And His Name Is Jesus!

Introduction

The Bible deals with real life.  What happens in the pages of this book doesn’t take place in an idyllic world, but in the real sin-cursed world among suffering and hurt.  What we read here is the real story of teenage woman who was engaged to be married and found herself pregnant.

At the same time, Joseph knows that he didn’t do anything wrong in the relationship and he is convinced that his wife-to-be cheated on him.  He is conflicted.  “If I marry her, I’ll be admitting that I committed fornication with her.  If I make a big deal about it in a public divorce, she will be disgraced.  What do I do?”

If Mary had gotten pregnant today, she would have faced tremendous pressure to abort this baby.  Maybe that was part of the fullness of time being back then instead of now.

When we understand what sin has done to us, and how sin separates us from God, we become very thankful and excited about Christ’s mission: “For he will save his people from their sins” (21).

I.               Now the birth of Jesus was as follows:

A.   The history of the world had been moving for thousands of years to this point, to this place, in this little piece of dry land, in the little towns of Nazareth and Bethlehem.

B.    From the day Adam and Eve fell into sin, history was all about preparing the world and a particular people for the coming of the one who was going to crush Satan’s head and redeem his people from their sins.

II.             What we read here is the story of Jesus’ birth from Joseph’s perspective.

A.   The longer narrative in Luke (120 verses) describes the story from Mary’s perspective.

B.    The genealogy that preceded our text traces Joseph’s lineage back to David, a point that the angel emphasizes when talking with Joseph.

III.           Joseph as the father of God.

A.    God picked a righteous, kind, compassionate, gracious, and merciful man to be his Son’s legal father on earth.

B.     In his mind, he couldn’t marry Mary because she was unfaithful to him, and to marry her would be to admit his own guilt in the matter of the baby.

C.     Righteousness demanded that the law be kept, but would be the most gracious application of the law?

D.    Now, you may be asking yourselves what it means to be betrothed to somebody.

E.     Joseph was obedient to the Word of God.

IV.           The main feature of this story is the message of the angel of the Lord.

A.   Unlike the Lukan narrative, the angel is not named here, but Matthew makes sure that we know that the angel’s message is from God by calling him the angel of the Lord.

B.    The baby in Mary’s womb is not the fruit of adultery; rather, the baby was conceived by God the Holy Spirit.

C.    The baby is Mary’s womb is the Savior of God’s people.

D.   The baby in Mary’s womb is God in the flesh.

Conclusion

This is who he is.  And his name is Jesus for he came to save his people from their sins.