Sunday Morning Service 8:30AM - Luke 1:26-38 - The Unexpected Birth of the Unexpected Savior pt 2 -

No, thank you so much All right, good morning I'm glad you guys are here. Merry Christmas to you Go ahead and ask you to stand with us We'll pray and we'll get started Father we come before you this morning. We thank you for another day. Thank you for allowing us to be here And Lord, I thank you for this time of year Lord and just what it what it really means Lord It means that we celebrate a time when you willingly left your throne in heaven Or to come to earth and to be born among men Lord to live among us what is a ultimately go to the cross and and Take our rightful place on that cross for our sins Lord So we just we thank you for that Lord because if you didn't we wouldn't be celebrating this time of year So we just thank you or

And we just ask your blessing upon this time. We ask these things in Jesus name. Amen I still waters into mercy Your good justice God of Jacob Is the way And have a seat if you like It's making The father The chosen One Son Son Church is way let's fight God that s You by the way they were That's Mike You know Maybe Yes I also cheered who comes He's And That's I He God Is Is God Your I'm I'm The universe is slain, then sings my soul, how great that, then sings my soul, it's great, and hear the birds sing sweet, from lofty ground to grandeur, and hear the gentle, that, that our eyes shall come, with a shout of acclamation, and take me home, what joy shall fill my heart, then I shall bow, and humble, and sings my soul.

Let your Holy Spirit rest upon him, give him the words to speak, and give us ears to hear, and hearts to receive your word this morning. We ask it in Jesus' name, amen. Let's go ahead and have some fellowship.

Good morning. You can begin to locate your seats. Grab a bulletin, we'll get ready to go over some announcements.

Welcome to Calvary Chapel, I'm glad that you have joined us this morning. A handful of things to take note of in your bulletin. Essentially, there's not much going on. Midweek this week, so everything's canceled except for the fact that we have a Christmas Eve candlelight service, actually two of them, so choose one of those to come to. Also, the directories are finally available, at least some of them.

She's been working on them throughout this week, so grab one. There are those binders that are out there on the counter by where you got your bulletin, so grab one of those, take it home. If there are none left by the time you leave, it's okay. She's going to keep making more, but there's only so much time. And so she got done whatever she could, so those, I believe, are the things that are going on, so if you would, make sure that your mobile device is silenced, and for our responsive reading this morning, we are going to be in Psalm 111, Psalm 111, looking at the New American Standard for this part, so that hopefully we all sound the same.

If you need a copy, it should be one in a row around you. And as you are turning to Psalm 111, if you are able, please stand in the audience. I will read the odd verses, if you will follow along with Pastor Jared, and the even verses. Psalm 111. Praise the Lord. I will give thanks to the Lord with all my heart, in the company of the upright, and in the assembly.

Great are the works of the Lord. They are studied by all who delight in them. Splendid and majestic is His work, and His righteousness endures forever. He has made His wonders to be remembered. The Lord is gracious and compassionate. He has given food to those who fear Him. He will remember His covenant forever. He has made known to His people the power of His works, in giving the heritage of the nations.

The works of His hands are truth and justice. All His precepts are sure. They are upheld forever and ever. They are performed in truth and uprightness. He has sent redemption to His people. He has ordained His covenant forever. Holy and awesome is His name. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. A good understanding have all those who do His commandments.

His praise endures forever. And Father, we praise You that You have sent redemption. And the redemption that You sent to us came in the form of a baby who would grow into a man. We take all the sin of the world upon Himself on the cross. And so, Father, in this season, as we celebrate the incarnation of Christ, Lord, I pray that You would give us the strength to do so.

I pray that You would give us the strength to do so. I pray that You would give our hearts the understanding that we need of the awe of this time of year. And so, Father, be with us, bless us, teach us in Your Word, we pray. In Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. And if you would, open up to the book of Luke, chapter 1. The Gospel of Luke, chapter 1. In particular, we're going to be starting in verse 26.

Well, this morning we come to part 2 of our series. The Unexpected Birth of the Unexpected Savior. Oh, man, I'm hampered in my movement. These stairs are going to kill me. That'll be weird. I'll fall off of them. So we come to part, sorry, she had to go on that trip with me. Today we come to part 2 in this series. So last week we looked at the unexpected family of the unexpected Savior.

And we looked at, in particular, that genealogy of Jesus and how He redeems not only broken lives, but ultimately He redeems brokenness. He redeems broken families. He redeems broken stories. And so we saw that last week in Matthew, chapter 1. Well, today we come to chapter, or section 2, which is part 2 is the unexpected birth of the unexpected Savior, the unexpected circumstances.

And so there's three things that we're going to look at with the unexpected circumstances. Number 1, we're going to look at an unexpected announcement. Number 2, we're going to look at an unexpected celebration. Then number 3, we're going to look at an unexpected discovery. And so we start in chapter 1 of the book of Luke in verse 26, and it says this. Now in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city in Galilee called Nazareth,

to a virgin engaged to a man who was named Joseph. Of the descendants of David, the virgin's name was Mary. And coming in, he said to her, Greetings, favored one, the Lord is with you. But she was very perplexed at this statement and kept pondering what kind of salutation this was. The angel said to her, Do not 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 name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And 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. 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, and 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 is called barren is now in her sixth month, for nothing will be impossible with God.

