The Beauty of Christmas.

If you have a bible open it up to Matthew 1:18-25 I have titled the message this morning. The Beauty of Christmas.

This is our second week in the study of Matthew, Next week we take a break and see the Christmas story from Luke’s perspective Mary’s point of view.

Now today we see the beauty of Christmas from the eyes really of Joseph. Joseph though not overly mentioned in the scriptures plays an important role in the redemptive plan of Jesus coming.

Now what I want you to see first and foremost today in the text is this…

Main Idea: The beauty of Christmas is that Jesus came to save his people.

Matthew 1:18–25 (ESV)

18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. 19 And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. 20 But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” 22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:

23 “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,

and they shall call his name Immanuel”

(which means, God with us). 24 When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, 25 but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.

Several points to help us unpack the beauty of Christmas first is this…

The first Christmas appeared to be scandalous.

Now before you say what do you mean pastor? Well alot of scholars refer to it as scandalous because of how God brought it about. As we just read. Mary was betrothed to Joseph but he had not known her yet.

So we have this young girl who is with child but has never been with a man. Many of us would say theres something going on here. This is not possible.

Now for Mary to be betrothed meant this… It meant that she was engaged really married without consummated. You were legally bound. It was likely that there parents got together before and arranged this marriage. Once that took place it would be year later before that was consummated. And before that took place she was carrying not Josephs baby. Scandalous you could say if it was not . And during that time you could could if you were a young women break the agreement if you did not want marry your man.

Now a man could only break that if he had found out that she was not a virgin. That she commited the act of adultery. ( which is important to just plant in your mind for a moment )

Now during this time of engagement you were known as husband and wife we see that in the very text but you could break that if you went through a legal divorce. So Joseph when he finds out all of this wants to divorce her quietly.

Friends this was a big deal during this time to have a child out of wedlock. You could not just go and do whatever you wanted to do and not have serious consequences. So Joseph is like I can’t raise this child its not mine, but I love Mary I don’t want to ruin her life.

Now the text says that Joseph was just and unwilling to put her to shame. Now the scripture tells us why this matters.

Deuteronomy 22:23–27 ESV

23 “If there is a betrothed virgin, and a man meets her in the city and lies with her, 24 then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city, and you shall stone them to death with stones, the young woman because she did not cry for help though she was in the city, and the man because he violated his neighbor’s wife. So you shall purge the evil from your midst. 25 “But if in the open country a man meets a young woman who is betrothed, and the man seizes her and lies with her, then only the man who lay with her shall die. 26 But you shall do nothing to the young woman; she has committed no offense punishable by death. For this case is like that of a man attacking and murdering his neighbor, 27 because he met her in the open country, and though the betrothed young woman cried for help there was no one to rescue her.

He did this because one he wanted to follow the law, but I think he wanted to do this to save himself. One man said. It would have been to admit guilt when he was not guilty. In a sense it would be a lie. Yes its my child shame on us.

This same man would say… I envision the weight of this decision in this way. One shoulder Joseph has the righteous requirements of God's Law whispering in his ear, "You have to expose her error. This sin cannot go unpunished." On the other shoulder is the compassion and mercy of God's Law (cf. 23:23). (And note here that it's not a devil and an angel on his shoulders; these are two angels, if you will; two angels wrestling with his heart.) Compassion counsels him, "Joseph, a private divorce is the way to proceed. Dismiss her quietly. In this way you show both the justice and the love of God."

It seemed that God’s plan was going to be Interrupted by Joseph because it appeared at first scandalous. But something greater was at work. God himself.

second point is this.

The first Christmas involved the power of God.

So as Joseph was thinking about all things, how his life was flipped upside down by a women who he surly loved. God shows up. In a dream through an angel telling him. Who says.. Do not fear to take Mary as your wife for which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. So God is telling Joseph its not another man who caused Mary to be with child its God. The power of God.

