Matthew: There is No One Like Jesus

Here is my latest picture of Hudson.  Isn’t he cute?  But as cute as he is, I can’t wait to see what he will be like as he grows up.  Will he be outgoing and inclusive like his dad?   Or will he be compassionate and loyal like his mom?  And what will his personality be like?  Will he be a go-getter or just get by?  Will he be an athlete or a bookworm or both?  And most importantly, will he love Jesus and let Jesus shine through his life?

That’s just the thing about newborns.  We don’t know quite yet what they’ll be like.  But we do know this:  Every child that comes into this world is unique; that there’s no one else like them.  Every child has unique features: their mother’s eyes, their father’s brow; their grandfather’s chin.  They’ve got their own unique fingerprints, their own personality, and their own potential.  As David once declared, “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.” Psalm 139:14

Every child that comes into this world is unique.  They’ve been knit together in their mother’s womb by God.  And God has a purpose for every life.  But none more so, than Jesus.  There is no one quite like Jesus.

That’s what Matthew’s gospel is all about.  Matthew’s Gospel is all about Jesus, God’s promised Messiah who has come into the world to include you in His Story.  And the good news today is that Jesus came into the world as a baby, just like every other child.  He came as a crying, cooing, bed-wetting baby boy.  But he came to us as no ordinary child. And that’s what we get to see in Matthew’s unique account of Jesus’ birth. So, if you brought your Bible with you, let me encourage you to find Matthew 1:18-25, where Matthew is about to show us why There is No One Like Jesus.

Now as we come to this passage the first thing Matthew shows us in the birth account of Jesus is the role that Joseph plays in the story.  His role is so significant, that without Joseph doing his part there would be no Messiah.  And yet that’s the first thing that sets Jesus apart as no ordinary child.  For the first thing Matthew wants us to know about Jesus is this:

1 Jesus is the Messiah Matthew writes: This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly. Matthew 1:18-19

But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” Matthew 1:20-21

All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”). When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus. Matthew 1:22-25

Last Christmas I spoke about Joseph’s dilemma as a righteous man discovering that his betrothed was pregnant.  What we discovered is that Joseph was a man who always wanted to do the right thing according to God’s law.  So he wanted to act on mercy to divorce Mary quietly to save her from public humiliation.  But that’s when God intervened and revealed to Joseph his place in God’s story.  He was to name the child Jesus.  Here is why it was necessary for Joseph to be Mary’s husband and to give the child the name Jesus:

• When Joseph names him, he legally connects Jesus to the royal line of David.  If Joseph does not wed Mary, and name the child Jesus, there would be no legal connection to the throne.  So Joseph is essential to God’s story.  He must be the one to give the name, for when he does, he legally declares that this child is his.
• When Joseph names him Jesus, he reveals what Jesus will do as the Messiah: He will save people from their sins.

Why is this important?  Because most Jews believed that when the Messiah comes, he is going to come as a Deliverer.  But they believed his deliverance would be a military deliverance.  That the Messiah would come to save them from their oppressors, not their sins.

So Joseph plays a key role in establishing the identity of Jesus.  Without Joseph, Jesus could not be the King of the Jews.  And yet the this is the theme of Matthew’s Gospel: Jesus is God’s Anointed One who has come to establish God’s kingdom on earth. That’s the first thing Matthew reveals to us about Jesus.  His identity as Messiah.  Next Matthew reveals to us the extraordinary nature of Jesus.  By his birth we see that..

Jesus is Fully Human and Fully Divine   When Matthew records the words of the angel, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son” Matthew 1:20-21a, Matthew reveals two extraordinary details of Jesus’ birth.  The first one is this:

The Spirit’s place in the story  For the first time it becomes clear to Joseph about the miraculous nature of the conception of this child: “what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.”  This clarifies for Joseph why there is no one like Jesus.  The Holy Spirit is the One who has conceived this child, thus making it abundantly clear to Joseph that this child is God’s Son, and this child will have a divine nature.  

Why is this important for us to understand this?   First, since Jesus was born with a divine nature, he was born without a sin nature.  For the sin nature was conceived in Adam’s sin and passed on to every man through the seed of Adam.  Sin then becomes part of every person’s nature from the moment they are conceived. But here, the Holy Spirit’s seed is holy, it’s divine, and is passed on to Jesus, making Him holy from conception. Therefore, Jesus was born without a sin nature.  And because he was born without a sin nature, there is no one like Jesus.  He was able to live a sinless life and become a perfect sacrifice for our sin.  That’s of utmost importance.  But there’s more.

Now in reading this Gospel we will see the evidence of Jesus’ divine nature as the Messiah: He will have power over disease.  He will cleanse lepers, give sight to the blind, and cause the lame to walk, all by speaking healing into reality.  Secondly, He will have power over nature.  We will see in Matthew 8 how He rebukes the storm and it immediately calms down, to which the disciples respond, “What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the sea obey Him?”  Only God possesses this kind of power over nature.  Thirdly, He will have authority over sin.  He will forgive sins, something only God has the authority to do.  Finally, we will see that He will have authority over death.  We will see Jesus raise the dead.  And we will see Him rise from the dead.  And only someone with a divine nature will be able to do what Jesus will do.  Can you say it with me?  There is no one like Jesus!  He is incomparable. He is truly God’s Son. Jesus is fully divine! 

