The Separational Season

The Separational Season (Matthew 1:18-25)

At a Friday Night Prayer Service, I received confirmation that the message this morning is truly not only for me, but also for the House of Transformation. This year we’ve experienced some wonderful times and some low times. There’s some stuff that many of us have been waiting all year to see; waiting for God to fulfill His promises. The devil has tried to make you and me think that word which God spoke to us, really wasn’t from God. The devil has even tried to make some of us think that we were going down a dead end street, but the devil is a liar. I know I’m right because some of you have expressed that to me. And if I am to be honest, that’s how I’ve been feeling as well.

But I’m here to tell you; God is not a god who should lie. That which He says, He will fulfill. We just have to keep on doing what God says and don’t listen to anything that’s contrary to what He says and don’t look with our natural eyes. We have to just keep on keeping on. Church we must put on our spiritual bifocals and watch the Lord move in a miraculous way; a way that no man can define and a way where no man can take the glory. We must simply wait on the Lord. And, while we are waiting Church, God is pruning us. In other words, God is shedding and removing anything that is not like Him. While we are waiting, God is preparing us for the work of the ministry. And, while we are waiting God is shaping us to handle the overflow that is to come.

Our text, this morning, speaks about a time, it speaks about a period were things didn’t occur as the norm. Let’s make it clear that Jesus Christ’s birth was not normal; it was different from that of any other Jewish boy named in the genealogy of our text. The Book of Matthew starts off with the lineage of Jesus. All the other births begat someone but Christ birth was begat by the Spirit of God. Christ was born of an earthly mother even though there was no need for an earthly father. I’m telling you that Christ’s birth wasn’t the norm. Christ pure existence on earth came through unusual means. Christ, according to John 1:1 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was ‘with’ (say with) God and the Word was God.” The Word was Christ who separated himself from God the father and came her to this earth for you and for me.

As stated, this morning’s text speaks about a time, it speaks about a period were things didn’t occur as the norm. There was a season of separation and it was during this separation that God was performing His mighty work. Let’s look at our text as recorded by Eugene Petersen in the Message Bible. Petersen records Matthew 1:18-25 as follows:

“The birth of Jesus took place like this. His mother, Mary, was engaged to be married to Joseph. Before they came to the marriage bed, Joseph discovered she was pregnant. (It was by the Holy Spirit, but he didn’t know that.) Joseph chagrined but noble, determined to take care of things quietly so Mary would not be disgraced.

While he was trying to figure a way out, he had a dream. God’s angel spoke in the dream: “Joseph, son of David don’t hesitate to get married. Mary’s pregnancy is Spirit-conceived. God’s Holy Spirit has made her pregnant. She will bring a son to birth, and when she does, you, Joseph, will name him Jesus – ‘God saves’ – because He will save His people from their sins.” This would bring the prophet’s embryonic sermon to full term.

Watch for this – a virgin will get pregnant and bear a son; They will name him Immanuel (Hebrew for ‘God is with us’).

Then Joseph woke up. He did exactly what God’s angel commanded in the dream. He married Mary. But he did not consummate the marriage until she had the baby. He named the baby Jesus.”

Don’t you find this odd that here a man and a woman wed but they don’t enjoy the pleasures of marriage? The normalcy is when one ties the knot; soon thereafter the couple consummates the union. In other words, they can’t wait for the wedding night (and if not that night due to exhaustion), they barely can make it to the next morning (am I right about it). But this wasn’t the case with newlyweds in our text. Look at verse 25 again of our text, “But he (Joseph) did not consummate the marriage until she had the baby.” While reading this scripture on December 17, 2004, God revealed to me that He isn’t a God of normalcy. He doesn’t perform according to the standards of the world. Afterall, His ways are not our ways. So the things that He does He doesn’t perform them to the way we think He should perform them. But rather, He does them according to what’s best for Him and for us. This scripture is evident that the Spirit of God was truly resting not just upon the Virgin Mary but also upon the husband Joseph from the Household of King David. What man do you know doesn’t want to consummate his marriage on his wedding night? But Joseph believed God’s angel that spoke to him in verse 20,