Overcoming Hope

Good Morning,

A few years ago we visited Yosemite national park and it is the most incredible stunning place on the planet… On the way home we took route 120 to leave the National park but after a while discovered the road had a lot sharp bend…and we started to suffer from car sickness and nausea…

Then we came to this fork in the Road and it offered an alternative route… continue on Route 120 or this road to the left called old Priest Grade.

We could continue with the windy road for another 15 minutes or longer? or could take Old Priest Grade.... and it would take us about 5 minutes... After a little collaboration we decided we going to turn left … and take the short cut and avoid all the turns..

We figured we were driving the Ford Explorer and it should handle the road in front of us.... We used the best information we had and made a decision...

But as soon as we got started I realized that it might have been a mistake…and there was no room to turn around … The road was not only steep but narrow... What made matters worse there were these patches of gravel and every time I came to a sharp turn, I would break and the car would skid towards the edge of the road.… Did I mention that there were no guard rails and an easy 500+ foot drop on the side of us…

I read one comment online that said if you take Priest Grade take your prayer book with you..… and they are not joking..

It was the most intense 5 minutes in my driving career…

When you got your in-laws in the car you got to impress.. you got make it.… It was a hair raising drive… thankfully we made it down the mountain .... we were all relieved to get to the bottom… The first thing we did at the bottom of was change drivers… I was done..

We are in the second week of our Advent Series and this morning I want to talk about Overcoming Hope.. Last week we made an important definition of Hope — English word for Hope can be week… but biblical hope is a sure word --- it speaks of Assurance, substance, certainty.

…It’s Hebrews 11:1 kind of Faith.

Hebrews 11:1 ESV

1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

Faith and Hope go together and it’s Conviction that all of God’s invisible attributes can be trusted.. it’s the belief that God that not only is God all powerful, All knowing… but that God is Always present.. God is not only present in our today’s but he is also present in our tomorrows..

We are in an advent series… and Advent simply means the coming of Christ... and one of the great blessings of celebrating Advent is that it can be a time the of preparing our hearts… Just as God prepared Mary and Joseph and others for his coming our heart too can be prepared.

This morning We are going to look at Joseph and his response to the News of Mary’s pregnancy..

Joseph comes to a Folk in the Road…He came to place of uncertainty and the unknown… It’s interesting that the first words out Gabriels mouth at the birth announcements.. “fear not” - ---Do not be afraid.” When the unknown comes into our lives it is easy to become afraid… often we assume the worst..

Fear is like a great magnifying-glass; or one of those mirrors which give a distorted image of things reflected in them---

Charles Spurgeon makes the observation - The angel said, “Fear not,” as though the times of fear were over, and the days of hope and joy had arrived.”

The Christmas narrative is full of these unknown moments...

Luke records the responses of Zachariah and Elizabeth and Mary the Angel Gabriel … ....Zachariah is in the temple presenting the prayers of the nation before the Lord — when the angel Gabriel appears to him and tells him that he and Elizabeth will bear a son in their old age… and that the prayers of Israel for a Redeemer have been answered… This was another unknown moment … something they had prayed for years but now it didn’t seem possible..

Zachariah responded with fear and doubt.... As a result there were consequence - He lost his ability to speak and became mute…and was unable to bless Israel and share the miracle of the birth of John with Elizabeth..

Then we have Mary’s response to the unknown..

Gabriel Appears to Mary… with a strange greeting… Greetings O favored one the Lord is with you. …

Mary is fearful but when Gabriel explained his mission that she would have the honor of being the mother of Jesus the savior — she pondered these things and responded with faith believing and said “So be it according to your word.”

Mary is blessed among woman and full grace --- because God chose her.. and because she responded with Faith believing.. Similarly, Elizabeth receives her pregnancy in faith and giving thanks than God has removed her shame.

Now, Joseph the husband of Mary going to be challenged with an unknown ...

Joseph is one of those characters in the Bible where we don’t have much information. We know he was a carpenter. We know he was alive at Jesus’ 12th birthday and but he disappears off the radar and we suspect that he had died before Jesus crucifixion.

