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Joseph and Mary_ The Quiet Years Before Jesus_ Ministry · truthunedited

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  Speaker 1: What if I told you that the most famous birth
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  Speaker 1: in history happened in absolute darkness, hidden from the world's eyes.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: While emperors commanded legions and priests performed sacred rituals in
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  Speaker 1: golden temples, the creator of the universe entered his own
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: creation as a helpless infant, wrapped in borrowed cloth, lying
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  Speaker 1: in an animal's feeding trough. But this is only the
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  Speaker 1: beginning of a mystery that has captivated billions for two millennia.
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  Speaker 1: Behind the Nativity scenes and Christmas carols lies a raw,
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  Speaker 1: breath taking true story of danger, divine intervention, and secrets
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  Speaker 1: that could cost lives. A teenage girl facing disgrace, a
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  Speaker 1: heart broken carpenter ready to walk away. Celestial beings breaking
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  Speaker 1: into our world with terrifying announcements, Pagan scholars following an
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  Speaker 1: impossible star, a paranoid king ordering the massacre of innocent children,
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  Speaker 1: a desperate midnight escape into exile. And then is silence.
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  Speaker 1: Thirty years of silence? What happened during those hidden years?
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  Speaker 1: How did the Son of God learn to walk, to work,
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  Speaker 1: to live as fully human while remaining fully divine? To day,
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  Speaker 1: we uncover the true story of Joseph and Mary, A
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  Speaker 1: narrative of extraordinary faith, unimaginable trials, and the radical humility
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  Speaker 1: of God himself choosing to grow up in complete obscurity
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  Speaker 1: before changing the world forever. In a small town called Nazareth,
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  Speaker 1: tucked away in the hills of Galilee, lived a young
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  Speaker 1: woman named Mary. She was engaged to a man named Joseph,
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  Speaker 1: a carpenter from the lineage of King David. Life was simple, predictable, ordinary,
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  Speaker 1: but everything was about to change in a single moment.
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  Speaker 1: One day, something impossible happened. The Gospel of Luke tells
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  Speaker 1: us in chapter one, verse twenty six through twenty seven,
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  Speaker 1: that God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth to avert
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  Speaker 1: John pledged to be married to a man named Joseph
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  Speaker 1: of the House of David, and the virgin's name was Mary.
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  Speaker 1: Imagine Mary going about her daily tasks when suddenly an
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  Speaker 1: angel appeared before her, not in a dream, not in
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  Speaker 1: a vision, right there in front of her. Luke records
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  Speaker 1: in verse twenty eight what Gabriel said, Greetings you, who
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  Speaker 1: are highly favored. The Lord is with you. Mary was
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  Speaker 1: deeply troubled by these words. Who wouldn't be an angelic
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  Speaker 1: being appears out of nowhere and calls you favored. Her
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  Speaker 1: mind must have raced. What could this mean? Why was
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  Speaker 1: this happening to her? The Angel noticed her fear. In
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  Speaker 1: verse thirty Gabriel spoke again, do not be afraid, Mary,
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  Speaker 1: you have found favor with God. Then came the announcement
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  Speaker 1: that would split history. In two verses thirty one through
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  Speaker 1: thirty three record his words, you will conceive and give
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  Speaker 1: birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus.
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  Speaker 1: He will be great and will be called the Son
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  Speaker 1: of the Most High. The Lord God will give him
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  Speaker 1: the throne of his father David, and he will reign
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  Speaker 1: over Jacob's descendants forever. His kingdom will never end. Mary
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  Speaker 1: stood there, processing words that seemed impossible. She was a virgin,
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  Speaker 1: not yet married. How could she have a child. This
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  Speaker 1: wasn't how things worked, So she asked the obvious question.
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  Speaker 1: Verse thirty four tells us, how will this be since
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  Speaker 1: I am a virgin. Gabriel's answer was unlike anything anyone
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  Speaker 1: had ever heard. In verse thirty five, he explained, the
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  Speaker 1: Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of
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  Speaker 1: the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one
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  Speaker 1: to be born will be called the Son of God.
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  Speaker 1: This child would have no earthly father. God himself would
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  Speaker 1: be the source of this life. To help her believe,
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  Speaker 1: Gabriel gave her a sign. Her relative Elizabeth, who everyone
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  Speaker 1: said was unable to have children and was now very old,
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  Speaker 1: was six months pregnant. As verse thirty seven declares, for
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  Speaker 1: no word from God will ever fail, Mary had a
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  Speaker 1: choice to make. She could refuse question further or run
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  Speaker 1: away from this overwhelming responsibility. Instead, she did something remarkable.
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  Speaker 1: Verse thirty eight records her response, I am the Lord's servant.
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  Speaker 1: May your word to me be fulfilled. Then the angel
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  Speaker 1: left her. In that moment, Mary said yes to a
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  Speaker 1: path that would bring her both incredible honor and unimaginable pain.