And Mary said, Behold, the bondslave of the Lord. May it be done. To me, according to your word, the angel departed from her. The unexpected announcement. Luke gives us a time stamp here that it was in the sixth month. Now, if we would have started in the beginning of Luke chapter one, we would have seen the announcement of the birth of John the Baptist, who was the cousin of Jesus, who would ultimately be the forerunner.

And so the sixth month is the sixth month of Elizabeth being pregnant with John the Baptist. And so the angel Gabriel visits this young lady by the name of Mary. And she was a young lady. Probably late teens at this point in time. And so he visits this young lady named Mary. The interesting thing about the name Mary is it's actually the Greek transliteration of the Hebrew name Miriam.

So kind of an interesting little fact about that, that this Mary is presented to us as a virgin who is a young woman. And she was betrothed to a guy by the name of Joseph. So this young lady living in an unknown, obscure city, called Nazareth, in the land of Galilee, is visited by the angel Gabriel. And the angel shows up to her. And the first thing it says is this.

I love this. It says in verse 28, it says, And coming in, he said, That word perplexed is kind of an interesting word. That word perplexed means to be agitated or troubled. And can we all just say no matter what the angel looked like, like we would be a little bit troubled if someone showed up, in the middle of my kitchen, right? Like if I'm in my house all by myself and a dude shows up in the middle of my kitchen,

I'm a little bit troubled and a little bit agitated by that. I see these memes that run around social media. And they picture an angel as it's described in the book of Revelation, with the six wings and all of the eyes. And I don't think Gabriel probably showed up like that. I think he probably showed up very much like a human being, looked very much like a man that was standing in the middle of her kitchen.

And he refers to Mary as something very interesting. He refers to her as, I think it's important for us to pay attention to that. Because on one hand, I think we as Protestants have a tendency to undersell how great of an individual Mary really was. Because of what the Catholic Church has done with Mary, we have a tendency to undersell her. And I think that she was a fantastic human being.

I actually think she truly was one who was favored by God. And I'll talk about that. And just, just a minute. But at the end of the day, she was just a young woman, but a young woman of such amazing character, a young woman of such amazing quality, a young woman who, who was entrusted with raising the son of God, who was entrusted with raising the incarnate Christ, one who would raise them in the right way, one who would raise them in the fear of God, and who would do everything that was necessary, especially early on, which there was a lot that needed to be done to make sure that he was raised properly.

And I think that this woman was fantastic. And I think she bore, she bore a burden her entire life. I actually think she bore two burdens her entire life. The first burden that's presented to us here is that she would be the mother of a child who wouldn't have a human father. And we all know the rumors that would have gone around about Mary at that point in time.

We'll actually deal with that in just a moment when we get to the unexpected discovery. But I think that she bore the burden of that her entire life, of there being rumors that went around about her, of there being statements made under people's breath, of her having to deal with, the fact that she told a story that was ultimately pretty unbelievable by a whole lot of people. Matter of fact, the more that you look at the life of Jesus, the more you find that those rumors went around about him. And yet she bore that burden.

But the greatest burden that she would have borne was more than the rumors that were told about her. It was the knowledge that her son would ultimately give his life, that her son would be one who would, who would not live past the age of 33, although she probably didn't fully realize that in the beginning. She probably didn't fully realize everything that was going to be expected of her. All of the burden that she would bury bear of the fact that her son would be ridiculed and hated by many, that he would be ultimately tortured by the people that he came to save and, and that he would give his life at a pretty young age so that everybody else could have brand new life.

And I think that that burden weighed heavy upon her. There's that, there's that Christmas Carol that says, Mary, did you know? And, and, and I don't think she fully grasped everything at that point in time. I think if she had, it would have been, it would have been too much for her to bear all in the moment. As a matter of fact, this announcement alone was a lot for her to bear because the angel shows up and says,

you have found favor with God. That word favor is the Greek word charis, which is where we get our word grace from. Mary found grace with God. Because while I think we as the Protestant church sometimes undersell Mary, we all know that the Catholic church tends to oversell her as one who was a giver of grace instead of one who needed grace. But throughout scripture throughout the gospels,

you find that Mary was just simply an individual who was a sinner that needed to be saved by grace. And she needed to find grace in the eyes of the Lord because those who God would use must first be gifted with his grace. And that's what she received from the Lord. She received the grace to be everything that God had called for her to be. And may I say a point I didn't intend to make,

but when God calls us to do something hard, when God calls us to bear a burden, a burden that is too much for us to bear, he will always give us the grace to go along with it. I've heard a preacher share a story of an ancient preacher at one point in time who said there are two types of grace that God gives us. There is the grace for living and there is the grace for dying. But whatever it is, whether it's living for God or whether it's dying for God, he will always give you the grace that you need in the moment.

And so he shows up and he says, Mary, you are highly favored. And she was very perplexed. And she didn't know what kind of a greeting this was that she was receiving. And then he tells her exactly what he came to tell her. He says, Behold, you will conceive in your womb and you will bear a son. And you'll name him Jesus. And he will be great and be called the son of the Most High.

