What Child Is This?

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.

William Chatterton Dix wrote the lyrics to the traditional English Christmas carol “What Child Is This.” William was 29 years old in 1865 when he suffered from a near-fatal bout of sickness. He was bed-ridden and afflicted with severe depression for months until he called out to God and “met Him in a new and real way.” He became an avid reader of the Bible and that inspired him to start writing hymns. That same year he wrote the lyrics of “What Child Is This” and set it to the tune of the old folk song, “Greensleeves.”

The carol begins by asking the question “What Child Is This?” Then it resounds with the answer in the chorus: This, this is Christ the King! Scripture clearly reveals this truth. Thus, we sing the question not because we are unaware of the answer, but in order to express awe and wonder. It’s like when the disciples found themselves on the Sea of Galilee in a great windstorm, with waves breaking into the boat, and Jesus calmed the storm, “So the men marveled, saying, ‘Who can this be, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?’” (Matt. 8:27). They knew that scripture teaches only God Himself can calm the seas (Psalm 65:7; 89:9; 107:29)—this man Jesus, somehow, must be God. But it was too incredible just to say. What wonder, that God Himself had become man and was in the boat with them! In awe they ask, “Who can this be?”

We sing “What Child Is This?” for the same reason. We know who He is, but it is almost too wonderful to be true. God Himself has become man in this child and has come to save us from our sins. The eternal Word has become flesh and dwells among us (John 1:14). It is clear and certain. At Christmas we pause to wonder, to marvel, to sing in awe, “What child is this?” The Gospels clearly answer this question and call us to believe in and worship this child, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Please turn with me this morning to the first chapter of Matthew’s Gospel—found on the very first page of the New Testament. The opening words of Matthew make it clear who this child is, (Matthew 1:1), “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham.” The expression, “The book of the genealogy” in the Greek text reads, somewhat literally, “the book of the genesis of Jesus Christ.” It is nearly identical to the toledot headings that we have seen in our study of Genesis. Matthew’s words intentionally to point us to the Genealogy of Adam through Seth found Genesis 5, “This is the book of the genealogy of Adam…” (Gen. 5:1). Matthew phrases it this way for the same purpose that John introduces his Gospel with words that echo Genesis 1:1 (John 1:1), “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” John links our Lord Jesus Christ and the beginning of his Gospel to Genesis 1 to show that Christ is the Word who created the heavens and the earth. Matthew links his Gospel to the genealogies of Genesis to show that Jesus Christ is the promised seed who was promised and prophesied throughout the Old Testament.

Matthew’s genealogy of Jesus begins with Abraham; flows through David; and ends with Joseph, the adoptive father of Jesus. Jesus is the promised seed of Abraham who would bless the nations (Gen. 22:18). He is the Son of David who would rule on his throne forever (2 Sam. 7:12). Then in the birth narrative, Matthew reveals further who this unique child is.

In Matthew 1:18, we read, “Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows …” (Matthew 1:18a).

Here is the Christmas story inspired by the Holy Spirit from the pen of Matthew. It reminds us very simply and yet very profoundly of scripture’s answer to the question, “What child is this?” It is my plan this morning is to simply share the story—and, I hope, share it simply. And as we enjoy it together, may God the Holy Spirit renew our hearts with a sense of the wonder of our Savior’s birth; and a sense of gratitude for the love He has shown us in saving us from our sins.

Now; the story begins with,

1. An Awkward Situation (Matt. 1:18-19)

Matthew 1:18, “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.”

Matthew presents the Christmas story here from the perspective of Joseph. We don’t know a lot about this man Joseph. Matthew has already given us his genealogy as a descendent of David through the line of the kings of Judah. We know from Luke that Joseph and Mary were from Nazareth, a small town in the area of Galilee. Matthew tells us (Matt. 2:23) that after the birth of Jesus, they eventually returned to live in Nazareth.

Matthew also informs us that he was betrothed to a young woman named Mary. A ‘betrothal’ back in those days was a very serious thing. It was more than just an engagement. Parents usually arranged marriages and secured them with a formal contract. After this, the couple would be referred to as husband and wife, although they did not live together or consummate the marriage until after a yearlong waiting period, during which the purity of the bride was to be demonstrated. And yet, Joseph discovered—before he and Mary had come together in marriage—that she was pregnant. What a blow this must have been to him! You can tell from what the Bible says about him that he loved Mary. No doubt he was deeply wounded to think that the young woman he loved would do such a thing.

