A Return to Wonder: Really Bad News | Part 2

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Merry Christmas.

We're in a series called A Return to Wonder.

A Return to Wonder.

And we're asking this: what if there is a deeper, more wonderful reality to the Christmas season that we've been missing all along?

If that's really true, if there is this deeper reality, how do we return to the wonder of Christmas being the most awe-inspiring, right?

The most uh, you know, like magical, wonderful time of the year.

Now, when it comes to Christmas, we're so familiar with the story, and it's gets it's wrapped up in all of our holiday traditions from Agnog, which we were talking about earlier, to um, you know, Santa Claus and Elf on the Shelf and all the rest.

And and probably you've set up maybe a nativity set in your home, and maybe you've seen them set up around that it tends to lose its sense of wonder.

We've become so familiar, so this is just what it is, that it loses its sense of mystery.

And here's what we're doing: we're taking the next few weeks and taking a fresh look at the Christmas story, at the birth of Jesus, at the nativity, to allow our hearts to return to the wonder of God with us, to let our hearts yet again, or maybe for the very first time, whisper mystery.

Now, when the first followers of Jesus talked about the birth of Jesus, Christmas story, if you will, um, they called it good news.

That it wasn't this kind of just, hey, nice story that something had taken place on the outskirts of Bethlehem that was news that impacted their lives and the world and forever changed their world and our world.

And they the only way they could describe it was this is really, really good news.

In fact, the angel, when announcing this news to the shepherds, if you remember, we'll talk about this uh on Christmas Eve.

They said, Don't be afraid, I bring you good news of great joy uh that is for all people.

Now, that line is amazing.

We'll unpack that, because this was unheard of in that day that there would be good news for every person.

Generally, you have good news for certain people, some people, special people, VIP people, but this was good news for all people.

In fact, the the first documented story of the life of Jesus, it wasn't called the Bible, it was called the Gospels.

We have the Gospel of Matthew or the good news.

That's what gospel means.

That something happened and it's good, it's fundamentally good.

Now, when Joseph, here we go, get Joseph front and center there.

When Joseph first heard this news, it was not good news to him.

In fact, it was really bad news.

It was soul-shattering, earth-shaking, future-crumbling news.

Joseph, he doesn't get a whole lot of press, does he, in the Christmas story?

We tend to overlook Joseph, and I'm not exactly sure why.

Um, maybe it's because we have no recorded words of Joseph in the Bible.

Uh, maybe it's because, let's be honest, Mary did all the heavy lifting.

Maybe it's because it seems and appears that Joseph probably died when um Jesus was in his teenage years, and so he wasn't a part of the entire story of Jesus' life.

I we don't know why we tend to overlook him today, but for whatever reason, here's what we what I do know.

In overlooking the story of Joseph's understanding of this Christmas season, we miss something incredibly profound and powerful.

And so we're gonna take a moment and dive into what was known for Joseph as the worst day of his life.

In fact, if you got your Bibles, would you open up to Matthew chapter 1, verse 18?

Matthew 1:18

Matthew 1, verse 18.

Matthew 1:18

Now, the Gospel of Luke, when telling the birth story of Jesus, is really telling the story from Mary's perspective.

And the gospel of Matthew is really telling the birth story from Joseph's perspective.

It's kind of like as a couple, you ask a couple, you know, their story of how they met, and you get those two different perspectives, right?

Well, Luke, you see Mary, and Mary treasured all these things in her heart, and we'll talk about that next week.

Well, Joseph goes back to the day he found out Mary was pregnant.

That was his starting point, and we pick it up here in Matthew chapter one, verse 18.

He says this 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.

Now, for us to understand what's happening and the tension of this moment, we have to understand uh what the marriage process was in ancient Judaism.

And in ancient Judaism, like many uh cultures today, they practiced uh really this whole idea of, oh, I forgot it immediately in this first service and I forgot it again today.

Uh, arranged marriages.

There you go.

Thank you very much.

They did arranged marriages.

In fact, I was talking to a friend who had an arranged marriage, and as he's explaining it, he's like, you know, Ryan, the reason this is such an important deal is um marriage being the significant life-altering event that it is, we don't want to let it be just to the whims of our heart, but we want the family a part of it.

Like, oh wow, that makes a whole lot of sense today.

