The Promises Christmas Fulfilled: Jesus was born into a family with a very important history, including many prophecies or promises of God about a coming Messiah-King. The first Christmas is a story of one promise being fulfilled after another, after another. Seeing this pattern greatly helps our faith. What is a promise of God you need him to keep? Recorded on Dec 21, 2025, on Matthew 1-2 by Pastor David Parks.
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Sermon Transcript
Well, this week, we’ll take a little break from our Solomon series for Christmas. But today, I’d like to connect our Solomon series to the Christmas story by examining how many of the Old Testament promises of God were fulfilled in the birth of Jesus Christ. Now, this isn’t just a deep dive into ancient, obscure texts because we’re history nerds. We are history nerds, but much more importantly, as Jesus would later teach his disciples, the whole OT, including the law, the prophets, and the other writings, is actually about him. But different passages are about Jesus in different ways. Some passages illustrate our need for Jesus, such as the psalm we looked at last week, Psalm 72. It describes the ultimate kind of king that wasn’t truly realized until the coming of Jesus. Other passages provide something like an echo or foreshadowing of who Jesus would be or what he would do. We call this typology, and these people or situations are types of Christ. King David was a type of Christ when he fought on behalf of God’s people and won their victory over the giant Goliath. This foreshadowed the cross, where Jesus would die on behalf of God’s people and defeat the greater giants of sin and death. It sets up a pattern that is ultimately fulfilled in Christ. Still other passages contain prophecies or promises of God that would only be fulfilled by the arrival of his beloved son, Jesus. The promises that were made during Solomon’s time would have to wait something like 900 years for the time of Jesus. But when we see how God fulfilled these promises, it can have a huge impact on our faith today. To see that God actually keeps his word. To see that God can promise things for our future and actually come through on them. So today, as we jump into the Christmas story from Matthew chapter 1, I want to ask you a big question: What is a promise of God you need him to keep? If you have your Bible/app, please open to Matthew 1:1. Now, we’ll do something a little different today. We’ll read through most of chapters 1-2, focusing almost exclusively on the promises of God found in the Old Testament, which Christmas fulfilled.
Matthew 1:1, 17 (NIV), “1 This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah the son of David, the son of Abraham…17 Thus there were fourteen generations in all from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile to Babylon, and fourteen from the exile to the Messiah.” You are more than free to read through the genealogy later if you’d like. But the point is that Jesus didn’t appear out of a vacuum. He was born into a particular family with a very important history. This family traces its lineage back to Abraham and Sarah, who lived almost 2,000 years before the time of Jesus. And God made a series of promises about his Messiah and the blessings that would come through the seed of this unlikely couple. God made these promises in Genesis 12, 15, 17, and elsewhere in the Old Testament. All those years earlier, God had promised that there would be one who would come from the house and line of Abraham through whom all the peoples on earth would be blessed. Almost a thousand years later, during the time of King David and Solomon, God made another promise for the house and line of David. In 2 Samuel 7, a passage that came into play in our Solomon series, God promised that there would be not just a man, but a king, who would come from the house and line of David, who would establish a house (or household) for the Lord and reign over the kingdom of God forever and ever—one whose kingdom would never die. In this way, Solomon was a type of Christ as the royal son who was chosen/anointed to be the king to build the house of the Lord. But by using this genealogy structured as he did, Matthew reveals that it was Jesus who fulfilled these ancient promises of God. Jesus was the fulfillment of the covenant of promise for Abraham. Jesus was the fulfillment of the covenant of a kingdom for David. Before there was a BC and an AD, dividing all of time by the first advent of Christ, Matthew said this parallel division of the generations revealed that this Jesus was the Christ or the Messiah, meaning the anointed one sent by God. But the promises of God went way beyond the lineage of Jesus.
