The Birth of Christ Pt 2: The Preparation

Calvary Chapel this morning. Would you stand with us? Would you join me in thanking you for this opportunity this Christmas Eve morning as we gather to worship you in song and to study your word. Father, we lift our service to you that you would be glorified in it, Lord. We thank you for who you are, the God of the universe. You are in control. Nothing takes you by surprise. We thank

you for that, Lord. We can trust you in every area of our life. And so, Father, we ask that you would give us hearts now just to let go and worship, Lord, just worship you in song. Where else would we go if we sought to leave your love? And John 6 pointed that out when Jesus asked the question, are you guys going to leave too? Standing, reigning on a throne as a king would, you came

down as a baby in a manger, looked after by your diaper change and all that stuff. Oh, that you would do all that. Oh, I just recall as old Dr. McGee used to say, be like us, becoming an ant, going down to the grave. Oh, that you would do all that. Oh, that you would do all that. Oh, that you would do all that. Oh, that you would do all that. Oh, that you would do all that. Oh,

looking at you and saying, and that's, that's that comparison with humility that you did, Lord, for us. We thank you for that, Lord, praise you, which makes us want to just sing out to you, Lord, you God's kingdom and learn to be the servant of it all, servant of all and how you did that, Lord. Lord Jesus. Thank you. Thank you. Now bless our time as we have some fellowship. And as Pastor Ryan comes up and teaches your word,

we ask that you place your anointing on him. Lord, would you place the anointing of your holy spirit on the teachers with children's church as they've are having their time down there together just speak to the youngsters by your holy spirit give them a just a little stretched attention span this morning to hear the things of you in jesus name amen let's have some fellowship grab a bulletin we'll get ready to go for some announcements welcome to calvary chapel i'm glad that you've joined us this morning uh just a couple of things to take note of a reminder that in a couple of weeks uh jeff and esther mclaren will be here to share with us about the mission trip uh that we're going to be taking as well as the work that they do down in guatemala

a reminder that tonight is uh our candlelight service uh so hopefully you can come back and join us this evening for that and then other than that everything else this week is canceled because it's christmas week and you should spend time with your family so uh those are the things that are going on if you would make sure that your mobile device is silenced and then for our receptionist responsive reading this morning we are going to be in luke chapter 2 luke chapter 2 we're looking at the new american standard for this part just so we all sound the same you need a copy of a new american standard should be one in the row around you and as you are turning to luke chapter 2 if you are able please stand in the honor of the reading of god's

word i will read the odd verses if you will follow along with pastor allen and the even verses luke chapter 2 now in those days a decree went from caesar augustus that a census be taken of all the inhabited earth this was the first census taken while quinerius was governor of syria and everyone was on his way to register for the census each to his own city joseph also went up from galilee from the city of nazareth to judea to the city of david which is called bethlehem because he was of the house of the family of david in order to register along with mary who was in the house of the family of david and he was called to the house of the and was with child while they were there the days were completed for her to give birth and she gave

birth to her firstborn son and she wrapped him in cloths and laid him in a manger because there was no room for them in the end in the same region there were some shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their flock by night and an angel of the lord suddenly stood before them and the glory of the lord shone around them and they were terribly frightened but the angel said to them do not pray for me i will not pray for you i will not pray for you i will not pray for you do not be afraid for behold i bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people for today in the city of david there has been born for you a savior who is christ the lord

this will be a sign for you you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger and suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising god and saying glory to god in the highest and on earth peace among men with whom he is the Lord and is pleased when the angels had gone away from them into heaven the shepherds began saying to one another let us go straight to bethlehem then and see this thing that has happened which the lord has made known to us so they came in a hurry and found their way to mary and joseph and the baby as he lay in the manger when they had seen this they made known the statement which had been told them about this child and all who heard it wondered at this things that were told them

by the shepherds but mary treasured all these things pondering them in her heart the shepherds went back glorifying and praising god for all that they had heard and seen just as it had been told them father we come to you and lord we thank you for the gift of jesus lord that you saw fit to come down and dwell among us so that as you dwelt among us you could not only live the perfect life but die the perfect death and lord this day of celebration that we have is so important and so lord may we turn our eyes upon jesus and father as we spend some time talking over your word this morning may your holy spirit minister to our hearts in the way that only you can in jesus name

amen you may be seated and if you would open up in your bibles to the book of galatians chapter 3 galatians chapter 3 last week we started into a three-part series on the birth of christ simply entitled that but we said that there were three things that we were going to look at we were going to look at the promise today we'll look at the preparation and then tonight we'll look at the nativity last week as we looked at the promise we saw that there was this swelling anticipation that began in the garden it began when sin entered into the world when jesus or when god made a promise that he would send a messiah to ultimately crush the head of the serpent to ultimately crush

