EXPLORING THE KINGDOM OF GOD: THE BIRTH OF A KING

Key Scripture: Matthew 1:18-25

I. Matthew’s purposes are apologetic. He wants to establish the legitimacy of Jesus’s claim to the
Messianic throne by taking Joseph’s standpoint and showing that Joseph adopted Jesus into the Davidic
line. In the truest sense, Joseph was adopted him.

A. This is “how” the birth of Jesus Christ came about. Matthew is showing the manner of the birth of the
child Jesus because it is very significant. Also, he wanted to show the supernatural character of His birth.
Look at the cast in this particular scene:

1. Mary: the Catholics have made her to be someone very special, and she was because she was
highly favored and honored of the Lord, but when we read about Mary in other portions of
Scripture, we see she was a fairly ordinary person with human traits.

 She was a chaste, young, Jewish girl, but she was very human. Of course, she did live a life
of heartache and suffering but victory as well.

 Scholars point out the basis of “Mary-idolatry” that was practiced by the Roman Catholic
Church – making an idol of her and worshipping her.

o During the early days of Christianity, there were many female cults – pagan cults.
There were female goddesses being worshipped during that time. This was very
prevalent in the Mediterranean area.

o Many of these tradition beliefs eventually became dogma, specifically in the Roman
Catholic Church. However, they are not backed up by Scripture.

2. This man Joseph was called the “carpenter of Nazareth.” We think of this term in relation to
Jesus, but Joseph was also referred to in this way.

 He was a conscientious Jew who faithfully adhered to the law. When we read on, we see
this in his reaction to Mary’s news and what he must do. Only a conscientious Jew would be
following these practices.

 Even though Joseph’s position as a carpenter was lowly and humble, he was of the noblest
blood of the Jewish race, being of the royal line of David and Solomon. He was a descendant
of the great kings of Israel and he was a legal heir to the throne of David.

B. The Scriptures tell us that Mary and Joseph were betrothed.

1
Page

4Ekselans School of Ministry: Institute for the Formation of Christian Leaders 2013-2015
 EXPLORING THE KINGDOM OF GOD: THE BIRTH OF A KING

1. Being betrothed was equal to a civil contract of marriage. There was actually some ceremony
that was involved. It was considered very sacred. In fact, the word betrothal meant “making
sacred of the bride.”

2. When a man betrothed a woman, he was making her sacred unto him. That meant she was his
bride from that point on.

3. Just imagine what it must have been like for Joseph to find out that his wife was pregnant.
Legally, she was already his wife, but they were not to have conjugal rights until after a set
period of time.

4. I’m not sure how long this was, but there was time allowed for the bride to break the ties with
her family, so she could leave them and cleave to her husband. It was a period of adjustment.

5. Joseph had already betrothed Mary and they were legally united. A written contract was
generally made with a sum of money given to the bride and he would make a formal statement
publicly acknowledging her as his wife.

 Because it had been done in this way, they couldn’t all of a sudden decide they weren’t
going to get married. Like many do today, they couldn’t break the engagement because they
changed their minds.

 To break this contract, Joseph would have to give Mary a legal bill of divorce.

 Joseph, being a righteous, just, and kindly man, did not want to publicly disgrace Mary by
divorcing her. He would have to state the reasons for the divorce.

C. You can just imagine the agony, anguish, torment, and pain Joseph was going through.

1. He was a conscientious Jew. That meant he had to do something. He couldn’t just accept the
situation as it was or try to hide what had happened. It could not be done that way.

2. I’m sure Joseph was very torn between his conscience, especially being a devout Jew, because
he could not be married to a woman of loose morals, and his desire to protect Mary. He loved
her.

D. Verse 20 says “when he thought on these things.” This is very significant.

1. When Joseph thought on these things, he gave God an opportunity to speak to him. God sent an
angel to speak to him in a dream.
2
Page

2. There are weighty matters that we may be faced with every day, but as Christians we don’t want
to think about them. Or sometimes, we think God is not speaking to us about the situation or He

4Ekselans School of Ministry: Institute for the Formation of Christian Leaders 2013-2015
 EXPLORING THE KINGDOM OF GOD: THE BIRTH OF A KING

is not giving us any direction. Very often, it is because we aren’t listening. We haven’t taken the
time to think about what’s really going on.

3. We escape all thought and consideration of the matter, because we don’t want to think about it
and we really don’t want to hear what He has to say. Then we try to blame God or use the
excuse that he hasn’t spoken.

