The Birth of Christ Pt 2: The Preparation

You know, you said we must be born an opportunity for us on the cross. We thank you, Jesus.

Let's have some fellowship.

Morning. If you would begin the process of locating your seat, grab a bulletin. We'll get ready to go over, but really mainly just one announcement.

Welcome to Calvary Chapel. I'm glad that you've joined us this morning. Merry Christmas Eve. Really, the only thing that you need to know is that there's nothing else going on this week. Come tonight. Come join us tonight. It's going to be great. We're going to have a great time at the candlelight service. But with it being Christmas week, enjoy being with your families this week.

There is a reminder that in two weeks, we'll have Jeff and Esther McLaren from God Said Go Ministries, who is the group that we're taking our mission trip with in May. They're going to be coming to share with us. So those are the things that are going on. If you would make sure that your mobile device is silenced. And for our responsive reading this morning, we are going to be in Luke 2.

Luke chapter 2. We'll be looking at verses 1 through 2. 20 of Luke 2. Looking at the New American Standard so that hopefully we all sound the same. And as you are turning to Luke 2, if you are able, please stand in the honor of the reading of God's word. I will read the odd verses. If you will follow along with Pastor Allen and the even verses. Luke 2. Now, in those days, a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that a census be taken of all the inhabited earth.

This was the first. Census taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. And everyone was on his way to register for the census, each to his own city. Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house of the family of David. In order to register along with Mary, who was engaged to him and was with child.

While they were there, the day. The days were completed for her to give birth and she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in cloths and laid him in a manger because there was no room for them in the end. In the same region, there were some shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them and the glory of the Lord shone around them and they were terribly afraid.

But the angel said to them, do not be afraid. For behold, I bring you good news of great joy, which will be for all the people. For today in the city of David, there has been born for you a savior who is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign for you. You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger. And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,

Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among men. With whom he is pleased. When the angels had gone away from them into the heavens, the shepherds began saying to one another, Let us go straight to Bethlehem then and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us. So they came in a hurry and found their way to Mary and Joseph and the baby as he lay in the manger.

When they had seen this, they made known the statement which had been told them about this child. And all who heard it wondered at the things which were told them by the shepherds. But Mary treasured all these things, pondering them in her heart. The shepherds went back, glorifying and praising God for all that they had heard and seen, just as it had been told them.

Father, we come before you and I just thank you so much for the birth of your son. Lord, I thank you for the fact that hope arrived. Lord, that you brought hope by coming in a manger. And so, Lord, I pray that as we take time this morning to look even deep, even more deeply, at your birth and the preparation for it. Lord, may we know and understand that there is a sovereign God who has been at work.

But a sovereign God who was at work because of the great love that he had for us. Lord, may we see you more clearly this morning. In Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. And if you would open up in your Bibles to the book of Galatians chapter 4. Galatians chapter 4.

This morning we come to part 2 of our series on the birth of Christ. Last week we started into this and we talked about the promise. And we saw God's promise of this coming Messiah build all the way from the beginning in Genesis chapter 3 when sin first entered the world to the end of the Old Testament when we came to Malachi with that very last announcement. I got a message from somebody during the week and I thought it was kind of interesting.

They said, have you ever listened to Handel's Messiah? And of course I have. And they said this was all that I could think of as you were preaching last week is that building of the, of the hallelujah chorus, you know, as it, as it continues to build and swell. And it was like as every promise came, it continued to build and swell. And it was just amazing what, what God did there.

And so as we looked at those promises, we saw that God had always had a plan to bring redemption to man through a Messiah, a Messiah who would come through the Jews, who would be of the family of David through the, through the family of Judah, through the line of David, that his birth would be miraculous, that he would be both God and man, and that there would be a messenger that was sent before him. Well, today we come to part two of the birth of Christ. And what we want to look at today is the preparation, the preparation. Now, I don't know about your house, but my house begins the preparations pretty early because my wife is a Black Friday shopper.

