The Original Christmas Couple _ Joseph & Mary Series

This is #2 in a series I am preaching called Christmas Originals. This sermon can also be preached as a stand alone without the series with no problem. There are powerpoint slides available. (see notes at the end)

When you think of famous couples who comes to mind?

I have heard a variety of answers this week as I have asked people that question.

Some have said

Ricky & Lucy

Lucille Ball & Desi Arnaz…

That’s a famous couple

Someone else said The Regans ..Ronald and Nancy.

From the world of politics they certainly are a famous couple.

Someone else Sonny & Cher was a famous couple.

One young girl I asked even said Ken & Barbie.

Are a famous couple and one young boy said.

Fred and Wilma Flintstone.

And who could argue with answers like that….

All of those are well known couples…

What about from the Bible..

what famous couples do you think of from the Scripture?

Of course Adam & Eve

Samson & Delilah

Ruth & Boaz they are sort of a famous biblical couple

And who could forget Abraham & Sarah -

Or David & Bathsheba

But perhaps there is no more intriguing couple in all of Scripture than the original Christmas couple of Joseph & Mary.

The gift they would share together was a gift of God’s grace in the choosing of these two individuals to be mother and father to the Christ child.

The Savior of all the earth.

The gift and the grace by which God chose them did not come however without great challenge.

Let me invite you this morning to use your imagination and for just a moment imagine what it must have been like to be one of these two figures of this most famous…… original couple of Christmas.

To have walked in their shoes in this most precious thing that God chose Joseph & Mary to do.

(play Josephs Quil Movie Clip _ Use an Optional Movie clip with Joseph and Mary)

What would it be like to have God chose you to parent the Savior of the world.

Let’s see how God was at work in the life of Joseph & Mary…

(Mt 1)

18 This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit.

19 Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.

20 But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.

21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”

22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet:

23 “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”—which means, “God with us.”

24 When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife.

25 But he had no union with her until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.

If you think that you have awesome and challenging responsibilities to attend in your life …..imagine

The task set before these two.

A task given to them technically before they were even entirely married…although the Bible tells us they were pledged or betrothed to one another.

So how much do we really know about these two that could be called the most famous couple in all of scripture….The original Christmas Couple

Consider Joseph – We probably know even less about him that we do his helpmate Mary.

Mt 1:16 tells us that Joseph’s father’s name was Jacob.

Mt 13:55 tells us that Joseph was a carpenter…

one working with wood.

The first 17 verses of MT chapter 1 trace Jesus’ genealogy as showing Joseph to clearly be of the family line of David.

Yet perhaps the best thing we can say about Joseph recorded in the Scripture are the words of

Mt 1:19 were the Bible calls him a righteous man.

But what about Mary

Although I would certainly call Mary the most well known woman of all the Bible…We really don’t know a whole lot about the mother of Jesus.

We know that she was the young daughter of a Jewish family, probably a poor family and she clearly was tied to the ancestry of David.