Joseph

In the book of the Evangelist Matthew, chapter 1, verses 18 through 25, we find an exemplary account; I call this text Matthew 1:18. Last Sunday we were looking at the angel Gabriel’s announcement to Mary concerning the birth of Jesus. Today we are going to analyze the announcement, the clarification that an angel gives Joseph in a dream, which tells us many things about the values that we must embrace as Christians in the Kingdom of God.

Matthew 1:18 says: “... the birth of Jesus Christ happened this way”—everyone say, “this way.” “... When Mary, his mother, was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found to have conceived by the Holy Spirit. Joseph, her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, wanted to put her away secretly. And while he was thinking about this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said to him: Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to receive Mary, your wife, because that which has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. And she will give birth to a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins. All this happened so that what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet might be fulfilled, when he said: Behold, a virgin shall conceive and give birth to a son, and you shall call his name Emmanuel, which translated means ‘God with us.’ And when Joseph awoke from his sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him and received his wife, but he did not know her until she had given birth to her firstborn son, and he called his name Jesus.”

Let us pray, brothers and sisters. Ask the Lord to bless me as I expound his word this afternoon, and that it may be the word God wants for your life. Lord, use this moment; we do not underestimate its importance. It is your time, when your people come, Father, and there are a few minutes for us to be permeated by your word and your revelation; we want to use them well, Father. We place our spirits on alert, our minds, Lord, our entire beings, so that you may speak whatever you want into our lives, Lord, for we want to do your will. Prepare this moment, Father, and direct it; in the name of Jesus we ask it. Amen and amen.

As I was saying, one of the things we can use the Christmas season to do is remember the events surrounding the birth of Jesus, the things that accompanied that very special time, so that we may be filled with the right spirit to celebrate this extraordinary season. The world celebrates Christmas in whatever ways it wants, but we, the children of God, want to capture the true meaning of this season. And the Lord wants us to celebrate this time according to his preference, and that is why he has established these accounts in his word, so that we may navigate through them and direct our actions and our celebrations according to his will. And that is why this text begins by saying, “The birth of Jesus Christ happened this way”; it did not happen another way. The word of God is certain; it is trustworthy. We can bet on it. God wants to share his mysteries with us. He wants us to understand that he is a God who acts, a God of details. God takes us into account. He wants us to know how things happened.

The first thing I see in this whole passage is that it was something supernatural. It was something entirely directed by God, divine in nature: God breaking into the world to announce his purpose, to make it known that he was still acting among men. At Christmas, brothers and sisters, the world tries to impose its own interpretation on this event, on this Christmas season. The world enters this season and, well, the parties come, commercialism comes, merchants make a killing during this time by pushing every kind of toy and thing on us to take all our money. The season of drunkenness and overeating comes, et cetera, et cetera, and one ends up worn out and tired and already wishing for normal days to return because we are broke, without a penny. God wants us to understand that Christmas is something else. People today, as we said last Sunday, even want to remove everything sacred from Christmas and leave it as merely a celebration. Happy Holidays. They have even taken the “holy days” out of it, and so we want simply to extract, to suck out, its divine essence, its spiritual essence. And God says, “No, that is not how it is. I came with a plan, I came with a purpose, I acted in a certain way.”

Brothers and sisters, we Christians must hold fast to things as God has determined them. We must flow with them. The days that God has appointed, as with the ancient Hebrews, we too must be faithful and celebrate them as God wants. The day of rest is a day of rest, for example, and it is not a time merely to stay home watching television or eating. No, the Lord’s Day is for coming to church, celebrating God, seeing our brothers and sisters, and giving the Lord what he deserves: that acknowledgment that this is his day, that on a day like this in the history of the cosmos, God took it to rest from his labors. And we do the same, and we give Saturday—or Sunday, which in this case is what we celebrate—its true meaning. It must be the same with Christmas as well. We must always preserve the precise meaning of Christmas. God wants us to know the true version of Christmas, which is his version; that is the one we must always honor, observe, and practice.