the head of the enemy that brought sin into the world and that promise swelled and grew in intensity throughout the old testament matter of fact i matter of fact i got a message from somebody this week they said have you heard handel's messiah are you familiar with that i said yes and they said that was what i thought of as we continued going through each of those promises you kind of felt this this swelling chorus of hallelujah right it's just just the excitement building um uh about the coming of the messiah in it and it ended in malachi with the promise of the fact that there would be this uh this promised one who would come and so as we come to today we start to look at the preparations the preparations for the

coming of jesus now if your household is anything like mine and i can't imagine it's very much different preparations have been going on for quite some time now the world has told us we should be preparing for christmas ever since labor day ended right because i think that's when christmas decorations first started showing up in the stores but for most of us it started sometime a little bit before maybe a little after thanksgiving perhaps it was with going ahead and putting the tree up uh beginning to decorate the house all the different things that need to be done maybe a little black friday shopping whatever it was the preparations began and in across america these preparations have been taking place it starts with making the family

plans when are you going to have christmas together who are you going to spend christmas with this year what's all of that going to look like what's the timing going to look like and then of course there's christmas programs whether those be the christmas programs that need planned at school or whether they be the christmas programs that get planned at church unless you're like us and you have a pastor and a teacher living in the same house and then you prepare both right and so there's christmas programs that need prepared and then you've got to talk over the menu what's the menu going to be like on christmas day and then of course the really important part presents right the the the things that you spend the most time preparing for is the

thinking about what the right gift is going to be purchasing that gift and wrapping that gift now fellas i know you didn't do any of that but your wives did all of that preparation has been taking place i always love dads on christmas day because they're always like oh that's so neat we got them that that's so neat i love that right because we had no idea all those preparations go Christmas celebration right well the first christmas was no different there was an incredible amount of preparation that went into it but it wasn't menus and family plans and christmas programs and presents no it was the preparing of the world for the first coming of the savior so what i want to do this morning is i want to spend some time looking at that so let's first

take a look at galatians chapter 4 specifically verses 4 and 5 it says this but when the fullness of the time came god sent forth his son born of a woman born under the law so that he might redeem those who were under the law that we might receive the adoption as sons now there's one phrase that i would like for you to pay attention to in in galatians chapter 4 verse 4 it says the fullness of the time that word fullness literally means that which has been completed or filled up let me read it to you in a couple of different translations in the amplified bible it says when in god's time the perfect time had come god sent forth his son born of a woman and i always

appreciate the new living translation because it just puts it in a language we can all understand the new living translation simply says at just the right time and so everything that we see from this is that god had a perfect time the fullness of time all of the fullness of the time that we had and so everything that we see from this is that god had a perfect time the fullness of time all of the time was fulfilled for jesus to come and you should ask yourself what does that mean what does it mean that in the fullness of time that at just the right time jesus came we see god had been preparing the world for the coming of jesus and history really teaches us about the preparing of

the world that god had done for the for the coming of jesus as a matter of fact what i would like to do is give us a 5 000 foot panorama of what it looks like as god through history was preparing the world for the coming of jesus now in daniel there was a statue that was built but in fact nebuchadnezzar had the dream of a statue and you know that that statue if you've studied daniel at all it had the head of gold and the chest and the arms and the legs and of iron and all those kinds of things and those each stood for different kingdoms four main kingdoms of the gentiles if you will were represented there the head represented babylon the chest represented medo-persia the legs represented or excuse me the

arms represented the head represented babylon the chest represented medo-persia the legs represented medo-persia the chest represented greece and the legs represented the roman empire four empires that would come about well by the time we come to the end of the old testament the babylonian empire has already been taken over and the empire that's ruling at that time is called the persian empire now the book of malachi is the very last book in the old testament it's the very last word that we receive from god in the old testament from the end of the book of malachi the book of malachi is the book of malachi at which point in time god declares that there will be the coming of elijah or at least

one in the spirit of elijah before the coming of the great and terrible day of the lord that was the last announcement that would that was given from the end of the book of malachi until you come into the new testament when the announcement was made about the birth of john there were what is oftentimes referred to as 400 silent years and they're referred to as the 400 silent years because for those 400 years there was no major change in the world there was no major change in the world there was no major revelation of god no prophetic revelation no word from god that the people received they were simply living on the promises from the old testament but while those years were