But there was a part of the story that Joseph didn’t know. And to fully appreciate the whole story, we need to look backward a few months in time; back to the event that is told to us in the Gospel of Luke. Luke 1 tells us how this young woman Mary was in Nazareth God sent the angel Gabriel to her (Luke 1:26). He told her, “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!” (Luke 1:28).

This was a very significant greeting. The secret hope of every devout Jewish girl who grew up in the land of Israel, and especially of those who were of the lineage of King David, was that she might be the one chosen by God to give birth to the Messiah—the promised seed of the woman who would bruise the serpent’s head (Gen. 3:15); the seed of Abraham who would bless all the nations (Gen. 22:18); and the seed of David who would reign forever (2 Sam. 7:12). The angel Gabriel now comes to Mary of Nazareth, telling her that it is indeed she who is this ‘most blessed’ among women!

Gabriel went on to say to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, 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. And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end” (Luke 1:30-33).

In shock at this news Mary asked “How can this be”—since she had no relations with a man (Luke 1:34). Then Gabriel told her perhaps the greatest and holiest mystery in all of God’s universe (Luke 1:35), “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.” This is the truth of the virgin birth: God the Holy Spirit caused Mary to become pregnant without the use of a man; and that the Child she bore in her womb was the Son of God in human flesh. No natural union of a human husband and wife ever could bring God into this world. Jesus had to have one human parent or He would not have shared our humanity. But through the superintendence of the Holy Spirit in the virgin birth, Jesus was able to be born as fully human and yet the sinless “Holy One” who is the “Son of God.”

Gabriel then told Mary that her relative Elizabeth was also miraculously pregnant in her old age, and was already six months along in bearing the child who would be known as John the Baptist (Luke 1:36). “For with God,” Gabriel said, “nothing will be impossible” (Luke 1:37).

Mary believed what the angel told her and said (Luke 1:38), “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.” And with that, the angel departed from her; and Mary herself went away to see her relative Elizabeth who confirmed the message of the angel (Luke 1:41-45). Mary stayed with her three months before returning home to Nazareth (Luke 1:56) just in time for her pregnancy to begin showing. Matthew 1:18 takes us forward to that time when, “she was found with child of the Holy Spirit.”

Now we return to Joseph. His bride-to-be had been away for a few months’ time; and now Mary had returned to Nazareth with a child growing in her womb. Did Mary tell him about the angel’s message when she returned to Nazareth? If so, it seems that Joseph had a hard time believing it. In Matthew 1:19, we’re told, “Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not wanting to make her a public example, was minded to put her away secretly.”

We learn several things about Joseph from that verse. First, that he was “a just man”. The word “just” can also be translated “righteous”; and this would be telling us that Joseph was not guilty of any wrongdoing or any impropriety with Mary. The child was not his. Second, it informs us that Joseph was a faithful man. He believed in and faithfully followed God’s commandments. He knew that, if Mary bore a child from another man, then she could not be his wife (Deut. 22:13-29). He had to end the engagement and put her away from himself. Thirdly, this also indicates that Joseph was a merciful and kind man. He did not want to add to her sorrow or shame or suffering. And so, he intended to put an end to their relationship in a private way—so as not to further humiliate her.

So Joseph is left with a tough choice in an awkward situation. But God is still in control and shows His grace to Joseph in:

2. An Angelic Visitation (Matt. 1:20-21)

We read in Matthew 1:20,

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.

Joseph was still mulling over his options when an angel comes to him in a dream. Was it Gabriel—the very same angel who brought this remarkable news to Mary? Possibly. Notice first what the angel called Joseph. Said to him, “Joseph, son of David.” From Matthew 1:1-17 we know that Joseph had royal blood flowing through his veins as a descendant of King David and an heir to the royal promises that God had given to David almost a thousand years before. God had promised David (2 Sam. 7:12-14a),

“When your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his Father, and he shall be My son.”

Joseph had inherited that promise; and the unborn child of the woman Joseph married would also inherit that promise.

Second, notice that the angel told Joseph “do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife” (Matt. 1:20). This was an assurance that Joseph would not be guilty of any wrongdoing in taking her as his wife. He would not violate the commandments of God in doing so. She had not committed sin in her pregnancy and he would be justified in marrying her.

It may be that Joseph—like Mary—wondered how such a thing could be. And so, finally, notice that the angel explains what had occurred to Mary, “for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.”