And the Lord will give him the throne of his father, David. And he will reign over the house of Jacob forever and ever. And of his kingdom will have no end. A fascinating statement this may say, you're going to have a son and he's going to be named Jesus. Now, you and I hear that and we initially go, whoa, Jesus, right? Like, that's a big deal. But we have to understand what the name Jesus was also in Hebrew.

That name is Joshua. This is actually a pretty common name, right? She's like, he's like, you're going to have a son, you're going to name him Joshua. And so the name in and of itself doesn't have a great deal of weight to it until you learn what the name means. The name Joshua, Yahshua, or as translated into the Greek, Jesus, literally means Yahweh is salvation.

Or God. God is salvation. And so when this angel shows up, it says, you're going to have a son and you're going to name him Jesus. Initially, that doesn't mean very much until you realize exactly what his mission on earth was going to be. And that's that he would be the chosen one. He would be great. He would ultimately have the throne of his father, David,

and he would be the savior of humanity. Because he will be Yahweh is salvation. He will be the God of salvation. And of course, in this moment, she's thinking to herself, we have one really major problem. And this is exactly what she says to the angel. She goes, this is going to be a problem because I've never known a man. I'm still a virgin. And remember, we talked about this last week,

why the virgin birth was so important. The virgin birth was so important because sin was passed down through the man. And Jesus needed to be born sinless. So he had to be born of a woman so that he could be associated with humanity to fulfill the prophecy given all the way back in the book of Genesis, chapter 3, when man sinned. When God told the serpent, you will always be an enmity bit with the woman and with her seed.

You will bruise his heel. He will crush your head. And so he had to be born of the woman, but he also had to be born sinless. How do you solve that problem? The problem is solved with the virgin birth, but it's still a problem for her because not only are we good at making babies in this church, but most of us have taken that class and we know what it takes to produce the baby.

And she goes, I don't know how that's going to work. He says, it's okay. It's going to be a miracle. It's going to be a miracle of God. He uses two ways to describe it. He says, first of all, the Holy Spirit will come upon you. Second of all, God will overshadow you, meaning that this will be a complete miracle of the Lord. It will truly be a miraculous birth.

He says, that's the way that it's going to take place. Now, here's the thing that I love about the question of Mary. Mary simply wants to know how this is going to work, not doubting whether or not God can do it. She just wants to know the details. And this is exactly what the angel gives her. He gives her the details. And notice what she says. And notice what the next thing that the angel says.

And behold, even your relative Elizabeth has also conceived a son in her old age. And she who was called barren is now in her sixth month. Why does the angel say that? Because he wants to reaffirm the miraculous nature of what God is able to do, that God is the author of life. You see, if we went back and read the first part of Luke chapter one, we would find that,

Zacharias and Elizabeth were very old and they were barren. They weren't able to have kids. You can imagine how they lived their life. They lived their life praying every year that God would produce a baby, believing the promises of the Old Testament, hearing the story of people like Hannah, who prayed that God would give her a child, hearing the story of Abraham and his wife, who miraculously conceived in old age when Sarah was barren, hearing the story of Isaac and Rebecca and how Isaac prayed that she would have a baby, and that God provided a baby, hearing all of these miraculous stories over the years of what God was able to do, and yet finding that that was still not true of herself.

Anybody ever been in that situation? Where you've heard all of the miraculous stories of what God is able to do? Why has God answered for everybody else, but he hasn't answered for me? Why is God doing this for other people, but he's not doing it for me? Well, probably because God has a timing that we don't understand. And this is exactly what he does with Elizabeth.

And that's why the angel says, I realize that this is a lot to take in, but let me give you an example of what God is able to do. Even your cousin Elizabeth, she's in her sixth month. Because she who is called childless, she who is called barren will not be childless. Why? Because nothing will be impossible with God. If you like to underline things, if you like to star things, I have both in my Bible.

If you like to circle things, that's a great one to circle. Because that's sort of an all-encompassing truth about who God is. That nothing will be impossible with God. And we'll deal with this as I close up with some points later. But I just think sometimes we need to just rest in that statement. That nothing's impossible with God. I hear it said sometimes, I think that person might be beyond saving.

I don't know if even God could reach them. You ever heard that statement said before? We may not want to admit it, but sometimes we think it, right? Right? What I've seen happen over and over again is that, when I think something is impossible, God likes to prove me wrong. Because nothing will be impossible with God. And so Mary sits and ponders all these things.

Can you put yourself in her position? Can you put yourself in that moment? In that moment when you're sitting in your living room, and all of a sudden an angel of the Lord shows up, and you're a little stressed out, trying to process what you've just seen in the moment. And then in that moment, not only have you just seen something incredibly miraculous, and an angel showed up, in the middle of your home, while you're just hanging out and doing your thing.

But then he tells you that, there's something miraculous is going to happen in your life. And not only is something miraculous about to happen in your life, but something miraculous has already happened in the life of somebody else. And he just said, nothing's going to be impossible with God. And in that moment, you have to process all of that information. One piece of information that I hadn't thought about until this time around,

because every time I do this, I think about something else a little bit differently. One piece of information I'd never processed is, how long was Gabriel there during, this whole thing? Right? I don't know why I thought about that, but, but, but was, did he like show up and he's like, got to revive her? All right, pick it up now. Cause she's perplexed, right?

