Unexpected Blessings 2013

All right now grab those message notes as we kick off a brand new holiday series called Christmas Blessings and today we're gonna be talking about unexpected blessings. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but here it is anyway: things are not going to go exactly the way you expect this Christmas. They're just not. Invariably you're gonna be thrown a couple curves, and it's likely that in some of those unexpected moments that it's actually gonna be better than some of your best laid plans. In other instances, probably not. But there's nothing like Christmas with our heightened expectations that come at this time of year that reminds us that we're not in control of our lives as much as we'd like to think. We're just not, and this is true for everyone, including the first Christmas couple, Joseph and Mary, the parents of Jesus. Man, they learned this big time because if there's anything that qualifies as an unexpected blessing, it's the very first Christmas.

I mean, I can't think of a more unexpected way for God to enter the world in the way Jesus did: born in a manger, conceived into a virgin, born in this little forgotten town named Bethlehem. So if you add it all up, the biggest blessing of all time arrives in a completely unexpected package. And that's why I put the verse from Isaiah 55 at the top of your notes this morning because it really sets the stage for the way that Christmas actually happened—not the way that we sometimes romanticize it, but how it actually happened. I'm gonna invite you to read this with me. So let me hear you read this with all the rested energy that you have after Thanksgiving. Let me hear you. Here we go: For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. God's essentially saying here, you think you have me figured out? Hmm, think again.

As we're about to see, no one has to wrestle with this reality more the first Christmas than Joseph himself. And the problem for us, though, is that we're so familiar with this story we've lost most, if not all, of the shock value. We've taken this tense real-life drama and turned it into stuff—well, little stuff like this, like, you know, the precious moments version of Christmas. I mean, here's their version of Mary and Joseph. Do they look stressed to you and all put out or perplexed? I don't think so. They're just enjoying another precious moment, all plush and cuddly. Never mind that they look like they're all of six years old. But can you imagine Mary with her ginormous eyes saying, 'Guess what, Joseph?' 'What, Mary?' 'I'm pregnant.' 'I could explain how this happened, but you'll never believe me.' 'Wow, Mary, you're right. I guess the wedding's off.' Somehow these two just don't capture the tension that must have existed in that moment.

And by the way, if your kids are confused over what Christmas is all about, the good people at Precious Moments are here to help with products like this. What could say Christmas more than Santa kneeling at the manger of the baby Jesus? I mean, there it is right there: one big precious moment. Hey, well at least they finally teamed up, right? I mean, how about a simplified thing? My point is we probably need to recalibrate our lenses just a little bit if this story is gonna speak to us in ways that have anything to do with real life.

So I'm gonna invite you to open your Bibles to Matthew 1 today. We're gonna be looking at verses 18 through 25. And if you don't have your own Bible, you're welcome to grab one of those Bibles that are in the pew racks in front of you or in some cases underneath. Matthew 1:18–25. And as we look through this passage today and some of the unexpected moments that were part of the first Christmas story, my hope is that we are going to find a part of ourselves in our own story in this drama. And I hope you'll see things like blessings that arrived in unexpected packages or times that you're reminded of when you were completely caught off guard, and yet in those moments God surprised you, God amazed you, got deep into your faith—even wounds that we still carry, that we still bear, and that are very real. And yet, as you think about it, God has brought comfort and solace and meaning in some very unexpected ways.

At the top of my list of unexpected blessings is my wife, Laura. I mean, most of you wouldn't know this, but when I was in my mid to late 20s, by 26, 27, I was actually seriously planning to marry someone else. In fact, I was just getting ready to propose when the relationship, I should say, never got to the wedding, fell apart, and I was devastated. I was heartbroken. I had no idea what God would have for me in the years to come. I thought I knew what the future was gonna look like, and I was disappointed in that moment to find I was really wrong. And Laura, prior to our courtship, not only had she accepted the proposal of another man, but she was 20 minutes away from marrying him—20 minutes—and she pulls the plug on the wedding ceremony. Now, that's a different sermon. But suffice it to say, Laura and I, now 16 years of marriage later and three children, we are living examples of how God can bring amazing unexpected blessings out of some of the most unwelcome events in our lives.

Which I think is really cool because it doesn't mean that we won't get hurt or be disappointed. But it does mean that we can always have hope because God is always at work. It means, first of all, that I can look for unexpected blessings even when my plans get interrupted. You might want to write that down: when my plans get interrupted. Because like it or not, your plans will get interrupted—big plans, little plans, everyone's plans get interrupted. And this was certainly true for Joseph. Watch how this happens starting at verse 18. This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit.

