The Birth Prophecy

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. Last week we talked about this passage — except for v.22-23.
C. So, this week we’re going to talk about these two verses: 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).
D. We’re going to look at each of the three parts in order:
1. 22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:
2. 23a “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
3. 23b and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).
II. “All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet”
A. Jesus’ birth fulfilled the promise made in Isaiah 7:14.
B. Every time the NT tells us that something happened to fulfill OT prophecy, it calls us to look back at the context in which the prophecy was given.
C. So let’s talk about the story behind this prophecy, a story we find in Isaiah 7 and 2Kings 15.
1. Ahaz the father of Hezekiah was wicked king of Judah during the days of Isaiah the prophet.
2. Soon after Ahaz became king, Judah was attacked from Israel and Syria from the north. Then the Philistines and the Edomites joined in too, meaning that Judah was being attacked from virtually every direction at once, by four of its neighbors.
3. The plan of the attacking kings was to kill Ahaz and his entire family and then put another man on the throne, the son of Tabeel, whoever he was.
4. The invasion was very successful from the start (2Chronicles 28:5-8). There was little Judah could do to repel all of the attacks. Soon, the survivors were huddled within the walls of Jerusalem.
5. Their situation was so bleak that Isaiah 7:2 tells us the heart of King Ahaz and his people shook as the trees of the forest shake before the wind.
6. That’s when the Lord sent the prophet Isaiah to meet Ahaz and tell him this: “Do not fear, and do not let your heart be faint.” And that this attack “will not stand; it shall not come to pass.” (Is.7:7)
7. This would have been a hard command even for a man of great faith. But Ahaz had no faith.
8. So, Isaiah urged him on: “Ask a sign of the Lord your God.” Ask anything you like (Is.7:11)
9. But in false piety, Ahaz refused, “I will not ask, and I will not put the Lord to the test.” (Is.7:12)
10. Then Isaiah said, “Then the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” That’s where this prophecy comes from.
D. This leaves us with two big questions.
1. Why does God intervene on behalf of this corrupt king who has repudiated God with his whole heart, soul, mind and strength his whole life long?
a. This is very strange. It’s not the way God usually treated wicked kings, e.g. 2Chronicles 21:16-20.
b. And it’s not even the way God treated good kings when they sinned, e.g. 2Chronicles 24:24-25.
2. What in the world does this prophecy of the virgin conception of the Immanuel to be born 700 years in the future have to do with Ahaz and the attack on Judah?
E. The answers to the two questions are the same. And the interesting thing is that the answer is right here in Matthew 1. Look at v.9, in the genealogy of Jesus: “Uzziah the father of Jotham, and Jotham the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah.”
1. This is the same Ahaz to whom Isaiah gave the virgin birth prophecy.
2. You see, if Ahaz and his family had been killed, that would have ended the line of kingly succession, and there would have been no Son of David, and no Jesus to reign as king of the Jews. No Jesus, no savior. No savior, no salvation. Amazingly, this attack on Ahaz was ultimately an attack on Jesus, and an attack on us and on our salvation.
3. The faithful in Judah had nothing they could see that gave them hope that God’s people were to be saved. It looked over. All they had was the promise.
4. And God’s deliverance of Ahaz and his family shows that God will stop at nothing to save us. Nothing will be allowed to thwart His plan for our salvation.
5. It doesn’t matter how inevitable it looks, God will not allow anyone to snatch His little sheep from His saving hand.
III. “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son”
A. Here Matthew quotes the words of Is.7:14 as being fulfilled in the birth of Jesus to the virgin Mary.
B. Sometimes God does things very differently from human expectation. But in the case of Jesus, God outdid Himself. “A virgin shall conceive and bear a son.”
C. The virgin birth of Jesus has been a cardinal doctrine of the Christian faith since the beginning.
D. “I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the HS, born of the virgin Mary.”
E. This is what is so different about Jesus: All other people have a biological father. But Jesus is the Son of God.
F. The virgin birth has also been a focal point of attack on Christianity in the last 100 years:
1. “It is absurd. It is a fairy tale. It is impossible. It is unscientific.” they say. “Isn't it time we abandoned the fairy tales of Christianity? Isn't it time we stopped pretending what we know cannot be true. It is time to leave behind these old superstitions, from a time when people didn't understand the world the way we do today, on account of modern science.”
G. But miracles were a shock back then too! They were not any different from modern man in this. They knew that virgins don't get pregnant.
1. Some might say, "If this is true, then why did they believe in miracles back then? Why did they come to believe that Jesus was doing miracles all over the place?"
2. We are against superstition as much as any scientist. But we don’t believe that the people of Christ’s day believed in His miracles because of superstition.
3. They believed in His miracles because they saw them happen.
4. They were no less surprised to see Jesus walk on water than a modern person would be.
5. They were no less surprised to see Jesus rebuke the storm away than modern man would be.
6. Read the gospels! The people were shocked! They were flabbergasted! "What kind of man is this?" (Matt.8:27) They did not just take the miracles of Jesus in stride. Their jaws dropped right on the floor just like modern man's would if he witnessed these things.
