Christmas Family Drama | Luke 1:26-38 & Matthew 1:18-25 | Pastor Andrew Coleman

what a glorious truth that we come to

celebrate that we come to remember that

we come to rejoice in the great and

glorious night divine now that music

that we just sang is just a touch of

what Tuesday night involves Tuesday

night we'll have a beautiful Orchestra

here and we're going to look forward to

that do you have your notes if you

missed getting notes when you walked

into the building there's some guys

coming forward some of you are watching

us online and you don't realize that the

notes are also on our website you can go

and download those notes right now they

will be greatly helpful to you can you

take your Bible and turn with me to the

gospel of Matthew to the gospel of

Matthew we're going to begin looking

there in just a few moments and uh I

want us to see some things here well

okay yesterday Marcy and I were out

driving around and a little bit and we

made the mistake of getting off the

turnpike and trying to get into

the is it the Dolphin Mall where Ikea

is do you know what a disaster that was

I'm really glad I drive a pickup truck

because I was able to go over a curb and

get out of that mess and run for my

life we got back on the turnpike and

came home um so uh it it said you know

it'll be an hour to get to Ikea so from

the exit so anyways I don't know about

you but there's a lot of drama at this

time of the year there's drama in our

culture there's drama on the news

there's drama everywhere praise God the

government didn't shut down from

Washington I mean every nobody misses a

chance for drama and the holidays and

there's very often family drama and in

fact this is such a real issue um

there's movies made about it right um do

you remember that one um does anybody

remember that what what is that one

from While You Were Sleeping yeah

favorite holiday movie guy falls on the

tracks girl saves him uh she

accidentally falls into their family and

they're around the Christmas table and

boy is their drama uh those those

potatoes are so creamy you know um some

of you know what I'm talking about

there's just funny dialogue in that and

then it winds up with great drama down

at the train station but it's not just

in Hollywood that we see the drama it's

in your home um also in Hollywood um

there's drama as families get together

and spend time

together and enjoy traditions of

Christmas and when we when we think

about every

family we just know that there's stories

we're we're all individuals and we all

have uh different personalities and we

all have different backgrounds to some

degree even from the same family we're

very different and there's things that

have happened in the past and there's

attitudes and actions and there's

history and and there's interpersonal

relationships some of those things are

very sweet and very wonderful with great

gratitude we look forward to that and

then other times there's difficulty in

fact um there's sometimes high drama of

difficulty as you know um some of you I

mean I we have certain family members

here that in the church that say I just

can't wait for Christmas cuz I get to be

with my family and we have other church

members that say I dread Christmas cuz I

have to with my

family a couple of weeks ago somebody

said yeah my brother's coming and it's

really hard really why is it really hard

well when he's down here he's off from

work and when he's off from work he what

he's on the

bottle and he doesn't even really want

to come over because he says I can start

drinking at 5:

now there's some of you that have no

idea what it's like to have a family

like that and there's many of you that

do unfortunately there maybe there some

of you in this room that you kind of

look to various things in the world to

bring peace but they somehow wind up

bringing a lot of

frustration even sweet sisters can

sometimes not be happy with each other

right well this morning I wants to take

a a few minutes and I'm not going to

give you a bunch of how-tos about your

own personal family life and what to say

and what not to say because the greatest

thing that you and I can do is look at

the

gospel when we see the word of God when

we see what God has done when we see the

plan of God and the power of God listen

to this that is what informs our life

it's what informs our relationships it's

what helps us know how to live what to

do

how to relate it's what gives us the

power to be who God has called us to be

even sometimes in the hardest of

circumstances and so this morning I want

us to look at especially two

people that were starting their family

amidst high

drama very high drama and the scripture

gives us these and so it's just it's

good for us to remember that every

family has drama and there's always a

background to that

drama and so that's true about your

family that's true about my family um

there's some great things about um our

extended family in Miami um but you know

our extended family in Miami I mean I

had one great-grandfather that was just

a a man of Honor a man of

integrity he owned Ramsay and Son's

Lumber Company on the Miami River next

to the Merill Stevens Boatyard that's

still there he created and built lumber

for most of the building of Dade County

um from up to about the 1940s

1950s and influential family and it but

you know even in that family as large as

it was with his brothers and his sisters

and other people involved in the

business there were I remember growing

up and hearing stories of from my

grandmother and my great-grandfather and

he was a very quiet man so he didn't

tell a lot of stories but I would hear

them from other family members including

my own mom and you know in our family

there was

alcoholism in our family there was

sometimes

adultery one of my great great uncles

we're not sure if it was murder or if it

was

suicide he was involved in the business

and it was

murky you know we all have drama we all

have difficulties that are there and

those dramas that come from our

humanness and our

sin we desperately need

relief we desperately need help and that

is the

picture of the Son of God coming into

our lives well let's look at the back

back ground a little bit the setting of

the New Testament um when we when we

come to this setting the background for

this family that we're going to study

now notice here with me number one and

we're going to move very fast through

these so warm up your pen warm it up get

ready here we go number one over 400

years had passed since God had spoken

through the last prophet of the Old

Testament so this is what is called this

is important thing for you to know this

is what is called the enter testamental

period it's the time between the Old

Testament and the New Testament so

there's 400 years of

Silence um so it would appear from God

number two the last Old Testament

Prophet was who Malachi and that was

around 400 BC Israel during Malachi's

time was controlled by the Persian

Empire and it was controlled long after

his death all the way down to 330 2 BC

but the

Persians gave way to Alexander the Great

Alexander the Great with the Greeks

conquered Darius a Persian on October

1st in the year 331 and that should be

331 BC so 331 years before

Christ under those Greeks the Greek

Empire the Jews strangely enough had

pretty strong amount of freedom of

religion because the Greeks had all of

their

gods and so but they had freedom of

religion but there was still a lot of

Greek influence on the heritage of Mary

and Joseph mainly language there was a

lot of people in the areas and in what

would become the Roman Empire that would

speak

Greek then what comes next after the

Greeks the Roman Republic the Roman

Republic rose up and defeated the Greek

city states by for 146 BC so 146 years

before Jesus was born the Romans come

into power the Rome Roman Empire

retained and adapted to Greek culture

and language so they yes they had Latin

but they really prominently the Roman

culture um used Greek as a as a language

across the

Empire when Jesus is born Israel was

Israel had a Jewish King his name was

Herod now I put in quotes there Jewish

because Herod wasn't really a

Jew he was from

idoma um he was a Midian Jew um which is

a a hybrid group and really not um one

of the true tribes of Israel that had

remained pure so he held that but he was

a powerful King and he built an enormous

amount of things but he too was under

whose rule the Romans well number three

notice this the New Testament begins

with the gospels let's say them out loud

together what are the four gospels

Matthew Mark Luke and John Matthew and

Luke interestingly enough begin with the

genealogy in the birth of Jesus no

they are the only two gospels that

record the birth of

Jesus Mark begins its main message with

the prophet John the Baptist so it

doesn't cover the birth of Jesus and

John

begins with this beautiful prologue that

explains the

theological significance of Jesus

becoming the Messiah can you go with me

over to to John CH 1 I know I had you

off open to Matthew but go over to John

John 1 · chapter mention

chapter 1 I want you to see the prologue

of of John's gospel he doesn't go

through the genealogy he doesn't tell

the the Christmas birth story of Jesus

but I want you to see what is here it's

not that he is ignoring the coming of

Jesus he very much covers it and he

covers it in a brief but massively

important

theological overview or a theological

statement in fact he goes all the way

