Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Can you believe it is December already?

Christmas is just around the corner, and we are celebrating our Hanging of the Green Service tonight at 6:00 pm!

Christmas and Easter are my favorite times of the year!

I really love to celebrate both holidays.

Sometimes though, in the busy-ness of those seasons, I confess that it is hard to slow down and truly meditate on the wonder of it all.

It is hard to let the message of Christmas and the message of Easter penetrate down deep into my soul, to the place where transformation takes place.

In an effort to help us to be renewed and transformed by the message of Christmas, this season I am going to attempt to remind us of the wonder of it all.

Our sermon series for the next few weeks is titled: The Wonder of Christmas.

In this series, we are going to look at the birth that changed everything.

First, we are going to look at the birth of Jesus from the perspective of Joseph, then we are going to see it from Mary’s perspective, next, we are going to view it from place of a manger in Bethlehem, and finally, from the low perspective of Shepherds and the high perspective of Angels on one starry night in Israel.

Philip Brooks, a minister in the late 1800’s, once wrote these words,

He was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman.

He worked in a carpenter shop until he was thirty.

Then for three years he was an itinerant preacher.

He never wrote a book.

He never held an office.

He never had a family or owned a house.

He never went to college.

He never traveled two hundred miles from the place where he was born.

He never did one of the things that usually accompany greatness.

He had no credentials but himself.

He was only thirty-three when the tide of public opinion turned against him.

His friends ran away.

He was nailed to a cross between two thieves.

When he was dead, he was laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend.

From the secular perspective, the life of Jesus Christ was not an easy life, it was not a comfortable life, and from all worldly considerations it was not an abundant life.

So how can Mr. Brooks go on to say?

Nineteen centuries have come and gone, and today he is the central figure of the human race….I am far within the mark when I say that all the armies that ever marched, all the navies that ever sailed, all the parliaments that ever sat, all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man on earth as has that One Solitary Life.

Jesus Christ has had a profound impact upon mankind.

In fact, I would suggest that He has had an eternal impact upon mankind.

Left to our own devices, we would be groping around in the darkness, lost and without hope.

The great news of the gospel is that we can have hope as we follow Christ.

The Christmas story of Joseph reminds us that to actually follow Jesus is quite difficult.

There is a great irony in the Christian life: following Jesus propels you into a life that is simultaneously the most joyful and the most difficult life on earth.

Jesus promised us life more abundant in John 10:10

But He also called us to pick up our cross and follow after Him in Matthew 16:24

Despite this struggle between joy and struggle, the Gospel points us toward a life of persevering Hope.

This morning I would like to share with you the story of that persevering hope from perspective of Joseph.

Please turn in your Bibles to Matthew, Chapter one.

We will be starting in verse 18. Please stand in honor of God’s Word!

Here in this passage we find the beginning of a new era in redemptive history as a miraculous conception occurs in the little town of Nazareth in Galilee.

I would like to share with you four reasons why we can have hope even in the midst of difficult situations this Christmas.

Why we can follow Jesus even when it is not easy.

If we are going to really follow Jesus in all things, we have to have a strong grip on why He’s worth it.

REASON 1: NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR GOD.

Matthew has just finished giving us a detailed genealogy of Jesus Christ in the first seventeen verses of this gospel.

In verse one of this genealogy, Matthew affirms that Jesus was the son of David which connects His birth with the Davidic Covenant, as well as pointing out that He was the son of Abraham connecting His birth with the Abrahamic Covenant.

Matthew’s most amazing assertion is in labeling Jesus as “the Messiah.”

Now in verse 18 we read of the birth of this messiah.

The same word for birth also occurs in verse one for genealogy.

The word in the original language is genesis, which as you already know can mean beginning.

This is not only the story of the birth of Jesus, but also the beginning of a new era.

Matthew is telling us that Jesus is literally the genesis of new things.

Verse 18 teaches us that Nothing is impossible for God.

God is in the business of the supernatural.

Look at verse 18.

Mary and Joseph are in the midst of their betrothal period.

This was the first stage of marriage in the Jewish culture.

A young man and his fiancée would get legally married, but would have to wait a year before they were allowed consummate their marriage and live together.

This was practiced in order to make sure the young lady was pure.

You see, in those days, marriages were arranged by parents.

When the parents chose a wife for their son they would pay this huge marriage fee, if you will, to the bride’s family.

Naturally, the parents paying the price wanted to make sure that the girl they were marrying their son to was pure, so they required a year of waiting before you could finalize the marriage to make sure she wasn’t impure.

After a year that was clear, so then they could live together and consummate their marriage.

Despite all of this, during the betrothal, they were still considered legally married.

So, to get out of their marriage they had to get an official divorce.

Well, during this betrothal period Mary shows up pregnant.

Scripture is clear here in our current passage and even more so in Luke 1:26-37 that this occurred before Joseph and Mary consummated their wedding.

Can you imagine for a minute how painful and embarrassing this was for Joseph?

What would it have been like to hear this from the girl you just married but haven’t been allowed to be with yet?

Naturally, Joseph doesn’t believe her.

He’s like, “Oh, right, the Holy Spirit got you pregnant.

I bet you have some waterfront property near Babylon you want to sell me too?”

So how can this be?

How can an unmarried, young, teenage girl become pregnant?

If we think only on man’s playing field, then we would have to conclude that Mary was not pure.

She was guilty of infidelity, or adultery.

A crime that was punishable by stoning according to Deut.

22:23-24.

Daniel Akin has said,

The Bible does not present the virgin birth of Jesus as myth, fable, or legend.

Rather it presents it as historical fact, a supernatural act of God whereby He invades space and time and comes to live in the midst of His people.

To truly understand this passage we must trust what the Scriptures teach.

We must understand that Mary was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit.

God had done the impossible.

God had supernaturally impregnated Mary’s womb.

We will discuss this more next week.

How can we have hope and follow Jesus even in difficult situation?

We can realize that nothing is impossible for God!

REASON 2: GOD IS A RELATIONAL GOD.

God cares about mankind.

He demonstrated His love by sending His son to earth to atone for the sins of every man.

He is a relational God.

I hope you will see that clearly in the next three verses.

Look with me at verses 19-21.

In these three verses we learn something of the character of Joseph that enabled him to be a man that God could use.

First, notice that Joseph was a righteous man, a just man.

He lived in a way that pleased the Lord.

As Mary’s betrothed husband who just discovered that she was with child, Joseph was perplexed, he was presented with a dilemma.

Being a righteous and just man, Joseph did not want to disgrace his wife.