As I mentioned earlier, last week we began our studies in Matthew's Gospel.

And we're thinking about how Matthew records for us the life of Jesus.

And it is truly good news for everyone, which is what gospel means, good news.

And so as we look at the life of Jesus, we will see what it means for us today.

Not just something of 2,000 years ago, but its importance and its relevance to us in our time.

Now, Matthew's Gospel, we began, and as I said earlier, it's not December, I know, but we started with the genealogy of Jesus.

And Perhaps the first 17 verses, even at Christmas, don't feel that festive to us because it is just a long list of names.

But we are aware that the opening chapter of this gospel deals with Jesus coming into the world.

And that's where we find ourselves today.

Because after chapter one and next week, when we look in chapter two, we quite literally skip over anything of Bethlehem, anything of the shepherds and all of that, and we go straight to the visitors from the east.

And we all know that at each year, at one or more carol services, we read these eight verses from Matthew, chapter one.

And they perhaps become so familiar that we don't realize what their significance is, because the genealogy of Jesus, that long list of names and the lineage they establish for us, that he came from the line of David.

And that's what we know must happen, as the prophets had foretold.

And Matthew then, though helpfully, begins with Abraham, great father Abraham of the people.

And of course, Abraham was the man to whom the covenant promise of a savior was given.

And they knew that through Abraham, then through King David, and even through the exile to Joseph, we have this line, this family line that a savior would come through.

And this is how Joseph gets into the picture for us and how he's described, because verse 16 in chapter 1 says, and Jacob, the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ.

Now, let's be honest about Joseph.

He doesn't really get a big press, does he?

He's mentioned in a few passages, but we know very little about him.

We know very little about what happened to him, because there's no mention of him as we get to the older life of Jesus, certainly at the crucifixion where his mother Mary is mentioned.

And so perhaps it's quite easy beyond Christmas to actually forget Joseph, to forget that he's even in the story.

And yet in these first eight verses that introduce him to us, we find some of the deepest truths that we must understand.

By his faithfulness and his obedience to God.

And I suppose I've always felt sorry for Joseph because he is the one who's had his life completely turned upside down.

He receives the news that he didn't expect, nor did he want to hear it, but he took his responsibility seriously and was an earthly father to Jesus Christ, so that he had a stable upbringing in the community in Nazareth.

And this passage is a story of two halves.

The first half is the human response to this news, and the second half is his obedient response to the work that the Lord God Almighty has for him.

And so we begin in verse 18 that completely sets the scene for us.

Matthew very quickly tells us about the birth of Jesus.

He says this is how the birth of Jesus Christ came.

His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit.

Now, from Joseph's perspective, before this information is given, his life was going well.

He had reached the age of employment and he had found himself a girl to marry.

This was the accepted and the appropriate path for Joseph.

Notice that we're not told here that Joseph was a carpenter.

In fact, we learn very little about him.

It's not until Matthew chapter 13, when Jesus returns to Nazareth to preach and he is rejected, that we're told Joseph's profession.

Because the verse confirms to us there isn't this the carpenter's son?

The crowd ask, isn't his mother's name Mary?

And aren't his brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas?

So here we know that Joseph then was the local carpenter.

Now, being a carpenter was a known trade in the town or the village.

The carpenter was your door and your window maker.

No one else could do that for you.

It wasn't contracted out to somebody else.

It was your local carpenter.

He made your furniture, whatever you could afford by way of a table and stool or chairs at home.

He was the one who built it for you.

And after the builder had constructed your house, he was the best known tradesman around.

So Joseph was well known within the community in Nazareth and his work was of great value to everyone.

And so everything was going well for Joseph.

A good respectable job and a wedding ahead of him.

And then comes the news that changes absolutely everything.

Matthew simply tells us that Mary was found to be with child.

Now he confirms that this child was conceived through the Holy spirit in verse 18.

But this information isn't revealed to Joseph just yet.

He responds to what he sees and to what he understands.

And from his perspective, it's clear that Mary has been unfaithful to him.

He hasn't slept with her.

So to be pregnant, she had to sleep with somebody else.