And here there are some accounts, some ideas, some details. And what I like most about this passage, I would say, is Joseph’s character: how Joseph acts and how he reveals himself to be an extraordinarily exemplary man. And it begins with some details. It says that he was betrothed to Mary, the mother of Jesus, and that this was before the two of them came together, meaning before they began living together as husband and wife. Let me remind you that last Sunday we discussed how, in Jewish marriage, there was simply a friendship between a man and a woman, and after that, if they wanted to go into any further details, they had to become engaged. None of that dating business, holding hands, going to the movies. It moved quickly: let’s get down to business; if you are going to get serious about my daughter, you get engaged, period. The next time you see each other will be up there getting married.

Aren’t you thankful to God that things have changed a little in our time? Sometimes perhaps they have gone too far in the other direction, right? But the Jews were very, very serious people, and that was how it worked: you became engaged, and it was already almost like a marriage. It was a firm commitment; a promise had already been made before the community, and it was almost equivalent to a legal commitment. There was none of this business of... well, no... let’s call this off because now... No, it was something very serious, and the woman and the man were expected to be faithful to each other already, just as if they were married.

So it says here... and this morning I was sharing with the brothers and sisters at the nine o’clock service that I had not paid attention to that expression. After they were already betrothed, before they came together, she was found to have conceived by the Holy Spirit, and Joseph misinterpreted what had happened. Notice that: what does it mean that “she was found” to be pregnant? If you stop to meditate on that expression, it means something like it became known, it was discovered—that is the idea, isn’t it? Because it uses an impersonal expression, but what it suggests is that there was something of a commotion in the air. I do not know whether it was in the neighborhood, in the village, or in the family, but somehow people found out—someone found out, some people found out—that Mary, this young woman who was engaged and who was not supposed to be doing anything improper, had become pregnant. And somehow this reached Joseph. I mean, just look for a moment at the anguish there must have been within Mary’s family, within Mary’s own heart, just as there certainly was in Joseph’s heart. He had thought that his fiancée was a loyal, suitable, pure, faithful woman whose character was impeccable, and suddenly he finds that she is pregnant. And there was definitely some kind of serious uneasiness; there was, at some level, in the life of that family. And everyone—those who were on the outskirts of all this—I imagine began passing judgment. What I think about, brothers and sisters, is what the birth of Jesus cost from the very beginning. There was already uneasiness. There was already, how shall I put it, a certain division.

And what the word says is that the Lord was going to bring division, that he was going to bring uneasiness. Now, with the advantage of 2,000 years and with the Scripture, we already know what was happening inwardly. We have been able to read the end of the movie or watch the end of the movie. But Joseph did not know this. Mary must have gone through tremendous anguish. What that makes me think about is the price these two people had to pay for Jesus Christ to be born, and the genuine anxieties, the questions, the questioning that arose, while people did not know that behind all of it the one who was at work was the Holy Spirit, God himself, carrying out a plan that he had.

And this morning, after reflecting on that, I was thinking how important it is, brothers and sisters, that in communities such as this church, Lion of Judah, there be wisdom in how we deal with things whose meaning we are not entirely sure about—when events occur in the church, situations in which you know something about someone. You see, evangelical churches are generally like families: people know each other, spend time together, participate in ministry together, visit one another, go to one another’s homes to eat together, and sometimes pull each other’s hair in the situations they face; it is like a family. And sometimes things may happen that you are watching from a distance, and you do not know all the details of why they are happening.

Sometimes you see that someone is in crisis, that a marriage is in crisis, or that someone did something improper. How important it is, brothers and sisters, for us to be very careful in how we relate to one another! And that we give people room to go through the processes that sometimes come into their lives, that we be discreet people... Goodness! Imagine that some of the neighborhood gossips were already going around making all kinds of conjectures about poor Mary, calling one another on the phone, sending each other emails. “Listen, we need to pray for Mary because, mmm... poor thing, it looks as though she is getting a little plump. I don’t know what that might mean,” et cetera, et cetera. Right? How important it is, brothers and sisters—and I tell you this as your pastor—that our church be a discreet church, a church where we do not go around gossiping or meddling in people’s affairs more than we should. Let us be, as they say, close but not entangled.

