The angel gave Joseph the news that Mary had conceived a baby by the Holy Spirit.  Matthew 1:21 answers our questions, “Who Was He?” “What Would He Come To Do?” “Who Would He Do It For?”. This Christmas sermon is really a meditation upon 6 significant words.

She Will Bear A Son

Matthew 1:21

In the heart of every Jewish girl was the hope and dream that she might be the one who would bring God’s Messiah into the world. God had been promising for hundreds of years that He was going to send a Savior, a Deliverer to His people. The Jews had, by and large, misunderstood these promises, and thought that the Messiah would be a military conqueror who would deliver the nation of Israel from their Gentile oppressors, the hated Romans. God’s plan was not to send the Jews a Messiah who would deliver them from earthly enemies, but a Savior to deliver them from sins and their eternal consequences.

In the city of Nazareth there lived a young virgin, named Mary, who was engaged to a young man named Joseph. Now, our understanding of engagement was entirely different from an engagement in Jewish culture in the first century. Interestingly, the same Greek word is translated “engaged” in Luke 1:27, but as “betrothed” in Mt. 1:18. A Jewish betrothal was similar to our engagement, but also different. When a man and woman were betrothed to each other, in the eyes of the Law, they were legally married, even though they had not consummated the union sexually. If they decided to split up and go their separate ways during this time, they had to get a legal certificate of divorce. Notice in Mt. 1:19 the text says, “And Joseph her husband.” Joseph and Mary were legally husband and wife, even though they did not share the marriage bed.

Now, try to put yourself in Mary’s sandals. She’s a young, devout Jewish girl, legally married, but  still a virgin. And all of a sudden, the angel Gabriel appears to her and tells her she is favored by God, because the Lord has determined that she would bear a son, who would be the Son of the Most High who would reign over the throne of His father David, and over the house of Jacob forever. Well, of course, this is a shock to Mary, who innocently asks, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” To this, the angel replies that the Holy Spirit will come upon her and the power of the Most High will overshadow her, so that indeed she would bear the Son of God. Gabriel went on to tell Mary that her relative, Elizabeth had conceived in her old age, and was already six months pregnant.

At this news, Mary decides that she must pay Elizabeth a visit. When she arrives, the baby in Elizabeth’s womb leaps, and Elizabeth begins to prophecy over Mary that she would be the mother of her Lord. Mary follows this up with a lengthy and beautiful prophecy herself. After staying with Elizabeth for the next three months, until the baby is born, Mary makes the journey back home. So, when we come to Matthew 1, where our text is found, Mary is at least 4 months pregnant. She has made a lengthy journey to Elizabeth’s home, spent three months there, and then journeyed home. Evidently, when she got back home, Joseph could tell that she was showing, and came to the conclusion that Mary had picked up a boyfriend on her trip to see Elizabeth. Joseph, apparently, was a kind and gracious man, and did not want to shame Mary and her whole family by making a big public to do about the situation, so decided that he would divorce her privately. It is at this time, that the angel (probably Gabriel again) shows up and tells him that he has come to a hasty and wrong conclusion. Mary has not been unfaithful to him. The child she is carrying is of the Holy Spirit.

Then the angel tells Joseph, “And she will bear a Son.” I want to take Mt. 1:21 this morning as the text for our Christmas meditation.  Actually, we are going to open up this text by meditating on 7 different words:  Jesus – Save – Sins – From – People – His, in that order.  These 7 words answer 3 different questions:

1.  Who Was He?  “Jesus”

2.  What Would He Come To Do?  “Save From Sins”

3.  Who Would He Do It For?  “His People”

1.  Who Was He?

Our text says, “you shall call His name Jesus”.  In Jewish culture, a name was much more significant than a name is in our culture. Today, we can call a little baby, Tom, or Bob, or Sam or Mary or Courtney or Elizabeth, simply because we like the name. However, in Jewish culture a child was given a name that actually meant something. The name Jesus means “Jehovah is salvation” or “Divine Savior.” So, really, the angel said to Joseph, “you shall call his name Divine Savior.” In the name of Jesus alone, we can see who He was. He was Jehovah. He was God of very God! This baby that was to be born was Jehovah!