Is she just like absolutely stressed out? She's got to sit and have a drink of water for a few minutes, a little cup of hot milk. I have no idea what that does for you, but it seems like that's what they always do in these situations. And how long was he there hanging out with her? We take like an entire day. Is this a 15 minute scene? I don't know. Something I hope to learn someday,

but he's there with her. And once you notice, how Mary responds, how would you have responded in this moment? That's what you think about that. Would you have turned and run the other way? Like, nope, I don't think so, man. It's I'm going to slap myself around a little bit till I wake up from this dream. No, Lord, don't use me because that's going to be way too hard.

How would you have responded in this moment? Well, this is what Mary does. Mary says, behold, the bond slave of the Lord. And may it be done to me. Of course, Mary says, according to your word and the angel departed after she received this incredibly unexpected announcement and processed it, processed it faster than any of us probably could have ever imagined in the

moment. She says, Lord, let your will be done. I will surrender to what you have for me. I just think it's a fantastic statement from an incredibly young lady. Who's very new in her faith, very new in her life. And she just agreed to be one of the most fascinating characters in all of history. One of the most fascinating characters in all of not only biblical,

but secular history because of the position, the role that she would play. Bringing the son of God into the world. And in that moment, she simply surrenders. You can imagine how much her head was swimming at this point in time after she received this unexpected announcement and not knowing. who she can talk to, not knowing who she can share things with. You ever been told something that you're not supposed to tell anybody else,

but you have to process it and you have to process it with someone. So you go to the one person that you can trust, right? We all have that one person that we're like, hey, I'm going to talk this through with you because I don't know who else I could even share this with because it just seems kind of weird. Well, that's what Mary does. She figures out who she can go process it with and who would be the best person to process.

A miraculous announcement with but somebody else who had already received a miraculous announcement. And so the next thing that we see is an unexpected celebration. So we pick up in verse 39 of the same chapter and this is what it says. Now at this time, Mary arose and went in a in a hurry to the hill country to a city of Judah and entered the house of Zachariah.

Yes and greeted Elizabeth and when Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting the baby leaped in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. She cried out with a loud voice and said blessed is the fruit of your womb. And how has it happened to me that the mother of my Lord would come to me for behold when the sound of your greeting reached my ears. The baby leaped in my.

Womb for joy and blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what had been spoken to her by the Lord. Elizabeth is another one of those characters that we really don't read very much about. We don't know very much about her, but what a fantastic woman of God. She must have been married to a Zacharias who remember at this point in time can't talk right most peaceful her life probably had ever been because Zacharias can't talk because when the announcement was made.

Remember, Zacharias is in there offering sacrifices to the Lord and the angel of the Lord shows up and we give Zacharias a little bit of a hard time. But remember there had not been a prophetic divine revelation from God and the land of Israel for 400 years. By this point in time they'd read about it. They'd heard about it, but no one had received it. The first one who received any prophetic revelation from the Lord in 400 years was Zacharias and he's in there offering sacrifices to the Lord.

Like this old dude. Right? Like praise God. He didn't die of a heart attack right in that moment when the angel shows up the angel shows up and he's kind of freaked out says you're going to have a son. He says Lord, how can this be? And isn't it fascinating that Mary says, how can this be? And the angel explains that Zacharias says, how can this be? Dude can't talk,

right? He's like, well, because you didn't believe that you're not going to be able to talk until the baby's born. That's how you're going to know you're going to have a baby and Zacharias was like, and the angel was like, exactly. Because that's what happened to him. You know why I think that is. I can't prove this scripturally. This is what I think Zacharias had been walking with God for an incredibly long time and should have known better.

Mary was very brand new and she didn't know better yet. You see with knowledge comes accountability. So Zacharias can't talk right now. So we know he didn't celebrate right? He might have been like, but that's it. That's all he did. But Mary decides I'm going to go visit my cousin Elizabeth. She'll understand. Understand what's going on because she's got something similar happening in her life.

I'm going to get in a real big hurry and I'm going to go to the hill country of Judea and I'm going to visit her and that's what she does. She packs up her stuff. She heads to the hill country of Judea and she shows up to her cousin Elizabeth's house. I'm going to read this to you one more time because this is what it says. Now at this time, Mary arose and went in a hurry to the hill country to a city of Judah.

And entered the house of Zacharias and greeted Elizabeth and when Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting the baby leaped in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. Now we're not given information about what this greeting was. Like was this just a hey Elizabeth. How are you was it a guess what we're both having a baby was it a you're not going to believe what I saw.

We don't really know what the greeting was, but we know in that moment the Holy Spirit. It not only let Elizabeth know what the greeting was all about, but let John the Baptist who is in the womb of Elizabeth know what the baby was all about or what the greeting was all about. We're not told that she gave her any kind of news about what was going on. Perhaps that conversation happened after what Elizabeth said, but in that moment, the Holy Spirit did something very miraculous.

