God With Us

Transcript

For those of you that don’t know me, my name is Christian. I have the joy of being one of the pastors here at Trinity Church, and I have the great privilege, and it really feels like a privilege, to preach God’s Word to God’s people. So let’s start where we always should start, and that is by going to the Lord to seek for his help. Father in heaven, we stand gazing at your salvation through your Son. We pray as we look at your Word that you would open up our hearts to it, that you would make our hearts receptive, so that we would walk away worshiping King Jesus. We ask for your help, and we trust you for the fact that you will give it. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen. About ten years ago, I saw something that from the moment I saw it, I knew I would always remember it.

remember it. I saw the President of the United States motorcade drive through northeast Portland. That wasn’t the memorable part. The memorable part was that there were people by the hundreds lined up on the sidewalk waiting to see him. And here’s the thing, these people who are lined up on the sidewalk had no chance to greet the President. The President was not going to get out of his car and shake the hands of everyone, but they were there, and they were there for hours to welcome him into the city of Portland, and with the hope, the expectation that they might catch a glimpse of him. That taught me an important lesson, that human beings have a desire to be near greatness. We draw near to power, and that many of us are willing to inconvenience ourselves so that we might get even a small glimpse. Now to each his own, but there are better things to do with your time than wait for a President

a President, especially when we consider that a President is here today and gone tomorrow. In this season of Advent, it is a season where we prepare, not for a temporary person to show up for a few moments, but for the eternal Son of God to come into our world, and we focus and pay attention to his coming. And you could do this by reflecting on the Bible, the Old Testament, and the New Testament, and slowly meditate and marinate in the old familiar stories, true stories, with the hope and the expectation that we might receive them not as old familiar stories, but as the people who first saw Jesus and understood his coming into the world. The stories recorded in Matthew and Luke, and here’s the thing, they’re a mixed bag. It’s a time of fulfillment for sure, and praise God for that, but it’s also a time

of hatred and strife and blood. Two weeks ago, Pastor Jan talked about the miracle of the elderly Elizabeth conceiving a child, but then the flip side, there’s the Debbie Downer husband who goes mute because he doesn’t believe the message that the angel told him. Then there’s Jesus, a child born to be God’s king over all the nations, but there’s an evil king, King Herod, who seeks to murder Jesus along with other children so that he eliminates any threats to his throne. Now the person at the center of this morning’s passage is Joseph, and he is the guy who is sadly left behind when Christians tell the story of Jesus’ birth. Joseph also does not show up in the family portraits of Jesus as a baby, and that is a sad thing because Joseph had a profound and hugely important role in the life of our Savior.

Joseph’s Crisis

So this morning we are reading from the Gospel of Matthew, and here the story of Jesus’ coming into the world is told from Joseph’s perspective as he saw it and as he experienced those events. And here’s the thing, Joseph goes through this wonderful transformation from a man that was hurt and disappointed to a man that is on a mission from God himself. He is changed because his eyes are open so that he can see all the pieces of God’s Word coming together in King Jesus. So brothers and sisters, open your Bibles to Matthew chapter 1. We will be reading verses 18 through 25. Hear God’s Word to you. Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to

divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream saying, Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet. Behold the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which means God with us. When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him. He took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son, and he called his name Jesus. This is the Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

Last Sunday, Pastor Josh broke down his passage into four points that all start with the letter C. I decided to follow Josh’s example by breaking down my passage into four points that start with the letter D. It’s a little bit easier to remember this way. So this morning’s passage breaks down in the following four ways. Point number one, drama, verses 18 through 19. Point number two, dream, verse 20. Point number three, destiny, verses 21 through 23. And point number four, decision, verses 24 through 25. So let’s look at verse 18. From the get-go, Matthew zooms in on a deep personal crisis in the life of Joseph. There is drama, brothers and sisters, in Nazareth. When Mary realized she was pregnant, she went right away to visit her cousin Elizabeth. And there she got this overwhelming encouragement and support, and Luke, the Gospel of Luke tells us that she stayed there about three months.