Now, to set this in the timeline of Jesus birth, we know that when Mary found out that she was with child by the visitation of the angel, she then went immediately to her cousin Elizabeth.

So it is most likely that as we pick up Matthew 1:18, this is her return from Elizabeth, where the information of the pregnancy is seen as much as it is told.

You can't miss it.

There's Mary with a bump of a couple of months old, almost full term.

But there's also something else we have to understand that we don't quite get in our culture today, and that is the legal status of Mary and Joseph.

They are now in a marriage agreement.

They are not yet married, but it's more than being engaged.

It's what is called a betrothal.

Now, we often define this betrothal like an engagement, but there's so much more to it than a simple engagement.

As I said, they're not married, but the intention is to be married.

And that intention is so great and so sure that it holds legal status.

Now, we don't live in a culture anymore where a dowry has to be paid.

However, there are other cultures in the world that do and how a dowry system works, where you have to negotiate the number of cattle that you might have to pay, or in some countries, camels that might have to be paid.

I'm still trying to work out if I'm going to be a rich man or a poor man with three daughters.

I don't know.

I haven't worked it out yet what way that's going to work.

But I'm very keen to explore this more so that someone benefits at least through some cattle and even some camels.

But you see, for that negotiation to happen and to begin, time has to be allowed.

And once those negotiations begin in a diary system, you can't turn back, you can't simply call it off.

Which, of course, we know that today an engagement could mean this has legal standing, where two families enter into an agreement about how much is going to be paid, what is effectively in a diary system, the compensation.

And so, for all intents and purposes, there's absolutely no going back now on this marriage agreement with a marriage still yet to happen.

So that's the significance of this, and that's why scripture uses the language that it does of divorce and betrothal.

And so because they are betrothed with such legal strength behind them, then this is apparent, or this apparent unfaithfulness of Mary gives Joseph the right to end the betrothal, which he could legally do, which is called the divorce.

It's the termination that would amount to that word divorce.

But because Joseph is just and he will not marry an apparently immoral woman, he does something very kind and gracious to her.

Now, just to explain this a wee bit more, commentator RT France explains that the use of just here means more basically, or most basically, law abiding that culture, but not just civil law.

What was more important to the Jews was God's law.

So when he's just, he is obedient unto the Lord.

And so the law was understood to require the termination of an engagement in cases of adultery.

But because Joseph is merciful, he plans and he's kind, he plans to divorce Mary quietly.

He's not going to expose her to public disgrace.

This is a kind man that tells us it is fitting that he would become the earthly father of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And so here we have a deep insight of a man who is caring and kind.

But then Joseph has his encounter with an angel.

Mary, as we know the story through Luke's Gospel, has already met the angel, but.

But now it's Joseph's turn.

And in verse 20, we're told, but after he had considered this, so after he had considered divorcing her quietly, 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.

And so now the full story is revealed to Joseph.

And I'm sure that you've heard it said before, particularly in the case of the angel visiting Mary, that when an angel comes to visit, it's generally not with good news.

Throughout Scripture, angels bring more words of warning and words of judgment than they do good news.

But with both Mary and Joseph, the words are ones of encouragement.

And so using a dream, the angel calls him Joseph, son of David.

And this is important because Israel had endured a string of evil and worthless kings before collapsing, going into exile and then having no king for centuries.

And even the king of their time is a puppet king put in place at the pleasure of the Roman authorities.

And so by Joseph's day, David's line is exhausted.

It's nearly invisible.

The family has grown so big, but it also been so distorted with the exile.

And now we're 400 years on, really, there's very little attention to the line of David in the Society.

But Jesus birth reignites hope, for he is from the line of David.

He's not from the flesh of David, but he's from the line of David.

And that's important to know, because ordinary flesh cannot save.

God must and does, by renewing the kingly line himself through his sinless son saves.

And this title for Joseph as son of David links the virgin conception to the Davidic genealogy that we looked at last week and Joseph's place in it.

And so Joseph should not fear to take Mary as his wife, because her child has been conceived not by a man, but but by God's spirit.