And then the angel told Joseph even more (Matt. 1:21): “And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”

The angel gave Joseph the responsibility of naming the Child. This is not insignificant! This indicates to us that, along with taking Mary to himself as wife, he would also fully take the Child she bore to himself as his own. For when a man officially gave a child a name, it was an act that indicated his full acceptance of that child as his own. All of the promises from God that Joseph had inherited—all of the rights of royalty through the lineage of King David—would then be passed on to the Child in Mary’s womb.

But Joseph didn’t choose the name of the child, his Father did. The name was given to Joseph by God through the angel. It was the very same name that Gabriel told Mary to name Him months before (Luke 1:31). In Hebrew, it’s the name Yeshua—or as we would say in English, “Joshua”. In the Greek language, it’s the name Iesous—or as we know it in English, “Jesus”. The name means “Yahweh Saves” or “the Lord is salvation”. The angel explains the meaning: “for He will save His people from their sins.”

That name is saying that the Lord, Yahweh, would save His people. But it is also saying more: that this promised Child Himself would save His people from their sins. That’s why He was given that name—“Yahweh Saves”. This child is Yahweh Himself who saves from sin. This Child is God in human flesh, and that He would be the One who saves His people from their sins.

How would this child save from sin? The only way that Jesus could save us from our sins was to live the sinless life which God demands and then to offer Himself as the perfect substitute to pay the penalty that we deserved. He saves us through His death and resurrection. 1 Peter 3:18 states this truth clearly, “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit.” The second verse of Dix’s carol, “What Child Is This?” says,

Nails, spear shall pierce him through,
the cross be borne for me, for you.
Hail, hail the Word-made-flesh,
the babe, the son of Mary!

This is the message of Christmas. Jesus came to save by His death and resurrection. Jesus said (John 10:9), “I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.” But Jesus only saves those who come to Him by faith. He said to the Jews of His day (John 8:24), “Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.” Either we trust in Jesus who died for our sins or we ourselves will die in our sins.

So an awkward situation led to an angelic visitation which finally told of,

3. A Christmas Incarnation (Matt. 1:22-25)

Matthew confirms the truth of Christ’s incarnation in the next verses (Matt. 1:22-23),

So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying: “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 proves the incarnation of Jesus Christ by showing that it is the fulfillment of scripture. Our Savior’s conception in the womb of Mary was the fulfillment of a promise from God. Matthew quotes from the prophet Isaiah—who wrote 750 years before Jesus was born in Isaiah 7:14, “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.” The word “virgin” can simply mean a young woman; and this specific prophecy had immediate application to a woman living in Isaiah’s time. But here, in the Gospel of Matthew, we are made to know that this prophecy had a greater meaning. Its ultimate fulfillment was found in the fact that th virgin Mary—without the aid of a man—bore Jesus in her womb by the Holy Spirit. Just a short time after this prophecy, in Isaiah 9:6-7, the prophet tells us more about the promised child:

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).

This is the meaning of the name Immanuel; He is God with us. That is literally who Jesus is. He is God come to earth to be with us. He is the eternal Son of God clothed in human flesh—conceived in the womb of Mary—born into the human family to be God with us. Because He is “Immanuel,” “God with us,” He is able to truly be “Jesus” for us, “Yahweh Saves”. He is God our Savior.

Joseph must have known that this was more than just a dream. He acted, it seems, without delay. Matthew 1:24 tells us, “Then Joseph, being aroused from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took to him his wife.” God, in His mercy, did not leave either Mary or her holy Child without an earthly protector and provider. What a great responsibility Joseph had! But what a great honor! And in the last verse, we’re told this final word about Joseph; that he took Mary as his wife, “and did not know her till she had brought forth her firstborn Son. And he called His name Jesus.”

He kept his wife a virgin until the time that the Child was born; so that the testimony would be preserved that our Savior truly was born of a virgin, and that He truly had been conceived by the Holy Spirit, and that He truly was the Son of God.

The final verse of Dix’s carol says,

So bring him incense, gold, and myrrh;
come, peasant, king, to own him.
The King of kings salvation brings;
let loving hearts enthrone him.
Raise, raise the song on high;
the virgin sings her lullaby.
Joy, joy, for Christ is born,
the babe, the son of Mary!

Whether you are a peasant or a king, the manger is for all sinners because the cross is for all sinners. What love! What grace! It calls for worship, to declare in awe and wonder, “What child is this?”