And so they had this arranged marriage, and so there's three steps to this process.

First was the simple step of the engagement.

This happened when they were small, they were kids.

Uh, this was done by either a professional matchmaker or by the family themselves.

And they may or may not have even met each other at this stage.

And the only way this would be called off at this time was be if the girl at any time did not want to get married to the guy she could call it off.

And so, as their kids, they would be in this engagement stage.

They would know who they were gonna marry later on, a handful of years down the road.

Then after the engagement stage was known the betrothal stage.

The betrothal stage is they were married officially legally, but they weren't married, married.

Okay, a few of you know what I mean.

Okay.

Uh others will do a birds and bees class afterwards for that.

So they weren't married, married.

They're legally married.

The only way to uh actually, you know, get out of this would be through a written document of divorce.

They would be called husband and wife.

They would not be living together.

In fact, the man or the husband would be going to prepare a place for their new life.

Often what he would do is he'd go to his home where his family lived.

He would build another room off of the family house, or if they were wealthy and had property, they'd build his own house.

He'd spend the next year to two years building this home.

And then he would go to bring his new bride home, and they would have what would be a marriage proper, and it would be a week-long celebration together.

The entire community or village was often invited.

It was the event of the year that people would go to, and it was just an incredible celebration.

And so Joseph and Mary are in the betrothal stage of their marriage.

And Joseph, just think about this, he's a carpenter.

Think about the time and the energy, the craftsmanship that he must have been putting into uh for the next year.

Right?

He's preparing a place to bring Mary home.

And then he finds out Mary is pregnant and he's not the father.

Can you imagine how that conversation went?

Mary comes to him, so Joe, um, it's obvious I'm pregnant, and clearly you're not the father.

But here's here's the deal: an angel came to me, and this is a Holy Spirit pregnancy.

Like, how in the world do you test whether it's a Holy Spirit pregnancy or not?

You're like, okay, how do I believe this?

This girl I love, we're supposed to be married.

I've been building a life, and now I get this new she's pregnant.

What do I do with that?

And we learn so much from Joseph and how he responds and the character and compassion that God chose to be of the man he chose to father his son.

Notice what it says next.

Because Joseph, her husband, was faithful to the law, a righteous person, a righteous man, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace.

He had in mind to divorce her quietly.

In that day, Joseph really only had one option and two conclusions.

The two conclusions was either Mary wasn't the woman he thought she was, and she was unfaithful.

The second conclusion would have been that maybe Mary had been taken advantage of, maybe she had been taken advantage of by a Roman soldier.

But there's only one option in their culture and their custom of the day, and that would be that their marriage had now been violated and he was to divorce her.

And you just see that uh in his heart of compassion, that he responds with mercy and kindness.

Think about this.

Joseph walked rightly with God, and yet he did not demand his rights.

Oh, that's a word for us today, church.

That he is walking so rightly or closely with God, and yet he had every right to go.

This is wrong.

And I'm done with you.

And I'm gonna cast you out on the court of public opinion, and I'm gonna humiliate you the way you've humiliated me.

No, but instead, he still cares for her heart, he still tries to protect and preserve her heart.

And then I love this next line.

It says, but after he had considered this, you know, if we're just being honest, if I found out the information that Joe found out, I'm like, what do I have to consider?

What do I have to ponder?

This is pretty cut and dry, right?

You're pregnant, I ain't the dad, done.

Bye-bye.

I love this.

That word consider it means to process information by thinking about it carefully, to think deeply and to form a plan.

Like it takes time.

He didn't just react in the moment, he didn't just kind of go be driven by his emotions.

And we're such an emotion-driven culture.

Whatever we feel, we just gotta respond.

It says after he considered, he took time to think and plan and process.

And notice this it was after the considering that God showed up.

I just wonder, for us, we're such in a rush, and we so react and we so respond to everything immediately that we miss God showing up and God speaking, and he's wanting to work and he's wanting to move in your life, but we just haven't stopped to consider and to pause.

But it says, after he 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.

Well, that's how you discover if it's a Holy Spirit birth or not.

There you go.

An angel shows up.

She will give birth to a son, and you're to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.

All this took place to fulfill what the Lord said through the prophet.

The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Emmanuel, which means God with us.