Just to make sure that we are not misunderstanding who this baby would be verse 22 and 23 state, “Now all this took place that what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet might be fulfilled, saying “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'”.  These verses remove all doubt as to the identity of the baby. He was “Immanuel – God with us.”  The wonder of Christmas is that we celebrate the fact that our Creator, God Himself, has condescended to visit us. He has made a mighty stoop to come down from the palaces of glory, and enter this world He Himself made. He left that place in which He was worshipped incessantly by holy angels and spirits of just men made perfect, and His divine nature was permanently joined to a human nature. For nine months He dwelt in the womb of the virgin. When He was finally born, He came into this world just as every other infant does – absolutely helpless and needy. Oh, what a mystery! Jehovah has stooped to become one of the human race, subject to hunger, thirst, weariness, and poverty. The Being who made the human race, has become one of the human race!

Let this text settle forever exactly who Jesus Christ is. He is not the spirit brother of Lucifer! He is not Michael the archangel! He is not a mere prophet! He is not a mere good religious teacher! He is not merely one of many enlightened men! He is not merely a man who lived up to his potential and became one with God. He is the very One who flung the galaxies into place, who formed the Earth in its solar system, who created the vast oceans, and towering mountain ranges, and the giant whales and elephants, as well as the smallest micro-organisms naked to the human eye.

The glory of Christmas is that in it we remember that God has come down. God has visited His creatures. God has stooped in mercy. God has come on a rescue mission!  I remember the first Christmas after I became a Christian singing the old Christmas carols, and suddenly those old familiar carols became brand new. All of a sudden they were pulsing with new meaning!

Christ by highest heav’n adored.  Christ the everlasting Lord!
Late in time behold Him come.  Offspring of a Virgin’s womb
Veiled in flesh the Godhead see.  Hail the incarnate Deity
Pleased as man with man to dwell.  Jesus, our Emmanuel
Hark! The herald angels sing.  “Glory to the newborn King!”

Oh, I call you especially at this Christmas season, to recognize who this Son was that was born. And once you truly see Him for who He is, bow down and worship Him, just as the magi did. Offer to Him the gifts, not of gold, frankincense and myrrh, but your heart, your love, your affection, your obedience, your strength, your mind, your time, your money, your gifts, your service!

2.  What Would He Do? 

What does our text say in response?  “For it is He who will save His people from their sins.” At this point I want to meditate with you on three different words:  save, sins, and from.

Save

Here we are given the key that unlocks the purpose of Christ’s coming into this world. He came to save. He came to rescue us. He came to deliver us from danger and bring us to safety. We were in danger, eternal danger! Jesus came to snatch us as brands out of the burning. He was the One who fell on the grenade, so that we wouldn’t be blasted to smithereens.

Notice that Jesus didn’t come to teach us. Yes, it is true that “no man ever spake the way this man speaks” but that was not His primary purpose in coming. Jesus didn’t come to show us how to live. Of course, no man ever lived the kind of loving, selfless, life of matchless service that He did, but that was not His primary purpose in coming. No, He came to save us, because were all headed to the eternal lake of fire.

Sins

Please notice that it was not Jesus’ mission to save us from poverty, or sickness, or low self-esteem, or a poor marriage, or an unfulfilling life. Turn on your TV today to the religious channel, and you are sure to hear that the reason Jesus came was to give you your best life now, or to give you money and riches, or to give you physical healing, or success in life, or to make you confident and self-assured, or to give you a wonderful happy marriage. No! A thousand times No! No doubt, Jesus has done many of those things for countless people, but that was not the reason He came. Jesus came into this world, to save us from our sins!

