Well, good morning. Hello. Good morning. Welcome to Calvary Chapel. Just ask you to stand with us. We're going to go and go before the Lord in prayer before we get started. Glad you're here this morning. Father, we thank you so much for this opportunity to come together to worship you. The time to have your word together and just sing praise to your name. Lord, we love you.

Just pray that you would have your way this morning. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Let's worship together.

With all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. With all your heart, with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.

Lord, with all my heart, with all my heart, with all my heart. We love you with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Just be glorified in Jesus' name. Amen. You can be seated.

I can tell you that God is able to deal with any problem you have. Look to Him. He's done before. He'll do it again.

And you've never, I never,

you've never, In the darkness we were waiting Without hope, without light Till from heaven you came There was mercy in To fulfill the law and prophets To a virgin came the Word From a thrallry to the dirt revealed And to redeem lies the cross For even in your suffering You saw to the other Sigh Knowing this was our salvation Jesus, for your sake God, you died And held its breath Till that stone was moved For God conquered death And the dead rose from their tombs And the angels stood in awe For the souls of all Who come to the Father Shall not kneel Shall not faint By His blood and in Him We can never see you again We can never see you again We can never see you again We can never praise Him enough Let's all stand together.

Known in love I took a breath When I doubted Lord, remind me I'm wonderful in name You're an artist And a potter I'm the canvas And the place Beyond the clear Thank you so much. Lord, that you're not finished with us yet. Lord, that we're still a work in progress as we submit ourselves to you, Lord. We want to offer our bodies a living sacrifice to you. Holy and acceptable to you, Lord.

Just be exalted in our lives today. Have your way in the rest of the service now. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Just have a time of fellowship. Reach out and say hi to someone.

Good morning. Glad you can be with us this morning. If you would, find your seat. Grab your bulletin. We'll go over a few announcements.

Over on the left-hand side of your bulletin, everything is going on this week. And as a matter of fact, that's what we're talking about in the middle of the night. In the middle section of your bulletin. A couple of things to take note of that go on throughout the week. We're in a little bit of a lull in between some things, events happening. So I thought we'd take,

started last week, take a few weeks and talk about the ministries that go on during the week here at church. So first of all, just a reminder that every Sunday morning at both 8 o'clock and 10 o'clock, we have a time of prayer back there in the back just to lift up the things that are going on in the world, the things that are going on in our fellowship. So we take about 15 or 20 minutes and do that. So if you can join us for that, it would be a wonderful time.

So just a reminder that that's going on. And then the two ministries that I want to spotlight this week are the two that go on on Tuesday nights. First of all is the college and career fellowship that Lewis leads for high school graduates through about the age of 25 or so. And they meet back there in the agape room and things are going great with that ministry.

So, and then the other one is Allen's Tuesday night home fellowship. And so I'm going to have him come up and share about Tuesday night home fellowship. Okay. Well, good morning. And hey, just to let you know, we get together every Tuesday at mom, dad's place over on, yeah, I always forget the name of the street. Malwood Court. And we do this both on Zoom, but we also meet together too.

So it's, if you're interested, we would love to have you. We'd like to just fellowship a little bit together and then get into the word. And really we all participate. So yeah, we'd love to have you join us if you're interested. And right now we're in second Samuel and I think we're on chapter eight this coming week. We always play a game. Every, everybody thinks that it's either the next study

or the previous study. Anyway, but we have a good time. And if you want to join us, we'd love to have you. Awesome. And you may as well just hang out up here because for our responsive reading this morning, we are going to be in Psalm 142. Psalm 142. We'll be looking at the new American standard just so we sound the same. And as you're turning to Psalm 142,

Alan already beat you up here, but, stand in the honor of the reading of God's word.

Psalm 142. I will read the odd verses if you will follow along with Alan and the even verses. A mascal of David when he was in the cave, a prayer. I cry aloud with my voice to the Lord. I make supplication with my voice to the Lord. I pour out my complaint before him. I declare my trouble before him. When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, you knew my path.

In the way where I walk, they have hidden a trap for me. Look to the right and see, for there is no one who regards me. There is no escape for me. No one cares for my soul. I cried out to you, O Lord. I said, you are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living. Give heed to my cry, for I am brought very low. Deliver me from my persecutors, for they are too strong for me.

And read verse 7 with me. Bring my soul out of persecution, bring my soul out of persecution, so that I may give thanks to your name. The righteous will surround me, for you will deal bountifully with me. Father, we come before you, and I just want to lift up this morning to you right now. First of all, Lord, I want to lift up our brothers and sisters in Afghanistan,

whose lives have drastically changed over this last week. And Father, I just pray that you would strengthen, encourage, and comfort them, Lord. Protect them, Lord, by the power of your Holy Spirit. And Lord, I pray that now, as we spend time together, I'm in your word, that we would hear from you this morning. Father, that as we take time to look at the birth of Jesus,

Lord, that we would be struck by the great ministry that he has for us in our lives. And so, Lord, help us to see you more clearly this morning, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. And if you would, turn in your Bibles to the book of Matthew, chapter 1. I'm going to have to turn this fan off because it keeps blowing my pages.

