God With Us (Matthew 1:18-25)

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All right this evening we're going to continue in Matthew chapter 1 so go ahead and turn there
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Matthew 1 we'll pick up in verse 18 but just a quick review of what we looked at last week we covered the genealogy of Jesus Jesus is called the son of David which doesn't just mean that he descended from King David he did obviously but that is the title or it's a messianic title so to call to call him the son of David and to call him the
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Christ you're basically saying the same thing Jesus is God's anointed he is
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God's anointed King so we saw the genealogy Matthew gives us and that was through Joseph we said the genealogy from Luke chapter 3 is
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Mary's genealogy so both of them obviously were descended from King David so let's listen along to Matthew 1 18 through 25 now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows after his mother
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Mary was betrothed to Joseph before they came together she was found with child of the
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Holy Spirit then Joseph her husband being a just man and not wanting to make her a public example was minded to put her away secretly but while he thought about these things behold an angel of the
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Lord appeared to him in a dream Joseph son of David do not be afraid to take to you
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Mary your wife for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit and she will bring forth a son and you shall call his name
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Jesus for he will save his people from their sins so all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the
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Lord through the Prophet behold the Virgin shall be with child and bear a son and they shall call his name
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Emmanuel which is translated God with us then
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Joseph being aroused from sleep did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took to him his wife and did not know her till she had brought forth her first born son and he called his name
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Jesus Matthew is presenting not only the kingship of Jesus he is presenting
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Jesus in his deity as well I know it's often presented this way
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I think I mentioned this last week how Matthew it said Bible teachers always say this kind of a thing
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Matthew focuses on the kingship of Jesus mark him being a servant Luke his humanity and John his deity and that's true there's something to that otherwise
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I wouldn't mention it but the fact is all four Gospels present Jesus as a divine figure and that's what we saw here
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Matthew after giving the genealogy he's careful that his readers understand that Joseph is not the father
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Jesus is conceived by who the Holy Spirit now does that make the
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Holy Spirit Jesus father no we'll talk about that in a second but the fact that Jesus is conceived of the
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Holy Spirit and Joseph is not his father that's proof that he is divine so it's here on the pages of the
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New Testament that we start to see this emerging doctrine known as the
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Trinity so as New Testament Christians we are Trinitarian right so that's how we should think of ourselves we are
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Trinitarian we believe that there is one God eternally existing in three persons father son and Holy Spirit they did not really understand that or I would say they didn't understand that before Jesus was born but the fact that Jesus is born and he is divine now you're starting to see that on the pages of Scripture so we're
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Trinitarian you've probably heard of people that are Unitarian right you've heard of Unitarian churches so uni means what right a unicycle has one wheel a unibrow that's just one eyebrow covering your eyes so a
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Unitarian is someone who believes that God is not a Trinity that God is one so Unitarians do not believe that Jesus is divine and then there's religions that are in a sense
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Unitarian Judaism is a you could say a Unitarian religion because they don't believe in the
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Trinity Islam same thing they don't believe in the Trinity they don't believe that Jesus is
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God in human flesh but that's what we're seeing here in Matthew chapter 1 look at verse 18
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Jesus is called the Christ so not everybody believed the
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Christ was divine but that idea was certainly certainly present you can go back and look at certain verses in the
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Old Testament verse 20 says that he was conceived by the Holy Spirit and of course the name
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Jesus itself means Jehovah saves or Jehovah is salvation verse 22 tells of how
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Jesus is the of prophecy and his birth was a virgin birth and if that is not enough to prove that Jesus is divine in verse 23 what is said about him that he is
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God with us so that's what
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I've titled this God with us that's what Christmas is all about God coming to earth and becoming a man so Jesus is
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God in human flesh and then of course Luke's account of all this if we we don't have to turn there but in Luke chapter 1
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Jesus is called the son of the highest the angel Gabriel comes right out and says that to Mary that the one born to you he will be called the son of God so this is where it's all becoming clear starting to become clear that God is trying in nature and the
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Trinity really is about Jesus and his divinity people who reject the
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Trinity they reject the divinity of Jesus what type of groups reject the
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Trinity you know of any Jehovah's Witnesses they reject the
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Trinity they believe Jesus is like a divine figure like a exalted angel but they don't believe that he is actually
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Jehovah in human flesh any other religions mean
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Mormons have a totally different idea of father son Christian science they don't believe that Jesus is divine at least not in the same sense that we do so again we are the
