A Christmas Perspective
Matthew 1:19-25 & Luke 1:26-38
Good Morning…
The dictionary defines perspective as a particular attitude toward or a way of regarding something; or a point of view.
I read a story this week about a man named George, walking down the street as he passed a construction site.
As George was walking by, he questioned a man working on the project with a down trodden look on his face, “What are you doing here?” he asked.
The man replied, “I’m building a wall, I’m a bricklayer.”
George continued down the sidewalk and came across another bricklayer working on the same building, but this man looked a little happier.
So George asked the man, “Sir, what are you doing?” This man responded, “I’m building a church, isn’t it beautiful?”
Finally, George encountered a third worker, laying bricks and asked him, “Sir, what are you doing?”
This man looked at George, paused for a moment, and with a big smile on his face he said, “I am building a place where people can come and worship the Lord!”
All three of these men were bricklayers, who were doing the same job, all trying to achieve the same goal…
…but each of these brick layers had different perspectives of the job and each man was thinking about what they were doing in a totally different way.
We can conclude that one man had a job; one man had a vocation; and one man had a calling.
Please open your Bibles to Matthew 1; put a book mark there and then turn to Luke 1
This morning, we are going to look at the events which led up to the Birth of Jesus from two different perspectives; a mother’s perspective and from a father’s perspective.
The difference between a mother’s perspective and a father’s perspective was clearly seen when it came to hearing about a pregnancy a little over 2000 years ago.
Some people hear about a pregnancy and get so excited; while others may hear about the same event and get terrified.
Well the news that an angel named Gabriel shared with a young couple back in 6 B.C. changed the course of history, forever.
The Christmas story has been so romanticized over the centuries the story of Jesus’ birth has been turned into a fictional story.
However, without question, 6 BC was a lousy time to live in Judea.
Herod the Great was on the throne of Israel and he was a cruel ruler who had political support from Rome.
Herod tried to usurp the title, "King of the Jews”; he even put his own sons to death when any of them posed a political threat.
He taxed Jews through the temple and then used the proceeds to build cities and temples in honor of Roman deities.
So Judea existed under the tyranny of Rome's rule at the time of Christ’s birth.
It was a time of unprecedented economic and political advancement for the rich and a time of horrific oppression for everyone else.
Just as the political, economic, and spiritual crises of the first century set the stage for the "fullness of time" to occur . . .
So it is in our day, the fullness of time to seek the Lord is here.
God is accomplishing His sovereign plan and His divine will.
Times are hard, indeed—but they never surprise God, He is still sovereign. He is still on the throne.
This morning, I want to encourage you, to be like Mary, and pay attention to what God wants to do in our lives.
Christmas is a good time to get a new perspective, and ask ourselves this question:
Will I focus on Jesus as the center of my life and cling to Him regardless of the circumstances I face?
I. A mother’s perspective.
Read Luke 1:26-37
God chose an ordinary girl for an extraordinary miracle.
Mary was a small town girl from an ordinary place; who was planning on getting married to an ordinary guy.
But notice that she was a virgin and had never been intimate with a man;
1000 years prior to this event; God told the prophet Isaiah that this would be one of the over 315 specific Old Testament prophecies of the coming Messiah.
Isaiah 7:14 Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel. NKJV
So here is this ordinary virgin girl, preparing to marry this ordinary man; to live the rest of their ordinary life.
Mary must have thought, “We will be married, have 3.5 children, he will be a carpenter and I will be a home maker.”
She probably had her whole life planned out…but then!
Mary’s ordinary life is interrupted by an unexpected event.
Have you ever just been going along with life when all of a sudden; life changes in an instant?
• Maybe an illness; or a death in the family
• Maybe a divorce; or maybe a layoff from a job
Mary is so confused that she asks the angel…
Luke 1:34 Then Mary said to the angel, "How can this be, since I do not know a man (I am a virgin)?" NKJV
This is the same response we have sometimes as we tell God, “I am confused at why you would allow this in my life right now”
Mary’s life will go from ordinary and become extraordinary.
Luke 1:28, the angel said to her, "Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!" NKJV
Knowing Jesus is life’s greatest adventure and when we are fully sold out to Him….our life will become extraordinary as well.
Notice, the angel calls Mary, “highly favored one”
Personally…how has God shown me favor?
God shows each of us favor and blessings in many ways; but, we become favored the moment we accept Jesus’ free gift of Salvation by faith!
John 1:11 He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.
