The Virgin Birth
Matthew 1:18-25
18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: After His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit. 19 Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not wanting to make her a public example, was minded to put her away secretly. 20 But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. 21 And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”
22 So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying: 23 “Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us.”
24 Then Joseph, being aroused from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took to him his wife, 25 and did not know her till she had brought forth her firstborn Son. And he called His name Jesus.
Last time we began our study of the Gospel of Matthew. We saw that the purpose of the Gospel of Matthew is to present Jesus Christ as the prophesied Messiah, the King of Israel.
The Gospel of Matthew was written to Jews to explain the kingdom and to present the king. Throughout the centuries, the Old Testament prophesied a coming king for the nation Israel, the Son of David. Matthew wants to demonstrate that Jesus Christ is the focal point of those prophecies and that they all find their realization and fulfillment with Him. Throughout Matthew’s Gospel, he cites at least 28 specific Old Testament prophecies that are fulfilled in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Matthew highlights seven fulfilled prophecies just in the first four chapters. The first one, from Isaiah 7:14, comes in our text today.
Matthew demonstrated in his genealogy (Matthew 1:1-17) that Jesus Christ is the “Son of David, the Son of Abraham” (Matt. 1:1) and thus the fulfillment of the covenants God made with each. Jesus is in the Davidic line and is legally qualified to be the king of the nation of Israel. Matthew now presents the virgin birth of Jesus Christ to show that Christ is not the Son of David and the Son of Abraham, but that He is also the Son of God. Matthew 1:18 begins, “Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows.” The word “birth” in that verse is “genesis,” the same as the word “genealogy” in Matthew 1:1. It means the origin or source. In other words, Matthew is now giving us the genealogy of Jesus from the divine side.[1] What was hinted at last week in the genealogy (Matt. 1:16) becomes clear here. Jesus has no human father. Mary is a virgin and Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit. As the Holy Spirit conceived, virgin-born Jesus—as the child who is Immanuel, He is the unique Messiah-King who will save His people from their sins.
Matthew and Luke both tell the story of the virgin birth of Jesus. If you compare the accounts, you will notice that Matthew focuses attention on Joseph, while Luke places the spotlight on Mary. Matthew may do this because although he is clear that Joseph is not the biological father of Jesus, he was the legal father, and thus Jesus was the “Son of David,” heir of the kingdom, through him. So, our outline today follows Joseph’s role in Jesus’ birth.[2]
1. Joseph’s Dilemma (Matt. 1:18-19)
Matthew begins in verse 18 to describe how Jesus Christ was born: “Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: After His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit.” Today, we would probably say they had been engaged, although our word engaged is not strong enough to describe the relationship and responsibilities of a Jewish couple during their betrothal. For Jews anticipating marriage, the parents of the bride and groom usually first made an arrangement for the marriage. Then the betrothal bound the bride and groom in a marriage agreement—they were legally husband and wife, although they did not usually live together or consummate the marriage until about a year later at the marriage ceremony. The betrothal was so binding that it could not be broken except by divorce. One of the purposes of this waiting period was to demonstrate the purity of the bride-to-be.
Joseph and Mary are betrothed in this way. But during this waiting period, Mary is discovered to be pregnant. Matthew simply states the fact of the virgin conception of Jesus, “she was found with child of the Holy Spirit.” In all of human history there had never been a virgin birth. When people saw an unwed mother, there was only one conclusion. Except in this case. There was another origin, the Holy Spirit of God. That may raise many questions in our minds, but the answer is rather simple even though we don’t understand all the details. The Holy Spirit acted in the womb of Mary in such a way as to bring about a supernatural conception.
Luke reveals that Mary already knew the child was “of the Holy Spirit” because the angel Gabriel had come to Nazareth to announce to her, “you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name JESUS. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David.” (Luke 1:31-32). When Mary questioned the angel saying, “How can this be, since I do not know a man?” (Luke 1:34). The angel had told her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God.” (Luke 1:35).
