Big Screen Christmas Part 2

Announcements:

Family Day, Christmas party 18th

Buying Christmas

Christmas Eve Service

Intro:

Last week we spent our time talking about the expectations around Christmas

Every Christmas season brings with it all of these different expectations

And yet, when it comes to our faith one of our greatest faults isn’t that we have false expectations but that more often than not we have no expectations at all

So we operate in a way as if God is some sort of Santa Clause

He works one day a year or at most one Sunday morning a week

But if we want God to do God things, it needs to be preceded by faith that He can and will

So the challenge was made to begin to expect God to do big things in our lives everyday

But now the question must be asked, what happens when our expectations aren’t met?

Unmet expectations become disappointment in our lives.

What we thought could be, disappears right in front of us, and we are left empty and hurting in the wake.

Wren saying, “I thought it was going to be a good gift.”

My all-time favorite Christmas movie has a scene that captures this feeling perfectly.

Buddy is elated to find out that Santa is coming to Gimbels, only to find out that the man he thought was Santa was an imposter, who smelled like beef and cheese, seated on a throne of lies.

Show movie clip

What I find amazing is that, just like last week with expectation, the experience of disappointment was a part of the very first Christmas story.

Being "let down" and having expectations go unmet are not foreign to the people in Scripture, and that may be no more evident anywhere than in the life of Joseph.

Matthew 1:18–25 NIV

18 This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. 19 Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly. 20 But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” 22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 23 “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”). 24 When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. 25 But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.

Pray

My wife does this thing with me where she asks to watch a movie

And I have to be honest I’m one of those guys that once I start something I’ve got to finish it no matter how bad it is

And so my wife will say hey let’s watch this movie, well the other night it was a Christmas movie.

The problem we always face is that every time we begin watching one she’s asleep before the movie really begins and then I’m stuck laying in bed watching a chick flick for 2 hours and can’t take my eyes off of it

well this happened, and like every other hallmark type christmas movie, the guy meets a girl and over time form this connection and about the time you think they are gonna fall in love and ride off in the sunset you find out that she’s actually engaged

And then the rest of the movie you’re left wondering when she’s finally going to see that she doesn’t really love her fiance, she loves this man that she just met 2 days ago

And so, in our society, engagements have just become a step further than dating but don’t really mean a whole lot.

And in hallmark movies they’ve become an opportunity for a plot twist

Well, in Jesus’ day, there was no such thing.

Mary and Jospeh had entered into a Betrothal. A Betrothal was more binding.

It was normally accompanied by the groom’s payment of at least part of the bride price.

It would commonly last about a year, meant that bride and groom were officially pledged to each other but had not yet consummated the marriage;

so, advances toward anyone else were thus regarded as adulterous (Deut 22:23–27).

Two witnesses, mutual consent (normally) and the groom’s declaration were necessary to establish Jewish betrothals.

At this time, Mary would have probably been between the ages of twelve and fourteen (sixteen at the oldest),

Joseph perhaps between eighteen and twenty; their parents likely arranged their marriage, with Mary and Joseph’s consent.

Premarital privacy between betrothed persons was permitted in Judea but apparently frowned upon in Galilee, so Mary and Joseph may well not have had any time alone together at this point.

The penalty for adultery under Old Testament law was death by stoning, and this penalty applied to infidelity during betrothal as well (Deut 22:23–24).

In New Testament times, Joseph would have merely been required to divorce Mary and expose her to shame

(Betrothals were so binding that if a woman’s fiancé died, she was considered a widow; betrothals could otherwise be terminated only by divorce.)

But a woman with a child, divorced for such infidelity, would be hard pressed ever to find another husband, leaving her without means of support if her parents died.

Can you imagine this moment?

Imagine the disappointment that Joseph felt when he found out that Mary was pregnant? I'm sure his whole world came crashing down.

And then on top of it, she wouldn't even own up to the fact that she had sinned. She kept saying that the child in her womb was from God.

How could she do this?

So what was Joseph going to do about it? He contemplated and planned and re-planned what he should do.

He was really left with 3 options

He could marry her and bring disgrace to himself.

He could go public with the divorce and turn her over to the officials who could possibly kill her for her sin of unfaithfulness.

He could refuse to marry her, and divorce her, but do it honorably and lovingly by not going public. And this is what he thought he would do.

Some of us have felt the sharp sting of disappointment in our own lives. 

Through the words of a spouse or friend.

Through unachieved goals, unreached dreams, and unmet expectations. 

We have felt what it is like to have our worlds come caving in around us.

But here is what I want you to see, God did not abandon Joseph during his time of disappointment. 

He did the opposite, He drew near.

The truth about disappointment, even though it can sometimes be a hard truth, is that God is at work in our disappointments.

This is not some cliche, fix all, brush away your pain, kind of statement.

It is, as John Piper has described it, a "sweet and bitter providence" that we can cling to when everything else around us doesn't seem to make sense.

God's hand is behind the scenes of every moment of our lives, working things together in ways that we can not see or even often imagine.

Verse 22 here says that “they will call him Immanuel’ which means ‘God with us.’”

This isn’t just a cool catchy title

This isn’t even a prayer or a hope

Immanuel is a PROMISE

And it’s not a momentary happening but an eternal glory

When we put our hope in Jesus, He promises to be with us forever. To never leave and never forsake us.

Even in our most painful disappointments

James Macdonald puts it this way, "God’s sovereignty is first painful, then slowly powerful, and only over much time seen to be profitable."

This is because, at first, knowing that God is in control can hurt and lead us to ask "Why?".  "Why would you let this happen?"  or more pointedly "Why would you let this happen to me?"

But over time, we begin to understand that God does indeed have a plan, even if we don't have eyes to see it, and even if we don’t want it to be that way.

And through faithful perseverance, we can finally come to the place that we understand that God is working everything together in His plan for our good and His glory (Rom 8:28)

This truth does not always take away our pain, but neither does our pain invalidate this truth.

God revealed to Joseph that He was indeed working for Joseph's good.

And look at the result. Through the greatest of Joseph’s disappointments he was lead to a place to father the one who would become not only the Savior of his soul but the Savior of the world.

My guess, you could ask Joseph in the moment and he would have begged God to take it away.

But you ask Joseph now and he’d do it all again every time!

And that’s how God works.

So, leave encouraged today. Knowing that, not only does God work and move today but He works even in your most painful disappointments

And no moment of your life with Jesus is ever wasted

You have no idea what God is preparing you for right now in this season He has you in

Yes, in this dark season

Yes, in this painful season

Yes, in this disappointing season

This could be the season that changes everything for you! And you can rest in the fact that it’s a season God is working for you