I invite you to turn with me this morning to Matthew chapter 1. Last week, Sunday morning, we considered together the first 17 verses, the genealogy of our Lord Jesus Christ. And now this morning we read together verses 18 through 25 with a special focus on verses 20 and 21 as our text this morning. Matthew 1, reading together 18 verses 18 through 25 as we give our attention to the true Word of God. 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. 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. 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. 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. All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet, the virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son. They will call Him Emmanuel, which means God with us. When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. But he had no union with her. And there she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus. Beloved congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, it had been an awfully long wait. as God's people waited for the promised Messiah to come. And this was especially true since God had, in a sense, been silent for about 400 years since the prophet Malachi had preached to them. Yet when would the Messiah come? How would they know? Would there be some sort of a grand announcement that the time was near for all to hear? Well, we know that the first announcement that the time was near came to Mary as recorded in Luke chapter 1. And what an awesome announcement for her to be told that she would be the mother of the long-awaited Messiah. Mary, the Bible says, was engaged, pledged to a man named Joseph. Yet she conceived a child through the power of the Holy Spirit. But without knowing all of this yet, this was a difficult situation for Joseph. Normally, announcing the coming birth of a child is exciting for parents, for all of our children, but in a special way for the first child. But Joseph had other ideas. And therefore, God sends His heavenly messenger and angel of the Lord to explain the situation to Joseph. All of this is miraculous, as we know, and also quite unbelievable. Yet it is God's Word of truth. And therefore, it's our privilege this morning to consider this Word of God. The angel announces the first advent. of the Savior. We want to consider two things that we are well acquainted with. First of all, His divine origin. And then secondly, His divine purpose. First, His divine origin. The text begins in verse 20, but after He, that is Joseph, had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to Him in a dream. And of course, we need to remember what it was that Joseph was considering. Verses 18 and 19, 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. 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. Again, as we can well imagine, Joseph must have been somewhat of a troubled man because of the situation that literally was visible or would become visible for every eye to see. Mary was with a child. She was pregnant. You see, Joseph and Mary were to be married. They were already pledged, as the text says, or betrothed, as other translations say, which means that to the Jews, she was already his lawful wife. The betrothal, as Pastor Donovan beautifully taught us last week, was a serious matter. In fact, it was more serious and more binding than our modern-day engagements, which can easily be broken off. Mary had already been pledged or promised to Joseph to be his wife before at least two witnesses. In a sense, we might say that was kind of like the wedding ceremony. But a period of time would pass before the wedding feast, before the reception, and before he would take her home to live with him. So they were, we might say, already married, but not in the fullest sense of the word. The text says before they came together. That is, before their marriage had been consummated, before they had sexual relations. So here are Joseph and Mary, pledged, betrothed, to be married. And Joseph finds out part of what Mary already knew. She's going to have a baby. But Joseph did not yet know about the child's divine origin. From his intent, it seems that Joseph assumed the worst. Adultery. What else could it be? Mary must have committed adultery. This could be the only logical and rational explanation because he knew that he was not the child's father. In fact, Scripture makes it clear to us that he wasn't as he did not even know her until after the Christ child was born. Adultery was a very serious offense. It was a terrible transgression against the law that Moses had given to his people. In Deuteronomy 22, verses 23 and 24, we read, If there is a girl who is a virgin engaged to a man, and another man finds her in the city and lies with her, then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city, and you shall stone them to death. Joseph is described as a righteous man. And therefore, since Mary had been unfaithful to him, he thought, he could not in good conscience take her home with him in the usual marriage relationship. Being a righteous man, he wanted to do what was right in the sight of God and according to God's law, so he absolutely could not make a life with an adulterous woman and an illegitimate child. As he saw things according to the law, he had two options. One, either take Mary to public court or hand her a bill of divorcement with two witnesses present and take care of things quietly without a court trial. Now, if He had taken her to public court, most likely she would not have been stoned to death if found guilty because so many man-made changes had been made to the law since the time of Moses. But Mary would have been exposed to public disgrace. She would have gotten, as we say, a bad reputation. And in a sense, her life would have been ruined. But Joseph, again, was a righteous man. And therefore, it also wasn't his purpose as so many would like to today, to rake her over the coals, to make her suffer. That wasn't his intention. No doubt he loved Mary. So to do her the least amount of harm, he would divorce her or put her