14 Lessons Learned From the Angelic Message - Matthew 1:18-25

Today, I want to walk through what you may recognize as one of my favorite verses in the Bible which also happens to be a verse from Matthew’s account of the birth of the Lord Jesus.  I like this verse because it says very, very much in very, very few words (a nearly impossible feat for some of us).  The verse I’m speaking of, and the phrase within that verse contains only eight words: “He will save His people from their sins.”  That may be the most powerful brief statement in the entire account of the first advent of the Lord Jesus.  Let’s read the context in this story we think we know so well

[18] 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. [19] And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. [20] 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. [21] She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” [22] All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: 

[23] “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,

and they shall call his name Immanuel”

(which means, God with us). [24] When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, [25] but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.  (Matthew 1:18-25 ESV)

I want to point out to you 14 things that I see in this brief passage, and then focus more particularly on the eight words.  I won’t linger very long on any of them, and some of them overlap at certain points.  We’ll move through them all rather quickly because, again, we’re rather familiar with this account of Jesus’ birth.  But if you want to take notes, there will be 14 points in this sermon.

1.  The first thing we see in this passage is the birth of Jesus was an historical event.  This is not mythology or legend, but historical fact: there was a real man named Jesus, born of a real, historical woman named Mary, whose real, historical (but not biological) father was a man named Joseph.  The Christian faith, more than any other religion in the world, is based in historical facts.  Not ethereal mysticism, nor the pseudo-inspired writings of a self-appointed holy man. That being the case, we need less “faith” to believe the things we believe because they are the result of recorded historical events by eye-witnesses.  

There were real prophets whose prophecies were faithfully recorded.  Their prophesies were fulfilled in real life, in actual historical events, which serve to validate the messages of the prophets.  The actual, historical events were faithfully recorded, the greatest of them all being, not the birth, and not even the death of the Lord Jesus, but the resurrection of Christ.  Everything we believe as Christians is dependent upon the veracity of that event, and the testimony of hundreds of eyewitnesses is more than sufficient to prove the truthfulness of it.  So the first thing we see here is that Christianity is based in history, not in myth.

2.  Christ’s birth fulfilled many prophecies of the Old Testament, but especially those pertaining to His genealogy.  He was, as repeatedly prophesied, a direct descendant of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and of David through Joseph’s lineage.  These genealogies were meticulously recorded and preserved by the Jews for many generations.  So we have even more historical evidence to substantiate the things we believe.

3.  Thirdly, we see in this passage that Jesus was born of a virgin, as Isaiah prophesied.  The reason this is necessary is in order that He might be a real human being, made like us in every respect, except for His inherent innocence and our inherent guilt.  He did not possess the curse of Adam’s sin.  And because He was a real human being, He could really die as our substitutionary sacrifice.

4.  Fourthly, we read here that He was conceived by the Holy Spirit.  While Mary was His human mother, God was His “not-human” Father.  Therefore, this baby is Deity.  His real, historical substitutionary death for His people is of infinite value because of who He is, and therefore His death is a satisfactory sacrifice in God’s sight to pay for our sins.

5.  His birth was announced supernaturally by angels to Joseph, to Mary.  Of course, in other texts, we read that He was also made known to shepherds and the Magi.  It was a birth anticipated by heavenly beings.  The birth of the Lord Jesus was revealed to us, not discovered by us.  So even the announcement of His birth is an act of God’s grace towards men.  Even Mary and Joseph may not have known who He was had God not told them.  How presumptuous would it have been to think Mary was the virgin Isaiah had spoken of had the angel not revealed God’s plan to them.  Joseph never would have believed her.  The shepherds and the wise men certainly would have never known of the birth of their Messiah had it not been revealed to them.  So the revelation of who this baby was to Joseph and Mary and others was an act of God’s grace to them and to us.

6.  Sixthly, we see in the birth of Jesus infinite humility.  It is nearly incomprehensible that when Mary looked at her baby to whom she had just given birth, she was truly looking into the face of her own Savior.  The Son of God willingly became the newborn son of a Jewish girl?  How is this possible?  How could this infant be the Creator of the world?  How could this naked, squirmy, crying, helpless, wrinkly little baby boy be the sovereign ruler of the universe?  What kind of humility is this, that God would condescend to these depths?  What kind of love does He have for His own?

7.  His name, as the angel instructed Joseph, is indicative of exactly who He is: “Jesus” means “Savior”.  His name is precisely who and what He is.  There is no mystery here.  He is the promised, anointed, Holy One of Israel, the one who has come to seek and to save the lost.  To seek out, to the very last one, all of His lost sheep.

8.  This salvation which He would bring is by the grace of God alone because it is all God’s doing: God sends His Son, we did not send for Him, nor were we capable of creating our own Savior.  God causes Mary to conceive, she did not conceive on her own.  The Lord Jesus comes and lives among us even thought He was despised and rejected by us.  The Lord Jesus freely gave His life for us, even though we thought we would take His life from Him.  God is entirely satisfied with His sacrifice of his own Son for our sakes, even though men crucified Him as a criminal.  God applies the merit of His perfectly righteous Son to the account of all who believe the Gospel message, in spite of our insistence that we can gain His favor through our own efforts.  

ALL of salvation, from the sending of Christ into the world until the second coming of Christ for His own, ALL of it is the result of a gracious God performing His gracious will towards the undeserving, in order to save them from themselves and from Himself and His own righteous wrath against them.

