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Hey. Can we thank Kale for this, what would you call it, intro prelude? Excuse me. Some worship leader I am. How about this?
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We're here. We're together. We have the opportunity to worship and give praise. So what do you say we stand up? Sing some familiar Christmas tunes.
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And,
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please sing out. Please sing out.
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Alright. Angels from the realms of glory. Let's sing.
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Angels from the realms of glory when you fly o'er all the earth. E whose sang creation story now proclaimed Messiah's birth. Come and worship. Come and worship. Come and worship.
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Worship Christ, the newborn king. Amen.
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That is what we're here to do.
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Shepherds in the fields abiding, watching your your flocks by night. God with men is now residing, undershines the infant night. Come and worship. Come and worship. Worship Christ, the newborn king.
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Amen. Sages, leave. Sages, leave your contemplations. Greater visions beam afar. Seek the great desire of nations.
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Ye have seen his made old star. Come and worship. Come and worship. Worship Christ, the newborn king. Saints before the old are bending, watching the Lord.
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Mighty name the Come and worship. Worship Christ, the newborn king. Once more. Come and worship. Come and worship.
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Worship Christ the Amen.
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If y'all can be seated.
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Alright. Good morning, everybody. Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas. I am glad to be here this morning.
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I I was not here last week and I thank you for praying for me. I have I've been under the weather for quite some time but I just wanna say thank you for praying for me. I've had pneumonia for like a month or more and it's been pretty rough but I'm here today. I'm glad to be here with you all. So, I've got a few announcements and we've got a baptism and we've got lots of good Christmas music and I pray sermon that will be a blessing.
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So, today is also happens to be the third Sunday just because December doesn't mean we're not going to do this. So, the third Sunday of the month, we have a discovery class that meets in my office between services with Gary Geek. So, if you'll meet up, if you're thinking that you might wanna be a member of the church and you wanna know a little bit more about how that works, really, there's one one bard of membership in this church is that you are a believer in Jesus, a regenerate Christian to be a member. When I, the church I grew up in, you had to be immersed. If you were not immersed, you were not to be allowed into the church.
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We have one and it is that you believe in Jesus. So, the discovery class with Gary will help you ask help you give you a place to ask questions and he'll ask you a bunch of questions too. So, that's today at 10:00 in my office. Awana is happening tomorrow night and it happens to be store night right before Christmas. Generally, they have a chance to spend some of the Awana dollars that they've been gaining.
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So, that's tomorrow night at 06:00. Store night for Awana. Happens during the same time as the merry Monday nights. Merry Monday nights at first B. This edition is a soft start at 06:00.
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Meal music and a message. What's the message tomorrow night? Yep. I forgot. Yeah.
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Come on. It's gonna be Christmas related. I I'm pretty much can.
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Jesus is
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Perfect. The light of the Good slide there.
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Don't put me down the
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spot. Yeah. The angel tree back there, I know that y'all have seen this along. There are just a few more tags back there and y'all it's amazing how many families have been helped. And I don't know if you've seen the present stacking up around here, but I have, and I just wanna say thank you to that.
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And people all over the community too have been coming in folks that half the people that come in to bring stuff, don't even know who they are, which is amazing that we're able to just kind of be a channel or conduit for God's blessing these families. There are a few more if you wanted to grab one on your way out today. I have, I'm going to invite Kevin Olson and Dave Kaufman up to the front. Are you headed this way, fellas? I've got a red mic here for you to to share.
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Update us. Good morning,
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first b. Ray is rocking the Chuck Taylor Converses today. I like it. Nice job. Dave and I wanted to just pause for a minute and bring you guys up to speed with our Family Fellowship Faith Capital Campaign to raise $250,000 for the complete remodel of our kitchen and our fellowship hall.
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By now, I think you guys are well aware of the campaign. And so we wanna have Dave just give you a little slice of life back in the kitchen and how things are gonna improve when we complete this project. And then I'll give you a quick progress report and a little bit of a challenge before we leave today.
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It's like NPR, our challenge hour. Hey, good morning. I'm David Kaufman, of course. And one of the things that we like to do each year is have a sunrise breakfast that we utilize our fellowship hall and kitchen facilities for. This breakfast was a tradition started quite a few years ago.
