The Unsung Christmas Hero

The Unsung Christmas Hero
Pastor Terry Wilcox

Matthew 1:18-25

A hero is a person admired for their courage and/or their nobility of character. (Matthew 1:18-25)

A biblical perspective on being a hero: Romans 15:1-2

An explanation of: “pledged to be married” (Matthew 1:18); “Joseph, her husband…” (Matthew 1:19), and “…he had in mind to divorce her quietly…” (Matthew 1:19).

3 Steps in the Jewish Wedding:

1. The engagement, a contract arrange by the families.
2. The betrothal, a public ratification of the contract.
3. The marriage ceremony (usually one year after engagement).

Termination of a betrothal required a divorce.

What does the text tell us about Joseph?

1. He was just (moral rightness based on the law). Matthew 1:19 – “Because Joseph, her husband, was faithful to the law…”
2. He was circumspect, careful to consider all the circumstances. (Matthew 1:19) – “…he did not want to expose her to public disgrace.”
3. He was sensitive to the Spirit of God. (Matthew 1:20)
4. He obeyed God. (Matthew 1:24)
5. He controlled his passions. (Matthew 1:25)

How Matthew identifies Jesus:

1. Jesus the Messiah (Matthew 1:18)
   “Christ” is Greek for the Hebrew word for “Messiah”
2. Jesus, the Savior (Matthew 1:21)
3. Immanuel (Matthew 1:23)
   In Hebrew = “God with us” or “God became one of us”

Matthew 1:22 – “All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet.”
In Matthew’s record of Jesus, he often supports Jesus as the Messiah with Old Testament prophesies.

Isaiah 7:14 – “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.”

I believe that God does not need me to defend his miracles.

Which miracle requires more faith?

• The conception of Jesus via the Holy Spirit (Matthew 1:20)
• The creation of earth (Genesis 1:1-31)
• The creation of Adam (Genesis 2:7)
• The creation of Eve (Genesis 2:22)
• That God gives us spiritual birth (Titus 3:4-6)
• That “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21)

All the miracles of God confront us with a decision to believe what we cannot explain.
Romans 8:11

The Incarnation is God’s greatest affirmation of humanness. In the Incarnation God demonstrated that He could become human without becoming sinful. Humanness and sinfulness are not synonymous. Sinfulness is the perversion of the truly human, the perversion of the Imago Dei (the image of God) in which we were created. Salvation is, among other things, the restoration of the truly human in our lives, the correction of perversion so that we may be persons who express again the image of God.
-Dr. Myron Augsburger

Because of the Incarnation, all of us can be heroes.

Personal Notes