And since both he and she are faithful, divorce is now taken off the table.

Joseph is both assured, and he's also commanded to take Mary as his wife.

And although Joseph has no part in this virgin conception, he will adopt this child, meaning Jesus will grow up with godly parents.

But the angel's job isn't just to assure Joseph of God's plan.

The angel has clear direction to give as well.

Within the ancient Near Eastern culture of Joseph's time, it is his responsibility to name the child.

And as we know in Scripture, names are significant and important.

So he's told what to call the baby when it is born.

And verse 21 gives us a beautiful description of this.

The angel says 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.

Now, there's so much going on here for Joseph.

He's just found out that all's going to be okay with Mary and he can marry her.

But now he's told what this child will do.

This child will save people from their sins.

Now, for a good, upstanding Jew, this is heresy.

This goes against what God.

They believed God said because no one can forgive sins but God alone, no man can.

Now the question is, did Joseph fully understand this?

Perhaps he did, perhaps not.

We have no clear biblical instruction that tells us either way.

But after this dream, he knew more than anyone else as to the origin and purpose of this child.

This child who would be called Jesus, a name that was deep in Jewish culture and expectation that he would save his people from their sins.

So therefore, there is a divine nature.

And of course, that divine nature is seen in the conception by the Holy Spirit.

There's no doubt that when Joseph awoke from sleep, his head was truly spinning, but yet he was obedient unto the Lord as to what had been told.

Now, there's a bit of a break in the passage here.

In verses 22 to 23, because they provide a bit of commentary for us.

Matthew is a man, remember, from last week of Two Worlds.

He's from the Jewish world, but he's also from the Roman world.

He is ethnically Jewish, but he works in the Roman civil service.

And so as he writes his gospel, being a follower of Jesus, his gospel is very much about understanding who Jesus is as part of God's plan of salvation through the Jews, yet living in this Roman world.

So throughout his Gospel, he drops these little comments into the text so that we will know that this isn't simply a moment in history that just happened, but that Jesus was always the promised Messiah and came to do what we've just read, to save people from their sins.

And in these two verses of comment, Matthew takes us back to an Old Testament prophet, Isaiah.

And as we find it now, chapter 7, verse 14, where Isaiah foretold of the coming of this child.

Therefore, Isaiah says, 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 Emmanuel.

Isn't this what Matthew tells us?

He assures us now as much as Joseph has been assured.

He assures us that this was already prophesied, this was already foretold, so that we would know this golden thread of salvation that runs right through Scripture, through the Old Testament, into the new, and to the new heavens and the new earth, this salvation plan of God.

So what do we know about this baby that's going to be born?

Well, his name is Jesus, and that means Yahweh saves.

Yahweh is the covenant name of God.

It's the most holy name of God you can get.

It means that it is the Lord Almighty who saves.

But his name is also Emmanuel, which means God with us.

And so these together tell us right at the beginning of this gospel, the purpose of why Jesus came, that God could have remained distant from.

But he came near, has come near to save.

And so right from the very beginning, even in the genealogy last week, we see God's intents and purposes for what Jesus will do.

He will save his people from their sins.

And this is the striking message of the Gospel.

And here in chapter one of Matthew, we simply don't get lost in the genealogy of Jesus.

We're told exactly and clearly who he is.

He is God coming near to sinners just like us so that we can know his truth.

And if we take time to notice, then there is a greater truth that our hearts and minds must understand about what this means for us today.

A few minutes ago I referred to Joseph adopting Jesus as his own son.

Now this adoption wasn't by law because to the rest of the world watching this child was Joseph's son.

But from a heavenly perspective, this is what Joseph does so that we too can have a foretaste of what Jesus came to do.

The Gospel message tells us that Jesus came to forgive our sins so that we can be made sons and daughters of God's family.

Now for those who have been around here for a couple of years, I've told you on many occasions of my adoption into the McCullough family.

And this adoption meant that I have full rights to everything of the McCullough name and McCullough family.

I came to them quite literally with nothing except a teddy bear that was given to me in hospital.

