Son of David and Son of God
Matthew 1:20-23
Rev. Brian Bill
December 24, 2024
How are you doing hanging on to Christ this Christmas? It’s so easy to get caught up in what our world says Christmas is all about that we forget what the Word says. Jesus was born in Bethlehem and grew up to pay for the sins of the world when he died on the cross for our sins. Or, to say it another way: Joseph and Mary went to Bethlehem to pay their taxes. They left with a child who would pay their debt!
We’re going to concentrate on the awe of the incarnation, on the wonder of what took place in Mary’s womb when the Sovereign Savior became final sacrifice for our sins. As we consider how the Maker of mankind became man without ceasing to be God, how can we not but rejoice?
We’re concluding our Christmas Contrasts series by focusing on Jesus as the Son of David, the son of Mary, and the Son of God who came to save people from their sins. The ultimate contrast of Christmas is how a holy God sent His sinless Son to take on human flesh to rescue us from our unholiness. Matt Smethurst says it well, “In order to be human, Jesus had to be born from a human mother, and to be God He had to be conceived not by a human father, but by the Holy Spirit.”
Here’s the sermon in a sentence: Since King Jesus came to die in your place, make sure to give Him first place in your life.
Scripture Survey
Wasn’t it great hearing a family (Mowers, Delp, and Freymann) read the Christmas narrative today? Let’s rewind and listen again to Matthew 1:20-21 because I want us to see how Jesus is the Son of David, the Son of God, and the son of Mary: “But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, ‘Joseph, son of David, [Son of David] do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit [Son of God]. She will bear a son, [son of Mary] and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.’”
Most of us are familiar with Jesus being the human son of Mary and the divine Son of God, but we probably haven’t given much attention to Jesus as the Son of David.
To unpack this further, we need to go back to an Old Testament prophecy given to King David approximately 1,000 years before Jesus was born. Listen to 2 Samuel 7:12-16: “When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever…And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.” Notice the word “forever” is used three times. Even though David would eventually die, he’s told his throne would be firm and fixed forever.
Three hundred years later, after David is long gone, Isaiah 9:7 picks up on this promise: “On the throne of David and over his kingdom…from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.” Amos 9:11 adds, “In that day I will raise up the booth of David that is fallen.”
Jesus is more than just a baby born in Bethlehem. He’s the King in the cradle. He is the Son of David, the son of Mary, and the Son of God. For those familiar with the Old Testament, they would have known that a future king was coming to rule on David’s throne and His kingdom would never end.
There are seventeen verses in the New Testament which describe Jesus as the “Son of David.” Let’s walk through just a few of them.
Listen afresh to the message Mary received from the angel about the child she was bearing according to Luke 1:32-33: “He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to Him the throne of his father David, and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.” I see three implications from this passage.
• Jesus has two natures – He is truly human and truly divine.
• Jesus is Israel’s promised Messiah who will inherit the throne of David.
• Jesus will rule over a kingdom that will never end.
Luke 2:11 tells us it was no accident that King Jesus was born in Bethlehem, the city of David, because He is the Son of David, the son of Mary, and the Son of God: “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” He is Savior, Christ, and Lord.
Incidentally, this also fulfills a 700-year-old prophecy from Micah 5:2 which states the coming ruler would be born in Bethlehem: “But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.”
In Matthew 9:27, two blind men cry out for Jesus to heal them: “Have mercy on us, Son of David.” A few verses later, they respond in faith by recognizing that the Son of David is also the Son of God: “Yes, Lord.”
After Jesus delivered a demon-possessed man, Matthew 12:23 reports the crowds were amazed and asked, “Can this be the Son of David?” In Matthew 15:22, a Canaanite woman pleads with Jesus to heal her daughter: “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David…”
When Jesus entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, the crowds shouted in Matthew 21:9, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” In Matthew 22:42, Jesus asked the Pharisees a question, “‘What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is He?’ They said to him, ‘The son of David.’”
Romans 1:3-4 bring the titles of Son of David, son of Mary, and Son of God together: “Concerning His Son, who was descended from David [Son of David] according to the flesh [son of Mary] and was declared to be the Son of God [Son of God] in power according to the Spirit of holiness by His resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord.” The Son of God becoming flesh is the essence and essential truth of Christianity.
And in the last chapter of the Bible, in Revelation 2:16, Jesus declares, “…I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.” Don’t miss this. Jesus is both the creator and the successor of David. Jesus’ human lineage made Him David’s descendant and his divine nature meant He was greater than David.
