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Introduction: Most wonderful time of the year?
To get a fuller picture we need to jump over to and see what happens during this betrothal period.
Maybe one of the reasons that we don’t talk about him is because he didn’t talk, at all, we have no words of Joseph in any of the stories that we have in scripture.
Here are some basic personal facts that we know about Joseph.
Joseph was a direct descendant from David.
Joseph was born in Bethlehem but moved to Galilee maybe for work, maybe Nazareth.
(ESV)
4 And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David,
Joseph was born in Bethlehem but moved to Galilee.
4 And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David,
Joseph was a Carpenter, that is a woodworker.
He would have probably made some furniture or farming tools.
We are introduced to Joseph when he is living in Galilee.
So we meet Joseph a carpenter working in Galilee around 3 BC.
So a little over 2000 years ago.
He has been betrothed to be married to a young lady named Mary.
To get a fuller picture we need to jump over to and see what happens during this betrothal period.
(ESV)
Birth of Jesus Foretold
26 In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, 27 to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David.
And the virgin’s name was Mary.
28 And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” 29 But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be.
30 And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.
32 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, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”
34 And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?”
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.
36 And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren.
37 For nothing will be impossible with God.” 38 And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.”
And the angel departed from her.
Luke 1:26–38 (ESV)
Birth of Jesus Foretold
26 In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, 27 to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David.
And the virgin’s name was Mary.
28 And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” 29 But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be.
30 And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.
32 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, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”
34 And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?”
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.
36 And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren.
37 For nothing will be impossible with God.” 38 And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.”
And the angel departed from her.
So during this betrothal time, Gabriel comes to Mary and informs her that she will become pregnant.
She will have a baby.
A word about Mary.
She was not that amazing of a person by the world’s standards.
She most certainly had accomplished anything in her own right, she had not seen the world or done many things in it.
She was probably only a young teenager, maybe 14, 15, 16 years old.
She was most likely quite poor, a peasant, probably illiterate, the only scriptures she knew was what she had memorised from what she had heard in the synagogue.
From all indicators, her life would not be extraordinary.
She would marry humbly, give birth to numerous poor children, never travel farther than a few miles from home, and one day die like thousands of others before her—a nobody in a nothing town in the middle of nowhere.
Don’t miss this truth.
That the Greatest news that had ever been spread on earth was going to come to the least of people in most humble of places.
“He might have gone to Jerusalem and picked out Caiaphas’s daughter, who was fair, rich, clad in gold embroidered raiment and attended by a retinue of maids in waiting.
But God preferred a lowly maid from a mean town.”
And if the Incarnation happened today, it would be the same.
The Lord would not be born in Jerusalem or Rome or Geneva or Canterbury, but on the ordinary streets of some nameless town.
When we think about Christmas we must remember that the Lord Jesus was born in utter complete humility, and he comes to those people who are humble.
Jesus came not to well but those who are sick.
Jesus came to those who are in need.
When we think about Christmas we must remember that the Lord Jesus was born in utter complete humility, and he comes to those people who are humble.
Jesus came not to well but those who are sick.
Jesus came to those who are in need.
Mary was divinely chosen,
God was gracious to Mary in a way that He has not acted toward any other woman.
She has been blessed by God more than the billions of other women that every existed.
How?
She bore the Messiah, and the Messiah bore her.
Have you ever thought about what Jesus looked like?
There are all kinds of ideas and opinions.
We see all kinds o f interpretations in artwork.
But I can tell you what Jesus looked like.
He looked like His mother.
Of course Jesus was born of Mary while she was a virgin.
He did not get any genetic material from Joseph.
It came from Mary and it came from the Holy Spirit.
So what did Jesus look like?
He looked like Mary.
She is truly blessed.
She is just a woman, just a girl, a poor humble sinner, who was in need of salvation like anyone else.
But God chose her to bring that salvation into the world.
Mary did not respond to the Angel’s presence like Zechariah, earlier in the chapter.
But she was more controlled.
Maybe the Angel did not show up in the same way.
The Announcement
(ESV)
31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.
32 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, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”
31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.
32 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, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”
The Angel told to Mary this news and she got it.
She would have been familiar with the predictions of the Messiah’s coming.
“You are going to become pregnant; you are going to call your son’s name Salvation, he is going to be the Son of God; and he will be the Messiah.”
What an earful!
What an incredible heartful!
Mary accepted this.
She believed it immediately.
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