Sermon Tone Analysis

Thank you for being here tonight to slow down and worship Jesus with our church family here at Heritage, my name is Pastor Kevin, if we haven’t met yet, after our service tonight, I’d love a chance to meet up with you for a brief second to thank you for being here, I will actually be over in our fellowship center afterwards (just down the hall), where we have cookies, brownies, and hot chocolate available for everyone to have brief time of fellowship with one another as we leave tonight.

I hope to see each of you there to wish you all a Merry Christmas.

But isn’t good just to slow down, push button on all that we have going on in our world and simply reflect on the manger and look to Jesus our Savior.

If your life is anything like mine, you need tonight just to breathe, just to remind yourself of the meaning of Christmas, because it so easy to get caught up in the commercialization of this special day, and if we are not careful it will suck the life right out of you.

This year, I even attempted to make it a less stressful, so I started Christmas shopping a little earlier than normal, so I started two days ago thinking I’ll give myself plenty of time this year… and apparently the supply issues is a real deal or something, because everything was sold out.

I looked high and low for a gift for my bride this year.

And I couldn’t find anything worth buying.

I went from store to store, and you know its bad, when the most valuable gift you can find for your wife is bought at CVS. That’s where I’m at this year, so prayers are greatly appreciated for a Christmas miracle at the Wright house.

But listen, if we are not careful, the shopping, the parties, the family gatherings, the baking, the trees, and lights will define your Christmas.

And Jesus will all but be ignored.

So we gather here tonight, to sing praises to our King, to reflect on Scripture, which has already been read tonight.

But I want us to pause and press into that word together.

Martin Luther, the great reformer once said, “Scripture is the manger in which we find the Christ child.”

So let us look there to find Jesus so that we may worship Him this Christmas.

This year, as a church, we have been walking though the opening chapters of the book of Matthew together, where his theme seems to be placed on the Hope of Christmas, the hope of Jesus.

This past Sunday, pastor Christopher preached through the genealogy of Jesus and tonight we have read that which immediately follows: Matthew 1:18-25.

So if you have your Bibles I invite you to turn with me there, if you didn’t bring a copy of Scripture, there are some on the back of the chair in front of you, and you can find our text today on page one of the New Testament, which would be the second page number one found about 2/3rds of the way through the book.

Tonight, I want you to notice three things from our text as we prepare our hearts for Christmas.

1) The righteous example of faith.

Verse 18 may begin with the words, “Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows…,” but interestingly, we are not told the all-familiar Christmas story.

In Matthew, there is no lowly stable, no manger, no shepherds keeping watch over their flock, no host of angels singing of the glory of God on display.

All of that we find in the gospel of Luke, where the good doctor in great detail shares the story of the birth of Christ, from Mary, the mother of Jesus’ point of view.

Matthew on the hand, tells a different story.

He speaks concisely of the conception of Jesus and some of the events that transpired prior to Jesus being born.

But the Greek word for birth in verse 18, is that same Greek work used in chapter 1, verse 1 for genealogy.

It’s the GK word genesis.

It’s implying a new beginning.

In other words, everything was quickly changing, with the birth of Jesus Christ.

Something new that would reshape the world had occurred.

But it’s also very noteworthy to me, that Matthew would speak of Jesus’ birth even though he hadn’t been physically born yet.

It’s a powerful reminder to me that life doesn’t begin at birth but it begins in the womb.

That’s what Matthew says, as he finished this verse with the words, “when His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.”

Mary had a child before he was born, because life begins in the womb, and this was no ordinary baby that had come to life within Mary.

This was the Son of God, conceived by the Holy Spirit.

You see, Matthew speaks of the birth of Jesus in very different manner, but no mistake, the words of our text are just as much a part of the Christmas story, as the words found in the gospel of Luke .

But, whereas Luke told the story for Mary, Matthew shares the account of Jesus’ birth from Joseph’s point-of-view.

Now that fact alone, should bring some clarity to why Matthew’s account of the nativity story is rather brief, especially compared to Luke where Mary is pondering things in her heart and bursting forth in song.

Joseph, on the other hand, like most men, is rather reserved in sharing all that emotional stuff behind his experience and sticks the facts.

He gives us the man’s version of the story.

But make no mistake, he is a fascinating figure to consider.

Though he is often overlooked and overshadowed by Mary and baby Jesus, Joseph provides us with a very powerful example of righteous living to follow.

Let’s just consider a few things from the text tonight:

a) Joseph never speaks a word in Scripture.

