Joy in Jesus
Text: Matthew 1:18–25 ESV
Review
Wrought in Wisdom and Wonder—that has been our theme for Advent this year as we waited expectantly for the coming of Christ by looking at Matthew’s account of the birth of Jesus. I love how each gospel is written with uniqueness that points out aspects of Jesus that the writer is excited about. Here, in the beginning of Matthew’s gospel, in each of the four stories we have looked at, he continues to draw his readers back into the bigger story of God.
In Matthew 1:1–18, Matthew draws us back to the amazing story that God has wrought through Joseph’s genealogy. Like a master artisan with a picture in his mind before time even began, God brought each piece into place over thousands of years. He didn’t just work in a moment nor was it an afterthought—God wrought (worked with a process and intention) carefully. He held onto his promises to bring a King and High Priest to many people starting with Adam and Eve and he kept his promise through sin, many unexpected means and people, and even through Gentiles. The kingship of David and the exile take center stage as we await the promised new king and final restoration out of our exile. We saw there, even in that list of names the amazing wisdom and wonder of God’s purposes. God is incredibly faithful.
We saw how Matthew pointed us to the sacrificial love of God both through the kindness of the wise men and their gifts and sacrifice, but also through the sacrificial love of Christ as he stepped down to earth from his heavenly throne forever now a man who started life as a helpless baby. This was I stark contrast to the selfishness of the high priests who knew the prophecies but didn’t care to go look with the wisemen, and Herod, who felt challenged and had no real desire to love at all. Not at all like our God. God is incredibly loving.
In fact, Herod was so enraged when the wisemen wouldn’t tell him where the Christ child was that he murdered every boy age two and under in the area of Bethlehem. Through dreams and the messages of angels, Joseph, Mary and Jesus escape to Egypt, mimicking not only the path of the original Israel coming out of Egypt with Moses, but drawing our thoughts back to the exile and God’s promise that one day his Messiah would bring his people out of exile and back into relationship with him. God continues to work for Joseph and Mary even when hope appears to flicker and through that flickering hope. Especially in the birth of Christ God is giving us amazing hope.
Joy in Jesus
We skipped Matthew’s account of Jesus’s birth to save it for today’s message. Matthew chooses to focus on Joseph’s story in this account. It’s not that he isn’t aware of Mary’s side that Luke records for us so clearly, nor that he doesn’t love the beauty of Jesus the word-made-flesh that John talks about. Matthew continues to draw us into the larger plan of God that was wrought in wisdom and wonder and through Joseph’s account we are going to see very relatable concerns and see that what Joseph ultimately had to find is what we have to find—Joy in Jesus. Look with me at the first section:
“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. And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly.” (Matthew 1:18–19, ESV)
Matthew drops us into the particular story of Joseph and Mary by reminding us that they were betrothed. We don’t a category like this anymore—it wasn’t engagement because you couldn’t break it without a divorce, but similarly you weren’t married yet, like engagement, so you shouldn’t have had sex yet nor do you get the benefits of living together. It may sound like the most difficult aspects of waiting to be married and being married combined, but it provided for security for both the man and woman—for the woman as her parents and community made sure the man would be ready to care well for her, for the man knowing he had a wife waiting as he tried to start a life for them.
But Joseph is no different than you or I. He hears that Mary is “found with child” and he thinks what any of us would think if we had a friend or coworker or even just an acquaintance that we knew tell us this. “Yeah, right, Holy Spirit baby…” No one would have believed her and Joseph wouldn’t have been any different. But Matthew wants us to see two important things about Joseph here:
First, he was just. That means he knew God’s righteous requirements throughout Scripture and he wanted to follow them. He remembered passages like Deuteronomy 5:18; Exodus 20:14; Leviticus 20:20, that talk about adultery and especially Deuteronomy 22:23–24 where God talks about this exact scenario, and says if a betrothed woman is found pregnant and she never screamed out (meaning she didn’t want the advances of the other man), they are both to be stoned and killed.
Joseph knows it wasn’t him, and he doesn’t want to be stoned. And obviously Mary isn’t saying who it was because all anyone knows it is the “Holy Spirit” who put this baby in her. This puts him in a hard spot, especially because Matthew also highlights a second thought Joseph has—he wants to be merciful.
Matthew says Joseph is unwilling to put Mary to shame. He doesn’t want to have her killed, he doesn’t want to ruin her life. So as Joseph ponders, he decides that the best way to be just and to have mercy is to divorce her quietly. This will keep him away from her sin and therefore righteous before God, but it won’t leave her dead.
And just as he decides this and lays down to rest, we read this next section:
“But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, ‘Joseph, son of David…’” (Matthew 1:20a, ESV)
It is amazing what is included in an introduction. All of us like being treated with respect. There is a reason waiters and waitresses often call us “sir” or “miss,” because it plays on our desire to be seen as important. This would be somewhat like an angel appearing before me or you and saying, “Oh most royal and important one.” We would all look around and wonder, “You talking to me?” Matthew has already shown us that this is true, that Joseph is indeed of the lineage of David. But Joseph likely didn’t think much about that, or if he did, as a man from the small town of Nazareth he didn’t think much of it. On this introduction the angel is beckoning Joseph to step into the large picture and story of God and to own his role in it. The Angel continues on:
“do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.” (Matthew 1:20b, ESV)
What Joseph likely thought, that Mary indeed had committed adultery against him, was wrong. This truly was a child conceived by the Holy Spirit. On the one hand, that would have made Joseph very happy, but it definitely wouldn’t have dealt with what the angel said—his fear.
