Advent: God's Plan for His Arrival

Introduction:

Over the last two weeks we have looked at Matthew 1 and Luke 1 and today we will go back to the Gospel of Matthew. In Matthew 1:1-17 we discovered that God’s people had been anticipating the arrival of the Messiah for thousands of years and now the time had come for Him to be born. In the Gospel of Luke we looked at the preparations God had been making, including sending John the Baptist ahead of Jesus to be the one who would prepare the way for the Messiah’s public ministry. His message was one of baptism and repentance.

Today in the third message of the series we want to take a look at “God’s Plan for His Arrival.”

God had a plan. God always has a plan. Even today, in the midst of a pandemic and a crazy election year God has a plan! As we look at the Word of God, we see how God’s plans have unfolded in the past. We can also look and get a glimpse of how God’s plans are going to unfold in the future. But today we want to look at “God’s Plans for His Son’s Arrival.”

The first thing I notice from this passage is that...

God’s Plan Interrupts the Plans of a Young Couple (vv. 18-20, 24-25)

We are introduced to Jesus’ mother Mary and are immediately told that she was “betrothed to Joseph” (v. 18). R. T. France sheds some light on what a betrothal period was for a young Jewish couple. He says:

In Jewish law betrothal, which lasted about one year, was much more than our engagement. It was a binding contract, terminable only by death (which left the betrothed a ‘widow’) or by a divorce...The man was already the husband (v. 19), but the woman remained in her father’s house. The marriage was completed when the husband took the betrothed to his home in a public ceremony. (R. T. France)

It was during this one year waiting period that Mary was “found to be with child from the Holy Spirit” (v. 18b). We can only imagine the emotions that would have flooded Joseph’s mind when he got the news. He could only assume that Mary had been unfaithful. While he must have been heartbroken at that thought, he had no desire to publically disgrace Mary or have her stoned as the Law would have allowed (v. 19).

Verse 20 reveals that as Joseph was contemplating everything he had discovered and what Mary revealed to him, God sent an angel to Joseph in a dream (v. 20).

When Joseph woke up from his dream he did just as the angel of the Lord commanded him (vv. 24-25) The Bible Knowledge Commentary sheds some light on this when it says:

As soon as Joseph awakened from this dream, he obeyed. He violated all custom by immediately taking Mary into his home rather than waiting till the one-year time period of betrothal had passed. Joseph was probably thinking of what would be best for Mary in her condition. He brought her home and began to care and provide for her. But there was no sexual relationship between them until after the birth of this Child, Jesus. (The Bible Knowledge Commentary)

Application

Mary and Joseph’s plans were interrupted BIG TIME! They had planned to be betrothed for a year. They had probably planned to have a normal Jewish wedding. While we don’t know all of their plans, I’m sure they had big plans just like any other couple who was committed to God and to one another. But God interrupted their plans unlike He’s ever interrupted anyone else’s plans before or since.

In interrupting their plans He provided salvation for a multitude of people.

THERE ARE TIMES THAT GOD INTERRUPTS OUR PLANS AS WELL!

We can plan, and we should, but our plans are always subject to divine interruptions! Our plans can change with ONE phone call, with ONE text message, with ONE circumstance.

As we plan, we must take this into account. James warned us of this when he said:

James 4:13–17 ESV

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.

How many of our plans have gotten changed this year? We had planned to be in our building by now, but God had other plans. We had planned to have a Men’s Retreat in November, but God had other plans. We never planned on being able to use this building for our services until our building was ready, but it is obvious God had other plans!

We must learn to:

Proverbs 3:5–6 ESV

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.

God’s plans interrupted the wedding plans of a young couple, but they were both willing to surrender to God’s plan and today, 2,000 years later, we are the beneficiaries of God’s plan!

We too must learn to surrender to God’s plan and offer our lives AND our plans as a living sacrifice to Him!

Romans 12:1–2 ESV

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Not only did God’s plans INTERRUPT the plans of a young couple, but...

God’s Plan Intervenes in the Lives of a Lost World (v. 21)

As the angel unfolds God’s plans to Joseph, the angel lets Joseph know that the baby will be a boy. She is going to give birth to a son. The angel also instructs Joseph what to name the son… “you shall call his name Jesus.”

The name Jesus was fairly popular in this day and time. It was the equivalent of the name Joshua that we see in the OT. However, just because it was a “common” name, its meaning was anything but common! Why should they call His name Jesus… “for he will save his people from their sins.”

It is at His name that EVERY KNEE shall bow and EVERY TONGUE shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord!

According to “gotquestions.org” the name Jesus means “Yahweh saves” or “Yahweh is salvation.” It is transliterated from the term “Yeshua” is a combination of the name for God “Yahweh” and “yasha” which means to rescue, deliver, or save.

Got Questions goes on to say:

Just as the Yeshua/Joshua in the Old Testament led his people to victory over the Canaanites, the Yeshua/Jesus in the New Testament led His people to victory over sin and their spiritual enemies.

God interrupted Joseph and Mary’s life in order to INTERVENE in ALL of our lives! All of humanity was lost and undone without a Redeemer to rescue us from the penalty and the power of our sin.

