THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE KING- RECAP

INTRO:

here we have Matthew pick up our story with the anouncement and the birth of Jesus from the perspective of Joseph.

read the passage

I. Joseph finds out Mary is with Child (v.18-19)

now in the Gospel of Luke we read how Mary found out that she was pregnant. But here in the book of Matthew, we are not told how Joseph found out that Mary was pregnant.

we are told that Mary is found to be with child while she was betrothed to Joseph. And if you remember we looked at what the marriage process would have looked like during this time period.

Marriage Process

the parents of a young boy and girl would have an agreement or an arrangement of marriage. They would both agree that when their kids came of age , they would be married together.

now once the boy and girl came of age, they would enter the marriage process. The first step would be to enter into the betrothal period which would be celebrated in a betrothal ceremony.

at this point the young man and girl would be considered set apart unto one another, they would be considered married. Yet, after the ceremony, each person would go back to his / her home with her family. The man and woman would not know each other intimately.

during this betrothal period which could have been up to a year, the young man would be preparing a home to bring his wife to. The woman would be waiting in expectation of the day when her beloved husband would come for her to go complete the marriage ceremony and be united intimately.

now once a couple was betrothed they were considered married and could only break this off by having a certificate of divorce.

Transition

it is at this point that Joseph finds out that Mary is pregnant. Understand, that at this point to be found to be unfaithful or pregnant by someone else would be considered adultery.

this is where Matthew picks up this story, with Joseph now being under the impression that his beloved Mary has been unfaithful to him and has committed adultery.

which is why Joseph was looking for a way to put Mary away. Now we are told about the character of Joseph , we are told here that he was a just man, which speaks about being approved by God.

- He had every right to put Mary away in a public way to make it know that he was innocent and could have looked for a different wife..... but we see that he must have had a great love for Mary even when he found out about her.

he did not want to bring harm to her.

now one thing that we did when we went through this passage last was to put ourselves in the shoes of Joseph. Imagine the thoughts that might have crossed his mind, why did she do this, who is the father, what am i going to do, what will people think of her, what will people think of me?

II. God Speaks to Joseph in a dream (v.20-23)

all of these thoughts and decisions that had to be made must have created fear and possibly anxiety in Joseph, because the first thing that the Angel tells Joseph, is not to be afraid to take Mary as his wife.

it is interesting that God comes to Joseph to bring comfort at the time he needed it most. And we looked at 3 different ways God brought comfort to Joseph.

1. God Brings Comfort With reassurance of His Presence (v.20)

See God sends an angel to speak to Joseph in a dream on God’s behalf. Often times , knowing that God is with us , brings comfort in the midst of a difficult situation. Knowledge of His presences brings comfort and strength .

Psalm 145:18 NKJVThe Lord is near to all who call upon Him, To all who call upon Him in truth.

Isaiah 41:10 NKJVFear not, for I am with you; Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, Yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.’

2. God Brings Comfort With reassurance of His Purpose (v.21)

the angel tells Joseph that Mary is carrying a baby of the Holy Spirit and His name shall be “Jesus”, for He will save His people. interesting that the name Jesus in the Hebrew is “Yehoshua” or Joshua. which means - Yaweh is salvation

we see a neat parallel in the old testament with Moses who was a representation of the Law of God, as God gave the law thru Moses. Yet we understand that the Moses was unable to take the people into the promise land. God would raise up Joshua to take take the place of Moses and would eventually lead the people into the promise land.

the parallel is clear, that the law is important but it would never be able to take you and into the place where we could save ourselves by our own good works, we could never obtain a right standing with God based on our keeping of the law.

this is the main problem with humanity, that our sins have kept us from being able to have a relationship with God, and no matter how good we try to be, or how much we try to keep the law, our works will never be good enough to obtain a right standing with God.

- so just as the children of Israel, the law could never bring us into a right standing with God. But God would send His only begotten Son to the earth to take on the sins of the world in order that through Him we might obtain a right standing.

Romans 8:3–4 NKJV

For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

Transition

See the very name of Jesus was a description of His mission, to save the world. God is telling Joseph that their is a purpose for this baby, there is a purpose for this difficult situation that he is going through.

The purpose was to make a way for the world to be saved through His Son

1 John 4:14 NKJVAnd we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world.

John 12:46–47 NKJVI have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness. And if anyone hears My words and does not believe, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world.

3. With the Reassurance of His Promises (v.22-23)-

God brings clarity to the promises found within the word of God.

God is telling Joseph that there is a reason that these things are happening the way they are. Jesus would have to be born this way, of a Virgin Birth in order to fulfill the old testament prophecies. Jesus was the fulfillment of the promise of the coming Messiah, the coming king.

Jesus fulfilled over 300 prophecies on His time on earth, from how the Messiah would be born all the way to how the Messiah would die. Here the angel makes reference to .

Isaiah 7:14 NKJV

Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.

this is the reason Mary was pregnant right now and the way she was pregnant, in order to fulfill this prophecy

Now Joseph is told that they will call Jesus is “Immanuel”, which is translated “God with us”.

This is in reference to God taking on flesh and coming down to earth, God has come down to us. This is the promise found within the scriptures, the promise of the coming Messiah. Jesus being the third member of the God head, came down to earth, took on flesh and died on the cross for our sins, in order to make a way for us to be reconciled with God.

God has made a way to have an intimate relationship with us through His Son.

2 Corinthians 5:18 NKJV

Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation,

Colossians 1:19–22 NKJV

For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross. And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight—

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this is the ultimate promise found within God’s word, that God has made a way for us to have a relationship with Him.

- and we looked at how God meets us in the midst of our difficulties as well, He comforts us with the reasurrance of His presence , He comforts us with the reasurrance of His purpose and the reasurrance of His promises found within His word.

III. Joseph is Obedient to God (v.24-25)

Joseph now wakes up from his dream and we are told that he does what God has told him to do. We see that Joseph is completely obedient to God.

he honors God and Mary by taking her as his wife and he names the baby Jesus just as God commanded.

We cannot neglect to see the great character of Joseph

Character of Joseph

1.He was a just man- a man who pleased God. Lived a life that was in line with God and his word

2.He was selfless- he thought about Mary and not just himself, didn’t want her to suffer harm

3.He trusted God’s promises , God’s plan and God’s timing

if i’m honest it is not always easy to surrender to God’s plan and timing. We want the promises of God, but we don’t want to deal with his timing or His methods of fulfilling these promises.

Joseph showed great character in surrendering his will for God’s will in order to bring pass the promises of God to the whole world

4. He obeyed completely the word of God