We know that he lived in Nazareth, his hometown was Bethlehem, and he was a direct descendant of King David. We know that he was a righteous man, because verse 19 says he was. But we don’t know much more about him...

Even so there is much that we can learn about Joseph when it comes to responding to the unknown.

Let’s read our Text.

Matthew 1:18–19 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.

T/S We learn from Joseph — that we need to take time to...

1. Understand the nature of the Disruption in our lives.

Now the birth of Jesus took place in this way....

We have started our marathon of Christmas movies … Have you noticed that most Christmas movies have a love story woven in somewhere… There is a love story woven in the Advent story… this love story between Joseph and Marry who betrothed to be married …And like every good love story there is a Conflict of some sort that has to be resolved… Joseph and Mary were in love… they had marriage plans… they had gone through the hoops.

Now in Jewish marriages there were three stages

1. The arrangement… this often between parents. 2. Then the engagement or betrothal period this could last 2 years… Where woman would live with her parents… the third part was..the

3 consumption of the marriage.

So Mary and Joseph committed to one another basically in a marriage commitment. The only thing that’s yet to happen is for them to live together, to physically consummate the marriage

But, something disrupts their plans.... Have you noticed that even the best made plans can be interrupted… by the unexpected..

“Before they came together (before they entered into physical relationship with one another) Mary was found to be with child That’s obviously a pretty glaring statement.

Now Matthew adds “from the Holy Spirit” to clue us in to something supernatural that’s going on here. But Platt, D. (2011).

This quite different from Greek mythology where where it speaks of children born to the gods who with woman… The Birth of Jesus was a miracle performed by the Holy Sprit…

The word found means to be discovered… means it became obvious that Mary was pregnant.. Some have suggested that Mary is possibly in her 2nd trimester of pregnancy… … As you can imagine, this creates a huge problem in the Joseph and Mary’s relationship…

Take a moment to put yourself in Joseph’s shoes. You’ve asked this woman to marry you. She’s said, “Yes.” This marriage is contractually there. The only thing that’s left is for her to come into your home. And right before that’s about to happen, you find out that she is pregnant. Knowing that you have had no physical relationship with her, there is only one possible option for how she is pregnant in your mind. Clearly she has been involved with another man.

So imagine the emotions in you as husband, about to bring your wife into your home, only to find out that for all you know she has been involved with another man and is now pregnantPlatt, D.

We don’t have a record of the conversation between Joseph and Mary… but we can imagine it was an uncomfortable… and didn’t end very well… . The text implies that...

Joseph didn’t believe Mary’s story of the angel announcement and her miraculous conception..because Joseph was contemplating how to fix or resolve the situation...

b. Joseph --- tried to understand the situation but then came up logical solution.

Ray Johnson in his book “Hope Quotient” talks about discovering the source of our discouragement… Sometimes you don’t have enough fuel in the tank… Every engine that moves forward not only has to be on it has to have fuel… there are things that drain us of fuel..

Ray mentions 3 sources that can steal you hope.

1. Circumstances

2. Yourself - (messages)

3. Others -

One of the things we can do is Understand the nature of the Disruption in our lives… Sometimes it might seem like the circumstances but it is also our response to the circumstances… and in order to do that we need to create space for this to happen...

As he is meditating and contemplating what to do....An angel from the Lord appears to Joseph in a dream..

Matthew 1:20–21 ESV

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.”

T/S We learn from Joseph - how do we deal with life’s disruptions and Regain Hope..First we have to.

1. Understand the nature of the Disruption in our lives.

2. Create time and Space for Reflection

In 1956 environmentalist Sigurd Olson built a small cabin on the banks of a lake in northern Minnesota. The naming of lake homes is customary in the land of ten thousand lakes. Most names are rather predictable, but Olson was a little more intentional. His objective in building the cabin was to "hear all that was worth listening for." So he named it Listening Point..

What we learn from Joseph is that we need a listening Point...

Joseph has come to this fork in the Road. We told that Joseph is a just man — he is upright in his Character and ethics…He wants to do the right thing..