away secretly. You see, beloved, Mary's great honor as she sings about in Luke 1 looked like it was going to be her shame in society, regarded as her shame in society. But God had a different plan. God had a perfect plan. And God provided in such a way that the mother of our Lord and the Christ child to keep them from being shamed and dishonored. Again, verse 20, But after she 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. Now it appears, we don't know for sure, but it appears that Mary hadn't told Joseph about Gabriel's visit to her. Maybe she didn't think he would believe her. That's not hard to understand, is it? Because after all, she would have a difficult time proving that she was telling the truth because the evidence pointed against her. But God gave her the grace to trust in Him to leave it up to Him to convince Joseph. So in God's plan, before Joseph could carry out His plans, the Lord sends His angel to Joseph. Now it's interesting that the angel gets Joseph's attention by calling him the son of David. That sets the stage for what the angel was about to say. Joseph was from the line of David, as was Mary, as we know. But in Jewish genealogy, it was the husband's line, the man's line, that was important. Joseph was a part of David's family, and we can be sure that they knew clearly of God's promise, handed down from generation to generation, that the Messiah, that the Deliverer would come from David's family. In 2 Samuel 7, the Lord makes His covenant with David through Samuel. The context is David wanted to build a house for the Lord. The prophet says, Go ahead. And that night the Lord says to Nathan, No, David is a man of blood, a man of war. He shall not build it. His son will build it. Then we have this promise regarding David's son. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of His kingdom forever. And as Isaiah 11 says, as we have considered, it speaks of a shoot that will spring from the stem of Jesse, David's father, and numerous other places throughout Old Testament Scripture talking about the son of David, the star of David, the one to come from David's line. The Lord's message to Joseph through the angel was basically this. Joseph, the time has come. The time is here. Don't be afraid to carry out your marriage plans with Mary because I know that the child that she carries is not your child. That child is my child, Joseph. That child is my son. That child within her is the work of my Holy Spirit. Joseph, Mary has done nothing disgraceful for which you should be ashamed. In fact, I have chosen to magnify her. You can live with Mary with a clear conscience because this is all part of my plan. You see, beloved, not only did God choose Mary to be the mother, the earthly mother of Jesus, but He also chose Joseph to be the legal earthly father of Jesus, to be His earthly guardian and protector. And indeed, Joseph would continue with their plans to be fully married and he would preserve Mary's honor among men and most important, he would become the legal tie of Jesus to the house of David. Joseph was called to marry his bride and at least in the eyes of men to be the father of her child. Jesus Christ was conceived by the Holy Spirit. He was born of the Virgin Mary. And God implanted him into Joseph's family so that God's promises would be fulfilled and Jesus would be known as the Son of David. Indeed, Joseph had an important task but he could not be the natural father of Jesus. This was an impossibility. If Jesus had come into this world the normal, natural way as each of us here did, if Joseph had been his natural father, then Jesus would have been just as sinful as you and me. He would have been conceived in sin like you and me. He would have shared in the original sin of Adam like you and me. If that were the case, he could not be our Redeemer because he would also be overcome with sin like you and like me. The child that we celebrate on Christmas Day could not be of human origin as we are accustomed to. But he had to be of divine origin for your benefit and mine, but also to carry out his divine purpose. This Advent announcement, this birth announcement of the Savior also clearly spells out the divine purpose in verse 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. Now as parents, as parents, I think we would all admit that we have hopes and dreams for our children, don't we? And for some of us, maybe from the time we find out that we're expecting a child, we have hopes and dreams for that child already before the child is born. And some of you may even already be influencing your children or your child in the direction that you would like to see them go, whether that be with regard to a career or college or whatever the case may be, you're trying to influence them, to direct them, to lead them, to shape them. And in that line, let me ask you, how many of you are influencing your children in the way of Christian ministry? Especially your sons in the way of the pulpit ministry. Have you considered that? But the truth is, we don't know for sure what our children will do or what they will accomplish one day. And boys and girls, you may even have an idea today what you would like to do when you grow up, whether you want to be a fireman or a police officer or a nurse or an accountant or a doctor, whatever the case may be, you may have an idea what you want to do, but you might end up changing your mind many, many times in the next few years. In fact, you might even enter into a career and find out that that's not where the Lord wants you, like Pastor Donovan and myself. Pastor Kamega, and I think even possibly Reverend Hauerzile, entering into a different career first and then to make a complete change. But here in this Advent announcement, God the Father tells Joseph and He tells you and me exactly what this child is going to accomplish. The angel says Mary will give birth to a son. Now first of all, this should have been no surprise to the Jews. Isaiah 7, verse 14 says, Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, as verse 23 even quotes. And Isaiah 9, verse 6 