I believe that the families with the greatest harmony are families that see one another, treat one another well, love one another and all that; but look... if those two newlyweds are arguing, then let them have their argument and work it out so that they can learn how to be a couple, rather than always getting involved, talking, giving orders, bossing them around, et cetera. Let it be the same in the church: if a family is going through a crisis, if a person has fallen into some improper situation or something like that, look, enter with holy feet, with fear and trembling, to bless, to pray, to maintain discretion, because you do not know what God may be doing in a life or why that life is going through what it is going through. And we have to wait, we have to be humble, and we have to love one another in order to preserve harmony in a family like this. Do you understand? We must treat one another well and not go around gossiping and murmuring about one another, because that destroys families, destroys friendships, destroys...

As Paul says in one instance, look, who are you to meddle in the life of someone else’s servant? It is before his own master that he falls or stands, Paul says. So do not make too many conjectures, because you do not know what God may be working out in a life through an event of which you see only the first part but do not know how it will end. And that is why we must be discreet and make a covenant as a church of Jesus Christ to treat one another with great care, to know that each one of us is the Lord’s property, and to give one another room for God to fulfill the purposes he has for our lives. A saint is not made overnight; it takes time, and people need time and space to grow. And they also need a wise church that gives them time to grow. And if they break a dish here and there, well, give thanks and pray for them, and be there, willing to help them in every way you can. That will always preserve the good quality of our life as a church. How good that Joseph and Mary had room to resolve the situation in which God was dealing with them!

And I love what it says about Joseph and his conduct, and that is why I believe we can see there why God chose Mary because of her character and spiritual beauty, and also chose this man to have the privilege of being the adoptive father of his Son and of giving the Lord Jesus his fatherly care. And it is because Joseph was a man of character. The word says that he was righteous—being righteous. That word in the original Greek is dikaios. Everyone say, “dikaios.” Tell the person next to you, “Joseph was dikaios.” You will sound like an expert in the original Greek. Dikaios is a Greek word, and it is used frequently in the New Testament.

I understand it is used about 75 times. I counted them this morning. I’m lying, but the point is that this word means he was a man of character, a man whose walk was exemplary, a virtuous person. In the Gospel, that word is used for a person like that, a virtuous person. It also says of Simeon that he was righteous and devout. He was a person who treated others properly. I would say he was an admirable man; that is what the word means. Since he was righteous—and I would say how beautiful it is that God chose both Joseph, a humble carpenter, and Mary, a humble maiden from a tiny village. He did not choose them because they had a lot of money. It does not tell us that Mary was necessarily a woman of dazzling beauty. We are not told that they held an important position; they probably did not. No, God chose them because of their hearts. The prophet Samuel received a word from the Lord when he went to choose David, and He told him: Samuel, do not look at the attractiveness or physical appearance of Jesse’s other sons, because God does not look at what men look at. God looks at the heart.

Brother, sister, make sure that your character—your character—glorifies God. Look, it is good to be anointed, it is good to speak in tongues, it is good to receive prophecy, it is good to have all the gifts, but if we do not have Christian character, brothers and sisters, don’t bother getting dressed, because you’re not going anywhere. It is of no use. The most important thing is to have the character of Christ Jesus in our lives. I ask the Lord, Father, help me and help us, because I know that I still have a great deal of growing to do, as does every one of us; help us to fix our eyes on that. May God form the person of Christ in us, brothers and sisters. That is what will guarantee our well-being. People do not fall and are not destroyed for lack of anointing; many times, it is for lack of character that we fall. That is why we say, Lord, help us to be people who reflect the values of the Gospel. And if we fix our eyes on that—on God forming a man or a woman of whom people can say, “Look, I believe in the Gospel because that person over there reflects Christ Jesus.” It is not that we should fix our eyes on people. We all fail, but likewise, if we live in an inappropriate way, we will bring the Gospel of Jesus Christ into disrepute. And many times people will say, “Look, I cannot believe in your gift because your behavior is a stumbling block to me.” It is important that we cultivate both things. I am not speaking against the gift, but I am speaking in favor of character.