We know what all the preparations are, right? They've been going on all month. And it, does it seem like the preparations for Christmas begin earlier every year? Like Labor Day happens and then Christmas decorations come out. But, well, anyway, the, the preparations are, are immense, right? You've got to decorate the house. You've got to decorate the tree. Fellas, you probably have to put decorations on the outside of the house with all of the Christmas lights,

whether you feel festive or not, either because you're competing with your neighbor or because your wife told you to. So we, we do all of the decorating. And then, of course, there's, there's family plans that have to be made. Whose house are we going to have Christmas at? When are we going to do it? And then there's Christmas presents. Programs that have to be planned, whether they be Christmas programs at church, Christmas programs at school,

unless you're in the house with both a pastor and a teacher, and then you plan both. And, and, and so there's all the planning for that, the preparation for that that comes into play. And then there's the menus for whatever you're going to eat on Christmas Day. And then, of course, the most important part of all of the preparations for Christmas, the purchasing of the gifts.

Again, fellas, you don't know what that is. But what your wife does is she goes and she buys gifts all month long, and then she wraps them. And then you get to be every bit as surprised as your kids are on Christmas morning when you go, ooh, that's a nice one, right? And so there's all of this preparation that goes into it. And it seems like so much time and energy goes into it.

Well, the first Christmas was no different. There was an incredible amount of preparation that went into it. Only it wasn't menus and Christmas programs and family plans and gifts to be bought and wrapped. No. There was no preparation of the world to be ready for the coming of the Savior. And so I would like for you to look at Galatians chapter 4, verses 4 and 5,

because it's the springboard from which we'll move into the rest of the study. Notice what it says in Galatians chapter 4, verse 4. It says, But when the fullness of time came, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, so that he might redeem those who were under the law. That we might receive the adoption as sons. Now, there's one key phrase I would like to point out to you in there.

It says, But when the fullness of time had come. That word fullness literally means that which has been completed or filled up. The Amplified Bible translates it like this. When in God's time, the perfect time had come, God sent forth his Son. And I always appreciate the New Living Translation because it puts it on a level that all of us can understand. The New Living Translation says,

Now, this is pretty cool because Jesus showed up right on time. He wasn't earlier than he needed to be. He wasn't later than he needed to be. He showed up exactly when he was supposed to. God became flesh at just the right time. What we don't always realize is that when Jesus showed up, just on time, God had been orchestrating events for hundreds of years to bring about the coming of the Messiah.

To make it to where it was just the right time. And so what I would like to do this morning is I would like to give us a panorama, sort of 5,000 foot view of history. As we look and see how God, through history, prepared the world for the coming of the Messiah. So, if you're a note taker, perhaps sit back and have a look. And have your pen ready because there will be a handful of nations and kingdoms that we talk about.

And I'll explain why each of those kingdoms was important in the coming of the Savior. Now, the last promise that we looked at for the coming of Jesus came in the book of Malachi. Malachi is the very last book of the Old Testament. And it was the very last revelation of God to man in that Old Testament. As a matter of fact, after Malachi, came what is often referred to as 400 silent years.

The reason why they're referred to as 400 silent years is because from the time of Malachi until the coming of John the Baptist, there was no major revelation of God to the people. There was no prophetic word of God to the people. As a matter of fact, those 400 silent years began by God saying that he would send someone in the spirit of Elijah before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord. A messenger.

That would be there before the coming of the Messiah. That was the last word of God to man before there were 400 years where God simply kept silent. However, while those are called 400 silent years, they were anything but quiet because there was an incredible amount going on on the world stage to bring about the coming of the Savior. Now, if you know anything about the book of Daniel, you know that in the book of Daniel, there was this statue.

Remember the statue that Nebuchadnezzar saw in the dream? And it had the head of gold, it had the chest, the arms, the legs of iron, right? And those represented the major kingdoms that would come about. You had the Babylonian kingdom, you had the Persian kingdom, you had the Greek kingdom, and you had the Roman kingdom. Well, by the end of the Old Testament, the Babylonian kingdom had already passed away.

As a matter of fact, the major kingdom that was in power at the end of the Old Testament, this is the first one that you're going to want to write down, is the kingdom of Persia. Persia was who was in power at the end of the Old Testament. Now, the Persian kingdom was really important because the Persian kingdom brought about a couple of really important things for the nation of Israel. The first thing that the Persian kingdom brought about is that it brought about the restoration of Jerusalem because it was under Cyrus that, first of all, they were sent back to rebuild the temple.

That's where the book of Ezra comes into play. And then, under Cyrus, the Persian ruler, they were sent back to rebuild the wall around Jerusalem. That's where the book of Nehemiah comes into play. And so, the Persians brought about, if you will, the restoration of Jerusalem. It brought about the restoration of the temple, a place of worship, and it brought about the protection of the temple, the wall that was around it.

