sin.
b. He was merciful toward Mary, as God had been merciful toward him.