A Peculiar Birth Matthew 1:18-25

12-21-14

Lori described our church to the LAM group the other night as a wonderful but somewhat unusual church.

I piped up--yes “a peculiar people”--as God’s people are called in 1 Peter 2:9 in the KJV:

But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:

Newer translations substitute “a peculiar people” with “A PEOPLE FOR God's OWN POSSESSION

Either way, the truth is: Christians are called to be be somewhat different from non-Christians in a variety of ways because God is different from us in many ways and we are called to imitate God.

God knows He is peculiar. He tell us that in Is. 55:8-9:"For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways," declares the LORD. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher.”

We are called to be “peculiar”--to be people who imitate God in His character, His ways and His supernatural, non-normal ministries.

That imitation of God will eventually make us look and sound different to non-believers or even to other Christians who may not know that following God would make them act differently in their daily lives.

If they could speak to us, I think billions of people around the world would say: “Please be different from us. Please imitate your God. We fight, we hate, we steal, we live for ourselves, money, pleasure or power and we are still miserable. We have messed up our lives and our planet. We need you to be different! Show us that we can be different, too”

This Christmas, I want us to celebrate our peculiar Savior and His peculiar birth so we can imitate Him even more—even if we look peculiar to others.

Let’s look at the story of the birth of Jesus as seen in the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 1:18-25

Verse 18: Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: when His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit.

1. First, if you are the Almighty God of the universe, why would you lower yourself to become a microscopic creature so you could help other microscopic creatures you had previous made—especially when those microscopic creatures have clearly demonstrated over thousands of years that they so not want you to be in their lives? They would rather run their own lives, thank you!

What kind of odd God are you that would humble yourself—or actually humiliate yourself—to enter the pitiful, harsh, dark, painful world those creatures inhabit?

No other so-called god in any religion would even think of doing that! Why are you so peculiar, God of Abraham, Issac & Jacob?”

Our God might respond: “ Well, that’s just the sort of feller I Am. I can’t help Myself. I cannot just stand by and see them destroy themselves with sin. I made them to love and even if they have rejected me a million times, I still want them…and if I have to pay a price to get them back, I will.”

Now that’s peculiar! Thank You, Father, for being so peculiar! Holy Spirit, help us to be peculiar like that!

2. Another peculiar thing: God the Holy Spirit made Mary pregnant with Jesus.

Why that way? God could have greatly anointed an ordinary man to live a perfect life and die for the sins of the world if God wanted to do it that way. Look what He did with King David, or Moses, or Abraham or Elijah. God makes the rules. He could have used any normally conceived man to be His Messiah.

So why the peculiar birth process?

After all, no Jew ever expected God to take human form and be the Messiah. So why not just give them what they expected?

Well, the biblical record shows that God rarely does things our way, does He?

How Did this peculiar decision by God affect Joseph?

How would you like to have been the fiancee of Mary when he found out Mary was pregnant?

You live your whole life as a godly man, waiting for just the right girl. You finally find one, get engaged, both families are thrilled and then just a few months before the wedding that the entire town of Nazareth knows about, she drops the bomb: I’m pregnant. Worse yet, she has gone crazy--claiming that God made her pregnant.

Your world dissolves into chaos and tears. Everyone is shocked. You alternate between despair and waves of rage. You think thoughts like:

“How could God allow this to happen? Why didn’t I see this coming? What kind of person is that Mary who would do this to her family, my family and to me? Doesn’t she realize I could have her stoned for this? Doesn’t she care that she has ruined her life and mine?”

Now verse 19:

And Joseph her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly

Does that sound peculiar to you? A man shamed by his fiancee in front of dozens of people in both families and in the village of Nazareth, a man with a moral and legal right to punish his unfaithful fiancee decides not to even embarrass her but instead decides to break the engagement quietly. What was Joseph thinking? How odd. Why didn’t he do what many men would have done: publicly shame her in some way. That way, she pay a price for the pain she has caused to so many --and it would be another way to

show others he was definitely not the guy who got her pregnant.

But Joseph did not do that. How peculiar of Joseph.

Where did this righteous man learn such odd behavior? Perhaps in the synagogue at Nazareth when the Rabbi told them the of the love story of a man named Hosea. God told him to marry a promiscuous woman whose name was Gomer. Why would God have a righteous prophet marry such a person? Talk about odd!

Well, before the days of infomercials and Facebook, God wanted to give Israel a vivid visual illustration of how much He loved Israel despite its constant rejection of His love. God often said He loved Israel like a Husband loves His wife and when Israel chose to worship other gods, it felt like Israel was committing adultery against God.

So God set up this marriage as a prophetic act to communicate truth to His stubborn people who were worshipping other gods. Now the prophet Hosea really loved Gomer and they had three children together. But eventually, she committed adultery and ended up being a prostitute sold into slavery--just like Israel had spiritually done with foreign gods.