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Trinity is basically one of the most important Christian doctrines because it's really comes down to who
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Jesus is so we believe in one God and within that Godhead is father son and spirit any questions on that if you've been a
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Christian for any length of time you you've heard this but you know there's always somebody who needs to hear it again now since God never changes we're starting to see this doctrine develop in the
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New Testament but since God never changes what does that mean that in the
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Old Testament God has always been a Trinity what are some Old Testament verses you could point to to show well actually this this is true it's hinted at even back in the
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Old Testament does anyone have any verses well let's turn to Micah chapter 5
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I just want you to see one of these Micah chapter 5 this is another verse that gets pulled out at Christmastime I remember
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Isaiah I think we talked about this last week Isaiah 9 verse 6 6 & 7 he will be called what the mighty
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God everlasting Father so that's one hint in the book of Genesis God says let us make in our image so he speaks about himself in plural form but look at Micah chapter 5 verse 2 but you
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Bethlehem Ephrata so there's more than one Bethlehem so he identifies which Bethlehem he's talking about though you are little among the thousands of Judah yet out of you shall come forth to me the one to be ruler in Israel speaking of the
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Christ whose goings forth are from old even from what from everlasting so the
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Messiah even though he's born in a moment in time he is from everlasting to everlasting as Jesus said about himself in the book of Revelation I am the
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Alpha in the Omega the beginning in the end so Matthew chapter 1 this is starting to come out let's go back to Matthew chapter 1 so God never changes
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God was a Trinity in the Old Testament Jesus we've seen this going through Exodus and Joshua Jesus does make appearances in the
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Old Testament they just didn't call him Jesus he was the angel of the
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Lord or when Abraham talked to him he just recognized him as the
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Lord and then the name Jesus comes in on the pages of the New Testament look at verse 18 now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows after his mother
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Mary was betrothed to Joseph before they came together she was found with child of the
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Holy Spirit I said this on Sunday that since it's Christmas time we're dealing with passages about Christ's birth there are two great doctrines not the
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Trinity but two great doctrines of Christmas what are they the the virgin birth is one of them and the other one is the begins with an
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I the incarnation so the incarnation that God became a man and then the virgin birth obviously one is dependent on the other because if Jesus had a human father he's not actually the son of God but there was another man just to throw this in there there was actually another man in the
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Bible that didn't have a human father and that was called the Son of God and who is that well yeah
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I'm okay that some people do say that about Melchizedek that he didn't have parents that's sort of debated but that's a good answer but I was thinking of Adam Luke chapter 3 verse 38
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Adam is called the Son of God why because he didn't there were no parents
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God was in that sense his father but Jesus is the only begotten son so God created
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Adam he's a creature Jesus comes forth from the father Jesus shares in the same nature as the father it's like if a father and son go get a
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DNA test it's the same genes right it's the same you're on equal footing that's the way it is with Jesus he is the only begotten we are called sons of God today
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New Testament Christians are in a different sense we're children by adoption so Jesus is
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God's only true son look at verse 18 again now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows after his mother
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Mary was betrothed does anyone have a different word for that espoused engaged okay well that's what it means
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I don't think too many people use these other words betrothed or espoused yeah they were engaged so Mary and Joseph were engaged before they came together she was found with child of the
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Holy Spirit so this would have been scandalous in that culture in this culture that kind of thing isn't really scandalous but back then it was why was it scandalous because Mary this wouldn't have just been fornication this would have been considered adultery but it says that she was with child from or of or by or through these are all the different ways it's phrased through the
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Holy Spirit so I want you to explain to me because you already answered the question and you answered it rightly this well she's conceived by the
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Holy Spirit isn't the Holy Spirit the Father why not okay anyone else want to give a stab at that why if she's conceived if Jesus is conceived through or by the
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Holy Spirit why isn't the Holy Spirit the Father some people say this
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I've heard this said before yeah Janet yeah okay so when we talk about the
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Trinity it can get kind of confusing I admit at first it might seem logical to say the
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Holy Spirit is Jesus's father but it's not because the simple answer that I would give is the
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Bible says that God the Father is his father so I mean to me that's that's the answer well the
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Bible calls the Father the Father right and the Holy Spirit is never called the
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Father and I make that point because you don't want to blend well they're all God well yeah they are but they're all distinct you can't say that God at sometimes is is the
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Spirit and the Spirit became the Son and the Son kind of morphs into the
