WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:09.040 Okay, so I said as we're going back to look at this account of the birth of Jesus and 00:00:09.040 --> 00:00:14.800 you know, one or two bits following on from it in the next couple of weeks. 00:00:14.800 --> 00:00:20.839 And I just wonder what it is, what is it that you expect from God? 00:00:20.839 --> 00:00:23.559 What did you expect from God by coming here today? 00:00:23.559 --> 00:00:27.039 Or what are you looking for from God in your life? 00:00:27.039 --> 00:00:32.759 What kind of things do you want Him to do in your life and in your living? 00:00:32.759 --> 00:00:35.479 What is it? 00:00:35.479 --> 00:00:40.840 Is He there to fulfill your dreams and my dreams? 00:00:40.840 --> 00:00:45.519 Do we want our faith to be just a convenient, comfortable thing, something that can slip 00:00:45.519 --> 00:00:53.200 in to our everyday life plans, something that's neat and happy and quite tidy? 00:00:53.200 --> 00:00:58.200 Or are you possibly struggling with counting the cost of being a Christian and all that's 00:00:58.200 --> 00:01:01.600 involved in that? 00:01:01.600 --> 00:01:06.960 Or potentially the nature of your own faith and my own faith and the significance of your 00:01:06.960 --> 00:01:13.359 concerns sometimes that you have no influence whatsoever on anyone in the life that you 00:01:13.359 --> 00:01:14.359 live. 00:01:14.359 --> 00:01:18.680 Don't feel particularly strong or victorious. 00:01:18.680 --> 00:01:24.080 You look around and you think everyone else is strong and victorious in their faith. 00:01:24.080 --> 00:01:29.520 But it may be that we struggle sometimes because our faith doesn't seem very real. 00:01:29.520 --> 00:01:36.620 We come here, but it doesn't really accord with our touch the rest of the life that we're 00:01:36.620 --> 00:01:38.880 living for the rest of the week. 00:01:38.880 --> 00:01:42.840 And life is particularly difficult and there's a lot of knocks. 00:01:42.840 --> 00:01:49.799 And we wonder what good is our faith to us or what good am I to God or to anyone else 00:01:49.799 --> 00:01:50.799 in my life. 00:01:50.799 --> 00:01:55.760 And these are a lot of questions that I'm sure that sometimes we have, if not at the 00:01:55.760 --> 00:01:59.680 moment, there will be times in the past maybe or there might be times in the future when 00:01:59.680 --> 00:02:01.320 we've had these thoughts. 00:02:01.320 --> 00:02:09.439 I want to look at the story of the birth of Jesus for a little while from the standpoint 00:02:09.439 --> 00:02:17.359 of Joseph, okay, because that is central to the passage we read. 00:02:17.359 --> 00:02:22.719 And I'm going to look at his story because the birth account that we're giving in Matthew 00:02:22.719 --> 00:02:25.800 is from Joseph's perspective. 00:02:25.800 --> 00:02:30.960 The other account that we're giving in Luke is from Mary's perspective. 00:02:30.960 --> 00:02:36.120 And that account is much longer, but I'm not saying anything about that. 00:02:36.120 --> 00:02:43.120 So Luke's account is really from Mary's point of view and has her genealogy. 00:02:43.120 --> 00:02:48.680 And Matthew's account is from Joseph's point of view and it tells us his genealogy and where 00:02:48.680 --> 00:02:50.719 he came from. 00:02:50.719 --> 00:02:55.520 And he is called in this chapter in verse 20, he is called Joseph, by the angel he's 00:02:55.520 --> 00:02:58.560 called Joseph, the son of David. 00:02:58.560 --> 00:03:04.800 And that's very unusual and it's very important because that terminology is usually used about 00:03:04.800 --> 00:03:09.840 Jesus himself, Jesus, the Son of God or the Son of David. 00:03:09.840 --> 00:03:16.840 And it's important here because in this early passage that we have, we find that Jesus, 00:03:16.840 --> 00:03:27.920 the gospel writers are stating the legal status of Jesus himself through his, as it were, 00:03:27.920 --> 00:03:32.760 his father, even though it's not a father of natural birth. 