4. If we really want to hear from God, then we need to consider the matters we’re experiencing.

5. When we pray and earnestly seek His will, we give Him the opportunity to speak. It doesn’t have
to be bolts of lightning or an audible voice from heaven, because we have put ourselves in a
position to hear from God.

E. The angel came and spoke to Joseph in a dream, but it was a test of faith.

1. The angel is asking him to believe that this child was not conceived unfaithfully, but that he was
actually a miracle. He was conceived because a divine work and operation of the Holy Spirit.

2. But the angel was also asking Joseph to believe that this child that would be born would be the
Messiah.

3. He was not the fruit of sin as the natural mind would conceive him to be. Rather He was the
great Redeemer from sin.

F. Notice how everything changed when Joseph went from the human, natural perspective to God’s
perspective.

1. All of a sudden Joseph was no longer ready to put Mary away privately – to divorce her.

2. Although his faith was being tested, there was probably eagerness in his heart to participate
with the Holy Spirit in God’s plan and protect Mary, who was carrying the Messiah.

3. He responded in faith with no more questions asked and was willing to obey what the Spirit of
God through the angel spoke to him.

II. This child truly was conceived by the Holy Ghost and He was the Savior, the one that Israel had
awaited. He would deliver them from sin.

A. Verse 21 tells us His chosen name. The name Jesus is equivalent to the Hebrew name Joshua. Joshua
means “Jehovah is salvation” or “Jehovah is the Savior.”

B. Verses 22-23 fulfill what Isaiah prophesied – Emmanuel, God with us (Isaiah 7:14).
3
Page

C. Notice also that Joseph is reminded that he is of royal rank. “Son of David, do not be afraid.”

4Ekselans School of Ministry: Institute for the Formation of Christian Leaders 2013-2015
 EXPLORING THE KINGDOM OF GOD: THE BIRTH OF A KING

1. King David was a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. There are several ways in which he is a type.

 A king set up by God

 The warrior-king. (He drove out all the enemies. There was constant warfare between the
Kingdom of God and the god of this world represented by Israel’s enemies.)

 The rejected king. (Jesus was truly the King, but He was rejected by the Jews and even
people in general. There was only a small group of people who followed Him.

 In the case of David, he was on the run almost like an animal for years after he had been
anointed by Samuel. There was a long time between the private anointing and the public
one, when he ascended to the throne.

 Year after year David was persecuted by Saul, but he knew that he knew who he was and
what God had planned for him. David allowed God in His time to make him king. Whatever
you get by force, you have to maintain by force.

2. Joseph was willing to take Mary into his home as his wife and fulfilled his part as father to the
child when He was born.

III. Matthew is writing this from the standpoint of Joseph because it is apologetic and he is trying to
prove Jesus is the Messiah and has the right to the throne.

A. What about Mary’s feelings? Luke goes more into hers.

1. What must it have been like to be visited by an angel and conceive?

2. When God comes and gives us a revelation, at that moment it is very real to us. In the presence
of the Holy Spirit, we know we have heard from God.

 But hours, days, or weeks later, we can question if the experience was really from God.

 Of course, Mary had the proof in her womb. However, I’m sure she must have wrestled with
the stigma this was. Who would believe that she was still a virgin?

3. But, secondly, who is going to believe that he is really the Messiah?

4. Not only that but she would incur the jealousy of all the other young girls who wanted to be the
mother of the Messiah.
4
Page

B. So Mary’s faith was being tested as well.

4Ekselans School of Ministry: Institute for the Formation of Christian Leaders 2013-2015
 EXPLORING THE KINGDOM OF GOD: THE BIRTH OF A KING

1. Every great blessing and promise that comes from God has a shadow over it. Usually a great trial
follows closely behind. And the trial itself becomes a new test of faith.

 Our faith is continually being tested. When we first receive the revelation, it is so REAL. It’s
more real to us than everything else around us.

 But when the trial comes, it seems that what is happening is just the opposite of what God
has spoken to our hearts.

 Satan wants us to doubt and question because he wants us to think that God would lie.

 It’s during that time that we must make a choice. Will we believe God, who cannot lie, or
will we look at the circumstances and our feelings?

2. Will we trust God who is able to do what he said He would do or will be look at the situation
from a human perspective?

C. Joseph chose to look at the situation through God’s perspective.

1. Here we had a man who was hurting, grieving, and frustrated. He may have felt betrayed by this
wonderful girl that he loved. He had made her sacred and she’d been with another man.

2. Once he had God’s perspective, I’m sure that his heart was filled with a holy awe. This favored
woman, who had been chosen by God, was his wife.