The airfield. But it keeps turning the page for me. Matthew, chapter 1.

Last week, while we were together, we discussed the genealogy because that's what Matthew starts off with. And so, we saw the line of Jesus, the son of Abraham, the son of David, because Matthew wants to present to us Jesus, the anointed Messiah, the King of the Jews. And that's our overall theme for the book of Matthew is Jesus, the King. And so, as we come to today, we're looking at the… theme of the birth of the king, the birth of the king. And so we followed it all the way from

Abraham down to Joseph, who was the husband of Mary, through whom Jesus was born. And so we pick up in verse 18 of chapter 1. It says, 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 and not wanting to disgrace her,

planned to send her away secretly. But when he 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 shall bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which translated means God with us. And Joseph awoke from his sleep, and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took Mary as his wife, but kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a son, and he called his name Jesus. Kind of battled with asking Steve to do a Christmas carol for today because it just felt like the right thing to do. Steve and I actually discussed this Wednesday night,

but we thought it might throw everybody off just a little bit since it's supposed to be about 98 degrees today. So, but this is the Christmas story, right? And as we look at this story, from Joseph's perspective, I want to point out three things. Number one is Joseph's concern. Number two is the angel's comfort. And then number three is Joseph's obedience. I don't think Joseph gets enough credit for being a great man. It's oftentimes discussed how

wonderful of a woman Mary was, and I do think that she had to have been an amazing young lady because at the age of about 15 to 16 years old, she was told that she would give birth to the Messiah, the promised one, and had to explain that to her soon-to-be husband. But Joseph, I think, had to have been an amazing man. I had to have been a man of great character, of great patience, of great mercy, but also understood justice and understood righteousness. And so, as we look at this story now that Matthew tells us about the birth of Jesus, we're not given all of the detail that Luke gives to us because we're given it from Joseph's perspective. I will address that just a little bit and talk

about what the angel had to say to Mary, but this all comes from Joseph's perspective. And it starts off here in verse 18 as he starts telling us about Joseph. It says, So as he has given us the genealogy that led up to the birth of Jesus, he now gets very specific and says, but the real genealogy I want to tell you about, the real history I want to tell you about is that of Jesus. I think it's kind of interesting that as he's gone through this list of all of these historical characters, before he begins his story, he reminds us that there is one theme to this story, and that theme is Jesus. He makes sure our

focus is on the person that it needs to be on, and that is the person of Jesus Christ. I shared this on Wednesday night as well with all of the things that are happening in the world right now, and there's a good number of things happening in the world right now. You know, it's interesting because had the things in Afghanistan not taken place the way that they had, the thing we would have been talking about is what took place in Haiti. Then in Haiti, there was a 7.2 magnitude earthquake, and there are at least 1,500, if not more, deaths that have come about because of that earthquake. And then they got hit with a hurricane after that, and much of

the recovery effort had to be ended. And had everything in Afghanistan not taken place the way that it had, that would be the story that would be the lead of everything that was taking place in the news cycle right now. But we also know that in Afghanistan, we chose to pull out, and as we decided to pull our troops out, the Taliban took over before we could even get all of our people out of there. And now the debacle that is what's taken place in Afghanistan has taken place, and now churches don't know what they're going to do over there. Those that supported the U.S. don't know what they're going to do over there. And the

entire nation has been overrun by a terrorist organization. And we can look at that, and we can go, oh my gosh, what is happening in the world? And we can get a little bit stressed out about it. Then we add to that the fact that the Northeast is about to have their very first hurricane in over 30 years that's hitting them right now, at least the areas that this hurricane is hitting. They

haven't seen hurricanes there in over 30 years. And you look at what's taking place, and you just go, oh my gosh, now the city of New York has declared a state of emergency already, and all of the things that are taking place. And it's so easy, like we talked about a couple of weeks ago, to kind of freak out about all the things that are going on in the world. But I love what Matthew does here in this very first verse. He reminds us that the subject of this story is Jesus.

Because the subject of our history is Jesus. Because it's His story. And now, right now, I want to remind us that all of those things are happening in the world, but none of them have taken God by surprise. All of these things are happening in our nation, and none of them have taken God by surprise. As a matter of fact, they're all flowing into what I would call the story of Jesus. Because

now what we see is God preparing, to send Jesus back, to take His church home, so that He can once again deal with the world as the righteous and just King. This is the story of Jesus. And so my prayer this morning is that with all of the things that are happening, we can once again get our hearts and our minds set back on the place where they need to be, and that's back on the story of Jesus. And so He says, the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows.