00:03:32.759 --> 00:03:40.280 But legally Joseph was the father and legally Joseph is a descendant of David, as also was 00:03:40.280 --> 00:03:47.399 Mary and that fits in with all the prophecies about the Messiah King being the great King 00:03:47.399 --> 00:03:51.680 who was a descendant of King David. 00:03:51.680 --> 00:03:55.799 But I think it also, when it talks about Joseph as the Son of David, I think it's saying more 00:03:55.799 --> 00:04:02.560 than his background and his genealogy and Jesus' genealogy as a result of that. 00:04:02.560 --> 00:04:09.759 But speaking of him as a true child of God, a believer, and he was the earthly father 00:04:09.759 --> 00:04:10.759 of Jesus. 00:04:10.759 --> 00:04:16.079 He wasn't the genetic father but he was the earthly father of Jesus. 00:04:16.079 --> 00:04:20.600 Legally he would have been known and seen as the father of Jesus and Mary later on in 00:04:20.600 --> 00:04:24.680 the gospel speak about Joseph being Jesus' father. 00:04:24.680 --> 00:04:28.759 And we know that that would have been the case. 00:04:28.759 --> 00:04:34.719 Joseph, his dreams were shattered. 00:04:34.719 --> 00:04:39.000 Dreams were shattered in one dreadful conversation. 00:04:39.000 --> 00:04:43.480 Joseph, I'm pregnant. 00:04:43.480 --> 00:04:46.599 His dreams were shattered. 00:04:46.599 --> 00:04:50.159 Joseph, I'm pregnant but it's okay. 00:04:50.159 --> 00:04:51.519 It's a miracle. 00:04:51.519 --> 00:04:53.719 I haven't slept with another man. 00:04:53.719 --> 00:04:56.279 I haven't broken faithfulness. 00:04:56.279 --> 00:04:58.240 It's from God. 00:04:58.240 --> 00:05:02.800 Can you imagine that particular conversation? 00:05:02.800 --> 00:05:05.319 That his dreams were shattered. 00:05:05.319 --> 00:05:13.400 That his hopes of marrying this young woman that in all probability had been arranged 00:05:13.400 --> 00:05:19.639 for him but he'd come to agree and she'd agreed with the marriage. 00:05:19.639 --> 00:05:27.040 That she'd been either unfaithful or she was just deluded in what she's saying. 00:05:27.040 --> 00:05:32.000 Now just to explain at this point, just for us because marriage and betrothal and engagement 00:05:32.000 --> 00:05:35.439 in the Middle Near East is very different from what it is today. 00:05:35.439 --> 00:05:44.160 So usually the process would be that parents would arrange an engagement between a daughter 00:05:44.160 --> 00:05:48.160 and a son that would come together. 00:05:48.160 --> 00:05:51.720 And that would be arranged by the parents and that would be the engagement. 00:05:51.720 --> 00:05:56.680 But the betrothal period was the next stage and that was when the individuals, in this 00:05:56.680 --> 00:06:04.040 case Mary and Joseph themselves agreed to betrothal and to a future together. 00:06:04.040 --> 00:06:07.319 And that betrothal was much more significant than engagement. 00:06:07.319 --> 00:06:15.160 It had legal standing and a dowry would have been paid by this stage by the parents of 00:06:15.160 --> 00:06:16.800 the bride. 00:06:16.800 --> 00:06:23.519 And so in order to come out of that relationship there would need to be a divorce because at 00:06:23.519 --> 00:06:24.519 legal status. 00:06:24.519 --> 00:06:26.360 That's why you may be wondering, what, they weren't married? 00:06:26.360 --> 00:06:28.639 Why did Joseph need to divorce her? 00:06:28.639 --> 00:06:29.800 Because that was the situation. 00:06:29.800 --> 00:06:32.879 The third stage would be full marriage itself. 00:06:32.879 --> 00:06:35.800 And in that betrothal stage, the bride still stayed with her parents. 00:06:35.800 --> 00:06:39.280 There was no sexual intercourse, there was no sexual involvement. 00:06:39.280 --> 00:06:40.879 They didn't live together. 