If he did what he was being asked to do—take Mary as his wife—Joseph knew people would assume at least one of two things: either that Mary cheated on Joseph with someone else and he wasn’t man enough to deal with the consequences and shame and so married her anyway or that Joseph and Mary did have sex and a pregnancy prior to their marriage and now they were simply trying to cover it up. No matter how convincing an angel appearing to Joseph would be it wasn’t going to change the difficulty of what would happen if he married Mary. This was not going to be an easy life—likely both of them being looked down upon, Jesus being teased as not having a legitimate heritage. This would help you understand why Joseph and Mary likely didn’t want to be back in Nazareth of all places when they came back from Egypt—they were likely hoping to make a new life somewhere where this wasn’t as known.
But this isn’t all the angel says to Joseph. He continues:
“She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:21, ESV)
In asking Joseph to name Jesus, the angel is asking him to publicly accept Jesus. Naming a child meant you were accepting them as your child—it was how adoptions were done in the ancient world. That moment would be the equivalent to the point of no return—Joseph would be all in and ready to walk out the life he knew would be difficult with Mary and Jesus.
Something in this statement changes Joseph’s mind. He went to sleep ready to divorce Mary quietly, and wakes up going an entirely different direction. Something about this idea that this baby will be Jesus, the Greek equivalent of Joshua—the one who will bring God’s promised salvation—and that he will the one who will save his people from their sins changes everything for Joseph.
I think Matthew is trying to help us when he quotes the next section of Scripture from Isaiah:
“All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).” (Matthew 1:22–23, ESV)
As we saw in the other stories surrounding Jesus birth, Matthew is concerned about the big picture of God that Jesus is fulfilling so he often uses prophecy in a promise-fulfillment way. Something was promised and now Jesus is fulfilling it. This is sometimes simple, sometimes a little more complicated (like we saw in the killing of the children of Bethlehem). Here it is a straightforward meaning—Mary indeed was a virgin who conceived a son. But there is so much more going on in Matthew using this quote.
This is from Isaiah 7:4. King Ahaz is on the throne and he is encircled by his enemies. The prophet Isaiah goes to him and asks him to put his trust in God, but Ahaz refuses, and Isaiah responds with wrath. He prophecies against Ahaz’s kingdom Judah and the nation of Ephraim, and he tells him of the destruction of his kingdom, how the child of a virgin will come and before he is even grown this will all be true. Even though Isaiah goes in and has a child with his wife, called “the virgin” in the prophecies, it can’t be her that he is ultimately talking about. The lost of the Davidic dynasty hasn’t happened by then. What Isaiah is ultimately talking about is the Messiah.
As we read on in Isaiah chapters eight and nine we see that after God’s people are taken away, the true king, the Messiah will come and he will: Possess the land (8:8), thwart all opponents (8:10), appear in Galilee of the Gentiles (9:1), as a great light to those in the land in the shadow of death (9:2), a Child and son called “wonderful counselor, Mighty God, everlasting father, prince of peace (9:6), and he will reign on David’s throne forever (9:7). This is God himself come. This Messiah is God with us, literally.
We don’t know for sure what Joseph thought when he heard the angel declare that Jesus would save his people from their sins. Isaiah seven is the only story talking about a virgin giving birth in the bible, so if Joseph knew his Scriptures well he would definitely think of this story. But what Isaiah is pointing toward and what Joseph found are the same—joy in Jesus.
None of us making lasting change by sheer will. In a couple of weeks many of us will all look down at the scales after a wonderful holiday season we will have to find joy in something other than movies, cookies, and warm drinks. Our joy will need to be refocused. This is precisely where Isaiah is going! His prophecies are moving toward the joy that God’s people find when they are brought back from exile and again are with their good king.
In Isaiah, speaking of Immanuel, he says in Isaiah 9:3, 12:2–3, 6, and 35:10
“You [God, Messiah] have enlarged the nation and increased their joy; they rejoice before you as a people rejoice at the harvest, as warriors rejoice when dividing the plunder.” (Isaiah 9:3, ESV)
““Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid; for the LORD GOD is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation.” With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.” (Isaiah 12:2–3)
“Shout aloud and sing for joy, people of Zion, for great is the Holy One of Israel among you.” (Isaiah 12:6, ESV)
“and those the LORD has rescued will return. They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.” (Isaiah 35:10, ESV)
The arrival of Jesus, the long promised and firmly held plan for a future King and Priest, the sweet sacrificial love of God enjoined as a human in a baby in a manger, the ultimate hope amidst any flickering hope, is ultimately meant to bring us to joy! When Joseph hears that Jesus will save his people from their sins, he finds that more joyful than a thousand taunts and jeers from a city that may look down on him and Mary for the rest of their lives.
All of this is pointing us to finding joy in Jesus as our Messiah—our great king, our high priest, our God. And this was no different for Jesus. We see in Hebrews 12:2
“For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:2, ESV)
Joy in God. Joy in Jesus. Joseph obviously finds this type of joy. It is able to overwhelm the fear that the angel tells him not to have. It doesn’t change the difficulties that he, Mary, and Jesus will have. It will not change the looks of derision, the taunts, the painful comments. But it will make it all worth it to enjoy Jesus! The glory of joy in Jesus is more than sufficient to motivate Joseph.
“When Jospeh woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.” (Matthew 1:24–25, ESV)
It is not that different for us. Just as we sang this evening right before this message in “Come All You Unfaithful,” God meets us just like Joseph in our sin and unbelief (Romans 5:8, ESV). We then have the opportunity as God opens our eyes to his glorious plan and promises held firm, his love for us in Jesus, and the amazing hope we have of relationship with God again, to find that we have joy in Jesus! It never removes all the difficulties of this life, but it makes this life much sweeter knowing our future is secure.
If you are not a believer yet, come to Jesus and know him as the Joy of your life. If you are a believer already, come behold again tonight the beauty of the joy of Jesus and praise him with us!