And so, under the Persian rule, really, Israel was restored. However, under Persian rule, another thing began to take place. The high priesthood, the high priesthood, the high priesthood, the high priesthood, the high priesthood, the high priesthood, the high priesthood, the high priesthood was turned into a political office. And oftentimes, the high priest would be appointed, and it became really kind of a treacherous office to be a part of because you could be either removed or installed based upon whether or not the rulers at the time liked you.

Now that's also important for us to understand because the corruption of the high priesthood is what prepared the way for the ultimate high priest —because that's who Jesus is—he's the ultimate high priest— is what prepared for the ultimate high priest because that's who Jesus is, ,"He's the ultimate high priest." ,"He's the ultimate high priest." it was the preparation for the it was the preparation for the ultimate high priest high priest to come. And so because of Persia, you had the rebuilding of the temple, a place of worship, and you had the corruption of the high priest, leaving a vacuum needing to be filled for some sort of a spiritual leader. Well, after the kingdom of Persia came the kingdom of Greece,

in particular, the kingdom of Greece under Alexander the Great. Now, Alexander the Great was a young general whose father was named Philip. Alexander the Great took Philip's ideas and he spread them throughout the entire world because he was a military genius. And so Alexander the Great, by the time he was, I'm thinking, if I remember correctly, 30, maybe 32, had conquered all of the known world. By the way, if you're here and you're over the age of 30, what have

you been doing with your life, right? He had conquered all of the known world at that point in time. But he had conquered all of the known world at that point in time. And so Alexander the Alexander the Great did more than just conquer the world. You see, Alexander the Great had this desire to spread what he referred to as Hellenism or Greek culture. As he spread Greek culture

everywhere that he went, because he had been raised by philosophers, he also spread the Greek language everywhere he went. As a matter of fact, the Greek language that he shared everywhere that he went was the Common Greek, or as referred to, the Koine Greek. The Greek of the common Greek. The Greek of the common Greek. The Greek of the common Greek. The Greek of the

common man and so he united the world by spreading a heritage throughout the world by spreading helenism throughout the world but he also united the world by giving the world one language that everyone spoke now alexander the great was actually very friendly towards the jewish people there's a uh there's a tradition sort of a legend that states that when alexander the great showed up in israel a pre or in jerusalem a priest approached him and showed him the book of daniel and showed him in the book of daniel how it had been prophesied that one like him would go and dominate the world now whether that legend is true or not we're not real sure however we do know that

he treated the jewish people really really well as a matter of fact one of the places that he built was alexandria actually he built several alexandrias alexandria in egypt and he encouraged many jewish people to move there because alexandria in egypt was a center for learning and so under the greek rule of alexander the great they maintained their religious freedom so they could continue to grow so that they could continue to practice their religion but it also was a place where their nation could continue to grow and continue to flourish so god used greece in that way for the nation of israel but god also used greece for the world because now everyone in the world spoke the same language well after alexander the

great came four generals as a matter of fact alexander died at a very young age if i understand correctly according to tradition he sat down at the end of conquering the entire known world and cried because there was nothing else that he could do and he ended up drinking himself to death and so he died and when he died because he was so young he had made no plans for a success and so there was a power vacuum that needed to be filled well there were four main generals that alexander the great had there was cassander there was antigonus there was seleucus and there was ptolemy those four generals divided up the known world that greece had conquered at that point in time now the general that we want to pay attention to first is a guy by the name of

ptolemy ptolemy there it is found it ptolemy is the guy that we want to pay attention to first he actually was put in charge of an area around egypt so he ruled in egypt now ptolemy even though he ruled in egypt eventually went over and took the promised land the promised land had been ruled by antigonus but antigonus was one of the weaker generals so ptolemy goes in and he takes over uh the region of the promised land now when he came in he also treated the jews kindly he treated them exactly the same way that alexander the great did as a matter of fact he continued to allow them to practice their religion and he once again relocated a good number of them down to alexandria

in egypt he actually relocated a good number of jewish scholars to alexandria in egypt and as those jewish scholars were in alexandria in egypt they set about to undertake the translating of the old testament the old testament that was mainly written in hebrew they began to translate into the greek the koine greek the common language of the day that translation we referred to as the septuagint because tradition states there were 70 scholars really there were probably 72 to 76 scholars but they simply simply referred to it as the septuagint or 70 and these 70 uh some scholars put the uh translated the hebrew old testament into the greek and so now all of the old testament scriptures all of the prophetic writings if you will all of the promises