00:06:40.879 --> 00:06:46.040 She lived with the parents and then they came together for full marriage and union at the 00:06:46.040 --> 00:06:49.680 point of marriage. 00:06:49.680 --> 00:06:53.720 So Joseph was in turmoil because of this. 00:06:53.720 --> 00:07:01.520 And as a righteous man he sought to just divorce her quietly because she could have actually 00:07:01.520 --> 00:07:08.680 been stoned or killed for what was presumed had happened. 00:07:08.680 --> 00:07:10.880 He sought to protect her. 00:07:10.880 --> 00:07:14.840 But the life that he'd hoped for was gone. 00:07:14.840 --> 00:07:16.080 His dreams were gone. 00:07:16.080 --> 00:07:20.200 You know, he was going to maybe take over his father's carpentry business and carry it 00:07:20.200 --> 00:07:22.120 on through the generations. 00:07:22.120 --> 00:07:23.520 But that would all be gone. 00:07:23.519 --> 00:07:24.519 His dreams were gone. 00:07:24.519 --> 00:07:25.519 He didn't know what to do. 00:07:25.519 --> 00:07:26.519 He wasn't going to get married. 00:07:26.519 --> 00:07:28.120 He wasn't going to have the wife. 00:07:28.120 --> 00:07:30.199 His dreams, everything that he wanted. 00:07:30.199 --> 00:07:33.560 His dreams were shattered in that moment, in that conversation. 00:07:33.560 --> 00:07:39.639 And then he receives himself another dream where an angel speaks to him. 00:07:39.639 --> 00:07:41.839 Verse 20, 21 speaks about that. 00:07:41.839 --> 00:07:45.639 An angel of the Lord appeared to him, he said, Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take 00:07:45.639 --> 00:07:50.439 marriage your wife for that which is conceived in us from the Holy Spirit. 00:07:50.439 --> 00:07:57.399 A voice from heaven confirming what Mary herself had experienced. 00:07:57.399 --> 00:08:02.040 Giving this child that was to be born a name, and that was very unusual. 00:08:02.040 --> 00:08:07.159 That was something that they themselves would have authority and significance for doing 00:08:07.159 --> 00:08:09.519 rather than being given a name. 00:08:09.519 --> 00:08:14.839 And in prophetic fulfillment, both of something that was spoken of in the Old Testament and 00:08:14.839 --> 00:08:23.839 in obedience to the angel, Joseph moved forward and took Mary to be his wife. 00:08:23.839 --> 00:08:31.359 And yet they remained in that situation where she lived presumably with the parents until 00:08:31.359 --> 00:08:34.919 after Jesus was born. 00:08:34.919 --> 00:08:35.919 So many questions. 00:08:35.919 --> 00:08:39.399 You know, we look at a passage like that, we've read it a hundred times. 00:08:39.399 --> 00:08:40.399 We hear it every year. 00:08:40.399 --> 00:08:44.279 I think it's nice and warm and cuddly and cotton-woolish. 00:08:44.279 --> 00:08:53.279 But yeah, it's a tremendously disruptive reality that God brings into Joseph's life. 00:08:53.279 --> 00:08:56.799 And I'm sure he had many, many questions moving forward for me. 00:08:56.799 --> 00:08:57.799 Why me? 00:08:57.799 --> 00:09:00.000 Or what is this going to mean? 00:09:00.000 --> 00:09:02.079 My life has changed forever. 00:09:02.079 --> 00:09:04.720 How are we going to cope with all the gossip? 00:09:04.720 --> 00:09:08.079 You know, it was hard enough for him to go ahead with this. 00:09:08.079 --> 00:09:11.720 But you know, everyone would also go nudge, nudge, you know, oh yeah, Mary's really pulled 00:09:11.720 --> 00:09:14.399 the eyes over Joseph on this one. 00:09:14.399 --> 00:09:19.720 And there would have always been cynicism and opposition and sometimes being ostracized 00:09:19.720 --> 00:09:23.080 in the society potentially as he looked forward. 00:09:23.080 --> 00:09:25.560 What would lie ahead? 00:09:25.560 --> 00:09:31.879 He was a Jewish man that would have been brought up to know the whole prophetic hope of the 00:09:31.879 --> 00:09:32.879 Messiah. 