It's Not What It Looks Like

Intro

Have you ever had a “this is not what it looks like” moment?

(Walgreens guitar G String story)

It’s not what it looks like!!!

Thats a lot of what happens at Christmas. The stockings and presents the stockings hanging all contain something that is different than what it looks like.

Anyone ever had a “unique” stocking stuffer?

Open it in front of everyone and it’s…

Acne medicine. socks. a deodorant kit… a popcorn ball.

The family tree of Jesus gives us his resume and qualifications to be the Messiah, the savior, the king that the Jewish prophets had spoken about and people had been waiting for for thousands of years. The one who would bring blessing to all people on the earth.

Jesus had the pedigree to fill the position. He came from the right people.

No just another man, but THE man.

(last week, the genealogy)

When it comes to Jesus, we just may not be realizing and seeing all that there truly is.

It’s not just what it looks like, more than what it seems.

Not just another birth in the line of a lot of people

Matthew spends the first part of Chapter 1 describing the line of men and women that Jesus came from. Proving Who he was. He came from the right people.

But in verse 16 Matthew changes his wording.

Matthew 1:16 (NIV)

and Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, and Mary was the mother of Jesus who is called the Messiah.

Notice what it doesn’t say. It doesn’t say Joseph the father of Jesus.

Something very different about this one.

What’s your going to see is a baby born.

But It’s not just as it seems.

Yes there is a baby coming, Joseph will raise him as his own,

but he isn’t born to any dad like anyone else listed in the family tree.

Package may have looked the same, but He was unique from all other people who had ever lived.

Matthew 1:18 (NIV)

This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit.

Luke 1:35 (NIV)

The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.

There is a deviation in the Dads on the family tree.

The holy spirit has implanted God himself into the tree.

The Family Tree continues to create the scene of Christmas for us.

A greater scene that what we always just see as we just read over the story and live through the season. The gifts, and presents, and events, and parties...

the family tree shows us:

DIVINITY WRAPPED IN HUMANITY

(put up first stocking)

God has come, not to just speak to us but to become one of us.

Jesus is God wrapping himself in flesh and blood.

The incarnation.

This matters!

Jesus wasn’t just great, not just good (family line). He is God.

Jesus is Divine. He is God.

Jesus is the God of heaven and earth becoming man and living among us.

John 1:1–5 (NIV)

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

John 1:14 (NIV)

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Jesus didn’t begin at his birth, he is God the Son who has existed eternally, stepping out of eternity and into the limitations of humanity.

Sin and disobedience had separated man from God.

Cut man off from God’s presence and purpose, the very reason they were created.

WE could never make it to God on our own, So he came to us.

What looks like a woman pregnant, another kid being born, a baby in a crib.

It’s not what it looks like.

This is God. Divinity wrapped in humanity.

This can’t just be casually looked over.

How we see Jesus determines how we seek him.

He is God.

This Changes everything.

This story of this family tree also show us that:

DIVINITY IS OFTEN WRAPPED IN DIFFICULTY

(put up second stocking)

God can’t come in and do something different if everything stays the same.

Often for us that looks like difficulty and struggle and can even feel like pain.

The way that God works is usually very different than the ways we’d expect or plan.

Joseph and Mary found this out.

Matthew 1:18–19 (NIV)

This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.

mary and joseph are betrothed to be married.

Which is a lot more significant than just engaged as we know it.

It is a fully legal marriage that hasn’t yet come together.

There is usually a period of up to a year where the man is preparing a place for his bride in his home. Then there would be a coming together and a long ceremony celebration.

After not seeing her for a while, Mary shows up at Josephs house with either a pillow in her shirt or obviously is pregnant.

Mary, “Joseph, it’s not what it looks like.”

She beings some story about it being God’s...

Imagine what they are both feeling right now..

Joseph - Here is this girl i love and have committed my life to and is now pregnant and all I know is it isn’t mine. heartbroken. hurt.

Could have had her publicly shamed, flogged and even killed for adultery. But instead he quietly sends her away.

Imagine the conversation.

Now imagine mary.

how does that conversation go.

Imagine reciting what your going to say over and over again in your head as you knock on the door.

You have the greatest news ever, you have met with God and God has literally chosen you, and your betrothed husband doesn’ believe you. Has rejected you.

Why God!

I mean come on God, isn’t there a better way?? And easier way??

Couldn’t God have just waited a couple months, came to mary and joseph together so they’d both know beforehand what’s going on....

There could have been easier, but not better. This is the way that God would get the most glory, this is the way that God had chosen.

Is what we know as difficulty really divinity at work.

Could God be up to something?

If you like me I want to get past any difficulty as quick as possible. skip it if I could.

But if God is wanting to use it. What if he is wanting to work in and through it.

The holiday season is both joyous and hopeful, but also difficult and hard.

you may be going through something very hard.

Don’t stop in the struggle. Don’t give up or give in.

The story of this Family Tree shows us that:

DIVINITY IS ALWAYS WRAPPED IN DESTINY.

(Hang last stocking, nice one)

Matthew 1:20–21 (NIV)

But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”

Joseph, yes this is a hard thing, but there is purpose. This son will save the world!

Don’t be afraid to step into the struggle, that’s where the story is.

In God’s hands there is never pain without a purpose.

If God is in it, he is always working though it.

There is never a moment that God is invited into that he doesn’t have a plan for.

We may not can see it.

When you realize that God has Shown up. that God is here.

He has entered in.

When he is invited in.

It now becomes less about what I’m going through and more about God what are you doing through what I’m going through.

Because God I know if you’re in it, it’s always leading somewhere good.

I know how it looks.

You feel defeated and God may just be preparing you.

You feel rejected and God may just be protecting you.

You feel discouraged God may be empowering you as you depend on him.

I know God doesn't cause everything.

Some of it is because the world is messed up.

some of it is because we messed up.

But he also doesn’t waste anything.

God causes all things to work together for the good of those..

(Romans 8:28)

Even if it didn’t start with God, if you belong to him, it has to God through him!

God often does his greatest work in our moments of greatest difficulty.

I know the pain and what it feels like.

But it’s not what it looks like when God shows up.

There was speculation and ridicule for mary and joseph, but what was really happening was God was coming to save the world.

I know what you see, but it’s not what it looks like.

What do we do?

Seek Him

Joseph had a godly meeting.

When we encounter God, everything changes.

Meet with God. Invite him in.

You don’t need all the answers, you need a holy moment.

Surrender to him.

Matthew 1:24 (NIV)

When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife.

From that place Joseph went, took mary to be his wife, and raised Jesus as his own.

No matter what it looked like, He followed God.

Stop surrendering to every emotion and feeling and start surrendering to the God who knows what is going on and working all things together.

We have to decide what we will do with it. what comes at us.

Will we surrender to it, or to God?

I know what it looks like, but God.