Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz20071202.htm

GOD'S DIRECTION IN FAMILY CRISES AT CHRISTMAS Part I: Discerning God's Will By Waiting For His Signal (Matthew 1:18-25)
Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

When I arrived at the Church office last Tuesday to begin preparing this message, I was very unsure what sermon series the Lord wanted for this month! All during my pastoral ministry, God has led in preparing sermons for the Christmas Season in December regarding the birth of Christ. Yet, though having put weeks of preliminary thought into it, I was still unsettled on what to do for this year!

After two more hours in the office of still not being sure what to do, I found myself recalling how Joseph, the betrothed husband of Mary, had known similar uncertainty about what step to take that first Christmas, Matthew 1:18-20a! He had taken time to pause and think about breaking his betrothal to Mary due to her pregnancy out of wedlock, for such a step was traumatic for them both, and, as we will soon learn, every way for him to address the issue seemed inadequate!

So, identifying with Joseph's pause at the time, I thought in more depth on it to note Joseph had been bothered about his marriage, and (a) recalled how three different, unrelated believers had spoken last Sunday to my wife and me on three different occasions about crises they had faced relative to their marriages! (b) That led me to think of family needs in general, and to recall another party had spoken with my wife that same day on the difficulty they faced in knowing what path to take for the welfare of their child. (c) Yet another homemaker had told Nadine how stressful this month was set to be for her with the flu season in force, with relatives set to visit, and with other "stressful" circumstances that often afflict homemakers in the Christmas Season! It was as though the Lord had said, "Don, as Joseph and Mary faced marital and family crises in Matthew 1-2 where they needed to focus on My guidance that first Christmas, that's where My people at Nepaug are right now! So, for this December, do a series of sermons out of the familiar Matthew 1-2 chapters on Christ's birth narratives to show how to discern My will for stressful crises they face this Christmas!"

So, in keeping with the Lord's leading, we will trek through the Matthew chapters 1 and 2 birth narratives to discern how to heed God's leading through the stressful family crisis issues we face this Christmas Season . . .

(We turn to the sermon "Need" section . . . )

Need: "With the stress of the Christmas Season, I KNOW I need God's guidance on some family issues. Yet, I am not SURE I can DISCERN it due to the STRESS I face! What can I DO about it?!"

Mary's pregnancy as a virgin threatened her marriage to Joseph, and also the safety and later ministry of Jesus, Matthew 1:18-19:

When Mary became pregnant with Jesus by divine miracle while still a virgin (Luke 1:26-35), she was engaged to wed Joseph, Matt. 1:18.
The timing for this pregnancy was necessary in God's plan to give EVIDENCE of Christ's virgin birth and hence of His DEITY:

The Matthew 1:1-16a genealogy reports that after a long line of men from Abraham had fathered sons, Jesus was born of Mary with no reference to who had actually fathered him, Matt . 1:16b.
So, Matthew 1:18-25 reveals how Jesus was conceived of God without a human father as God-come-in-the-flesh, John 1:1, 14.
Accordingly, the objection that Joseph had to Mary's pregnancy in Matthew 1:18-19 serves to prove he knew Jesus was not his sired son as part of God's evidence that Jesus is actually God's Son!

Yet, the timing of this pregnancy produced a complicated CRISIS that could have led to serious harm to Jesus' humanity and/or ministry:

As was customary, Joseph and Mary were betrothed for a year to certify the bride's moral purity, Bible Know. Com., N. T., p. 20!
If the bride became pregnant in that betrothal year, she was judged to be unfaithful to the groom, and so stood vulnerable to being either executed or quietly divorced at the groom's discretion, Ibid.!
So, in Mary's case, Jesus could have been badly hurt: He would have been slain with his mother's execution, or, by way of Joseph's divorcing Mary, He would have grown up viewed as an illegitimate son of Mary to the harm of His reputation as God's holy Son!

