1. Please pray with me. May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be pleasing in Your sight, O Lord, our Rock, and our Redeemer. Amen. The message from God’s Word in our 2nd Advent Midweek Service is taken from Matthew 1:18-25, it’s entitled, “An Angel of the Lord Brings a Message of Hope in the Midst of Fear of the Unknown,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
2. Fear of the unknown. In the spring of 2020, our world was upended by an unseen enemy. Our lives were changed by a virus we little understood and couldn’t see. We had no cure, and many faced it with a sense of terror and dread. Sickness increased. Hospitals overflowed. Medical personnel strained to hold up under staggering loads of care. Shortages abounded. Deaths mounted. The world seemed under siege. Months passed. A year passed. What would come next? Does it ever end, or do we just wait for the next variant? Fear of the unknown.
3. But this was not the first time in recent history such a devastating event turned our world upside down. Most of us still recall 9/11. Many of us stood that day transfixed before our TV sets watching the unthinkable. Terrorists took a most useful and friendly machine, the airplane, and turned it into a deadly missile of mass destruction. Nearly 3,000 people perished as 2 towering skyscrapers collapsed in burning heaps of rubble and death. Security immediately tightened everywhere. And a war on terror commenced around the world. But these enemies couldn’t always be seen or easily found or identified. When would the next event occur? Would a terrorist attack come to my neighborhood? Fear of the unknown.
4. Joseph lived with his own fear of the unknown. In our current culture, it may seem minor, but for him the dilemma was serious. He was betrothed to a lovely young woman named Mary, legally married in a union yet to be consummated. It would be about a year before the final celebration, but their marriage was real and binding. Joseph surely dreamed of a wonderful life with his new wife and possibly even a large family supported by a thriving carpentry business.
5. But all these dreams seemed in serious question when Mary was suddenly “found to be with child” (Matt. 1:18). She was pregnant, and Joseph knew he wasn’t the father. Obviously, someone else was. But what should he do? A future with Mary was now fraught with complications socially. He could continue with the marriage, but it was not so simple anymore. The Old Testament law called for an adulterous woman to be stoned if her guilt was confirmed (Deut. 22:23–24). This was unthinkable for the woman he loved. So, he couldn’t go there. An option within the law allowed another solution: “Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put [Mary] to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly” (Matt. 1:19). A quiet divorce. The shame could be avoided, as well as the punishment for unfaithfulness. He loved her and didn’t wish any of this hardship upon her.
6. As Joseph deliberated all this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream. A special divine messenger from heaven. And a needed one too. For as the first words from the angel reveal, Joseph’s struggle involved more than just hesitation and concern: “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife” (Matt. 1:20). Joseph was struggling with fear. The word in the original language can carry the idea of panicked flight, even terror. And it was a terror, fear, of the unknown. Fear of going through with the marriage despite the unknown of Mary’s pregnancy. And the unknown of the consequences of breaking the holy law of God. If word got out that Mary was pregnant before the actual ceremony and celebration, the whole community would know. She would be branded with an A for adulteress. Joseph’s friends and neighbors would probably expect him to divorce Mary and possibly even carry through on the rest of the law’s punishments. And what about his reputation as a responsible businessman of Nazareth? He couldn’t know how this would all play out. He even had more painful personal questions he wished could be answered. Why had she done it? Who was the guy? How would she make out alone with a child to raise? Would he ever be able to trust someone again?
7. One can imagine such things keeping Joseph up at night. A heavy burden of worry when he should have been excited about the future, eagerly planning and preparing the home he and Mary could have had together. Fear is a true enemy of hope. It robs us of the assurance that God is in control, that God has a plan, that even the darkness of the present might yet become the light of a better day. But, God’s solution to Joseph’s fear wasn’t just the assurance that all things might work out in the end. He must have been surprised by the amazing promise he heard from the angel: “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins” (Matt. 1:20–21).
