Finding God in a Family Crisis (Matthew 1.18-25)

Introduction

Years ago, I bought a new mobile phone. It was a good one; it had a 2 megapixel camera and an MP3 player. I took a photo on it once but never worked out how to view it and I wouldn’t have a clue how to download music to the media player, let alone listen to it.

But it only cost me One Euro. However, I did have to sign up to a contract that bound me to a particular mobile network for two years. Anyway, a few days after I bought my phone I received an official looking text message telling me that the owner of a certain phone number had won a prize. I thought, “That number looks familiar” and, sure enough, it was mine. I now had an exciting opportunity to win a new car, or 10.000 Euros or some other unspecified surprise. All I had to do is call a number (at one Euro a minute) to find out what it was.

You know what? I didn’t bother. I thought “They’re going to have me hanging on the line for half an hour to win the surprise – which will probably turn out to be a cardboard dustpan and brush.”

Joseph – the Call that Stretches Faith

Maybe the 1^st century equivalent of my text message would have sounded like this: “Joseph Davidson, here’s an exciting opportunity for you to grow in faith! Do you really want to waste your life doing woodwork or will you embark on an exhilarating adventure with God? You want the fun? Congratulations! You get to marry this pregnant girl who tells you that she’s a virgin.”

What did Joseph think? I think if we could see his face, he would have had the same helpless expression that Moses must have had when God said, “You, Moses, are going to defy the most powerful man on earth, this mighty ruler who destroys all who resist him. You are going to tell Pharaoh to stick his pyramid where the sun don’t shine and lead your nation out of oppression into the Promised Land.”

Unsurprisingly, Moses tried to walk away. And so did Joseph. The coming of Christ was not a fairy-tale, magical event like a cute nativity play. Jesus came to us in a messy and stressful family crisis. And he still does today.

Joseph should have known that from the beginning of the Bible to the end God almost never seems to call anyone to do anything reasonable or sensible.

“Gideon, you are going to take on the vast Midianite army with 300 losers equipped with candles and jam jars.”

“David, you are going to defeat the undefeated champion of the Philistines, eight feet tall and covered in armour. You will have, at your personal disposal, the arsenal of a few pebbles and an elastic band.”

“Jeremiah, you are going to prophesy all your life to your nation and nobody will listen to you. Ever. You will face jeers, humiliation, chains, exile and you will be left for dead in a hole in the ground.”

“John the Baptist, you’re going wear a hair shirt, eat insects and tear into King Herod, the most powerful man in the land, for stealing another man’s wife.”

“Joseph, you’re going to marry a girl ‘in the family way’ but who swears she’s never had sex in her life.”

Never confuse following Christ with an easy life! But can I encourage you? Do not be afraid of what the future holds.

With God you never need to run away just because what he calls you to seems impossible. The truth is you’re probably even less equipped to answer God’s call on your life than you think you are.

But 2 Corinthians 4.7 says, “This all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.” 

Mary – the Pregnant Virgin

So verse 18; “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...”

In September 1996 The Daily Telegraph published this article:

 “Virgin birth insurance. Some 300 British women have taken out insurance against having a virgin birth by an act of God. The policy offered by London insurance brokers Goodfellow Ingrams Pearson, promises to pay out £1 million in the event of a virgin birth - to be verified by an independent panel of gynaecologists - against an annual payment of £100. A number of those who took up the policy are from an exclusively female sect who reportedly believes that this would hasten the return of Christ. This is not the company’s only unusual policy - a scheme insuring against impregnation by aliens was taken up by 723 people in just four weeks. Managing Director Simon Burgess commented, “You must never underestimate the stupidity of the British public…”

It doesn’t take a gynaecologist to tell you that a virgin birth is not normal.

I remember when I was growing up, watching a drama on TV, where a 17 year-old girl announces to her bemused parents that she’s going to have a baby. Dad starts shouting. Mum hits the roof. Daughter sobs uncontrollably and then says, “But mum, it was an accident!”

And I used to wonder how you could find yourself pregnant by accident. I didn’t dare ask anyone. But I worried that you could become a dad inadvertently.

And so it wasn’t until I got to the age of about 15 that it sunk in that “It was an accident” really meant “Me and Wayne had sex without a condom.” Yes, it dawned on my sensitive soul that, in the normal course of events, it always takes a man and a woman to make a baby. Any other explanation is scientifically impossible.

But, actually, not all that impossible. Here’s an extract from BBC Science and Nature. “Female hammerhead sharks can reproduce without having sex, scientists confirm. The evidence comes from a shark at Nebraska Zoo in which a female gave birth to a pup in 2001 despite having had no contact with a male. Genetic tests … prove conclusively the young shark possessed no paternal DNA… Parthenogenesis, as this type of reproduction is known, occurs when an egg cell is triggered to develop as an embryo without the addition of any genetic material from a male sperm cell.”

Parthenogenesis occurs naturally in several types of fish, amphibians, and reptiles, some invertebrates, as well as in many plants. It’s very rare, but it does happen.

That’s all well and good. But I don’t think Joseph knew about this and I think that even if he did he would have had no inclination to believe that that is what must have happened here.