John 1:12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: NKJV
Now when God the Father looks at you, He says, “"Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you;
Mary had her whole life planned out, and then her ordinary life was interrupted by an unexpected event. Notice how she responds….
II. Mary’s extraordinary response
Read Luke 1:38
She says, “Here is your servant, and may it happen just as you say it will.”
Mary willingly submits to the Lord’s will for her life.
How often do we get caught up in our plans and our dreams; then out of nowhere God breaks into our life and wants to do something extraordinary?
Sometimes we are so set in our ways that we fight the Lord every inch of the way; but, he has great plans for His chosen.
Once you choose to follow the Lord with every part of your being; your life will never be the same and your life will become extraordinary.
In the end, it won’t really matter if your life goes the way you planned it or not; it won’t matter what you accumulated in life or even where you lived.
What matters in the end is, Who you know and follow, because the Lord has some amazing plans for you.
Please turn in your Bibles to the Gospel of Matthew 1.
So Mary had a perspective of a soon to be married young girl who dreamed of a normal life raising kids in Jerusalem.
But once God broke into her life with an extraordinary message;
Mary responds with, “here is your servant Lord; may your will be done”. Now that’s a proper Christmas perspective.
III. Joseph’s perspective
Read Matthew 1:18-19
Joseph finds himself in a desperate situation; during this day of disappointment, his world comes crashing down on him.
Joseph is devastated; can you imagine having a girl you were about to marry and she comes and tells you, she is pregnant?
Joseph was ready to get married and start a family.
He was probably on cloud nine as he dreamed about get married and asking for Mary’s hand in marriage.
He got the house ready, they had made all the wedding arrangements; but now this.
Joseph was a just man, with a good past and he also had good plans for the future; but, suddenly his plans are destroyed.
Joseph had a very disappointing day. How about us;
What do you do when you get hit with life’s disappointments? Do you seek the Lord or do you rely on your own human wisdom?
Proverbs 3:5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding;
Proverbs 3:6 In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths. NKJV
vs. 19 tells us Joseph was a just man; but out of the two choices he is considering to fix this issue; neither one is from the Lord!
The passage immediately rules out the first choice; Joseph didn’t want to make a public spectacle of her.
In the passage of Luke we read earlier, this is what it says next…
Luke 1:38 Then Mary said, "Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word." And the angel departed from her.
Luke 1:39 Now Mary arose in those days and went into the hill country with haste, to a city of Judah,
Luke 1:40 and entered the house of Zacharias and greeted Elizabeth. NKJV
There may have been a couple of reasons for her quick departure.
1. To confirm what the angel had told her, about Elizabeth expecting a child in her old age. OR
2. It would give her some time to know how to break the news to Joseph.
Once Gabriel told Mary she would bear a child; Joseph was not immediately made aware that Mary was expecting.
Luke 1:56 And Mary remained with her about three months, and returned to her house. NKJV
We do not know exactly when it was that Mary broke the news to Joseph that she was expecting a child.
It would have been very difficult to explain, after Mary rushed off for three months and then when she came back, after all that time, she was with child.
Humanly-speaking, it would have been very easy to assume that she had been unfaithful to Joseph while she was up in the hill country with Elizabeth.
When Mary got back and told Joseph; he could have brought her before the elders, and had her stoned for being unfaithful to him.
In John 8; we read where the Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery to Jesus to be stoned.
In the Law, we are told…Leviticus 20:10 'The man who commits adultery with another man's wife, he who commits adultery with his neighbor's wife, the adulterer and the adulteress, shall surely be put to death. NKJV
So Joseph could have made a public spectacle of Mary; but, because he was a just man, he decided not to do that.
The 2nd choice to fix this issue is not God’s will either…
So instead, Joseph wants to quietly divorce Mary, "put her away privately."
Engagements during that time, were legally binding contracts, and could be only broken by an official divorcement decree.
From human reasoning this may sound like the easy polite solution to the problem; after all, Joseph didn’t have Mary executed. What a nice guy.
Christian, if you are a follower of Jesus Christ, you have to stop depending on your human understanding to accomplish the Lord’s will.
Many people believe discernment is being able to see the difference between right and wrong; but that is not really the case at all.
Non-believers can tell the difference between right and wrong, that is not a necessarily a spiritual gift.
Charles Spurgeon said, “Discernment is not simply a matter of telling the difference between what is right and wrong; rather it is the difference between right and almost right.”
Many times we try to keep the peace by relying on what seems to be peaceable, rather than doing the right thing.
Even if something seems to be right in our eyes; that don’t necessarily mean that is God’s will for the situation.