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  Speaker 1: She agreed to carry the son of God, knowing full
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  Speaker 1: well what scandal this would bring in her community. Mary
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  Speaker 1: was engaged to Joseph, but they weren't living together yet.
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  Speaker 1: That's how it worked in their culture. Engagement was as
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  Speaker 1: binding as marriage, but the couple didn't come together until
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  Speaker 1: after the wedding ceremony. So when Mary became pregnant, joe
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  Speaker 1: Yoseph faced a devastating reality. Matthew's Gospel tells us what
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  Speaker 1: happened next. In chapter one, verse eighteen, we read this
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  Speaker 1: is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about.
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  Speaker 1: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph,
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  Speaker 1: but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant.
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  Speaker 1: Through the Holy Spirit. Put yourself in Joseph's position. The
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  Speaker 1: woman you love, the woman your planning to marry, is pregnant,
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  Speaker 1: and you know the child isn't yours. The whispers would start,
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  Speaker 1: the accusations would fly. Under Jewish law, this was adultery,
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  Speaker 1: and the penalty could be severe. But Matthew tells us
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  Speaker 1: something important about Joseph's character in verse nineteen. Because Joseph,
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  Speaker 1: her husband, was faithful to the law and yet did
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  Speaker 1: not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had
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  Speaker 1: in mind to divorce her quietly. Notice what this reveals.
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  Speaker 1: Joseph was righteous. He took God's law seriously, but he
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  Speaker 1: was also compassionate. He loved Mary enough that even in
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  Speaker 1: his pain and confusion, he didn't want to humiliate her publicly.
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  Speaker 1: He could have made a public spectacle of this, He
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  Speaker 1: could have demanded justice according to the law. Instead, he
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  Speaker 1: planned to end the engagement quietly. Sparing her the worst
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  Speaker 1: of the shame. This wasn't an easy decision. Joseph was
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  Speaker 1: torn between what the law required and what his heart felt.
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  Speaker 1: He knew Mary, he knew her character, yet the evidence
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  Speaker 1: seemed undeniable. There was no explanation that made sense to him.
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  Speaker 1: Not yet, So Joseph made his plan. He would divorce
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  Speaker 1: her quietly and everyone would move on. He would bear
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  Speaker 1: his own heartbreak in silence. It was the kind thing
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  Speaker 1: to do, the merciful thing, but it meant walking away
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  Speaker 1: from the woman he loved and the future they had
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  Speaker 1: planned together. Joseph went to bed that night carrying the
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  Speaker 1: weight of this decision, not knowing that God was about
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  Speaker 1: to deven in the most direct way possible. That night,
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  Speaker 1: as Joseph slept, God spoke. Matthew Chapter one, verse twenty
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  Speaker 1: tells us what happened. But after he had considered this,
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  Speaker 1: an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a
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  Speaker 1: dream and said, Joseph's son of David, do not be
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  Speaker 1: afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what
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  Speaker 1: is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. The
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  Speaker 1: angel called him son of David, a reminder that Joseph
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  Speaker 1: carried royal blood, in his veins that he was part
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  Speaker 1: of God's ancient promises to King David. And then the
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  Speaker 1: Angel told him something that must have seemed impossible. Mary's
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  Speaker 1: child was conceived by the Holy Spirit. The Angel continued
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  Speaker 1: in verse twenty one, she will give birth to a son,
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  Speaker 1: and you are to give him the name Jesus, because
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  Speaker 1: he will save his people from their sins. The name
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  Speaker 1: Jesus means the Lord saves. His child would be the Savior.
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  Speaker 1: Then Matthew adds something crucial in verses twenty two and
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  Speaker 1: twenty three. All this took place to fulfill what the
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  Speaker 1: Lord had said through the prophet. The Virgin will conceive
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  Speaker 1: and give birth to a son, and they will call
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  Speaker 1: him Immanuel, which means God with us. Seven hundred years earlier,
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  Speaker 1: the prophet Isaiah had spoken these words. Now they were
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  Speaker 1: coming true. The virgin birth wasn't a scandal, it was
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  Speaker 1: a miracle. It was the fulfillment of ancient prophecy. God
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  Speaker 1: himself was coming to be with his people. When Joseph
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  Speaker 1: woke up, he didn't hesitate. Verse twenty four records his response.
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  Speaker 1: When Joseph woke up, he did what the Angel of
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  Speaker 1: the Lord had commanded. Him and took Mary home as
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  Speaker 1: his wife. No more doubt, no more questions. Joseph believed
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  Speaker 1: the angel's message and acted on it immediately. He took
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  Speaker 1: Mary as his wifeinging her into his home, and placing
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  Speaker 1: himself as protector over both her and the child she carried.