of the messiah were now written in a language that everybody in the world could read which is why many in the world were looking for the coming of a savior because the old testament had been written in such a way now that they could all understand it as a matter of fact that septuagint many believe is what jesus himself quoted from often and even paul quoted from it and so that's some and so ptolemy played an important role in the coming of jesus because now the old testament scriptures that foretold of the coming of a messiah were now available for everyone to read well the next group that we want to pay attention to are a group known as the seleucids the seleucids of course had been ruled by seleucis the the general mainly in the area of syria

and so under a general by the name of antiochus the third the seleucids came down and they took control not only of the rest of syria but they took control of the promised land now in all of these wars jerusalem seems to be the place where it continues to to happen so there was great war that took place in israel but when the seleucids took over initially nothing changed within israel the people were continued or continued to be able to practice their religion as they saw fit however strife eventually broke out between the seleucids and the jewish people the jewish people didn't like being ruled anymore and they didn't like the constant war so there was constant uprisings within israel well one of those uprisings was crushed by a guy

named antiochus the fourth perhaps you've heard him spoken of we will oftentimes refer to him as antiochus epiphanies because that's the name that he took interestingly enough he was called antiochus the fourth and he was called antiochus the fourth the name epiphanies means god manifest or the illustrious one some refer to antiochus the fourth as the nero of the old testament some refer to him as the antichrist of the old testament as a matter of fact there is a chapter in daniel that prophesies so clearly what antiochus the fourth will do eventually to the jewish people and will do to the temple that some people thought it had to have been written afterwards because of how clearly it's written and some people thought it's

portrayed because during the time of the persian empire god knew what was coming and he knew that this was going to take place well when the seleucids took control of jerusalem they were absolutely horrific to the jewish people as a matter of fact when they took over jerusalem many people were killed many people were tortured copies many copies of scripture were burned at that point in time and it was at that point in time that the daily sacrifice of the people of jerusalem was suspended no longer allowed to take place and as a matter of fact because of antiochus epiphanies absolute hatred of the jewish people he set up an idol to the god jupiter in there and he brought

a swine and sacrificed it on the altar in the most holy place that's how much he hated the jewish people and that's how poorly he treated the jewish people and so he absolutely defiled the temple now you may think what does this have to do with the coming of the new testament of jesus well what we're going to see next is an uprising of people that will restore the civil liberties of the jewish people because next comes a group of people known as the maccabees the maccabees came about during this time because of an aged priest by the name of matathias matathias he was an aged priest that started a rebellion he said you know what not in my temple we're going to have to deal with this

for a period of quite a few years the maccabees rebelled against the seleucids as a matter of fact it was almost miraculous the way that they were able to rebel against them well there was another guy who was the son of matathias his name was judas and they referred to him as judas the maccabean we oftentimes call him judas maccabeans judas the maccabean was the son of matathias and so he took up the cause after his father died and as he took up the cause after his father died they eventually drove out all of the seleucids and they were able to repurify the temple as a matter of fact that time of purification is what they now celebrate known as hanukkah that's when that took place

that's why the jews celebrate that time period because god miraculously allowed the candles that were to be in the temple to continue to stay burning while they purified more of the oil that was to be used in those candlesticks and so they celebrate hanukkah the the the festival of lights to celebrate the fact that they had taken back the temple and they had purified it well the maccabeans continued to rule as a matter of fact they tried to establish a royal line but they were not of the line of david and so they weren't a true royal line and so there was always strife within the maccabean rule and reign and so there was a tumultuous time of time of the maccabeans trying to rule and the

ending of this tumultuous time of the maccabean rule of course came about rome rome came in and under the general pompey pompey marched into jerusalem and took jerusalem from the maccabees and at that point in time rome began to rule now the rule of rome is kind of interesting because rome brought about political unity rome brought about world peace and rome brought about world trade and really brought roads because as we know the saying all roads lead to wait all all roads lead to okay everybody's awake good i thought maybe i'd lost you guys for a minute okay now now rome's a really important uh really really important empire right it started off as a republic but do you realize that we