called the 400 silent years they were not inactive years as a matter of fact those 400 years god would set the stage for the coming of his savior and that's what i want to look at today as we look at some of the kingdoms that came about first kingdom that we're going to look at and we won't look at scripture for a lot of this i'll just direct you here and if you're a note taker you might write down some of these kingdoms and tell you what's as i tell you what's significant about each of these kingdoms the first kingdom that we want to talk about is the kingdom of persia now again persia is who was leading they were the kingdom in power at the end of the old testament now persia is really really important because

under the kingdom of persia two or three things took place number one the children of israel who had been in the kingdom of israel had been in the kingdom of israel and they had been in the kingdom of captivity were sent back first of all to rebuild the temple that was the first thing that they were sent back to do and so under cyrus they went back and they rebuilt the temple as a matter of fact you can find out some of the details about that rebuilding and the uh reinstituting of sacrifices in the book of ezra the second thing that took place underneath the persian empire is that the children of israel were sent back to rebuild the wall around jerusalem that's found in the book of

nehemiah and so it's really important because the children of israel went back home a lot of them and they re-established the temple they rebuilt jerusalem and worship was instituted once again within the the walls of jerusalem there was if you will a little bit of a revival that took place during that persian empire but there was also some bad things that took place during the persian empire also during the persian empire the high priesthood which was supposed to be the spiritual leadership of the nation was turned into a political power and so the children of israel were sent back to political office and they began putting people into the place of high priest simply out of political

expediency instead of actually being a part of the ironic line at that point in time now why is that important well it's important because it will lead to a degradation of the moral fabric of the nation of israel preparing them for their ultimate high priest who would come which is jesus christ so the first kingdom that we see is the persian kingdom now after the persian kingdom came greece specifically the kingdom of greece under alexander the great alexander the great is a pretty fascinating character in history he was a very young guy when he first started taking over the world he was highly influenced by philosophers and was ultimately really kind of raised and educated by philosophers so he loved learning and he loved the philosophy of greece

as a matter of fact he loved the culture of greece and so everywhere that alexander the great went spreading the greek empire he did another thing he also spread greek culture called hellenism along with that greek culture he spread the greek language in particular the greek language of the common man which we oftentimes when teaching the bible refer to as koine greek and so what alexander the great ultimately did is he gave the entire world a culture that bound everyone together and he gave a universal language to the people of greece and so what alexander the to where there was a worldwide common language amongst the people. Now, Alexander the Great also treated the Jewish people very well.

There's a legend that states that when Alexander the Great took over Jerusalem, when he marched into Jerusalem, he was met by one of the priests. And one of the priests showed him in the book of Daniel the prophecy that declared that what he was doing was the exact thing that would happen. And so because of that, he treated the people kindly. Now, whether that legend is true or not is kind of debated amongst historians.

But the fact does remain that he was incredibly friendly towards the Jewish people, allowed them to worship the way that they wanted to worship. And really, when he built Alexandria in Egypt, invited many of them to move there as Alexandria in Egypt was a center for learning at that point in time. Now, Alexander the Great did his part. But Alexander the Great died at a very young age.

I think it was 30 to 32. I might be off on that, but it's that general range. But here's what happened to Alexander the Great. By the time he reached the end of the world, he realized that he had conquered the entire known world. And so at the age of 32, he sits down and starts crying because there was nothing else to conquer. BT dubs, if you're over the age of 32 in here, what are you doing with your life, right?

Anyway, so he had conquered the entire known world by that point in time and kind of went, what is there left to do now? And ultimately, he was kind of depressed because of it. And he had a drinking problem. And so he ultimately drank himself to death at an incredibly young age. Well, because he died at such a young age, there was no planned successor to take over for him,

no son to take over for him. So when Alexander the Great died in a drunken stupor, his four generals split the kingdom up. Those four generals were Cassander, Antigonus, Ptolemy, and Seleucus. They divided the known conquered world. They divided the world of Greece at that point in time into four different sections. Two of those guys is who we want to pay really close attention to.

Because the next guy that we want to pay attention to was the Greek general Ptolemy. Ptolemy, which is spelled nothing like it sounds. Look, there's a P and there's a silent P. We should use more silent letters. Anyway, so Ptolemy, after Alexander the Great died, was given the region of Egypt. Antigonus was given the region of Syria as well as the promised land.

However, It wasn't long before those four generals didn't share very well, and Ptolemy came in and took over the promised land from Antigonus. Now, when Ptolemy came into the promised land, he treated the Jews very kindly as well. As a matter of fact, he also ushered many of the especially learned Jews to Alexandria, Egypt. Now, this is important because of what I'm going to say next.

In Alexandria, a group of scholars, a group of Jewish scholars got together, and they translated the Old Testament. The Old Testament was almost exclusively written in Hebrew with a little Aramaic mixed in there, but it's almost exclusively Hebrew. So a group of scholars got together in Alexandria, Egypt, under the headship of Ptolemy, or under the kingdom of Ptolemy, and they put together a Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament. We refer to that as the Septuagint because that indicates 70, even though they were probably somewhere between 72.

