Sermon Tone Analysis

I. Introduction

As I think about Christmas this year, I can’t help but think about the meaning of this most popular Holiday.

Commercials on Television would have us think of the meaning in several different ways:

Christmas has to do with giving gifts so naturally many commercials show gift– giving as possibly the #1 reason for Christmas.

Christmas has to do with family gatherings, so naturally they show visiting and gathering with family and friends as a primary reason for Christmas.

For many children across the world, especially in the west, toys, games, and other things they want are the center of Christmas.

No doubt for retailers and businesses in our country and beyond, Christmas has to do with getting back into the black and using capitalism to provide mutually beneficial exchanges of goods between seller and consumer for their mutual holiday bliss.

And yet, in the Christian culture, Christmas means so much more.

So much so that one could almost say that our messaging of Christmas is diametrically opposed to what the rest of the world would have us to believe.

Our passage today, one of two birth narratives in the gospels, shows us the primary aspect of the real message of Christmas!

I think we need to be reminded of this more than just once a year!

II.

The most special of births (Matt 1:18)

How does a virgin conceive a child?

III.

Joseph’s dilemma (Matt 1:19)

IV.

Reassurance from Heaven! (Matt.

1:20)

V.

The son to be born (Matt.

1:21-23)

A. His name.

(v.

21b)

B. He will save his people from their sins.

(v.

21c)

C. His birth is in fulfillment of the word of the Lord through the prophet Isaiah.

(v.

22)

VI.

The obedience of Joseph (Matt 1:24-25)

A. Joseph obeyed the words of the angel and took Mary as his wife (v.

24)

B. Joseph did not have sexual relations with Mary until after she had given birth.

(v.

25a)

C. Joseph called the child’s name “Jesus.”

(v.

25b)