Matthew 1:18–25 (NIV), “18 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. 19 Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly. 20 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. 21 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.” 22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 23 “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”). 24 When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. 25 But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.” Did you catch it? Matthew uses the phrase “All this took place to fulfill…” many times in his gospel account of the life/ministry of Jesus to refer to OT promises fulfilled by Jesus. In v. 23, Matthew quotes Isaiah 7:14, in which God promised that a virgin would miraculously conceive and give birth to a son. But this wouldn’t be just any son; he would be called Immanuel, which means “God with us.” “But wait,” you might think, “are we really supposed to believe this actually happened?” Well, two facts confirm that this really happened. First, when Joseph found out that Mary was pregnant, he didn’t immediately assume it was a miracle. He assumed she’d been unfaithful. But he wasn’t a bad guy, so he decided to divorce her quietly. He didn’t want to humiliate her publicly. Second, after the angel in the dream told him what had happened, and that all this was actually a promise of God that had been fulfilled, Matthew reports that Joseph didn’t consummate their marriage until after Jesus was born (v. 25). It had to be a miracle! So Jesus wasn’t Joseph’s biological son, although he accepted Jesus as his stepson after he was born. Joseph and Mary did go on to have other kids together, including James, Joseph, Simon, Jude, and a number of daughters as well. The doctrine that Mary remained a virgin after Jesus was born, which is taught by some denominations, is not found in the Scriptures. Nevertheless, the miraculous conception of Jesus was a promise that Christmas fulfilled. But, again, it went beyond the conception of Jesus.
Matthew 2:1–12 (NIV), “1 After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem 2 and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” 3 When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. 4 When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born. 5 “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written: 6 “ ‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.’” 7 Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. 8 He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.” 9 After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. 11 On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. 12 And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.” Now, there are a number of OT promises of God about other nations and kingdoms being blessed by the King of the Kingdom of God. And there’s even one passage in Numbers 24 where the prophet Balaam said that a star would rise out of Israel, marking the arrival of a king who would conquer all the enemies of God’s people. And here, we discover that in the fullness of time, God used that promised star to draw in the most unlikely of people to bear witness to the birth of this promised conquering king—three magi or wise men who were actually pagan astronomers from Babylon, bringing gifts to worship the newborn king. Isn’t that incredible? But I think the main promise in focus in this passage is in the place of Jesus’ birth, that is, in the city of David, in Bethlehem, in the region of Judah. When the evil King Herod asked his Biblical scholars, the chief priests and teachers of the law, about prophecies regarding the Messiah’s birthplace, they told him that, according to Micah chapter 5, there would be a ruler who would shepherd God’s people, who would come from Bethlehem, but “whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.” (Mic 5:2). I’m sure people wondered what that could possibly mean. But this ruler, this shepherd-king, would “stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God. And they [would] live securely, for then his greatness will reach to the ends of the earth.” (Mic 5:4). The king, from Bethlehem, was going to be their peace. But, again, it went beyond the birthplace of Jesus as well.
Matthew 2:13–18 (NIV), “13 When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.” 14 So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, 15 where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.” 16 When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. 17 Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled: 18 “A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.” Matthew has two OT promises of God in view here. First, from the prophet Hosea, in a passage that talks about Israel being God’s beloved son, “and out of Egypt I called my son.” (Ho 11:1). But this kind of promise is so hard to understand before it happens. How could the Messiah be from Bethlehem and called out of Egypt? Well, because of the Roman census, Jesus was born in Bethlehem, but then, because of Herod’s plot and the warning from the angel, Joseph, Mary, and baby Jesus fled to Egypt as refugees. Again, not the ideal birth-recovery plan! But that didn’t stop Herod from leaving his murderous stain on the record of Scripture. Just in case Jesus was being hidden from him in/around Bethlehem, he had all boys two and under put to death to try to eliminate any potential rivals to his crown. What a monster. Do you know the saying that something would make someone roll over in their grave? That’s what Matthew was saying by referring to Jeremiah 31. You see, Rachel was the wife of Jacob, the grandson of Abraham, and when she passed away so many generations earlier, she had been buried in Bethlehem. So when these innocent boys were slaughtered in Bethlehem, Matthew is saying Rachel would’ve rolled over in her grave. She would’ve wept for her children and refused to be comforted. So, the second promise fulfilled in this passage was the heartbreaking promise of God about the deadly threat to the little Christ-child in Jeremiah. Yet again, it wasn’t just the Abrahamic and Davidic lineage of Jesus, or the miraculous conception of Jesus, or the birthplace of Jesus in Bethlehem, or the threat from Herod to Jesus’ life that required him to flee to Egypt. According to Matthew, there was one more promise of God that was fulfilled by that first Christmas.
