Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - What Story Are You Celebrating? | Christmas | Matthew 1:18-25

Episode Date: November 16, 2021

Is the biblical story of Jesus's virgin birth hard for you to believe? Can you imagine being in Joseph's shoes? In today's episode, https://twitter.com/TanyaWillmeth (Tanya) examines the birth of Jesus from Joseph's perspective in https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%201%3A18-25&version=NIV (Matthew 1:18-25). Tune in to find out how Jesus's birth might've cost Joseph his reputation, but solved his deepest problem. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our https://www.thecrossingchurch.com/ (website) and follow us on https://www.facebook.com/TenMinuteBibleTalks (Facebook), https://www.instagram.com/thecrossingcomo/ (Instagram), and https://twitter.com/tmbtpodcast (Twitter) @TheCrossingCOMO and @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Social Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TenMinuteBibleTalks (https://www.facebook.com/TenMinuteBibleTalks) Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecrossingcomo/ (https://www.instagram.com/thecrossingcomo/) Twitter: https://twitter.com/tmbtpodcast (https://twitter.com/tmbtpodcast) Passages https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%201%3A18-25&version=NIV (Matthew 1:18-25) References https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/57072421-is-christmas-unbelievable (Is Christmas Unbelievable? by Rebecca McLaughlin) Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now.

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks where we connect the Bible to your life in the time it takes to get to work. I'm Tanya Wilmeth. I'm Keith Simon. And I'm Patrick Miller. Right now, we're in our Christmas series. We're exploring the stories around Jesus' birth and the prophecies pointing forward to it. What's the craziest story you've ever believed? Or maybe the craziest story you've needed someone else to believe.

I've kind of lived by the motto of being on time, but not early. And I can remember as a senior in high school leaving my house 12 months. minutes before the tardy bell rang to make it to physics class. Cows in the road because a gate was left open or a tractor with a hay baler behind it or a train on the tracks on the way into school were things I just didn't really account for. The train was on me. I had to take the tardy if that happened, but I could usually get my mom who was also a teacher to write an excuse for the other things.

One fall day, though, as I left the driveway and headed down our country road toward the highway, I rounded the corner and a helicopter landed on the road right in front of me. The medics rushed out of the helicopter and into our neighbor's house, and I sat there, hemmed in by the helicopter, and really worried about the older couple inside. Thankfully, they were able to get him to the hospital. He made a full recovery. But that day still goes down in history as the day my mom wrote a note to the secretary saying I was late because I got stuck behind a helicopter.

In Matthew's Gospel, we're introduced to what some may consider. that are the craziest story of all time, and also someone who could have had a hard time believing it. From a practical point of view, the biblical account of a virgin birth can sound unbelievable. But what if you're Joseph, and you're the one hearing it firsthand from the angel? And what if the news would completely change your world? And maybe even cost your reputation, if you believed it. Listen to how Matthew begins. Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way, when his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph before they came together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband, Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame,

resolved to divorce her quietly. So Mary and Joseph were in the period of their engagement, where they were legally bound to one another, but not yet considered Mary. Having sex during this period was considered immoral, and who better than Joseph to know that this was not his child? but rather than being angry and revengeful, he was compassionate and wanted to have a quiet separation that would maintain his personal reputation and also not put Mary in harm's way, because the punishment for adultery under mosaic law for a woman was death by stoning. And who can blame him? This seems like the so-called right move.

Joseph was going to protect himself and protect Mary. Matthew 120. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. Now, as we know from other gospels, the angel Gabriel also appeared to Mary and told her she was with child from the Holy Spirit. From Mary's perspective, that must have been outrageous. But yet when the baby kicked and her belly grew, Mary would certainly know there was no other way this could have happened, except through

immaculate conception. Joseph, on the other hand, would have to believe not because he could eliminate all counter-evidence, but in faith. He would have to believe because he heard what God spoke. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. Joseph is one of the first people who chose to sacrifice his reputation for the sake of the gospel. When the angel left him, Matthew said Joseph did as the Lord commanded and took Mary for his wife and knew her not until she had given birth to a son. Rebecca McLaughlin wrote a fabulous little book. It just came out this fall.