Now we got to just linger at this verse for a moment because I don't think Matthew could have packed more of a punch into this verse than he has right here. I mean, it may as well read, 'Once upon a time, kaboom! A guy named Joseph got flattened.' Once upon a time, the bottom dropped out of his life. And you have to lay aside the familiarity that we all bring to this story and just think about this. How did it feel to be Joseph right here in verse 18 of his life? He doesn't know the rest of the story, and from his perspective, his fiancée is pregnant, and there's only one possible explanation, right? The Bible doesn't even tell us whether Mary tried to tell him about the angel that had visited her and told her she was going to conceive by the Holy Spirit. It doesn't even say that. And even if she did, even if she had tried to explain this amazing miracle, do you think Joseph would have bought it? Would you have bought it? I mean, these were ordinary human people. It's not like she, you know, her halo all of a sudden lit up when she came and delivered the news about this. And so he's just completely shocked. Holy Spirit, right? Mary's not just pregnant; she's crazy.

So the story of Jesus begins in total chaos, with a scandal no less, and what Joseph has envisioned of his future plans and the things he's been dreaming of, they are seriously interrupted. And this brings us to something that you see over and over again in Scripture, and it's really something that we don't like. We don't welcome. But the reality is this: God often interrupts us in order to use us. That's kind of a difficult truth, but I don't suppose there's a nicer way to put it. You look through the pages of Scripture; God has this way of messing with people right before he wants to use them. And there's no shortage of examples. Go all the way back to Genesis, and there's a guy named Abram living in the most magnificent city of the day, a city named Ur. And God comes to him and says, 'Hey Abram, I want you and your wife Sarah. I want you to move out west. Not a lot there, but a lot of scary people, and you know the more powerful ones are gonna think that your wife is really cute. You'll have a good time with that. Now I'm gonna change your name to Abraham, and I'm gonna throw in several decades of infertility. But after all of that, I'm gonna make a great nation out of you. So hold on to that, Abraham.' Okay, sounds awesome, God.

Fast forward just a couple generations to Abraham's great-grandson Joseph—not the Joseph of Christmas, but a Joseph that lived many centuries before all that. God's gonna use him to save countless thousands of lives. And long story short, Joseph ends up in Egypt. He's an Israelite, but he's in Egypt, and he is the second most powerful guy in all of Egypt. He's Pharaoh's right-hand man. And God tells him that there's gonna be a horrible famine that's gonna descend on the earth. And so Joseph orchestrates this amazing food bank program, essentially perhaps history's first food bank. And when the famine hits, nations come from all around the known world to receive food and salvation essentially from Joseph because of how God has used him. Now if you know his story, you know how it began. It began with his brothers selling him into slavery. And that was just the beginning of several unpleasant twists and turns.

So if God would interrupt people that we see in the pages of Scripture, why would we think it would be any different for us? Think of your own life. When are the times when God has your most undivided attention? When life is good, the sky is blue, all is right with the world? Or when you've been knocked off balance or perhaps even on your back? And please hear me here. Don't get me wrong. I'm not suggesting that God just, you know, meddles in our lives or interrupts us just to get our attention. A lot of times our interruptions come because of our own stupid or sinful choices or the stupid or sinful choices of other people, and we just happen to be on the receiving end. But even in those moments, God promises to work for our good, to work in all things because he will not allow our pain to be wasted. So if he allows your plans, whether they're big or small, to be interrupted, you can also be sure that he has plans to use those things so that at the very least you will be able to draw meaning and purpose from those chapters of your life. And perhaps you might just find yourself experiencing a blessing that you never imagined.

Now back to the Joseph of Christmas. Here he is on the cusp of the greatest miracle that the world has ever seen, and how's he doing? He's crushed, he's humiliated, angry, confused, jealous. If we had a time machine, we could go back and say, 'Oh man, don't worry, it's gonna be awesome. You're gonna be the stepfather of the Savior of the world. Don't worry, Joseph.' But if we could do that and if he knew the script from beginning to end, where would be the blessing in that? Where would be the opportunity to trust God, to grow in faith? Where would be the opportunity to demonstrate nobility and courage in the face of adversity? Wouldn't be there at all. It all go away.