back to

Genesis and then he comes forward to

this look what it says in John 1 and

verse one in the beginning was the word

so similar to how the Old Testament

opens the tanak opens the law the the

the words of Genesis open it's very

similar in the beginning was the word

and the Word was what with God and the

Word was God you see this word that he's

talking about is the second person of

the

Trinity Jesus the Messiah look at verse

two he was in the beginning with God and

all things were made through him see

this is Genesis all things were made

through him and without him not anything

was made that was made in him was life

and the life was the light of men verse

five the light shines in the darkness

and the Darkness has not overcome it

massive theological statements about God

and his righteousness his plan his his

light coming into a dark world and not

being overwhelmed now look at this he

Coes to John the Baptist there was a man

sent from God whose name was John John

so that's not the John who wrote this

it's John the Baptist the cousin of

Jesus he came as a witness to Bear he

came as a witness to Bear witness about

the light and that all may believe

through him he was not the light but

came to bear witness about the light now

here we are look at

this here it is verse 9 the True Light

which enlightens everyone was

what coming in to the

world this is the word made flesh look

what it says in verse 10 he was in the

world and the world was made through him

yet the world did not know him look at

verse 11 he came to his own but his own

people did not receive him but to all

who did receive him he gave the right

who believed in his name he gave the

right to become children of God look at

verse

14 and the word became flesh and dwelt

Among Us

so John does cover the Incarnation he

just does it from a broader theological

view when we go back to Matthew and we

go back to Luke we see the specific

genealogy and the plan well okay so we

we've looked at that inter testamental

period sometimes we're confused about

the that the people the of God had gone

from bondage um to the Babylonians and

the Assyrians to they finally make it

back to Jerusalem they finally make it

back to Israel they're living there they

have freedom of religion to some degree

the Romans come in and roll over them

but nevertheless they are able to have

their temple they're able to read the

scriptures they're able to practice

their ceremonial

law and they go through a tremendous

time of drift spiritually away from the

meaning of God's plan and the meaning of

the law they become very religious but

they don't have much of a

relationship but nevertheless as is

always the case and we've been studying

this in the life of our church as we've

been looking at the prophets the Minor

Prophets look at number four there was a

Remnant that's a very key

word there was a remnant of Jews who had

what true Faith Can you Circle those

words

true

faith and then look what it says and

were righteous before God now this is

very important to understand their

righteousness before God only comes

through faith just like their father

Abraham just like all of those who were

true to God in faith it's by faith it's

counted unto them righteousness faith in

God's salvation and not themselves it's

not not through keeping the law that

they would have righteousness what gives

them righteousness is coming before God

and it was through faith in his Plan of

Salvation and the law was what helped

them to see

that well there were two old people

named Simeon and Anna Simeon some have

said was as old as 114 years

old when he was waiting in the temple he

had spent his life in the temple waiting

upon the Messiah and God had promised

him you would see the Messiah look at

that he waited in the temple for the

Messiah to come and Anna as

well Joseph and Mary were young so

they're on the opposite end of the

spectrum they're very young people they

were young humble obedient Jews with

what true faith we see that we're going

to we're going to see that outlined in

scripture in just a

moment and fast forward a few years he

would grow up John the Baptist is

another example of someone who was part

of the remnant of the Jews he preached

prepare the way for the Lord which was

from Isaiah's prophecy and we see that

in Mark chapter 1 that's how Mark begins

Mark 1 · chapter mention

his gospel he doesn't cover the birth he

covers the preparing of the way for the

Messiah through John the the

Baptist so let's look at Joseph Mary and

Jesus now this is going to be a surprise

to some of you and this will this will

hopefully I think make sense and begin

to settle in with some of you some of

you are going to go

oh Jesus was from did you know this a

blended

family we live in a world today where

there's many many Blended families I

look out people AC all across this room

that I love very much um that come from

a blended

family um and we see here that you can

relate and you can draw great comfort

from realizing that that Dynamic is not

something that was foreign to Jesus at

all and I want you to notice here as

we're about to read the passage number

one Joseph and Mary were engaged to be

married Jewish marriage had two stages

the kadan or

betrothal that is a legally it is as

legally binding as marriage that is not

the case in this day and time if

somebody is engaged it is not the same

as the legal requirement of marriage but

in Jewish culture and this comes from

the sacred writings of the Jews that

when you got engaged and very often it

was through an arrange Ed marriage that

the two would come to the place of

saying yes I I want to marry him or I

want to marry her and they um would come

together in engagement and that lasted

12 months it was during that time that

the young groom was to go and to prepare

himself for marriage he was to prepare a

house you didn't call a

contractor in that day and time to build