H. Without any evidence whatsoever, the modern scientist presumes that what we see is all there is.
1. But if there is an invisible and omnipotent God who sometimes inserts Himself into our world in a visible way, then those presumptions are not only wrong, not only arrogant, but they are deadly.
I. And God’s greatest insertion of Himself into our human realm was when He sent His Son Jesus, conceived by the HS, born of a virgin. “A virgin shall conceive and bear a son.”
J. It may sound outlandish. But Christians don’t believe this because we want it to be true. To be honest, it’s a difficult position to understand and explain.
1. But we are driven by the evidence. The fact is there’s nothing else Jesus could be than the Son of God come as a man. We come to this conclusion because the historical record drives us to it.
2. Listen to these words of John MacArthur: “No other fact in the Christmas story is more important than the virgin birth. The virgin birth must have happened exactly the way Scripture says. Otherwise, Christmas has no point at all. If Jesus is simply the illegitimate child of Mary’s infidelity, or even if He is the child of Joseph’s natural union with Mary, He is not God. If He is not God, His claims are lies. If His claims are lies, His salvation is a hoax. And if His salvation is a hoax, we are all doomed.”
K. Really, you see, the world doesn’t want the virgin birth to be true. Then they would be forced to acknowledge that Jesus is not just another man, but a man above all others, a man from God, and we would be obligated to listen to Him and to do what He says.
L. One of the main questions Jesus asked was, “Who do you say that I am?” Everyone must answer.
1. Only one answer is true. Only one answer is life. Only one answer is freedom.
2. “God of God, light of light, lo He abhors not the virgin’s womb, Very God of very God, begotten not created.” (John Francis Wade)
M. But on the other hand, God has made it very easy to not believe in Him. “The gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many.” – Matthew 7:13
IV. “ ‘and they shall call his name Immanuel’ (which means, God with us).”
A. Immanuel is not a Hebrew name – it is only found in Isaiah 7:14 & 8:8, and quoted in Matt.1:23.
1. This name comes from two Hebrew words: IMMANU (with us), and EL (God), a shortened version of ELOHIM.
a. But notice that Matthew doesn’t leave it in the Hebrew, he translates it for us: God with us.
2. Why did Matthew translate it for us? Because this Immanuel is not just for the Jews. This Immanuel is for all of us! He’s for everyone.
3. Jesus is Immanuel, God with us. Some people question the claim that the NT teaches us that Jesus is God. But here it is in the very first chapter of the NT. He is God with us.
4. “Veiled in flesh, the Godhead see; Hail, the incarnate Deity: Pleased, as man, with men to dwell, Jesus, our Emmanuel!” (Charles Wesley)
B. Now it is not a new idea that God is with His people. What is new and radical here is that there is a man who is ‘God with us.’
1. “In Him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily.” Colossians 2:9
2. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God... 14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” John 1:1&14
C. At first, it was a dangerous thing for Jesus to come as God with us. It subjected Him to all our human brokenness and pain and sorrow and temptation. For 33 years He experienced the trauma of being with us in our humanity. He hungered, He wept, He hurt, He bled. But oh! what good He accomplished for us in that short life.
1. “He had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.” Heb2:17
D. And Immanuel is still with us.“Behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” – Matt.28:20
1. This is the source of all meaning and hope, it is the thing that keeps us going through all the struggles and bewilderments of everyday life: that the personal Architect of the universe and its history has come to be with us in the person of Jesus Christ.
2. All humans long for love, acceptance, companionship, but all human relationships are lacking.
a. Christ is our Advocate, our Comforter, our Friend, our Bridegroom. He will never leave us or forsake us (Deut.31:6). In Him we find security, home, belonging. He welcomes with open arms.
3. In trial, He is with us. In temptation He is with us. In times of pain, He is with us.
E. This is the biggest difference between a true Christian and a non-Christian.
1. “There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of every person which cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God.” – Blaise Pascal
2. For the true Christian, that vacuum has been filled. For non-believers it hasn’t.
3. Jesus is with His people: with them and in them and for them — forever!
F. We have a treasure no one else has! We have the best thing – and it cannot be taken away from us.
1. We live in a world of blind people, and we are able to see!
2. We live in a world of despair, and we are full of joy and hope.
3. We live in a world of vast emptiness, and we are full.
4. We live in the midst of a restless, homeless humanity, and we have a true Home.
5. We live in a world of strife and resentment, and our cup is running over with true love.
6. We live in a world of insecurity and uncertainty, and we stand on a foundation as strong as the promises of God.
7. It is not arrogant to say these things, it is simply saying what God says in His word.
8. We can live without the things the world desperately clamors after because we have “Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring” (Bach).
9. You know why Jesus says, “I came to give abundant life” in John 10:10? Because He is abundant life, because a life which has Him in it is an abundant life.
10. You know why God says, “At My right hand are pleasures forevermore” in Psalm 16:11? Because He is our pleasure forevermore.
11. You know why Jesus says “Buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich.” in Rev.3:18? Because He is our riches.
12. The essence of sin is to forget He is our great treasure.
G. In the birth of Jesus to Mary, the great prophecy of Isaiah, which he delivered to that wicked king Ahaz, was fulfilled: “ ‘Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel’ (which means, God with us).’ ”