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  Speaker 1: But Matthew adds one more detail in verse twenty five.
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  Speaker 1: But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave
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  Speaker 1: birth to a son, and he gave him the name Jesus.
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  Speaker 1: Joseph honored Mary and the child within her. He provided
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  Speaker 1: for them, protected them, and when the time came, he
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  Speaker 1: gave the child the name the angel had commanded, Jesus.
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  Speaker 1: Mary was now living in Joseph's home, but she wasn't
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  Speaker 1: showing yet. Soon enough, though, her pregnancy would become visible
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  Speaker 1: to everyone in Nazareth. And Nazareth was a small town
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  Speaker 1: where everyone knew everyone else's business. We don't have a
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  Speaker 1: specific Bible verse that describes the gossip and the stairs,
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  Speaker 1: but we can understand what life must have been like.
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  Speaker 1: Small towns talk, people count months, They notice when a
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  Speaker 1: bride is pregnant before for the wedding is complete. Joseph
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  Speaker 1: had taken Mary in which meant he was claiming the
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  Speaker 1: child as his own, but that didn't stop the whispers.
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  Speaker 1: People would have done the math. They would have known
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  Speaker 1: this child was conceived before the traditional time. Mary and
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  Speaker 1: Joseph carried a secret that no one else would believe.
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  Speaker 1: How could they explain that an angel had visited, that
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  Speaker 1: the Holy Spirit had overshadowed her, that this was the
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  Speaker 1: son of God. Who would accept such an explanation. So
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  Speaker 1: they stayed quiet and endured. Joseph worked in his carpenter's shop.
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  Speaker 1: Mary prepared for the child's arrival. They lived under the
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  Speaker 1: weight of suspicion, trusting that God knew the truth even
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  Speaker 1: when their neighbors didn't. This was part of the cost
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  Speaker 1: of obedience. Mary had said yes to God and Joseph
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  Speaker 1: had believed the angel's message, but that didn't mean life
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  Speaker 1: became easy. Faith often requires us to stand firm when
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  Speaker 1: others misunderstand, to keep going when our reputation is questioned.
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  Speaker 1: Mary and Joseph were learning something that every follower of
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  Speaker 1: God must learn. Doing the right thing doesn't always look
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  Speaker 1: right to others. Sometimes obedience to God means accepting misunderstanding
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  Speaker 1: from people. They had each other, and they had the
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  Speaker 1: promise of God. For now, that had to be enough.
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  Speaker 1: Mary's pregnancy continued, and her time to give birth was
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  Speaker 1: drawing near. Then something unexpected happened, something that would set
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  Speaker 1: in motion the fulfillment of another ancient prophecy. The Gospel
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  Speaker 1: of Luke, Chapter two opens with these words in verses
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  Speaker 1: one through three. In those days, Caesar Augustus issued a
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  Speaker 1: decree that a census should be taken of the entire
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  Speaker 1: Roman world. This was the first census that took place
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  Speaker 1: while Quirinius was governor of Syria, and everyone went to
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  Speaker 1: their own town to register. Caesar Augustus was the Emperor
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  Speaker 1: of Rome, the most powerful man in the world. He
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  Speaker 1: ruled over millions of people across vast territories, and he
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  Speaker 1: wanted to count them all, probably for taxation purposes, possibly
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  Speaker 1: to assess military strength. Whatever his reasons, his word was law.
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  Speaker 1: The decree meant that every man had to return to
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  Speaker 1: his ancestral hometown to be counted. For most people, this
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  Speaker 1: was an inconvenience. For Joseph and Mary, it was a
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  Speaker 1: journey that would change everything. Luke tells us in verse four.
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  Speaker 1: So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth,
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  Speaker 1: in Galilee to Judea to Bethlehem, the town of David,
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  Speaker 1: because he belonged to the house and line of David.