9.  This salvation through the life and death of Christ is a sovereign act of God in spite of us, not because of us.  Only God could do this, and He has done it based solely upon His own good pleasure to do so.  The giving of the Lord Jesus was not by compulsion.  God did not need to do this.  Nor is God’s sending a Savior into the world the result of a debt which God owed to men.  A completely self-sufficient and totally self-satisfied God has done all of this - the incarnation of His Son, the sacrificing of His Son, and the raising of His Son - simply because in His own sovereign ruling over all things, He wanted to.  He did it for the sake of His own glory.

10.  God’s salvation through Jesus is specifically for His own elect people.  The angelic statement was this: “He will save His people.”  Not all people, but only those designated as His own people.  The atonement of Christ is limited in that way.  It is not a universal atonement through which all men everywhere are saved.  Rather, it is a particular redemption for a particular people.  It is for His sheep, and not for the goats, that the Shepherd gave His life.  It is for His Church,and not for the unrepentant that Christ died.  It is for the people He has chosen from every nation that He paid the price for their redemption, but not for all people everywhere.  Else Hell would be empty of any one except Satan and his demons.  

Jesus came to save His people.  And, contrary to popular belief, the angel did not mean only the Jews.  The common error within Evangelicalism especially is that God’s elect are only the Jews.  That is an absurd claim.  When we read Isaiah, we see that God’s plan has been to gather “others” into His fold.  We see from the days of Abraham that God said he would be the spiritual father of many nations.  Constantly, throughout the New Testament, we see the Gentiles referred to as God’s chosen, and called people, grafted into the spiritual people of Israel.  All those for whom Christ died are His people whom He came to save.

11.  God’s salvation of His people through Christ is inevitable: He will save his people from their sins.  Jesus was not sent into the world to try to save some people.  He did not die simply to make salvation possible, or to offer salvation to whomever would agree with it, or eventually be persuaded to accept it.  He came to do the work of actually saving us.  God really and truly and actually saves His people  through Christ.  The life and death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus accomplished this salvation.  He finished the work of redemption.  The Savior came to save. 

12.  The salvation that Jesus accomplished for His people was a salvation from their sins.  Christ did not come to deliver us from anything less than condemnation.  He came to save us from the worst possible condition: the just condemnation of sinners by God to eternal death in hell.  Jesus did not come into the world to be our Great High Therapist and make us feel better about ourselves.  Jesus did not come into the world to be my best friend and chum to cheer me up when I am sad or I have a bad day.  He didn’t come into the world to be your boyfriend.  He didn’t come into the world so that I could have a great life of ease, or so I could think positively about myself, or grant me success in my family and my marriage and my business and my _____ (fill in the blank).  

Jesus Christ was born into the world, lived a sinless life, died upon the cross, and rose again from the dead to become nothing less than our eternal Great High Priest who intercedes for us to God.  He presents Himself as the sacrifice to God for my sin.  He came to save us from our sins. 

13.  The salvation that Jesus came to accomplish for us is a complete salvation.  He shall save His people.  He does not offer salvation.  He does not offer us assistance in saving ourselves.  He does not come to be our life coach.  He doesn’t simply perform renovations on us to make us better that we were.  He is not our celestial Self-Improvement Consultant.  He came to save us, to rescue us.  

Beloved, half a rescue is no rescue.  If you’re in a boat and you fall overboard into the midst of a shark family reunion, and the people on board throw you a life ring and pull you half way back to the boat, . . . you’re still shark bait!  If you’re stranded on a deserted island, populated by hungry and angry cannibals, and someone drops supplies to you every month, . . . you’re still stranded on a deserted island filled with hungry cannibals!  If you’re caught in a fire on the third floor of a ten-story building and a fireman wearing an oxygen mask runs in and hands you an asbestos suit and runs back out, . . . you’re a crispy critter!   

If Jesus saves us from some of our problems, or from ALL of our problems, without saving us from THE problem, the curse of our sin, we’re still doomed.  But we call Him Jesus because He will SAVE us.  His name says it all: Savior, the One who saves.

14.  The reason why Jesus is fully capable of doing all this for us is because He is not only the Savior.  He is Immanuel: God with us.  Jesus, according to the Scriptures, is God in the flesh.  God did not send an angel.  He did not send a superhuman hero.  God Himself came into the world.  And God, by definition, cannot fail.   

Also, by definition, God is all-powerful!  Immanuel will save His people from their sins because He has all-power to do so!  Nothing can prevent His salvation.  The rescuing of God’s people from their sins is absolutely certain because it is an omnipotent God who is doing the saving.  

And that leads us to our conclusion: If God is for us, if God sent His own Son into the world to save us,  

 Behold, the LORD's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save,

or his ear dull, that it cannot hear.  (Isaiah 59:1 ESV)

God doesn’t make plans and then find out later that He really didn’t have the wherewithal to pull it off!  God is neither unaware of the extent of our problem or the cost of fixing it.  God possesses all the resources to save us completely, He is fully capable of saving His people, and He has fully done so through Christ.  That is why Jesus is called  

“. . . the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.  (Hebrews 12:2 ESV) 

He came into the world, accomplished His Father’s will, declared the work to be finished, ascended to Heaven, and sat down.  Having done all that, we agree wholeheartedly with Paul:

[6] And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.  (Philippians 1:6 ESV) 

If He finished the hard work of redemption, He will also finish the work of glorification in us.  In fact, from the perspective of Heaven, it’s already done:

[29] For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. [30] And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.  (Romans 8:29-30 ESV)

What God has sent His son into the world to do, He has done.  He came to save His people from their sins.  Praise the Lord!