SEEKING A SAVIOR - A Mother Seeks a Savior
December 23, 2018
Matthew 1:16-17 (p. 675)
Introduction:
14 generations from Abraham to David, then 14 generations from Kind David to the Jews exile in Babylon…and 14 generations from the exile to the birth of Jesus.
42 generations in all recorded in Mathew’s genealogy…this amazing genealogy includes four women…Tamar, Rahab, Ruth and Mary.
It includes names you would know…like Abraham, Isaac and Jacob…David, and his son Solomon…but it also includes names you read over very quickly in your “read through the bible in a year” journey…names like Jehoshaphat and Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel…
Our text traces the line all the way to Jacob, the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary…
If you’re really one of those people who love history and love genealogies…you can go back to Genesis chapter 5… “It’s the written account of Adams line all the way to Noah” …Genesis chapter 10 called, the table of nations…is the account of Shem, Ham and Japheth, Noah’s sons (it’s a description of how the nations begin to be formed through the sons of Noah ).
And if you haven’t slipped into a genealogy “coma” yet…Genesis eleven records how “Shem’s line leads all the way to Abraham.
Biblically speaking you can trace by name from Adam to Jesus, the providential line from sin to perfection…coincidentally or possibly, “God incidentally” it's 77 generations.
For each of these generations God continually reminded them of a coming Messiah…a Savior…If you’ve been part of our reading through the Bible during this year of renewal, you’ve come across many of them.
Genesis 3:15 tells us he’ll be born of woman. Micah 5:2 tells us he’ll be born in Bethlehem. Isaiah 7:14 tells us he’ll be born of a virgin. Genesis 12:3 & 22:18 tell us he’ll come through the line of Abraham. Hosea 11:1 tells us he’ll spend a season in Egypt. Jeremiah 31:15 tells us a massacre of children will happen at the Messiah’s birthplace. Zechariah 12:10 says “Soldiers will pierce His side. Psalm 16 and 49 tell us he’ll rise from the dead…Isaiah 53:5-12 tells us he’ll be a sacrifice for sin.
When we talk about Jesus Christ we need to understand “Christ” isn’t Jesus’ last name…it’s His title…”It means promised one.” Every jewish man and woman had been taught to anticipate and look for a Messiah…God’s Word taught…“A Savior is coming…I promise.”
“He will establish His Kingdom and reign forever…” The Son of David” The Son of Abraham.” Daniel calls Him “The Son of Man.” (The title Jesus uses to describe Himself more than any other.)
Matthew is clearly saying…“The wait is over…anticipate His coming no longer.” Mary, the wife of Joseph has given birth, to our Savior…Jesus…The Promised One.”
Jesus came through
I. A PROMISED BIRTH
Matthew 1:18 says, “This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His Mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit.”
She is betrothed…promised to Joseph…It’s more than an engagement…it’s a covenant arrangement between families…Joseph’s family and Mary’s family…especially her father or the male overseer of her clan…they don’t date and fall in love…they become a family and choose to love each other…neither family is wealthy…they are blue collar, Joseph is a carpenter…a man with callouses on his hands…but not on his heart.
Breaking this covenant wasn’t like severing a relationship today, it required something more…“A certificate of divorce.” And Mary is pregnant…it’s not his child and he knows it…He could have made himself look innocent and butchered her “in the press”…their community…but we learn a lot about Joseph, even before a miraculous interposition.
MATTHEW 1:19 (p. 675)
Joseph has a righteous heart…one in right relationship with God, so instead of “public disgrace for Mary”…he chooses quiet protection.
But he will soon see how God is keeping His promises…and what part he would play…after Joseph has considered all his options…and devises a quiet plan…God’s messenger intervenes.
MATTHEW 1:20 (p. 675)
I don’t know why God chose a “dream appearance” for Joseph and a “Gabriel face to face for Mary.” These are matter of faith…maybe Mary needed the real thing for all she was going to go through!
But both Mary and Joseph knew God’s promises. Both knew Isaiah the prophet had written…Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: the Virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel.” (Isaiah 7:14)
Micah the prophet even records his birthplace…
“But you, Bethlehem, Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Jerihath, out of you will come for me one who will rule over Israel, whose origins are from old, from ancient times.” (Micah 5:2)
Joseph, son of David…don’t be afraid to take Mary as your wife…This child is conceived through the Holy Spirit…
“Don’t be afraid!” Really?!!! Hey Joseph…step up…become the earthly father of God’s son…in a world that’s going to judge both you and Mary…save this single mom from disgrace and trust God…
And he does! Joseph is my kind of man!
He also knows his heritage…it will lead him to his hometown of Bethlehem to pay taxes
LUKE 2:1-4 (p. 715)
I love the fact that 800 years before Caesar Augustus issues a tax decree for a census…God promised, God anointed, God foreknew the Messiah would be born in King David’s home town, Bethlehem…through David’s lineage in Joseph...and through a Virgin named Mary, also through the lineage of David.
Messianic prophecy is one of the Bible’s greatest validations…it’s one of the reasons Matthew takes such great care in the genealogy of Jesus.