a house you typically in that day and

time you would go find some friends to

help you and you would take what you had

saved and your family had pulled

together and you would come together and

you would start building on either to

your parents house or somewhere nearby

you would be building on a place to live

in a tighten it Village and you would be

pulling together your finances you would

be pulling together other things so that

you might be ready to be a husband who

can take care of your wife and she in

same regard would be preparing herself

she would be preparing for the marriage

for the feast she and her family would

be preparing be preparing for that

ceremony and let me tell you that that

ceremony was not a brief thing notice

here with me when we come to the second

aspect of Jewish marriage it lasted 7

Days the Hoopa it sounds like quite a

hoopa doesn't

it I mean when we come to the to to this

picture of marriage it would last when

Marcy and I lived in uh North Africa um

even to this day um many Arab weddings

um last for a week um in fact we lived

in a in a house with an arage Arab

family we had one what is called a Neo

Devilla a level of house that was our

apartment and there was kind of an open

lot behind us with an apartment building

and whenever we saw something that

looked like a circus tent going up this

big party tent this huge party tent

right on the other side of our wall we

knew that the next seven nights were not

going to be

easy I mean there was music and there

was dancing and there was feasting and

there was every imaginable sound and

very often uh yes it's true they love to

shoot guns when everybody starts dancing

so I'm like girls keep your heads

down um but it was for 7 Days by the way

that meant ladies that you get seven

wedding

dresses uh that was the case in Algeria

when we live they would have seven

different dresses that they would wear

so guys you had to save a a lot of

money

um but notice here as well um Joseph and

Mary were

poor they were poor both were from

Nazareth Nazareth was a very depressed

economically depressed area in fact we

know that when two of the disciples

would come and say hey we think we've

found the Messiah and somebody said

really yes he's Jesus of Nazareth and

what did somebody say can any good thing

come out of

Nazareth Nazareth was the other side of

the tracks Nazareth was the depressed

area where there was very it was very

impoverished well Joseph and Mary come

from that area he was a carpenter and

amazing he wasn't an accountant he

wasn't a doctor he wasn't um a professor

he wasn't a rabbi he was a carpenter a

mason

um very similar word there could be used

interchangeably usually we only usually

say Carpenter but what this probably

means is that he was probably a house

Builder he would be able to lay block

and use block and um the the process of

of laying out a house but he would also

build the frames and the doors and the

roof over the

house so um he was a he was a carpenter

mason Joseph and Mary were very very

young um probably in their mid to late

teens or early

20s Joseph and Mary were people of Faith

as we've mentioned in Matthew chapter 1

Matthew 1 · chapter mention

and in Luke chapter 1 we see that Joseph

Luke 1 · chapter mention

was a righteous man a just man Joseph

and Mary too Mary we will see had favor

from

God he preferred her he was pleased with

her notice here with me as well Joseph

and Mary were in the Messianic lineage

of King

David 2 Samuel promises David that I'm

going to make you a king and we will see

that your line will be

Eternal so while many kings of the earth

and their and their descendants Fade Out

King David your line is going to be

forever there's going to be a king who

comes through you that will be forever

this is part of the coming Messiah the

King of Kings and the Lord of

lords God working through

Humanity look at number six Jesus was

Mary's Son by birth but conceived from

who the holy spirit so full on Jesus was

born of a woman he was a

human he was truly man but he's from the

holy spirit so he was truly

God number

seven Jesus was Joseph's Son by what

adoption and this means that so Jesus

had a mother who was his birth mother

but he also had a

stepfather and half brothers and half

sisters

how many of you have half brothers or

half sisters how many of you have half

brothers or half

sisters hundreds in this room many of

you know what that's like half brothers

or half sisters and either because of a

death or either because of a

divorce notice here this is so key for

us this morning we do not serve a

distant and detached God who shouts at

us safely from the

Sidelines no Our God joins us in our

what in our

mess and takes our sin upon

himself and saves us out of all of it

this is the grand picture of the

Incarnation and what God has done so

this drama unfolds and N9 months before

the first Christmas we see some things

happen here and I believe that this can

help your Christmas and your

appreciation the really I believe even

the rest of your life to appreciate what

God has done for us and on our behalf we

begin in Luke 1 and verse 26 and this is

Mary's encounter so this is nine months

before the first Christmas and this is

Mary's en encounter with the Archangel

Gabriel look at verse 26 in the sixth

month the angel gabri Abel was sent from

where from God to a city of Galilee

named where Nazareth you see this is

before she moved to before she traveled

to Bethlehem for the

census so the angel shows up nine months

earlier to a what a virgin betrothed to

a man whose name was Joseph and very key

words of the House of David do you

remember with me that a promise

Pro a prophecy was made that the King of

Kings and the Lord of lords the Messiah

would come through David's

lineage and the virgin's name was Mary

and he came to her and said Greetings oh

favored one the Lord is with you but she

was greatly troubled at the saying and

