Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
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Analytical
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Conscientiousness
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Tone of specific sentences
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Anger
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Theme: consider these things.
Theme: consider these things.
Goal: we need to be a spiritual people that consider these things
ME: ORIENTATION: FIND COMMON GROUND WITH THE AUDIENCE
ME: ORIENTATION: FIND COMMON GROUND WITH THE AUDIENCE
All of us face difficult decisions.
Lean to swim… may come very easy if you have had good experience with water.
I know some people who will not fly because they are afraid of crashing.
I know of others that will no cruse, afraid of the water.
I also know a young woman who will not drive because she saw a bad trafic accident and did not want to be responsible for that.
WE: IDENTIFICATION (MAKE IT CLEAR THAT YOU STRUGGLE)
WE: IDENTIFICATION (MAKE IT CLEAR THAT YOU STRUGGLE)
Our fears can influence decisions.
Our wants can influence our decisions.
How often does God influence our decisions?
GOD: ILLUMINATION (THE GOAL IS TO RESOLVE THE TENSION
I.
The Goal
A. Engagement
Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way.
When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, A. (ESV)
The engagement was often made when the couple were only children.
It was usually made through the parents, or through a professional matchmaker.
And it was often made without the couple involved ever having seen each other.
Marriage was held to be far too serious a step to be left to the dictates of the human heart.
B. Betrothal
There was the betrothal.
The betrothal was what we might call the ratification of the engagement into which the couple had previously entered.
At this point the engagement, entered into by the parents or the matchmaker, could be broken if the girl was unwilling to go on with it.
But once the betrothal was entered into, it was absolutely binding.
It lasted for one year.
During that year, the couple were known as husband and wife, although they had not the rights of husband and wife.
It could not be terminated in any other way than by divorce.
In the Jewish law, we frequently find what is to us a curious phrase.
A girl whose fiancé had died during the year of betrothal is called ‘a virgin who is a widow’.
It was at this stage that Joseph and Mary were.
They were betrothed; and if Joseph wished to end the betrothal, he could do so in no other way than by divorce; and in that year of betrothal, Mary was legally known as his wife.
C. Marriage
The third stage was the marriage proper, which took place at the end of the year of betrothal.
If we remember the normal Jewish wedding customs, then the relationships in this passage are perfectly usual and perfectly clear.
So at this stage it was told to Joseph that Mary was to bear a child, that that child had been begotten by the Holy Spirit, and that he must call the child by the name Jesus.
Jesus is the Greek form of the Jewish name Joshua, and Joshua means Yahweh is salvation.
II.
The problem
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.
(ESV)
A. Joseph learns of the problem.
Mary is pregnant
She claims that this is the Holy Spirits doing.
The fact that the Holy Spirit was involved with the birth is something new.
What then does it mean to say that in the birth of Jesus the Holy Spirit of God was specially operative?
What is Matthew attempting to explain and what are we to look at?
We cannot bring to this passage the Christian idea of Holy Spirit in all its fullness, because Joseph would know nothing about that.
We must interpret it in the light of the Jewish idea of the Holy Spirit, for it is that idea that Joseph would inevitably bring to this message, for that was all he knew.
The Holy Spirit brought God’s truth to humanity.
Jesus brings the truth about who God is and what he wants.
Jesus reveals the father to them in who he is and what he does.
In one of William J. Locke’s novels 1863-1930, there is a picture of a woman who has any amount of money, and who has spent half a lifetime on a tour of the sights and art galleries of the world.
She is weary and bored.
Then she meets a Frenchman who has little of this world’s goods, but who has a wide knowledge and a great love of beauty.
He comes with her, and in his company things are completely different.
‘I never knew what things were like,’ she said to him, ‘until you taught me how to look at them.’
Life is quite different when Jesus teaches us how to look at things.
When Jesus comes into our hearts, he opens our eyes to see things truly.
III.
Considering these things
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,
A. Just man
δίκαιος (dikaios).
adj.
righteous, just, right.
Conforming to a standard or norm, normally carrying an ethical overtone.
This word describes persons and actions regarded as just, morally good, or fitting.
It is the usual translation in the Septuagint of the Hebrew צַדִּיק (ṣaddîq, “righteous”).
The adjective can be used as a noun to describe persons of characteristic righteousness (; ; ; ; ; ).
Jesus uses the word ironically to refer to the “righteous” (those who display external righteousness) over against those who know themselves to be “sinners” (; ; ; ; ).
Anderson, G. P. (2014).
Righteousness.
D. Mangum, D. R. Brown, R. Klippenstein, & R. Hurst (Eds.),
Lexham Theological Wordbook.
Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
B. Unwilling to put her to shame
Mercy:
mercy, an attribute of both God and the good human being.
Hebrew uses several words for ‘mercy,’ of which the most frequent is ḥesed, which means loving-kindness, mercy, love, loyalty, and faithfulness.
Another Hebrew word and the Greek word for mercy in the nt refer to the emotion aroused by contact with undeserved suffering, that is, compassion and a deeply felt love for a fellow human being
Achtemeier, P. J., Harper & Row and Society of Biblical Literature.
(1985).
In Harper’s Bible dictionary (1st ed., p. 626).
San Francisco: Harper & Row.
In the nt God’s merciful faithfulness is attributed to his sending of Jesus and saving his people
Achtemeier, P. J., Harper & Row and Society of Biblical Literature.
(1985).
In Harper’s Bible dictionary (1st ed., p. 626).
San Francisco: Harper & Row.
C. Divorce her quietly
Act of compassion and love
D. Considering these things
ἐνθυμέομαι dep.; fut. 3 sg.
ἐνθυμηθήσεται or ἐνθυμήσεται LXX; 1 aor.
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