Unexpected
Notes
Transcript
Unexpected Timing
Unexpected Timing
Normally there is an expectation with having a baby couples try to plan the right time to add a child to their family;
But sometimes, as with Mary and Joseph there was no plan - why - because they had not even gotten married (Luke 1:26-27);
Could you imagine how unexpected this pregnancy was to Mary and Joseph - betrothed (engaged) - no intimacy between them - Mary is now pregnant;
How could this be - because God will sometimes, OK quite often, work through the unexpected;
This Child was not unexpected by God or heaven;
The fulness of time was now come, when God would send forth his Son, made of a woman, and made under the law; and it was foretold that he should be born at Bethlehem.
Unexpected Reaction
Unexpected Reaction
Now in Luke 1:30-31 Mary herself is told of her pregnancy - not by a doctor but by an angel and he even tells her what to name the Child;
Now Mary’s reaction was very unexpected - how many of you would have handle an angel telling you about this with the comment “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.”
Comedian/Song writer Mark Lowry said if he was Mary he would have told the angel he needed to share this himself with her parents;
Joseph’s reaction was expected at first (Matthew 1:19) then turns to unexpected (Matthew 1:24);
What are you reactions to the unexpected.
Unexpected Travel
Unexpected Travel
How many of you ladies that have had children would have fought going on a trip at 8 1/2 months pregnant by plane, train or automobile - how about by donkey;
Most women would be in full on “nesting” mode not let’s go on trip mode because someone else said we have to mode;
However God had a different plan and His plan included Bethlehem which was approximately 90 miles and so think it took up to 7 days across rough terrain;
So why where they made to take this trip because of a census ordered by Caesar Augustus;
God uses the unexpected!
Unexpected Location
Unexpected Location
The coming of Christ - the Messiah - had been expected for decades and centuries;
His birth, as we learned last week, was foretold by Isaiah three times alone;
However where He was actually born was very unexpected;
The King of the Jewish nation, the Prince of Peace, the Great I Am, born in an animal stall and laid in a manger;
Because God chose to send His Son, your Savior, through the least of these to save the world;
God even announced Jesus’s birth to shepherds, the lowest of all, instead of a king;
Why - because God works through the unexpected;
God puts people where He needs them not necessarily where they want to be.