00:09:32.879 --> 00:09:36.440 And here he's been told that the child that was his is going to be the Messiah, is going 00:09:36.440 --> 00:09:37.440 to be the Savior. 00:09:37.440 --> 00:09:38.920 What does that mean for them? 00:09:38.919 --> 00:09:45.479 How can I deal with being the father of the Messiah who's going to redeem his people, 00:09:45.479 --> 00:09:51.279 whatever he understood and whatever he thought about that, that he and Mary were going to 00:09:51.279 --> 00:09:59.120 be the parents of his Savior, of the one who would save his people? 00:09:59.120 --> 00:10:02.599 So his life was turned upside down and we often forget that. 00:10:02.599 --> 00:10:06.559 And what was, I'm going to move a little bit forward and go beyond this passage and just 00:10:06.559 --> 00:10:09.159 think for a moment about his calling in life. 00:10:09.159 --> 00:10:11.039 What was his calling from this point on? 00:10:11.039 --> 00:10:15.000 Well, the reality is for him and that's why I want to focus on this. 00:10:15.000 --> 00:10:22.159 The reality for Joseph being called by God and being involved in this amazing, remarkable 00:10:22.159 --> 00:10:25.599 and privileged way was to hardship. 00:10:25.599 --> 00:10:28.319 His calling was to a life of hardship. 00:10:28.319 --> 00:10:34.479 From the moment that Jesus was born, he knew great danger and great difficulty and great 00:10:34.480 --> 00:10:36.800 opposition and he knew insecurity. 00:10:36.800 --> 00:10:41.600 He had to move from his hometown and he had to flee to Egypt and in his ears would he 00:10:41.600 --> 00:10:46.039 been ringing the wailing and the crying of all the mothers who lost their firstborn sons 00:10:46.039 --> 00:10:50.600 to the brutal King Herod and his destructive tendencies. 00:10:50.600 --> 00:10:53.560 He would have left the family business. 00:10:53.560 --> 00:11:00.320 He was an immigrant into Egypt with no home and no finances, no support. 00:11:00.320 --> 00:11:05.300 And he was there and then had to eventually come back and settle in another town in a 00:11:05.300 --> 00:11:08.960 different place and try and begin a business. 00:11:08.960 --> 00:11:14.200 And then with all the unanswered questions, what might have been and then this fatherly 00:11:14.200 --> 00:11:21.400 duties because there was, you know, other children, other brothers, sisters of Jesus 00:11:21.400 --> 00:11:26.200 that were born. 00:11:26.200 --> 00:11:30.360 hardship was his lot and then he died. 00:11:30.360 --> 00:11:32.640 He probably died pretty young. 00:11:32.640 --> 00:11:37.400 He certainly, it seems from the record of scripture, died before Jesus began his public 00:11:37.400 --> 00:11:41.640 ministry and Jesus was 30, around 30. 00:11:41.640 --> 00:11:45.960 So he probably died quite a relatively young man. 00:11:45.960 --> 00:11:48.360 His calling was to hardship. 00:11:48.360 --> 00:11:52.800 His calling was also to unrecorded influence. 00:11:52.800 --> 00:11:54.240 It's easy, isn't it? 00:11:54.240 --> 00:11:59.720 We easily forget Joseph when we look at the Bible story and we think of the birth of Jesus. 00:11:59.720 --> 00:12:04.919 But Joseph would have been the primary teacher of Jesus as he grew up. 00:12:04.919 --> 00:12:09.240 He would have taught everything Jesus knew about the Old Testament because Jesus we know 00:12:09.240 --> 00:12:13.000 learned and grew in wisdom and stature. 00:12:13.000 --> 00:12:18.039 He would have been had that fatherly influence of love and of compassion and of care. 00:12:18.039 --> 00:12:22.399 He would have all these conversations with Jesus, the eldest son, maybe as they work 00:12:22.399 --> 00:12:28.240 together in the carpentry workshop and they discuss different things. 00:12:28.240 --> 00:12:31.159 Joseph had a great influence on the young Jesus. 