Tuesday December 23, 2014

Read Matthew 1:18-25

 We live in a sexually loose world where adultery is considered trivial, unless we are the ones sinned against. Even churches have renamed adultery to make it sound less harsh. Ministers now are tempted by ‘moral failure’ or a ‘failure of the heart’, not adultery.

In Jewish times, adultery was serious and even engaged couples could be stoned to death for having sex outside of marriage. Joseph was a godly man confronted, so he thought, with the issue of adultery. His wife-to-be was found to be pregnant.

Joseph’s plan was simple. He planned to leave her quietly so that she would not be publicly humiliated and possibly stoned to death. He would break off the arrangements quietly and disappear from the scene. He had weighed it up, considered all his options and come up with the best possible plan, given the circumstances.

However, that night an angel appeared to Joseph in a dream. He was told to take Mary home as his wife because the child in her was conceived of the Holy Spirit. Mary was not an adulterer. God had given her the God-child. He is even told that Mary will give birth to a son and they are to name him Jesus. Jesus is the Greek equivalent to Joshua in the Hebrew language and means ‘God saves.’

Added to this, we are told in vs 22-23 that all of this was predicted by the prophet Isaiah some 800 years earlier. In that prophesy a virgin would be with a child and he would be called  Immanuel which means ‘God with us’.

Not only is this baby Jesus the fulfiller of all God’s promises and the one who destroys the enemies of God, He’s the one who will deal with mankind’s rebellion against God. He is God, come to us in the flesh to rescue us from our sins and from our rebellion against God.

Christmas is far more than a time of good cheer and merry making. It’s the time of year we pause to remember that God has sent His Son, His one and only Son, into the world to rescue us and to draw us to Himself in adoration and worship. That’s why we need Christ in Christmas!

Prayer:

As many people travel away from your local church this Christmas, ask the Lord to bring upon them conviction to be in a church on the Day we pause to remember the birth of our Lord and Saviour.