Now, in order to introduce what's happening right now, I feel like it's important that we talk about a little bit of cultural background. Marriages amongst Jewish people looked much different than they do today. And as a matter of fact, as a father of two little girls, I kind of want to go back to this. Because what they would do is they would arrange marriages. There were three parts

that took place within a marriage, or within a marriage ceremony. For the Jewish kids. First of all would be the engagement. The engagement could actually take place when they were kids, right? It could actually take place when they were very young. They would arrange the marriage, and that young lady might be promised to that young man at a very early age. And they, from the age of say six or seven, could be engaged up to a certain point

in time. But then came the betrothal process. At the betrothal process, there was a binding that took place between the two. They would ratify the agreement by saying, now they are betrothed to each other. And the betrothal took about a year. In the process of the betrothal, they were considered to be husband and wife. They just didn't live together yet. And the marriage hadn't been consummated yet. But in

order to end a betrothal, there was actually a divorce proceeding, or an annulment that would have to take place. So you were promised to each other. And then after that year of betrothal, while the husband and the wife were married, they were considered to be husband and wife. While the husband would have been preparing a place for his wife, he would then go with a marriage processional to get his wife and take her home to be with him. There's a whole rapture story there

that we won't get into right now. But I think hopefully you can pick up on the subtle nuances of what Jesus is doing right now in preparing a place for us so that he can take us home to be with him. So that would be the marriage ceremony that would take place. Mary and Joseph at this point in time were in the betrothal period. That year where, as a matter of fact, in just a moment, we're going to point out that he's

referred to actually as her husband. In the midst of this betrothal period, in the midst of this time that they were promised to each other, considered husband and wife, though not living together and though the marriage had not been consummated yet, an announcement came. Notice what it says. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph before they came together, she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit. Now, Mary had the luxury of having an angel show

up. That's the story that's told in the book of Luke. Surely we remember that story, but let's go over it again just for the sake of covering all of our bases. So there Mary was hanging out in her home and an angel showed up. Gabriel shows up and gives her a message, calls her beloved, calls her chosen by God and says, you are going to bear a son. But do you remember the one objection that

Mary had to this? She said, I'm going to bear a son. I'm going to bear a son. I'm going to bear a son. She said, but I have never known a man. How on earth am I going to be able to produce a son? And the angel tells her, well, the Holy Spirit's going to come upon you and overshadow you. And that's how you will conceive this son. And you're going to name him Jesus. He's going to save the

people from, save his people from their sins. And this is what I have for you. And so Mary was been given this message. And so you can imagine what the conversation probably went like after she had to talk to Joseph. I don't know at what point in time Mary went and talked to Joseph. That's a question that I have that I've not seen answered in any commentaries. Did she go to him

right after that? Maybe within a couple of months after that and say, here's the thing. The angel showed up or was it after she realized, oh my gosh, I'm pregnant. Joseph, here's the thing. No matter what it was, Joseph received this news. Now, Matthew takes this message and says, this is painstaking efforts to point something out. And I hope that you noticed it as well in

this verse. He says, when she was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found to be with child. Why does Matthew take time to point that out? Matthew takes time to point that out because the virgin birth is one of the hinges upon which redemption hangs. Because if Jesus had not been born of a virgin, then he too would have had the line of sin, the line of Adam running

through him. Therefore, he would have been born with a sin nature. That's not possible for Jesus to have been able to do in order to be the savior. And so he had to be born of a virgin because there was purity there and he would not have been born with that same sin nature. That's why scripture refers to him as the second Adam. So Matthew takes painstaking efforts to point out the fact that they had never

come together. They had never come together in a sexual relationship. Therefore, this could not have been Joseph's son. It had to have been something miraculous. As a matter of fact, it was the Holy Spirit. But for just a moment, I want us to put ourselves in Joseph's shoes or his sandals, if you will. There he is. He's betrothed to be married to this woman. And clearly she's an amazing lady. I don't think God would have chosen Mary if she

had not been a woman of high moral character and someone who was just truly amazing in nature. I think that that's probably who she was. And so no doubt, very in love with this young lady, very in love with this young lady. And so he's betrothed to this woman. And so he's betrothed to this upcoming marriage. Here he is at home preparing a place to bring her home to. And all

of a sudden, he gets the message. He gets the news. Whether she goes over to his house, whether she comes to talk to him, whether she sends someone else to talk to him, we're not sure how he finds out. But Joseph finds out. Joseph finds out that the woman that he is supposed to be marrying, the woman that his heart is so in love with, is pregnant. And the only explanation

she has is that it was the Holy Spirit. Now, you can pull a lot past me. If you give me the right words, I'll believe anything. I can be pretty gullible. But that one might be a tough pill to swallow. I promise it was God that did this. Imagine how broken his heart was at this point in time. First of all, the hurt that he would have gone through to think that something would

have happened that he didn't know about. And how broken his heart was to think that something would have happened that he didn't know about. And how broken his heart was to think that something would have happened that he didn't know about. And how broken his heart was to think that something would have happened that he didn't know about. And how broken his heart was to think that someone would

have been over this whole process. But then he begins to think about the actual ramifications. Whether you realize this or not, the penalty for adultery in the nation of Israel at this point in time was to be stoned to death. Now, he knew it wasn't him. He knew he wasn't involved. And so really what he could have done at any point in time is turned her over to the Jewish authorities,

turned her over to the temple, and they could have stoned her to death for the penalty or for the sin of adultery. Joseph is having a hard time with this. He's having a hard time with this. And he right now. The life he thought he was going to live could possibly be coming to an end. And so it goes on from there to say, verse 19, and Joseph, her husband, being a righteous man

and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly. Now, I think there's two things that are pointed out here about the kind of guy that Joseph was. I didn't come up with these on my own. John Corson told me, and I thought it was a really good idea. Two things that are pretty interesting to take note of about Joseph. First of all, Joseph was a man of righteousness.