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I wanna say upwards of thirty years ago by a fellow named Norris Brown who was a long standing member of our community and church and he did it not only as a great way to get up and have some breakfast to get off to Easter sunrise service but also as a way to honor all the wives and women and mothers and everything also in the church since they are always the ones stuck cooking the holiday meals. He thought it would be nice to give these gals a break too on Easter. And so the tradition has gone on a long time and another long standing community member and church member, Seal Lamb would always supply sourdough pancake batter and it was just I got involved in it. Oh, quite a while ago and it was just such a fantastic opportunity for the men to fellowship together and get together and be back there in the kitchen and cooking everything and just setting everything up and then the opportunity to serve everybody and not only to serve the members and folks here of our church but also just to serve our community because this breakfast has just had such an outreach that it's no longer just our church coming to breakfast but we have people it's advertised in the paper and we have people from all over to visit us and if they stay for service, that's just even an extra bonus but we'll sure to make sure to give him some food and the facilities back there now, we've gotten by, but each year, we talked about how incredible it would be to have new kitchen arrangements, new appliances, and and as much as that kitchen is used for not only this Easter service, but just throughout the week with Monday night service here at First B and just the Boy Scouts and different Al Anon groups, weddings, just you name it.
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It's just such an outreach that little room back there and with a new kitchen, we could so provide so much more in the way of fellowship and ministry that it would just really be an enhancement. So, I would just like to encourage everybody just to reach down in and you know, we only have what, three more months of this fundraising drive. So, listen, we are we can cut this drive short by everybody phoning in their donation right now. So, we hate to interrupt this programming that you love so much with these little announcements but please and and it's also a great ministry for the young folks too because we get them involved with cooking every year back there for pancakes and and I know Renzi does high school breakfast with the guys back there and the gals and So please give some thought and consideration to our kitchen campaign fund. Thanks, Kevin.
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Outstanding, Dave. Thank you very much.
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And so we are on final approach. If you guys will recall, when we kicked this off about nine weeks ago, we had hoped to wrap it up by the end of this month. And so here's the challenge. We have to date $126,500 that have been contributed, which is amazing because nine weeks ago, we started out with 50,000 and you guys have been amazing with your giving and your sacrificial recognition that this is an important project for the church. So with the end of the year nearing, we are asking you to consider with your year end giving a pledge or a contribution if you choose to contribute.
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You can just simply write on the memo line of your check. Building fund, if you wish to pledge, we are taking pledges now in terms of the form, but you can complete your pledge by June of next year. Construction for the kitchen will start in April of next year and we will make this happen and we'll make it happen because of this. We have, this is the NPR part, we had a donor step forward since we're kind of in the last week and a half of what our planned giving was for this campaign with a $10,000 matching grant. And what that means is if we can match that 10,000 in giving with your contribution and pledges between now and the end of the year, we can confidently move forward 100% in doing the kitchen remodel portion of this project.
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And so that would begin in earnest in April. So with that in mind, please consider how you can help us make this project a reality. And the quicker we can complete this, we can stop coming up here and asking you to consider giving. So thank you guys very much for your help.
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Alright. A couple more announcements. So Christmas Eve is next Saturday night. It's Christmas Eve. We're having two services here.
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They're the same time they were last year and the year before that. It's 04:30 and six. So, what time are they?
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04:30 and six.
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And they're going to be very similar. They're not going to be different. It's not like first service, second service. They're they're going to be very similar. So, choose either one.
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It should not make a whole lot of difference. So, 04:30 or 06:00, whatever works for your family and Christmas morning is one week from today. We're having one service at eleven, okay? One service next Sunday and it'll be at eleven and Carl and the band will be leading that service but we'll also have some traditional hymns. So, it'll be a blended type service next week at 11:00.
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So, next week, how many services we have? One. One. I know when you got here at nine this morning, you thought you might have missed it and this was that week but it's not, okay? It's 11:00 next week.
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So, this is the fourth Sunday in of Advent which is the Sunday where we highlight the love of God. I'm going to invite forward Blake and Bailey. Oh, here we are. They're coming forward too. You do it.
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You do it. Valerie and John, here we are. I I knew who I was supposed to invite but they started walking this way. So, this is Valerie and John Burnett and. Gideon.