He told Mary the same thing in Luke 1:35

Luke 1:35 ESV

35 And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God.

God worked super naturally to bring about the Son of God. Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirt the third person of the Trinity made the preexistent second person of the Trinity into a human being. Truly an in incredible act of the power of God.

Listen to this. It was the work of the Holy Spirit to genesis Jesus. Just as the Spirit was hovering over the face of the waters at creation so here our salvation the Spirit overshadowed Mary’s womb making God’s Son into one of us with bones, and brains, and blood with lungs and lips and lymph nodes with head and heart and hands. That all happened through the power of God.

Though we look to the Son at Christmas we shall not forget the work of the Holy Spirit bringing us him. And the power displayed in the power of God.

The first Christmas does not happen without Joseph.

You might say Mary is the main character. If not for her than Jesus would never have been born. I would not argue with you there. Jesus had to be born of a virgin from the line of David have his blood to fulfill Gods redemptive plan to save. But if Joseph is not in the picture the fulfillment does not really happen. Well why is this.

Listen to this… So why is Joseph, the husband of Mary, so important to Jesus? What does this Joseph have to do with our Jesus? That's the question for this text. Well, you say, he functions as a competent and reliable witness to Mary's virginity (which is so important for the fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy, mentioned in v. 23).!? Yes, that's true. Joseph has to say I did not have relations with her before the Christ came. I testify to that truth. I put my whole life on it.

But a scholar I read would say this. But he is much more than that, Look at verse 20. The angel gives away the answer. "Behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David"? There it is! You can also put a "Wow!" next to "son of David." Did you know that other than this reference here only Jesus in all the Gospels is called "Son of David? Which means what? It means that Joseph has royal blood. It means that this humble carpenter (13:55) is from "the house of David" (Luke 1:27). In Luke 1:27

Luke 1:27 ESV

27 to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary.

And God promised long ago that a king would come from the line of Judah and from the line of David to reign forevermore. Mary hears this about her son: in the gospel of Luke.

He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end. (Luke 1:32, 33)

" Jesus has the right lineage, Scripturally speaking. He is the son of Abraham and the son of David. But how does he get to be the son of David? Is it through Mary? Maybe. Maybe not. Nowhere is that the point, either in Luke or Matthew. Rather, and more certainly, it is through Joseph, his surrogate. Physically we know Jesus mother is Mary, but Legally because Joseph named Jesus. He is his Father on earth. Joseph adopted Jesus into the house of David.

Have you ever thought of that? Truly incredible how God works. Even to the finest detail.

One more thing this scholar added was this… " Think of the first chapter of Matthew's Gospel in this way. The first seventeen verses -the genealogy—confirm to us that Jesus is the promised one, and then the last eight verses (with their focus on Joseph) confirm to us that Jesus is truly from the line of David, or as Paul writes, Jesus "was descended from David according to the flesh" (Romans 1:3). The camera lens is wide in verses 1-17 focusing on the big picture of salvation history. It narrows its focus in verses 18-25 upon the holy family—Mary, Jesus, and (don't forget!) Joseph.

I don't want to overdo this point, but I should mention (it would be wrong for me not to mention just briefly) how this fits with verses 22, 23.

All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: "Be-hold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel" (which means, God with us).

That is a quotation of Isaiah 7:14. It speaks of a sign —a virgin conception and birth—that would be given to the "house of David" (Isaiah 7:13). Now, while there is a child born in Isaiah 8, this child is not the full fulfillment of this prophecy. As we read on in Isaiah, especially in Isaiah 9 and 11, we learn of a unique child still to come. There will be a "super-fulfillment" of the prophecy, as Daniel Harrington words it. " Isaiah 9:6, 7 reads:

For unto us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore.

All this leads to my final point……

The first Christmas is about the savior who was born.