 He now had the privilege of taking her into his home and caring for her, of protecting her
and bringing honor to her.

 Do you know what it feels like to be given a very special task from the Lord and feel so
unworthy? We can’t imagine why God chose us of all people. There’s such a holy awe had
the realization that God chose you for such a task.

 One particular thing God gave me to do I wept for three months because every day I felt so
loved and so blessed. Why me? It seemed like a dream. Then I realized it was connected to
things God had promised years before.

D. Can you imagine what it must have been like to see Mary carrying the Christ child and then see Him in
her arms knowing He was the Son of God?

1. I want you to note the significance of this. Since Joseph did accept Mary as his espoused wife,
5

then her child legally became the heir of Joseph.

Page

2. But because He was the son of Joseph, He also legally became heir to the throne of David.

4Ekselans School of Ministry: Institute for the Formation of Christian Leaders 2013-2015
 EXPLORING THE KINGDOM OF GOD: THE BIRTH OF A KING

3. That established His right to be King of the Jews. Jesus had His birthright by his mother, but He
had His right to rule as King of the Jews through His father Joseph.

IV. The virgin birth was the central point that was peculiar to His origin and His destiny. There’s never
been another virgin birth!

A. Significance: Jesus received His human identity from his mother Mary, but He received His God
identity through a supernatural conception by the Holy Spirit.

1. There was a reason that He had to be born of a virgin. The whole structure of Christianity rests
upon this one fact.

2. The Holy Spirit actually conceived in the chosen virgin the body of the Lord Jesus Christ.

 God could have brought the Messiah into the world in other ways, but if He was going
to bring Him into the world through a birth, then it had to be a virgin birth.

 If He had been born of a sinful father, He would not be able to possess a sinless nature.

 If He had been physically born of Joseph then He would also have been a seed of Adam,
which means that He would also have the fallen nature of Adam.

 Then He would not have been able to redeem us from sin because He would be sinful.

3. Genesis 3:15 says “the seed of woman.” It is a mystery that God condescended to be born of a
woman; and in that sense He becomes our brother. But the emphasis here, however, is on the
power and activity of the Holy Spirit.

B. From Mary, Jesus was born as a man, but because of the creative activity and power of the Holy
Spirit, He was not born as an ordinary man. He was born as a new humanity.

1. A whole new race of people! Everyone born prior to that time was born with the fallen nature of
Adam. He was the first to be born without sin.

2. Another point I should make. Jesus is not divine because of the virgin birth. The virgin birth was
merely the method that God chose to bring His Son into the world in the form of human flesh.

3. But His divinity and all other aspects of Christ are irrespective of the virgin birth. He always
existed!

4. The point is that the eternal Son of the eternal God who had existed as one with Him from
6

eternity chose to come in human flesh through Mary’s womb.

Page

4Ekselans School of Ministry: Institute for the Formation of Christian Leaders 2013-2015
 EXPLORING THE KINGDOM OF GOD: THE BIRTH OF A KING

5. Through the virgin birth we see a complete and new humanity but we also see deity. Humanity
and deity became one in Jesus Christ. That’s a mystery!

C. Through His birth He reached out to us through fallen man.

1. Verse 21: “His people” may refer to the people of Israel (Jeremiah 31:31-34).

 A new covenant will be made with the house of Israel and Judah.

 They would then become a new humanity.

2. Our old sinful nature of Adam is changed into the nature of God when we are in Christ and
the Holy Spirit is in us.

 We have a new nature, a new name, and a new family.

 We are part of a new humanity of which Christ was the Head and the beginning.

V. Summary:

A. The names Joshua and Jesus mean the same thing. Joshua was a well-known name to the Israelites.
Why was the Messiah given the name of Jesus?

1. The significance of the name Jesus is because it is He who will save His people from His sins.
This Jesus is He, the one you have been awaiting.

2. “All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said.” Matthew is showing that certain Old
Testament prophecies concerning the Messiah are being fulfilled (Isaiah 7:14).

B. Matthew proves that Jesus Christ has the credentials to be the Messiah.

1. His genealogy
2. The virgin birth
3. Fulfillment of prophecy (Isaiah 7:14)

HOMEWORK:

Discuss the importance and the significance of the virgin birth.

7
Page

4Ekselans School of Ministry: Institute for the Formation of Christian Leaders 2013-2015
 EXPLORING THE KINGDOM OF GOD: THE BIRTH OF A KING

8
Page

4Ekselans School of Ministry: Institute for the Formation of Christian Leaders 2013-2015