The Messiah's Entrance | Matthew 1:18-25

Scripture

• Matthew 1:18–25

About this sermon

How do we measure the treasure that we have in the Word of God? It is a gift that is immeasurable. If we stop to think about it, TO REALLY THINK ABOUT IT, there are no words to describe what God has given us. We have the very words of the only true and living God. We have the words of our Creator — the one who not only explains our existence, but the existence of all things. We have true words, sufficient words, life-giving and life-sustaining words. We have the perfect record of human history, and a perfect glimpse of what preceded that history. If you ever realize what you now hold in your hands, Psalm 119 will make perfect sense to you. But a challenge that we have, because many of us have grown up with these words, is we sometimes read breathtaking things as if they are common. WE READ THINGS THAT OUR NOW FAMILIAR TO US BUT SHOULD NEVER BE COMMON TO US. WE HAVE AN EXAMPLE OF THAT IN OUR VERSES THIS MORNING. Could we read of anything more astounding, more wonderful, more unimaginable yet true, than the God-given record of the incarnation? 2000 years ago, the eternal Son of God was born into the world — a man. The eternal Son, the 2nd person of the Triune God, took to Himself an additional nature — A TRUE HUMAN NATURE WITHOUT SIN, and did this without divesting Himself of any portion of the divine nature, making His entrance into the very world that was created through Him, and is upheld by Him. GOD CAME TO US! HIS PRESENCE EXPLAINED THE NAME IMMANUEL — GOD WITH US. And the Spirit of God, through Matthew, tells us how it happened. THE CONCEPTION OF THE MESSIAH (vs.18) How was Jesus of Nazareth conceived? I want us to be clear about something. Matthew is giving us an account of the birth of a man that the people of his time knew. They knew his father and mother. They knew his siblings. They knew him. From the standpoint of appearance, there was nothing remarkable about Jesus. ESV Isaiah 53:2 For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. The people who knew Him were aware of common things related to him, like his hometown, like his work and the work of his father. THEY WERE SO FAMILIAR WITH HIM, THAT EVEN WHEN THEY HAD TO ACKNOWLEDGE THE WONDER OF WHAT THEY WERE SEEING AND HEARING FROM HIM, THEY STUMBLED OVER THE IMPLICATIONS OF IT. ESV Matthew 13:54 and coming to his hometown he taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished, and said, "Where did this man get this wisdom and these mighty works? 55 Is not this the carpenter's son? Is not his mother called Mary? And are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? 56 And are not all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things?" 57 And they took offense at him. But Jesus said to them, "A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and in his own household." Matthew’s account explains how someone so common, could be anything but common. How can this one be so like us, yet so unlike us? The answer is that He took our nature to Himself to save us, but it was by God’s Spirit that this nature was given to Him. He was truly the son of man, but just as truly the Son of God. MATTHEW IS ALSO EXPLAINING HOW JESUS WAS CONCEIVED IN A MANNER THAT SEEMED SCANDALOUS BUT WAS NECESSARY AND RIGHTEOUS.

Topics

• Jesus Christ