in our world today are still influenced by most of the ways that rome did things including our calendar the way that we tell time even the way our government runs is often based upon roman ideas of peace and justice well rome had one great general that everybody kind of knew and he's the one that we all remember from history his name was julius caesar right you probably had to read that play when you were in high school kind of a fascinating play well julius caesar was a little bit of a rebel by nature but he was the one who brought rome to its greatest place of power and he had a dream that rome would be the republic a republic ruled by the people and so as julius caesar came to power after he had conquered what he needed to he came back to rome

and sort of cleaned house he brought about needed reforms within rome but you know as well as i do that when you go in and clean house and bring about needed reforms people don't like you very much right we've seen it happen in our own government and so there was a plot against julius caesar because he was the one cleaning house therefore there was a plot against him and of course julius caesar was put to death which is where that frame that famous phrase came from et tu brute right you too brutus that's where that came from literally that's what was says from that play and so julius caesar had a nephew his nephew's name was octavius or gaius octavius referred to him as octavia so octavius had become very special to him and he saw great potential as

a leader in octavius so julius caesar actually adopted octavius as his own son well after the death of julius caesar there were three guys that began to rule there was octavius there was mark antony and then there was lepidus you say who's lepidus exactly because he got squeezed out really fast mark antony and and octavius sort of pushed him out pretty quick now under the triumvirate of those three guys more wars took place and they continued to solidify the military power of rome however you know as well as i do there can only be one chief and so they squeeze out lepidus and then civil war erupts between octavius and mark antony and it goes back and forth there were alliances that were formed

and it was a bloody civil war that took place between the two however ultimately octavius was the one who came to power and when octavius came to power he formed what we know as what we know of as the roman empire and he took a name for himself a name that would truly fit such a man he called himself caesar augustus who we all know as the one that we just read about in the book of luke that brought about the census where mary and joseph came back to power and he was the one who came back to bethlehem and so all of these things were at work all of these things brought about everything that was necessary to make sure that jesus showed up at the right time there was a universal language scripture was available universally there was political unity there

was a road system but the other things that there were is that there was moral degradation through all of the wars that had taken place in the world there was a war that took place in the place over those 400 years men had become debased to a level that had not been seen for quite some time divorce was on the rise abortion was on the rise uh sexual immorality was on the rise drunkenness on was on the rise men were leaving their families because they'd been off at war and moral degradation had taken over the roman empire but you know what else there was there was religious inadequacy and hopelessness why well in the world caesar is who was referred to as god as a matter of fact the government the

empire was the one that they worshipped and there wasn't much hope in the government kind of like we know today right and so there wasn't much hope in the government but not only was there not much hope for those living in the world but even living in israel the high priesthood had become nothing more than a political office and so there was this spiritual hopelessness in the world everything about the world stage was set for the coming jesus and so all of these things are in place and jesus showed up at just the right time however god did not just prepare the world for the coming of jesus he also prepared the parents for the coming of jesus look over it luke chapter one and once you look down

at verse 26 luke chapter 1 verse 26 it says this now in the sixth month that means the sixth month of elizabeth being pregnant with john who we will refer to as john the baptist now in the sixth month gabriel was sent from god to a city in galilee called nazareth to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was joseph of the descendants of david and the virgin's name was mary and coming in he said to her greetings favored one the lord is with you but she was perplexed i take that back she was very perplexed at this statement and kept pondering what kind of salutation this was the angel said to her don't be afraid mary for you have found favor with god and behold you will conceive in your womb

and bear a son and you shall call his name jesus he will be great and will be called the son of the most high and the lord god will give him the throne of his father david and he will reign over the house of jacob forever and his kingdom will have no end and mary said to the angel how can this be since i am a virgin the angel answered and said to her the holy spirit will come upon you the power of the most high will overshadow you and for that reason the holy child shall be called the son of god and behold even your relative elizabeth has also conceived a son in her old age and she who was called baron is now in her sixth month for nothing will be impossible

with god and mary said behold the bond slave of the lord may it be done to me according to your word and the angel departed from her so the next step of preparation now that the world is ready is now we need a mother for this messiah who is to be born in a miraculous way and who will be both god and man and so a young lady is chosen and that young lady's name is mary and we don't know very much about the upbringing of mary i know the catholics have their tradition but they're not based in any fact or scripture so i don't believe any of those traditions that the catholic church has about mary she was not sinless she was not a perpetual virgin she was not the mother of god after all jesus was god