It's 76 scholars that actually did it. But they translated the Old Testament into Greek, the common language of the day. So now anybody in the world could read the Old Testament because it was written in a language that everybody could understand, which is pretty important because the Old Testament was full of promises about the Messiah, right? It was full of all of those declarations of who God is.

And so now the Old Testament is available to anybody who read Koineia. And so pretty important things took place under Ptolemy. Now, again, there was war between these men. And so the next group that we come to is the group known as the Seleucids, who had as their founder Seleucus. Now, a general who was one of the Seleucids is a guy by the name of Antiochus III.

It's like Antioch with a U.S. at the end, Antiochus III. And Antiochus III, the Seleucid general, came in and took over not only Syria, but he also took over the promised land for the Seleucids. Now, initially, Antiochus III treated the Jews kindly. However, the Jews were tired of being ruled by other people. And so there started to be some strife between the Jewish people and the Seleucids.

And as that strife began, there were uprisings and there were rebellions that took place. Well, the final crushing of the rebellion took place, under a general named Antiochus IV. You have probably heard him referred to as Antiochus Epiphanes. The name Epiphanes means, let me quote this correctly, the name Epiphanes means either God manifest or illustrious one.

Now, Antiochus Epiphanes is a pretty important guy in Bible history. As a matter of fact, if you were to go to Daniel, you could read the entire account of the war between the Ptolemies and the Seleucids, including Antiochus. You can read that entire account in so much detail, most people believe it had to have been written after the fact. The problem was, Daniel wrote it during the Persian Empire, before Greece even came to power.

Because God always tells things in the future. It's one of the things that makes him God. And so Antiochus Epiphanes comes in and absolutely wipes out Jerusalem. Just utter horror that took place there. Many people would say, well, Antiochus, you know, you're a great man. You're a great man. You're a great man. You're a great man. You're a great man. You're a great man.

You're a great man. You're a great man. You're a great man. You're a great man. You're a great man. You're a great man. People were killed. He burned portions of Old Testament Scripture, he burned copies of Old Testament Scripture. He put an end to the daily sacrifice and set up an altar to Jupiter within the temple and even sacrificed a swine on the altar.

Absolutely desecrated the temple. Interestingly enough, Antiochus Epiphanes is oftentimes referred to as the Nero of the Old Testament. The Nero of the Old Testament. or the Antichrist of the Old Testament because of him putting an end to the daily sacrifice and setting up an altar there in the holy place. So after he defiled the temple, an uprising began. And it began underneath of a group of people known as the Maccabees.

Now, there was an aged priest named Mattathias. And Mattathias said, not in my temple, right? And so he decided to start a rebellion. He was a pretty old guy by the time he started it. And while he got the rebellion going, ultimately he died. And so his son, whose name was Judas, Judas whom they referred to as the Maccabean, who took up the role of leading the rebellion.

Oftentimes we just call him Judas Maccabeus, right? And so he begins to lead this rebellion. And in an almost miraculous way, this Maccabean rebellion is able to push out the Seleucids and they come in and they, purify the temple. As a matter of fact, there's an amazing story that goes along with the purification of the temple. You see, there was a menorah, a lampstand

that was inside of the temple in the holy place. And it was to be kept burning all the time. And it represented the prayers of the people, right? It was to always be burning. But there was a specific recipe for the oil that had to be used in the burning of this lamp. Well, it took a certain amount of time to make the proper kind of oil. And they only had enough oil to burn the lamp for one day.

But the lamp stayed burning the entire time while they purified this oil. And now the Jews celebrate that. It's called Hanukkah. They celebrate the fact that they purified the temple and were able to restore temple worship. Now, the Maccabees were so important to the story because they revived a weak and lifeless Jewish people and they restored religious liberty and freedom

within Israel. Israel and so all of a sudden now there's this renewed desire to discover and understand the Old Testament and what God wanted for the people. Now the Maccabees had a little bit of a tumultuous attempt at ruling in Israel, at ruling in the promised land. They tried to have their own kings but the problem was they were not kings according to the Davidic line and so God did not allow that to continue. It was sort of an up and down power struggle sort of a thing. Well in the

midst of the power struggle of the Maccabean people there was another empire that was forming and that empire was known as Rome. You see under the Rome but not empire yet under the Roman Republic there was a general named Pompey and Pompey marched into Jerusalem and put an end to the Maccabean rule and took over Jerusalem. Now Rome of course is really ultimately what still affects us today. We are if you will still living in a Roman Empire. We are still living in a Roman Empire. We are still living in a Roman Empire.