And if you look, time and again God points to the character of the man and the woman; that is why God chooses His people. When the angel appears to Gideon, he says to him, “God is with you, mighty man of valor,” and here it points out that Joseph was righteous. And in Simeon’s case, it says he was righteous and devout. In Anna’s case, it says that she spent all her time seeking God and longed to see the consolation of Israel. Anna must have conducted herself as an upright woman throughout her life, even though she had been widowed when she was young. So time and again we see this: in the characters of Scripture, God seeks that heart which is faithful to the Lord. He does not expect them to be perfect, but He does seek people who are obedient to the Lord and willing to please Him. So it says that since he was righteous, pointing to his character—and Joseph is a good example for all of us. Lord, make us men and women of whom people can say, “That person, although not perfect, has the righteousness of God upon him; he has the character and the walk of a person who has been touched by the Lord.”

Look how interesting this is. It says that since he was righteous and did not want to disgrace her, he intended to leave her secretly. At that point it seems to me that, if I had been the one writing this account, I would have said something different: since he was righteous, when he found out—believing that Mary had betrayed him—he immediately went to The Boston Globe and placed an ad saying, “This woman is shameless! She has betrayed me!” And he shamed her because it was his right to do so, because a righteous man who has been wronged in that way has the right to take revenge and exact an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. One would think—or many people think—that justice means giving people what they deserve. Do you know what? In the Kingdom of God it is different. Thanks be to Him, God has not given us what we deserved, you know? Because if there was something we deserved, it was hell, and yet God says, in His grace, that when we were mired in sin, what happened? Christ died for us.

Brothers and sisters, grace... the Bible says that between judgment and grace, grace always triumphs. God is a just God and a God of grace, and it is as though God tends to have a preference, as though He always leans just a tiny bit toward grace, love, and mercy. Grace triumphs over judgment. And Joseph, being a righteous man and a man of integrity, thought instead, “This girl has really messed up, and she deserves for me to do something. But do you know what? The poor thing already has her own punishment, and what I am going to do is withdraw and not make matters worse. I will go my own way, and may God help her.” He intended to leave her secretly.

That also tells me a great deal about Joseph’s character. He was a man of mercy, a man of grace, a generous man, a tolerant and forgiving man. And I imagine that he was a man who was relatively self-assured, because it takes guts, in a situation like that, to simply say, “Look, I had better withdraw quietly,” and not hurt her. How many of us, if we truly think about it, would have that courage? We would leave some little note somewhere, if only so that at some point we could get back at her, and you would begin whispering here and there and telling two or three or four people. But that was not Joseph’s thinking. Joseph wanted to separate from her and simply leave her. Well, she did what she did, amen. That is her affair; I am going to get on with my life.

And that reminds me, brothers and sisters, once again, that the important thing is for us to be people of grace. I have always said, brother, if you want to be a happy and emotionally healthy person, practice grace in your life. Be a generous person. Make it your purpose to forgive a great deal, overlook many things, let bygones be bygones, and pretend you do not hear many things, because anyone who sets out to listen to everything people say about him—forget it, you are going to have enemies everywhere you turn. In fact, the writer of Ecclesiastes says, “Do not pay too much attention to what people mutter about you, because remember that you, too, have often done the same thing.” You have to tolerate a great deal; you have to be patient; you have to forgive many debts; you have to be generous with other people.