But they are the ones who gave me everything that a naturally born son to them should have had.

And later this month I've been asked by the Evangelical Alliance's Both Lives Matter initiative to share my adoption story as they launch a campaign to see the government bring back the adoption program that I was adopted under as a viable option to unwanted pregnancies rather than abortion.

So adoption is a powerful concept for me and we see it here, right before us in Matthew 1.

But it isn't here as some good virtue of society.

It is here because of what Jesus, the one who comes to save us from our sins, will do as we trust in Him.

You see, much like me at birth, none of us have the right to the blessing and to the inheritance of the family of God because of our sin.

Even in my baptism as an infant, I was not saved.

However, through the promises made by God towards me on that day and the commitment of my parents and the congregation to which I was brought into, I was brought up in the instruction of the Lord which led to my salvation.

And when we respond to Christ in saving faith, we are then adopted into his family.

Peter tells us what this means, that we receive an inheritance in God's family.

This is what he writes in First Peter, chapter one, verses three to four, really his opening words of his letter to the church that is in dispersion.

He says, praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade, kept in heaven for you.

Isn't that what it means to be part of a family?

An inheritance?

It means that we have entitlement to whatever that family name is and whatever that family has.

And so being adopted into the family of God means that we have that inheritance that will never perish, spoil or feed, but is kept in heaven for us.

See, this is the wonderful truth of salvation.

In Christ, we have a hope and we have a future.

Many times over my life, I have wondered, what if I was kept?

What if I hadn't been given up for adoption?

And people love to ask me the question, but I don't mind this question being asked.

Have I ever gone looking for my mother?

The simple answer is, no, I haven't.

Although there was a scary moment in a classroom one day where there was a boy who stood beside me in some weeds, ruffian at the back of the class said, sir, you two look like each other.

You could be brothers.

And I worked it out for a moment and I thought, oh, dear, I'm in the right area where my mother came from.

And yes, the years work out.

But what if I'd been kept?

What would have happened?

Well, I can almost guarantee to you now I wouldn't be standing here knowing the history of my family of birth.

I would most likely have been caught up in the loyalist estates in Portadoine, and I most likely would have ended up in the paramilitaries.

Now, can you imagine that?

Tattooed and all?

It would have been so different, so different.

And it is so different for each and every one of us because if we are not adopted into God's family, we remain in a state of sin and misery.

Yet I was adopted into a family that gave me everything.

Not just the joys of a bakery where I could eat cream buns for breakfast because they were simply there.

But I was provided for.

I was given a name where I had no name.

I was given more than a blue teddy bear, which was all I was given in hospital, and the only connection I have with my birth mother.

I saw the world because of the adopted family into which I was brought.

And I have the heritage of faith because of that adoption.

So how much more adopted into the family of God can we have as the wonderful truth of salvation?

We have a hope and we have a future.

And this may be seen in this world because it will also be fulfilled in eternity.

Because as our eyelids close in death, our inheritance means that they will open in eternity with God forever, where we have the right to be called sons and daughters.

And it's Paul who explains this further to us in writing to the church in Ephesus, where he says in Ephesians, 1 verses 4 and 5 for he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight in love.

He predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ in accordance with his pleasure and his will.

Paul is telling us that salvation is nothing of ourselves and it is everything of God.

It is his initiative towards us that means we hear and we understand what gospel salvation means so that we can have the most wonderful of futures, adoption into his family.

Outside of Christ, you are nameless and you are hopeless.

But in Christ you have every promise of His Father, meaning the forgiveness of your sins and the treasures of heaven.

This is why Jesus came, and this is why Joseph In Matthew chapter 1, verses 18 to 25 is presented to us.

He is not insignificant, but is in fact key to our understanding of what Jesus would come to do.

As Joseph took on Christ as his adopted son in human terms, so Christ brings us to his heavenly Father that we may know the riches of being part of the family of God.

So let me ask you this morning, as we consider what it means to turn to Jesus.

Are you lost?

Do you feel lost?

Do you feel like you're all at sea, A small boat on a great vast ocean simply being tossed and turned whatever way the wind has come?