We are still living in a Roman Empire. We are still living in a Roman Empire. We are still living in a Roman type of age, the way that our calendar is set up, even the way our holidays are set up, the way our legal system is set up, it's all been influenced by the Roman Empire. Now, the Roman Empire was so important for history at that point in time because the Roman Empire ushered some things in.

First of all, the Roman Empire brought political unity because it was just one government. The Roman Empire brought about world peace, or as is oftentimes referred to as the Pax Romana. And the Roman Empire also brought in worldwide trade in roads that were easy to travel, i.e., it was easy to spread the gospel. Now, there's kind of an interesting story within the Roman Empire to kind of bring us up to what I would call the nativity, and it goes like this.

There was one of the most famous Roman generals, his name was Julius Caesar. Perhaps you read the play about his murder when you were in high school. Julius Caesar was a little bit of a rebel at heart and kind of beat to his own drum. And so, he just kept conquering even though the Senate kept calling him back. And so, he kept conquering. That's where that phrase, crossing the Rubicon, meaning you've gone past something that you

can't ever unchange anymore, that's where that phrase came from. Well, after he finished conquering, he came back to Rome, and it was still the Roman Republic. And he not only brought the most power to Rome at that point in time, but he also brought about necessary reforms to the Senate. He reformed. He reformed, if you will, a government that needed reformed at that point in time.

And since he reformed the government that needed reformed at that point in time, they, of course, wanted to kill him. Sound familiar? Right? And so, he brings all of these reforms. Well, then there's a conspiracy against him, which is where the play Julius Caesar came from, et tu, Brute? Right? So, this conspiracy forms. Well, before the conspiracy forms, and they're able to put him to death, he adopted a nephew.

You see, he had a nephew named Octavius. Octavius, or Gaius Octavius, that they oftentimes refer to as Octavian. And Octavius was his great-nephew, and he thought so much of him and saw so much potential in him that Julius Caesar ultimately adopted him as his own son. Well, time went by, and Julius Caesar, because of this plot against him, was put to death.

And so, the Roman Republic began to be dominated by three men, Octavius, Mark Antony, and Lepidus. And you probably went, who's Lepidus? And you're exactly right. He got squeezed out really quick, right? Nobody really knew too much about him. He was pushed out really quick by Mark Antony and Octavian. Now, under that triumvirate of those three guys, a lot of war took place, a lot of battles

took place, and the kingdom continued to grow. However, it grew with a great deal of battle and bloodshed. Well, after they forced Lepidus out, there could really only be one person in charge, and so there was a civil war that erupted within Rome. And it took place between Octavius and Mark Antony. So, there's this bloody civil war that takes place, constant battles, but ultimately, at

the end of the day, Octavius ruled supreme. He defeated Mark Antony. And so, when Octavius defeated Mark Antony, he established what we know of as the Roman Empire. He was actually the first founding Caesar of the Roman Empire. Well, Octavius, when he became the head of the Roman Empire, changed. He changed his name, and he changed his name to Caesar Augustus.

And that Caesar Augustus is the one who would give out the decree for all of the world to be registered, which brought Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem. Is it not amazing how God prepared the entire world for the coming of Jesus? I want you to think about some of the things that God did. He brought about a universal language. He brought about a universal understanding of the Old Testament.

There was now political unity. There was world peace. There is now roads that could be easily traveled. There was a renewed desire amongst the Jewish people to know the law, but there was other things going on, too. There was also moral degradation that the world had never seen before, or at least hadn't seen for a very long time, because you see, the Roman Empire was now full of soldiers.

Soldiers who had abandoned their families. Soldiers who were living to please only their flesh. And so, sexual immorality was rampant. Abortion was rampant. Divorce was rampant. And the entire world was saying, how much longer can we stand up with the moral degradation that's taking place in the world? But you know, there was a second thing that was going on along those same lines, and that

was that there was spiritual apathy. There was, not spiritual apathy, there was spiritual hopelessness. Because you see, the God of the Roman Empire was the Empire. The God of the Roman Empire was the government. And so they kept trying to meet all of the things that were coming with more and more government. Again, sound familiar? And so that was what was going on.

So there was a spiritual hopelessness in the world, but you know, there was also a spiritual hopelessness amongst the Jewish people, because while they were striving to keep the law, the high priesthood was still corrupt, and there was no true unifying spiritual leader. The world. The nation of Israel. The world was hungry for a savior. And God had prepared the world for just such a time as this.

