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Morning Message Text: Matthew 1: 18-25
Joseph Accepts Jesus as His Son
18 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.
19 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.
20 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.
21 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.”
22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet:
23 “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).
24 When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife.
25 But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.
Morning Message:
Some 2000 years ago a great invasion took place in a daring raid by the forces of good into this old broken world. A staggering drama was playing out…the hinge of history…the incarnation…God putting on flesh…the cosmic redemption plan was in motion…and if was priceless even as it was so costly. Many couldn’t see it…after all there wasn’t an invading army or a ticker tape parade but a tiny baby in the arms of two rural teenagers…a Messiah from Galilee of all places…Nazareth, no less…a carpenter’s kid…some judged him demon possessed and raving mad…his family thought he was out of his mind…religious experts tried to trap him and kill him but…those with eyes filled with wonder and humility…even today…see that first Christmas with amazement and worship for this Jesus was that one and only one Solitary Life.
Think about this for a moment. Here is a man who was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He grew up in another village. He worked in a carpenter shop until he was thirty. Then for three years he was an itinerant preacher. He never owned a home. He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never had a family. He never went to college. He never traveled two hundred miles from the place he was born. He never did one of the things that usually accompany greatness. He had no credentials but Himself. This Jesus was as ordinary as ordinary could be. He was every man and that’s what made his true identity as the Savior so extraordinary.
While still a young man, the tide of popular opinion turned against Him. His friends ran away. One of them denied Him. He was turned over to His enemies. He went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed upon a cross between two thieves. While He was dying His executioners gambled for the only piece of property He had on earth – His coat. When He was dead, He was laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend. Nineteen long centuries have come and gone, and today He is a centerpiece of the human race. All the armies that ever marched, all the navies that were ever built; all the parliaments that ever sat and all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man upon this earth as powerfully as has that one solitary life.
Let’s look at today’s scripture from a different perspective. Let’s look through the eyes and heart of Joseph. Joseph was a man of royal ancestry, a potential king. The Gospels say little about him, although he probably was poor, because he offered a poor man’s sacrifice after Jesus’ birth. He is known simply as the husband of Mary. He is an honest man, a religious man according to the scriptures, a righteous man according to the way he was going to handle what seemed to be a bad situation. Do you know what else he was? He was the first person on earth to accept God’s word about Jesus with absolutely no earthly proof. He had a dream. How many dreams have you had? How many of them did you believe when you woke up? Have you ever woke up from a dream and decide, I am going to do exactly what my dream told me to do? Now this was not just a normal dream, but Joseph believed it and accepted it by faith and changed his whole life based on it. He followed this dream and named the child Jesus, I’m sure he knew what that name meant.
From your devotional this coming week. “The name ‘Jesus’ means ‘Yahweh saves.’ His name is his mission. He has come to save us. To say that He is Jesus is to say that He is the Savior, the Evangel, the Good News. Other characters in sacred history carried this name before Jesus of Nazareth, although in a different form, like Joshua, Hosea and Hoshea.”
C. S. “Lewis was very much concerned about the Good news. He once wrote, ‘Most of my books are evangelistic.’” In his writings you will most times find the gospel story in one form or another. Sometimes very plainly and sometimes tucked into the characters of his books, placed there in the hope that some may stumble upon it and find Jesus.
I want to call your attention to one last reading in your Advent devotional. On Christmas day if you are faithfully reading your devotional, you will read this. “An English woman saw a crib in front of a church and thought that the church had borrowed the crib from the world. Little did she know that the church had it first. No borrowing. It would be funnier if it were not so sad. Today, the world seems set on separating itself from many churchly features, substituting ‘Happy Holidays’ for ‘Merry Christmas.’”
“I say let’s bring our religion into everything. It’s already in the phrase ‘Happy Holidays,’ because the word ‘holiday’ comes from ‘holy day.’ Santa Claus is named for an ancient man of faith, Saint Nicolas, a fourth-century Christian bishop of Myra in Asia Minor known for his gift-giving.”
1Corinthians 10:31 says: “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God.” At Christmas time why would we not include our faith in everything that we do? Let everyone know that the reason for this season is our Savior. We celebrate because God became a man for us; it’s because of this one solitary life that we have life and when we celebrate the birth of Jesus, we are proclaiming him our Savior, the Savior of mankind. We do not have to allow the world to deny why we are celebrating. We celebrate God, Jesus, The Savior.
In Christ’s Love and Peace,
Pastor Bob
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