Perhaps there was a moment where you confessed Christ as Savior, but now it feels nothing to you.

And so you feel tossed at sea.

You feel lost.

Maybe.

Maybe you're here because you have thoughts of God.

You've thoughts of Jesus Christ.

And maybe you've thoughts of faith that somehow it matters, but you don't know what to do with it.

And maybe you're here because you know deep down that there is more to this life and you desperately want it.

And you've tried it.

You've tried the drink, you've tried the drugs, you've tried the gambling.

You've tried the successes of life.

And each one has faith failed you.

And you know there's more and you desperately want it, but don't know what it is.

Today we are told in Matthew's Gospel that Jesus came to save sinners, sinners like me.

So that once without a name and hopeless, I am now adopted into the family of God.

As Joseph was faithful unto his calling to adopt Jesus into that human family.

So through Christ I am adopted, given and named that name of Christ.

And I have a home in heaven and an inheritance that will never.

It will never perish, spoil or fade.

So turn to Jesus.

Trust in him, no sins forgiven, and the assurance of the inheritance of being adopted as a son or a daughter into God's family.

And that means salvation forever.

You see, when the angel finishes speaking, Joseph wakes up.

He believes and he obeys.

He goes ahead with the wedding, and he takes Mary as his wife.

And so Joseph, like Mary, becomes God's servant.

And to highlight the supernatural conception of Jesus, Matthew says that Joseph does not know Mary sexually until she gives birth.

And the until implies that they have normal marital intimacy afterward.

Now, finally, Joseph names his son Jesus, as the angel has commanded.

And so Joseph's response is seen as one of great obedience to God.

He does what he knows he needs to do.

And I think it's the same with us all.

We know what we need to do.

We need to turn to Jesus, and we need to trust in him.

So today, will you respond to the Gospel message of Jesus, and will you know your sins?

Forgiven.

But I also want to ask you, will you know adoption into his family?

And if you already do know, Christian, will you glory in your membership of the family of God?

And like Joseph, will you be obedient in living and in your witness to this gospel that has wonderfully saved you?

I was listening to a sermon this morning, as I do on a Sunday morning, and the preacher simply said, we can repent, but it must mean change.

It must mean that we live for Christ, not simply hanging our coat on the peg of a moment in history, but living for him every day.

And that's what it means to be in the family of God, to be adopted, to be given a name, and to have a life of hope that indeed we will remember each day that we have been wonderfully saved.

So let me finish with some words of great hope and assurance that come from the Christmas account in Scripture.

And it comes from John's Gospel, and it's chapter one and verse 12, his prologue, where he says to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.

Matthew, chapter 1, verses 18 to 25, can often seem as a very quick way of recording the birth of Jesus for us.

We may even think that it introduces an insignificant person in Joseph because it's Mary who has had to carry Jesus and give birth to him.

Yet Joseph was obedient.

He took Christ as his own, he raised him as his own, and he was a just man.

He upheld the law of God, and he lovingly cared for Mary and all of his children as long as he lived, showing us what it means to know Christ, the one who came to save us from our sins and give us that wonderful adoption into the family of God.

That's what John tells us.

Those who believe have the right to become children of God.

So now do you see why this is good news?

Do you see what it means for you?

And I know you know it.

The question is, will you respond today so that you can be assured tomorrow of that wonderful future and home in heaven where it is truly family, the great family God, I hope you will.

Let's pray.

Our Father God, we thank you for this.

Your word.

Often words that are read at a carol service that simply pass us by because we're so familiar with them, but yet words of deep significance of who Joseph is in this whole story and what he did and his faithfulness.

So Lord, may we too be obedient unto Christ.

May we too be obedient unto the call of salvation and live for him, trusting in him and being adopted into your great family so that we will know an inheritance that will never perish, spoil or fade, that is kept in heaven for us and can never be taken away.

That wonderful salvation in Christ and home forever with you.

Lord, we know what to do.

Challenges by your Holy Spirit convict us that we will do what is right by you this day and we ask it in Jesus name, Amen.