So, God, being the peculiar Person He is, tells Hosea this:Then the Lord said to me, “Go again, love a woman who is loved by her husband, yet an adulteress, even as the Lord

loves the sons of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love raisin cakes.” 2 So I bought her for myself for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and a half of barley. 3 Then I said to her, “You shall stay with me for many days. You shall not play the harlot, nor shall you have a man; so I will also be toward you.” (Hosea 3:1-3)

What an odd fellow his neighbors must have thought him to be: ransoming his adulterous wife and taking her back home with him.The Bible does not say anything more about Gomer, but it is not hard to imagine the incredible awe and gratitude she felt towards her husband and the God Who sent him to rescue her. What an odd God, indeed!

Maybe that’s why Joseph was so peculiar. He had a peculiar God--a God Whose mercy transcends our human capacity to comprehend it. A God who delights to rescue, to protect, to heal, to save—no matter how bad we are. No matter how we have rejected Him.

Mary must have felt like Gomer—a failure to the man who wanted her. She knew Joseph would feel betrayed by her unusual pregnancy. She knew no one would understand and would condemn and scorn her. We can easily Mary’s heart must have been ready to burst the night she found out that Joseph was not going to publicly disgrace her for her apparent adultery to her fiancee. She may have cried out to God,

Father, what a good man Joseph is. Look how much he loves me that he would treat me with such compassion. Father, I know you can help me raise this child by myself if I have

to--after all, He is Your Son--but I want Joseph to be at my side as my husband. Please tell him what you told me.

I am sure Mary cried out to God something like that. Wouldn’t you if you were Mary?Finally, God does tell Joseph, as Matthew’s Gospel goes on to reveal:

20 But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. 21 She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” 22 Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet: 23 “Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which translated means, “God with us.” 24 And Joseph awoke from his sleep and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took Mary as his wife, 25 but kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a Son; and he called His name Jesus.

So, again, why did God wait to tell Joseph what He had told Mary about her pregnancy?

I believe God had to know if Joseph was the right man for the job of being the step-father of Jesus. God had to test Joseph by not telling him right away that God made Mary pregnant.

Just as God tested Abraham by ordering him to sacrifice his son on Mt Moriah, just as Jesus tested his Jewish followers by

telling them they had to eat his body and drink his blood, just as God had to test the boy Joseph in the Old Testament by allowing his family to persecute him all the way to the throne of Egypt--God apparently had to test Joseph, Mary’s fiancee.

Why? Being the step-father of Jesus was not going to be an easy job. God had to offend Joseph’s mind to reveal what was in his heart.

And God was right. Mary needed a man of great integrity and faith to raise Jesus as his father when many people suspected otherwise.

First, by taking her home with him, some might suspect Joseph was admitting to being the real father of that baby. Why else would he keep his pregnant fiancee? Any normal man would dump her or worse, right? By taking her home as his wife, Joseph was willing to be blamed for this great sin of pregnancy out of wedlock.

By taking Mary as his wife, Joseph would have to endure the gossip of the neighbors for decades as he raised Jesus in Nazareth where Mary got pregnant by the Holy Spirit.

“Oh--he’s the one who got her pregnant and then bribed her to make up that silly story about God doing it. What a creep--making his wife look crazy just to protect his honor.”No matter how well-made his furniture was as a carpenter, the stigma of his alleged sexual sin would have hung over him like a morning fog that does not burn off with a thousand sunrises.

And then there was the task of raising a child Who was also God Almighty. Who is ready for that? Where is the parenting class on that?

Yes--it is more than likely that Joseph had a rough time being the father of Jesus. But his gentle, godly response to her strange pregnancy showed Mary & God he was the right man for the job.

Yes--God is a peculiar God. He always been and always will be.

We are called to be peculiar as God is peculiar. We are to imitate God.

So what has this got to do with Jesus?

Jesus is a peculiar Savior—a man called to love His Bride like Joseph and Hosea had to.

God sent Jesus to love and redeem a Bride whose purity was deeply in question.

God sent Jesus to redeem His Bride from the slavery of her sins.

Like Hosea, Jesus came to seek His Bride who could not stay faithful to her covenant with God, but a Bride God loved too much to forget.

Jesus came to seek, love and redeem a Bride. We are that Bride—His Church.

One day Jesus will have a pure and spotless Bride in heaven Who would rule and reign by His side forever. That’s us—His Church. Christmas is the eternal love story of Jesus coming to seek, love and redeem His Bride.

Just as Joseph had mercy on Mary, just as Hosea redeemed his wayward wife, God sent Jesus to rescue us and make us the Bride of Christ.

Who would have ever thought that God would do such a thing?

For that, we can all be very grateful for a peculiar God.

May we all have Mary’s Christmas: the thrill of being loved by a man Who looked beyond our sin and saw our need and our value…forever.

Merry Christmas Jesus.