In fact, recently, on two occasions in the last few days, Meche and I have remarked: in 20 years—brothers and sisters, 21 years—of ministry, just imagine whether there have not been many occasions for strife and conflict with people. And that is what has happened over the years. We have had difficult situations with people, this and that, and always, to the glory of the Lord, God has given us the grace always to forgive and not hold on to conflicts with people. And in the last few days, we have had the opportunity to celebrate times of friendship and fellowship with people with whom, perhaps at another time, we could not have enjoyed that blessing, that openness. And we have rejoiced, and at the end of those times we have said, “How wonderful that there was healing, how wonderful that there was forgiveness and tolerance, and that we let the Lord set things right, because today we see them with as much love as though nothing had ever happened, and they see us the same way.” How beautiful that is!

And brothers and sisters, I believe that is how one must live life. That is Christian character: forgiving and showing grace to one another. Not sitting there like a miser counting little coins: “They did this to me, so I’m going to do that to them. They didn’t send me a card this year, so next year I won’t send them one. They gave me some cheap little thing, so next time I’ll deduct it from the value of the other gift I’m going to give them.” And we continually live that way: whoever does something to us will pay for it, and we live our lives criticizing others and seeing the bad in them. We always see the glass as half empty instead of half full. And I say, brothers and sisters, we must cultivate grace; we must be generous people toward others; we must forgive offenses, as the word of the Lord says. Just as God is tolerant with us, we too must be tolerant with others.

Look, forgive, brother; forgive a great deal, and wipe out many of the debts people owe you. Keep canceling them. And do you know what? The Bible says that the one who forgives will be forgiven; the one who shows mercy will receive mercy. One day perhaps it will be you who needs mercy, and because you have shown mercy, you will receive it. We must show grace to others, brothers and sisters. In your marriage, show grace; toward your children, show grace; toward your friends, show grace; toward the people who work with you, show grace; in church, show grace to others. If they step on your corns, get yourself some very hard, sturdy boots, but do not kick them in the shins. Bless the one who curses you, says the Lord, because do you know what? You have a rich Father who will bless you and give to you. The more you give to others, the more you will receive. Do you know what sometimes enables a person to show grace to others? It is knowing that my Father will bless me because I am imitating the character of His Son, and that if I lose a little now, God will repay me many times over.

I do not have to go around wrenching things out of people’s hands, because my Father is powerful enough to give them to me. I do not have to keep watching my back and fighting for my rights myself. My God is sufficient for me. When the Lord sees a man or woman with a generous heart, He overwhelms that person with blessings and gives them more, and the little they lose up front, God repays many times over later on. Receive that. Be generous. Do not damage anyone’s reputation. Do not harm the people who offend you or do anything like that; rather, let the Lord bless you and let Him take care of things. How wonderful that our brother Joseph gave us an example of that with his wife Mary! He intended to leave her secretly. He did not go around publicizing things; he simply wanted to do what he had to do, but without damaging her reputation.

And it says that as he was thinking about this—the man was meditating—even before leaving her secretly, it says that he intended to leave her secretly and was thinking about this. Notice, he was meditating on how to do this, and he gave things some time before rushing ahead and making the decision. That moment of thinking, meditating, and reflecting opened up space for the Lord to send His revelation into his life and show him that what seemed to be a tragedy and a curse was the greatest blessing he had ever received in his life. God was then able to reveal to Joseph the true nature of what was happening in his life.

Brothers and sisters, how many times have we found ourselves in situations that seem like a curse, that seem to have nothing that could redeem them, and later we discover that it was the Lord Himself working in our lives to bless us. That is why it is important for us to be patient with the Lord and wait for Him to complete His purposes and His work in our lives. Perhaps a tragedy occurred in your life ten years ago, and you are still looking at it negatively, and perhaps God wants you to say, “Look, I’m going to wait a little longer for God to show me what He truly had in mind.”

Joseph waited God knows how many years. He was sold by his brothers, taken to Egypt, thrown into prison, and falsely accused. Then, years and years later, when he sees his brothers who had put him into slavery—when the brothers believe that he is going to cut off their heads now that he is second in command in Egypt—Joseph tells them, “Look, gentlemen, do not worry. You intended to harm me and plunged me into the greatest tragedy of my life, but do you know what? God used this—now I see it—for the preservation of life, so I cannot hold a grudge against you. That was the greatest blessing that ever came into my life.”