He not only knew the law, but he knew that he couldn't ignore the law. He not only knew the rules, but he knew that he could not ignore the rules. And he was willing to do whatever he had to to make sure that he kept the law. Kind of makes sense as to why God chose him to be the one who would raise Jesus. Because God, would need someone who would hold the law in high esteem. Because who was Jesus? Jesus was the one

who fulfilled every aspect of the law. But before Jesus could know that he was fulfilling the law because he was born as a baby, he would need a father who would make sure that in every way he had kept the law. And so Joseph was a very righteous man and was willing to do whatever it took to obey God. But at the same time, Joseph was a very merciful man. Because,

notice what it says. He did not want to disgrace her. And I believe in some of the other translations, perhaps the King James and the New King James, it says publicly. You see, Joseph still had a great deal of mercy in his heart. Which is also kind of interesting that God chose him. Because remember what Jesus told the Pharisees? I desire mercy, not sacrifice.

And here God has chosen a man to be the one that would raise Jesus. Who would not only be a man of righteousness, because he held the law in such high regard, but he also understood the truth of mercy. And that God is merciful in his dealings. And so Joseph comes up with a plan. He says, listen, let's just do this really secretly. We'll just do this really quietly. I wonder if Mary somewhat protested. Joseph, I promise. I promise

the story I'm telling you is true. And he says, Mary, you've got to understand how hard this is for me to take. You've got to understand how hard this is for me to believe. This has never happened before. And she's probably saying, I know. I didn't believe it either. I sure wish the angel would have shown up to you too. I wish an angel could have revealed himself

to you too, to give you the exact same message. And Joseph says, listen, I really think the best thing that we can do is we'll just end this really quietly. I won't take you before the Sanhedrin. I won't take you before the temple. I won't subject you to that. But this, this can't happen. I think it's best for both of us if we just annul this thing in part ways, and we'll do

it in a very secret way. And then I won't have to bring any shame on you or myself. It was the only plan he could come up with. It was the only thing that he could think of. Undoubtedly, Mary was probably praying, Lord, show him the truth of this situation. And so in the midst of this concern, in the midst of this issue, in the midst of this problem, an angel of God shows up. Verse 20, but when he had considered

this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him and said, I'm going to show you the truth of this 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. May I say, I love that God knows exactly when to show up, whether by sending an angel, whether by himself showing up, by giving us his word, or oftentimes in our lives, by sending someone with a word from him. And so I'm going to show you the just for us. And the angel shows up to Joseph. I don't know this because I can't prove this

scripturally, but I can't imagine that Mary wasn't praying that this exact thing would happen. I can't imagine that Joseph was not laboring over this decision and praying, God, give me wisdom to know what to do, because this seems like my only plan. And so God did what God does, and he shows up. And the angel shows up to Joseph in a dream. Now, I didn't look up the

complexities of what he was doing. I didn't look up the complexities of what he was doing. I didn't know why the angel showed up to Mary in person in the middle of the day, and why he showed up to Joseph in a dream. But that's how God chose to work, which brings up a really interesting point. God oftentimes works in different ways and different people. And so just because you had

an experience in your life doesn't mean somebody else's experience is going to look the exact same. You see, I think sometimes we can put God in this little box and say, God always does this. A plus B will always equal C. And God's like, really? Because sometimes I like to make A plus B equals Z, because I'm going to do it the way I want to do it. So we have to be careful not to put God inside

of that box. And so the angel shows up to Joseph, and I love the first words out of the angel's mouth. He says, Joseph, son of David, don't be afraid. You know why? Because sometimes the thing that keeps us from serving God the most is fear. The thing that keeps us from, you know, obeying God is oftentimes our fear. We're afraid of what it's going to mean for me in my

life. We're afraid of the sacrifice that it might lead me to. We're afraid that I can't do it. We're afraid that I might be screwing up. And sometimes God just wants to say, don't be afraid. I ran out of time this morning. I didn't have time to do this, but I thought, you know, if you were to do a word search throughout Scripture, you might be able to do it. And so I thought, you know, if you

on that phrase, do not be afraid, I can't even imagine how many times it shows up. I thought of about four times just off the top of my head, because that's the issue that you and I deal with is we face fear. We face fear over the things that are happening in our lives. We face fear over the things that are happening in our world. And God always has that same phrase for us. Don't be

afraid. But then it usually follows with, because this is what I want you to do, because this is how I want you to obey me. But don't be afraid to do it. This is how I want you to obey. I wonder how many of the believers in Jesus Christ in Afghanistan had a dream from the Lord this week, wherein God said, don't be afraid. I don't know if any of you follow Wes Bentley from Far-Reaching Ministries. I didn't realize

they had people in Afghanistan, although the more I thought about it, the more I thought, of course they do, because it's Wes Bentley with Far-Reaching Ministries. Go where no one goes. In Afghanistan, that's where no one goes. And if they weren't there before, I guarantee he's going to get there now. But if you read anything about Wes Bentley, you know that