And this is where the worst day of Joseph's life becomes the best day, and it becomes really, really good news.

Good news that Mary wasn't unfaithful, good news that that God is faithful to his promises, good news that God said, in fact, Joseph, you're such a man of character, I have a special assignment for you.

Now, I think the question for us is we can understand what made it good news to Joseph, but what makes this really good news for us today?

What makes the arrival of Jesus really good news as we sit here, December 2021?

I want to draw your attention to two things that the angel said to Joseph.

Two things that bring about this really good news for us.

The first, remember that the angel said this to Joseph, you shall call his name Jesus or Yeshua.

Literally means Yahweh saves.

My Lord God saves.

Why?

Because he'll save his people from their sin.

You know, you don't have to look very far to see that our world is broken.

In fact, all you have to do is just wake up.

And we see the brokenness, we see the pain, we see the devastation, we see the heartache, we see the evil and injustice.

And when we look around at the brokenness, much, especially in Western culture, the way we're trying to solve our brokenness is one of two ways.

And in fact, we try to combine them.

The first is if we had more education, the world wouldn't be so broken.

We just need to be more enlightened.

And if we could just educate enough people, then we could build this utopic society.

And the second is then you see there's some problems that need to be solved that education won't quite solve.

And so you need technology and boy.

We live in the heart of education and technology.

And if we just had more technology, then we could create this incredible world, beautiful and unbroken.

And the problem is, and you know this, we have more technology and we have more education, and yet the brokenness only grows.

You see, we've misdiagnosed the brokenness in our world.

We've misdiagnosed it, and we because we want the problem to be out there, we want the problem to be something beyond us that needs fixing.

And if you fix out there, then everything around me will work out right.

And yet the gospel is this that the problem isn't out there, but the problem is in here inside every single one of us.

The problem is sin.

God sent his only son into the world to save us from the brokenness of sin.

Now, sin, sin is the cancer in our world that perverts and destroys everything that is good and beautiful in this world.

And it's in you and it's in me and it's in everybody around us.

And the beautiful, wonderful news, the reason this is good news, whether you're been a Christian for your entire life, or maybe you just stepped into church or logged on and clicked on for the very first time, is the greatest problem you have.

And the greatest problem I have is that God sent his son to save us.

Now, the reason many of us don't think of this as good news is we don't think we are sinners needing to be saved.

We just simply think we're mistakers.

Right?

We're just a mistaker.

It's just a mistake.

Instead, that there is this pervasive sickness of the soul, and only Jesus can bring hope.

Only Jesus can heal your heart, only Jesus will bring life, only Jesus will bring peace, only Jesus will fulfill the deep ache and longing of your soul.

And only Jesus call his name Jesus because he will save you from your sins and my sins.

He came to answer and solve the greatest problem of our world and the gravest problem in your world.

And the news gets better than that.

Because it's not just that, which is phenomenal and amazing, but the angel goes on to say something that you will not just call him Yeshua, Yahweh says, but you'll call him Emmanuel.

And we're used to that at Christmas time.

And if we called Emmanuel, why?

Because he's God with us.

And what a beautiful reality that you don't have a distant God, you don't have an apathetic God, you don't have a God that's just crossing his arms, waiting for you to get your act right, wondering when you're going to work your way to him, you have a God with you.

A God who stepped into time, space, history to be with you and among you, a God who took on the most humblest of forms, birthed in the most humblest way, vulnerable, experienced all the pain, all the suffering, all the rejection.

A God who's with you and for you.

God who says, I delight in you.

I'll never leave you nor forsake you.

A God who says, you don't have to get your act together.

I'm coming for you right where you're at.

A God who says, Yeah, you may have drifted from me, but I've never drifted from you.

In fact, I'm intentionally leaning in, even when you're leaning away.

See, this is what makes it really good news to us.

I like how Tim Keller said it.

He's an author and pastor.

He said, the gospel narratives tell us, are telling you not what you should do, but what God has done.

It's an event.

It's good news, not good advice.

This took place.

And as a result, it changed the world.

And it's changed many of our worlds in this room.

And it continues to do so.

You know, um a number of years ago, I think it was like five-ish years ago.

It was early Sunday morning.

On Sundays, I get up early to study and to prepare and get ready for the morning.