before he was born she was the mother of god she was the mother of god she was the mother of god of the man uh she wasn't any of those kinds of things however i do think she went as she was an amazing young woman i think that she was a very godly young woman and i think that she knew the scriptures after all the only thing she needs to figure out here is how am i going to have a baby because i haven't done the things yet that you have to do to have a baby so how's that going to take place so the angel shows up to mary the first thing that he says to her is he says greetings favored one that word favored there is a uh a form of the word grace one who has been who has grace bestowed upon her

greetings favored one the lord is with you and then he goes on to say or she's of course is really perplexed which if you've ever seen any description of an angel in the bible i can understand why she was perplexed now if you're looking like the book of ezekiel the angels have eyes all over them and stuff like that i don't think it was one of those kinds of angels that showed up i believe it was one of those kinds of angels that showed up and i don't think it was one of those kinds of angels that showed up i believe that this was an angel that probably looked like a man but a man who had the shekinah glow the the glow of the glory of god about him not to mention the fact that she's at home in her house by herself and a dude shows up right we'd all be

mildly perplexed about that we'd all be a little bit nervous about that and she's trying to figure out what kind of greeting this is why is this angel why is this person why is this man here of course he goes on to say don't be afraid don't be afraid because you have found and here's this word again favor with god that word favor is the word charis what the greek word for grace he says don't be afraid you have found the grace of god because the grace of god which she received is what allowed her to be who god would want for her to be and of course he makes this announcement you're going to have a son and you're going to name him jesus now you and i hear that word and we immediately go jesus that must be amazing but i want you to understand what the

word jesus meant to her it meant she was supposed to name him joshua right because joshua is the hebrew transliteration of the greek word jesus they both mean yahweh is salvation jehovah is salvation he says that's who you're going to have that's who that's how this is going to take place but then he went on to describe this jesus he will be the son of the Most High. The Lord will give him the throne of his father, David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and his kingdom will have no end. Ah, this will be the Messiah who had been promised. Now, I believe she knew exactly what he was talking about when he said that, because she didn't say, who's that? She said, how's that

supposed to happen? And of course, that's a natural question. He says, don't worry, the Holy Spirit's going to take care of all of that. The Holy Spirit will do all of the work. You just need to be an available vessel. And so, he goes on to explain to her, even your cousin Elizabeth is with child, because with God, nothing will be impossible. Now, love the way that Mary responds, and this

is how you know her heart is ready, because she simply says, let me read it, behold the bond slave. Of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word. And the angel departed. So, Mary is ready for whatever comes next. She simply knows she has one role, to be the bond slave of the Lord. And so, the world is prepared, the mother is prepared, and now comes the hard part,

preparing Joseph. Go over to Matthew chapter 1.

Matthew chapter 1. And I want you to look at verse 18. Matthew chapter 1, verse 18. It says this. Now, the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit. And Joseph, her husband, being a righteous man, not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly. But when she had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord

appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. For the child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. Now, all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet. Behold, the virgin

shall be with child and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which translated means God with us. And Joseph awoke from sleep and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took Mary as a wife, but he kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a son, and he called his name Jesus. Now, Joseph's portion, of this, always leaves me with a few more questions that aren't answered. And I know when I get to heaven, I'm not going to care what the answer is to these questions. I still have

questions, right? Number one, when did he realize that Mary was pregnant? Did she tell him right after the angel? I would think no, and here's why I think no, because the first place she went to right after the angel talked to her was where? Her cousin Elizabeth's, right? That's the first place that she went to. You know why I think she went there? She needed to figure out where she

had to tell Joseph, right? Because that's a pretty hard thing to do. If you don't know very much about the marriage process that took place in Jewish times, it had three parts. There was the engagement, the betrothal, and the actual wedding, or the marriage itself. The engagement could take place any time, right? I still kind of wish we did this today, save ourselves a whole

lot of trouble. My girls, of course, would scowl at me if I said that. Or maybe I should say when I say that, because I say it often. That can take place at any point in time. The betrothal was a one-year period in which you were considered to be married. There was just no consummation of the physical relationship. That's the part that they were in right there. They were betrothed.

In order to break up a betrothal, it actually took a written certificate of divorce. You were married. There was just no consummation of the marriage. You didn't live together. And then, of course, came the marriage where you came together, and there was a festival and a celebration at which point in time the consummation could take place. They were in the betrothal period. And so during the betrothal period, it says,

and I love the way Matthew puts it, he says, before they came together, she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit. So did one day Joseph just look and go, either you need to go on a diet, or you're going to have a baby, right? Or was she like, so Joseph, here's the thing.