not only did he say, you need to pray for the pastors that are in Afghanistan, because they're well aware of the fact that many of them will not make it out of this alive. But what's fascinating to do is to read the articles that come from Wes Bentley in the magazine from Far-Reaching Ministries that I post on the bulletin board out there every month, which by the way, if you've ever picked up on that magazine, go ahead and just unpin that thing, take it home and read it, and allow yourself to be amazed at the miraculous things God is doing in our world and some of the places where nobody wants to go. One of the things that you see is these pastors, these Christians

in these faraway places, you know what God does when they're facing certain death? He sends them a vision, sometimes of an angel, sometimes of himself saying, don't be afraid. And may I say, as believers in Jesus Christ, I'm not afraid of anything. I'm not afraid of anything. I'm not afraid of Jesus Christ living in the United States of America, where things have really been safe right

now, knowing that things are changing, because I don't know about you, but I sense the changing world. I think we need to hear that exact same phrase, don't be afraid, because God's plan is greater than my greatest fear. Because that's kind of what he tells Joseph here. Notice what he says. He says, Joseph, son of David, don't be afraid to take Mary as your wife. Why? For the child who has

been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. I love that the angel didn't say, because you should have listened to Mary, right? That's what I would have said in that situation, right? You should have listened to Mary in this thing. No, he says, the child is of the Holy Spirit. Don't be afraid. You know what this was going to mean for Joseph? You know what he was going to hear behind his back every time he walked away holding

Jesus? I can't believe he's such a sucker. She cheated on him and he took her back and didn't even have her punished. He's such a sucker. He's such a sucker. He's such a sucker. He's such a sucker. What a loser. What a dummy. I can't believe he believed that story. He knew that's what he was going to face. And may I say the exact same thing is probably true of Mary. You know the whispers

were there. We're told that. We're told that in the book of John. That there were whispers that took place that it was actually a Roman soldier who fathered that baby. And he knew he was going to have to deal with that. But he confirms the story. Notice what it says. Don't be afraid. Don't be afraid to take Mary as your wife for the child who's been conceived in her is of the Holy

Spirit. And then he goes on to tell him why that's important. Verse 21. She will bear a son and you shall call his name Jesus for he will save his people from their sins. As they used to say a few years ago, things just got real, right? All of a sudden now what's going to take place is even more real. That's even greater consequence than he even thought possible. Because this child would be

the promised Messiah. The one who would set people free from their sins. He says you're going to bear a son. You're going to call him Jesus because he's going to save the people from their sins. For those of you that don't know the name Jesus means Yahweh is salvation. God is salvation. And so he says that's what he's going to do. And that's why it's important that you follow through with this.

It's important that you follow through with this marriage because that child that she's bearing is a child of great importance that is going to set the people free from their sins. And then in verse 22 he points out the prophecy. Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet. Behold the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a son and they shall call his name Emmanuel. Which translated means God with us.

This is going to be a familiar phrase that Matthew uses throughout this this got this gospel account. He's going to continue to say all this took place to fulfill. Because remember he wants to point out that Jesus was the promised Messiah and he points it out from prophecy. But you know what else this would have done for Joseph? This would have given him scriptural basis for the promise that this

angel just gave him. Which you and I both know that no matter who it is that comes and gives us a message that message needs to be based in scripture. It needs to be based in what the word of God has to say. And so he takes him back to a prophecy. Takes him back to the prophecy of Isaiah chapter 7 verse 14 where it says behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son and you shall call his name Emmanuel. Which means God with us.

Now why is this important? Well because this this particular prophecy once again points out the virgin birth of Jesus. And it was foretold thousands of years before. It's important because this is the scriptural basis for the fact that Jesus came down and dwelt among us. And so he gives this he gives this prophecy. First of all that the that the virgin shall be with child. Second of all that it will be a son. Third that they will call his name

Emmanuel. Which means God with us. And so after we have addressed the concern then we have seen the comfort that the angel brought. Now number three we see Joseph's obedience. And so it says and Joseph awoke from his sleep. It did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took Mary as his wife. But he kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a son and he called his name Jesus. Can you imagine when Joseph awoke from that dream?

Joseph probably awoke feeling a great deal of peace because undoubtedly he was not sleeping well due to all of the stress that he was facing at this point in time. And so as this angel shows up and gives him this message. He says I'm going to give you a son. I'm going to give you a daughter. I'm going to give you a son. I'm going to give you a daughter. I'm going to give you a son.

He awakes from the dream. Now as he wakes up from the dream he has the choice to make because you know as well as I do that when you receive a message from the Lord you don't have a choice. What was that choice? I will either obey what the message has to say or I will continue on in the way that I have been going. Joseph chooses obedience. It says Joseph awoke and did as the

angel of the Lord commanded and took Mary as his wife. This is another one of those moments where I wonder what the conversation would have gone like. Hey Mary remember you said you wish that an angel could show up to me to explain the exact same thing to me that the angel did for you. Mary you're not going to believe this. I had a dream last night. And she goes I bet you did. He says the angel showed up

and the angel says basically your story was right. She goes I bet he did. I don't know if she said that but I think that's probably what she said. And he said I had no idea what we were doing. And she goes I don't think I even fully understand it either. You can imagine it right. Here she's some 15 year old kid. He's maybe in his early 20s. And now they're having to face the fact that they have

been given one of the greatest responsibilities ever. And he says I don't know how we're going to do it. I don't know how we're going to explain it. I don't know how this whole thing is going to work. But we're going to make it work because that's what God told us to do. And if God has given us this to do then he'll give us everything else that we need in order to do it.