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Gideon. Fantastic. Aaron Simmons has been coming on Monday nights is where he started coming. Think it is Aaron around? Come on up, Aaron.
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So, Aaron has been hanging out here on Monday nights for some time. He spent most of the summer, went away, and came back and he has been feeling more and more drawn into the family of God and feeling God drawing him into that family. I love this guy and he, a couple of weeks ago, the message was on time and on purpose and when we after the sermon was over, he came straight forward and said that this morning, I talked to Carl about how I felt like God was drawing me in and I believe what he has said. I believe what y'all are saying. I believe what it is that y'all believe although this is a new and big step for me.
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I just wanted to tell you that I'm praying that he will come into my life and take over my life. And so praise God. That's Aaron's testimony. And he he also said and to have a topical sermon that is about exactly the purposes of God is to say and to give peace and hope and joy and love and light and all of that to be repent and believe the gospel. Repent and believe the gospel is that on time thing and so he has done that and he doesn't say a whole lot but we're gonna get in here and he's gonna say a whole lot by following up in believers baptism.
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He has taken an immediate and obedient step out of simple obedience to the command of Christ to repent, be baptized, believe the gospel. So, we're gonna step into the pool. I'm gonna take this off. So, Aaron, do you commit your life to following Jesus Christ? Yes.
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Do you believe that Jesus cried that Jesus died out of obedience to the father for the salvation of all who believe. And do you believe? Well, in obedience to the command of Christ, I baptize you. I baptize you, my brother, Aaron, buried with Christ and raised to walk in newness of life.
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And if y'all can
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stand and greet one another, we'll bring you back together after we change clothes. They'll they'll play a song or two.
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Chitchat. There we are. Alright. Joy to the world. Joy to the world when the Lord is come.
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Better receive a king. Let every heart prepare him rule. And heaven and nature sing. And heaven and heaven and nature While fields, it flows. Rocks, hills, it plays.
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Repeat the sound and joy. Repeat the sound and joy. No more let's sense. No more let's ends and sorrows go. Nor thorns infest the ground.
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He comes to make his blessings flow. Far as the curse is found, far as the curse is found, far as his father as the curse is found. He rules the world, he rules the world with truth and grace, and makes the nations prove. And glorious of his righteousness and wonders of his love and wonders his love
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Amen. Amen. Can I pray? God, I am very grateful for your love, and I thank you for your compassion toward us. And I thank you, God, for showing that compassion through your son Jesus in his life, his perfect life, his death, his resurrection.
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And I thank you, God, for the relationship that we have with you. But it all started by you coming to Earth, God and flesh, to dwell with us. And so we thank you for that. Amen. From Luke two nine through 11.
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This this is what what gets me about the birth announcement of Jesus is that God announced this to to lowly shepherds, just to humble, you know, ordinary people. And it wasn't, you know, the rich and famous or those we but just ordinary people. And that's who God reveals himself to, you and me. We're ordinary people. You know?
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Just sinners in need of a savior, and that's why he came. And and what comes along with that, what comes along with belief is comfort and joy. And I want you to know that. And if you're not experiencing that, I'd say this, God is the source. He's the one comfort and joy, and all those things come from.
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And so if you're looking for it, look new look no further than a relationship with Jesus because he's the one. He's the one who gives it.
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God, rescue Mary, gentle men, and nothing
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Amen. You all can be seated and invite the friend frontline team to come forward as we participate here in the worship through giving. And I'd like to just to pray and give thanks. God, I do thank you for just being a generous and good God to us. And you showed your generosity by giving your son.
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You show your generosity by giving us all things. And I thank you, God, for the source and the supply of all things good and perfect, including abundant life in you. And I pray that that's the gift that we would really cling to this season because temporary things, they fade, the novelty wears off and yet you do not. And you are the source of everlasting joy. And so I want to be cognizant of that and aware of that and thankful for that.
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And as we give here, knowing that these gifts, go to making your name known. And I thank you for that and I pray that that's exactly what they would be used for. In Jesus' name, amen.
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Alright. Now is the time. Children's Church getting started downstairs. So here we go. I am coming off of, like I said, sick bed here.
