Matthew 1:18-25 "The Birth Announcement of Jesus of Nazareth: 1) Name: JESUS 2) Parents: THE VIRGIN BIRTH

Midweek Advent Series: The Birth Announcement of Jesus of Nazareth I. Name: JESUS ) II. Parents: THE VIRGIN BIRTH  Text: Matthew 1:18-25 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. Is 9:6 In the name of that Child which has been born unto us, and that Son which has been given unto us, grace and peace be multiplied to each one of you in His name! Everybody enjoys getting baby announcements, right? It is a time of such joy and excitement. Someone you know had been expecting a baby and now the announcement arrives to let you know that the bundle of joy has arrived! Was it a boy or a girl? What did they name him or her? How much did the baby weigh and how long was the baby? These are all things you typically find on a baby announcement. After we sent Abigail’s announcement out someone wrote back to us, excited, yet still wanting to know how much she weighed and how long she was. In this season of Advent we are gearing up to celebrate a birth of a very special baby Boy. If you were to receive a birth announcement about this Child’s birth, what would it say? What was His name? Who are the parents? When was He born? What were His dimensions? Tonight we want to consider the first two parts of the birth announcement for Jesus of Nazareth and consider the name given to the Child and who His parents are. To guide us this evening we turn to the Gospel according to Matthew, chapter one, beginning with the eighteenth verse: 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. Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not wanting to make her a public example, was minded to put her away secretly. 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. And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins.” Now all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying: “Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us.” Then Joseph, being aroused from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took to him his wife, and did not know her till she had brought forth her firstborn Son. And he called His name JESUS. So far the Word of God. May God send us His Holy Spirit and strengthen our faith through His Word! I. NAME: JESUS Immediately after a couple learns they are going to be parents, they begin the name game. They try to think of good boy names and good girl names for their child. And think of how important this choice will be! This is the name that will be with this person for their whole life. Obviously parents want to be careful in their choice. Parents will try to avoid a name that has a negative connotation associated with it. Most parents will not want to name their child “Jezebel” or “Judas” because of the awful things we know about them. Other names parents will want to avoid are ones with bad meanings. For instance you wouldn’t want to name your child “Ichabod” because the name means “inglorious.” (What a way to start out your life!) Other names are just too important to pass along to our children - like there is too much to live up to. For instance, you don’t find many baby boys being named Israel or Moses, simply because of the greatness associated with those names. So when we get those baby announcements in the mail we are interested to find out what name the parents chose for their child. Sometimes we wonder why that name was chosen. For instance, when Zacharias and Elizabeth had their baby boy, all their friends and relatives assumed the boy would take his father’s name or a name from the family. They were surprised to hear that both Elizabeth and Zacharias demanded their son be named John - the name which the angel Gabriel told Zacharias to give to his son. And the meaning of the name is quite fitting. The name means “Jehovah is gracious.” And how gracious the LORD was to Zacharias and Elizabeth giving them a son in their old age. But more than that, how gracious the LORD was in giving them a son was to be the forerunner to the Savior of the World! But as we receive the birth announcement we see the name chosen for that Baby boy born on Christmas Eve is “Jesus.” It probably was not an unusual name for boys in Judea or Galilee. You see the name “Jesus” is the Greek version of the name “Joshua” - an Old Testament hero. There would have, no doubt, been countless Jewish parents who wanted their son to bear the name of “Joshua.” It’s meaning is wonderful - “Jehovah saves” - and the name has a great association with it, the man who led the Children of Israel from the Wilderness into the Promised Land of Canaan. But when the angel appears to Joseph and tells him to name the Child “Jesus” it is even more fitting for this Baby Boy. “You shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins.” You see, from God’s perspective, Jesus of Nazareth wasn’t named after Joshua of the Old Testament, but Joshua of the Old Testament was named in anticipation of this child who would be born. Jesus really is “Jehovah saves.” Jesus would be Jehovah who would save His people from their sins. He would die on the cross as the Lamb of God to take away the sins of the world. The Old Testament hero Joshua would also be a picture of Jesus who leads us from this Wilderness of Sin into the Promised Land of Heaven. The name on this birth announcement really is the perfect name for this Baby Boy. “For there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12) Only in the name of Jesus are our sins forgiven and are we reconciled unto God in heaven. Only in the name of Jesus are our prayers heard before the Father in heaven. He is the only Savior. The Apostle Paul writes of His name, “Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth.” (Phil 2:9-10) HYMN 78 II. PARENTS: THE VIRGIN BIRTH Another piece of important information on a birth announcement card is who the parents are. The parents are delighted to announce the birth of their child and they want you to share in their joy. But imagine getting a birth announcement where only the name of the mother was listed and no father. What would you be left to imagine? Wouldn’t you imagine that this child was conceived out of wedlock and that the father of the child is not involved in the baby’s life? That only the mother is left to care for this child? What other conclusions would you be left with? The news about his fiancee led Joseph to the same basic conclusions. Mary was pregnant and he knew for a fact that he was not the father. The Old Testament custom with betrothals was that when a Jewish man and Jewish woman became engaged the were to be considered married, though they were not yet to live together as husband and wife - as was the case with Mary and Joseph. To break off the betrothal was considered the same as breaking a marriage. So for Joseph to hear that Mary was pregnant and he was not the father left Joseph with only one conclusion, Mary had cheated on him. As a just man, he was considering the right thing to do. She had been unfaithful to him, she had broken their betrothal, yet in love he did not want to make a public spectacle of her and put her to shame. So he thought it would be best to quietly dissolve the betrothal and each would go their separate ways. But as he was thinking about what to do, the truth about the Child in Mary’s womb was revealed to him. In a dream, an angel of the Lord told Joseph, “Do not be afraid to take to you Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.” (v20) Something unheard of had happened to Mary, she was pregnant but she was still a virgin. She had not been unfaithful to Joseph. While she was the mother of this Child, He had no earthly father. The Child was of the seed of the woman, but not of the seed of man. The Child had been conceived of the Holy Spirit. The Child that was growing within her was true God! This is the Virgin Birth which God had prophesied 700 years earlier through the mouth of His servant Isaiah, “‘Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,’ which is translated, ‘God with us.’” (v23) This Child is Immanuel, He is God with us. He is true God and true Man. He is God with us - on our side to save us. All this was a fulfillment of the promise God had made right after sin and death entered the world. Just after Eve ate of the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden and brought sin and death into the world, God made this promise to Satan, “And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel.” (Gen 3:15) The Serpent crusher was to come from the Seed of the woman. Joseph’s fiancee was that woman and Jesus was that Seed of the woman. That Child growing in Mary’s womb was the Serpent crusher that believers had been waiting 4,000 years for! Finally, the Savior was going to be born! What a beautiful birth announcement for us to receive in God’s Word! No picture on the cover of our bulletin can properly capture the true beauty of this birth announcement. The name of the child shall be Jesus because He saves us from our sins. The Father of this Child is God and the Child’s mother is the Virgin Mary. He is Immanuel - God with us to save ! All praise be to our Savior God! Amen.