The Divine Advent(ure)
All You Could Want for Christmas
Matthew 1:16; 18-25
After many failed attempts in November and December of 1803, Orville and Wilbur Wright finally got their flying machine off the ground. The airplane was born. In their excitement, they sent a quick telegraph to their sister, Katherine. It said simply, "Flew 120 feet. Will be home for Christmas."
When Katherine got the news, she ran to the local newspaper and showed the telegraph to the editor.
He glanced at it and said, "How nice, the boys will be home for Christmas." Of course, he completely missed the point, and the scoop of the century, as any newspaperman should know. The Age of Flight had been inaugurated, and by two home-town boys.
Yes, it was nice that the boys would be home for Christmas, but man had flown an airplane for the first time. That was the big news.
And by the same token, how often do we miss the big news at Christmas time? All too often we get caught up in the lights, the tinsel, the Christmas trees, the gifts, and family. Those things are nice and they're fun. Just like it would be nice that the Wright brothers would be home for Christmas.
But that's not the big news. The big news is that an ultimate gift has been given—it is eternal life, through the gift of Jesus Christ our Lord.
Now this morning if you're here, and you have a ho-hum attitude toward the spiritual significance of Christmas—and if you have such a ho-hum attitude, you know who you are—I want you to know that this message is especially for you. Don't get distracted, don't miss the incredible sign that Christmas represents—that God came as a man to save you from your sins.
And this morning as we continue in our series, the Divine Advent(ure)—viewing the events surrounding the incarnation chronologically, we come to the next event of the advent. We've seen how God revealed and confirmed to Mary that she was about to have an incredible child who would come about as a result of an incredible conception. Now, it's Joseph's turn to get the news, Joseph, the step-day, so to speak, of Jesus, the only begotten Son of God.
These events are found in Matthew 1:18-25 as we have read. But before we go there, it's important this morning to give attention to the context of the story. The Apostle Matthew, a Jew, has written a Gospel especially designed for Jewish people, Jewish people who understood from the Old Testament that families and genealogies would play a critical role in determining precisely who the coming Messiah, the Savior, Deliverer and Great King of the Jews whom they had long been waiting for, would be.
And so Matthew gives special attention to the genealogy of Jesus—who Jesus descended from—because it had been specifically predicted, among other things, that the Messiah and Deliverer of the Jews would descend from very specific family lines in Israel. If a Jew wanted to identify, or discount, that someone could possibly be the Messiah, he had only to look at prophecies which identified which family he would come from, and then check out a prospective Messiah and see if he came from that family. That's why the genealogy of Jesus Christ begins in Matthew 1:1 in this way—"The record of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham." The Jews understood from Genesis 12:3 that the Messiah would come from their race—that He would be a Son of Abraham. They also knew from II Samuel 7 and II Chronicles 17 that He would be a descendant of the great king David. In fact, a common name for the Messiah in Jesus' time was "Son of David." And so we have this genealogy as proof from Matthew, a Jew, that Jesus qualified as Messiah, because both Abraham and David were among his ancestors.
When we come to verse 16 of the Genealogy, we find a very extraordinary phenomenon. If you've ever tried reading genealogies in the King James Version, you know how they go. Abraham begat Isaac, and Isaac began Jacob, and Jacob begat, well 12 sons. In our more modern translation, the NASB as we read the genealogy it goes like this, throughout, though we'll pick it up in verse 15: Eliud was the father of Eleazar, Eleazar the father of Matthan and Matthan the father of Jacob. Jacob was the father of Joseph, and then where we would expect to find that Joseph was the father of Jesus, instead we find this unique description: Jacob was the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, by whom Jesus was born, who is called Messiah."
Now what you need to realize here is that something very extraordinary has happened here both in terms of genealogies and human history. For the very first time in all Biblical genealogies, absolutely no human father is attributed to Jesus. A man was begotten without a human father. Yes, he had a human mother. But never in Biblical genealogies, and never in human history anywhere or anytime apart from Adam and Eve was there ever a man begotten who did not have a human father.
Now as we'll come to see, this is intended as a sign that something incredibly extraordinary had happened, and someone incredibly extraordinary had been born. A sign, by the way, is a miracle which confirms faith. It has a message for us. And as you know from being a driver, or a human being, when we come across signs even created by other human beings, they are not intended to be missed. They are significant. Somebody's trying to communicate something important to us, a critically important message. And that's exactly what has gone on in this genealogy and in human history. The person sending the message is God. And He is saying this. Don't miss this sign—an incredible event has occurred—a man has been born of a virgin. Why? Because she has conceived by the Holy Spirit, and this man is not the son of any human being, He is the Son of God, the only begotten Son of God, God in the Flesh.