tried to discern what sort of greeting

this might be and the angel said to her

do not be afraid Mary for you have found

favor with God verse 31 and behold you

will conceive in your womb and bear a

son and you shall call his name Jesus

verse 32 he will be great and we be

called the son of the most high and the

Lord will give to him the Throne of his

father David you see there it is again

and he will reign over the house of

Jacob how long can you Circle that

forever and then underline this and of

his kingdom there will be no

end verse 34 and Mary said to the

angel how will this be since I'm still a

virgin and the angel answered her the

holy spirit will come upon you and the

power of the most high will overshadow

you therefore the child to be born will

be called holy now that's a key phrase

therefore the child that is going to be

born will be called holy because he's

not from Humanity he's not from man he

is from

God he will be called holy the Son of

God verse 36 and behold your relative

Elizabeth in her old age has also

conceived a son and this in the and this

is the sixth month with her who was

called Baron there's a whole another

beautiful story right there verse 37 for

nothing will be impossible with God and

Mary said behold I am the servant of the

Lord let it be to me according to your

word and the angel departed from

her um number one I want us to see the

prominence importance of the Virgin

birth this is something that you should

not be confused on this is something

that is a very

important uh Doctrine and Truth a very

important plan of

God three times it makes clear that she

is a virgin before birth now as a middle

schooler or a high schooler sometimes

you can fixate on that whole issue just

because of you know you're learning

about things and you're thinking about

things and I just want to encourage you

to get over the issue of the sexuality

of it and I want to encourage you to

just begin to focus on what does this

mean um not just biologically but what

does this mean

spiritually that she's from that he is

he is conceived from God of a virgin

it's it's the tremendous importance of

showing us that this baby is from God

not from

Humanity you see the Virgin birth fill

it in the Virgin birth is a sign

that this is the Messiah that's one of

the important parts of that in Isaiah

Isaiah 7:14

7:14 a virgin will conceive and get

birth and he will become the Prince of

Peace he will become the King of Kings

not only is it a sign but it's also

necessary the Virgin birth is necessary

for this to be the Messiah why because

we need a perfect

sacrifice here's how it goes

I can't die for Ray sins Mike

sins I'm not perfect ask Marcy she will

tell you that even as of yesterday by

the way I

mean you can't die for my sins you

you're not perfect it takes a perfect

and holy

sacrifice for

God to cleanse our sins so the Virgin

birth is necess Neary for this to be the

Messiah a perfect sacrifice there are

some tremendously important passages

right there that you really ought to

study today or tonight before you go to

bed look at number two see God's

Sovereign choice to use Mary our God is

The Sovereign God our God makes choices

Our God elects those to whom he is going

to use for his purposes Our God chooses

from among

many this is a fact of the Bible it is

throughout the Bible we see it in the

earliest stages of the Bible in Genesis

and we see it all the way through in the

New Testament that God is a sovereign

God and he chooses to use Mary look at

verse 28 look what it says and he came

to her and said greetings o favored one

the Lord is with you look at what it

says oh favored one look down at verse

30 look at verse 30 and the angel said

to her do not be afraid Mary for you

have found what favor with God you say

are you telling me Pastor Andrew that

God has favorites and I would say

absolutely that may seem unjust to you

but that's just because you haven't read

the Bible

enough I'm not meaning to be derogatory

to you I'm not meaning to be demean you

but I'm just I'm just saying it is a

fact of scripture that God is about the

business of carrying out his perfect

will and his perfect will is right and

holy and just

and he is a God who has

favorites and He blesses his grace none

of us deserve to be favored none of us

to be CH deserve to be chosen by God and

it's a miracle when he does but that's

exactly what he does look what he does

he chose her because because he

preferred her she was the favored

one look at number three notice that all

the glory is intended for God and His

King look at verse 32 up there at the

top all of the favorite I mean all of

all of this glory is intended look at

verse 32 the angel is speaking and he

says he will be great and he will be

called the son of the most high and the

Lord God will give to him the Throne of

his father David and he will reign over

the house of Jacob forever and his and

of his kingdom there will be no end I

want you to see here in number three

that notice that all the glory is

intended for God and His King not

Mary now Mary has a very special purpose

Mary has a very special

privilege but the goal is not to exalt

Mary that is not ever God's plan in this

she is rightly

saying I'm a servant of God you see this

isn't ultimately about

Mary but

Jesus now Satan is a

distractor I mean he is a distractor of

all things he loves to distract us from

God um I mean if he can use Santa Claus

to distract ract you from God he will if

he can use Santa Claus to distract you

from the real and true meaning of

Christmas he will if he can use presents

that you're going to get to distract

you from the greatest present that has

ever been presented in the universe

which is his

son if he can cause children to grow up

thinking about what they're going to get

for Christmas as opposed to what God

gave at Christmas and let me tell you

I'm one of

them I grew up a few blocks away and I

remember being obsessed with my list I