What is sin? It is the violation of the holy law of God. It is an offense to God. It is a thought, word or act which incurs God’s justice and punishment. It is that which stores up the wrath of God. It is that which will damn a man in hell, not just for a hundred years, or a thousand years, or a million years, but forever and ever! The sinner in hell will never be released, because he will never fully pay his debt off. For all eternity he will continue to sin, as he rages against God, and blasphemes Him on and on. Then it will be too late for faith, too late for repentance. Each fresh display of hostility toward God must receive a fresh punishment, and so on into eternity goes the punishment for sins.

From

There is another little word that is very important, and we must be careful not to overlook it. It is the word from.  Jesus did not come to save us in our sins. Jesus didn’t come to rescue us from the awful penalty of our sins, but allow us to continue to wallow in them. The next time we are witnessing to someone and ask them “Do you want to be saved?” we should make sure we add “from your sins”. There’s a whole lot of people who want to be saved from the penalty of their sins who don’t want to be saved from the power of sin. If you are happy to go on living in your sins, you haven’t been saved at all. Everyone whom the Lord justifies, He also sanctifies. Everyone He forgives, He also cleanses. All whom He purifies, He also sets apart. To be saved, means more than getting some fire insurance. It means that God changes you. He transforms you. Do you know one of the ways a person knows they have been saved? They are not OK continuing to live in a way that they know dishonors God.

Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6:9-11, “Or do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God.”  Anyone who is still an adulterer, or a homosexual or a fornicator, or a thief, or a swindler, or a drunkard, or a covetous man has not experienced the saving grace of God. If you are OK going on living in those sins Paul would say you’re still lost. Instead, he says “you were” those kinds of people. You’re not any more! God has justified you, and the Spirit is sanctifying you.

No, if God ever saves a man, He doesn’t save him in his sins. He always saves him from his sins – from sin’s penalty, power, and presence.

3.  Who Would He Do It For?

What does our text say?  It was for “His people.”

People

First of all, Jesus came to save people, members of the human race. He didn’t come to save plants  or animals. No, He didn’t come to save the redwoods or the whales. Neither plants or animals or capable of sinning against God, and so are not in need of being saved. Neither are capable of repentance and faith. No, Jesus didn’t come to save the trees or puppies or kittens.

Neither did Jesus come to save angels, whether good or bad. There are only two kinds of angels – fallen and unfallen. The fallen angels are incapable of being saved, and the unfallen angels don’t need to be saved.  You ought to thank God this morning that you are not a sinning angel instead of a sinning human being. When the angels sinned, they sealed their eternal fate right then and there. There was no possible mercy held out to them. Hebrews 2:16 says, “For assuredly He does not give help to angels, but He gives help to the descendant of Abraham.” God did not become an angel, and suffer in their place to save them. He did suffer in the place of sinful humans!  There is still the possibility of mercy held out for you! We need not despair. The Son of God has come into the world for His people!

His

Now, that word “His” changes everything, doesn’t it?

Notice our text doesn’t say that Jesus would save “all people” from their sins. No, no, Jesus will not save all people. On that final Judgment Day, all humanity will be divided into two groups – the sheep and the goats. The goats will be cast into eternal torment, while the sheep will be received into Christ’s eternal kingdom. Remember that Jesus taught that all men are on a journey. There are two different gates – a wide one and a narrow one. There are also two different paths, a broad one and a narrow one. And there are two different destinations, destruction and life. The incredibly sobering truth is that many go down that path that ends in destruction, while only few are those who find life. I could wish that all men would be saved, but my hopes would be dashed and sorely disappointed. I believe the Word of God teaches that the majority of the human race will experience eternal destruction.

Notice also that our text does not say Jesus would save “the Jewish people.” Yes, it is true that all who are the true sons of Abraham by trusting in Jesus will be saved. However, not every physical descendant of Abraham is guaranteed salvation. They are not all Israel who are descended from Israel (Rom. 9:6).  In fact, Paul said that he had great sorrow and unceasing grief in his heart, because so many of his Jewish countrymen did not follow Christ (Rom. 9:5). No man will ever be saved simply because he was born into a particular race or nationality.

