Faith And Timing

Faith and Timing

Text: Matthew 1:18-25

Good morning, everyone. Please take your Bibles and open them up to the Gospel of Matthew. Chapter one. This is the second Sunday of Advent and while you’re turning to Matthew, let me just remind you of what we looked at last Sunday. We looked at the genealogy of Jesus and I explained how Matthew was showing a direct line from Jesus to King David. Matthew was showing his readers that Jesus had a legitimate line to the throne of Israel. That He was in-fact; the rightful king. Well… if you want to get technical… at the time of Jesus’ birth – Joseph would have been the rightful king. You ever think about that? Had not the people of Israel engaged in rebellion and been given over to captivity – Joseph would have been ruling over the region of Israel… not the puppet king Herod. Sin and rebellion have consequences down through the generations.

So we looked at Matthew’s genealogy, and we compared that with Luke, because Luke was showing that Jesus not only has a direct line to David, and Abraham, but to Adam… Luke was showing that Jesus is the promised “Seed of the Woman” – the promised Son who would crush the head of the serpent.

There’s the re-cap… let’s look at our text together… Matthew 1:18-25 (READ).

Now if you would, please hold your place there in Matthew and turn with me to Galatians 4:4-5 (READ).

I’m going to use a couple of music terms here if I can. The Christmas story brings all of history into this amazing crescendo and to the bridge. Everything since the fall of Adam and Eve have been building to this one singular moment in history. All of Jewish history has been leading up to this one moment in time. All of God’s people down through the ages have been looking for the promise to be fulfilled. Hebrews 11 picks up on that very theme. They were looking – with faith… waiting with faithful expectation.

Now that doesn’t mean that every single person was – most people were just trying to live their lives and get whatever they could as they did… but those with faith. Those devout believers, down through history have been holding on to the promises of God… watching and waiting.

But it was only going to happen in God’s time.

But until then – God is going to masterfully orchestrate every event. He’s going to play every note and stitch every verse together exactly as it should be. He’s going to call Abram out of Ur. He’s going to tell Abram His plan to make him the father of many nations and change his name to Abraham. He’s going to raise up Isaac and break non-conformist Jacob so that he conforms to God’s plan. He’s going to ensure that what Joseph’s brothers intended for evil, He works for good. He’s going to use unlikely women like Tamar and Rahab for His purpose of redemption. He’s going to raise up a young shepherd boy and make him a giant slayer and ultimately a king. All the way down until the time that Mary, a young girl, a virgin with a pure heart and who is full of faith, is betrothed to Joseph, a man of integrity and faith.

He's going to bring it to pass just as He said He would.

Isaiah 55:11 – “So shall My Word be that goes out from My mouth; it shall not return to Me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose - and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”

That’s why Matthew lists this genealogy. To show us that “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 Immanuel.” – Which means, “God with us.” (vs. 22). That comes from Isaiah 7:14 by the way.

What’s the point here? God keeps His promises! God’s Word doesn’t fail!

Now matter what it looks like to us. No matter what is going on around us… in our private lives, or on the world scene. No matter if it seems all is lost and there is no hope. God’s Word will come to pass. His promises will be fulfilled.

Now that’s the overarching theme here… but Matthew also breaks it down on a more personal level as well. He’s going to give us the perspective of Joseph in order to help us in our lives, and in our faith, and in our walk as we follow God. You say, “How does this passage do that pastor Ken?”

Well, let’s look at it again. Verse 18… “… When Mary had ben betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found to be with Child…”. Now I stopped before reading the whole verse…. Because that was Joseph’s perspective initially…