The first thing that he did is he caused the baby to leap in the mother's womb. We'll talk about that just a minute because it's a pretty fascinating statement that's made right there. But the second thing that he did is he gave Elizabeth divine revelation of exactly what was going on with Mary. Did you notice that it says in verse 42? She cried with a loud voice and said blessed.

Are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb. Do you know what every young woman in the land of Israel hope that they could be? They could be the mother of the Messiah because that's who they were looking for. They were looking for a Messiah. They were looking for the wrong kind of Messiah. Usually. But they were looking for a Messiah. They were looking for a deliverer and every young Jewish woman.

Hope that she would be the one and Elizabeth says you're the one as soon as she walks in and greaser. She says blessed. Are you and blessed is the fruit of your loom of your womb? How has it happened to me that the mother of my Lord would come to me? How did she know that that's what was going on with Mary? Did Mary tell her from the outset? I don't think so.

Because what does it say? She was filled with the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit gave her that. Divine revelation in that moment and in that moment. She knew something's different about Mary because I believe that the Holy Spirit had already come upon Mary and I believe that he had already overshadowed Mary and there was already a baby in there. So she was filled with that power of the Holy Spirit and Elizabeth filled with the Holy Spirit took note of what was going on and there was this great celebration,

right? Look, I know what happens when when y'all girls get excited about something, right? And there's some jumping around and so now, right? I've seen this situation happen. I've seen the announcement of I'm gonna have a baby gonna have a baby. I've seen this happen before. Okay, and this is exactly what took place. Elizabeth probably couldn't dance around as much.

Although who knows she's filled with the Holy Spirit. God can do anything. He wants to there was a lot of excitement between the two of them. It's almost like Mary didn't have to say anything, but you can imagine what the conversation was was like after that Zacharias just sat there quietly quietly. And she's just like Zacharias just sit there. And he's like,

she says, tell me all about it. I don't know if you ever paint these scenarios in your mind. This is what I paint in my mind is that they sat and they just talked. She said, how did you find out an angel showed up and Zacharias was going, right? That's the she kind of glow of the angel. I don't know if you it's the international sign for it. It made that up.

Zacharias is going out and she goes the angel showed up and you're never going to believe what he told me. She goes, I think I am. She goes on to explain everything to her. She says, I know that this is amazing. You know why not only do I know it, but it says verse 44 when the sound of your greeting reached my ears the baby in my womb. Leap for joy. I love this because the very first person to celebrate the coming of the Savior was an unborn baby.

If there was ever any question as to when life begins, it is answered here. Life does not begin the day that a baby enters the world. Life begins the day that God creates it, which is before a baby is ever born. There's no question about that and the Holy Spirit was at work and the whole thing of this unexpected celebration had to have been the most joyous thing in the world.

This this unexpected celebration, not only of Elizabeth, not expecting the fact that her her her cousin was going to come walking through the door to explain to her everything that was going on. But but this baby with this unexpected celebration who leaps for joy because he knows in that moment. He's the one and it's great because that John the Baptist will spend his life pointing people to Jesus. And again, I think Elizabeth had to have been a fascinating woman of God because what she didn't know, is that her son would also lead a difficult life.

And her son would also die an early death. I think one of the things that we miss oftentimes with the death of John the Baptist is that he was probably also around the age of 32 when he died. When he was put to death, we think about him being at least I did always thought about him being much older, right? I picture him as this ancient crusty guy when he dies.

Dude was young six months older than Jesus, right? And she had no idea what she was getting herself into, but she was happy to do it. So it says this first 45. Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what God had spoken to her by the Lord. And so we've seen this unexpected announcement to Mary. We've seen this unexpected celebration of not only Elizabeth and the baby,

but now there's an unexpected discovery. Go. Over to the book of Matthew, Matthew, chapter one, and wants to look at verse 18. We read right up to this last week, but the fascinating story, Matthew, chapter one, verse 18. And this is what 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, not wanting to disgrace her plan 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, don't 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.

And 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. He called his name Jesus.

Now to build a little bit of context for us here. We need to first of all, make sure that we understand what a Jewish wedding ceremony would have looked like because it looks very different than ours. There were three parts to a Jewish marriage. There was the engagement. There was the betrothal and then there was the actual marriage and engagement could really take place at any point in time in the lives of a young couple at any point in time.

There could be there could be a promise of a couple coming together. Listen, give me two cows and a chicken and I'll give you. My daughter, you know, write something like that because there were arranged marriages at this point in time. So an engagement could have taken place at any point in time. The second part was a betrothal. That's the period of time that they're in right now.

The betrothal was legally binding. It is a matter of fact, a betrothal could only be broken with a certificate of divorce. However, even though the relationship was legally binding, just like a marriage, there were no marriage rights that had taken place just yet. There was no physical relationship that took place between the husband and wife, and the husband and wife would not live together.

As a matter of fact, during the betrothal period is when the husband would be preparing a place for his future wife. And then when he was when he was prepared, when everything was ready, he would go and receive her, which is where that marriage parable comes from in the New Testament. When Jesus shares that because that was a very unexpected time. So it's during this time of betrothal when there was no physical relationship taking place between Mary and Joseph, and yet there was a legally binding contract, essentially between the two of them.