When Mary comes back home to little Nazareth, where people kept an eye out on each other, I imagine this is the kind of town where people are a little bit too close for comfort because you see the same people day in and day out, and there’s no one else around, really. So while she’s here, Mary has to lean into that encouragement from Elizabeth because something is happening. Her baby is growing in her womb, and people are going to find out she’s pregnant any day. When Mary begins to show, Joseph puts two and two together. Now here’s the thing, engaged couples weren’t allowed to spend alone time together, and from the looks of it, they didn’t really communicate because the text indicates, and it says that Mary was found to be with child, meaning it was obvious to everyone, including Joseph, that she was pregnant, and that’s probably around the same time that Joseph realized

Mary was pregnant, when it was obvious that she was with child. So Joseph, given the circumstances, does his best to make the right decision. But the facts are simple enough. Mary’s pregnant, and Joseph is not the father. So he pushes for a divorce. The rabbis of the day taught that a man had a duty to divorce a woman who committed adultery. Although Mary and Joseph were not husband and wife, their engagement was legally binding. It was a type of agreement that could only be broken by divorce. In fact, engagement was treated with such importance in that day that if an engaged woman died, her fiance was considered a widower. If he was alive and he cheated on his fiance, he was considered an adulterer. So once engaged, the couple was to act towards outsiders like they were married, but they did not live together or have access to physical intimacy until their wedding day.

So to sum it all up, in Israel 2,000 years ago, if a man and a woman wanted to get married, they would get legally engaged, and around a year later, they’d get married by throwing a huge party, and when the wife moves in with the groom, they consummate their marriage and they’re officially married. But all of that official stuff started with the beginning of the engagement. Now here’s the thing. While Joseph is contemplating divorcing Mary, there are three things that I think weigh on him. First, there’s the betrayal. He’s dealing with profound feelings of betrayal. Mary’s pregnancy, as we can all imagine, cuts him really deeply, and what he thought happened was reasonable given that this is the only time in history that a baby is conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit without human intervention. What else is Joseph supposed to think? So he kind of comes to the conclusion that his marriage is over before it started because

Mary has broken the covenant bond. Now here’s the second thing, and it’s an interesting thing because we don’t deal with it in the same way that culture of the day dealt with it. Joseph has to deal with profound, deep shame. Mary’s pregnancy brings shame on Joseph socially. If Mary committed adultery against Joseph, she shamed him by suggesting that Joseph was undesirable to her. He did not offer her sufficient security or protection, so she chose to step out. His honor as her fiancé, brothers and sisters, has been offended, and many, many of the teachers of the day taught that vengeance was the best road to take. Now as the wounded party, Joseph had a whole lot of tools at his disposal. He could make a giant fuss to expose Mary publicly for her sins in front of a bunch of people, and that would potentially get her killed.

He could have sued her for something called a dowry, a small inheritance that the wife would bring into the marriage. He could have taken that money. He had every incentive to make a big fuss because the more public he made his break with Mary, the further he distances himself from her sin and washes his hands of the whole situation. This is how Joseph can let the people of Nazareth know that he’s serious about defending his reputation and standing up for his honor. But the third thing is that Joseph is compassionate. Since he is a righteous man, he understood God’s design for marriage, and he knows enough to know that particular covenant has been broken, so he chooses to divorce her. But the way that he wants to do so is compassionate. In that day, a woman who was unfaithful to her husband and got pregnant was on the road

to complete financial disaster. She was going to have to be the kind of woman that other people pointed to and said, don’t be like her. And not only that, Mary was already from a poor family. She would struggle to provide for her child without the help of a husband. That’s a heavy burden in a society where men made more money than women, and the possibility of her finding a new husband was really, really small, so that was out of the question. This kind of reminds me of a book called The Scarlet Letter by a guy named Nathaniel Hawthorne. He talks about the terrible punishment this woman named Hester Prynne has to go through because she committed adultery. So this particular woman is made an example of in the town, and she has to wear a scarlet letter A every time she’s in public on her clothing so that everyone in the town can

God’s Intervention

see what she did. All of her life, she’s condemned to live with the shame and the stigma. And if Joseph divorces Mary publicly, that’s exactly the kind of social life that Mary is going to have to face. So Joseph wants to spare her any more embarrassment. He makes plans to divorce Mary quietly. Instead of revenge, he offers tender mercy. But Joseph’s plans, brothers and sisters, are rerouted when God intervenes, and it is rich, really rich. Look with me at verse 20. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream. Now, I’m willing to bet that Joseph was not expecting this. But God, brothers and sisters, is the God of the unexpected, who meets us in a million ways to bring us back into his will. Here it is. The angel shows up in his dream. But you almost have to pity Joseph.