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Father that's not what happens that's called there's a word for that belief what is it it's called modalism that God changes forms that he is in one mode one time the
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Father then he changes modes and becomes the Son what's the problem with that idea well at the baptism of Jesus all three members of the
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Trinity show up at once right Jesus is there being baptized the Father's voice is heard from heaven and then the
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Holy Spirit descends in bodily form like a dove so this isn't God in different form they're all they're all present all right look at verse 19 so we're
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Trinitarian we're not modalist we're not oneness we're not unit Trinitarian not Unitarian verse 19 then
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Joseph her husband being a just man and not wanting to make her a public example was minded to put her away secretly so he finds out
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Mary is pregnant and he doesn't want to make this a huge thing did you notice something about that verse though what did we already say that they are engaged well what does it say here
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Joseph her husband well which is it are they engaged or is he her husband oh okay how is it that it's both well 2 ,000 years ago the
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Jews they treated marriage and the whole process it was different right they looked at it differently so basically being engaged was just as legally binding as being married today people get engaged and it's just kind of a verbal agreement but back then being engaged was
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I mean you had to get a certificate of divorce to break off the engagement so in that sense even though they hadn't come together yet Joseph could be called her her husband so when
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Mary becomes pregnant before the marriage is consummated Joseph can only assume one thing right there's never been a virgin but can you imagine
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I don't we don't know that they talked about this but can you imagine the conversation if she said oh honey this is a virgin birth
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I don't I don't know this has never happened before and it's never happened since so he he assumed like this there's only one possibility but again it wouldn't have just been fornication it would have been adultery because it's legally binding and adultery in Israel was a capital offense you in theory you could get the death penalty for adultery you remember in John chapter 8 the woman caught in adultery what did they do they they dragged her to Jesus and they were the way it looks they were ready to stone her now how often that actually got carried out is another story you know it's like our country we have a lot of laws and we all know what the laws are but whether those laws actually get enforced is another situation so I think that's the way it was in Israel that yes in theory she could get stoned to death probably wouldn't happen but there was that threat yes
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Larry I believe that it was both parties had to be present the man and the woman and capital offense for both of them stoning for both but when they showed up with just her that was a setup right right kind of set up Jesus yeah yeah and that may be and they were trying to trap him but the point is it was understood by the general public like this is a super serious thing and in theory
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Mary could have been stoned but remember the Jews are under Roman occupation so the
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Roman Empire is in charge in Judea so nobody this is the way it was supposed to be nobody could be put to death the
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Jews could not put anyone to death without the Romans approving of it we know that because they wanted to kill
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Jesus many times but they had to go through the proper channels and they had to go through Pontius Pilate to get approval so Mary was probably safe but you never you never know
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Matthew writes that Joseph was a what because he was a just man he didn't want to make a public example of her
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I find that interesting because if he did make a public example of her he would have been following the law of Moses but he says that because he was a just man he didn't do that is that thought occurred to you well it occurred to me so a just man what does that mean that he was a just man this is a it's called a hub ray ism basically it's a
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Jewish way of saying that Joseph was a true believer so he was a just man this he's a we would say today he this guy is a true
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Christian right he's a true believer and while God's law did call for stoning of adulterers what else did
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God God's law talk about God loves mercy God loves mercy so while Joseph being a godly man he wasn't about to marry someone that he built he believed at this time that she is an adulteress so he's a godly man he's not going to marry her but at the same time he doesn't want to see her dead he doesn't want to see her publicly humiliated and I think we can learn something from this that we personally can uphold
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God's standard without using the Word of God as a club so we can uphold the standard in our own life without taking the
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Word of God and using it in such a way to punish people that were maybe upset at or hurt by because that's what that was more common thing with that the
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Pharisees would do right they would try to find any little thing to kind of pin you on and they'd go after you the
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Pharisees were not known for showing mercy but because Joseph was a just man he he loved mercy so I think that's the explanation of why he can be called a just man and not actually see the law upheld does that make that make sense to you all right so what is
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Joseph assume of Mary that she has she's cheated on him she's committed adultery and of course in reality she has done nothing wrong at all look at verse 20 but while he thought about these things and that kind of gives you the impression that he's he's struggling with this like there's no other explanation but it just doesn't seem like something she would do so there's some inner conflict
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I think going on but while he thought about these things behold an angel of the
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Lord appeared to him in a dream saying Joseph son of David do not be afraid to take to you marry your wife for that which is conceived in her is of the
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Holy Spirit the Greek word again thought on can also be translated deliberate so he's trying to figure out what to do
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I think he knows Mary well enough that this just doesn't seem in line with her character like it just doesn't seem like she would do that which at this point the angel comes and visits him how did the angel visit him in a dream now this doesn't mean that God any dream you have