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So, pray with me, please, if you would. Lord, would you strengthen me or to carry the truth of your word? From Matthew one this morning. Lord, would you touch us in a new way? We get so used to Christmas happening every year, and we hear similar stories and similar tales, Lord, but I don't ever wanna lose the wonder of what happened.
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And I also am thinking, Lord, specifically of of all of the different things that you brought to pass, but there was some human obedience required in there. Lord, the vulnerability of a babe in a manger being protected by these human entrusted parents. God, I'm I'm floored by that. God and man, in Jesus, Lord, arriving on the scene. Lord, would you take us to a place right now where you would get us in line with you, where we'd hear clearly what it is that you are directing us to do, us to believe, us to say.
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In Jesus name, Lord, would you use your word and would you impact us this morning in a in a profound way? Amen. So, Matthew one, I was going to do and it's written in your bulletin one up through 02/23. Two full chapters is a little much for any Sunday morning. Even if you've heard the story time and time and time again but Matthew one hit me harder this year than it ever has before.
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So, I'm going to share just half of what is in your bulletin this morning. This first verse, Matthew one one, the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the book of the Genesis, the book of the Genesis is the way he starts off this first New Testament book. You know, our arrangement. It's the first one. The book of the Genesis of the Christ, the anointed one.
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Christ being Greek for Messiah, anointed one. He this has been something that has been passed down and passed down. This is an old Egyptian papyrus. It's an image of the first nine verses of the book of Matthew and I think about how many times this sermon has been preached. It had been preached a whole lot of times just by two fifty AD and just as far away as Egypt which by the end of chapter two, we'll see the holy family heading down into Egypt to get away from and come back from.
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Herod, I just think about the traditions as they have been passed down and what Paul says about the gospel. I'm not inventing this. I'm handing it on to you the same way that it was handed on to me. It's true. The book of the Genesis or genealogy of Jesus, the Christ, the anointed one, the son of David, military, ruler, government, power, right?
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David and the son of Abraham. Abraham, the one to whom God had made that original promise that I will bless those who bless you and I will curse those who curse you and out of your seed, all the nations of the earth shall be blessed. That's that's a colossal statement for the first verse of a book, right? Matthew was a Jewish guy and he was writing to a primarily Jewish audience but he was writing to them to say, not only is it about the forefathers past, it is about being a light to the nations, sharing this light, this love of God with the nations and so from Matthew one all the way up to Matthew 28, we see that grounded focus in the fathers and in the ancestry which we're about to go through but going forward into all the world, every tribe, tongue, and nation, making disciples, baptizing them, and teaching them. In the name of the father, son, and the holy ghost.
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So, Matthew one, he presents us with Jesus as the culmination of Israel's history, the Christ, the anointed one, the one who bring completion, wholeness, directly related both to David and Abraham. I write these in green just to kind of differentiate em from the red that you'll see in a few minutes. Abraham was the father of Isaac and Isaac, the father of Jacob and Jacob, the father of Judah and his brothers. Now, notice this, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. How many times do we hear God called the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob?
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Lots and lots and lots of times. All throughout the Old Testament, all throughout the New Testament, you hear him referred to, I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Actually, Jesus defends against the sadducees for a change. Instead of the Pharisees, he defends and says, does not God say, I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. So, there is a resurrection, Sadducees.
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Don't put that aside. You don't understand the scriptures. I am that I am Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and then, when he gets to Judah, he says, and his brothers. The blessing of God was on Abraham and it was on Isaac and it was on Jacob but it was not on Esau. Do you see that?
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It was on Judah and his brothers. It's an interesting thing, I think. So, he starts off. Abraham was the father of Isaac. This is the line that it passes through.
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Was Isaac perfect? No. But the line of God passed from Abraham who he made the unilateral promise. He split the bull. God walked between the pieces, made a treaty in a way that Abraham could understand and promise that he would bless.
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Through Abraham, through Isaac, the child of promise, through Jacob. Was Jacob a good, good, good, good guy? Deceiver, kind of crooked, kind of wicked in some ways. Yet, the blessing of God and the grace of God went through that line. Jacob, the father of Judah and his brothers.
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So, those are the 12 tribes of Israel, his brothers, right? He 11 others. This is a sketch of a destroyed fresco of Michelangelo's destroyed fresco. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Judah. It's just a sketch.