He almost got to see an angel in real life. Zachariah and Mary got to see an angel in real life. They could hear the angel. They could talk to the angel. They could see the angel. But why does the angel come to Joseph in a dream? Is this, perhaps, God’s way of saying that Joseph is less important than the others? Now I don’t think that’s the case. God actually speaks to Joseph through dreams three times. First here, then in the next chapter, verse 13, where the angel of the Lord tells him, Rise, take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt. And the last time, the third time, in verse 20 of chapter 2, where the angel tells him to take his family out of Egypt and take them to the promised land. Now think about that for a second. A man named Joseph has dreams.

He takes his family to Egypt to protect their lives. Does that sound familiar? It sounds a whole lot like Joseph, the son of Jacob in the book of Genesis. The Lord speaks to that Joseph through a dream. The Lord takes him to Egypt. He uses him to bring his family to Egypt, and they escape the famine that would have killed them. Isn’t that interesting? I don’t think it’s intentional, the way that the Lord chooses to speak to Joseph here. It’s very, very interesting. And I think, given that the Lord chooses to communicate with Joseph in this way, it tethers Joseph to the story of the Old Testament Joseph. And it gives us a sense of Joseph’s role in the life of Jesus, our Savior. The Joseph in the book of Genesis saved his brothers, the forefathers of the Messiah, from famine in Egypt.

But this Joseph saves the actual Messiah from death by taking him to Egypt. There are sweet, delightful parallels here. Now in his dream, Joseph finally hears the truth from God himself through the angel. He says, Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. Brothers and sisters, how comforted do you think Joseph feels at this point? Mary was telling the truth all along. She was pregnant by the power of the Holy Spirit. She’s innocent. She didn’t betray him. She didn’t shame him. She didn’t reject him. And now Joseph, instead of divorcing her, is supposed to take him as his wife. But here’s the thing. The Lord tells him, do not fear, because there’s a lot to fear in the journey ahead. Let’s play that scenario out for a moment.

The villagers already knew that Mary was pregnant while she was engaged. Now that Joseph chooses to marry her, people will instantly jump to the conclusion that Joseph is taking responsibility for getting her pregnant. This is a world where people didn’t have very many possessions. Reputation was the currency of the village, and the Lord calls Joseph to take a massive hit to his honor and reputation in the eyes of others. This is a steep price to pay, brothers and sisters. Let’s not brush past that. This is a price that Jesus also pays in the course of his ministry. In the Gospel of John, Jesus is in a heated debate with the chief priests and the Pharisees. And at one point, in their desire to separate themselves from Jesus, they tell him, we were not born of sexual immorality. It’s a dig on Jesus’s birth and family. The Pharisees knew enough about Jesus’s birth to know that something was different.

So they twist and accuse him of being born out of a sinful relationship. Which brings up the question, brothers and sisters, has your reputation taken a hit for doing what God has called you to do? Has your family rejected you? Have your old friends ceased to befriend you? Do those around you think that you’re weird and off your rocker? Does this conversation instantly stop when you enter the room at work? You are in good company because there is always a cost to following the will of God. Now the truth is that some of us here this morning face greater weights and burdens from following the will of the Lord than others. If you find yourself this morning overwhelmed by the burdens of your life, brothers and sisters, God has given you Christian community. The Spirit raises up others to walk alongside of you and to help you carry your burdens.

Jesus’ Destiny

You are not alone when you gather with the people of God. The Lord meets you in these situations with the same words that the Lord meets Joseph. Do not fear. And here’s the thing, when the Lord says to Joseph, do not fear, he doesn’t let him figure out how to tease that out by himself. The Lord steers the dream away from Joseph’s problems to the destiny of Jesus as the reason why Joseph should trust the Lord. Verses 21 through 23, the destiny, she will bear a son and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet. Church, let me point something out. I am rejoicing at the confidence of these words. She will bear a son, check. And you shall call his name Jesus, check.

