Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Something about me is I rarely if ever watch the news on television anymore.

I read it and follow stories online to stay informed but as for watching the news on TV, regardless of the bent of the news channel, I don't watch it.

There's a variety of reasons why.

One of those reasons is I absolutely despise all the attention our news media gives celebrities.

Some of the news stories about celebrities political views or personal events or what they had for dinner is something I couldn't care less about.

Let Taylor Swift sneeze and there's a news story about it.

And a few years ago when all the coverage began about the Royals and how they were fighting and the prince and his wife were leaving royalty, that was my last straw.

All this attention about billionaries fighting about who was more pious was beyond my patience.

But even though I was fed up with the coverage, clearly there are many viewers who love this stuff.

That's why they cover it.

That makes sense because we are a celebrity driven culture.

We love, borderline obsess, over celebrities.

Let a famous person be near and people lose their minds.

Every year during this season, we hear much about the various characters of Christmas.

People like Mary, the shepherds, the wise men (Who didn’t even show up until a couple of years later), even the sheep, donkeys and even a little drummer boy who isn't real are portrayed in this event as its reenacted year after year.

One fellow, namely Joseph, is treated merely as an extra.

He's largely ignored.

He shows up in the Christmas program, but he brings no gifts, he sings no songs and he makes no speeches.

He just stands there in his sandals and his robes, watching the scene unfold around him.

Well, today, I want to set the record straight!

As I read the Christmas story, I am convinced that Joseph possessed certain elements in his life that make him stand out as The Unsung Hero Of Christmas.

He's an unsung celebrity if you will of the Christmas story.

And its through him we begin to understand what the name Emmanuel means.

The very idea of being with someone famous or well known is exciting, but recognizing that God is with us should make us amazed because of who God is.

God with us should cause us to be in awe because of who we are talking about.

This is God, not a famous athlete or celebrity, this is the God who knit you together in the womb, who knows what is on your heart and mind at all times.

And His promise is he is with you.

Bible Passage

Matthew 1:18-25 (ESV - English Standard Version)

Scriptural Explanation

In this section of scripture we hear the name Emmanuel.

Emmanuel means God is with us.This is where the rubber meets the road.

This is where faith in the Christ becomes personal.

God is with me, walking with me, The song writer says, “And He walks with me and talks with me and tells me I am His own.”

Oh yes, some people know the Christ as Jesus, but they have yet to experience with as Emmanuel.

It is at the Emmanuel level where you walk God, and deal with Him, and interact with Him on the earthly and personal level.

What does that name Emmanuel, really mean?

V18-19

By the time of the narrative in Matthew, Mary is approximately four months pregnant.

She has spent three months with Elizabeth, her relative, but now returns to Nazareth, where she “was found” to be pregnant.

Now we know this pregnancy isn't public knowledge yet, because Joseph can still divorce her privately.

Matthew states simply that the child was conceived through the Holy Spirit.

Without knowing of the supernatural origin of the conception, Joseph naturally thinks that Mary has committed adultery.

As a righteous man it was appropriate & in some communities required for him to obtain a certificate of divorce.

Joseph is experiencing a personal dilemma.

He cannot follow through and marry her, because that would condone what he thinks is Mary’s sin of adultery.

Divorce for adultery was not optional but mandatory among many groups in ancient Judaism, because adultery produced a state of impurity that, as a matter of legal fact, dissolved the marriage.

Yet, his concern for her long-term reputation compels him to avoid exposing Mary to public disgrace.

The law did not require the deed to be made public, making allowance for a relatively private divorce.

This is a scandal.

Mary is pregnant.

Yet she is betrothed to Joseph.

Joseph is not the father of this baby.

This would be still scandalous in our anything-goes, play-by-your-own-rules culture, imagine how it would have been in their anything-does-not-go, abide-by-God’s-rules culture.

Mary was in a tough spot.

But Matthew reminds us that Joseph’s spot wasn’t any softer.

The character and compassion of Joseph is revealed in this dilemma.

Joseph intends to maintain his personal righteousness, yet his desire is also to have compassion for the woman to whom he is engaged, even though he considers her an adulteress.

Joseph is a moral man who stands for rightness, but he is also merciful, which is a rare combination.

Most people are either moral or merciful.

Joseph is a man to be admired and copied.

VS 20-23

The angelic appearance in a dream provides the guidance Joseph needs.

The angel dramatically announces to Joseph that the conception of the child is from the Holy Spirit, not from Joseph (which Joseph knows personally) or any other man (which he has suspected).

The Messiah is given two important names in Matthew 1; both of them point to who he is and what he will do for his people.

The first is the name we know best: Jesus.

The angel told Joseph: “She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21).

The very nature of what Jesus will do is summed up in his name: “he will save his people from their sins”!

The second name is Emmanuel.

We have no record of Jesus ever being called “Emmanuel” by his family or followers.

Instead, as Matthew translates it for us, we see that the name is intended as a title to indicate Jesus’ messianic identity: “God with us.”

Both his common name and his titular name indicate profound truths: Jesus specifies what he does (“God saves”), and Immanuel specifies who he is (“God with us”).

Matthew declares that the events surrounding the conception of Jesus fulfills directly the prophet Isaiah’s sublime prophecy made during the dark days of national threat under the reign of Ahaz, king of Judah.

You don’t have to turn there, but Isaiah chapter 7 tells us a story about King Ahaz and Judah.

And King Ahaz and the people of Judah are shaking in their boots… they’re literally afraid for their lives.

Isaiah says they’re like trees trembling in the wind.

They’re afraid because word on the street was that two other kings had gotten together, and they were going to come and wipe out Ahaz and Judah.

With this threat on the horizon, Isaiah meets with Ahaz and tells them, these two kings are no threat to you at all.

You don’t have to worry about this, there’s no need to be afraid.

Isaiah says, "Ask God for a sign.

Ask Him to show you that He’s going to take care of this for you & that He’s going to be WITH you."

Ahaz, who is kind of a stubborn, grumpy, get off my lawn kinda king, says, "I’m not going to ask God for a sign."

Isaiah says, "Well, you’re going to get one anyways."

And it’s here that Isaiah says, "A virgin girl will conceive and have a baby and His name will be Emmanuel, which means God with us."

And before Emmanuel grows up to know right from wrong, those two kings will be wiped out.

So every time the name Emmanuel is called out, Emmanuel, it would be a reminder to the people that those two kings would not attack, and God will be with us.

Matthew says here that Isaiah’s prophecy was about Mary conceiving by the Holy Spirit and that Child would in fact be God WITH us!

A promise from hundreds of years before hand, this promise of God being WITH us.

A promise made by God, a promise kept by God.

His name is Emmanuel, God with us.

For Joseph while confusing and scary it also had to feel thrilling that hope was on the way.

VS 24-25

In keeping with his “righteous” character, Joseph obeys the Lord’s directives.

Verse 25 goes beyond what the angel explicitly commands, but further refutes any claim that might be made then or later that Joseph himself was Jesus’ biological father.

Joseph married Mary, but he refrained from having intimate relations with her until after Jesus was born.

To me, this absolutely refutes the Catholic teaching that Mary was a virgin perpetually.

The word here is he knew her not until she had birthed Jesus.

We know that at least two of the writers of the New Testament, James and Jude, were the offspring of Joseph and Mary.

Joseph acts like Old Testament men and women of God who obeyed God’s call even when it went against all human common sense and what culture would say.