He would be right. Let’s be clear. This is not how Jesus was conceived. God becoming human was not a spontaneous biological anomaly. God’s great plan to send his eternal Son in flesh and blood was not a weird evolutionary mutation. Jesus was conceived by a powerful, miraculous work of the Holy Spirit, as the end of v18 specifically states.

I believe that the Bible is true, that this book is a trustworthy record of things that actually happened. I accept that Mary was a virgin when she was pregnant. Full-stop. But why is it so important that Jesus was born of a virgin? Does it matter? Even if the Bible never mentioned it, why would it just not do for him to be conceived by normal sexual relations between Joseph and Mary? I can think of two reasons.

Firstly, it shows that salvation can never come from human effort or works, but must ultimately come from the Lord. If Jesus had had two human parents the solution to all our sin would be man-made. But no. Only God can save us.

Secondly, only by a virgin birth is it possible for the full deity and the full humanity to come together in the one person of Jesus Christ. As it is, Jesus is fully human - so he can totally identify with all our experiences, and fully God - so he can totally deliver us from all our fallenness. If Jesus had had two human parents he could have fully understood our sinful state but he wouldn’t have had the power to save us from it.

Then we read this: “Because Joseph her husband (by the way the custom was that you were called husband and wife even during the engagement, and even though you had to get a divorce to break it off, you couldn’t have sex before the wedding itself)… it says “Joseph 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” (v19-20).

Fear Not

I remember reading about a photographer for a national magazine who was assigned to take pictures of a forest fire in the summer of 2005. He was told that there would be a small plane at the local aerodrome waiting to take him up. He got to the airstrip just as it was getting dark and sure enough, there was a small Cessna aircraft on the runway. He jumped in with all his equipment, his cameras and lenses and shouted “OK, let’s go!”

The pilot took off, swung the plane into the wind, and soon they were flying erratically through the air. After a while, the photographer shouted out, “Fly over the north side of the fire! And make several low-level passes.” The pilot sounded petrified. “Why would I want to do that?” So the other guy said, “Because I’m going to take pictures! That’s what photographers do!” The pilot looked even more scared. “You mean - you’re not my flight instructor!?”

“Do not be afraid...” It seems that any time any angel is despatched from heaven to earth, they must have standing orders that on encountering any human being they are immediately to say, “Fear not!” The Christmas stories in the Bible bear eloquent testimony to this.

Here in v20, here’s Joseph; bothered about the cost of following God’s leading. “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife.”

You know what it’s like when you’re on the verge of stepping out and following the Lord, maybe about making an important decision, that will mean a big change… maybe cutting ties with something you know isn’t right or taking a stand that will make you unpopular… it’s unsettling, it’s frightening… and if that’s where you are today, do not be afraid.

“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.” In fact that’s what the name Jesus means - “God saves.”

And that is, of course, why he came. Because as the sad, sorry mess the world is in shows, we need to be saved.

If the greatest need of the human race had been more knowledge, God would have sent us a professor.

If our greatest need had been better technology, God would have sent us an engineer. 

If our greatest need had been increased wealth, God would have sent us an economist.  

If our greatest need had been pleasure, God would have sent us an entertainer. 

If Jesus is just a great reformer, a great teacher or a great philosopher he can’t lift our sins from us. He can’t save.

But our greatest need, our deepest need, the basic and fundamental need for all of us is forgiveness. Have you lived a flawless life and never broken one of God’s laws? None of us have. Have you never had to regret anything you’ve ever done or said? All of us have. That’s why God sent us a Saviour.

One day someone wrote a letter to the veteran evangelist Billy Graham which was published in his newspaper column. This is what it said; “I turned my back on God over 60 years ago, while I was still in my teens. I can even remember when I did it. Now I'm old and dying, and I wish I'd taken a different road. Please tell young people not to do what I did. I was a fool, but now it's too late.”

And this is how Billy Graham replied; “Thank you for your letter. When we're young, we often don't realize how life-changing our decisions may be - for good or for evil. Only as we grow older do we begin to see it - and that's especially true for someone in your position. The Bible speaks of the terrible consequences that await those who “did not choose to fear the Lord” (Proverbs 1.29). But listen: It is not too late for you to turn to God! Yes, your life would have been much different (and much happier) if you had given your life to Christ when you had the opportunity many years ago. 

But why enter eternity separated from God and his blessings if you don't have to? God loves you, in spite of the way you've treated him. If you had been the only person on earth who needed to be saved, Jesus Christ would still have gone to the cross and died for you. God loves you that much! Right now, God is speaking to you and giving you a second chance to turn to Christ. Don't make the same mistake you did over 60 years ago. The Bible says, “Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near” (Isaiah 55.6). Confess your sins to God and commit your life to Jesus Christ. You cannot change the past, but you can change the future.”

I don’t know whether that person made their peace with God before they died. I hope so. But you and I today, we can have freedom and forgiveness from God because he sent his Son into the world to save sinners.

Ending

All this took place to fulfil what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Emmanuel” - which means, “God is with us” (v24).

Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 7th December 2014