For he will save his people from their sins. It’s as good as done. This is language of certainty. The expectation of the day was that a Messiah was going to come into the world as a mighty warrior to crush the Romans, to destroy the wicked, and to establish a new political order. But the meaning of Jesus’s name showed there’s a deeper corruption that fills the world than a broken political system, or an evil society, or the exploitation of the poor, as terrible as all of those things are. That brokenness is sin. The sin inside all human beings, the reason why we have broken human relationships, and why God’s righteous judgment hangs over all the world. D.A. Carson puts it like this, this is one of my favorite quotes. If God had perceived that our greatest need was economic, he would have sent us an economist.

If he had perceived that our greatest need was entertainment, he would have sent us a comedian or an artist. If God had perceived that our greatest need was political stability, he would have sent us a politician. If he had perceived that our greatest need was health, he would have sent us a doctor. But he perceived that our greatest need involved our sin, our alienation from him, our profound rebellion, our death, and he sent us a savior. Brothers and sisters, the meaning of Jesus’ name as the one who saves people from sin is taken from Psalm 130, and open your Bibles there because it is well worth reading. Now this is a poet in Israel, we don’t know his name, who by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit writes this psalm, but he’s actually praying to God, and this is a prayer that many of us have prayed over and over and over again.

Psalm 130, the word of the Lord says,

Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord. O Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my pleas for mercy. If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness that you may be feared. I wait for the Lord. My soul waits, and in his word I hope. My soul waits for the Lord more than the watchman for the morning, more than the watchman for the morning. O Israel, hope in the Lord, for with the Lord there is steadfast love, and with him is plentiful redemption. Verse 8, and this is where the meaning of Jesus’ name comes from, and he will redeem Israel from all

— Psalm 130

(ESV)

of his iniquities. Trinity Church, the coming of Jesus, the Messiah, is God’s answer to the prayers of his people

for salvation. He’s the one through whom God will save all of his people from all of their sins. And this is an amazing truth that is raised over your life with all its pesky sins, its discouragements, its sorrows. The unstoppable mission of Jesus intersects with your messy story, known to you and to God, because Jesus has come to save people from their sins. He and no one else, brothers and sisters, can deliver you. Not your own efforts, not your therapist, not your pastors, and not your political heroes. Christ, and Christ alone. This salvation isn’t just forgiveness. Praise God for the forgiveness that he gives to us so constantly, but this is more than that. We need a Messiah that does more than just forgive us when we sin, and more than just removing the penalty of our sin. We need a Messiah that will bring freedom so that the grips of sin’s power over our

lives are broken, so we can see God and love him. We need a Redeemer who has both the power and the willingness to destroy sin without destroying the sinful people who commit them. In his first advent, Jesus does the deeper work than fixing the systems of our world. He dies, and he dies as a substitute for sinners, to atone for their sins and to bring them to God. He takes on himself the judgment due sinners, and he dies the death that you and I deserve to die, because of our rebellion against God. And in the death and resurrection of our Messiah, Trinity Church, the heart of God to reconcile and transform sinners is put on full display. It is out of his death that you can have new life. It is because he was forsaken in darkness that you can be welcomed into the embrace

of God himself. Now God gives us hints of what he would do through his Messiah all along. The scripture is not silent on this. The Lord speaks through the prophets to reveal what kind of salvation, and the roadmap to advent is actually laid out meticulously. Once Jesus shows up, we can see so clearly scripture after scripture after scripture fulfilled in him. Mary’s pregnancy fulfills Isaiah 7, verse 14, Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel. Now here’s the thing. I don’t recall, other than this passage, Jesus being called Immanuel all that often in the Gospels. This is more of a title. He didn’t have two names that he went by when he was doing his ministry. This is a title that his people call him as a response to seeing God’s intervention through him. It’s a title.