And so, the world was prepared. But you know, in the midst of the preparation of the world, there were some minute details that needed to be dealt with as well. Because there was also a mother and a father that needed to be prepared for the coming of a baby. So I want you to turn with me to the book of Luke, chapter 1, and we're going to look at verses 26 through 38.

Luke chapter 1, verses 26 through 38. It says this, now in the sixth month, meaning the sixth month of the pregnancy of Elizabeth, who would give birth to a son named John, that we will ultimately call John the Baptist. 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 whose name was Joseph.

Of the descendants of David. And the virgin's name was Mary. And coming in, he said to her, greetings favored one, the Lord is with you. But she was very perplexed at this statement and kept pondering what kind of salutation this was. The angel said to her, don't be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God and behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son and you shall 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. Mary said to the angel, how can this be since I am a virgin? And 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. For in fact, that is what Joseph and Elizabeth has also conceived and her old age, and she who was called barren is now in her six months, for nothing will be impossible with God. And Mary said, behold, the bond slave of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.

And the angel departed. Now, if you remember last week when we were talking about the promises, we said that this child would come from the Jewish nation, he would be from the tribe of Judah, from the line of david we said that his birth would be miraculous because in isaiah it said a virgin shall conceive and bear a son and you shall call his name emmanuel god with us well in order for that to happen we have to have we have to have a young lady right and it has to be the right young lady the one who god called to be the specific one that would give birth in this miraculous way to the son of god in his humanity and so god chose mary now i think mary had to have been just

just a phenomenal young woman while i i don't agree with much of what the catholics have to say about mary she was not sinless after all she's going to call jesus her savior she needed grace she uh she was not a perpetual virgin because she's going to have other sons she is not a uh not the one that goes and intercedes on our behalf that's only jesus she wasn't the mother of god because jesus was always god she was the mother of him in his humanity while i don't believe all of those things i do think sometimes we as the protestant church don't always give her the credit that she deserves for being an amazing young woman most believe that mary was probably in the age of 15 to 18

when this announcement was made to her so she was a young lady she was this this young chick but i think that she really loved jesus i think that she really loved the mother of god and she was the lord i think she cared about the word and i think she knew the word the reason why i think she knew the word is something i'll explain here in just a moment but this angel shows up to mary and of course mary's all freaked out because this this angel shows up in her house now a lot of people are like have you heard the description of angels in the bible of course she was scared and if you've read some descriptions in like ezekiel of angels having eyes all over their face and six wings and all this kind of stuff you'd go i'd freak out too but i don't think

that's the way the angel appeared when he appeared to mary i think he appeared to mary and she was as a man, a man that showed up in her living room, which is probably why she was kind of freaked out. And I have to think that there had to have been a little bit of a kind of glow, right? Like surely his skin glowed like he was a newborn baby, only he was a full grown man. Anyway, that's just me.

So this dude's just standing right in front of her and he calls her a highly favored woman. And of course, she's absolutely terrified. I always love the way that scripture puts this. It says, she was very perplexed at this statement and kept pondering what kind of salutation this was. I mean, I am perplexed. What kind of salutation does this man bring to me at this moment?

Like she was freaked out, okay? And while she's freaked out, he's like, man, you have found favor with God. That word favor is the Greek word charis, grace. You have found grace with God. And now you're going to have a son and you're going to name him Jesus. Now, that name initially wouldn't have done anything because the Greek name Jesus is the Hebrew word Joshua.

So basically he said, you're going to have a son and you're going to name him Joshua, right? Great. I'm going to have a son named Josh. But the name Joshua, Yahshua, Yahweh is salvation or Jehovah is salvation is what she was going to name him. He says, you're going to have a son and he will be great. And he will be 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. You know how I know that Mary knew the scripture because she didn't say, what are you talking about? She knew exactly what he meant when he said all of those things. She just had one question. How's that going to work? Fair question at this point in time, right? Like there's doubting questions and then there's logical questions.

She just asked a logical question. She says, how's that going to work? I've never known a man. I'm still, I'm still a virgin, which by the way, the virgin birth is one of the most important theological concepts to understand for salvation. He says, don't worry about that. The Holy Spirit's going to take care of that. He will overshadow you. It's going to be completely the work of the Holy Spirit.

Matter of fact, the Holy Spirit has been at work in a lot of things. Even your cousin, Elizabeth, and I love this, the one whom they call barren. Well, she's in her sixth month. And then he says, because nothing will be impossible with God. So here's Mary, this young teenage girl who has just been given this information that she is going to be the one who will give birth to the promised Messiah,

the Messiah that had been promised since the beginning of time, essentially. She's going to be the one. And I want you to notice how she responds. She says in verse 38, behold, the bond slave of the Lord. May it be done to me. According to your word. And the angel departed from her. Not only was she someone who knew the word of God, she was someone of great faith because she could believe what the angel had to say.

