Joy isn't the absence of questions—it's the presence of trust in the One who holds every answer.

The Spiral We All Know — Matthew 1:18–19

Matthew 1:18–19 (NIV)This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.

• We know this struggle intimately: waiting on test results, watching a child struggle, second-guessing financial decisions, running endless "what if" scenarios that never produce peace.
• We're not waiting for clarity; we're waiting for certainty, and certainty never shows up—so we spin, delay, and wait for a readiness that never comes.
  
  

God Interrupts the Spiral — Matthew 1:20–23

Matthew 1:20–23 (NIV)But after he had considered this, 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. 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." All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: "The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel" (which means "God with us").

• God doesn't wait for us to figure it out; He speaks into the mess and confusion, showing up while we're still running simulations at 2 a.m.
• What if the unanswered questions are an invitation? What if the gap between what you know and what you need to know is the exact space where faith is built?
  
  

Trust That Leads to Action — Matthew 1:24

Matthew 1:24 (NIV)When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife.

• His obedience wasn't reckless; it was rooted—he knew exactly what this decision would cost him (reputation, credibility, community standing) and he obeyed anyway because his trust was in the One giving the instruction, not the outcome.
• Joseph had something we're all chasing: peace in uncertainty, joy without control, rest without resolution—because he didn't need the whole map, just the next step and trust in the One walking with him.
  
  

Jesus Is the Point — Matthew 1:21

Matthew 1:21 (NIV)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.

• We're not just anxious overthinkers who need better coping strategies; we're sinners who've tried to sit in God's seat, and that sin has broken something self-help can't fix.
• The gospel means you don't have to earn your way to peace or figure everything out to be accepted by God; when you let Jesus be your Savior instead of yourself, you're free—and that's where joy lives.
  
  

Joy isn't the absence of questions. It's the presence of trust.

STUDY NOTES

Joseph’s obedience to the message of the angel of the Lord overrules his own suspicions of Mary’s faithlessness as well as fear for the ruin of his own reputation and honor. Joseph’s emotional state at the time the angel appears to him must have been intensely conflicted. But this special revelation of God, at this paramount crossroad of history, gives him the guidance and stability that enables him to help carry out God’s program of salvation, even when he will become subject to ridicule and false accusations of moral failure. We may never experience such a dramatic appearance from God, but each of us will encounter unexpected circumstances and risks as we attempt to carry out God’s will for our lives. A young man engaged to be married recently told me that Joseph’s obedience in these circumstances had profoundly impacted him. He had been struggling with trusting his fiancée, because in an earlier relationship a young lady he had loved had been unfaithful to him. He didn’t know how he could ever really trust a woman again. His fear had begun to paralyze him in his relationship with his fiancée—fear of being hurt again and of being ridiculed for having an unfaithful wife. But he told me that he learned from this incident two important lessons. First, “trust” is not 100 percent knowledge; rather, it means to believe what he has seen and heard in his fiancée’s life, and then on the basis of what he knows as best as he can to be true, believe her. That was scary for him, because he could be made a fool again. But the second thing he learned was that once he came to the point where he believed her, he then had to put their relationship in God’s hands and believe in God to keep them both faithful to the relationship. So his real trust is in God. I think that he has learned a key lesson about a Christian marriage, which is founded on mutual trust but energized and maintained by the power of God.
-Michael J. Wilkins

God’s Control of World History This theme carries over from the first [section of chapter 1] and is certainly one of the controlling motifs of the Bible as a whole, not just Matthew. It is clear here that when needed, God supernaturally intervenes in human affairs. Joseph was about to divorce Mary, and so God sent an angel in a dream-vision to tell him God’s intentions and to give him God’s orders. We could all wish God would do so in our lives and guide us that directly. However, God did not always use miraculous means to make his will known, even in biblical times. For instance, in Acts 16:6-7, it says twice that on Paul’s second missionary journey the Holy Spirit twice “kept” the apostle and the others from going south to Asia (Ephesus) and north to Bithynia but led them instead to Troas, where they received the vision from the man of Macedonia. Note that Luke does not say they had a dream or direct message. I believe it was a growing conviction through their own prayer and decision that that was not God’s will. As God guides our decision process (via prayer), he is working with us in ways analogous to the way he led Joseph here. -Grant Osborne

God’s Desire for “Righteous” Followers When one closely follows the Lord and seeks to obey his commands (cf. 28:20b), that “righteous” lifestyle is what God honors. Forensic righteousness (= justification) occurs when God declares us right with him as a result of Jesus’ atoning sacrifice, but that must always lead to moral righteousness, as we live rightly before him. When we center on obedience, the life that results is especially blessed by God. The result is that we, like Joseph, become “just” in our relationship with others. Justice all too seldom occurs in the world as a whole. In America our litigious society means that the one with the best lawyer wins, and justice too often occurs only by chance. In much of the world the strong dominate the weak, and justice is not a consideration. But the “righteous” person is always just and merciful, as Joseph was toward Mary. -Grant Osborne

Pastor Sam Sutter //Sam@bbcconline.org

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