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It's it's actually an an intaglio print. We don't have the original fresco left anymore in the Sistine Chapel. Matthew presents Jesus as the Christ directly related to David and Abraham but he's very careful to include the Gentiles in Jesus lineage too. Now, all of the Gentiles that are included that we know were Gentiles are also women which were almost never included in any first century text of genealogy which make don't make any sense for us today because the way we do genealogy, it's both parents, right? Typically, they just transmitted through the male line.
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But I've listed the Gentiles in red for this. Abraham, father Isaac, Isaac, father of Jacob. Jacob, father of Judah and his brothers, and Judah, the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar. Tamar was brought in to the family. She was not Jewish.
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It was not a pure line. Actually, if you don't know the story of Tamar, now that the kids are out of the room, my goodness. Genesis 38, It's not a pleasant story. I'll go on. Judah and Tamar and Perez was the father of Hezron and Hezron, the father of Ram.
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Here we have Perez, Perez, Hezron, and Ram on another destroyed fresco of Michelangelo's in the Sistine Chapel. We just have a sketch of what it looked like on intaglio print. It was destroyed. And Ram was the father of Amanadab and Amanadab, the father of Nashon and Nashon, the father of Salmon. I'm gonna keep on flashing these up.
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These are actually still intact. Amanadab, why he did three or four on one slide and one on the next, nobody really knows but it's in the cysteine ceiling. These are like our shelves over the windows. They're little lunette windows and then they're little freezes over this. So, Amanadab, Nashon.
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Salmon, father of Boaz by Rahab, Rahab, the harlot. We remember from the Old Testament story, not not a line that most people would include in their family history. But she was a righteous woman. She helped the spies. She helped the plan of God by her simple act of obedience.
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Boaz, the father of Obed by Ruth, also a Moabite outside of the family of the chosen ones of God, right? This is not just a strictly Jewish Jewish line and Obed, the father of Jesse, Salmon, Boaz, Obed, and Jesse, the father of David, the king. This is an illuminated manuscript of the first verses of the book of Matthew and this image is called the Jesse Tree. It starts with Jesse and goes through the King David and it goes up and it basically, the same genealogy that we're going to read from here forward is in that illuminated manuscript right there and that's French in Latin but it's French from about 1180 and I think of how many times this story has been told and when you're a preacher and you stand up and you tell a story that you know everybody knows, I don't want to ever seek novelty. The story is the story but it's hard to get up here and just go, oh, they've heard this before.
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Come on. How many times do we have to listen to this? This is God coming into time and space. This is something we should repeat all of the time. The amazing wonder of God coming in.
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To life as we know it in time, in space. And David, David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah. Bathsheba is not mentioned by name but she's the wife of Uriah, mother of Solomon and so we see another outsider, adulterous even. Forgiven. Forgiven.
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Jesse, David, Solomon Solomon was the father of Reboam and Reboam, the father of Ujah and Abijah, the father of Asaph. There they are. Asaph, the father of Jehoshaphat, and Jehoshaphat, the father of Joram. Joram, the father of Uzziah. I thought about not not doing the genealogy, but I didn't wanna be guilty of jumping Jehoshaphat.
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Yeah. Y'all are still awake. Good. Alright. Here we are.
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And Uzziah, the father of Jotham, Jotham, the father of Ahaz. Ahaz, the father of Hezekiah. Not all these guys are good guys. Are you noticing? If you have any Old Testament history in your mind, it'll be like, one really, really good guy and then it'll be two bad ones and then a good guy and then a bad one and a good one.
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Have you noticed that? You're seeing some of em? It's not like this pristine list. A lot of the old in the same time period, what the Greeks would do. Oh my goodness, it was Zeus was his father and then it was down through these ages and it was everybody good, nobody bad, there's nobody anybody would argue with.
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Hezekiah, the father of Manasseh, Manasseh, the father of Amos, Amos, father of Josiah, Josiah, king when he's eight years old. Love Josiah. And Josiah, the father of Jeconiah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon. So, big major history point for the Jews. Matthew, a Jewish guy, writing to a primarily Jewish audience about the mission of God.
