Sermon Tone Analysis

As we saw in our video tonight, Christmas has become just another time of the year.

It has become steeped in tradition and Commercialization.

It is not about all that garbage.

It is about an event that changed world history and still changes our world and lives today.

It is about Immanuel.

God With Us.

Born in a manger to a virgin named Mary.

Historical/Cultural Context -

THE word Gospel means good news, or a joyful message.

We use this meaning when we look at the Gospels, because for the sinner they contain a truly joyous message.

That there can be peace between God and man, through Jesus our Saviour.

The Apostle Matthew wrote the Gospel around A.D. 63 before the destruction of the temple in A.D. 70.

The emphasis on this account was to the Kingship of Jesus.

That is, He is the rightful king to His people.

Matthew will often go back to the Old Testament for support of the events that happened, showing that he is the promised Messiah of the Jews, as they would have been familiar with the quoted passages and concepts found in the writing.

Not much is known as to what happened to Matthew after the christians were scatted from Jerusalem when the temple was destroyed.

Some say he went to Ethiopia where he was eventually martyred and some say he went to Parthia or Persia and suffered a martyrs death in those cities.

While this isn’t known, the fact that Matthew was an Apostle of Christ is well known.

If you remember, before he met Jesus he was a tax-collector.

Besides the social stigma, this means that he was a learned individual in reading, writing, and Arithmetic.

Biblical Text -

-[Prayer]-

Life Principle - The Birth, Life, Death & Resurrection Of Christ Is No Fairy Tail, But Is The Power To Save Sinners.

Life Point- The Miracle & Purpose Of His Birth

Exegetical -

Homiletical -

I want you to think about this from our perspective.

The perspective of a young man about to Marry his wife.

There is nothing improper in their relationship because of the traditions surrounding marriage at the time.

Later we find that he did not know Mary until after she gave birth

So, knowing that there is no impropriety on Joseph’s part his fiance shows up pregnant.

Now Joseph is faced with a dilemma.

How should he handle this interesting situation.

The people of this time period are not stupid, they know that it takes a mommy and a daddy to make a baby.

He wouldn’t buy this story of the miraculous birth any more than you or I would.

He could have turned her out and publicly shamed her.

He could have made it widely known that she was an adulterous woman, which would pretty much mean no one would want to marry her.

Her worth, as it was seen at that time, right or wrong would have been seen as greatly diminished.

Her prospects for a life with a good husband who could provide and support her would have been miniscule.

Her prospects of a future would only have been slightly better if Joseph put her away quietly.

Meaning giving her a dissolution of divorce.

You see today when an engaged couple break it off it is done verbally.

Not so in this time.

There has been promises made, money may have been exchanged between families, legal things have taken place though it has not been completely and formally finalized.

I hate to use this as an analogy, but here goes.

Have you ever bought a house?

You put in a bid, the offer has been accepted but not all the signing of the paperwork has gone through.

It looks like that house is yours, but if the financing drops out at the last second, it ain’t yours no matter how much you cry and are heart broken.

It just isn’t going to happen.

So Joseph being a respectable man of his time and probably a little heart broken has decided to move on, but not take revenge against her.

That already puts him in the top percent of men alive.

You see most men would have made sure everyone knew what she had done and how despicable she was.

There is an example in scripture of this kind of thing.

The woman caught in adultery.

She was made a public spectacle and they were even going to kill her for her infidelity.

If Joseph had not been a righteous man that could have been Mary.

But you see Jesus wasn’t conceived by sin.

He was conceived by the Power of God.

A miracle to be sure.

So Joseph is thinking about all this and low and behold an angel appears and tells him what has happened and what is going on.

He even tells him of His purpose.

To save his people from their sins.

Not a military commander, not a political figure.

You see Israel was looking for one kind of saviour but a more important kind was about to be born in their midst.

Jesus would save people from their sins.

The name Jesus is a Greek translation for Joshua though the Jews would have pronounced it Yeshua.

If you remember there was another leader that lead the people into their promised land.

A good land flowing with milk and honey, that was Joshua the successor of Moses.

Jesus is our true redeemer and deliverer.

He gets rid of the one thing that truly matters for eternity.

That is sin.

He was born to be the perfect sacrifice for a debt he didn’t owe.

You and I owe a debt we cannot pay.

But Jesus paid that debt on the cross.

Only Jesus can take those wages of sin and cancel it.

Only he can cancel the certificate of debt.

That is the God-Man.

He was and is 100% God and 100% man.

That is the God who took upon flesh and dwelt among us.

Who came as a baby with the promise of saving sinners.

That is Jesus.

So Matthew inserts a little scriptural authority from the Old Testament here.

He makes mention of a prophecy which came about through one of the most respected prophets of all time in the History of the people of Israel.

That is, the prophet Isaiah.

This prophecy was given long before the birth of Christ.

More than 400 years before.

So what does Joseph do after an angel appears to him in a dream?

Does he go out and ask his friends?

Does he go out and ask the religious community?

No he doesn’t.

Why?

Because he knew it was an angel.

There was no doubt in his mind, and he immediately does what the angel tells him to do.

For the Christian, as Charles Hodge once said of the power of Christ’s birth and His subsequent death and resurrection; for us “Holiness is the end of redemption, for Christ gave Himself for us that He might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto Himself a peculiar people zealous of good works.”

The life that is surrendered to Christ, along with the power of repentance and regeneration of the spirit by God, is a life that is truly changed and is never the same.

Because Christ came into History.

As John wrote:

Life Principle– The Birth, Life, Death & Resurrection Of Christ Is No Fairy Tail, But Is The Power To Save Sinners.

Call to Action – altar call….