So in real life, Joseph has to respond to the limited amount of information he has, and all he can do is take it moment by moment, day by day. Same's true for you and me, right? There are blessings in those moments when we don't have all the answers, but we say, 'Lord, I don't know what to do, but I know I want to trust you.' And God brings blessings in those places that really don't come about any other way. And by the way, most of the time we don't have all the answers, right? Very rarely is it all crystal clear. But because God has the answers and God is good, I can nonetheless look for unexpected blessings when my plans are being interrupted. And that really leads into our second point because on the heels of every interruption is usually a period of uncertainty where we're just kind of at a loss. But even so, I can look for unexpected blessings even when my concerns aren't immediately addressed.

The tough thing about life's interruptions is they rarely come with new instructions, at least not immediately. And I don't know how long it took for Joseph to get more clarity on what was going on. It could have been hours, days, weeks. But for a while, he's gonna have to figure out what to do pretty much on his own. Picking up at verse 18: Because Joseph, her husband, was faithful to the law and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly. Now you may know how engagements worked in that day in ancient Israel. There are still places in the world that do the same. First of all, marriages were arranged by the parents, by the families. And so this problem is much bigger than just Joseph and Mary; this involves two families. This could potentially, you know, split a village in half. So this is a big deal. And second, once you were engaged, the engagement was as binding as marriage itself. In fact, they were considered married, except they lived in their parents' homes until the wedding ceremony, which could be a year apart from when they got engaged. But nonetheless, it was so binding that the only way out of it was through divorce.

So here's Joseph, God-honoring and faithful to the law, which was important to him, important to his family, and by the way, their reputations are on the line now too. And as far as Joseph is concerned, there's only one option: divorce. That's really the only category he has available to him. It's not like you just, you know, here's your ring back. They didn't do it that way. Now the only place he has some discretion is how he will divorce Mary. The more public way would be to go to the religious elders and say, 'A crime has been committed against me; this woman has committed adultery.' And the consequences would fall on Mary, and Joseph had every right to do that. He would have been hewing to the letter of the law to do that. And if he was concerned about damage control and wanting to come out of this, you know, kind of smelling as good as possible, that's the way he would have done it because it would all get focused on Mary. But instead, he chooses to divorce her quietly, which means there's gonna be a big question mark over them. What happened? People are gonna gossip, and they're gonna talk, and they're gonna wonder. Joseph chooses not to vilify Mary. You can't marry her, but he's not gonna crush her.

Verse 20: But after he had considered this, now I want you to stop there for a moment because in the original language this was written in, the word for considered there that you see can mean to ponder or to turn over in your mind over and over again, suggesting to me that he had time to roll this over, to mull on it, to have some sleepless nights where he's thinking, 'What am I gonna do?' And he finally arrives at this decision, but the point is the answer didn't immediately drop out of the sky for him. He's got to twist in the wind for a while. Can you relate to that? I know I can. An interruption happens, and your concern is not immediately addressed. There's a time where you feel like you're just waiting on the Lord's answer. Well, after Joseph comes to a decision, 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. 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.'

Wow! Now on one hand, Joseph has to be feeling incredibly relieved. It's like, 'Oh my goodness, I had no idea.' On the other hand, he's gotta be going, 'Did this seriously just happen?' I mean, did an angel just really appear to me and tell this? Because it's all kind of seeming pretty surreal to him, I'm sure. And I want you to notice the first thing the angel says to him: 'Do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife.' And this is significant because Joseph's problem, at least prior to when the angel appears to him, is more than just circumstantial. I mean, circumstances are one aspect, but the other is the fear that descends upon us when we don't have all the answers, when we're in those moments of uncertainty. And some of you in this room are in that moment right now. You are plagued by the what-ifs and the what-nexts over a situation or dilemma that you're facing.

And often, my observation is that fear can be like the worst part of the process—worse even than the outcome, even if the outcome's not all that great. I mean, somehow we're wired; we can deal with specifics pretty well, but it's the unanswered questions that just drive us crazy. And in those moments, fear can essentially become our Lord and Master because it's fear that is driving us, fear that is motivating us and consuming us and capturing us. And so how can any of us enjoy the peace that our true Lord offers us when fear is taking center stage in our life? It's not really possible. And frankly, I think this is why God often stretches us before he answers us. Part of God's project for all of us is to deal with our fears. 1 John 4:18 says, 'The perfect love casts out fear.' And so in his perfect love, God gives us opportunities to trust him and experience him even in the face of our fears because that's the only way we will overcome them, when we become convinced that God is bigger and greater than the thing that we fear.