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He gets him up to the deportation. He's had two distinct breaks. It's Abraham to David and then David to the deportation and after the deportation of Babylon, Jeconiah was the father of Shiltiel, Shiltiel, the father of Zerubabel. There they are according to Michelangelo. And and Zerubbabel, the father of Abiud, and Abiud, the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim, the father of Azor.
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There they are. Father of Achim and Achim, the father of Eliud. There they are. Keeps going. This is a big building.
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42 names on this list, right? Elias are the father of Methan and Methan, the father of Jacob. And Jacob was the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary. That's a different way of keeping up with things too but Jacob, the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born. It's very clear that he's saying that Jesus was born of woman.
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Jesus was born of Mary but her husband's line is what we have been experiencing this whole time. Jacob, the father of Joseph, it's a legal distinction. It's very very important because it carries down that governmental aspect of the throne of David. And the blessing of the land of Abraham. Mary also was Jewish.
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She had that line too. Of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, he who is called Christ, the anointed one, Messiah. Amen. That is a way to start a book. Jacob, Joseph.
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And then he kind of clarifies. This is a bit of a mnemonic device. He's got this for people telling this story. So all the generations from Abraham to David were 14 generations and from David to the deportation of Babylon were 14 generations and from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ for 14 generations. Great.
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Nice. Cool. Looks like, oh Michelangelo could just spelled it out just like that but he puts one on one. He's got a couple of em that didn't even make it. You know, they're destroyed and as I was looking through these verses and looking at this as the foundation looking backwards and seeing Matthew is establishing something that Mark didn't.
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They basically tell the same story. Matthew, Mark, and Luke tell very similar stories. The beginnings are different in Matthew and Luke. They're not contradictory but they do tell slightly different part of the story. I look at this and go, Lord, you've done just about everything to show us exactly what you want us to know about this baby, Jesus, and how he came in to the world, what he did to teach and to bless, to show, what he did to suffer and die buried and resurrected.
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You've you've showed of us all of this and you've left nothing out. I feel like. When I'm reading this. 18 is where we traditionally do this Christmas story. We start at verse 18 because in this society, how many of you know the names of both your sets of great grandparents?
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I knew the three of you that would raise your hands. Yes. Both sets of your great grandparents, you know. Well, for them, back then, they did keep up with this in the temple, in the Jewish temple. They kept up with all of these genealogies and they kept up with them and they knew em and they would say them and they teach them their children so that they would know that they knew em and keep this going along.
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It's important. There are tribes that when when we go and we want to evangelize, we want to get the justification by faith. That's where we want to start. John in Romans, let's start there. Almost all mission groups start with Matthew.
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When you're doing a translation of the Bible and you're starting with one book, one gospel. It's almost always Matthew because your ancestry makes a difference in most cultures of the world. Not nearly so much in ours. I don't think as others. But at this time of year, we really highlight it and we try to bring out family tradition.
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I like that. Now, the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way, verse 18. He tells us exactly what he's going to tell us. First verses, the book of the Genesis of the Christ Jesus and then in 18, he says, now the birth of Jesus took place in this way. When his mother, Mary, had been betrothed to Joseph.
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Again, it says, his mother Mary, you remember by the seed of woman from Genesis all the way back from the book of Genesis, the seed of woman is going to conquer. Satan. Now, the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother, Mary, had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, that is euphemism, physical coming together. Before they came together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit and her husband, Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame because it was actually a public shame and it wouldn't have been a light thing.
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It would have been the same rules still were instituted that were instituted way back in the Old Testament days. Actually, in the same days of Tamar. Judah and Tamar actually, when Judah found that she was expected, he said, let her be burned. That's heavy. Stoned is the is the norm but her husband, Joseph, being a just man, merciful, good, a man after God.
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Unwilling to put her to shame, he resolved to divorce her quietly just by a certificate with two or three witnesses, but keep it as quiet as possible. He didn't wanna shame her. He had thought about this. He'd never experienced anything like it before. There was no real other explanation that he could come up with and so he had resolved.
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He had thought about it. He had contemplated. I'm sure he had prayed about it but he was resolved to divorce her quietly but as he considered these things, while he was mulling it over, as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream saying, Joseph, son of David, hey, this is a simple builder, right? He say, carpenter, he's a simple carpenter, a builder, and the angel says to him, Joseph, son of David, he elevates him back to that line. Remember that you are a son of David.