So Joseph takes her as his wife. Oh man. Can you imagine how that betrothal process would have gone? So here's the part that is never explained to us. How did they tell this to their parents? Right. Like that's the other question I had in all of this process. Right. Like Joseph was like okay here's the thing. I got good news and I got bad news. And then I've got confusing news. Okay.

Good news is we're still getting married. Bad news is Mary's going to have a baby. The confusing news is the baby is from the Holy Spirit. Can you imagine like Lord give them a vision. Right. Maybe when we get to heaven we're going to find out that both their parents got a vision of it too. Anyway I often wonder how that conversation went. But Joseph obeys. He goes and he takes Mary as his

wife. And I want you to notice the upstanding young man that this guy is. But he kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a son. It would have been easy to justify anything at this point in time. Right. Because the flesh can justify a lot of things. But Joseph was a righteous man. And Joseph was a merciful man. Therefore Joseph obeyed God. Pay attention to this. Completely. He obeyed God completely

and made sure he did everything the way that he was supposed to. And so he kept her a virgin until she until Jesus was born. And then of course we know the story of them traveling to Bethlehem. And as they traveled to Bethlehem there's no place for them to stay. And while there's no place for them to stay they finally find a stable that they can stay in. And while they're in the stable she gives birth to a son.

And as she gives birth to a son she names him Jesus. Because he will save his people from their sin. Now as I read this chapter I debated going into chapter 2 but I thought what deeper things can we learn from these sets of verses. And so from a couple of commentaries that I read and some thoughts that the Lord gave me I thought there's four things I think that we learn about Jesus from this set of verses. Four things that we learn about

about Jesus. Number one. Jesus knows what it is to be judged for the wrong things. Have you ever thought about that? Okay so I want to recommend another book to you. The book that I want to recommend. I've got a bunch of them in my office so if you want to borrow one of them you're more than welcome to. It's called The Jesus Style. By Gail Irwin. I had Gail come out here and teach maybe two or three years ago.

He does a fantastic job of pointing out that Jesus kind of came from the wrong side of the tracks. Think about what we've covered about Jesus so far. First of all Jesus has a pretty rough family tree. Right? We talked about that last week. That all of the people leading up to Jesus had issues. They had problems in their life. Right? It's a counseling session waiting to happen. All of the things that

Jesus' ancestors went through. But the second thing that I noticed through this is Jesus was from a scandalous birth. Right? Jesus knows what it is to be called probably a lot of bad names because of the way that he came about. He knows what it is for people to tell rumors about him because of his birth and perhaps to even be shunned by the people that are around him. See I wonder what school

was like for Jesus growing up because he's the one that well they say. Right? With the whispers that he heard behind his back all the time. He knew what it was to be judged for the wrong things but not only that. Jesus knew what it was to be judged for being just an average Joe. Jesus' name wasn't Joe. No it was Jesus. That would be like today if we named someone Josh. Right? We realize that right?

Jesus is the Greek name for Joshua. The word is Yeshua. But if you translate it in Hebrew it's Joshua. If you translate it into Greek it's Jesus. So while we hear the name Jesus and we go Jesus. Like I have t-shirts that say Jesus on it. I look for them all the time because I just love to talk about Jesus. But at that point in time that's why he was referred to as Jesus

of Nazareth. Because there would have been a lot of them. Gail Irwin points out he says there were probably five on the block that he lived on named Joshua. Because everybody wanted their son to be Yahshua. Yahweh is salvation. Everybody wanted their son to be the Messiah so they all named him Jesus. And so he had a very common name. Here's an average guy. From an average town. From a scandalous birth. With a really

jacked up family tree. Perhaps you feel that way too. Perhaps you feel common. You're just another face in the crowd. Nobody even pays attention to you. As a matter of fact maybe you feel like if you didn't bring yourself up to somebody they wouldn't even know that you exist. Perhaps you come from a little bit of a scandalous birth. Perhaps mom and dad made some bad decisions.

And maybe you don't even know who mom or dad. That is. Jesus understands what that's like. He understands what it's like to hear the whispers and the rumors. Jesus understands what it is to be judged for the wrong things. Now these next three things that I want to point out have to do with who Jesus is in his ministry on earth. The next thing I want to point out about Jesus is that Jesus is

the Messiah. Did you take note of that in verse 18? Notice what it says. The birth of Jesus Christ. Was as follows. The word Christ means anointed one or Messiah. I was thinking about this and I was thinking about who all is anointed. If you look in the Old Testament there were three groups of people that were signified by their anointing with oil. The three groups of people that were signified by their anointing with oil were

prophets, priests, and kings. Those were the three people that were anointed. And so I thought I wonder what this means for Jesus being the anointed one. Because clearly the word Christ, anointed one, means there is an even greater anointing. And I thought about if those are the three that are anointed in the Old Testament then think about who Jesus is. Because if we think about who Jesus is, first of all