Not just in our text of scripture, but throughout the entire Bible, the man who loved Jesus as his own, the one who changed some of Jesus’ dirty diapers, the one who comforted Jesus when he fell and scraped his knees, the one who taught Jesus the family trade, and taught him fatherly lessons.

That man has not one word attributed to him in Scripture.

Now please let that soak in for a moment, because there is a powerful lesson for us here.

So often, do we not tend to measure people by their words, instead of the actions.

We are so quick to judge people by what they say, while we hastily overlook their sinful actions.

Church family, Joseph reminds us that character is revealed, not necessarily in what we say, but what we do.

True righteousness is revealed in our actions.

Joseph, in fact, reminds us of the powerful nature of our lifestyle.

Listen, as much as we need good preachers in the pulpits of our churches, we also desperately need men like Joseph who live righteously, for the glory of Another.

Men and women who don’t just speak truth but live it.

Joseph was such a man.

b) Joseph faithfully obeys out of a compassionate heart.

We are told in verse 18 and 19, that Mary and Joseph were betrothed to be married.

Meaning they we more than engaged, they were in the process of becoming married, and the only way the contractual relationship could end was through a divorce.

In fact, we can see directly from the text that Joseph was considered to be Mary’s husband, but the marriage had yet to be consummated.

Now history tells us, that generally speaking, a betrothed husband barely knew his betrothed wife.

In fact, we should assume that Mary and Joseph had probably never been alone together for even a moment of their lives.

Those who were in this stage of marriage were heavily supervised by others to ensure the purity of the bride on the official wedding day.

Folks, there is no Hallmark Christmas love story to read between the lines.

There is no hot chocolate drinking dates, or magical kiss in the snow prior to the credits rolling.

That’s not in the text.

Instead, we have a man, who has discovered his wife to be is pregnant with child, and he knows he is not the father.

Verse 19 is so powerful, and it’s easy to miss the tension in this verse.

We are told that Joseph is both righteous and full of compassion.

He is a righteous man meaning he lived according to the Word of God.

He sought to be faithful to God’s commands and the laws of the land.

And in this case, the Jewish, Greek, and Roman law all demanded that Joseph divorce his wife, for being unfaithful.

You see, in contrast to our western culture, Joseph lived in a society where he had no option of giving Mary a second chance, even if he wanted to.

And as righteous man he knew he must divorce her.

But don’t miss his compassionate heart in verse 19, where it says, not wanting to disgrace her, he planned to send her away secretly.

The custom of the day would have been to publicly shame Mary and have her stoned or be shamed for no doing so.

Joseph was trying to find a way to divorce her secretly.

But it was when he considered those things, that God sent an angel to him in a dream.

The angel told him everything about this child.

That he was conceived by the Holy Spirit, that He is the long-awaited Messiah, coming to bring salvation to His people.

And the angel called Joseph to not divorce Mary, but to name the baby Jesus.

Now, that is also significant, because it was the father’s right to name their children.

You see, with that phrase, the angel is telling Joseph that this child is God’s child to name but at the same time, Joseph would name Jesus as an adoptive father.

To care for him and love him as his own.

We are simply told in verse 24 that Joseph awoke from this unforgettable dream and did exactly as the angel instructed.

Now consider that for moment.

Everyone in Nazareth knew something wasn’t right.

They could see Mary was with child and Joseph was betrothed to her.

He would have to endure the suspicions, perhaps the shame of others as they whispered behind his back.

He was probably rebuked by many other righteous men, but yet he heard from God and obeyed in faith.

Listen, we too may face the scorn of others for believing in Christ, but He has given us something far greater than a dream, He has given us His Word, and He calls upon us to trust Him and obey Him.

He calls us to live for Him, not so much with our words, but with how we live.

My prayer is that you seek to follow the righteous example of Joseph’s faith this Christmas.

2) The importance of the virgin birth.

The virgin birth is one of the most contested miracles in the Bible.

I find it interesting that there are some Christians who claim to have no problem believing that God spoke the world into existence, did various miracles, but at the same time struggle to believe that Jesus was born of a virgin.

There are pastors today who chose not to preach on the virgin birth because they can’t comprehend it.

And so many just ignore it all together.

I even read one pastor who described the various doctrines of the Bible as the many springs on a trampoline.

He argued that you can easily take a few out and the trampoline will still support you and bring you great joy.

But church, to ignore the virgin birth of Jesus is to ignore His deity all together.

And to ignore His deity is the equivalent to denying it.