00:12:31.159 --> 00:12:38.600 He had a great influence as a father, as a husband to Mary and providing, even probably 00:12:38.600 --> 00:12:43.600 though they were very poor, providing for the five or six or maybe seven children that 00:12:43.600 --> 00:12:45.480 they had. 00:12:45.480 --> 00:12:51.919 And he did that and had great influence, unrecorded, unnoticed, unspoken of, unthought 00:12:51.919 --> 00:12:58.559 of by most of us, as calling was to hardship, to unrecorded influence, but also to eternal 00:12:58.559 --> 00:13:07.679 life as a son of David, as a true child of God, so that today Joseph knows, now he understands, 00:13:07.679 --> 00:13:13.559 now he has joy unparalleled and for him, as for all of us, the best is still to come, 00:13:13.559 --> 00:13:16.360 the best is still to come. 00:13:16.360 --> 00:13:22.919 So I wondered about our story and about our lives as we parallel or as we think of ourselves 00:13:22.919 --> 00:13:25.840 in the light of Joseph. 00:13:25.840 --> 00:13:32.279 Are we struggling to live our Christian lives maybe with the expectation of obedience to 00:13:32.279 --> 00:13:35.879 God, with the thought of hardship? 00:13:35.879 --> 00:13:40.920 Are we tempted to walk away because of our own experiences, because of the cost or the 00:13:40.919 --> 00:13:46.799 inconvenience or the sacrifice that's expected of following Jesus, is it not the life that 00:13:46.799 --> 00:13:50.399 you dreamed of that you looked for or expected from God? 00:13:50.399 --> 00:13:56.919 Are you hugely disappointed at what you're experiencing of a relationship with God through 00:13:56.919 --> 00:13:57.919 Jesus Christ? 00:13:57.919 --> 00:14:03.639 Are you thinking our Christian lives are so unnoticed without influence or significance? 00:14:03.639 --> 00:14:08.319 Look at the life of Joseph and consider him and what the Spirit might be saying. 00:14:08.320 --> 00:14:14.520 And if you're not a Christian and you maybe are thinking that I can't become a Christian 00:14:14.520 --> 00:14:22.879 because the cost is too much, the inconvenience is too much, the opposition might be too much, 00:14:22.879 --> 00:14:28.400 think again, please think again and consider Joseph. 00:14:28.400 --> 00:14:30.879 What makes it all worthwhile then briefly? 00:14:30.879 --> 00:14:37.240 What makes it all worthwhile for us today as Christians to spend the time to gather 00:14:37.240 --> 00:14:42.159 and worship, to follow Jesus, to serve Him, to face the cost and the difficulties? 00:14:42.159 --> 00:14:43.159 What makes it all worthwhile? 00:14:43.159 --> 00:14:44.159 Two things. 00:14:44.159 --> 00:14:45.159 And I finish with this. 00:14:45.159 --> 00:14:50.120 The first is the child Christ was born of a virgin. 00:14:50.120 --> 00:14:52.000 The child Christ was born of a virgin. 00:14:52.000 --> 00:14:53.639 We're going to look at verse 23 really. 00:14:53.639 --> 00:14:55.200 She will be a son. 00:14:55.200 --> 00:14:58.879 You shall call His name Jesus for He will save His people from their sins. 00:14:58.879 --> 00:15:01.960 The child Christ was born of a virgin. 00:15:01.960 --> 00:15:07.680 Christ, the word as John calls Him, who was from the beginning, who was with God and was 00:15:07.680 --> 00:15:14.360 God we're told, was conceived as a child in the womb in order to save us. 00:15:14.360 --> 00:15:15.360 It's a miracle. 00:15:15.360 --> 00:15:19.400 You know, it's, you know, people kind of throw their hands up and say, oh, the virgin birth, 00:15:19.400 --> 00:15:20.400 that's ridiculous. 00:15:20.400 --> 00:15:24.320 As if it was easy for Joseph to accept it when it happened 2000 years ago. 00:15:24.320 --> 00:15:27.400 I say, well, yeah, a virgin birth, no problem. 00:15:27.400 --> 00:15:28.639 It's always been a challenge. 00:15:28.639 --> 00:15:31.080 It's always had to be miraculous, isn't it? 00:15:31.080 --> 00:15:33.560 It wasn't a natural birth. 00:15:33.560 --> 00:15:38.440 It's the work of God, the spirit breaking into humanity, making a new creation through 00:15:38.440 --> 00:15:40.160 the power of the spirit. 