So far, Joseph doesn’t appear to know any of this. Imagine Joseph discovering “she was found with child” knowing that the child was not his. We don’t know how much Mary had told Joseph. Luke tells us that she had immediately left Nazareth to visit her cousin Elizabeth in Judah (Luke 1:39) and stayed there about three months (Luke 1:56) before returning home.
Now that it is clear that Mary is pregnant, Joseph faces a dilemma. He has come into an agreement of marriage with Mary. Now during the waiting time, she becomes pregnant. Who is the father? What should Joseph do? As far as he knew Mary had been unfaithful to him. The Old Testament counted such unfaithfulness in betrothal as adultery, and punishable by death. Deuteronomy 22 gives the law: “If a young woman who is a virgin is betrothed to a husband, and a man finds her in the city and lies with her, then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city, and you shall stone them to death with stones…” (Deut. 22:23-24).
So Joseph was faced with a dilemma, and with the limited information he had at hand, he made his initial decision: “Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not wanting to make her a public example, was minded to put her away secretly.” (Matt. 1:19). Matthew makes a point of emphasizing the fact that Joseph was a “just” or “righteous” man (Matt. 1:19). We are not told very much about Joseph in the Bible, but this is a good testimony of his character. Joseph was “righteous” in the Old Testament sense of the word, he was a godly man who believed the Lord and followed God’s law. His initial decision shows that he not only cared about justice, but mercy. Joseph did not want to press charges against Mary in a public court hearing. He didn’t want her to suffer any harm. So, instead, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.
But this is where God intervenes.
2. Joseph’s Dream (Matt. 1:20-23)
Matthew 1:20-21 says, “20 But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. 21 And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.””
You can almost feel Joseph’s apprehension as “he thought about these things.” He probably experienced sleepless nights over this difficulty, and during one of these nights, “an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream.”
Notice the angel addresses Joseph as “Joseph, son of David.” This is key. Joseph is a son of David—directly descended from David and in the royal line of kings as we saw in the genealogy last week. By God’s design, Joseph was the earthly father of the Son of God.
The angel has two commands for Joseph. First, he is not to be afraid to take Mary to be his wife. The angel tells Joseph what we already know from earlier in the passage. Mary is still a virgin. But God has worked a miracle in her life. What is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.
This is a miracle birth even beyond the miracle birth of Isaac or any of the other miracle births in the Old Testament. Mary conceived Jesus without the assistance of a human father. Joseph is a son of David, and God had told David that God himself would build a house for him, a descendant who would reign on his throne forever. God brought Jesus into the world without the help of a human father. It was all of God to show that salvation is all of God. God brought it about through the Holy Spirit, and so it was a holy conception in every way.
The second command for Joseph is “you shall call His name Jesus” (Matt. 1:21). Jesus was a popular boy’s name at the time. Jesus comes from the Hebrew word Joshua, which means “Jehovah is salvation” or “the Lord saves.” But Jesus Christ would infuse this name with new meaning. Joseph is to “call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” And so, Jesus’ name has great significance. It is a prophecy of what he will do. It looks forward to the cross when Jesus would die for our sins.
The doctrine of the virgin birth is a foundational doctrine. If Jesus Christ is not the virgin-born Son of God, then there is no salvation in Him because he is simply a man. It does not matter how great a man He is nor how tremendous his accomplishments were. The wages of sin is death (Rom. 6:23). If Christ was the greatest man who ever lived but nothing more, He could only pay the penalty for His own sin when He died on that cross. But the virgin birth is God’s statement that He was more than a man; He was also God. When He died on that cross, He died as the sinless Son of God bearing the sins of the world. God gives salvation now as a free gift of His grace based on the finished work of atonement through the blood of Christ on the cross. Therefore, it is extremely important that we understand the significance of the virgin birth. By it, God became a man so that God Himself could become man’s Savior by dying for His people to save them from their sins.
The Old Testament spoke of the time when God would himself would come and save his people from sin. We read in Psalm 130:7-8: “7 O Israel, hope in the LORD; For with the LORD there is mercy, And with Him is abundant redemption. 8 And He shall redeem Israel From all his iniquities.” From the time of the conception of Jesus Christ, His life is connected with providing salvation from sin. “His people” has prime reference to the nation of Israel. But we saw in our last study that Jesus Christ provides salvation for all men. Matthew will close his Gospel with the exhortation to go into all the world and make disciples of all nations. Jesus is a Savior for all who believe in him.