Um, and I was headed off to Pete's, and Pete's opens, at least back then, pre-pandemic, at 5 a.m.

I love Pete's.

Pete's is amazing.

Hello.

My daughter just got a job at Pete's, which is fantastic.

Um, I didn't even like convince her, she did it all on her own.

So I'm getting up to get ready, and and I walk out the door, I notice a guy that's leaning against my neighbor's truck.

My neighbor's in construction, and I thought it was my neighbor.

I look at him and oh, it's not my neighbor.

And so I see him there, and I'm like, then I'm taking that neighborly look, you know.

Is he trying to steal my neighbor's tools in his truck?

And he's just leaning against it and he's kind of staggering a little bit, and he's on his phone.

So I jump in my car and I just pull right up to him and I go.

Hey man, are you doing all right?

And he's just looking at his phone.

He doesn't even respond to me, and he's doing something on his phone.

I go, man, hey, are you okay?

Doesn't respond again.

Now I realize maybe I'm asking the wrong question.

So then I ask, do you know where you are?

Because he just was kind of staggering and he's just kind of confused.

And then all of a sudden, he starts talking on the phone, and apparently I just pick up that he's talking to his girlfriend and is like, Why'd you guys leave me?

Apparently he had a party that night.

He was with friends and uh his girlfriend and had maybe a little too much to drink.

Not maybe, but he had a little too much to drink.

And he wandered out, and he had wandered the rough and tough streets of Willow Gwen all night long.

Had no idea where he was at.

And literally, he's on his phone, he's talking to his girlfriend, like, how could you guys leave me?

And there's this nice man talking to me.

He said this, this is no lie.

I think he's sent from heaven.

I'm pastor, I'm not an angel, but you know.

I'll take it.

And he hangs up the phone.

And I said, Hey, do you need a ride home?

Yeah.

I said, hop in the car.

So he got in the car and we started to drive.

He lived in South San Jose.

And I'll never forget this moment because then his eyes just began to well up with tears because he spent all night wandering, all night trying to find his friends and figure out where he was at.

And cold.

And he looks at me and he says, You found me.

You saved me.

And you're bringing me home.

And then he said it again.

He's like, I can't believe it.

You found me.

You saved me.

And you're bringing me home.

And he just kept saying that on the drive home, and tears began to well up in his eyes.

You found me.

You saved me.

And you're bringing me home.

See the wonder of Christmas.

And so we have a God who found you.

He's not distant or aloof.

He came to save you and he's bringing you home.

And the question.

Then how do we respond to that good news?

It's just simply the same as that young man that night or early morning.

You just have to get in the car.

You just have to get in the car and say, Would you bring me home?

And for some, maybe you've been drifting from Jesus.

Maybe you feel like you're just in a space where you're not really sure of anything anymore.

And this morning, for the first time in a long time, your heart's reawakening to the wonder of the God who came for you, the God who loves you, the God who found you, saves you, and bringing you home where you would once again say, God, I want you, I want you.

And maybe you're in church for the first time or logging on for the first time.

And you had no idea that God loves you and God came for you.

And there's way more to this little nativity set.

It's Emmanuel, God with us.

And where you would say for the very first time, you found me, you saved me.

Would you bring me home?

Jesus, thank you for my friends and our time together.

Thank you that you came for us.

You didn't wait on us.

You came.

You came.

And at our very worst, you gave your very best.

When we were wandering, when we've been struggling, when we feel lost.

And if you're here today and you've never said yes to Jesus, I would just want to give you a moment to say yes to him, to start a relationship with him, to invite him to be your savior.

And you just pray simply after me.

Jesus, I believe you came for me.

I believe you are Emmanuel, God with us.

I believe that you took my biggest problem, sin, and would you save me?

Would you come into my life and make me new?

And the gospel tells us when you say yes, he comes into your life and makes you brand new.

God, would you wake us up to the wonder and reality of your grace, of your presence, of your love.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

We're going to continue in worship and we're going to partake of the elements of communion.

It's the physical reminder of the one who found us and saved us and bringing us home, his body broken for us, his blood poured out for us.

That this baby in a manger grew up because his name is Yeshua.

For you'll save his people from his sins.

And would you, as we worship, partake and allow the wonder and reality of this moment to captivate your heart afresh.

We hope you are blessed by this message.

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