But now, of course, we're talking about God's ways and not ours, aren't we? Because in our manner of thinking, we just want God to change our circumstances. But in God's way of thinking, he's more interested in changing us despite our circumstances. But if you're able to arrive at that place, we're not through, you know, your grit or willpower, but through the work of God's Spirit in your life, and you're absolutely convinced that God is greater than your fears, and you're able to rest in that, man, you're breathing some rare air in that moment. You are living out one of life's greatest blessings because you are experiencing true freedom, where you're no longer afraid of what might get you because you are convinced God's already got me. That's freedom. That's abundant life. That's blessing, where we can be still and know that he is God. And that's God's agenda for all of us.

This is the exact process that Joseph is going through in this story. And notice God doesn't solve all his problems. Yes, the angel comes to him and tells him about how Mary's conceived, and that had to be a huge relief and blessing. But even so, how many people around them are likely to believe this? The angel doesn't appear to all of them; the angel appears to Mary and to Joseph, and later the Spirit's gonna reveal to one of Mary's relatives, Elizabeth, that this is how she's conceived. But you know, there was no message written across the sky. So for everyone else living at ground level, there's a much more ordinary explanation to what's going on in their lives.

So the angel says, 'Don't be afraid to take Mary as your wife.' Hey, there's good reason for this. Perhaps they move up the date of the wedding ceremony, and people go, 'Hmm, I wonder why.' And then when Mary's pregnancy starts to show all too early, the gossip starts to increase and grow. 'Hey, they knew about the birds and the bees, you know,' and their neighbors gossip just like ours. And so this is very likely how this story looked to the people surrounding Mary and Joseph. And yeah, we kind of miss this in the little figurines in our mantle; you know, we don't have the people going like this. But perhaps we should because this was real life playing out in these two. It looked like a scandal, frankly, to all involved. But it's amazing because Matthew wants us to know, 'No, here's the facts. Here's what really happened.' Right here in verses 22 and 23: 'All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel, which means God with us.' And this is mind-boggling because there really couldn't be a bigger gap between what God is doing—heaven coming to earth in the womb of a virgin—and everyone else's perception of what's going on. There really couldn't be a larger gap between the two. I mean, unexpected in blessing indeed.

And it's not just Mary and Joseph that are on the receiving end of the promise of God being with us, becoming one of us. Matthew is looking all the way back to Isaiah 7:14, written about 735 years before the Christmas story, and he's going, 'That prophecy, it happened right there.' This was a promise that was given to Israel and by extension the rest of the world. And here's Isaiah's own words again, 735 years before Christmas, where he says, 'Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel.' Now talk about God stretching us before he answers us. Because Isaiah pens this prophecy, 735 years go by, and when it's being fulfilled, there's like all of two people on planet earth that actually recognize it's what's going on—well, two.

And I love this because this is not how we would go about it, right? I mean, we'd have a rollout plan for an event of this size. We'd have our marketing in place. There'd be a countdown clock at Times Square: Christmas in 30 days. They actually probably have something like that, but it doesn't really point people to Jesus either. My point is that God is so wonderfully relaxed about his plans unfolding here. It's like, 'Yeah, two people's enough. I'll send the angel to those shepherds, and then they'll know, but nobody really listens to shepherds. And I'll get those guys to come from the east; they'll bring their presents, those wise men, but foreigners aren't all that persuasive either.' And God just lets the ripple effect of his son's birth just kind of grow and spread until it finally reaches the remotest parts of the earth. But it won't be carried by human power or human persuasion or human cleverness; it will spread through the power of God's Word and his Spirit as he penetrates one heart after the next. Because as he says, 'For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.'

And so friends, if you can't seem to make heads or tails about what God is doing in your life right now, be encouraged. It probably means he's up to something—not something you might expect or even welcome, but something that over the course of time he will work for his good in your life, and he will bring blessings from it—unexpected ones, not just for you, but into the lives of the people that he allows you to impact.

So let's recap for just a moment some of the takeaways from this story. Number one: I can look for blessings when my plans get interrupted. I can look for them when my concerns aren't immediately answered. And third, when my obedience demonstrates grace. I made a moment—excuse me, I made a comment a moment ago about how God's more interested in changing us than he is our circumstances. And the proof of this is really how we eventually respond to God's revelation in our life. If his grace is taking hold, and remember Joseph was seeking answers, and the angel brought him answers, and so now he has to make some choices. It's gotta go time for Joseph. What are you gonna do? What's the path that you're gonna take?