mean I back in the day it was a

tradition make a list baby make a list

for Santa Claus you have not cuz you ask

not

right how many of you ever made a list

for Santa Claus did you ever make a okay

better watch out you better not cry

right and I mean I I thought about I'd

go through the cataloges I'd go through

Bass Pro I'd go through the other things

I I had a train set I'd go through Radio

Shack you know I'm I'm making my I'm

circling stuff leaving it out for Mom to

see I mean I I was

obsessed what am I going to

get we have to be very very careful and

see that Satan always wants to distract

you know Satan can distract us even with

something as wonderful as God choosing

Mary

cause Mary to become one that we

venerate and that we

worship cause Mary to become one that we

focus on as opposed to God In the

Flesh notice this next one notice Mary's

logical question and we see it in verse

34 look at verse 34 and Mary said to the

angel how will this be since I am a

virgin there's one of those places where

it's emphasizing again she's she's never

been with a man so she she clearly

doesn't understand how this could be

possible and what I I just gain from

this is that you know the Bible is so

real and so logical and so clear and

when we come to some of these questions

in our life God how are you going to do

this what we see is is that it's okay to

ask that question Lord how are you going

to work this out in my life what we

learn from this is that God miraculously

Works through the details of his

salvation plan he knows how to make it

work he knows what he's about and you

may not be able to see it all you may

not be able to understand it all but God

is at work and Mary was learning that

and here's one of the cool things is

that 2,000 years later we have the

privilege of learning from Mary and her

experience seeing that she asked a

logical question

and we see that God graciously

explains how it's going to

work notice with me number five we also

see notice the Angel's answer is all

about God's to keep things power and his

Holiness that's how God is going to

accomplish his will that's how he always

accomplishes his will look with me in

verse 35 and the angel and the angel

answered her the Holy Spirit Will so

it's God who's going to do it not Joseph

not somebody else the holy spirit will

come upon you and the power of the most

high will overshadow you therefore the

child to be born will be called holy the

Son of God verse 36 and behold your

relative Elizabeth is in in her old age

has also conceived a son and this is in

the six and she is in the six months

with her who was called baren so she God

graciously even tells

Mary a miracle has already happened near

you that is very similar to this and

it's with your family member

Elizabeth so God in his grace when he

calls Mary to do a very hard thing when

he calls Mary to be suddenly pregnant

and out of wedlock and everybody is

going to be talking about that

drama he's saying it's okay it's okay

Mary I'm already at work in a similar

way nearby to you and you're going to

see it and then of course what does she

do she goes and she spends time in

Elizabeth and they are able you think

about those two women and that those two

pregnancies and what they're able to

share one very old one a virgin and here

they are celebrating God's power and his

plan notice this fill it in God wants

his people to know his power and God

wants his people to know his

Holiness and those two things the power

and the Holiness his power and his

Holiness is the path to our

rescue if God was not powerful he could

not rescue us if he was not holy we

would have nothing to be rescued

from but because we are sinful and

because we are powerless we need his

power and it's his power that brings us

into right relationship with him and

makes us holy

and that is his plan look at Romans chap

1 and verse 16 for I am not ashamed of

the Gospel gospel means good news and

it's talking about Jesus coming for our

sins for it is the power of God for what

salvation to everyone who believes

that's to everyone in this

room maybe you've never truly come and

stepped across in

belief of God's grace and his love and

his goodness in your sinfulness and your

need for his forgiveness the fact that

he will forgive you it says everyone who

believes if God is giving you the grace

to believe today oh friend run to him

and belief because his power and his

Holiness is for you look at number six

notice the immediate humility and

simplicity of Mary's response look at

verse 38 look up there at verse 38 and

Mary said behold

I am the servant of the Lord in fact you

could put out there

slave um that's a more

accurately word for that the bondslave

of the Lord this means that Lord I am

owned by you I am yours I am your do not

just your daughter but I am your

servant and so Mary's response is behold

I am the servant of the Lord let it be

to me according to your word she tells

the

angel and then the angel

departs I love it mission

accomplished look with me what we see in

this we see the immediate humility and

simplicity of Mary's response what she's

saying is Lord so be

it it reveals her submission to the

Lord it reveals her faith in the Lord

and it reveals this is an important one

too it reveals her personal maturity in

the Lord say she was 15 years

old well here we see that she's a woman

of Faith at 15 and she isn't

hysterical trying to run to Mama and

scream say I can't believe what God is

doing to me look at her response Lord

I'm your slave whatever you want that's

faith and that's personal maturity you

know we can learn from

Mary key question and this is a good

question for you today what can you

learn from God's work in and through

Mary I know you're about to turn over

sheet but before you do that just stare

at the

question stare at the

question and think about her

circumstances

think about how difficult her

circumstances