It is the name of Jesus we call upon when we come to the end of ourselves, and realize we cannot rescue ourselves and we throw ourselves on the mercy of God and trust in Christ’s finished sacrifice to save us!

It is the name of Jesus we are baptized into…the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost.

It is in the name of Jesus that we pray and ask God for things “in His name” and according to “His will.”

It is a name unlike any other name!

The evangelist Billy Sunday said:

There are two hundred and fifty-six names given in the Bible for the Lord Jesus Christ, and I suppose this was because He was infinitely beyond all that any one name could express.

I’m so thankful that God chose to intervene in humanity 2,000 years ago! I’m so thankful that He didn’t leave us to grope in darkness, but rather He sent the Light of the World to rescue us from the darkness and place within us His light, so that we could be a “city on a hill” pointing others; men, women, boys and girls, to this glorious light so that they too could be saved and rescued from this broken life, this broken world and the promise of a glorious eternity!

We need to be busy letting this ignorant, lost world know about the HOPE we can have in Christ!

God’s Plan Provides Immanuel to Estranged Humanity (vv. 22-23)

In the Garden of Eden a horrific separation took place. God had warned Adam and Eve that if they partook of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil that in that day they would surely die. Notice what happens after they eat of this forbidden fruit:

Genesis 3:7–11 ESV

Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?”

Before this moment they lived in complete innocence and enjoyed the beauty of God’s creation and one another without any shame. But after they ate their “eyes were opened” and they felt the need to cover their bodies.

Then they heard the sound of God walking in the Garden, and rather than openly commune with Him as they had probably always done before, they felt the need to “hide.” This reveals the separation that had taken place…they had died on the inside, they had died spiritually and their bodies began to die physically.

Adam even confessed that he was “afraid” when he heard God.

At that moment and ever since, sinful humanity has been estranged from God. Over and over again in the Old Testament we are reminded of this separation. Barriers were put in place. When God met with Moses on the mountain, the people couldn’t touch the mountain or come too close or they would die. The holy of holies was separated by a veil in the tabernacle and only ONE MAN, once a year could come into that sacred space.

However, when Jesus was born, one of His names that He would be known by would be the name “Immanuel.” Jesus Christ, being 100% God and 100% man would bridge the chasm that sin created. God would no longer be distant, God would no longer send His Spirit at particular times, for particular reasons, upon specific individuals, but rather GOD WOULD LITERALLY BECOME A MAN AND STEP INTO HIS CREATION AND MAKE A WAY FOR THAT BROKEN RELATIONSHIP TO BE RESTORED! R. T. France notes:

The point is not that Jesus ever bore Immanuel as an actual name, but that it indicates his role, bringing God’s presence to man. This meaning is related to that of his actual name, Jesus, in that it is sin which separates man from God’s presence, so that salvation from sin results in ‘God with us’. But Matthew’s stress on the meaning of the name (he gives explicit translations elsewhere only in 27:33, 46) suggests that he saw in it a clue to Jesus’ person as well as his work. Jesus was himself ‘God with us’; and the assurance of the continuing presence of Jesus in 28:20 forms with this verse a theological framework for the Gospel. (R. T. France)

Not only would Jesus be Immanuel, “God with us,” but later He would literally IMMERSE HIMSELF in the person of the Holy Spirit into the hearts and lives of those who embraced Him by faith as their Lord and Savior! Jesus was Immanuel, “God with us” and God the Holy Spirit is “God IN us!”

Colossians 1:27 ESV

To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

So many people are deceived into thinking that God doesn’t care about them and that God doesn’t want them, but nothing could be further from the truth! God intentionally stepped into humanity’s mess, in order to rescue us from ourselves, and from the blindness that the enemy had brought, in order that we might know and see the Light of the World and be rescued from the mess we created.

He is IMMANUEL—GOD WITH US! He is IMMANUEL and today He wants to be WITH YOU!

Will you quit running today? Will you quit hiding today? Will you quit making excuses today?

Why not call out to Jesus and confess that YOU are a sinner and that nothing you have to offer is enough to take away your sins and make you right with God! You don’t have enough religion, you don’t have enough good works, you don’t have enough good looks, you don’t have enough money, you don’t have enough kindness…you don’t have enough, but today YOU are willing to surrender to the ONLY ONE who is enough and that is the lovely Lord Jesus Christ!

Be Flexible

Mary and Joseph didn’t completely trash their plans because things had changed. They embraced God’s plan and adjusted their own.

God is God and we are not. We must learn to be flexible because His ways are not our ways and His thoughts are not our thoughts. Even though we may not understand His ways, we can trust that He knows what He is doing and His ways are best.

Be Thankful

We can also be thankful because He chose to intervene. He was the Shepherd who went looking for the one lost lamb. He was the housewife who lit a candle and swept the house until she found the lost coin. He was the Father who waited with anticipation and hope for His son’s return.

We can be thankful that He loved us too much to let us hopeless wander and grope without any hope.

Be Humble and Receptive

If you do not know Christ as your own personal Lord and Savior, you need to recognize your need and His solution. You need to confess there is nothing you can do to rectify your situation or save yourself.

John 1:12 ESV

But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,