Joseph has a Listening point …a place where he can think and contemplate… as he mulls over what to do..

He has a couple of options - He could go take the legal path and take her to the priest and according to the Law she could be stoned…

2. He could do a less severe action and privately divorce Mary privately…

When you think about it — Joseph could have easily made up his mind…on the spot… could have acted out of his emotions of hurt and feelings of betrayal.... but to his credit the scriptures says that he took time to consider these things…

The word consider means to meditate… process information and consider various aspects of what is happening… I never forget that my professor Rod Cooper saying that … sometimes in conflict resolution and leadership.. “Slower is Faster.” Rather than jumping to conclusions… He took time to think… pray.... ponder....

If you read the psalms it is full of encouragement to meditate...

Meditate on your bed and be still…any time in the morning, at noon, in the evening… through the night… meditate on the Word and on his precepts (principles) on his words on his doings, on his wonders, on his loving kindness… let medication be acceptable and pleasing in his sight..

And he came to a decision… and that that Joseph was to exercise compassion and grace - Matthew tells us that even in the face of evidence.. Joseph knew he wasn’t the father… he was..

Unwilling to put Mary to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly

This tells us that there we different phases of thought … considering his option…

He decides to break divorce Mary quietly to avoid disgracing her publicly...indicating the news hadn’t spread much outside the immediate family.

Since breaking a betrothal was a legal action—essentially a formal divorce (see “Setting the Stage”)—

In Africa when things were continually going wrong and breaking down.... we used to say we will make a plan… You have to pretty resourceful to live in that kind of environment…

Here is the thing its not enough to “Make a Plan...” We need to take time to allow God to speak into a situation.. The reason being is that sometimes things happen because we live in a fallen world… or just the laws of entropy at work… We just had our tires changed in our car…

And this is just natural disruption to life.... Things get used or get old and they are going to fall apart....

But there are other interruptions that come into our lives of the God variety… they are Divine Interruptions… Joseph is trying to fix a human problem… but that’s not it… this is a divine interruption… in fact Joseph did not have enough information…

the timing of the angels appearance is carefully placed between Josephs resolution and implementation.... this is why prayer is so necessary.. Getting God’s perspective on a situation

… We are living in a time here in Northern California where people … we have a whole population of people trying to figure out how to move forward… This a natural Disruption that is impacting peoples lives… We need to respond with action and help where we can… But We need to understand that God can do amazing things in times of adversity… times of disruption.

Matthew 1:22–25 ESV

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.

T/S We learn from Joseph - how do we deal with life’s disruptions and Regain Hope..First we have to.

1. Understand the nature of the Disruption in our lives.

2. Create time and Space for Reflection

3. Allow for Divine Intervention.

Joseph had made up his mind when he dozed off to sleep. But in his sleep, an angel appeared to him and explained everything. Gabriel cleared up any uncertainty… revealed the unknown.

Mary hadn’t been unfaithful to him, she was the chosen one-the one who would give birth to Immanuel—”God with us.

Mary was the one Isaiah prophesied about when he wrote:

Isaiah 7:14 ESV

14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

When Joseph wakes us he has a complete change of heart...

Joseph didn’t divorce her, and he didn’t have her stoned. Instead, He followed the angel’s instructions and married her and adopted Joseph as His only son...

When all of Josephs dreams and plans collapsed he answer through a word from God.... One word from God can change your perspective… Often in Scripture its only when you take a few steps backwards to things get a little Clearer....

Matthew starts with the Genealogy of Jesus— We get the google maps view of what Matthew is trying to emphasize.

..... The reason being is through the line of Joseph we are going to see blessings.... Genealogies are a bit like a puzzle — as the pieces fit together you recognize patterns...…

There are two Genealogies of jesus in the Gospels. … One in Matthew and one in Luke.... Lukes moves backwards from Jesus to Adam — in fact if your read carefully doesn’t end with Adam but the Son of God… Reminder that Christ was with God from the beginning… That’s how John’s Genealogy begins — He just sums it up for us… In the beginning was the word and the word was with God...…

Matthew is tracking Blessing and the Royal line he starts at Abraham — (includes King David) and ends with Joseph..