Sinclair Ferguson calls us to avoid seasonal sentimentality and to go deep into the meaning of Christmas: “If your intellect has never been staggered by the reality of the incarnation, you don’t know what the incarnation means. It doesn’t mean Jesus was [just] a little baby. It means the eternal, infinite, divine One, worshiped by Cherubim and Seraphim, the Creator of all things, the sustainer of all things, infinite in His being, wisdom, power, majesty, and glory – who in a word could dissolve the world that had sinned against Him – was willing to come into this world and assume our flesh in order to become our Savior.”
Are you aware that there are over 300 prophecies in the Old Testament about Jesus? The probability of Jesus fulfilling just eight of them is similar to the odds of finding a red quarter in a pile of quarters that covers the state of Texas two feet deep. The probability of Jesus fulfilling 48 prophecies is equivalent to winning 22 lotteries in a row. The probability of Jesus fulfilling all these prophecies is impossible to calculate. The intricate details of these prophecies point to a divine plan and purpose.
Since King Jesus came to die in your place, make sure to give Him first place in your life.
Few authors have probed the paradoxes of Christmas more deeply than G.K. Chesterton when he wrote: “Glory to God in the lowest…Bethlehem is emphatically a place where extremes meet…where the Infinite becomes an infant. It is the birthplace of a child, at once divine and human, at once all-powerful and powerless.” He is eternal and yet born of a woman. He upholds the universe and yet was carried in his mother’s arms.
If you were my neighbor putting up Christmas lights, here’s how I would explain Christmas. Jesus became what He had never been before without losing what He had always been. He is the Son of David, the son of Mary, and the Son of God.
By means of the virgin birth, Jesus entered the world guiltless of the sin of Adam. Since He was born of Mary, He is truly human; because He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, He is free from inherited sin handed down from Adam. Jesus is both ordinary and as Immanuel, He is extraordinary. He is Son and Savior, holy and human, fully God and fully man. Because He is God with us and God for us, He forbears and He forgives.
Immanuel took on human flesh, lived the perfect life and then died as sacrifice for our sins. His substitutionary death demonstrated the Father’s love and satisfied His justice, saving us from the wrath of God, and resulting in the salvation of all who repent and receive Him by faith. And, this wonderful gift is available free of charge!
God isn’t a detached, distant, or disinterested deity. He sent His Son who entered our world of sin, suffering, evil, and pain. He took the worst of it for me and for you. He came to our world as Son of David, Son of Mary, and Son of God, died as our substitute, was raised to life as victor, ascended to Heaven as the conquering King and is coming again in glorious triumph as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords!
Ponder this thought: The INNOCENT was punished as if guilty, that the guilty might be rewarded as if INNOCENT. Even more, He took our rottenness and in exchange, gave us His righteousness.
• Jesus came to take your pain.
• Jesus came to take your punishment.
• Jesus came to take your place.
• Jesus came to take your pride.
Apart from Christ, we would never fully know the depths to which we are loved or the lengths to which God went to save us from our sins. At the heart of the incarnation is an invitation to surrender to Jesus as King and submit to His loving authority.
Since King Jesus came to die in your place, make sure to give Him first place in your life.
At the cradle we see that God is with us as the son of Mary, at the cross we see that He is for us as the Son of God, and when He returns, He’ll come to get us as the victorious Son of David.
The Savior came to this world, and sadly, He was turned away. John 1:10-11: “He was in the world, and though the world was made through Him, the world did not recognize Him. He came to that which was His own, but His own did not receive Him.”
The world did not receive Him because they did not recognize Him. And they did not recognize Him because they were unwilling to relinquish control of their lives to King Jesus and admit their sinfulness.
I began my morning today by reading the first two chapters of Matthew and the first two chapters of Luke. I was struck by the responses people had to Jesus.
• The preborn John leapt in his mother Elizabeth’s womb as he came near Jesus when He was in Mary’s womb, showing that Jesus became an embryo to save embryos.
• Joseph obeyed.
• The shepherds worshiped and witnessed.
• The people wondered.
• Mary submitted and surrendered.
• Simeon took Jesus in his arms.
• Joseph and Mary marveled.
• Anna gave thanks and spread the word.
• Herod was angry.
• The Scribes were apathetic.
• The wise men adored.
While not part of the Christmas narrative, I was struck by the response of Nathanael in John 1:49: “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!”
What about you? What’s keeping you from fully receiving Christ as your King right now? Don’t wait to clean up your life because you’ll never be clean enough. It’s been said, “Salvation is not something we achieve but something we receive.”