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I had a really strange dream last night I won't tell you what it was but uh you know somebody is about well
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I never mind but sometimes you could look at a dream and like read into it maybe God's trying to tell me something because he did do that in the
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Old Testament right Hebrews 1 says that God various times various ways spoke to the fathers by the prophets what's that yeah okay in the future
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I would say during the tribulation at the end of days there'll be a restoration maybe of some of those things so I wouldn't rule it out going forward but generally when you have a dream you know you don't he knew this was of God so this isn't like any dream we have had so he tells
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Joseph take Mary as your wife for that which is conceived in her is of the
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Holy Spirit and this happens a lot in Matthew's gospel so the angel appears to him in a dream here in chapter 2 the wise men are divinely warned remember in a dream to go home a different way to escape
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King Herod Joseph is warned in a dream to take his family to Egypt to escape
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Herod and then when he's in Egypt what happens in Egypt an angel comes in a dream and tells him that it's safe to go back so a lot of messages in dreams in Matthew and I was thinking about this because Gabriel approached
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Mary while she was awake like he was there face -to -face with Mary but God communicates to Joseph through dreams and I thought why why is it one way with her and another way with him and I don't know if you have any answers but I can't find any thoughts on that okay okay
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I've been thinking about it I can't come up with anything the scripture doesn't give us an answer so I guess that's we just don't know he tells him in verse 21 that Mary will bring forth a son and you shall call his name
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Jehovah saves Jesus why because he will save his people from their sins so this is what the
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Messiah is coming to do to save the people from their sins the
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Israelites have been looking for the Jews have been waiting for the Christ to come are they waiting for the
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Christ to come so he can save them from their sins no no what are they waiting for the
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Messiah to come to do right right to be a king yep and Jesus is a king but in their mind a king is going to yeah he's gonna grow up he's gonna take the throne he's gonna restore the kingdom to the glory days like it was back in David's time and Solomon's time so he's gonna elevate
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Israel on the national stage and make them the top nation again yeah and drive out the
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Romans and bring in peace and prosperity and all the things that Kings tried to do the
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Israelites the Jews are not interested in being saved from their sins I mean obviously many of them are some of them are but the majority were not they were looking for a king in a different different sense so they're not totally wrong though because Jesus will do all of those things only he will rule on a physical throne will rule with a rod of iron he's called the
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Prince of Peace he is going to usher in a kingdom of peace he's gonna eliminate all of the enemies of the
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Jewish people isn't that going to happen it just wasn't at the first advent that happens when at the second yeah after the second advent so here's what the
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Jews didn't understand and here's even what the disciples didn't really understand you can't get the kingdom without the cross they didn't they just didn't get it remember when
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Peter first heard that Jesus was going to die he told him and Peter said no you that's that'll never happen to you you will never die and Jesus said where have
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I heard that before this is what Satan tempted me you know with in the wilderness that if you just bow to me
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I'll give you the kingdoms of the world without the cross and then Peter was acting as sort of a mouthpiece for Satan so who's the biggest enemy
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I mean really the biggest enemy is not the Romans the biggest enemy is not a bad economy the biggest enemy is sin and death so David what did
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David get David got victory over the Philistines David got victory over the Jebusites that's one thing
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Jesus though got victory over death David defeated men
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Jesus defeated the devil once and for all look at verse 22 so all of this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the
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Lord through the prophet saying behold the Virgin shall be with child and bear a son and they shall call his name what
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Emmanuel which is translated God with us okay let's turn to Isaiah chapter 7 and we'll we'll close here
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Isaiah chapter 7 so if you think of those great
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Christmas verses there's Isaiah 9 6 & 7 and then there's Isaiah 7 verse 14 and that's what we're gonna look at as you're turning there when
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Joseph woke up from his dream what did he do he did as the angel said he took Mary to be his wife so the divorce proceedings were all canceled and it says he did not know her which is a euphemism for knowing her carnally it says he did not know her until now what does that tell you he did not know her until yeah it tells you that they did eventually right which tells you they were a normal married couple they had physical relations
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I mean that's partly what marriage is about if there's none of that then you're more like friends right and I the only reason
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I point this out is because of the teachings of the Catholic Church that say that Mary was a perpetual virgin that she was not just the
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Virgin Mary when she gave birth to Jesus which we agree with but they say she was a virgin her entire life matter of fact they teach that she was a virgin while giving birth that Jesus sort of just beamed out of her that he didn't actually come out the normal way
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I know you think I'm kidding but that's that's a teaching within because Mary is so exalted she can't be corrupted in any way not that that's corruption because God's the one who came up with the idea but so he did not know her until so Mary was a virgin while she gave birth to Jesus but not afterwards and then in Matthew all