were she's a pregnant

teenager and she's pregnant when she's

not supposed to be pregnant and you

think Facebook and Twitter are the only

thing that spread gossip long before

Facebook and Twitter was the small

town in northern

Israel friends she was put into a very

difficult place by

God but she said

Lord you're in

charge and you're in charge of

me I'm your servant man we can learn a

lot from that finally very quickly the

end look at Joseph boy you talk about a

guy caught in the middle

can you imagine can you imagine how what

scandalize Joseph felt I want you to

think about this with me he's a good

dude we see that in scripture so he's

not some little wild man he's a good

dude and and the scripture says that and

we see he selected a good girl maybe

they both came from you know families

that were mindful in this or maybe God

just sovereignly chose to put them

together I I don't know exactly how that

worked but nevertheless he's in he's

engaged to be married to her and he

knows her he knows that she's a good

girl but he can't deny what he's just

learned his

fiance who he knows he never slept with

is found to be what

pregnant now up until this point he's

knowing okay that only I mean I know

what has

happened can you imagine his

disappointment can you imagine his

confusion I thought she loved

me I thought she was this other

person can you imagine his perhaps his

anger Andor his

fear for the

future he was sure to feel broken as

everything he knew about her seemed to

be what shattered

H have you ever been disappointed

before have you ever been

shocked Joseph has two options option

one bring her before the local Council

and condemn her publicly in the Old

Testament that even led to being

stoned so she could be condemned

publicly or number two because of Greek

and Roman society having a big influence

over the Jews during this time

there was

also another way of dealing with this

and we didn't have to go straight to

stoning I could just give her a quiet

divorce and so apparently Joseph had put

it in his heart to do that let's read

about it Matthew 1: 18 God shows up and

we see an

angel come to Joseph in a dream look at

Verse 18 now the birth of Jesus Christ

was took place in this way so we're

skipped over to Matthew now as opposed

to Luke we're going to see Matthew deals

with Joseph at this moment look what it

says when his mother Mary had been

betrothed to Joseph before they came

together underline that before they came

together it's talking about before they

slept together before they came together

she was found to be with child from the

Holy Spirit verse 19 and her husband

Joseph being a just man another word for

just is

righteous being a righteous man and

unwilling to put her to shame resolved

to divorce her quietly why because he

was just like d i I know how this

happens I can't believe it's

happened but Godly I love her enough and

I can't imagine this I can't imagine

hurting her even though she's hurt me

I'm just going to quietly say no to this

and send her on her

way what else could he do verse 20 but

as he considered these things behold an

angel of the Lord appeared to him in a

dream saying Joseph ooh look at this

what comes after

Joseph son of David there is that

lineage

again Joseph son of David do not fear to

take Mary as your wife for that which is

conceived even in her is from the Holy

Spirit she will bear a son and you shall

call his name Jesus circle the word

for for he will save his people from

their sins why would you say circle the

word for because the way this sentence

is constructed is very important look at

verse 21 she will bear a son and you

will call his name Jesus well why are

you going to call him Jesus because he's

going to save his people from their sins

the word Jesus or Yeshua we'll see that

in just a minute it explains this look

at verse

22 all this took place to fulfill what

the Lord had spoken by the prophet right

above that Isaiah um above verse 23 so

this comes from Isaiah chapter 7 behold

Isaiah 7 · chapter mention

the Virgin shall conceive and bear a son

and they shall call his name Emmanuel

and then Luke writes or Matthew writes

which means God With

Us verse 24 when Joseph woke from the

sleep he did as the angel of the Lord

commanded him he took his

wife but he knew her not until she had

given birth to a son and he called his

name Jesus number one again see the

clarity of the scripture regarding the

Virgin birth and we see it in verse 8 18

we see it in 20 we see it in 23 and we

see it in

25 the Virgin birth is very important

God's word is making sure that we

understand that the Messiah wasn't from

man the Messiah was from God this is

God's salvation you can't save

yourselves I'm coming to join you in

your mess to save you from

yourselves that's the picture here

that's so important the de

of the Lord Jesus Christ is one of the

absolute first things that God calls you

to believe when you come to his

truth that the one who would pay for

your sins is

god notice this next part here this is

critical to the Salvation plan of God

the Messiah was not conceived by Fallen

Humanity but by holy

deity this is why he lived a perfect

life and he could be the perfect

sacrifice and by the way not just the

perfect sacrifice who legally has the

right to exonerate to wash away to

forgive someone else's sin but just

amazingly that he would do that is is

just amazing that he

would notice here with me

we see in number two the drama gets even

more astonishing this unborn baby is

from

God he says in verse 20 look at verse 20

but as he considered these things behold

an angel of the Lord appeared to him in

a dream Joseph son of David do not fear

to take Mary as your wife for that which

is conceived to her and there it is that

which is conceived to her is from the

Holy Spirit which is God so what she

what Joseph is being told by the angel

is God is in this he's in your

trouble he's in the midst of it he has