Then Matthew draws our attention to an Old Testament prophecy to show us that the virgin birth of Jesus was God’s plan all along.
22 So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying: 23 “Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us.”
Matthew is quoting from Isaiah 7:14, a prophecy that was made more than seven hundred years earlier. The original prophecy was made to King Ahaz of Judah about deliverance in his time. King Ahaz was in a desperate situation. Two northern kingdoms, Israel and Syria, were forming an alliance with the powerful and dreaded nation of Assyria. They were plotting to make war against Jerusalem. The threat of this coming war was causing the Ahaz, and all his people, to tremble in fear “as the trees of the woods are moved with the wind” (Isaiah 7:1-2).
That’s when the Lord God steps in to assure His people that He has not abandoned them. He sent the prophet Isaiah to Ahaz to tell him not to be afraid of these two kings. He assures him that their plot against God’s people would not stand. God makes the promise that, within sixty-five years, the hostile northern kingdom would be broken and would cease to exist (Isaiah 7:8).
And to assure Ahaz of the truth of this promise, God—through Isaiah—invited the king to ask for a sign (Isaiah 7:11). Sadly, King Ahaz—in a display of false humility—refused the offer God made (Isaiah 7:12). And so, God Himself establishes a sign to the king. God says:
Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel. Curds and honey He shall eat, that He may know to refuse evil and choose the good. Before the Child shall know to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land that you dread will be forsaken by both her kings (Isaiah 7:14-16).
Think about the mother that this promised one—Immanuel—would be born to. The Hebrew word that Isaiah uses to describe her (almâh) is the one that someone would use to describe a young girl who was about to become married.[3] And as we read on in the Book of Isaiah, we find that Isaiah actually went on to take a young woman—a prophetess—as a wife; and that she, through him, bore a son (Isaiah 8:3). So, God’s promise about this young woman was most likely made while she was still a “virgin”.
And then, think about the child that this young woman would give birth to. In Isaiah 8:3, we find that her son was given a real tongue-twister of a name: “Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz” which means, “Quick to the plunder, swift to the spoil”.
This little boy with a long name—about to be born to one who was a virgin—was a living “sign”; given by God to King Ahaz. It was given to assure him that these threatening enemies in the north would indeed have their position of power taken from them in a very short amount of time. In fact, as the Lord says, they would forsake their lands before little Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz was old enough to know the difference between right and wrong (Isaiah 7:16).
Now; that’s the story of the promise of a coming child in the days of Isaiah; and the immediate, historic significance of his symbolic name “Immanuel.” God was with the nation of Judah to deliver them from destruction at the . hand of their enemies. But as we read on in Isaiah’s prophecy, we make an even more remarkable discovery. Not only was there an immediate historic significance to that name; but there was also a significance for the future—one that extended far beyond the concerns of King Ahaz, and far beyond the little baby that was born to the virgin bride-to-be of Isaiah. The name “Immanuel” is applied through Isaiah to another Child—a promised Ruler of His people. All of the land of Judah, for example, is referred to as “Your land, O Immanuel” (Isaiah 8:8); and they were told that the foreign nations that threaten them will not stand, “For God is with us” (Isaiah 8:10).
The far-reaching significance of this is best shown to us in the next chapter of Isaiah. There, in the context of this future promised Child, we discover His true identity. In the passage we often read at Christmas time, Isaiah 9:6-7 we read these words of hope for Judah–and for the world:
For unto us a Child is born,
Unto us a Son is given;
And the government will be upon His shoulder.
And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of His government and peace
There will be no end,
Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom,
To order it and establish it with judgment and justice
From that time forward, even forever.
The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this (Isaiah 9:6-7).