And so during that time, I want you to notice what happens. It says now the birth of Jesus Christ is as follows. When his mother, Mary had been betrothed to Joseph and there and the writer, Matthew is sure to put that point out before they came together. She was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit. I don't think Joseph ever gets enough credit. I don't think we ever consider the difficult position.

Joseph finds himself in in ultimately the ridicule. He would have endured in this particular instance. Now Joseph, I believe was an incredibly fantastic human being. I think that he was a man of great character. He was a great a man of great morals. I think he loved the Lord with all of his heart. I think that because God chose him to be the the human father of the incarnate Jesus here on Earth.

I believe that he had to be someone who was going to raise Jesus in the ways of God, who was going to follow the law when Jesus was too young to know how to follow the law. And you see that as you look at the gospel accounts, but we really don't read very much about Joseph. We read this. We read the part in Luke about him going with Mary down to Bethlehem. And then we read one story about when when Jesus was about 12,

13 years old and he he went to the temple and he went with Mary and Joseph. That's all we read about this guy. Matter of fact, most people believe that he died before Jesus actually began his earthly ministry. And yet I think he was a fantastic human being. And so he's engaged to Mary's betrothed to Mary. And I was wondering at what point in time Mary told him about the announcement.

She's going to go at this point in time and she's going to spend three months with Elizabeth, right? That scene that we just saw the celebration. She's with Elizabeth for three months until Elizabeth. Has John the Baptist. Now, if you know anything about having babies, you know that at the end of three months, you kind of start to notice, right? And it wasn't like she had some cell phone that she could text him and be like,

hey, got some big news. We should probably talk about this, right? And so, so she shows back up after three months. And all of a sudden Joseph goes, dude, because I want to read it to you again. This is before they came together. She was found to be. A child by the Holy Spirit. In other words, before they came together, Joseph went, you're pregnant, aren't you?

And she was like, here's the thing. Okay, have an open mind. I promise I'm not making this up. Have I ever lied to you before? It's not what you think. This was the Holy Spirit. Where is he? Let me at him, right? Like, you know, that's what he was thinking in that moment. Fellas. What are you going to do if your girl shows up? And she's like, listen, I got good news.

I got bad news, right? Bad news kind of is that I'm pregnant. Good news is, it wasn't sin. It was the Holy Spirit that did it. And you're going, listen, that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard in my entire life. I am not believing you. And Joseph is a little stressed. Listen, understandably so. He's stressed for a few reasons. Number one, can you really believe what Mary's saying?

I'm sorry. We have to think that at some point in time, there was a little doubt in the back of his mind at this point in time, right? Can you really believe what Mary's saying? Number two, he has a major problem on his hands. Who's everybody going to think the baby belongs to? Either him or some other dude. You know what the penalty was for adultery? The penalty for adultery or even fornication

is being stoned to death. He could have, if he wanted to, drug her into the public square. They could have put her to death. And Joseph didn't want that to happen. I think he really loved Mary. I think this was not just some marriage of convenience or just some thing that somebody worked out with the sale of some livestock. I think he really loved her. And he was an upright man.

And so he's weighing out what he's going to do. Can you imagine the pressure on him at this point in time? What's he going to do? What's the right thing to do? What's the moral thing to do? What's the ethical thing to do? And so he decides, he comes up with a plan. I'm just going to have a real quiet divorce. I'm not going to drag her in front of the courts.

We're just going to end this thing. Keep both of us out of trouble. Go about our lives. And in the back of his mind, he goes, I think that's my only option is just to end this all together. Because he has made an unexpected discovery. And so as he weighs all of these things out, as he's praying about it, as he's seeking the Lord, as he's trying to figure out what the right thing to do is,

notice what happens. It says in verse 20, But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, don't 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. An angel of the Lord shows up.

Now, we're not told the angel's name, this time. I think it's probably Gabriel, because why wouldn't it be Gabriel, right? He's had experience with this before. Gabe, you know the story. All right, go. I thought I've done this already. I know this dude's super stressed out. He's going to need some help. He's kind of freaking right now. Go talk to him. Only for Joseph, he shows up in a dream.

Why doesn't Joseph have to deal with the perplexing nature of the angel being right in front of him? I don't know, because God never works the same way twice. Have you ever noticed that? You ever notice God always does something different every single time? And that's what he does here. Shows up in a dream, and he says, Joe, chill, all right? Everything's going to be good.

The story is true. Everything that she told you is true. Joseph, son of David, don't be afraid to take Mary as your wife. Don't be afraid. Don't be afraid that her story isn't true, and don't be afraid of what the consequences might be. Why did Joseph need to be told don't be afraid? Because he's freaking out right now, right? He doesn't know what he's going to do with this.

Only the angels are going to tell him something that's going to scare him even more. He says, Because the child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit, and she will bear a son, and you will name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. He says, what he's told you is true. What she told you is true. It's absolutely a work of the Holy Spirit.

But this work of the Holy Spirit is going to be great. And this is what you're going to name him. You're going to name him Joshua. You're going to name him Jesus. You're going to name him Yahweh is salvation. Why? Because that's the very thing he's coming to do. He is coming to save his people from their sins. Not only that, but this is going to fulfill a prophecy.