The extraordinary, incredible event that Christmas commemorates should not cause your eyes to glaze over. It is simply an awesome, incredible thought, in fact, a reality, God has visited us as one of us—God became a man. And He did so through a virgin as a sign we would not miss.
So don't miss this this morning. Don't be stupid, like that Dayton, Ohio newspaper editor who missed the scoop of the century. This is the scoop of history, the scoop of all time, Almighty God, the Awesome Creator, the one who determines our destiny, has visited this planet and revealed Himself as a man—the man Christ Jesus of Nazareth.
Now think for a moment. What happens when you miss a sign? When you're driving and you miss a sign? Well, it depends on the sign, what it says. Sometimes you just miss a turn, and you loss some time, but you eventually get back to where you're going. But if it's a critical sign—like Bridge out, or War Zone, or road missing, it could be fatal. It could result in great loss—a loss of life.
Well, spiritually speaking, this is one sign you don't want to miss. God showed up. He showed up for you with a gift that is a matter of life and death. And if you yawn your way through it, you may just miss life, and life eternal. That's how important this sign is for you.
Well, then we get into the story of Joseph. He's just an ordinary Jewish carpenter in Nazareth of Galilee, except that he also happens to have this extraordinary genealogy. He also is a descendant of Abraham and a descendant of David. Not an accident, by the way. And he has become betrothed to a virgin by the name of Mary. But as verse 18 tells us, before they came together she was found to be pregnant. Now, this was no small issue in ancient Israel, especially among those who sought to please God. It was an incredibly conservative culture, and "adultery" as it would be considered, since betrothals were binding, by the Law of the Jews, could be cause for stoning—in other words, the ultimately legal penalty, execution. Because the Romans were in control, this was unlikely, but it was a very shameful situation for Mary, and for Joseph. And can you imagine how incredibly disappointing for this godly young man who thought he had found a godly young woman whom he loved to be his wife. But she had been unfaithful, apparently, at this most critical time of betrothal, in a most disgusting and disillusioning way. But Joseph being a righteous man, considered the situation, and mercifully attempted to make the situation as easy on Mary as he could, verse 19, "not wanting to disgrace her planned to send her away secretly." Yes, he was planning to divorce her. What an incredibly tragic end to a seemingly hopeful wedded bliss.
Now where we left the story the last time was with this supernatural conception having been revealed to Mary. As we noted last week, who in the world was going to believe Mary that she was pregnant out of wedlock by none other than God Himself. She certainly didn't expect anyone was going to believe her, not even Joseph. So she didn't tell Joseph, and eventually Joseph found out. Now it's clear that Mary had to trust God that He was going to work things out, and this is where God intervened to do just that.
But I'm sure that for a few moments, even for a few days, life didn't make sense at all to Joseph. The text doesn't reveal this, but I don't think it's too great a speculation to suppose that the news that Mary was pregnant was just a little disillusioning to him, in fact, it was likely absolutely devastating. As nearly any of us knows, this man had found the woman of his dreams, a godly young virgin by the name of Mary and the absolute most unanticipated, unthinkable, horrible thing had happened. This godly young woman had become pregnant by someone else at absolutely the most inconvenient and inopportune time in both his and her life—just as they were about to make a life together, after they had committed before God to keep themselves just for each other, she had gone off and violated this most sacred of covenants—she had apparently exchanged a lifetime of love and security for a few moments of pleasure in the arms of in another man.
Suddenly, I'm sure, not much made sense in this life to Joseph. He had done everything right, and yet everything in his life had gone terribly wrong. And as he's attempting to make sense out of this bewildering nonsense that had become his wife, as he is still trying to do what is just and right and decides to quietly divorce Mary, so as not to bring any further disgrace upon her, guess what. He Himself gets a sign from God.
Now what I want you to know is God is in the business of giving us signs, especially when life seems to make no sense to us. And life often doesn't not make sense, especially when it's lived apart from God. And I want you to know that life doesn’t make sense for anyone, no matter how much they have, or how much they have done, apart from God. That's why the great king Solomon, the man who had it all and did it all like no one else in history, could say at the end of life—All is meaningless and striving after wind—at least when we leave God out of life.