Joseph’s Obedience

His work and presence on earth is so wonderful that his people respond by calling him God with us. His presence makes clear to the world that God is for sinners and that his presence and favor finally dwells with them. Brothers and sisters, can you see how the majesty of Jesus makes Joseph willing to follow the Lord’s will? A man about to divorce his fiance is convinced to do exactly the opposite because of God’s salvation breaking into our sinful world. Look at verses 24 through 25, Joseph’s decision after he awakes from the vision. When he wakes up from his sleep, Joseph does exactly what the angel tells him to do. He takes Mary to be his wife, they move in together, and they’re actually married at this point. Now I have to be honest, Matthew finishes these verses with what seems like way too much information.

He says that Joseph knew her none until she had given birth to a son. Now every detail in the Bible is there because God put it there, but why is that worth mentioning? What does it say about Joseph? It shows Joseph’s willingness to obey the Lord even when it is uncomfortable. The Bible is a book that celebrates God’s creation of human beings as something that’s very good. God created us in his image as male and female, and it’s glorious. One of the ways he created us is with capacities for physical intimacy, to be enjoyed only in the context of marriage. This is God’s gift. So why does Joseph feel the need to withhold his good desires for his wife until after she gives birth to Jesus? I think it has to do with the quote from Isaiah that the angel says to Joseph, Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son.

The woman who is a virgin is the one who conceives, and the woman who bears a son is also a virgin. In other words, Joseph is reading his Bible. He knows that when God speaks, the scripture speaks. So after he gets married, he leads his family into obedience to the word of God. And now once the baby is born, God gives Joseph a really wonderful, delightful honor. Joseph gets to name Mary’s baby. Now Joseph here exercises the right the dads of the ancient world had in naming their children, and he gives Jesus the name that is above every other name, brothers and sisters. Joseph is the one who gives it to him, who officially declares it over him. And when he does this, Joseph officially, clearly brings Jesus into his family. He adopts him. This is a blessing for Joseph, for sure, clearly, but also for Jesus.

Rather than pushing Joseph out of the picture because he is not Jesus’ biological dad, the Lord brings unity and harmony around the shared mission that Mary and Joseph have to be the parents of Jesus. After Jesus was born, let’s be clear, they fed him. They changed his diapers, they burped him, they told him stories, they bought him toys, they comforted him when he got bumps and bruises, and you can fill in the blank for all types of concerns parents have for their kids. I think it brings the humanness of Jesus close to us when we see that he didn’t descend from heaven on a golden beam as an adult human being. He had parents that had to raise him, to care for him, and to keep him from the dangers that sought to destroy him. And here’s the thing, the Lord used an ordinary man to make sure that Jesus would grow up

Our Response

and fulfill all that the scripture said of him. It’s glorious. Now, saints, as we’re meditating on Advent, how are you receiving the coming of Jesus into the world? It is normal and part of our human experience to have discouragements and disappointments. These are things that consistently settle over our souls. But that doesn’t have to be the story for the rest of your days. The coming of Jesus means that God is not distant. He is not far off somewhere. He’s not constantly disappointed by you. The coming of Jesus into the world shows you exactly the opposite. God has come down. God has taken on human nature. And he experiences the same things that you and I experience. Opposition, discouragement, suffering, sorrow, and death. He can sympathize with you and your many weaknesses, brothers and sisters. But the good news, the better news, the great news is that the coming of Jesus also means

that your story as you live it now is not set in stone. If you belong to him, Jesus will do exactly what the angel said he would do. He will save you from your sins so that you leave your sin behind and enjoy the new life that God has for you through him. If you’re not a Christian this morning, God receives you and is ready to receive you like Joseph to weave you in gladly into the story of Jesus’ salvation. And it is available for you. Turn away from your sin, embrace Jesus on his own terms, and the Jesus that you will come to will never cast you out. When you come to him, you will find a savior who welcomes all people. And when he welcomes you in, he will transform you both for his great glory and for your everlasting joy in him.

Let’s pray. Father in heaven, we stand so joyful and thankful because you have loved the world. And because of your love for the world, you sent your only son to die in our place. You raised him to newness of life so that sinners can experience new life and transformation through you. Lord, I pray that you would remind us always that it is Jesus who saves us from our sins and not the schemes and the plans of the world that can save us. It is Jesus and Jesus alone. We pray for his coming. We pray that you would bring it quickly on the day that he tears the heavens open and comes down to us. We promise, Lord, to give you all the glory and the praise. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.