Brother, perhaps you are going through processes in your life. Give the Lord time to complete His processes. God takes time to bring things to completion. If there is one thing I have seen about God, it is that He is in no hurry. Sometimes I become impatient with Him because I wish He would give me right now what He promised me, or resolve the matter I asked Him about, or answer the prayer I prayed years ago, but God takes His time. He is in no hurry because He has all eternity. He knows the end and the beginning of the movie, and He knows the precise moment to intervene. And it is important that we cultivate that long-term perspective. Do you know what the word translated as patience in Greek means? “To have a long fuse.” It is like when you... you have seen in those movies, with some little cartoon character, where there is a huge bomb and it has an extremely long fuse, and you see the little spark running along it. We must be people with a long fuse. Before exploding, before throwing in the towel, before becoming desperate, we must give the Lord time to speak into our lives and seek Him in prayer. Human processes are like that. Many times, look, when you have a dispute with someone, or you think someone has done something wrong to you, or you see someone doing something wrong, instead of charging in at once with a machete or one of those chainsaws, Tony Krugger-style—I don’t know what that movie is called; I’ve never seen it, just so you know... But before you come in cutting off heads, brother, think about it. Give things time.

I have learned as a pastor—look, I... people tell me many things, I learn many things, I see many things—but I have learned that you have to take your time and pray before getting involved and intervening in things, and I have discovered that when I wait a little while, do you know what? Then God works, and I do not even have to fire a single shot. By the time I arrive, everything is ready, the giant has been beheaded, and all I have to do is step over him and continue on my way, and I did not have to get mixed up in any messes or problems or anything. I have learned that God is real and that this is why we must give things time. In our marriages, sometimes we have to wait; with our children, we have to wait and commit our cause to the Lord. In social conflicts and struggles and other matters, if we would keep our hands out of things more and let God work, how many things God could do! Besides, things we thought were offenses ultimately turn out to be blessings in our lives, and we discover that instead of having an enemy, we actually have an ally, brothers and sisters. Let us give the Lord time.

And how good it was that Joseph waited, and while he was waiting, an angel appeared to him in a dream and said: Joseph, do not worry, man; do not be afraid to take her in. That woman is everything you thought she was, and do you know what? A little more besides, because within her is a holy being who is to be born, conceived by the Holy Spirit. And you have hit the jackpot: people will speak well of you throughout all generations, just as we are doing in the year 2005, as we prepare to enter 2006. And what she has conceived is of the Holy Spirit, and a son will be born to you, and you will call His name Jesus, which means “God is salvation.” So Joseph was then able to understand God’s entire plan. God told him: Do not be anxious, Joseph; I am in charge of that situation. What is in her has been conceived by the Holy Spirit—an allusion to the divine nature of Jesus, which we discussed last Sunday—and He will save His people from their sins.

Verse 22 says that all this happened so that what the Lord had spoken through the prophet might be fulfilled. Do you know what? The Lord Jesus Christ lived His entire life fulfilling the prophecies, and even toward the end of His life He said that it was so the prophecy might be fulfilled. When they were about to crucify Him, He remembered that there was a prophecy saying that the Son of God would be numbered with sinners, and He immediately found a way to fulfill a prophecy, and He said to His disciples: Does anyone have a sword around here? They were not supposed to carry a sword. It was an unlawful weapon for anyone who was not a soldier. Yes, they pulled out some rusty little kitchen knives they had there. Well, here we have a couple of rickety old swords. That is enough for the Scriptures to be fulfilled, which say that He will be numbered with the evildoers. And so the Lord fulfilled... There were dozens and dozens and dozens of prophecies that were fulfilled in the person of Jesus, and one of them was that prophecy that a virgin would give birth to a son and that His name would be Emmanuel. Everything that was happening was the fulfillment of what God had promised hundreds and hundreds of years earlier. He had promised David that he would have a descendant whose kingdom would be eternal, and do you know how many years had passed since God gave that prophecy to David? More than a thousand years, more than a thousand years, and the Jews had been predicting the coming of the Messiah, and nothing was fulfilled. But one day God said: This is My time; now what I have promised will be fulfilled. And it was fulfilled to the letter, exactly as God said. God fulfilled His promise.