And Matthew points this out because Matthew was written to the Jewish mindset. But I also think that Joseph needed to hear this. He said, All this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord to 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 because that's exactly who Jesus was going to be.

Not just the Savior of the world, but he's going to be God with us. He said it's going to fulfill the prophecy. This is not something that's been dreamed up. This is something that has been planned for centuries for thousands of years. This has been the plan. And now it's time to make the plan happen. And Joseph has a choice at this point in time. You've just received the word from the Lord.

You've just had confirmed everything that's been told to you. You have two choices at this point in time. You can get up and you can run. You can pretend you never heard that and you can run as far and as fast as you want to from the word of the Lord that God has given. Do you realize that? Do you know when God gives you a word in your life? That's one of your choices.

Too many of us take that choice. Too many of us, God shows up and says, this is what I want you to do. And we go, no. And we run the exact opposite direction. That's what Jonah did, right? That Jonah ran the opposite direction when the word of the Lord came. And that's an option that you have. It's not a good option, but it is an option. But here's what you need to know.

When God is speaking to you, he will not leave you alone until you listen. I told somebody this the other day. I said, here's the thing. When God's pursuing you, and he usually is, he loves you too much to leave you alone until you respond. And Joseph could have done that. God probably would have kind of gotten him, but Joseph could have run, but he didn't.

Instead, what did he do? Well, it says right here, and Joseph awoke from his sleep and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took Mary as a wife. He made the hard choice to stick with Mary. He made the hard choice to stick around, even though it meant a lot of rumors were probably going to go around about him, and he was going to ultimately be a little bit shamefaced through this whole thing, because everybody would know that baby ain't Joseph's.

Everybody's going to know that, or they would think that it was his and that he was lying about the whole thing. Either way, he's got issues he's got to face. You know, this broken family that Jesus came from all the way down through, there was still brokenness they dealt with even after his birth, but he makes the hard decision to move forward. After this unexpected discovery.

Well, there's three things that I want to kind of close up with here. Three lessons on the unexpected. Number one, God is always doing the unexpected. God is always doing the unexpected. It isn't that great. God's always doing things that we didn't see coming. And sometimes it's a really good thing. Sometimes when God does the unexpected, it's the greatest surprise you've ever received in your life.

I can tell you story after story of things that are incredibly unexpected in my life that I did not see coming, and yet God did it because God's always doing the unexpected. The story of us moving down here is the story of the unexpected, right? I'll share it with you real quick. I think I've shared it before, but I'll share it again. About a year before we moved down here,

this would have been 2008, the folks from Mark's City Christian Academy reached out to me, and said, hey, would you like to come teach for us? We can pay you almost no money. And I was like, well, probably not. And we can't give you insurance. I was like, okay. No, I can't. But my wife and I sat on our back deck, and we created a scenario that was incredibly unexpected.

We said, if our city Christian Academy could pay me a little bit of money, and they had a house that they would sometimes let people live in at that point in time, and allow us to live in that house as part of my salary, and I could go on part-time staff at the church, and they could pay me a little bit plus health insurance, then we could move down there. And then we laughed and laughed, because that was a ridiculous scenario. A year later, I got laid off from my job in construction. This was October of 2009.

And I came down here shortly after that, about a week or so. Actually, I don't even know if it was a week after that. I came down here, and I filled in for Pastor Mark. And about a month later, I got a phone call saying, hey, Ryan, we want to bring you on staff. We'll pay you a part-time salary and your insurance. And our city Christian Academy wants you to teach for them,

and they can pay you a little bit, and they can give you a house to live in. I remember I hung up the phone, and I just looked at my wife and said, you're not going to believe what I was just told. Because God's always doing the unexpected. God's always doing the unexpected. It's a fascinating thing. I've watched this not only happen in my own life, but I've watched this happen in the lives of people just this year.

I've watched people go from being opposed to the things of God, and I don't want anything to do with Jesus or church or anything else, to not only being a part of a church, but they are born again and telling everybody else about it. Because God's always doing the unexpected. And I think that we should start expecting the unexpected. How small of a box do you have God in?

How small of a box do you have God in right now? Because I want to tell you, God wants out of that box so that he can do incredibly unexpected things in your life. And he will continue to do so as you seek him. But listen, sometimes God does the unexpected in really positive ways. And sometimes God does the unexpected in what we initially perceive as negative ways.

Because I've also seen some unexpected things, not only this year, but throughout the past 10 years of my life that I didn't see coming. And they slapped me upside the face, in a really negative way, and in the moment caused me to ask God some questions that I didn't really understand. Where I said, Lord, I don't understand where you're going with this one. I don't understand what's happening with this one.

I need some clarity. Some of them I've gotten some clarity on, and he's absolutely opened up whole new avenues of how I can know him and how I can serve him through some negatively unexpected things. So I'm still waiting for some answers on. But God, is always doing the unexpected. It's one of the beautiful things about him. And the birth of Jesus was nothing less than unexpected.