But Jesus is also fully human.  This is the second extraordinary detail we see in verses 20 and 21.  Matthew also shows us the significance of Mary’s place in God’s story:

Mary’s part in God’s story is to bear God’s Son and therefore impart the human nature of Jesus, so that Jesus is both fully human and fully divine. And it should be clear by now why Jesus needed to be born with a human nature. Why?  For as Hebrews states it so eloquently:  Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. Hebrews 2:14-15 For this reason he had to be made like them, fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. Hebrews 2:17

Jesus was born fully human in every way.  Jesus is like us physically in that He possessed a human body that grew weary, got hungry (8:24; 4:2).   Jesus is like us mentally.  He possessed a human mind that Luke says, “increased in wisdom” (2:52).  He learned the same as other children learn.  Jesus is like us emotionally.  In Matthew’s Gospel we see the full range of human emotions: for example, Jesus’ soul was troubled and overwhelmed, such that he wept loud cries and tears (26:36-39).  Jesus is like us outwardly.  Jesus’ humanity was plain for all to see.  For example, when Jesus taught in the synagogue in His own hometown, the people were amazed saying, “Where did this man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers?” they asked. “Isn’t this the carpenter’s son? Isn’t his mother’s name Mary, and aren’t his brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas? Aren’t all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things?” Matthew 13:54-56.  The people who were closest to Jesus for much of his life – His own brothers and the people in His own hometown – recognized him as merely a man, just like everyone else.  He was fully human…

So why is this important?  Jesus is fully able to identify with us.  He is not unlike us, trying to do something for us.  No, Jesus is truly representative of us.  We have a Savior who is familiar with our struggles – physically, mentally, emotionally. He is familiar with our sufferings, our rejections, our heartaches and our hopes. And because He is like us in every way, and yet without sin, He was able to offer Himself as the perfect sacrifice for sin. Jesus is fully human and fully divine.  There is no one like Jesus.

But there’s even more incredible revelation about Jesus here.  The next thing we see is this: Jesus is the Fulfillment of God’s Promise  In other words, when Matthew wrote: All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”  we see an amazing truth revealed in Jesus’ birth, and that is this: God is faithful to His Word.

Because God fulfilled the promise, He made through the prophet Isaiah seven hundred years prior to the virgin birth, we can be sure that our God will also prove Himself faithful today. So when God says, “I will never leave you or forsake you” Hebrews 13:5, that’s a guarantee.  And when God says, “that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  Romans 8:38-39, we can be confident that He will always be for us!  And when God says that there is coming a day when He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” Revelation 21:4, that too is a guarantee from God.  For God is always faithful to His Word. And Matthew’s Gospel is full of Old Testament Scripture that is fulfilled by Jesus.  This too shows us, there is no one like Jesus.

And the greatest promise that is fulfilled by Jesus is this: Jesus is the Savior of the World This is the central message in God’s story about the birth of Jesus:  She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” Matthew 1:21

This is God’s place in the story:  with the birth of Jesus God is announcing the good news of Jesus’ birth.  By God sending His Son to be born of a virgin God is declaring His plan of salvation.  Jesus means “Yahweh Saves.”  Salvation comes from God, not us. This is why there is no one like Jesus. With the birth of Jesus God does for us, what we cannot do for ourselves. He makes a way for us to be saved, through the sacrifice of a sinless Savior.  This is what makes Jesus so unique.  In Matthew’s Gospel Jesus will continually predict his death on the cross.  In Matthew’s Gospel Jesus will be accused of blasphemy for calling Himself the Messiah, the Son of God.  And in Matthew’s Gospel, we will see that it is the crowd that calls for his crucifixion.  But this is all part of God’s plan of salvation.  Jesus came into the world to be the Savior.  That’s why there is no one like Jesus.  For without His death on the cross for you, there’s no way for you to experience God’s forgiveness, no way for you to be set free from condemnation, no way for you to be reconciled to God.  To be the Savior is what Jesus was born to do.  He was born to die for you.  And that makes Him incomparable.  There is really no one like Jesus.

But there’s one more amazing truth about Jesus we find here in this passage, and that is this:   Jesus is God with us   This is the identity of Jesus included in the prophesy of Jesus, “and they will call him Immanuel” Matthew 1:23

Finally, this is our place in the story.  For once we put our trust in Jesus, the Son of God as our Savior, we will call Him “Immanuel” for we will know Him personally.  This is the blessing promised to Abraham that has been fulfilled in Jesus.  The blessing is not simply the forgiveness of sin found in Jesus, but a new life with Jesus, a new life with God, a relationship with Him who loves us.

This is why God chose us in Christ before the creation of the world: so that we might be holy and blameless in His presence.  You see at the core of God’s salvation plan was to send Jesus to die for you to bring you to God, so as to bring you into fellowship with God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.  Jesus died for you to make peace between you and God so you can walk with Him, enjoy Him, pour out your heart to Him, lean on Him, learn from Him, be changed by Him so you can serve with Him to help others become friends, family and followers of Him.  This is why there is no one like Jesus.  He was born to die for you, so He could make a way for you to be with Him for eternity… I don’t know about you, but that tells me there really is no one like Jesus!

Jesus is the Messiah, God’s anointed who has come to lead us.

Jesus is fully human and fully divine, God’s Son who has come to has come to identify with us and be the perfect sacrifice for us.

Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s Promise, God’s proof of His faithfulness to us.

Jesus is the Savior, the fulfillment of God’s plan to bring us into His family.

Jesus is God with us, the one who gives us fellowship with God both now and forever.  There is no one like Jesus!  He is incomparable but He is profoundly knowable.  That’s the good news of the virgin birth of Jesus.  And the only question I have for you today is this:  Have you put your trust in Jesus.