She was someone who was surrendered to whatever God wanted in her life. Because how did she refer to herself? A bond slave of God. So the world is prepared. The mother is prepared. But now comes the hard work, preparing Joseph. Go over to Matthew chapter. One, Matthew chapter one. We're going to look at verse 18.

Matthew 1, 18 says this. Now, the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows. When his mother, Mary, had been betrothed to Joseph before they came together, she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit. And Joseph, her husband, being a righteous man 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.

And 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 woke from his sleep and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took Mary as a wife. But he kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a son. He called his name Jesus. I think Joseph is somebody else that we don't give nearly enough credit to. We don't know very much about Joseph.

Honestly, beyond this, we really don't read very much else about Joseph, even in Scripture. So we don't know a ton about him. But we do know he had to have been a fairly godly man. Because in order for God to choose him to be the one who would raise the Messiah, meant that this was a godly man. Because God knew that he would raise him in the way that he was supposed to be raised.

Because until Jesus could know how to choose right and wrong for himself, that job had to be done by Joseph. However, this story in Matthew still leaves me with questions. Do you still have questions? Perhaps you do. Maybe I'll bring up some of your questions as well. Question number one that I have is, How long did Mary wait to tell Joseph? Okay, we need to understand something.

You probably know this, but if you don't, I want to tell you anyway. A Jewish marriage had three parts to it, okay? There was the engagement, the betrothal, and then the actual marriage itself. The engagement could take place at any point in time. You could be promised to each other, even as kids, right? Sometimes there were arranged marriages. I would like to institute that.

Again, in our world, but I can't. Anyway, so the engagement could take place at any point in time, and you could be engaged for a very long time. Then came what's known as the betrothal. The betrothal was usually about a year-long period. During the betrothal period, you were considered married to each other, but the marriage was never consummated. There was no physical relationship, and you didn't live together.

But in order to end a betrothal, it required a certificate of divorce to be written. That's how binding betrothal was. And then, of course, came the marriage, where you came together for the marriage ceremony, and, of course, you were married. Those are the three parts. They're in the midst of the second part. They are betrothed to each other. They're in this time period, and it says that Mary was found to be with child.

When did Mary tell him? From Luke, we know that one of the first things Mary did after she found out is she went and saw who? She went and saw her cousin Elizabeth and hung out with her. You know why she went and saw Elizabeth? I don't either. You know why I think she went and saw? Her cousin Elizabeth? These are my thoughts, not the Bible's. I think she was like, how am I going to tell Joseph?

How do I explain this to my soon-to-be husband? Because I ain't going to lie. I ain't never been a girl that's pregnant. I can't imagine trying to tell your husband. I promise it's not what you think. Here's my second question. Not only was it when did she tell him, how did she tell him? Right? Like, was there some sweet gender reveal? And she was like, it's a boy.

Boy. He's like, it's a baby. Right? I don't know. Did he just look one day and be like, Mary, man, I'm not trying to talk about your weight or nothing. But I mean, girl, you need a bigger robe. Right? Like, I don't know. Like, did he just start noticing? And she's like, Joseph, we need to talk. Right? Okay. So when did she tell him? How did she tell him? Number three, how did he take it?

Clearly not real great. Right? She's like, Joseph, we need to talk. I promise. I've been keeping it 100. Okay? You're my only guy. You're the only one for me. But here's the thing. I'm going to have a baby.

Mary, this doesn't make any sense to me. I know how this works. I took that class in high school. Right? I know how babies are made. This is not new for me. And she's like, I promise. It's the Holy Spirit. Where is he? Show me. I'll get him. No. It's literally the Holy Spirit. You know, Old Testament, Messiah. Something seems sketchy about this. Well, whatever it was, Joseph clearly didn't take it very well because he was nervous.

You have to understand, this was not a good thing at this point in time. And he had every right to bring her up on charges of adultery. So he decided that he was not going to do that because, again, I love what the Bible refers to Joseph as. It refers to him as a righteous man. Now, as a righteous man, he says, I'm just going to put you away secretly. I'm not going to make a big deal about the divorce.

I'm not going to bring you up on charges. But I can't do this. I can't be a part of this. And again, I want you to think about everything that's going on at this point in time. Mary's now got a reputation, and a reputation she didn't earn. Jesus is going to grow up with a reputation, a reputation he did not earn. And Joseph is going to have to be married to her, meaning that he's got a reputation, a reputation he didn't earn.