And sometimes it's hard enough when you include Him, as even Joseph is discovering here. That's why God gives him a sign at this point. Joseph's not sure what to do in this unexpected circumstance. He makes a plan, but it's just as he's about to make the mistake of a lifetime that God gives him a sign that makes sense out of all the nonsense he is seemingly experiencing. God shows up in a dream—actually, again through the agency of an angel. And in this sign the angel explains what's really happened here—and, of course, it would take an angel to persuade Joseph of what had really happened. Mary had not been unfaithful, of course, but the child that was in her womb had been conceived by the Holy Spirit. And as a matter of confirmation, the angel notes in his declaration concerning this, in verse 20, the Joseph, is a son, that is a descendant of David, therefore he is in the family line which was to produce the Messiah Himself, and as it turned out, though he would not be the birth father of the Messiah, He would be the legal father of the Messiah.
Now what I would like for you to see here is that God is always in the business of giving us signs. He doesn't leave us without direction. He doesn't want us to fumble away our lives in an endless sea of perplexities. He is willing to make sense out of nonsense if we are willing to see and heed the signs he gives us.
And so maybe this morning you've come and you've realized what Solomon and a whole lot of other people have realized. Your life, life in general, just does not make sense, at least without God. Maybe you're said to yourselves, what's it all about? Or what's the use? So what? If this is all there is, then all there isn't enough. This, in and of itself, is a sign from God. God subjected the world and life to futility for a purpose—so that each of us would come to an end of ourselves, and each of us would recognize that when we leave God out of life, it not only becomes meaningless, but becomes an absolutely disillusioning exercise in futility.
So don't miss this sign from God. Repeatedly he brings us to dead-end in our life for a reason. That we would know only God can make sense out of the nonsense of life—that only He can give eternal meaning to the life He has given us, and only when we include Him in our lives.
So sign #1, a Virgin Birth. The baby that's born is going to be special. Don't miss Him, He'll be the Messiah. Sign #2: Life's not going to make sense without Him. Life is going to be futile unless God Himself is included, unless Jesus is central to your life. And Sign #3 is now about to be announced by the angel—this baby will be named Jesus, because He saves.
Verse 21: The angel goes on. "She will bear a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins."
Sign #3 this morning is how God saves—that God Himself saves. That He saves through Jesus.
Now as the angel directs Joseph regarding what this child shall be named, the name itself is a sign. Don't miss this. Jesus' name itself is a sign to Joseph, but to the rest of mankind and to us, and specifically to you this morning. It tells us how God saves mankind.
Now the angel probably spoke to Joseph in his native, Hebrew language. The name in Hebrew is literally Yeshua, which literally means "The Lord saves." In Greek, which is what Matthew is written in, we found Iesous, which when it's translated, is the word Jesus. But the meaning is the same. The Lord, or God, is the one who saves. And so as the angel makes this revelation to Joseph, He tells us an incredibly important truth: "You shall call his name Jesus (meaning the Lord saves or delivers, for or because He (God in the flesh) will save His people from their sins."
Now God means this with all the force and fullness we can imagine. God's people, even the Jews, can't save themselves from their sins. They cannot be good enough for God. They're all sinners. They may try to keep the law, but if they stumble in one point, they are guilty of all.
Gentiles can't save themselves either. We're all sinners, and the wages of sin is death.
What the angel is saying here is no one can save himself by His good works, there's no one good enough for God. He is also saying that no one else can save, no church can save, no human institution can save, no other angel or human being can save. Only God, in Jesus Christ, can save. And only God in Jesus can save, because only infinite God in the person of a perfect human being can possible hope to pay the just penalty for the sins of all mankind—which Jesus alone did on the cross. Jesus affirmed this when He said, "I am the way the truth and the life, on one comes to the Father but through Me" (John 14:6). Only Jesus, God in the flesh, can save you from your sins. The wages of sin is death—another sign that things aren't okay with us, because we're all going to die physically, and ultimately spiritually—we are all going to pay for our sins before a just God in hell forever, unless God saves us, and He has offered to, once and for all, through Jesus, the Christ, the Messiah, the deliverer, who died on the cross instead of us, taking Hell for us so we wouldn't have to take hell for eternity when He died on the cross.
Don't miss sign #3—because it, Jesus, saves.