The Bible mentions two different kinds of sin; with a multitude of varieties within those ways.
First there are the sins of commission, which usually involve;
• The Lust of the Flesh
• The Lust of the Eyes
• The pride of Life
No one has to convince us that we are sinning against God when we do these things…
But how about the sins of omission?
When God calls us to do something and we don’t want to do it cause it is hard, or makes us uncomfortable…what is that called? Sin of omission…
James 4:17 Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin. NKJV
Sometimes what we perceive as the compassionate way of dealing with things; goes against God’s will.
Joseph was about to miss the biggest blessing of his life because he wanted to use human understanding instead of hearing from the Lord.
Isaiah 55:9 "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
In Romans 12:2 we are told to be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. NKJV
We can prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God is, be testing all things by His Word and holding onto what is true, which will renew our mind.
Our emotions, our minds, and our flesh get in the way and confuse us sometimes when making decisions.
But just like Spurgeon has said, “Discernment is the difference between right and almost right.”
So Joseph goes to bed thinking about how he will divorce Mary in the morning; but, the Angel of the Lord will visit him to show him another way…
IV. The Lord’s solution.
Read Matthew 1:20-25
God’s way of fixing the issue was for Joseph was to take Mary as his wife and endure the shame.
(And notice) Just like Mary, Joseph doesn’t wait to obey the Lord; he knew what the right thing to do was, and he did it.
Joseph was a man of action, not of words. Do you know, there is not a single word recorded in all of scripture from Joseph?
But his action, while obeying the Lord speaks volumes.
God will never direct us to do something, without equipping us for the task. But Joseph did what the Lord wanted…
Listen to the Words of one of Jesus’ parables…
Matthew 21:28 "But what do you think? A man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, 'Son, go, work today in my vineyard.'
Matthew 21:29 He answered and said, 'I will not,' but afterward he regretted it and went.
Matthew 21:30 Then he came to the second and said likewise. And he answered and said, 'I go, sir,' but he did not go.
Matthew 21:31Which of the two did the will of his father?"NKJV
Once Joseph knew the Lord’s will; he stopped worrying about the outcome and did what God told him to do!
Joseph was a man of few words; but plenty of obedience.
Personally: Am I willing to obey God by taking immediate action, once He reveals His will to me?
So from the mother’s perspective: Mary willingly submits to the Lord’s will for her life.
From out of nowhere God stepped into Mary’s life and did something extraordinary…
From the father’s perspective: Joseph was going to use human reasoning to be a nice guy,
But after hearing from the Lord, Joseph stopped worrying about the outcome and did what God told him to do! That’s a Christmas perspective!
Here we are in 2022…We live in a world with Political corruption . . . religious compromise . . . economic crises—
But we must remember that our God is on the throne.
He promises to use our desperate times to accomplish His bigger and better purposes in our world . . . and in our lives.
V. Practical Application
• We need to wait to hear God’s will before we act.
• We need to trust God; His ways of doing things are much better than our ways.
• We need to learn that obediently following God’s plans, always leads to the blessing.
• The Lord will never direct us, without equipping us to do the task.
• The Lord has a destiny for each one of us.
You see, The Lord knew from the beginning of time that you would be here this morning and hear this message…
The Lord loves you and has sent His Son Jesus to earth in the form of a baby to die for your sins.
Mary and Joseph both grew up, all their lives, knowing the story about the coming Messiah.
Then Mary submits herself to the Lord; Joseph follows the Lord’s plans after hearing His call.
Have you answer the call of God to surrender to Him as Lord and Savior and asked Him to forgive you of your sins?
Are you allowing Him to direct your life as your Lord, boss, and your God?
The real Christmas story is; God Himself, Immanuel which means God with us, came here in the flesh, to save you from your sin.
He came to earth as a baby; but He grew up, took the cross on your behalf.
He was crucified, died, was buried; but He rose on the third day and went back to heaven and someday He is coming back for us.
The challenge for each person here is this: just like the old Christmas carol says, “Let every heart prepare Him room”.
You see, both Joseph and Mary had a Christmas perspective!
Having a Christmas perspective means that you are willing to make Jesus the Center of your life…
We must realize the Lord had a plan before the world was formed; to redeem us from our sins.
The Lord desires that we come to know Him for Salvation and make Him the focus and center of our lives as we follow Him.
God is speaking; we should listen to Him and follow His will for our life.
And like Linus from the Peanuts cartoon strip would say, "That's what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown."