done this he is with you you can cross

out that next line that's under there

that actually somehow made it over from

the other page um there's only one who

is perfect and that is the Lord Jesus

Christ I mess up those things all the

time look at number three

Mary's story matches the Angel's

instruction call him Jesus look at verse

21 she will bear a son and you will call

his name Jesus that's exactly what Mary

would have heard would have would have

said to Joseph he would have heard that

already from her I mean so here we see

that Joseph has a Dr he he gets the news

he's thinking oh my goodness what am I

going to do I he's going through this

whole crisis and he's now he's made the

decision finally I'm going to

quietly put her away with a

divorce and go on with my life but the

Lord comes and intervenes and he hears

from the angel in his dream the same

thing you're going to call him

Jesus Yeshua what does it literally mean

it literally means means the Lord saves

and that's why it says for he will save

his people from their sins this is his

function his name equals His

function notice number four with me why

wasn't Jesus literally named and called

Emmanuel as Isaiah's prophecy indicated

look up at verse 23 that's the quote

from Isaiah behold the Virgin shall

conceive a son

conceive and bear a son and they shall

call his name what Emmanuel okay so why

why don't we call him Jes why didn't his

friends call him

Emmanuel why didn't everybody else call

him

Emmanuel well that's interesting

Emmanuel was not to be a proper name but

this is very important but a statement

about him what is the name Emmanuel mean

it means god with us right so it's

saying this the name that you're going

to use for him his proper name is Jesus

but you're going to call him what he

really represent and what he really

represents is that God is with you you

say well I don't quite understand that

yet well I want you to think about think

about goat in sports okay just think

about that goat into what does g a t in

sports resp stand

for greatest of all time can we say that

out loud greatest of all time that was

very weak wake up let's say it together

greatest of all time okay now if you

think about that I recently saw this

recently uh this last year with the

Olympics right remember

Simone and I mean EX

extraordinary record right kind of never

been done before and I think her husband

or her boyfriend or somebody gave her a

little goat and he said if you win the

gold you need to put this on and she put

it on she held it up and so do we call

Simone

goat hey goat get over here you don't

call her goat and neither do you call

these guys goat do you you that that's

not that doesn't become their

name but Ronaldo and Messi and Jordan

and Brady I mean you know we we kind of

look at them and so what we're saying is

they're they're may be kind of the

greatest of all time so far for what

they've

done now in a similar way that's where

we go with this think about Goen Sports

this is when you say that Jesus is

Emmanuel he is God With Us that's what

he

is that's that's the idea of that

finally let's look at this I want you to

see the very last verse and this is

verse 24 and verse

25 um see Joseph's

obedience he took Mary as his

wife he kept her

pure he called him

Jesus so like

Mary Joseph was obedient Joseph didn't

wake up from his dream and say excuse me

but you got the wrong

guy I'm not going to do that I'm not

ruining my

life I mean everybody's going to know

about this I know that's not at all what

Joseph did Joseph being a righteous man

of

Faith look what it says in verse 24 when

Joseph Joseph woke from sleep he did as

the angel of the Lord commanded him he

took his

wife but he knew her not until she had

given birth to a

son and he called his name

Jesus

now every family has

drama every family has drama and this

story of a very very you think your

family has

drama Herod the king of the country came

after their

baby wise men I mean Elon Musk Jeff

Bezos and somebody else showed up with

gifts I mean this is

drama gave them really good gifts and

they got these gifts and then they

realize Herod is coming after our

baby God gave him the money to flee to

Egypt

they flee to Egypt and after a couple of

years they would make this is high

drama whatever drama you have going on

in your life and in your family you know

what we need we need God's plan God's

power God's hope we need God's holiness

because he has a plan to work everything

out wherever you've been wherever you've

done this is the god who loves you he

has an elaborate plan to save you and at

Christmas

time you can look at that little manger

and you can look at Joseph and Mary and

you can look at the wise men you can

look at the Shepherds the poor you look

at the power of the Angels you can look

at the whole thing and see that God is

saying I love you and if you'll come to

me I'll save you

amen this is the meaning of Christmas

and I hope that this is you will find is

the way that your life gets worked out

oh key questions sorry I was going to

leave those off and five of you would

come to me immediately number one what

can you learn from God's work in and

through Joseph's whole experience

remember how we thought about that about

Mary that's worth meditating on what can

you learn from this cuz God recorded

this for a

reason maybe you can talk about that as

a

family what does this teach you about

how God brings about his salvation

plan there's a lot to be learned here

about God's salvation plan and in the

it's overarching that's just a good

question to think about and to

discuss how about the last one how does

this encourage you to handle your own

family

drama when and wherever it

is what do we do with our family drama

when we see their family drama how do we

handle our family

drama I hope we see that we look to the

Lord and we trust him and we obey him

amen let's stand together for prayer