00:15:40.160 --> 00:15:48.759 God the eternally pre-existent Son becoming a human being, sinless by descent and character, 00:15:48.759 --> 00:15:55.160 but umbilically linked to humanity and to you and I forever. 00:15:55.160 --> 00:15:56.160 And that's important. 00:15:56.159 --> 00:16:01.879 And not it's been the Christian, it's been a Christian truth for 2000 years. 00:16:01.879 --> 00:16:07.159 It's stated here as truth by the Gospel writers, not as myth, not as make believe, not as something 00:16:07.159 --> 00:16:11.559 just fuzzy and warm or strange. 00:16:11.559 --> 00:16:13.159 We see that in Mary's response. 00:16:13.159 --> 00:16:18.559 How can I be a child if not, I've not had a man, if not, I've not slept with him. 00:16:18.559 --> 00:16:21.639 And Joseph's response, we can see that. 00:16:21.639 --> 00:16:29.039 It was unexpected, but it secures Jesus as the Son of God, both as fully human and fully 00:16:29.039 --> 00:16:37.600 divine so that he doesn't inherit the depravity of his first parent, of the first parent Adam. 00:16:37.600 --> 00:16:43.759 You know, 1 Corinthians 15 tells us he's the second Adam, not born by the will of a man, 00:16:43.759 --> 00:16:47.240 but born from above, born from heaven. 00:16:47.240 --> 00:16:54.440 So we see that, that he is breaking in, God is breaking into our humanity in this miraculous 00:16:54.440 --> 00:16:55.440 way. 00:16:55.440 --> 00:16:59.480 And he's sanctified in the womb by the Holy Spirit's power. 00:16:59.480 --> 00:17:08.720 And you and I accuse God of not being interested, not caring, not having any concern for us. 00:17:08.720 --> 00:17:15.000 And yet we find this remarkable commitment and sacrifice where God the Son enters the 00:17:15.000 --> 00:17:20.680 womb of Mary in order to be one of us, in order to redeem us. 00:17:20.680 --> 00:17:23.200 And we think he doesn't care. 00:17:23.200 --> 00:17:27.720 And we think he doesn't know what it's like to be one of us. 00:17:27.720 --> 00:17:33.559 So Mary, a child Christ born of a virgin is a hugely significant truth. 00:17:33.559 --> 00:17:38.720 Yeah, I read a lot of people, I read the commentators that Christians that say, well, it doesn't 00:17:38.720 --> 00:17:42.880 matter too much if it was a virgin birth or not, it's insignificant. 00:17:42.880 --> 00:17:45.120 God could have done it a different way. 00:17:45.120 --> 00:17:48.160 No, if God did it a different way, he would have done it a different way. 00:17:48.160 --> 00:17:49.920 It's significant and important. 00:17:49.920 --> 00:17:57.560 And it's stated clearly, because it's a reminder to us who Jesus is and how he came and why 00:17:57.560 --> 00:17:59.560 he came to us. 00:17:59.560 --> 00:18:06.600 The child Christ was born of a virgin and the child Christ had two significant names, 00:18:06.600 --> 00:18:09.200 Jesus and Emmanuel. 00:18:09.200 --> 00:18:15.440 Both of the names that are given here, the name by the angel and that also from the word 00:18:15.440 --> 00:18:17.720 of prophecy from Isaiah. 00:18:17.720 --> 00:18:25.880 Jesus he is called or Joshua is the Old Testament name of that, saving his people from their 00:18:25.880 --> 00:18:26.880 sins. 00:18:26.880 --> 00:18:31.440 That's what the name means, saving his people from their sins. 00:18:31.440 --> 00:18:35.720 I hear that less and less in the way we talk about Jesus. 