Let’s go back to the video which showed the two neighbors talking about the nativity. The guy on the ladder said, “Jesus is the Messiah who grew up to pay for the sins of the world.” You can see Clark Griswold beginning to understand the gravity of his sins when he replied, “I guess that’d be a pretty hefty price tag, huh?”
A couple of hard things happened to me on the same day last week that illustrate how our sins are many and sometimes we’re not even aware of them. We had some new flooring installed in our kitchen some time ago and recently it started to move when we would walk on it. We assumed there was something wrong with the flooring, so we had the installer come back and pull it up. When he did, he discovered that our underlayment was wet.
I hurried home to inspect the damage and immediately called a plumber, who discovered that a small leak under our sink had caused water to seep under most of our kitchen floor. This had likely been going on for months. I consulted with Steve Curry, who worked in construction for many years, and called a mold remediation company to see if we had any mold issues. Fortunately, we did not.
Later that same night, while I was brushing my teeth, I felt something come loose in my mouth and discovered that my dental bridge had fallen out. I called my dentist the next day, hoping she would be able to just glue it back in. Unfortunately, I was told I have decay in the teeth that were supporting the bridge. At this point, I’m uncertain what the solution will be but am grateful the deacons recently approved dental insurance for the staff.
Yesterday, the plumber returned because we found another leak, and the installer came back to tear out the old underlayment and put in some new stuff. When that was completed, the plan was for him to install a replacement floor in our kitchen. Unfortunately, because the manufacturer changed the design of the flooring, it will no longer interlock with the flooring that was not damaged. We’re now in a holding pattern as we consider our options.
This made me think how our sins can spread in unseen ways and how our depravity is like a decay which slowly destroys things. We need to admit our sins if we hope to be saved.
John 1:12 tells us how to become a member of God’s family: “Yet to all who received Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God.” Christ came to rule over the universe, and to reign in our hearts.
There’s no need to perform or do penance because everything we need has already been provided. One pastor said it well: “Salvation is not a reward for the righteous, but a gift for the guilty.”
I’ve always liked Martin Luther’s perspective, “Of what benefit would it be to me if Christ had been born a thousand times, and it would be daily sung in my ears in a most lovely manner, if I were never to hear that he was born for me and was to be my very own.”
Years ago, Donald Grey Barnhouse preached a sermon called, “The Contrasts of Christmas.” I pass along three of his main points.
1. Jesus became a member of a human family so that we might become members of the family of God. (Matthew 2:11; Galatians 3:26)
2. Jesus was born, to the praise of angels, so that we can be born again, to the praise of angels. (Luke 2:13-14; Luke 15:10)
3. Jesus underwent a human birth so that we who believe on Him might have a heavenly birth. (Luke 2:11; John 1:12)
Because Jesus is the Son of David, the son of Mary, and the Son of God, He can step into our struggles and sorrows and sins. Jesus lived the life we cannot live, died the death we deserve, and crushed death to death when He rose from the dead. He is now reigning and ruling and will return to set up His forever kingdom.
Fellow guilty sinner, will you receive the gift of salvation right now? He died to take the penalty of your sins, and He rose from the dead to show His power over your sins. He’s the bridge between you and a holy God.
Jesus came in the cradle as the son of Mary, He died on the cross as the Son of God, and He is coming again as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Because He is King, you and I are called to surrender and submit to Him because “where meek souls will receive Him still, the dear Christ enters in.” Charles Spurgeon said it well: “We might tremble to approach a throne, but we cannot fear to approach a manger.”
Hang on to the Christ of Christmas by opening the door of your heart to Him right now. When you give Him your sins, He will grant you, His salvation. Jesus was born once so you can be born twice.
Since King Jesus came to die in your place, make sure to give Him first place in your life.
Invitation
“Lord Jesus, you are Son of God, son of Mary, and Son of David. I need you to be my Savior and my King. I fall on my knees and confess I am a sinner, and I repent by turning from the way I’ve been living. Thank you for being with me and for me. Please save me from the constant drip of my sins and from myself. You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God. I desire to live under Your Kingship for the rest of my life. Thank You for not only being born, but for dying in my place and rising from the dead so I can be born again. I now receive the gift of salvation and forgiveness by asking You to come into my life. Make me into the person You want me to be by enabling me to bring glory to You and good to others. Give me the thrill of hope so my weary soul will rejoice in you. In the name of Immanuel, who is Savior, Christ, and Lord, I ask this. Amen.”