Captain obvious with one huh. Mary carried the son of God, the power of God got him there Joseph does not leave Mary and names Jesus who was Born. As a father I want my daughters to do incredible things, but the most incredible birth to ever take place was Jesus birth. Because Jesus birth shows us that God can do in the impossible to save those who are his. Jesus birth was incredible as we have already seen.

Jesus birth is the fulfillment of so many things. A fulfilment of the promise made to Adam and Eve after they fell into sin. Gen 3:15

Genesis 3:15 ESV

15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

In fact the bible teaches us in Romans 5:12-21 this...

Romans 5:12–21 ESV

12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned— 13 for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. 14 Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come. 15 But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. 16 And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. 17 For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. 18 Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. 19 For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. 20 Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, 21 so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Jesus as i have already mentioned did not have the stain of sin and death. and the powerful message of the Christmas story is not just what we will talk about next week Its verse 21. She will bear a Son, and you shall call his name Jesus for he will save his people from their sins.

He will.

Not he might.

He will.

not just make it possible.

God with us came to us so that we will be saved.

Let me read you this real quick. The Incarnation is the most profound mystery in the whole universe.

This mystery is encapsulated in what Matthew writes about the virgin birth of Jesus. There are, after all, other ways Jesus could have come into the world. On the one hand, if He had come without any human parent, then it would have been hard for us to imagine or believe that He could really identify with us. On the other hand, if He had come through two human parents—a biological mother and a biological father-then it would be hard to imagine how He could be fully God since His origin would have been exactly the same as ours. But God, in His perfect wisdom and creative sovereignty, ordained a virgin birth to be the avenue through which Christ would come into the world.

And as we know unlike the movie taledega nights seems to not understand. Jesus did not stay a baby he grew strong grew is wisdom lived a life of Holiness to God without sin or blemish so that he birth that had an unlikely background coming from the line of David and Abraham at the perfect time would make things new despite what appeared to be a scandalous start by power of God would save his people by dying on the cross laying in that tomb that he would just borrow for a little thats empty while raising to life on the third day so that we would save his people.

And friend to be his you have to repent you have to lay your old life down, and say Jesus forgive me of my sins, cleanse my heart make it new and friends he will change your life. And that my friends is the beauty of Christmas. Not the lights, not the presents, not all the fancy Jesus. The beauty of Christmas is that Jesus came to save his people and to make us new.

I think I have shared this story with you but its worth repeating of something I read many years ago…This man once had an opportunity to bear witness to the incarnation while sitting across the table from a group of Muslim men in the Middle East during Ramadan, the Muslim holy month. We were finishing a meal late one night (they had just broken their fast), and they asked me to share with them what I believe about God. Knowing that Muslims believe Jesus was a good man, but certainly not God in the flesh (such a claim is blasphemous in Islam), I began to share about who Jesus is. I told them that when I decided to ask my wife to marry me, I did not send someone else to do it for me; I went myself. Why? Because in matters of love, One must go Himself. That's a picture of the incarnation.

This astounding truth of Christianity— the reality that God became flesh John 1:14)-may be incomprehensible to many, but to those who believe it is irresistible. There is an infinitely great God, mighty in power, who out of His love for us has not simply sent a messenger to tell us about His love. Even better, He has come Himself. And what He came to do is the greatest news in the whole world:

He came to heal the sick (Matt 4:23-25; 8:14-17).He came to feed the hungry (14:13-21 and 15:32-39).He came to bless the poor (specifically the poor in spirit; 5:1-12).He came to bind the brokenhearted (6:25-34 and 11:28-30).He came to deliver the demon-possessed (8:28-34).

As we reflect on these and other blessings of Christ's ministry, we must remember that ultimately, He came to rescue the lost (1:21). Jesus came to a sin-stained world to endure the penalty of sin and to stand in the place of sinners. He came to die on a cross, to give His body, to shed His blood —all so that you and I could be rescued from our sin and reconciled to God. That's the good news of the incarnation. That's why Jesus came.…