It is amazing what can learn from a family tree....

Included in the genealogy of Jesus is Tamar a Canaanite woman who posed as a prostitute to seduce Judah… Rahab was a gentile prostitute… Ruth was a Moabite woman… Bathsheba committed adultery with David… and Mary who was pregnant outside of wedlock..

Each of these women is an object lesson about the workings of divine grace..

The angel Reminds Joseph that He himself is part of the Royal line..

20 ..... “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.

vrs 20 - 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.

This is the only place in the Bible where anyone outside of Jesus was called the Son of David… Joseph knew that he was part of the Royal lineage and Jesus would be his real legitimate son… Adopted son.

Genealogies were important in Ancient Hebrew culture.. We have two records one in Matthew and the other in Luke.

Matthew starts with a genealogy starting from Abraham and moving forward… to King David… to Joseph and then to Jesus…

People often wonder why we have Joseph’s Geneology instead of Mary’s genealogy…

Matthew is, interested not in strict biological descent but in legal standing. Legally Jesus was the son of Joseph, — Jesus was the fully adopted Son of Joseph with all the rights and privileges and blessings...

Luke makes the point that Jesus was Josephs son in every sense of the word.

Luke 3:23 ESV

23 Jesus, when he began his ministry, was about thirty years of age, being the son (as was supposed) of Joseph, the son of Heli,

adoption is a huge theme in scriptures — not only did Jesus have adopted child… Paul talks about the Gentile Christians being adopted into God’s family with all the benefits of God’s covenantal blessings..

There is much that we can learn about Joseph about being great father..

In naming Jesus, Joseph again demonstrates obedience to the angel’s instruction (v. 21) and confirms his adoption of Jesus as his son-an adoption that establishes legally Jesus’ Davidic descent and thereby his legitimacy as dynastic heir

… Joseph raised Jesus as his own child… He taught him his trade and did everything that a good father would have done….

The main point that Matthew is making in our text in not necessary the events of the birth itself but on the significance of the child,

What is the significance? Jesus us…

1. Son of God—He existed before creation.

2. Son of Abraham—He existed before the Ten Commandments were given.

3. Son of David—He existed before and after the Prophets.

4. Son of Man—Christ came in the form of man.

Jesus is eternal word who has always been and came on a specific mission..

Overcoming Hope - Is found in the incarnation… What we have in the Gospel… Good News...

Tim Keller has said that the Gospel is not Advice but news. The good news—like any news—reshapes our perspective on life, providing for us a new way to think about how we might live."

The Good news that Gabriel brought was ..

Jesus will Save his people from their sins

The introduction of Jesus thus far in Matthew’s narrative has been as the Son of David, the Christ (Messiah), the one who has come to fulfill the promises of God.

The natural expectation regarding the significance of σώσει, “will save,” would be that it refers to a national-political salvation, involving in particular deliverance from the Roman occupation. Jesus had indeed come to save his people—the very meaning of his name in Hebrew, Yeshua, a shortened form of “Joshua”

The surprise is in the content of the salvation that the Son of David will bring, namely, that he will save his people, ἀπὸ τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν αὐτῶν, “from their sins

From their sins (ἀπο των ἁμαρτιων αὐτων [apo tōn hamartiōn autōn]). Both sins of omission and of commission. The substantive (ἁμαρτια [hamartia]) is from the verb (ἁμαρτανειν [hamartanein]) and means missing the mark as with an arrow. How often the best of us fall short and fail to score. Jesus will save us away from (ἀπο [apo]) as well as out of (ἐξ [ex]) our sins. They will be cast into oblivion and he will cover them up out of sight

German pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was hanged by the Nazis in 1945, said, “A prison cell, in which one waits, hopes … and is completely dependent on the fact that the door of freedom has to be opened from the outside, is not a bad picture of Advent.” Jesus came to save people from their sins. And we are completely dependent on the fact that only Jesus can save us. Without His work on the cross, we are hopeless. With it, we are victorious.

That He would identify with our Challenges!