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I should I shouldn't have had you turn there so quick but Matthew also said that she brought forth her firstborn son what does that tell you that there were other sons
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Jesus is just the firstborn and then in Matthew 13 55 and 56 the people say about Jesus is this not the carpenter son is not
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Mary his mother and his brothers James Joseph Simon and Judas and his sisters are they not all with us so according to Matthew chapter 13
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Jesus has four brothers and at least two sisters so this whole idea that Mary is the perpetual virgin it's not biblical the
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Bible teaches the exact opposite you know sort of like remember on Wednesday nights we went through the faith matters column and just week after week after week they were teaching the exact opposite of what the
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Bible says just consistently so why did Rome do that well basically they tried to make
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Mary out to be like some sort of goddess figure going as far as to call her the queen of heaven where people bow and and pray to her more recently just a couple more comments
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I think it's good that you know this because you know I've been preaching on last week
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I preached on Mary to a large degree she found favor with God and then my
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Christmas sermon is also on Mary and sometimes Protestants and evangelicals don't like that too much when you talk about Mary she she does hold it in a very important place so I want to make sure everybody knows
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I'm not buying into all the the hype but in more recent history the
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Catholic Church in 1854 declared that Mary was sinless in 1950 it was made a dogma that instead of dying and being buried
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Mary was taken up into heaven you see what they're trying to do all the things that Jesus did
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Jesus was sinless while she's sinless to Jesus ascended into heaven while she cheated to Jesus was born of a virgin they say
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Mary was immaculately conceived did you know the immaculate conception most people think that refers to Jesus being born of a virgin no the immaculate conception is in reference to Mary's birth that she was born perfect and without sin so and then one latin there are current discussions right now in the
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Catholic Church to declare Mary as co -redeemer if all of that wasn't bad enough they want many people within the
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Catholic Church want to make it a dogma that Mary is co - redemptrix that Mary and Jesus together have saved the human race so it's unfortunate to say the least but at least that has not yet been declared but it may in the future so with that said that this is one extreme the reason
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I bring that up this is one of the lot of false doctrine about Mary that you might hear this time of year that's one extreme what's the other extreme to the
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Catholics are on one extreme sometimes Protestants take you know the pendulum swings too far in the other direction and the way that Protestants and evangelicals talk about Mary is like they want to kind of knock her down a few pegs and speak disparagingly of her should we do that no because as the scripture says
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Mary was blessed among women Mary was highly favored by God Mary was chosen vessel and why
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I told you to turn to Isaiah 714 this is something we often don't think of Mary was actually an object of prophecy we don't usually think of it in that sense but look at Isaiah 714 therefore the
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Lord himself will give you a sign behold the
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Virgin okay now who's the Virgin okay so Mary is prophesied of in in the scripture behold the
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Virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name
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Emmanuel so that's where that's where Matthew is quoting from Emmanuel God with us this comes from Isaiah 714 now
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I'm not gonna pick on you if you have a translation that says this okay but does anyone have a different word when it says behold the
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Virgin does anyone have a different word all your translations say virgin okay is there is anyone aware of where I'm going with this does anyone know of the problem with this verse this
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Bible version isn't really that popular these days it used to be but who's heard of the revised standard version the
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RSV okay in the revised standard version of the Bible if you read it it says behold the young woman will conceive and liberal ministers will latch on to that and see say they'll say the virgin birth behold the
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Virgin that's that's the wrong translation it should be behold the young woman well because remember they don't think that Jesus is
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God they don't believe in the virgin birth they don't think that Mary was a virgin that the young woman will conceive so the
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Hebrew word here's the thing about that the Hebrew word Alma can be translated young woman but it can also be translated virgin so it in fairness it could go either way because back then young maidens were typically first so can go either way how do we know it's virgin yep that's one thing in the text the
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Lord will give you a sign that's the word for miracle young woman giving birth isn't a miracle it might have been uncommon in those days it's not a miracle what's another way that we know for a fact that the proper translation is virgin because Matthew writing under inspiration of the
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Holy Ghost in the Greek he uses the word for virgin so if there's any confusion
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Matthew clears it up in the New Testament by stating explicitly that Mary is indeed a very he quotes this verse and says behold the
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Virgin so it will be a sign and the child will be called Emmanuel meaning
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God with us so in conclusion the takeaway is this when Jesus came into the world that was
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God coming into the world God came into the world to be with us so if there's anyone who is far from God or if there's anyone who feels far from God remember this that Jesus is
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God with us in the person of Jesus Christ God has come near to you