Matthew 1:18-25 - The Genesis of Jesus

Jesus is lots of good things, but first and foremost, He's your Savior

---

Gospels: Week 1 - Jesus' Incarnation and Birth

We begin the New Testament by, of course, tracking through the Gospel Narratives - Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. We'll spend the rest of the summer in these gospels, and each day we'll be in a different book as we work through Jesus' birth, life, death, resurrection and ascension chronologically.

Bible.com

Matthew 1:18–25 (NASB95)

¹⁸ Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: when His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit.

¹⁹ And Joseph her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly.

²⁰ But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for the Child who has been conceived in her is of 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 Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet:

²³ “Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which translated means, “God with us.”

24 And Joseph awoke from his sleep and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took Mary as his wife,

25 but kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a Son; and he called His name Jesus.

Heidelberg Catechism

Q&A 29

Q. Why is the Son of God called “Jesus,” meaning “savior”?

A. Because he saves us from our sins.

Salvation cannot be found in anyone else;

it is futile to look for any salvation elsewhere.

Summary

We saw on day one of our reading the New Testament that each of the gospel writers pay homage to the book of Genesis as they begin their accounts. John and Mark start with the same phrase the Bible opens with - in the beginning. Matthew slips his nod in a bit into his narrative, opening today's passage by telling about the birth of Jesus Christ, a phrase that garners no attention in English, but stands out in the Greek Matthew originally wrote in because he choose a lesser used word for birth - the Greek word genesis (and v18 is actually the second time he used the word in this opening chapter).

Right away, Matthew's concern for one of Christianity's most critical doctrines becomes clear, just as we saw was the case for Luke: these gospel writers wanted us to be certain that Jesus' mother was a virgin at the time of His birth. Matthew puts it a bit more coyly: the young couple was betrothed, but before they came together she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit.

Matthew gives us more insight into what this was like for Joseph, and the first thing he reports about Joseph is that he was a righteous man. But therein lies his problem. Commentator RT France notes that in Joseph's day, a righteous man like Joseph "would be expected to repudiate his errant fiancée publicly in a trial for adultery." But Matthew shows that Joseph was compassionate as well, so not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly.

But things changed one night as Joseph slept and an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream. The angel told him not to be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit (Matthew's second mention of this key fact). Even more, their Son would be no ordinary boy; the angel instructs Joseph to call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.

To Matthew, writing decades after the fact and having followed Jesus as a disciple, this all makes total sense. After all, Isaiah had predicted things so perfectly: the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel - God with us (Isaiah 7:14).

So without hesitation, Joseph awoke from his sleep and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took Mary as his wife. But once again, Matthew wants to reiterate the importance of Jesus' divine nature, and so for the fourth time in today's very short passage, he explicitly points to the reality that Mary was a virgin at the time of her conception, and that Joseph kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a Son.

  Dig Deeper  

For so many people, Jesus is like a lump of clay that can be fashioned into whatever they want Him to be. For some He's a grand social worker, tirelessly feeding the poor. For others, He's a miracle healer, making the lame walk and the blind see. Others look to Him as their model for speaking truth to power, be it the Jewish religious establishment or the Imperial governing authorities.

Now certainly Jesus did all those things - Matthew and Luke are our primary sources who report the amazing things Jesus did in His short three year ministry. And we too, as His followers, must endeavor to live as He did and care for the poor and stick up for the downtrodden, even if as Christians we disagree on the best way to do those things.

But as they introduce Jesus to us, the wonderful things Jesus would do on the way to the cross and ultimately resurrection and ascension back into heaven aren't what they emphasized.

Instead, they both emphasize over and over that Jesus was born of a virgin, an amazing miracle that for the first and only other time in history opens the door for humanity to have a new and perfect covenant representative since Adam had failed. And they emphasize the angelic announcement heralding Jesus' primary purpose: to save His people from their sins.

Do your best to live like Jesus in the way you care for those around you. But don't make that the be-all, end-all of your religion. You need to continually be reminded of and emphasize yourself the key doctrines that Matthew and Luke report: Jesus is the God-Man sent to make you right with God.

AAA Prayer (About)

• ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father, who sovereignly orchestrates all of history for our salvation;

• ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray that you would faithfully align yourself to God's will like Joseph;

  ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED:

---