And let's pick up the story at verse 24: When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son, and he gave him the name Jesus. So how does Joseph's obedience demonstrate grace? Well, think: he's willing to really lay aside what may become of his reputation. He's willing to lay aside his divorce plans, take Mary as his wife. He accepts Mary's first baby, even though it won't be his own. He won't be his biological father, but he accepts him as his own. He accepts that their honeymoon is gonna have to wait a while. Scripture says that they didn't consummate the marriage until after the baby was born. And when that baby was born, Joseph names him Jesus, which isn't the name that he necessarily chose for his first child; it was the one that God chose for him. And in all of these ways, at every stage, Joseph is willing to lay aside his will, his prerogative, and partner with God in what God is doing, saying, 'You know what? I'm willing to get caught up in what you are doing,' as God's grace starts to unfold through the circumstances of Joseph and Mary's life.

And so I ask, was he a righteous guy after all? Yes, he was. But it wasn't because of his ironclad determination or how strictly he stuck to the letter of the law. It was rather because he was willing to enter into a holy scandal, willing to partner with what God was doing in grace, willing to throw his lot in with Mary rather than, you know, throw the book at her. And so while Jesus would come to provide the grace of God, the Father in heaven, he could also look to his earthly father Joseph for examples of grace—grace received and grace given. But keep in mind this story doesn't end with, 'And they all lived happily ever after.' There was a lot of hardship that followed for Joseph and Mary and especially Jesus, which should tell us all that even when we get caught up in God's gracious mission and plan in this world, there will still be tough times. There will still be unexpected twists and turns. There will be disappointments and losses and delays.

But the good news is this: the good news is that God never takes us where his grace cannot keep us. God may very well call you down a very unexpected path, but he will never take you where his grace cannot keep you. And I do not say this glibly. I say this knowing all too well the stories that play out in this church community—stories of pain and excruciating loss. Being totally honest, sometimes I think if I hear another cancer diagnosis, I'll just puke or fall over on the ground. There are so many times where I feel absolutely helpless, at which I am, by the way, to offer comfort in times of deep pain—down in a hospital room where I was at this week, in conversations with people after services, in emails that all the pastors receive, in funerals that we all perform. But it's in those moments where we see the power of God's grace revealed, where we see his sufficiency of his grace and his power perfected even in our weakest moments. And frankly, I would have hung up this pastor thing a long time ago if I wasn't absolutely convinced that God was doing something monumental at that very first Christmas, where God was sending the answer to everything that is wrong with this world because the greatest and most unexpected blessing of all is Jesus Christ, period. Amen, indeed.

And because Jesus has come, because Jesus has come, we have hope that no amount of fear or misfortune can ever erase. You can count on him like nothing or no one else. So before we close, I just want to take you back very briefly to a part of the story that we skimmed over because the angel didn't just bring Joseph information; he actually brought him the gospel, the good news of God's grace given in Jesus Christ. And it's right here. Look at it again in verses 20 and 21: 'What is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, which means God saves, because he will save his people from their sins.' And if, like me, you need to be saved from your sins, this is incredibly good news. We have a Savior, and that same Holy Spirit who made Jesus a physical reality in Mary's womb is the very same Holy Spirit who makes Jesus a spiritual reality in our lives. And that's not just some kind of happy metaphor; that is real. Jesus takes up residence in our hearts and lives through the power of the same Holy Spirit.

So I don't know where you may be today in your life or faith or journey, but I would suggest that there is no better time of year than now to invite Jesus to become a bigger and more real reality in your heart and life as well. Because bottom line is this: God wants to give you the greatest Christmas blessing of all. He wants to give you himself.

Would you bow your heads in prayer with me? Heavenly Father, thank you so much for your goodness and your grace. Thank you for giving us your son Jesus the Christ, born in Bethlehem some 2,000 years ago under the most unexpected circumstances. And yet, Father, we're reminded that you're always working in ways that we don't immediately apprehend, that your ways are higher than ours, they're different than ours, they're better than ours. And so maybe we'd be filled with wonder and amazement at the story of your son's entrance into this world. And Father, I think of every man and woman in this room; we all bring with us hurts. We bring with us hang-ups. We bring with us question marks over situations in our lives. And so Father, I pray that you would meet us in this moment, that you would give us hope and comfort, that we would sense your presence, your grace, that you would give us joy in knowing that you are working in us and through us and that you will not allow our pain, our disappointment to be wasted, but that you will bring purpose, that you will advance your kingdom, that you will do great things that will lead us to simply stand in awe of your goodness. This can only happen, Lord, through your power. And so we ask that your will would be done in us. And Father, thank you for this church, for all that you're doing. We look forward to what you have for us. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.