It occurs to me that today we are awaiting the second coming of the Messiah. How many believe that Christ will come as the Word says? I believe that He will, and I believe that, as the Word says, He will come on a cloud and every eye will see Him, and those who crucified Him will have to admit that He certainly was the Son of God. We believe that one day the eyes of the Jewish people will be opened and they will understand that this being whom they regarded as a criminal was and is their promised Messiah. Because God is in the business of fulfilling His promises, brother.

If God has told you something in your heart, if you are awaiting the fulfillment of one of God’s promises, do not lose heart. God is faithful; remain steadfast and believe the Lord, because God is good. He has said, for example, “You and your household will be saved.” If your children have not yet been saved, believe the Lord, because the God who promised it will fulfill it. God is faithful. God fulfills what He has promised. He promised His prophets that a son would come, that He would be born from the root of David, born of a virgin, born in Bethlehem, and it was fulfilled to the letter, because God is faithful. So that what the Lord had spoken through the prophet might be fulfilled: “Behold, a virgin shall conceive and give birth to a son, and shall call His name Emmanuel,” which translated means what? “God with us.”

That is very important, brothers and sisters: during this season we must remember something that may seem like a small detail but is not a mere detail; it is very important. Jesus Christ is God. He already bore it in His name: just as Jesus means “God is salvation,” and Jesus embodied in His person the saving function for humanity, it says, “God with us”; that is, God Himself came to dwell among men. It is passages like these that have led theologians to the difficult-to-understand conclusion that Jesus is God Himself dwelling in bodily form among men. And it makes perfect sense when we consider His immense worth: He was the only one who could save humanity. No man possessed the intrinsic worth to give his life and thereby cover all the sins of humanity. Perhaps he could cover his own sins, but only God was valuable enough—infinitely valuable—to cover all sins and the offense against Himself, taking the form of a servant. Jesus Christ is God.

And the prophet Isaiah had already said it in Isaiah, chapter 9, verse 6. It says: “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon His shoulder, and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor”—what else?—“Mighty God.” Everyone say, “Mighty God.” And it also says, “Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” Look at that: Mighty God and Everlasting Father. If Jesus Christ had been created, do you know what? He could not be eternal, because He would have had a beginning. The eternal is that which has neither beginning nor end. You cannot find either its beginning or its end, because if there is a point at which it begins, it is not eternal. It lives for an exceedingly long time, but it is not eternal. Eternity is that which exists outside of time. Jesus Christ was not created. The one who assumed human form, Jesus, was conceived by the Holy Spirit, but the Word says that the Word already existed with God throughout all eternity. The writer of Colossians, the Apostle Paul, also says the same thing in Colossians, chapter 1. It says: “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation, because in Him all things were created, those in heaven and those on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones, dominions, principalities, or powers. Everything was created by Him, through Him, and for Him, and He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.” Do you understand? That language is not used of a mere man or an exalted creature; it can only be used to refer to God Himself. God with us: Jesus Christ is God with us, God slimming Himself down into the form of a man and dwelling among us. And do you know what? The wonderful thing is that today He can dwell not only in humanity, but also in your heart, if you receive Him as your personal Savior.

The Word says yes; the Lord says, “If you open the door, I will come in and dine with you, and you with Me.” It is that personal. We have a God who, if you compare Him with the God of Buddhism, of Hinduism, and of all those gods of humanity’s great religions—our God is a personal God. That is what distinguishes our God: He is a God who converses with men. God likes to communicate. God likes us to speak with Him. God likes to have fellowship with His creatures. God is a personal God; He is a gregarious God, a sociable God.