“All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet.” (Matt 1:22) “The virgin will be with child and give birth to a son.” (v. 23)
There are somewhere around 450 messianic prophecies in the Old Testament…most believe the Septuagint (The Jewish Old Testament) was completed about 430 years before Jesus’ Birth…and these prophecies aren’t vague guesses or quatrains like Nostradamus…they are specific announcements, sometimes dual prophecies about David and a future ruler, they foretell who, when, where and how…concerning Jesus as the promised One.
The Jews are a chosen people awaiting a promised Messiah…their prophets foretell Israel’s failures…Judah’s collapse…but also, they foretell an “anointed Ruler”…”The Messiah” in Hebrew, the Christ in Greek…”the Promised One” in English.
Josh McDowell is one of my favorite authors…I got to pray at the introduction of a Banquet he spoke at a couple of years ago for Nicole’s Place A Woman’s Choice Resource Center…I told him how much his writings meant to me, especially “Evidence that Demands a Verdict.” He wrote this book with the premise He was going to disprove the resurrection, but in the process became a believer.
The Old Testament contains over 400 references to the Messiah that were fulfilled in Jesus… what chance did Jesus or any other man have of fulfilling these prophecies? The mathematical laws of probability can give us a clue.
In his book Evidence that Demands a Verdict, Josh McDowell mentions the work of the mathematician, Peter Stoner, on just eight of the 300 prophecies: “We find that the chance that any man might have lived down to the present time and fulfilled all eight prophecies is one in ten (to the seventeenth power). That would be one in 100,000,000,000,000,000.
In order to help us comprehend this staggering probability, Stoner illustrates it by supposing that we take ten (seventeenth power) silver dollars and lay them on the face of Texas. They will cover all of the state two feet deep. Now mark one of these silver dollars and stir the whole mass thoroughly, all over the state. Blindfold a man and tell him that he can travel as far as he wishes, but he must pick up one silver dollar and say that this is the right one.
What chance would the prophets have of writing these eight prophecies and having them all come true in only one man…The same as the blind man picking up one silver dollar that was marked in the two feet deep coins covering the state of Texas.
No wonder “Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.” (Luke 2:19)
But little did she know all that was in store for her little lamb…because this little lamb was destined for sacrifice…He would be…
II. A PROMISED SAVIOR
Matthew 1:21 records the angel telling Joseph in a dream… “Give Him the name Yeshua (Jesus) because He will save His people from their sins.”
v. 25 says, “Joseph took Mary home to be his wife, but he had no union with her until she gave birth to a son. And He gave Him the name JESUS.”
It’s not an accident that God chose shepherds to be the first recipients of His Son’s birth announcement…
Mary was having a little lamb…the Lamb of God who would take away all our sins…
“Today in the city of David, A Savior has been born to you…He is the Promised One…He is the Lord.” (Luke 2:11)
God gave them a sign…The angel tells the shepherds “You’ll find him lying in a manger wrapped in swaddling clothes…
The Shepherds found just this sign and they went away telling everyone the good news…
“But Mary treasured all these things her heart…”
I don’t know what it was like to watch Jesus grow up and become a man…Max Lucado has 25 questions he wants to ask Mary; here are a few of my favorites…
What was it like watching him pray? When he saw a rainbow, did he ever mention a flood?
Did you ever feel awkward teaching him how he created the world? When he saw a lamb being led to the slaughter, did he act differently? Did you ever try to count the stars with him…and succeed? Did he ever come home with a black eye? Did he have any friends by the name of Judas?
Did the thought ever occur to you that the God to whom you were praying was asleep under your own roof? Did you ever accidentally call him father? What did he and his cousin John talk about as kids? Did you ever think, that’s God eating my soup?
Joseph and Mary would have older children…Jesus had siblings...and Joseph isn’t around at the end of Jesus’ time here on earth, most believe he died…we just don’t know…
But Mary was in that stable, Mary watched him grow up…Mary witnessed his ministry, Mary stood at the cross as He died, Mary saw the empty tomb…Mary saw the church at Pentecost…Mary witnessed it all.
And none of it prevented her from worshipping Him as God. She knew better than anyone else that He was God with us…Our Savior who dies for us…and she worshipped.
“God with us…God in the Flesh.”
Do you remember that promise of God to the serpent in Genesis “He will crush your head and you will strike His heel.”
Satan certainly struck Jesus’ heel…as well as his hands, head and side…I wonder if he stood at the foot of the cross, near Mary and John, and shouted…“See…I’ve won….He’s dead!!!”
I wonder if he heard Jesus shout…“It is finished” and in rebellion raised his hand in victory, saying, “I killed your Son…It’s over!!!”
For three days Satan celebrated a victory…for 3 days he gloried in the broken body in the tomb…behind the stone…But after that Sabbath, on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb.
MATTHEW 28:2-10 (p. 698)
A promised birth fulfilled prophecy, brought to life in the flesh the promise of God, a sinless life prepared Jesus for sacrifice…A lamb without spot or blemish died in our place, paid for our sins…He saved His people, from their sins, and when that stone rolled back and Jesus took away the power of death…the greatest weapon Satan has in his arsenal…that stone rolled on top of Satan’s head and crushed it…