Do you see it? The child that God promised to Isaiah through his bride-to-be was a real child. But he was also a “sign”—a “type”, if you will—of Another who was yet to be born. “Here am I,” Isaiah says, “and the children whom the LORD has given me! We are for signs and wonders in Israel from the LORD of hosts, who dwells in Mount Zion” (Isaiah 8:18). Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz, nicknamed “God with us”, was but a symbolic picture of Another “Immanuel” who would come later; One who would be referred to as “Mighty God” and would rule over His people upon the throne of David forever.
And Matthew, inspired by the Holy Spirit, writes that this prophecy finds fulfillment in the virgin birth of Jesus Christ. He is truly “God with us.” He is the word become flesh, the Son of God who dwelt among us and we beheld his glory (John 1:14).
So, Jesus was given two names at his birth: Immanuel and Jesus. And these two names perfectly describe the person and work of Christ. Who is the person of Christ? He is Immanuel, God with us, fully God and fully man. And what is the work of Christ? He is Jesus who will die on the cross to save his people from their sins.
3. Joseph’s Decision (Matt. 1:24-25)
So Joseph had a dilemma – what should he do about Mary? He had a dream where God gave him two commands – to take Mary home as his wife and to name the boy Jesus. Now he had a decision to make. And it was not an easy decision. If Joseph took Mary home as his wife, he was opening himself up to a lifetime of suspicions and ridicule.
So what did he do?
24 Then Joseph, being aroused from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took to him his wife, 25 and did not know her till she had brought forth her firstborn Son. And he called His name Jesus. (Matthew 1:24-25)
It was the moment of decision, and Joseph chose to obey God. Joseph never speaks in the New Testament, but again and again we see him respond in obedience to God’s commands. This simple, direct, immediate obedience is a hallmark of Joseph’s character.
Joseph took Mary home as his wife. They were officially married now, which means they could now have sexual relations, but Matthew tells us that Joseph had no union with her until she gave birth to Jesus. Some people teach that Joseph and Mary never had sexual relations, but we read in Matthew 13 that Jesus had brothers and sisters. Matthew only says that they abstained until Jesus was born.
And after Jesus was born, Joseph obeyed the second command. He gave Him the name Jesus. By naming Him, Joseph became the legal father of Jesus, thus passing on to Him the legal right of kings through his Davidic bloodline. Joseph was a son of David, and from now on Jesus would be known as the Son of David–all because Joseph obeyed the angel and took Mary home as his wife. Joseph was a righteous man, a man of faith, who believed and obeyed God’s word.
The virgin birth of Jesus Christ is a tremendously encouraging truth. It describes God breaking into the human race, becoming a man so that He could secure our redemption. What a testimony to the love and grace of God that He would love us enough to become a man! In order to provide salvation, He has died the unthinkable death on the cross for our sins. If we believe in Him, we have the forgiveness of sins and eternal life.
Jesus—Savior, Immanuel—God with us, the one who was infinitely rich became poor, assumed our human nature, entered our sin-polluted world without ever being tainted by it, took our guilt, bore our griefs, carried our sorrows, was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities, died for sinners, rose from the dead, ascended to heaven to prepare a place for us, sent His Spirit to dwell in our hearts, right now makes intercession for us, and will some day come to take us to be with Him. This is our King. Do you know Him?
The tragedy in all of this is that there are still people who think they are going to get to heaven by being religious. They think that if they do their best, God will accept them. There are still people who think that if they get baptized they will go to heaven. Others think they will go to heaven by joining the church. What a tragedy! The message of the birth of Christ is God’s testimony to the fact that Jesus is the Savior. No one is saved by believing in the church, by believing in the preacher or by believing in baptism. You are saved by believing that you are a sinner for whom Jesus Christ died. He took your sin upon Himself when He died on the cross. As the Son of God, He became a man so that He might save His people from their sins.
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[1] John MacArthur, https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/2181/the-virgin-birth accessed 05/15/2022
[2] I adapted this outline from Ray Fowler, http://www.rayfowler.org/sermons/matthew/birth-announcement-for-the-ages/ accessed 05/15/2022.
[3] Herbert M. Wolf, Interpreting Isaiah (Grand Rapids: Academie Books, 1985), p. 258.