That is why it says: “Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given.” Do you understand? To us... He was born within the family. We celebrate those beautiful little ones here, Gabriel and Gabriela; those children were born into a family. Do you know what? Christ was born into the human family, into the church of Jesus Christ. We have a personal God. God with us and for us as well.

One final idea presented in this passage is found here. It says that “when Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took his wife in.” Joseph was obedient. Joseph obeyed and said: Well, I am going to set my doubts aside; I am going to receive my wife. He received her. Joseph was an obedient man, just as we must be obedient. He received Mary, and it says that he did not know her—that is, he did not have marital relations with her—until what? Until she had given birth to her firstborn son. An interesting little detail here is precisely that, isn’t it? It says that he did not know her “until.” What does that mean? That afterward he enjoyed his marital privileges, as he had every right to do. In other words, Joseph waited and was obedient to the Lord, but once Mary’s mysterious function of bearing the Son of God had been fulfilled, the two of them entered into an ordinary, healthy married life under God’s blessing upon their lives. And years later, people said, “Is this not Jesus, the carpenter’s son? And are His brothers not so-and-so and so-and-so, and His sisters, whom we also know?” In other words, other children were born of that marriage, but that special relationship between Jesus and His mother was not disturbed at any point. Rather, Mary bore that sacred conception from God, and there came forth this wonderful being whom we call Jesus and whom we celebrate on this day. This is how the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ took place, brothers and sisters, and that is what we celebrate. Amen. We give glory to the Lord because God took the trouble to teach us how the Son of God came into the world. And how beautiful it is to know that very special people, extraordinarily admirable human beings, were part of that drama.

God could have—I do not know—perhaps created something by Himself, simply appearing here in the world by parachute, but He did not do it that way. He wanted to teach us that when He works with humanity, He works in intimacy with them, and He became flesh and entered a woman’s womb. And the wonderful thing is that Christ has experienced everything we experience, brothers and sisters: loneliness, cold, hunger, abandonment by others, temptation—and He knocked all of it out of the park. Holy, perfectly holy. He walked upon the earth and prevailed over death, sickness, demons, storms, and nature, and He maintained an impeccable and perfect record. That is why today He can be your Savior, my Savior. That is Christmas, brothers and sisters; that is what we celebrate this afternoon. Glory to God. Amen. We are a blessed people. We are a special people because Christ has come into our hearts. Amen.

Let us bow our heads for just a moment, and I want to make sure that everyone here has received that exemplary Lord. Amen. And if you have already done so, glory to God. Now we are going to move through here; we are going to comb through this congregation and make sure that no one leaves this place without having the opportunity to express his or her love and loyalty to Christ Jesus. And I want to invite you, my brother, my sister, if you are visiting us this afternoon and if you have never taken that step of making that Christmas account your own—Jesus, the Son of God, Savior of the world, Redeemer of humanity—and you want to say, “Lord, I want You to be my Redeemer; I want You to be my Savior.” If you have not done so before, I want to give you an opportunity this afternoon to do so. What better day to do it than Christmas Day, when Christ can be born in your heart? If you have not done so before and would like to raise your hand this afternoon, I would like to pray for you before you leave. Is there anyone who has not done so before? You may be in the balcony; you may be somewhere around here. I see a hand being raised back there. Amen. Amen. Is there anyone else? We are going to comb through this place with a very fine-toothed comb. Back there, too, this young man is raising his hand. Let us make sure that everyone here has the opportunity... Amen, God bless you, young man, over there... has the opportunity to say, “Lord, I want You to enter my heart.” Is there anyone else, perhaps a young lady or young man over there who would like to invite Jesus to enter their life? There is a hand being raised over there. Glory to God. Amen. Amen.

Sermon by Dr. Roberto Miranda recorded December 25, 2005, at Congregación León de Judá (55 min.)

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