8. Mary wasn’t just pregnant. The child in her womb was conceived by the Holy Spirit. God was his Father! And the name he was instructed to give this new child may have seemed ordinary—it was a common male name for Hebrews—but, on the other hand, this name was something incredible and world-changing. Joseph was to name this child Jesus, which means “Yahweh saves,” for as the angel declared, “He will save his people from their sins.” Here Joseph was concerned about his reputation, Mary’s welfare, his own questions . . . and God was planning something much grander. He was planning to deliver mankind from sin itself, and thus from death, even hell. What fear could be worse than a fear of death itself? If hope could survive death, it could survive anything.
9. And even this wasn’t the end of the message from heaven. There was another name. “All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: ‘Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel’ (which means, God with us)” (Matt. 1:22–23). Just as the prophet Isaiah had declared. In the darkness of fear, we often feel alone and isolated, even forgotten. But this baby in Mary’s womb would be God’s very tangible and visible presence among his people. Joseph wasn’t alone in his concerns. He wasn’t left to work this out by himself. God was with him. God would strengthen, guide, and protect him each step of the way.
10. As the story unfolds in the Gospels, we know that many more challenges faced Joseph. Traveling with Mary so close to her due date must have given some concern. Then struggling to find a place to stay in Bethlehem. The night of the birth without a midwife or any others to assist. In all this, God was with him. And the story’s twists and turns wouldn’t end. He would have to flee with the mother and child to Egypt, for an enraged Herod sought to kill the child to remove a possible contender for his own fragile rule. Again, an angel from heaven, a divine messenger, brought a timely warning, as well as needed guidance and direction (Mt 2:13).
11. So much change in Joseph’s life. So many unknowns in the future. How could he possibly entertain any real hope for tomorrow when he hardly knew what tomorrow would bring? But God was with him. Immanuel. And the one over which he watched as a new foster father would be the true promise for all mankind: the one who by his future death on a cross would be the deliverer from sin, from death, from the very power of evil that animated murderous and dangerous men like Herod. Joseph had everything even when at times it felt as if he had so little.
12. Late into the pandemic, our world tried to reemerge and find its footing. It’s still trying. The economy has wobbled in inflation, and violence and terror have continued to leak into our cities. Our communities have become polarized in hateful rage. It’s hard not to worry about what tomorrow might bring, whether we’re up to the challenges just around the corner. The world around us changes faster than we can comprehend and adjust. The world beneath our feet shifts and shakes. We worry for our children and their future in this torn up and broken world. We worry for our own futures as we age. Fear grips with the clamp of an icy cold hand of terror and pins our hopes to the ground.
13. And then we hear it again. God’s own messenger. Straight from the very throne room of heaven itself. The angel now turns to us: The one born of Mary is “Yahweh saves.” This one delivered you from your sins and your certain death. You don’t have to fear. This one born of Mary is “Immanuel,” God with us. He is with you too. You don’t have to fear. And so, you can hope again. Hope not just for this fleeting moment, for today, but for tomorrow, for next year, for all eternity. Your hope is grounded in God’s promised presence sent to save us and be there for us.
14. As Paul declares to the Romans (Rom 8:31–39), no one can stand against us if God is for us. No one can frustrate God’s plans. Not Herod. Not the worst tyrants of our time. Not the terrorists. Not any enemy. No one can bring a charge against us. Not even Satan, the accuser of the brethren. God has declared us right with God through Christ. No one can condemn us, for this Jesus intercedes for us at the right hand of God. And no one can separate us from the love of Christ. Not tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword. For in all these things we are more than conquerors through the one who loves us. No one can tear us from God’s presence. Not life, not death, not angels or demons or rulers. Not things terrorizing us in the moment, or fears of what is to come. Nothing in all of the created order. Nothing. For the one born of Mary is the deliverer from sin, Immanuel, God with us.
15. And with that, we have hope. The angel’s message of hope to Joseph in the midst of his fear gives us hope as we fear our unknowns. A hope that cannot be disappointed. A hope grounded in God’s assuring promise. A hope that survives time itself. An eternal hope. Amen. Now the peace of God that surpasses all understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus until life everlasting. Amen.
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