says, For a child will be born to us, and a son will be given to us. A son points to the fact that he is the Son of God. God Himself, Emmanuel. The Son is Emmanuel. God Himself with us. And Joseph, as Jesus' legal earthly father, is commanded to give Mary's son the name Jesus. And why this name? The angel says because He will save His people from their sins. He will save His people from their sins. That name describes the work that He will accomplish. It means one who saves, or Savior, Jehovah saves. Now this must have been great news to Joseph's ears because this is what God's people have been waiting for for so long. But it must have also been a bit puzzling. Joseph is told what God's people will be saved from. They weren't to be saved from that which they thought they needed saving from. The Roman government, Roman oppression, or other earthly enemies. All political ideas were wiped out. They were to be saved from their sins. Imagine that. Not the Roman soldiers and Roman oppression, but from their own sins. The angel's announcement of saving presupposed the saving was needed. The need already existed. The angel didn't say that he will save his people if it is necessary or if there is a need, but also the need was far greater than Joseph or anyone else could ever have imagined. They had a need. That need was a matter of life or death. Spiritual life or spiritual death. In fact, without this child, there was only one option for them and for you and me. That our spiritual death would lead inevitably to eternal death. They needed to be saved because they couldn't save themselves. It had to come from outside. It wasn't possible to save themselves. And the original language puts the emphasis on He. He will save His people from their sins. This is to be His work and His alone because no one else could do it. Psalm 3, verse 8 says, Salvation belongs to the Lord. And in Acts 4, verse 12, the apostles testify, and there is salvation in no one else, but there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved. Congregation, to be saved. Which can be used so flippantly today. But to be saved in the true sense of the Word means to be rescued and delivered from danger. Jesus Christ came to rescue and deliver from the dangers of sin. And we're talking about sin in the fullest, most absolute sense of the Word. We're talking about death and the grave and hell. We're talking about being rescued from the greatest danger, from the greatest evil, the guilt and the pollution and the power and the punishment of sin. and being delivered unto and being given the beautiful possession of the greatest good, which includes true happiness and the peace of God that transcends all understanding, and unspeakable joy in the assurance of salvation and eternal life, we can summarize this greatest good by talking about renewed fellowship with God. There is no greater good than that. Yes, beloved, this Advent announcement of the Savior clearly spells out the divine purpose that God is providing the way of salvation through Jesus Christ for those who can't find that way themselves. No one, no one has ever been able to find that way on their own. Not one person who has lived or lives today or will live. That way had to be secured only by Jesus Christ who said, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one, absolutely no one comes to the Father except through Me. But that way isn't for everyone either. The text says He will save His people from their sins. Very simply, those who are not His people will not be saved. And that, of course, begs the question, well, who are His people? Those who have been elected by God His Father. Those whom the Father gives to His Son. Those who believe on Him by grace alone, through faith alone. John 3, verse 16 says, For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. And in John 10, Jesus talks about Himself as being the good shepherd. And He says that His sheep follow Him because they know His voice. And He also says that He lays down His life for His sheep. I hope that you've noticed all of the doctrines or teachings of Scripture that are packed into this one tiny phrase, this one tiny announcement. And even the boys and girls should be able to see those important teachings that shape, give shape to what we believe and what it is that we confess. And as we summarize them again, we begin with His divine origin, conceived by the Holy Spirit and of course the virgin birth. You see, man had to fulfill the righteous requirements of God's law. But natural man couldn't do it. Beginning with Adam in the garden. Wiping out, if you will, the covenant of works. Sinning. And therefore each one of Adam's line, all of mankind, none can keep the law of God perfectly. The one who took our place had to be perfectly righteous. He had to be both God and man. Man sinned, therefore man must pay. But only God could not only be perfectly righteous, but carry out the punishment. And therefore in God's plan, God Himself had to be born of the Virgin Mary after being conceived by the Holy Spirit of God. Then we also have the doctrine of salvation by grace alone. He will save no one else. It's not He will assist you. Only Jesus will do the saving. And let's add to that the doctrine of election. He will save His people from their sins as we just mentioned. Again, Jesus Christ came for those who have been called of God. For those whom the Father has given to Him. And Jesus said not one of them would be lost. And now, of course, we know that this Advent announcement doesn't tell us exactly how Jesus would save His people. But because Scripture interprets Scripture, we know what 1 Corinthians 1 verse 18 says. For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. Golgotha with the cross and the empty tomb and then the resurrection, the ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ stands in the shadow of the angel's announcement to Joseph. Jesus said the good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep. This announcement of the Savior's advent has in view what we call Good Friday and Easter, a reflection of