Matthew 1

Matthew 1 presents the all too familiar story of the announcement to Joseph regarding the miraculous conception of Jesus.  You can imagine what was going through Joseph’s mind when Mary tearfully tried to convince him that she had never been with another man, but the angel Gabriel told her that God’s Spirit would miraculously cause her to be pregnant with God’s Son. What man in his right mind would buy that far-fetched excuse? If I were Joseph, I would tell Mary “I am not going to believe you unless that angel appears to me and tells me the same thing.” Of course, I would not believe that it would actually happen.  But it turns out the far-fetched excuse was actually true.    Joseph hears these mind-blowing words from the angel:

The Child who has been conceived in her isof the Holy Spirit. She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.

You might remember from the sermon at Christmas time that the name Jesus in Hebrew is Yeshua.  It is a contraction of two Hebrew words:  Yahweh+ Salvation.   Jesus very name gives us his identity: He is Yahweh, God himself is with us as Isaiah predicted.  His name also gives us his mission: He has come to save us from our sins.  The Gospel of Matthew is not ambiguous about who this baby is. This chapter starts off with the mind-blowing story about how God became man.   Joseph then steps into an incredible journey; he marries his beloved Mary and begins to raise the God-Man as his own.  Wow!  You can’t make this stuff up.