Now, the CHOICES an UPRIGHT Joseph had for REACTING to Mary's state were all IMPERFECT ones as HE would view them:

In Jewish law, Joseph could legally take action to execute or divorce Mary ONLY if he could PROVE she had SINNED in immorality, Edersheim , The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, 1972, p. 154.
However, Joseph had no proof of such sin, for Mary was pregnant by the Holy Spirit, and, with her life on the line at Joseph's discretion, she would have explained this to him as her defense, L uke 1:31-35!
On the other hand, Joseph knew a pregnancy for a betrothed woman had always historically meant that she was guilty of immorality !
So, the choices for an upright Joseph as he saw them were all flawed:

An upright Joseph did not want to harm his reputation by publicly charging Mary if he could not prove she had sinned, Matt. 1:19a!
Also, as a devout Hebrew who knew of the miraculous conceptions of Sarah in Genesis 18:9-12; 21:1 and of Manoah's wife in Judges 13:3, Joseph would have wondered if God had caused Mary's state!
Besides, Mary's cousin Elizabeth who had miraculously conceived as an older woman similar to the case of Sarah and Manoah's wife had testified of the divine cause for Mary's pregnancy, Lk. 1:36-45.
However, an upright Joseph did not want to wed a woman whom he thought could just as easily have been immoral, for there was no Old Testament precedent for a virgin's conceiving!

Thus, Joseph CONSIDERED the BEST of his IMPERFECT set of choices -- to divorce Mary quietly, protecting all involved as well as he could, and staying out of a potentially problem marriage, 1:19b!
The UPRIGHT Joseph thus RIGHTLY PAUSED to CONSIDER his taking his IMPERFECT course of action, Matthew 1:19-20a.
That PAUSE gave GOD TIME to DIRECT Joseph, Mtt. 1:20b-25:

As the upright Joseph rightly made this pause, God's angel told him of the divine cause for Mary's state, encouraging him to wed her, 1:20. The angel assured him that Mary's Infant would be called "Jesus," the Greek form of the Hebrew word, "Joshua" or "Jahweh (God) is salvation," for He would actually save His people from their sins in contrast to how Joseph feared Jesus might have been conceived, Matt. 1:21! (Zondervan Pictorial Ency. of the Bible, vol. Three, p. 698)
Relieved and protective of the reputation and welfare of Mary and her unborn Child, Joseph responsibly, decisively broke with all Jewish custom to take Mary into his home immediately so she could bear Jesus while a virgin as Isaiah 7:14 predicted, cf. Matt. 1:24-25; Ibid.

Application: May we (1) trust in Christ to be saved (John 3:16) and (2) live uprightly in God's power, Gal. 5:16-23. (3) If we face a crisis this stress-filled season that offers only an IMPERFECT set of paths to take, may we PAUSE for GOD to show us what to do!

Lesson: In RIGHTLY PAUSING to consider his IMPERFECT plan to break his betrothal, the UPRIGHT Joseph PAUSED to THINK about it, giving GOD TIME to SHOW him the right path so he could CHANGE course and rightly convert his betrothal to Mary into a lasting marriage!

Conclusion: (To illustrate the sermon lesson . . . )

While preparing the first draft of this message late Tuesday morning, I received a telephone call from Carlson's Heating about our Fellowship Hall's attic furnace. The business secretary had called to ask if someone would be in the Church the next day, Wednesday so the technician(s) could enter it and repair the furnace.

While on the phone with her, I asked about various options the technician might want to take most economically to address the problem. However, she responded, "Why don't you wait until the experienced technician arrives tomorrow. When he sees what you have, he will have a good idea on your best choice to take!"

As it happened, when the technician did arrive on Wednesday, he looked at the burner and immediately said we did not need a new one, but that it was repairable! He fixed the furnace by changing the single stage pump for a double stage one, and told me we would be billed only for this pump and its installation, not for the hours the former technician had spent the week before working on the unit.

[Also, amazingly, I had to stay at the Church on Wednesday later than usual since the technician was here, and, in so doing, spent extra time reviewing my sermon, and discerned one of its most important points due to a consideration of the culture of Mary and Joseph's era! As soon as that point was included in the sermon text, the technician was done, and I could return home!]

So, in keeping with this sermon's point about giving God time to communicate with us before we make important decisions, I could not help but see the application for us! Yes, we have had furnace problems since I was on our vacation a month ago, but, it was still wise to WAIT until the experienced technician could come before making the decision on a possible OTHER MAJOR direction to take! In the process, the Lord rewarded by supplying a key point in this message!

So, if facing marital or family crises this Christmas Season with all the components that make for added confusion due to the stress involved, may we PAUSE to THINK so that the LORD can GUIDE us properly free from the "mental clutter" that this season often brings with its added stress. Then we can be led of GOD to make the RIGHT decision, and we will see God's blessing like Joseph and Mary did that first Christmas!