00:18:35.720 --> 00:18:42.839 I think it's because it's all become so cliched for people to talk about being saved from 00:18:42.839 --> 00:18:43.839 their sins. 00:18:43.839 --> 00:18:48.640 It's, you know, everyone wants sin in the salvation seminar, but no one really wants 00:18:48.640 --> 00:18:52.960 to talk about what we're being saved from. 00:18:52.960 --> 00:18:57.160 And yet we find that so significant and so important that God is breaking into our human 00:18:57.160 --> 00:19:08.720 existence to save us from a path of self-destruction that sin deceives us into thinking is life. 00:19:08.720 --> 00:19:12.040 Sin tells us that that's a great way to live. 00:19:12.040 --> 00:19:14.120 Live in control of your own life. 00:19:14.120 --> 00:19:20.600 Live without thought about God and without thought about spiritual realities or about 00:19:20.600 --> 00:19:24.000 depravity or evil or death that lies ahead. 00:19:24.000 --> 00:19:33.160 He has come in commitment and love to us to rescue us from his just judgment and his wrath 00:19:33.160 --> 00:19:41.640 of which we are guilty of falling in front of because of our rebellion and sin. 00:19:41.640 --> 00:19:45.680 And he's come to take us to safety, to forgiveness and life. 00:19:45.680 --> 00:19:53.160 He begins a journey of human existence in the womb through birth, infancy, childhood, 00:19:53.160 --> 00:20:00.840 adulthood, all that's represented here and through learning and growing and love and 00:20:00.840 --> 00:20:09.600 loss, sinless, all the way to the rugged cross that we will remember today as we celebrate 00:20:09.600 --> 00:20:11.920 the Lord's Supper. 00:20:11.920 --> 00:20:15.040 And that's what he destroys, isn't it, for as that's what we remember. 00:20:15.040 --> 00:20:20.759 It destroys the power of both physical and spiritual death, which is our destiny without 00:20:20.759 --> 00:20:22.759 him. 00:20:22.759 --> 00:20:29.200 Christ breaks our dreams when we trust in Him. 00:20:29.200 --> 00:20:31.759 He breaks the dreams we have naturally. 00:20:31.759 --> 00:20:33.640 He destroys them. 00:20:33.640 --> 00:20:39.799 He takes them away, but then He remakes them in His image. 00:20:39.799 --> 00:20:42.000 He remakes them for us. 00:20:42.000 --> 00:20:48.000 He remakes them in a way that He is center and we follow and serve Him. 00:20:48.000 --> 00:20:54.440 And He does that because He's the author of life and He restores and renews us and takes 00:20:54.440 --> 00:20:56.799 us where He wants us to go. 00:20:56.799 --> 00:21:04.359 So we can see in that the sacrifice and inconvenience of grace as Christians we have today is a 00:21:04.359 --> 00:21:07.119 price worth paying, isn't it? 00:21:07.119 --> 00:21:13.640 It's a price worth paying to know the kind of future that we have in Christ, the friendship, 00:21:13.640 --> 00:21:20.680 the protection, the hope, the guidance, the transformation in all the pain and the battle 00:21:20.680 --> 00:21:23.720 and the struggles and the hope of eternal life. 00:21:23.720 --> 00:21:27.280 Jesus saves His people from His sins. 00:21:27.280 --> 00:21:32.720 But also Jesus is called in this chapter, Emmanuel, behold the Virgin shall conceive 00:21:32.720 --> 00:21:38.640 and bear a Son and they shall call His name Emmanuel, taken from the Old Testament from 00:21:38.640 --> 00:21:40.640 Isaiah. 00:21:40.640 --> 00:21:44.880 No meaning God with us, we know that, don't we? 00:21:44.880 --> 00:21:51.120 That is the essence of what Jesus has done come to do, to be with us in our lives and 00:21:51.120 --> 00:21:58.320 in the brokenness of our lives, driven by His love and by His longing for us. 00:21:58.320 --> 00:22:01.640 He promises to be with us. 00:22:01.640 --> 00:22:07.000 And that's hugely significant, not just for the life we live knowing that He is with us, 00:22:07.000 --> 00:22:15.720 but also the life that we show to others, that we are with others and that we live and 00:22:15.720 --> 00:22:24.160 are motivated to live for and among those who also need to meet our Savior Jesus, our friend 00:22:24.160 --> 00:22:26.759 and our Redeemer. 