His crucifixion and a celebration of His resurrection. In a sense, boys and girls, there is a pathway, a straight path that leads from the manger to the cross. And how did Jesus save His people? Again, we know by dying in their place. By paying the ransom, the debt for their sins. By satisfying God's righteous requirements that they could not satisfy by reconciling them, bringing them back into favor with God through the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Beloved, that's for you and me. Jesus did all of that for those who believe in Him. You see, the world has taken Christmas and Christ's birth and hallmarkized it. Put it on a nice little cute card with a pretty picture and a quaint little saying often without any reference to the Lord Jesus Christ. We know that the world gets real sentimental about this holiday. This holiday trying to appeal to our emotions with their idea of a baby cuddled and warm, surrounded by animals. Maybe you've seen the manger scenes as I used to see in the Midwest and in the front yards, these manger scenes complete with the stable and the animals and Mary and Joseph and the baby and the shepherds and even the wise men whom we know weren't there that night. they arrive sometime later and then to make it complete there's a Santa Claus on the roof of the stable looking down with some sort of an approving smile on his face. The world's idea, huh? The world celebrates this Prince of Peace but they completely separate the way in which he brought peace. He came with a sword, the sword of his cross. And they are clueless as to the truth of the peace he came to bring. He didn't come to make that peace in a sense that would just make mankind get along with each other or to stop the hostilities between the warring nations. He didn't come simply to compromise as nations do when they come to a peace treaty. He didn't come to compromise with sin and Satan. He came to wipe them out. See, to the world, this peace is nothing more than a warm, fuzzy feeling. People of God, we cannot do that. We cannot, we must not celebrate Christmas in that way. We cannot separate Christ's birth and the manger from the cross and the empty tomb. Because without the cross and without the resurrection and all of Christ's work, the birth of the Christ child means absolutely nothing. It really means no more than the birth of any one of our children. Jesus Christ was born, boys and girls, in order to die for His people, for you and me who believe. That is the divine purpose. You see, if you don't believe the sometimes hard-to-believe facts of the Savior and His birth and leave Him completely out of the season's activities because otherwise He is dishonored and He is mocked. We celebrate the first coming of our Lord and Savior, which points forward to and reminds us of His work of redemption and His work of securing salvation for His people. But as we celebrate His first coming, beloved, we must also be reminded that there will be a second coming. As we hope to consider tonight, the angels announced the forgotten advent of the Savior. Jesus Christ is going to come again to gather His people, those He has saved from their sins. And beloved, we need to remember that by our sinful natures, we are on the wide road to hell, headed for that lake of fire. But the Christ of Christmas, this baby born in a manger, has come to put His people on a different road. That narrow road that leads directly to the Father. Salvation is the work of God from beginning to end. He planned it, He accomplished it, and He will complete it. So where do you stand today? Do you embrace the Christ of Bethlehem's manger as your Lord and Savior? Do you believe by faith that He was born, that He lived a perfectly righteous life, that He experienced the torments of hell, that He died, that He rose again, that He ascended to heaven, and is even at this very moment preparing a place and He did all of this for you? Do you believe this? If you don't believe this, then you don't have this comfort. And you're still on that wide road to hell because you don't truly understand what it means to be saved. But if you do believe this by grace through faith and have this assurance, then you are unmistakably, without a doubt, one of His people. And then for you, this is the greatest announcement that has ever reached your ears. Joseph was called by God to accept the son of Mary as his earthly son. But he too, just as Mary, was to receive this son as God's gift to his earthly people. They too must accept, must receive him as their Savior. And notice something. Notice that when Joseph believed the truth by God's grace, he didn't continue on and follow his own selfish plans. But instead, he acted upon God's plan. He followed God's will. If you believe the saving truth of Christ through His Holy Spirit, then take action. Follow Him as the Savior and the Lord of your life. Because Jesus Christ truly brings a life-changing experience. Jesus said, My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give eternal life to them, and they shall never perish, and no one shall snatch them out of My hand. Beloved, as we look forward to the second advent of our Lord, may we give glory to God for His first advent. Born that man no more may die. Born to raise the sons of earth. Born to give them second birth. Amen. Shall we pray? Father, as we remember and celebrate as we do year after year the birthday, the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ may it be as well that we would look forward to His second coming Him who has saved His people including us from all of our sins may we look forward to the day, O Lord when He comes again in all of His glory to take His people home. Father, we pray that our celebration, what we call Christmas, would not simply become trivialized and mixed in with the world's celebration. But that for each one of us, we would have a true understanding of what it means to be saved, of the peace that Jesus Christ has brought. And may we rejoice in that comfort day by day until the end of our days in Jesus name we pray these things Amen