You know people in the carpentry shop talk behind his back. Do you really think that was the Holy Spirit? I bet it was, and they started giving names. You know that took place, and you know he was going to have to deal with that. And so he's weighing out the consequences. What am I going to do? And he formulated a plan. We'll just put her away secretly. We'll save her the embarrassment.

We'll save me the embarrassment. And we'll just move on with our lives. Broken hearted that night, he goes to sleep. And as he goes to sleep, an angel of the Lord shows up in a dream. Now, I've often asked myself, why did Zacharias get an angel standing in front of him? Why did Mary get an angel standing in front of her? Joseph got an angel in a dream. You know why?

Now, I think Joseph got an angel in a dream. Dude couldn't handle it anymore at that point in time, right? The angel shows up right in front of him. Dude dies of a heart attack right there. Game over, right? Like, it's just, I can't. Somebody check me in somewhere, because I can't do this anymore. And so God's like, go in a dream. You'll be better than me. So an angel shows up in a dream.

And I want you to notice what the angel says. It says, Joseph, son of David. I love that he refers to him as that, because the Messiah was of the line of David, right? He says, don't be afraid to take Mary as your wife. For the child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. If I was writing the account of this, I would put is in all caps, right?

Is of the Holy Spirit. She's telling you the truth. And you need to understand this. Now, for Joseph, this is going to bring about a whole other set of stresses. But let's go on. We'll talk about that in a moment. It says, now all this, verse 22. Excuse me, verse 21. She will bear a son. And you shall call his name. Jesus. For he will save his people from their sins.

And then Matthew gives us the commentary. All this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet. Behold, the virgin shall be with child and bear a son. And they shall call his name Emmanuel, which translated means God with us. I want you to notice how Joseph responds. So the angel comes and tells him, look, everything she told you, it's true.

She's telling you the truth. And this is a real important thing. You're going to have this son. And you're going to name him Jesus. Jehovah is salvation. Why? Because he is going to save his people from their sins. Because he is going to be the savior for humanity.

Again, I don't think we give Joseph enough credit. It's stressful to be a dad. Dads, can I get an amen on that? Like, it's hard to be a dad, right? Because you want your kids to love the Lord. You want them to follow the Lord. You want to raise them the right way. You want to raise them in the word of God. You want them to know God. And man, every day feels like just a new gamble, right?

Like, I hope today everything goes the way it's supposed to. That they stay safe. That they follow the word of God. That they do what they're supposed to do. And then hopefully when they go off on their own, you know, they don't like country music. And then it happens, right? And so there's a lot of pressure as a dad, right? Now, I want you to put yourself in the position of being a dad who has to raise the Messiah.

We'll just shut the front door, right? I can't do that. How am I supposed to? You see, they knew more than any other generation that the responsibility for the spiritual well-being of the family did not fall on the mom like it does in the 21st century. It fell on dad. Because they knew the truth that God holds dads responsible for the spiritual well-being of the family.

And now the level just got raised higher than he ever thought possible. Because his job is to make sure that the Messiah, the Messiah is raised properly so that he can deliver the people from their sins. Dude, we do not give this guy enough credit. That guy was legit, right? He was a righteous man. And notice what it says after Joseph woke up. Verse 24, Again, I don't think that was an easy thing.

He had to deal with the whispers. He had to deal with the reputation. He had to deal with all the things. And he had to stand strong as a man of God. In the midst of it. But you know what? He'd heard from the Lord. And now his heart was ready. Mary's heart was ready. Joseph's heart was ready. And the world is ready for the coming of Jesus. Go back to Galatians.

Galatians chapter 4. I want to read it one more time in light of everything that we just talked about.

Galatians chapter 4, verse 4. But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law, so that he might redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. Your Christmas has had a lot of preparation that's gone into it. That's been a beautiful thing. But may we always remember the ultimate preparation

that went into that first Christmas. That first advent of Christ. Because he not only prepared the world, he prepared all of the people for the coming of Jesus. So join us tonight, as we then talk about the nativity, about Jesus coming to dwell above us. Amen. Let's all stand.

And if you'd bow with me.

Father, we come before you and I thank you. Lord, I thank you for being the sovereign God. The sovereign God who didn't have to have a last minute plan to put this together. But Lord, from the foundations of the earth, you were planning how you would redeem your people. How you would redeem humanity. And so Lord, may we rest, in a sovereign God who always has a plan.

And Lord, may we rest in the salvation that comes from you alone. Father, we thank you and we praise you for who you are. Keep our eyes on you. In Jesus name. Amen. Be blessed.

Consider his birth again too. So maybe you could come anytime as if you could come later than we know. You're going to come on time. You're not tearing. You know the time you're coming. We just don't yet. It's all in your timing. We give you praise. Jesus name. Amen. The Lord bless y'all.