00:22:26.759 --> 00:22:32.279 So when He turns your life and my life upside down, when there is grief and when there is 00:22:32.279 --> 00:22:39.399 suffering and opposition, He wants us to live our lives in such a way that we point people 00:22:39.399 --> 00:22:44.759 in the suffering and the difficult, none of which we look for and none of which we want 00:22:44.759 --> 00:22:53.319 to the Savior who can redeem these realities, who can upend them, not let them defeat us, 00:22:53.319 --> 00:22:59.879 and that through them we can still share our love for Christ and live for His glory. 00:22:59.880 --> 00:23:03.520 And that even in these times, we are not alone. 00:23:03.520 --> 00:23:09.240 The danger for us is always just to suffer badly, isn't it? 00:23:09.240 --> 00:23:14.960 To suffer the same way that we might suffer if we were absolutely alone. 00:23:14.960 --> 00:23:21.880 You know, you know, even humanly speaking, and I know how much easier, easier is not 00:23:21.880 --> 00:23:30.200 the word, how much less difficult suffering can be if we are not alone. 00:23:30.200 --> 00:23:38.160 If there are people around us helping, taking us through, they can never go through that 00:23:38.160 --> 00:23:40.960 suffering but they can stand beside us. 00:23:40.960 --> 00:23:46.720 The difference is Christ not only stands beside us but He has gone through that on the cross 00:23:46.720 --> 00:23:53.680 and He knows and He is redeeming and will take us through even in the mystery of that 00:23:53.680 --> 00:23:54.759 for us. 00:23:54.759 --> 00:24:01.799 He shares Himself with us and for us the best is yet to come as it is still for Joseph. 00:24:01.799 --> 00:24:07.839 So Grace, knowing the love of Christ, coming to know Jesus Christ, saying to Him, I need 00:24:07.839 --> 00:24:14.039 You, saying to Him, I want You to be my Redeemer and Savior, give me the faith I need to do 00:24:14.039 --> 00:24:23.119 that and help me as a Christian of 10, 20, 30, 40 years to be finishing well, to be shining 00:24:23.119 --> 00:24:28.200 for Christ, to be transformed by Christ. 00:24:28.200 --> 00:24:32.460 Allow that love of Christ and that grace of Christ to be continued to be life changing 00:24:32.460 --> 00:24:33.720 for me. 00:24:33.720 --> 00:24:35.680 Dream-shattering, yes. 00:24:35.680 --> 00:24:37.639 Inconvenient, absolutely. 00:24:37.639 --> 00:24:40.519 Sacrificial, without doubt. 00:24:40.519 --> 00:24:43.720 But absolutely beautiful. 00:24:43.720 --> 00:24:48.640 Completely redeeming and incomparably great. 00:24:48.640 --> 00:24:54.079 And that's my prayer for myself and for each of us that we would understand that today 00:24:54.079 --> 00:24:59.759 just a little bit more in the light of Joseph's life and the fact that the Holy Spirit of God 00:24:59.759 --> 00:25:07.600 has given this account for us to consider that we would live in the light of that and 00:25:07.600 --> 00:25:11.079 that we would love to see others coming to know that light as well, the light and the 00:25:11.079 --> 00:25:13.440 love of Jesus Christ. 00:25:13.440 --> 00:25:16.440 The Savior, God with us. 00:25:16.440 --> 00:25:17.440 Amen. 00:25:17.440 --> 00:25:23.519 Lord God, we pray that You would help us, that You would heal us, that today that would 00:25:23.519 --> 00:25:24.960 be good news. 00:25:24.960 --> 00:25:28.000 We know we know it. 00:25:28.000 --> 00:25:35.840 But help us to find fresh reality in it as we come to this season. 00:25:35.840 --> 00:25:42.080 And remember the real people who were involved in the birth and the life of Jesus, ordinary 00:25:42.079 --> 00:25:50.079 people like ourselves, but very honored people because of God's choice. 00:25:50.079 --> 00:25:55.919 And may we know also in our unworthiness that we are not worthless, but we are chosen to 00:25:55.919 --> 00:26:02.199 follow and serve this great Redeemer, to live by faith, even in the battles and struggles 00:26:02.199 --> 00:26:07.359 of this life, which undoubtedly there are, to the glory of God. 00:26:07.359 --> 00:26:10.159 Help us so to do we pray in Jesus' name. 00:26:10.160 --> 00:26:12.160 Amen.