Further, our text does not say that Jesus would save “good people” or “righteous people” or “respectable people”. In fact, if we were good, righteous or respectable, we wouldn’t need saving. Most of the people that we witness to on their doorstep or at the lightrail believe that they are going to heaven because they are good. When we hear that, we should say, “I’m sorry, but based on what you’ve just told me, it’s impossible for you to be saved. Jesus didn’t come to take good people to heaven; He came to save sinners!”

Now that we have considered what our text does not say, let’s meditate on what it does say. “He shall save His people from their sins.”  Did you notice that these people are Christ’s before He even comes into the world? The angel looks at Joseph and says, “He shall save His people.” These people don’t become His people because they are saved. They are saved because they are His people. It’s similar to what Jesus says over in John 10:26, “But you do not believe, because you are not of My sheep.” Jesus doesn’t say, “You are not My sheep because you don’t believe.” No, they didn’t believe because they weren’t His sheep. So, who are these people that are called “His people”? Let’s just notice several statements that Jesus makes in the Gospel of John.

Jn.6:37 “All that the Father gives Me shall come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out.”

Jn.6:39 “And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day.”

Jn. 10:29 “My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.

Jn. 17:1-2 “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You, even as You gave Him authority over all flesh, that to all whom You have given Him, He may give eternal life.

John 17:24  “Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.

So, let’s try to sum up what we learn about these people the Father gave to the Son. They will come to Jesus. Jesus won’t lose any of them but raise them up on the last day. No one is able to snatch them out of His hand. Jesus gives eternal life to them. Jesus prays that the Father would make sure that they are with Him and see His glory.

So, in what sense were these people given to Jesus by the Father?  God gave these people to Jesus in the same way a wealthy ranch owner gives sheep to a shepherd, or the way a King gives soldiers to a general. God entrusted them to Christ for His safe-keeping. Jesus was under a charge from His Father to save them, keep them safe, and by no means ever allow them to be damned. These people were Jesus’ special charge. They are His personal responsibility.

But, not only are they His special charge, they are His special bride. They are God’s elect, chosen by Him to be saved from the foundation of the world. Before this world was even created, God knew whom He would create, and whom He would save, and He gave those people to Jesus, as a gift. These people would be His bride, to bring Him delight forever. Jesus came into this world with the express intention and design of saving these people. Yes, His death was of such an infinite value, that it was sufficient for all people. However, His intention was to come and rescue those the Father had given Him.

So, these people were given to Jesus by the Father to be saved by Him at the cost of His life, but then to be enjoyed by Him in a spiritual eternal union.

Application:

Friends, this is what Christmas is all about. Christmas is a time to rejoice in God’s Rescue Operation! You’ve seen Mission Impossible? Well, this was just like that, but there was only 1 Person involved in the Mission!

The true meaning of Christmas is that there is still hope for the likes of you and me. It’s not too late. We’re not too bad. God has not given up on the human race. Quite to the contrary, He has emptied the Jewel of Heaven, in order to save sinners from this race. But you are thinking, “That’s all well and good, Brian, but how do I know I’m one of His people?” I can’t be saved unless I was given to Jesus before the foundation of the world. That’s true enough, but all you have to do to prove you are one of His people, is come to Christ. If you come to Jesus, you were given by the Father to the Son. It’s that simple. So, come to Christ. Come as a poor, helpless, damned, hell-deserving sinner. Don’t come boasting about your goodness, or your righteousness or your kind and generous heart. Come, bewailing your guilt and filth in the eyes of our thrice holy God.

“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden and I will give you rest” (Mt.11:28)

“And the Spirit and the bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost” (Rev.22:17)

“Ho! Every one who thirsts, come to the waters; and you who have no money come, buy and eat. Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost” (Is.55:1)

Have you ever truly came to Jesus in repentance and faith? Come, this morning! And you who have come, bow down before the God-man born into this world for you, and worship! Worship! Worship Him!
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