we know that he was the prophet. What do you mean, Ryan? Well it tells us in Deuteronomy chapter 18 verse 15, Moses gave a prophecy. He said, after me there will come a prophet from his own people, him you will listen to. Now who is the prophet that Moses was referring to? Well, biblical scholars all agree that that prophet had to have been Jesus. And so as Jesus, the Christ, the anointed one,

he is the prophet that had been promised. Well what was the job of a prophet? The job of the prophet was to declare the word of God to the people. Or if you will, represent God to the people. What did Jesus do when he came down and dwelt among us? We're told in the gospel of John that when Jesus came, though no one had seen God at any time, Jesus declared him. And so as the

anointed prophet, Jesus declares God. He explains God to us. It has hit me more clearly over the past few months that if I want to know what God would do in a situation, I need to read the gospels and see what Jesus did in a situation. Because that's what Jesus told his disciples, right? Jesus said, we would be content if you would show us the Father. And Jesus said, have I lived with you so long and you've not seen

me? If you've seen me, you've seen the Father. And so Jesus, as the Christ, the anointed one, was the prophet who declared God to us. But not only that, Jesus is the priest. He's the anointed high priest. Now in a couple of weeks, we're going to be going over the high priestly ministry and all the garments of the high priest in the book of Exodus on Wednesday nights.

And one of the things I love about going over the garments and everything of the high priest is that in all of it, you see Jesus. Because Jesus is our great high priest. The high priest, when Aaron was first anointed high priest, it says they took the vial of oil and they poured it over his head and it flowed down into his beard because he was anointed by God to be the representative, to be that go-between, the mediator between God and the people. Well, who is our mediator? Who is

our great high priest? Jesus. Who is now high priest forever for us because he always lives to make intercession for us. But the wonderful thing about Jesus, we're told in the book of Hebrews, is that as the anointed high priest he has been tempted in every way that we are and yet without sin. So he can understand all of our temptation and yet he can also know

how to give us victory over it. He is the great anointed high priest. Jesus the Christ. He is also the anointed king. Remember how he said that the prophecy was given to David that because his desire was to build the temple, even though he was a man of bloodshed, a man of war, he could not build the temple. Yet because of his desire to build this temple for God, a dwelling place for God,

God said there will never fail to be one of your descendants on the throne. And yet after the children of Israel went into Babylon, we haven't seen a descendant of Israel or David on the throne. Why? Because we're waiting for the coming king. We're waiting for the king who will be anointed to be the one who will sit on the throne. You see, the first time Jesus came as king, he was rejected.

Because remember what was put on the cross? That cross that was the picture of the rejection of the people of Jesus? Here is Jesus, the king of the Jews. When he comes the second time, he will not come as the rejected king. He will come as the conquering king. Amen. So Jesus is the Christ. He is the prophet, he is the priest, and he is the king because he is the Messiah, the anointed one.

The third thing that we see about Jesus is that Jesus is the Savior. Notice what it says in verse 21. The thing that I love the most about the fact that Jesus is the Savior is that he is the Messiah. He is the Savior. He is the Messiah. He is the Messiah. He is the Messiah. He is the Messiah. He is the Messiah. The thing that I love the most about Jesus is that Jesus saves from sin.

Is that Jesus saves completely. Jesus saves completely. Again, I would like to point out to you three things as a subheading of this point right here. Number one, Jesus saves us from the penalty of sin. Jesus saves us from the penalty of sin. When he died on the cross, and he yelled out from the cross to tell us to die, it is finished. He took all of God's wrath on himself on the cross for sin.

Therefore, he in himself saved us from the penalty of sin because he took it for himself. And now, of course, we know anybody that decides they'll put their faith in Jesus and accept that free gift. And may I use, once again, the word free gift. Once again, the word anybody. They will be saved from the penalty of sin. No longer will God's wrath be upon you.

Instead, you'll experience God's favor. But the second way that Jesus saves from sin is he saves from the power of sin. Because you know as well as I do that once we get saved and we're not under the penalty of sin any longer, we still deal with our flesh. We still deal with the temptation of sin. As a good friend of mine once said, it's only a temptation. When it's really, really tempting, right?

I only struggle with temptation when it's really, really tempting. And so, we still deal with the temptation to sin. But God, because of the work that Jesus did on the cross, and because of his being raised from the dead, we now can be saved also from the power of sin. How are we saved from the power of sin? Because now the Holy Spirit, the same one that raised Christ Jesus from the dead,

dwells inside of us. Why can he dwell inside of us? Because we have been made new. We are made new by the blood of Jesus Christ. Therefore, you and I now have the same power residing in us through the Holy Spirit so that we can walk in newness of life. So that we can walk in victory over sin. So that as I get into God's word, God's word is not just words on a page to me.

It's a cleansing word. It is like water washing my mind free of all of that sin. And then God's word gives us power because the Holy Spirit takes those words of God and as we're facing temptation we say, but Lord, as Jesus we're going to read about soon says, your word says this. And as we use the word of God against the temptations of the enemy, he delivers us from the power of sin.