His Name will be called Immanuel (God with us)

John MacAuthur

“If we could condense all the truths of Christmas into only three words, these would be the words: ‘God with us.”

This is an amazing Claim that God would come to us..

The Hebrews had such an exalted conception of God that they did not even make any image of him—something which so amazed their Roman conquerors that they dubbed them ‘atheists’, people without gods. Against this background Matthew claims, not that God has given us a representation of himself, but that he has come in person to share our situationGreen, M. (2001).

As the Son of God, Jesus is fully divine - The mystery of the incarnation is Jesus is the God man.. 100 percent God and 100 percent man..

Just as Jesus possessed the full range of human characteristics, He also possesses the full range of divine characteristics. As Matthew will show us, He has power over disease—able to cleanse lepers, give sight to the blind, cause the lame to walk—all by simply speaking healing into reality.

in Matthew 4, they’re bringing Him all these sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, oppressed by demons, epileptics, paralytics, and He heals them all. He has power over disease.

He has command over nature. He rebukes the wind and the sea and they immediately obey Him. The disciples respond, “Who is this man that even the wind and the sea obey Him?” He has authority over sin to forgive sin. And He has control over death, evident not only in His bringing others from death to life, but in bringing Himself from death to life. These are extravagant claims, aren’t they? And this is the portrait of Jesus that Matthew gives us. He is fully able to identify with us and at the same time, He is fully able to identify as God.Platt, D

J.I. Packer said, “It is here. And the thing that happened at the first Christmas, that the profoundest and most unfathomable depths of Christian revelation lie. The more you think about this, the more staggering it gets.”

On one hand, He was born a baby. On another hand, He sustains the universe. Fully human, fully God. He was 30 years old and He exists eternally. Human nature, divine nature. He was tired and omnipotent

The angel tells Joseph that

God always prepares his people for what lies ahead… Prophecy comes to us in two forms— either as warnings or as Promises… But at the heart of Prophecy… is the message of Hope…

Isaiah 7:14 ESV

14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

Isaiah saw that God would come down to us… That heaven would come down to us --- God himself who lived in eternal Glory would downsize and come in the form of man.

Philippians 2:6 says Jesus "made himself nothing." He "humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross!" God put skin on. He became touchable and approachable. Think about this: The Omnipresent One downsized to the confines of a human womb..

He possessed the full range of human characteristics like us. Physically, a human body, a child’s body that needed to be fed, and nursed, and nurtured. I’m not all that excited about being back in the diaper-changing stage, but we are there. And the reality is that Jesus, the baby, needed to be fed, and nurtured, and cared for in the same way a baby does now. A body that grew just like our bodies grow. A body that was dependent on sleep. To think, this is the Sovereign of the universe stooping to be dependent on sleep physicallyPlatt, D.

Why? He became nothing so that we could become something. It's all about trading places or trading spaces. G Campbell Morgan. “God stooped Into an actual identification with human nature, and by that stoop lifted human nature into spacious fellowship with God.”

2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV

21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

He says, "Give me all of your sin. I'll give you all of my righteousness. And we'll call it even."

So here, at the annunciation of Jesus’ birth, we are brought face to face with the central theme of the Gospel. God, who has been at work on his people since the times of Abraham, has come among them in person. And he has come for the specific purpose of rescuing them from the mess they have got themselves into. Christianity is not good advice about morals. It is good news about God and what he has done for us.Green,

"He came to our place. He took our place. And he invites us back to his place."

CONCLUSION

..Even the best made plans can be interupted... life is never a straight line from A-B -- Christmas Hope is found in the Incarnation... Hope is found in the manger...

Corrie ten Boon…Incredible woman who survivor of the Holocaust said

Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God. - Corrie ten Boom

We need to personalize Christmas... Christ came into this world for you and for me personally... He came to same me from my sins... God

Joseph had his share of interruptions - Some are Divine interruptions and natural interruptions....

Joseph and pregnancy of Mary

Joseph and No room in the Inn

Joseph and escape to Egypt

Joseph and Jesus lost at the Temple

Joseph