Matthew 1:18-25 | “God Wants to Live with You”

Sunday morning sermon audio from Preston Highlands Baptist Church.

Jesus’ Birth Was Supernatural

The birth narrative of Jesus teaches us that God went to great lengths to know you, to redeem your broken life, to forgive your sins and bring you back to himself.  I’m going to read a portion of the Christmas story from Matthew 1:18-25. 

The main point of this passage is that Jesus’ birth was supernatural.  This isn’t an obscure point in the text.  Matthew says it over and over in order to make sure we get it.  Verse 18, “Before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.”  Verse 20, “That which is conceived in (Mary) is from the Holy Spirit.”  Verse 23, “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel.”  Verses 24-25, Joseph “took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son.”

Mary and Joseph hadn’t had sexual relations before Mary found out she was pregnant.  The text says in verse 18 that they were “betrothed”, or engaged, to be married.  For first-century Jews, betrothal was a legally binding pledge between a man and woman that they would be married.  Once you were betrothed, you were legally bound to one another, so to call it off would be equivalent to divorce.  The engagement would last about a year.  At the end of the year, the woman would move into the man’s home and the marriage would be consummated.  So when Matthew says that Mary was “with child…before they came together,” he’s saying that Mary found out she was pregnant during the year they lived apart, before they moved in together.

Mary and Joseph’s Response

Put yourself into this young couple’s shoes.  Mary had never had a physical relationship with a man when she finds out she’s pregnant.  Imagine her confusion and emotions and worry about what Joseph would do when he found out.  Think about Joseph.  He’s found the girl he wants to spend the rest of his life with, but before he’s able to bring her into his home and consummate the marriage, he finds out that she’s pregnant.  The only explanation in his mind is that she’s betrayed him and been with another man.

How this young couple responded to this situation tells us a great deal about their character.  Matthew says in verse 19 that Joseph, “being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly.”  He had a couple options at this point.  He could go public with the news and shame Mary, or he could quietly divorce her.  Out of righteous compassion, he chose the latter. 

It’s at this point that an angel of the Lord appears to him in a dream and tells him to take Mary as his wife because the child in her is from the Holy Spirit (v. 20).  Joseph obeys God without questioning or laying down conditions (vv. 24-25). 

Matthew doesn’t record Mary’s response, but Luke does (Lk. 1:26-38).  Mary responded to the announcement of the angel that she was pregnant with humility and faith.  Her posture was one of obedience to the word of the Lord. 

What We Learn from Their Response

Joseph and Mary were confronted with circumstances beyond their control.  They were undoubtedly confused, frustrated, and scared.  They were feeling many of the things we’ve all felt this year.  In the confusion of this year, many of us have struggled with doubts and despair to degrees not experienced before.  We’ve been left wondering where God is in all this. 

Have you ever considered that God is in the middle of all the hard things because he loves us?  What if this flood of events around us and flood of emotions in us is God’s way of gently drawing us back to himself?  What if things have been so hard because we’ve forgotten that Jesus’ yoke is easy?  What if God’s design for the upheaval of this year is to show us our need for him?

Years like this make us wonder, “What kind of world do we live in?”  Is it one where random chance reigns and chaos gets the last word?  Or is it one created by a good God with good plans that’s been broken by sin? 

Years like 2020 compel us to consider what we really believe.  Does chance or Christ reign over human history?  The late James Montgomery Boice, pastor at Tenth Avenue Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, said, “Jesus Christ is the God of detailed circumstance.  Nothing has ever happened that did not flow in the channel God dug for it.”  Do you believe that?  How you respond to confusion and trial reveals how you think the world is governed.

The Most Beautiful Miracle in the Bible

So where is God in the middle of our troubles and trials?  In verse 23, Matthew quotes Isaiah 7:14, “The virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel (which means, God with us).”  This text tells us that God is right in the middle of them with us.  God became like one of us to be with us wherever we find ourselves. 

In Jesus, God became fully man while remaining fully God.  This is the most extraordinary and beautiful miracle in the whole Bible.  The truthfulness of Christianity hinges on this miracle.  If this miracle is true, then everything else in the Gospel accounts make total sense.  It’s not strange to see Jesus walking on the water if he’s the One who created the water.  It’s not strange to see Jesus feeding over 5,000 people with five loaves and two fish if he’s the One who made their stomachs.  It’s not strange to see Jesus heal the sick and command demons to leave and rise from the grave if Jesus is God.

Jesus’ identity as fully God and fully man, the doctrine of the incarnation, is the fundamental point where Muslims, Jews, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and others disagree with Christianity.  This doctrine certainly contains mystery – we’ll never be able to explain it scientifically.  But we have to decide if we prefer a world left to itself or a world where the God who made it comes into it to make it right again. 

In the incarnation of Jesus, God himself comes to be with his people.  At Jesus’ coming, the kingdom of God began to be ushered in.  His coming signaled that God was going to set up his perfect kingdom of peace and righteousness on earth, that he would wipe away every tear, that he would finally and fully defeat every evil.

The Problem

But there’s a huge problem.  We’re not qualified to be citizens of this kingdom.  Because we’ve disobeyed the King, we deserve to be cast out of his kingdom, not welcomed in.  We’re born with a sin nature and we’ve willfully chosen to do things contrary to the King’s will.   

Some people think they’ll be a part of God’s kingdom because they’ve tried hard to follow Jesus’ example, to live like him, to do good, to work hard, to serve others.  But no one enters the kingdom of heaven because of their excellent moral resume.    

Jesus Came to Bring Us Back to God

Matthew makes it clear that those who come into Jesus’ kingdom have to be “saved” into his kingdom (v. 21).  Jesus came to bring us back to God by taking our sins away.  Jesus secured the kingdom for his people by dying on the cross for their sins.    

In Jesus, God has done the truly unthinkable.  Instead of waiting on us to clean up our lives and make our way back to him, he came to us.  He made the first move.  He became a man and died for our sins. 

None of us deserve to be citizens of his kingdom, but if we come on bended knee to the crucified King, if we come with repentance and faith, admitting that we’re disqualified from his kingdom and can’t save ourselves, and ask him to save us, he will.

God went to great lengths to know you, to redeem your broken life, to forgive your sins and bring you back to himself.  God knows about you, your life, your pain and your past, your sin and your shame, your guilt and your grief.  And yet he still wants to know you.  Christmas tells us that God wants to live with you.  And he wants you to live with him.  Will you have him?