It's called It's Christmas Unbelievable. I would highly recommend it. You can read it in about 30 minutes. And in that book, she talks about how the Gospels are even more believable because they are actually terrible PR for all involved. Now what that means is the truth in the way people like Joseph and James and John and Peter respond, it's just much too real to be made up. without the vision and beauty of a Messiah to reclaim why on earth would people choose to relay

their most personal and even embarrassing moments to generations of people who would follow? Now, we don't have the details of the conversation that did or didn't take place between Joseph and Mary before the angel appeared to him in a dream, but we do know that God sent this angel to tell Joseph and maybe prove to Joseph or turn his heart and mind toward the truth that the Holy Spirit had conceived a child, that the woman he was going to marry. was a pregnant virgin, and that on top of all of this, the child would be the Savior, the Lord had spoken of by the prophets, in the scripture he knew by heart. But why should Joseph believe this? Well, it's not the first outrageous claim Joseph has believed.

He would first have believed what God did, what God said in Genesis chapter 1. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. If Joseph believed in a God who spoke the universe into creation, why would it be any harder to believe that same God could send a baby? The same Holy Spirit who was present in the formation of the world was present in a virgin conception.

God, three and one, pre-eternal and unchanging from the first chapter of Genesis into the first generation of Christian believers and into the year 2021 with us. Joseph could have privately divorced Mary, but he didn't. Because of what he heard, he risked everything, his reputation, his relationships, his heart. And not for a better marriage, not for the sanctification of family,

not for fear of missing out, but for the bigger story. From an earthly perspective, this news might not have been great news for Joseph. His relationship with Mary was going to shift. His relationship with this child would be different. The life he might have expected to live quietly or in what we might call normalcy wouldn't exist with the birth of this child. But from an eternal perspective, the angel just delivered the best news of all time.

It was the world's greatest news for Joseph because this baby was going to solve his greatest problem. It was the best news for the entire world because God was sending his son to save us from our greatest, our deepest problem, the sin, the same. separates us from our father. After recounting the conversation between Joseph and the angel, Matthew wrote this beautiful sentence. 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 Emmanuel. Emmanuel means God with us. The triune God, creator of the universe, was coming to dwell with his people, to allow them to have a relationship with him. Jesus would come to save the world from their sins so they could be in relationship with God.

Emmanuel is the relationship on which all human relationships are based. Even Christmas, with all its tender and nostalgic traditions of love and giving, isn't based on family relationships. It's completely based on a heavenly one. If you've been listening very long, you've heard bits and pieces of this, but I watched my dad die between December 14th and January 12th, four years ago. So over the Christmas season, we spent a Christmas watching him say goodbye to what he loved on this earth, the cows, kids, my mom.

And we watched his life at the same time fill up with so much joy because he so very much felt the presence of Jesus because each goodbye made the reality of Emmanuel so much more vivid to him. We spent a Christmas season in grief mixed with joy because we knew that God truly was with us. We really had nothing to keep us from looking for him in that season. As you prepare for Christmas and all that goes along with our worldly celebrations, you might relate to Joseph. Maybe something has happened in your family or in your life that will shift the way things go or the traditions you've shared. And maybe what was normal for you won't be normal this year. As your life and your

relationships change over time, what story are you going to believe? What story are you celebrating this Christmas? We lose loved ones. jobs, friends, our kids move away, but Jesus doesn't change. Your relationship with him is the reason we celebrate Christmas. Emmanuel, God with us is the relationship you can celebrate, hope for, trust in, no matter what this Christmas season brings. Thanks for listening. If you've enjoyed this content, please subscribe and give us a rating. That helps others find this podcast more easily. Also ask yourself who you could share this podcast with. Texting an episode to a friend or family member is a great way to help them grow spiritually.

If you want to go deeper, check out our show notes for book recommendations.