Matthew 2:19–23 (NIV), “19 After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt 20 and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child’s life are dead.” 21 So he got up, took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. 22 But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee, 23 and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets, that he would be called a Nazarene.” This is God’s word. The final promise of God that was fulfilled at that first Christmas was that the Messiah would be called a Nazarene. And where did Jesus grow up, learning the carpentry trade from his step-dad? In the tiny little town of Nazareth. Now, I’m sure Nazareth wasn’t a bad place to grow up. Some of you grew up in a place like Nazareth. It was probably pretty safe. Like most small towns, everyone knew everybody else, and things didn’t change a whole lot. But Nazareth didn’t have a port, and it wasn’t on any major highway; they didn’t even have a mall (as far as I know). Well, Matthew doesn’t reference any one passage here about the Messiah being called a Nazarene. He refers to multiple prophets, but curiously, there are no direct references to the Messiah being a Nazarene in the OT. Did Matthew get this wrong? I don’t think so. But there are two main interpretations of this today. First, Nazareth sounds like a Hebrew word meaning ”branch.” And multiple prophets talk about God raising up a righteous branch to save his people. And that seems plausible to me. The Branch passages are clearly about the Messiah, and are also clearly fulfilled by Jesus. But the other theory seems a little more likely to me. The other theory is that Nazareth, as a small town in the middle of nowhere, had a negative connotation for Jewish people back then. In John chapter 1, when Nathanael first heard that Jesus might be the Messiah, he asked where Jesus was from (just like Herod). When he heard Jesus was from Nazareth (because the disciples didn’t know at that point that Jesus was born in Bethlehem), Nathanael’s response was “Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” (Jn 1:46). Good question! Nazareth was a humble place to grow up. Would the conquering King of the Kingdom of God come from such an out-of-the-way place? It didn’t seem possible until you remembered the many promises of God through many of his prophets that said that the Messiah would have to humbly suffer and even die to bring salvation and life everlasting to the people of God. The way up for the Messiah was down. The most exalted Savior would be the most humble man, like a man who grew up in a poor family from unimpressive Nazareth. Either way, whether Nazareth fulfilled Jesus being the Righteous Branch that God had promised or the humble Suffering Servant, God’s promises had been fulfilled. That first Christmas story was just one promise coming true after another, after another. But this is only from Matthew’s gospel! The other gospel authors connect the dots to still more promises of God that were fulfilled in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Now, this is amazing, right? The Bible is a miracle in itself. 66 books, written by over 40 authors, over a period of about 1,500 years, that all tell one story—the good news of who God is, what he has done through his Son, Jesus, and all that he still promises for our future. So today, how might we apply this teaching? What does this mean for our lives? Let’s come back to our big question: What is a promise of God you need him to keep? Do you need God to keep his promise for the forgiveness of sins? For healing? For life after death? For peace? For rest? That we’ll see our loved ones again who have passed on? That justice will one day be perfectly done? What’s a word in the Bible you need to be true? That God is love and that love is patient and kind, it does not boast and keeps no record of wrongs? That God made us in his image with inherent meaning, purpose, and value? That God created us and sustains us? That God wants to dwell with us forever? That God doesn’t delight in the death of the wicked, but loves to give grace to the humble? There are loads of promises in the Bible that we desperately need God to keep. But what do we do in the meantime? What do we need, even this Christmas season, while we wait for God to keep his promises? Faith. We need to have faith that God will keep his promises, that God will keep his word. And what builds our faith in God, in our belief in the trustworthiness of God? By seeing all the times in the past, including the story of that first Christmas all those years ago, and in countless other stories in the record of Scripture, when God fulfilled his promises, when he kept his word. So today, and during the next few weeks of the Christmas season, may we remember and cling to the many promises of God for us and our future in Christ. And may we be a church with big, bold faith into 2026, believing/trusting the promises of God because he is reliable/trustworthy, and in his time and according to his wisdom, he will fulfill every promise to us for his glory, our joy, and the good of all creation. Let us pray.
