"God with Us" Sermon: Matthew 1:18-25 (manuscript)

 

“God with Us”

[Matthew 1:18-25]

December 24, 2020 YouTube

            Our time of waiting has ended, we are about to celebrate the remembrance of the birth of Jesus of Nazareth, God Incarnate – God in the flesh.

            This evening we look at what is recorded about Joseph prior to the birth of Jesus.

            First, the claim that God is born in the flesh is unbelievable.

“Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.”

Mary and Joseph were betrothed – they were engaged, and in Ancient Israel, engagement was a done by a legal contract not unlike marriage.  Today we get engaged and unengaged and it is no big deal.  It was a big deal in those days – it was entered into with much more seriousness that we do today.

Mary – who had been visited by the angel, Gabriel, told Joseph that she was with child by the Holy Spirit.  One thing Joseph knew – this was not his child – they had not had intercourse.  But God impregnated Mary?

Imagine your fiancé comes to you and says, “Honey, I’m pregnant.  Don’t worry, I haven’t cheated on you – this is God’s baby – He caused me to be with child.”  

We should not be surprised that Joseph does not believe her, should we?  This sounds incredible.  It is incredible.  God caused Mary to be with child?

Joseph can’t comprehend this.  He doesn’t want to believe that Mary cheated on him, but what other explanation is there?

But Joseph loves Mary – deeply.  He does not want to disgrace her or take revenge on her.  It would be more that he wishes to leave her pregnant with her explanation.  But does he really want to be looked at as that fool who married a woman who cheated on him before the wedding?

Joseph could bring her before the elders for them to check to see if she is still a virgin, as she claims. Joseph could have brought Mary up on charges of adultery and even had her stoned to death, but he loves her.

So, he decides to divorce her quietly.  He wants to hurt her as little as possible, but he cannot bring himself to marry her when he knows the child is not his.

“And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly.”

The claim the God is born in the flesh is just unbelievable.

Second, Jesus is God born on the flesh – God with us.

“But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.”

As Joseph is figuring out who to call to get the divorce through as quietly as possible, an angel appears to Joseph, and he tells Joseph three things:

Joseph, you are a son of David.  The royal family line flows through your blood – the line of the Kings of Jerusalem. (And Jesus is to be known as the King of kings.)

Joseph don’t be afraid to take Mary as your wife.  No matter how many people shake their heads and mock you for marrying a woman who bears a son that is not yours.

Joseph don’t be afraid to take Mary as your wife, because she is actually with child by God the Holy Spirit.

Your son is God in the flesh.  Mary is telling you the truth.  This is all part of the mystery of God working out His plan.

“She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”

This son that Mary bears, you shall name Jesus.  He is the Messiah, the Christ, the Savior Who was prophesied in the Garden and ever since.  He is a real human being, because only a real human being can take the place of a real human being before God – and that is what He will do:  He will stand before the Father – bearing all the sin of everyone who will ever believe – and God will punish Jesus in that moment on the cross with eternal punishment for each believer – He will pay the debt for all of our sins.

“All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: ‘Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel’ (which means, God with us).”

Isaiah was given the prophecy that the virgin will conceive – without a man – and bear a son.  This Son is God in the flesh.  This Son is God with us.  This Son is Immanuel.

Jesus must be God with us, because salvation requires that we keep the whole Law of God perfectly – God requires that we be sinless and righteous.  No mere human has ever perfectly kept the Law.  He is only Immanuel – God with us – a human born without the participation of a man – born without Original sin – without a sin nature, so He can keep the whole Law of God perfectly – and, having taken all of our sins upon Himself, He can credit each one of us with the perfect keeping of the Law, so we are now not just sinless, but righteous.

Therefore, Jesus must be more than just a human.  He must be a real human, but sinless, to pay the debt for our sin.  But He also must be the One True God – in the flesh – yes, God with us – among humans, so He would live under and keep the Law for our sakes.

Paul writes of Immanuel:

 “Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness:

“He was manifested in the flesh,

“vindicated by the Spirit,

“seen by angels,

“proclaimed among the nations,

“believed on in the world,

“taken up in glory” (I Timothy 3:16, ESV).

And of Jesus, he writes:

“For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily,” (Colossians 2:9, ESV).

            Jesus is God in the flesh – God with us.

            Third, Love came down.

“When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.”

The fact the Joseph obeyed and did not have relations with Mary until after the birth of Jesus is told to us to assure us that Jesus is not Joseph’s biological son.  Jesus is born of the Virgin.  He is God Incarnate.  God with us.  The Savior – being human and God.

One of the ways we can understand God with us and put a little context to this event is to say that Love came down.  Jesus came – God with us – Jesus of Nazareth – because God loves His people.

Many of us will know this by heart:

Jesus says, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him” (John 3:16-17, ESV).

“I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep” (John 10:14-15, ESV).

There is a real sense in which we should understand God with us as God loves us – Love came down.

In the Nicene Creed (325 A. D.) we read, “who for us men, and for our salvation, came down and was incarnate and was made man” [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_versions_of_the_Nicene_Creed].

God loves His people and sent His Love – His Son – God with us – to incarnate by the Holy Spirit, through the Virgin Mary, as a real human and God – to make us right with God – to save us – to make us able to love God.

Let us pray:

Almighty God, we thank You for sending God in the person of Your Son to be with us – to be our Savior.  Help us to focus on Him and what He has done as we celebrate the remembrance of His birth as Jesus of Nazareth.  In Jesus’ Name, Amen.