Number two, the unexpected is always beyond my ability. The unexpected is always beyond my ability. That is so important for us to know because when God shows up and does something, he takes into account the fact that you have nothing to offer. Right? Like he's already taken into account the fact that you can't do it. That's why he asked you. If you thought you could do it,

he can't ask you to do it. But the unexpected will always go beyond my ability. Think about what Mary was asked to do. Could she have made that happen in herself? No, that's absolutely beyond her ability. That's why she says, Lord, I don't get how this one's going to happen. And he goes, it's okay. It's going to be a miracle. It's going to be the greatest thing you've ever seen in your entire life.

Probably the greatest because it's going to be beyond your ability. With, with the incredible celebration. Nobody saw that coming. That was completely beyond any human ability. That was a work of the Holy Spirit with Joseph. It was completely beyond his ability to do what God was calling for him to do. And yet he did it anyway, because when God does the unexpected,

it's always beyond my ability. Listen, that's why it's so unexpected. And God wants to use you to do something incredibly unexpected. That's beyond your ability. The problem is you still have gotten too small of a box. You think, Lord, you can't do that through me because I can't do that. He goes, I know you can't do that. That's why I want to, because that's going to be a work of me.

Listen, my entire career in ministry is something beyond my ability. I've shared with you before and I'll share with you again. The first time I ever gave a Sunday morning message, I was at the lowest point in my walk with Jesus Christ. And I struggled in that moment to maintain complete thoughts half the time, because of the depression I was going through in my life.

And I will never forget, after I got up and gave a message, my mom looking at me and saying, that had to have been God, because you can't even maintain your train of thought in conversations, and you just spoke for 45 minutes straight. You know why? Because when God does the unexpected, it goes beyond our ability. Because that's what God does. God loves to take insufficient people and do absolutely beautiful things with them.

That's the entire message of the gospel, is that God takes lost, dead human beings, and He makes them alive, He makes them found, He makes them to see, and then He uses them in powerful ways. That's the entire Bible in a nutshell. Because when God does the unexpected, it's always beyond my ability. But not only is God always doing the unexpected, not only is the unexpected always beyond my ability, but number three, the unexpected simply requires faith and surrender.

The unexpected simply requires faith and surrender. One of the things I've been challenged with here recently, is that I always try to explain everything, and sometimes I just need to get people to respond. Eventually, you just got to decide what you're going to do with it. I can keep explaining it over and over and over again, but eventually, you just have to decide you're going to believe.

And that's all that there is to it. You eventually have to just, just decide that you're going to surrender. The first stage of that in our lives is salvation. You can keep having the gospel presented to you over and over and over again, but eventually, you have to make a decision. Are you going to believe and are you going to surrender? Are you going to believe that Jesus is the only way,

and are you going to surrender to it? Because in that moment, you become born again. But then you spend the rest of your walk with Jesus Christ, learning to believe and learning to surrender. He says, I want you to live a holy life. And you say, well, I can't because I enjoy sin. Okay. Well, believe that I'm bigger than that and surrender to my will for you

and watch how you can overcome sin. That's exactly what happens. Lord, I believe what you say. I'm going to surrender to what you want. And then all of a sudden, you start overcoming sin in your life, not because you have the ability, but because you surrendered to his ability. And then he starts to use you. And then he starts to use you in the lives of people.

And you say, Lord, I don't know if I can do that. But this is what you've said. So this is what I'm going to surrender to. I guess I can't screw it up too much. And then God uses you in a powerful way. And the rest of your life is learning to believe what God says and surrender to what God wants to do. It's one of the many lessons I've learned in a very hard year

is that at the end of the day, all I can really do is believe and surrender because that's all that's required of me. I don't have to understand why. I don't have to understand how. I don't have to understand any of those things. I don't have to answer any other questions other than am I going to believe and am I going to surrender? And I don't know who needs to hear that here this morning.

But whether it's you need to come to Jesus for the first time and you need to believe and you need to surrender, whether it's overcoming sin in your life or whether it's the fact that God wants to start to use you powerfully, he just wants you to believe and he wants you to surrender because as you do so, he will ultimately do. Miraculous things because that's who God is as you do. So he will begin to do the unexpected in your life. Amen. Let's all stand.

I'm looking forward to being with all of you Christmas Eve. It'll be a great time together. I will be taking next Sunday off. So I will not be around next Sunday. However, Christmas Eve. We're gonna have a great time together. We'll let we'll light the place on fire. Sound good father. We come before you and just thank you for the time that we've had. And your word this morning Lord.

I thank you for who you are. I thank you for how good you are the Lord. I ask that you would that you would go with us from here. That you would move in our hearts and lives. That you would create in us the clean hearts that you intend for us and God that you would prepare us to be fully surrendered to whatever it is that you have in our lives. And we just thank you Father in Jesus name.

Amen. Be blessed. The stars are brightly shining. It is the night of the dear Savior's birth. Lord it's worth the thrill. Joy is God. Father we just thank you for another day. Thank you for your word this morning Lord. I thank you for just the news of an unexpected Savior Lord God. Just that thank you for all the unexpected things that you do in our life Lord.

I thank you for what you do in our life Lord. I thank you for what you do in our life Lord. I thank you for what you do in our life Lord. I thank you for who you are. I thank you for how much you love us Lord. I just ask your blessing upon each and every one of us as we leave here today. We love you and we praise you in Jesus name. Amen. You guys have a wonderful week.

Merry Christmas to you.