But then the third way that Jesus saves completely is that he also sets us free from the presence of sin. And perhaps I should change the verb tense there. He will set us free from the presence of sin. He will set us free from the presence of sin. You see, when Jesus takes us home to be with him, we'll no longer be wearing this old body of flesh that's subject to temptation,

that's subject to all the things of this world, that's subject to all of the sins of this world. We will be fully set free from the presence of sin because we will be given a brand new body that's no longer subject to all of the flesh and the temptation any longer. What does he mean when he says Jesus saves us from our sin? It means that I have been saved because of the work of the cross.

I am being saved because of the work of the resurrection. And I will be saved by him taking me home to be with him in my glorification. You see, that's the complete salvation that God does in our lives. It gives a whole new view to that verse in the book of Philippians where Paul says, He who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it until the day of Jesus.

Jesus saves and he does so completely. But then the last thing that I want to point out to you about Jesus is that it says Jesus is Emmanuel. God with us. Oh, there it is. Jesus is Emmanuel, God with us. The presence of God in our lives because of the person and work of Jesus Christ is one of the most amazing things I can imagine. To know that presence of God

that's with us all the time. It's interesting to look through scripture and see the presence of Jesus Christ throughout all of scripture. Remember what it says in 1 Corinthians 10 that when the children of Israel were in the wilderness there was a rock that followed them. Do you remember who that rock was? That rock was Jesus. It's interesting to go through the Old Testament

and see anytime it talks about the angel of the Lord it was when Jesus would show up in the Old Testament. But you see then when we get into the New Testament when we get into the book of Matthew we see that Jesus is our Emmanuel, our God with us. Why? Because Jesus, though fully God, put on the clothes of a man and came down and dwelt among us and lived among us because he is God with us.

But you say, Ryan, how is he God with us now? He's God with us now because of the promise that he made to his disciples. Do you remember the promise he made to his disciples in John chapter 14? He said, I have to go away but I will not leave you as orphans. I will send you another person. I will send you a comforter who will be with you always. And then do you remember how he ended with his disciples?

Lo, I am with you always even to the end of the age because he is God with us. Brothers and sisters, the presence of God with us continually is one of the most amazing things that I know of. To sense God's presence with us that he sometimes reveals to us through his word that he sometimes reveals to us through each other. I remember when I was in Bible college, we were walking out of a praise time and I remember thinking, I sometimes wish I could just give Jesus a bro hug, right?

Like it would just be fun if Jesus was there and we could bro hug it up. I said, Lord, I wish there was some way that that could happen. And you know what happened to me? Okay, follow me on this. I'm not weird and mystical, but this really happened. I got done praying that and a guy who I knew but didn't know very well and we were really close friends, he steps out in front of me

and just gives me a quick bro hug. And I was like, and God was like, I am with you. I'm with you because of the Holy Spirit who's dwelling not only in you but in your other brothers and sisters in Christ because I am God with you. And I bet many of you have stories that are really similar where you sit back and you go, that had to have been God. That had to have been him

because he's with us because God is with us. God is with us in the good times when everything is going really great and I can't imagine life being happier than it is right now. And God is with us in the stressful times when everything is going really great and we think, I don't know how I'm going to make it through this because I can't even eat because life is so stressful. God is with us through the depressing times when we think, Lord, there's no joy.

Where are you right now? God is still there because he is God with us. God is with us in the very sad times when sometimes it feels like tears are the only thing that flow from us more than the words can. God is still with us because he is our Emmanuel. He is God. He is God with us. And that's who Jesus is. And that's who Matthew is going to present to us. Amen?

Let's all stand. As I mentioned before, I sense all of the things in the world continuing to speed up. I think we have difficult times ahead, but I also think that that God who is with us is going to be very faithful and prove himself to be faithful in the way that only he can in our lives. And we need to start praying for our brothers and sisters in these other places.

And we need to start praying for God to begin to pour out his spirit in revival, not only in our nation, but in our world, because he's coming soon. And we want to be ready for it. Father, we come before you and just thank you for the time that we've had in your word this morning. Lord, I thank you for how faithful you are to us. And Lord, I thank you for the work

that you do in each of our lives. And I pray, God, that as we go out from here, that we would be guided by your Holy Spirit and that we would continue to take in the truth of your word and who you are in our lives. In Jesus' name, amen. You shall go out with joy And be led forth with peace The mountains and the hills Shall break forth before you There'll be clouds of joy And all the trees of the field Will clap, will clap their hands And all the trees of the field Will clap their hands And all the trees of the field Will clap their hands The trees of the field Will clap their hands As we go out with joy You shall go out with joy And be led forth with peace The mountains and the hills Shall break forth before you There'll be clouds of joy

And all the trees of the field Will clap, will clap their hands And all the trees of the field Will clap their hands The trees of the field Will clap their hands The trees of the field Will clap their hands As we go out with joy And all the trees of the field Will clap their hands The trees of the field Will clap their hands The trees of the field Will clap their hands Praise God. You know, if the trees of the field can clap their hands, we can too. Praise God. I hope you all have a good week have a good week and enjoy your week.

God bless you, Lord. Lord, we just pray that you would bless each person today as they go their way and help each one of us Lord, to be the people you've called us to be. As we rejoice, we leave this place. In Jesus' name. Amen.