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Do not fear. Praise God that angels tell us. Do not fear because we always are fearing in their presence. Do not fear to take Mary as your wife for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son and you, Joseph, you, shall call his name Jesus.
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For he will save his people from their sins. Jesus is the same as Joshua in the Old Testament. It's a little different because it's Greek but it's a play on words especially in the Hebrew that Jesus is the savior. He is the one who will save. Moses could not go into the promised land.
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He got him there. The law can get you so far but it doesn't get you in. Joshua though took his people. Those people that went with him into the promised land. The savior, the one who would save his people.
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You shall call his name Jesus for he will save his people from their sins and the whole book of Matthew actually concentrates on that theme of saving people from their sins of for the forgiveness of sins. I read this first chapter this week and I thought, my goodness, it pulled me into the second chapter which pulled me to the third. I read all the way through and I thought the whole time it's building on something. This is a direct command of something that Joseph had been considering. He had been thinking about and he had come up with what he was going to do but as he's considering it, he goes to sleep.
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He has a dream. Do not fear to take Mary as your wife for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. You will bear scorn. He knew he would. But don't be afraid to do it.
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She'll bear a son. You shall call his name Jesus for he will save his people from their sins. This is actually 1790 and I think of how many times has this story been told? Paintings have been painted, songs have been sung, poems written, Matthew 122 through 25 says this, all this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet and that prophet in this case is Isaiah and if you're reading actually, Matthew for the first three chapters from this point forward, just about everything that comes to pass. He says, and it came to pass to fulfill prophecy.
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So, the past matters because it's a prelude to what's happening in the now and what will happen in the future. All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and they shall call his name Emmanuel. Joseph would have known that verse. It sounds like a preposterous explanation to hear that in a dream.
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But he would have known this verse. Emmanuel, which means God with us. That's a whole series of sermons right there. When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him. He took his wife but knew her not until she had given birth to a son and he called his name, Jesus.
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So, that is what I wanna talk about. That last verse, the last two really. When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him. He took his wife and he knew or not until she had given birth to a son and he called his name Jesus. What had the guy, what had the angel, the messenger of God revealed to him in the dream?
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Don't be afraid to take her as your wife and name him Jesus. He did exactly what was a very, very simple act of obedience and I think about Joseph, a man, has a choice before him to either do what he had resolved within himself to do or to simply be obedient to the command of God. And we are celebrating Christmas right now because he took a simple act of obedience to God. Now, we can argue sovereignty of God and free will of man but there are time and time and time and time again where it's put forth where he had resolved to do it this way but when confronted with the word of almighty God, He surrendered his will, surrendered to righteousness as Romans would say and then, God does something amazing, simple obedience, simple obedience, no matter your ancestry, we all have black sheep in the family. I think that those are the ones that were highlighted on purpose because I think that it shows that God elevates, continually elevates.
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None of those were insurmountable. No matter what your human decision, has been. Even if it's considered and it is set. God can use you and his plan to redeem. If you will just believe the gospel and respond in simple obedience and I think that to me today is the message.
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So, would you stand with us? We're going to sing, go tell it on the mountain. If you are a believer in Jesus and I think that most of you are. Would you live it daily, every single day? Allow God to do what he would through you, to say what he would say through you.
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Would you be that angel, that messenger of the Lord? In Jesus name.
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Alright. Here we go. Go tell. Go tell it on the mountain, over the hills and every way you go. Tailing on the mountain that Jesus Christ is born while shepherds, while shepherds kept their watch ashamed.
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For silent fogs way you go. Tell it on mountain about Jesus Christ is bowed down in, down in a lonely major. Amen.
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Amen. Now, this is from Romans 15. Now, may the God who gives perseverance and encouragement grant you to be of the same mind with one another according to Christ, Jesus. So that with one accord, you may, with one voice, glorify the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ and now, may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Would you, Lord, would you, let's just carry that this week.
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In this week, anticipating that December 25, every single year, would you let us just carry it lord in such a way that it would be infectious, that other people would grab hold of what it is to love God, be called according to his purpose. In Jesus name,
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amen.