I don't really know the right way to say this. But hold off your response till I'm done, okay? First things first, I've not been with anybody else. Well, I don't like the way this is starting. First things, I love you. You're my man. I've kept it 100, right? Everything's good. However, I'm going to have a baby. Nothing about what you just said goes together.

What do you mean, right? Like how did, okay. So let me explain. It's the Holy Spirit. Who's this guy? Let me get my hands on him, right? I don't know how she had to go about this. That's the second question I have. How did he respond to this? Clearly not well, right? Because he's ready to put her away. But dude, Joseph was a stud, right? Like Joseph doesn't get nearly enough credit for being

the man that he was. Now, I want you to think about what Joseph is required to do. Joseph is required to be the stepfather of Jesus. I mean, that's a really hard job. Like your job, because they really understood it. At that point in time, that the man would be held responsible by God for how the family was raised. Well, he's not just raising some kid. He's raising the Messiah. Not only is he raising

the Messiah, he's raising the Messiah who was born to a woman who now has a reputation, whether she earned it or not. And the child will always grow up with a reputation. And there'll be a stigma along with that. And so Joseph's a little freaked out right now, whether he really believes or not. I question whether he really believed. Whether he really believed it or not,

he's pretty stressed. And he goes, you know, I think the best thing for me to do is just to very quietly handle this, put her away, maybe send her away with family, and then neither one of us have to deal with the consequences of this. I'll be as gentle and as kind as I can about it. And he's probably in the process of drawing up the paperwork, having the paperwork drawn up, stressing about the decision. Finally, one night,

he has a dream. Now, I like that Joseph wasn't able to face the angel by himself. Mary could do that. Zacharias could do that. Joseph couldn't handle that at that point in time. Can I just say God knew what Joseph could and couldn't handle? He was just told that his wife is going to have a baby, and it's because of the Holy Spirit. The last thing Joseph needed

was to have an angel show up physically. He's like, I just can't take this anymore, right? Somebody check me in somewhere because I'm going nuts. Now, he shows up to him in a dream. He shows up to him in a dream. He says, Joe, don't stress, man. She told you a true story. That baby really is from the Holy Spirit. Notice what he tells him. He says, Joseph, middle of verse 20, son of David, don't be afraid to take Mary as your wife.

For the child who has been conceived in her is, I wish that was all caps, is of the Holy Spirit. She'll bear a son, and you'll call his name Jesus. For he will save his people from their sins. And then, of course, Matthew gives us the commentary that it would fulfill the prophecy, the prophecy of Isaiah, that a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and you'll call his name Emmanuel, God with us. So Joseph awoke from his sleep.

And when Joseph awoke from his sleep, he did as the Lord commanded him. He took Mary as his wife. But again, this tells you that Joseph didn't take Mary as his wife. He took Mary as his wife. It tells you the kind of man Joseph was. But he didn't know her until after Jesus was born. Because I believe that he was a great man of God. And I don't think Joseph gets nearly enough credit

for being the man of God that he was. Brothers and sisters, the stage has been set. God had prepared the world. He prepared the world in every way possible so that Jesus would come at just the right time. He prepared a young woman to be the mother. He prepared a young woman who was willing to be the bond slave and give birth to the one who would ultimately be her savior, who would ultimately be the one who would set her free from her sin.

He prepared this young woman who, by the way, many believed to be anywhere from 15 to 18 years old when this came about. And me having a 15-year-old myself, I just go, wow, that's just kind of a crazy thing to think about. And then he prepared a man, a man who is righteous in his nature. And he was willing to do one of the most difficult jobs that anyone could imagine doing.

Go back to Galatians chapter 4. And with fresh eyes, read verses 4 and 5. It says, But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, so that he might redeem those who were under the law. We might receive the adoption as sons. He sent Jesus at just the right time. Amen. Let's all stand. And if you'd bow with me. Father, we come to you and thank you for the time that

we've had in your word this morning. Lord, I thank you for our Christmas Eve together. And Lord, as we go throughout today, may we always remember that, Lord, this was not a happenstance plan. It wasn't an accident plan. It was a prepared plan. Prepared before the foundations of the earth. Everything put into place. And Lord, you knew exactly the right time. And so, Father, we thank you for who you are.

We thank you for your sovereignty. In Jesus' name. Amen. Be blessed.