Sermon 12/3/06-Jesus Christ: The Only One-Matt. 1:1-25
Jesus Christ was fully God and fully man. Because both of these are true He is the only one who is able to be our Savior.
Turn to Matthew 1
This morning begin series through Matthew.
A Sunday School Christmas pageant
One boy really wanted to be Joseph, but when the parts were handed out, a boy he didn’t like was given that part, and he was assigned to be the inn-keeper instead. He was pretty upset about it, but he didn’t say anything to the director.
During all the rehearsals he tried to think of what he could do the night of performance to get even with this rival who got to be Joseph. Finally, the night of the performance, Mary and Joseph came walking across the stage. They knocked on the door of the inn, and the inn-keeper opened the door and asked them gruffly what they wanted.
Joseph answered, "We’d like to have a room for the night." Suddenly the inn-keeper threw the door open wide and said, "Great, come on in and I’ll give you the best room in the house!"
For a few seconds poor little Joseph didn’t know what to do. Thinking quickly on his feet, he looked inside the door past the inn-keeper then said, "No wife of mine is going to stay in dump like this. Come on, Mary, let’s go to the barn." -And once again the play was back on track!
Be here next Sunday for our xmas play, should be a great time.
There is so much we can learn from the birth of X and the Biblical accounts, this morn. 2 main things I want us to see from Matt. 1-understand what matt. Is trying to show us about who X was and why it matters.
Matt. 1:1-17-Geneology of X
Vs. 1 “A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham.”
-won’t take the time to read the entire genealogy, point out a few things.
-importance of genealogies:
-Genealogies in the Ancient Near East were used not only to show family relationships, but also used for practical and legal purposes to establish someone’s heritage, inheritance, legitimacy and rights.
-Matthew uses the genealogy to establish the royal line to validate X’s claim to the throne of David.
Because, even though Joseph was not Jesus natural father, he was his legal father and the right to the throne was passed down from father to Son.
So we see the family tree of Christ, through his legal father, Joseph.
Starting w/ Abraham, the father of the Jewish people. (vs. 2)
Through not just David, but look at vs. 6 “King David”, emphasizing the Jesus was part of the kingly line. from David through the Babylonian exile the genealogy follows the kingly line of succession.
One other point to make from the genealogies.
In his wording of the genealogies Matthew is setting up his presentation of the virgin birth that he will introduce in vs. 18.
The pattern “Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac was the father of Jacob, etc….” repeatedly uses a verb with the active voice, emphasizing the human descent of each generation until vs. 16, he writes “and Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ”
The same verb is used only this time it is in the passive voice. Every other occurrence of this verb in the genealogy is active, emphasizing the human action in conceiving a child, but only here is it the passive voice indicating that the subject of the verb, Mary received the action.
Sets the stage for vs. 18-25
18-”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.”
Set the stage-betrothal and marriage customs
-most likely marriage was arranged between the families, agreed upon by the fathers, settled on a bride price to be paid to Mary’s family, Joseph would have proposed, when Mary accepted, the betrothal period began.
The agreement was sealed by the payment of the bride price to Mary’s family, at this point it was a legally binding contract that could only be broken by a formal process of divorce. The betrothal period would have lasted anywhere from 6 months to 2 years as Joseph went to prepare the place that he and Mary would share.
It was a time of preparation for their marriage. During this time the would have had little if any, social contact. And sexual relations between them would not have been permitted.
It was during this period of betrothal that Joseph finds out about Mary’s pregnancy.
Vs. 19 reveals a lot about the character of the man that was to help Mary raise Jesus-Matthew tells us that he was a righteous man and did not want to expose Mary to public disgrace. So he decided to break the engagement in the quietest way possible to spare Mary the public disgrace.
After deciding what he was going to do, an angel comes to him in a dream, and reveals to Joseph that Mary has not been unfaithful to him, but rather she is carrying a child conceived by the Holy Spirit
Vs. 20-22 “But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord, appeared to him in a dream and said “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins.”
The angel not only tells Joseph to go ahead with the marriage, but tells Joseph what to name the child “Jesus” . A common name in Judaism in the first century, it was a form of the Hebrew name Joshua, and the meaning is “Jehovah (Yahweh) will save.” Normally given by parents to sons as a symbolic hope of the coming salvation that God would send, but the angel tells Joseph that in the Son Mary would have, that salvation would finally arrive.
Vs. 22-23 see a phrase that will become quite common as we continue through the gospel of Matthew “All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet” As Matthew repeatedly demonstrates that Jesus was the promised Messiah through the different fulfilled prophecies. This one is from Isaiah 7:14 “the virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”-which means God with us.”
One of 5 times that Matthew makes the point that Christ was born of a virgin
-vs. 16- “Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus.”
Vs. 18 “While she was still a virgin, she became pregnant by the HS”
Vs. 20 “For the child within her has been conceived by the HS”
Vs. 23 “the virgin will be with child”
Vs. 25 “But she remained a virgin until her son was born.”
Why is the virgin birth so important?
-Because if we ignore or discount the virgin birth we ignore or deny the deity of X.
-It is only through the virgin birth that we can have one who is both fully God and fully human.
Throughout history there have been those who have tried to deny who X was through denying either of those. Deny his humanity or deny his deity. But without both He is not an all sufficient Savior.
-If Jesus is not fully God and fully man, there is no gospel.
-The incarnation of X is the central fact of xianity.
-The essence and the power of the gospel is that God became man and that, by being both wholly God and wholly man, He was able to reconcile men to God.
-The virgin birth, X’s sinless life and substitutionary atoning death, His resurrection, ascension, and return are all integral aspects of His diety. They stand or fall together.
-If any one of those teachings-each clearly taught in the NT-is rejected the entire gospel is rejected.
None makes sense, or could have any significance or power apart from the others. If those were not true, even Jesus’ moral teachings would be suspect, because if He misrepresented who He was by claiming equality with God, how could anything else he said be trusted? (Macarthur)
CS Lewis Liar Lunatic or Lord Mere xianity pg. 56
Who do you say that X is? Don’t forget this xmas season that we don’t come together simply to remember a baby in a manger, we come together, we celebrate xmas to remember the coming of God in the flesh, The King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, who came down as a baby to live a sinless life and give himself as a sacrifice for us.
Let’s worship the King of Glory together.