Spiritually speaking you're in a war zone, and you're speeding toward death, the valley of death. The bridge is out. There are signs telling you the bridge is out, because you know you're going to die. But here's the sign you can't miss on the way—Jesus saves. It's a matter of life and death. You can't save yourself, only Jesus can save. Don't get distracted by all the temporary stuff—the eternal sign set out for you and all else to see is this: Jesus, the God-man, born of a virgin—He saves. You've got to come to Him, trust Him, to be saved, or you're dead.
Sign #4 comes in the next verse. Matthew adds this under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Sign #4: This is exactly what God's Word predicted. This is a fulfillment of prophecy. The Bible is a supernatural book and 700 years before this took place, this is precisely what was predicted in the Bible. Sign #4: Don't miss this sign: God' predicted a virgin born Messiah would be the God who saves. God predicted a virgin-born Messiah would be the God who saves.
Verse 22, Matthew writes: "Now all this was took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, "Behold—look—the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a son, and they shall call His name Immanuel, which translated means "God with us."
Now this is really an incredible sign! A sign which confirms the Bible is an absolutely supernatural book that only God could author, and that Jesus is truly who it says He is.
More than seven hundred years earlier, the prophet Isaiah was addressing the wicked king of Judah, Ahaz, advising him to ask God for a sign, a miracle which would confirm God's promise to save him and Judah from the plots of foreign kings. Ahaz was so wicked he didn't want to hear from God, so he refuse to ask for a sign. Well, God decided to give Him and the whole house of David a sign anyway—this time a sign that God would not abandon His promise to David or Israel, that He would save them, because the Messiah would be born of the House of David, and that sign was this: "Behold, a virgin shall be with child and shall bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel, which translated means "God with us.'
Another incredible sign. Don't miss this one. When there's a virgin birth, know it signals a divine birth. The son who will be born will be God in the flesh, God with us, Jesus, the God who saves.
Did you catch that? You don't want to miss this sign, ever! Have you ever wondered what life was all about? Have you ever wondered whether there's a God? Have you ever wondered who He is and what He's like? Then catch this sign. God has supernaturally, prophetically now proven beyond all doubt who He is, what He's like, and how we can be saved from a sinful and meaningless existence—through God-man who saves, who delivers, Jesus, born of a virgin, God with us. Don't miss this sign, because you're eternal destiny depends on it. God gave His only begotten that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. Believe, repent, turn from your futile and meaningless ways, and you can have eternal life and eternal love.
Well, Joseph didn't miss the import of these signs for himself or for Mary. Verses 24 and 25 tells us that when He woke up, he had a completely new understanding, and completely new direction in life. No, he would not divorce marry. This pregnancy was not the result of sin, but of God. It was the Messiah and the Savior. It would be Jesus who would save His people and the world from their sins if only they would believe. And so we're told in verse 24 when Joseph awoke from His sleep He did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took Mary as his wife—I take it immediately—"but kept her a virgin until shave gave birth to a Son, and he called His name Jesus."
And this the final sign this morning, if you will. A sign of how we all ought to respond to all the other signs give to each and every one of us here this morning at this Christmas time, and for the rest of our lives. We may have struggled to make sense of our lives as well, and to make sense of a world full of sin and disillusionment and disappointment and meaninglessness. But God has given us plenty of signs about what the truth is, and what matters in life, and who He is and what He has done for us and what He is like. He has given us a man born without a human father, for the only time in all of history, because He was born of God, and is therefore God. He is announced Him by angels and by John the Baptist. He has predicted His coming in His Word for hundreds and thousands of years. He has told us He would be God in the flesh. And He has said about Him that He is Jesus, He even named Him Jesus, indicating that this man, this God-man is the one who alone saves and delivers. And at the conclusion of the greatest most supernatural life ever lived, a one in which even his enemies could not accuse Him of sin, He was crucified on a cross and said, Father forgive them for they know not what they do, and then He became the first man in all of history to predict His own resurrection and achieve it, thus telling that what Joseph did is what we all ought to do. Believe the signs, and turn from our own ways, and trust Jesus. Repent from our ways, and follow Jesus. Repent and believe, because this gift of God, Jesus, is the only one who saves us from our sin and the futility of our lives.
My question for you this morning is this: Will you see the signs God has given you. Will you heed them? If you will, don't merely give intellectual agreement to these facts. But turn your life around, turn from your own sins, trust in Jesus, and follow Him as your Savior and Lord. And you will receive His gift of Christmas, eternal life.
Let's pray.