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  Speaker 1: Joseph's ancestor was King David, and David had been born
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  Speaker 1: in Bethlehem, so that's where Joseph had to go. To Bethlehem,
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  Speaker 1: about ninety miles south of Nazareth. Ninety miles doesn't sound
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  Speaker 1: like much today, but in the first century, without cars
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  Speaker 1: or trains, it was a long, difficult journey. It would
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  Speaker 1: take several days of walking. The roads were rough, the
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  Speaker 1: terrain hilly. There were dangers along the way, banned its
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  Speaker 1: wild animals, the simple risk of injury, far from help,
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  Speaker 1: and Mary was about to give birth. Verse five makes
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  Speaker 1: this clear. He went there to register with Mary, who
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  Speaker 1: was pledged to be married to him and was expecting
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  Speaker 1: a child. Why did Mary go The decree required men
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  Speaker 1: to register, not necessarily their wives. But perhaps Joseph wouldn't
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  Speaker 1: leave her behind in her condition. Perhaps he wanted to
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  Speaker 1: protect her from the gossip in Nazareth. Perhaps God was
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  Speaker 1: guiding their steps toward Bethlehem for reasons they didn't yet
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  Speaker 1: fully understand. What they didn't know what Caesar Augustus certainly
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  Speaker 1: didn't know was that he was unwittingly fulfilling a prophecy
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  Speaker 1: spoken seven hundred years earlier. The prophet Micah had declared
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  Speaker 1: in Chapter five, verse two, who but you, Bethlehem, Ephratha,
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  Speaker 1: Though you are small among the clans of Judah, out
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  Speaker 1: of you will come for me one who will be
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  Speaker 1: ruler over Israel. The Messiah had to be born in Bethlehem,
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  Speaker 1: but Mary and Joseph lived in Nazareth. How would God
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  Speaker 1: get them to the right place at the right time
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  Speaker 1: through a census ordered by a pagan emperor who had
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  Speaker 1: no idea he was serving God's ancient plan. The journey
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  Speaker 1: from Nazareth to Bethlehem was not an easy one, especially
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  Speaker 1: for a woman in the final days of pregnancy. We
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  Speaker 1: don't have detailed Bible verses describing every step of this journey,
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  Speaker 1: but we know it happened, and we can understand what
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  Speaker 1: it must have involved. They would have traveled with other
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  Speaker 1: families heading south for the census. The roads would have
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  Speaker 1: been crowded with people all making their way to their
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  Speaker 1: ancestral towns. Some roade donkeys, many walked. They traveled during
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  Speaker 1: daylight hours and found places to rest at night, Mary,
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  Speaker 1: heavy with child, probably rode on a donkey while Joseph
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  Speaker 1: walked beside her. Every jostle, every bump in the road
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  Speaker 1: must have been uncomfortable. The days were long, the nights
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  Speaker 1: brought little comfort. They passed through different regions, moving from
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  Speaker 1: Galilee down through the hills. They had to be careful,
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  Speaker 1: stay with the group, watch for dangers. Joseph carried the
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  Speaker 1: responsibility of keeping Mary safe, of getting her to Bethlehem,
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  Speaker 1: and then finding a place for her to rest. As
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  Speaker 1: they traveled, Mary must have felt the child moving within her.
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  Speaker 1: She knew her time was close. Each mile brought them
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  Speaker 1: nearer to Bethlehem and nearer to the moment when the
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  Speaker 1: Son of God would enter the world. Did they talk
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  Speaker 1: about what was coming, Did they remind each other of
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  Speaker 1: the Angel's messages? Did they wonder how it would all unfold?
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  Speaker 1: We don't know. The Bible doesn't tell us their conversations
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  Speaker 1: or their private thoughts during this journey. What we know
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  Speaker 1: is that they kept going step by step, mile by mile,
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  Speaker 1: trusting that God was leading them and he was Every
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  Speaker 1: step south was a step toward the fulfillment of prophecy,
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  Speaker 1: toward the moment when Heaven would touch Earth in the
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  Speaker 1: most intimate way possible. Finally, Joseph and Mary arrived in Bethlehem.
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  Speaker 1: They were exhausted from the journey, and Mary's time to
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  Speaker 1: give birth was very near. Now they needed to find
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  Speaker 1: a place to stay, but Bethlehem was packed with people.
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  Speaker 1: Everyone from David's lineage had come to register, and the
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  Speaker 1: small town couldn't hold them all. Luke chapter two, verse
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  Speaker 1: six tells us while they were there, the time came
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  Speaker 1: for the baby to be born. They needed shelter, and
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  Speaker 1: they needed it quickly. Joseph must have gone from door
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  Speaker 1: to door, knocking, asking, pleading, Did anyone have room? Could
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  Speaker 1: any no one taken a pregnant woman about to give birth.
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  Speaker 1: Verse seven gives us the answer, and she gave birth
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  Speaker 1: to her first born, a son. She wrapped him in
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  Speaker 1: cloths and placed him in a manger because there was
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  Speaker 1: no guest room available for them, no guest room, no
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  Speaker 1: proper place. Every door was closed, every space was taken.
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  Speaker 1: The inns, the homes, the guest quarters all full. No
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  Speaker 1: one made room for a carpenter and his pregnant wife,
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  Speaker 1: so they ended up in a stable. This was likely
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  Speaker 1: a cave carved into the hillside where animals were kept
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  Speaker 1: donkey's sheep, maybe cattle. It was a place of straw
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  Speaker 1: and manure, of animal sounds and smells. It was cold,
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  Speaker 1: it was rough. It was completely unsuitable for childbirth. But
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  Speaker 1: it was all they had. So Mary prepared to give
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  Speaker 1: birth in a stable surrounded by animals, with only Joseph
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  Speaker 1: to help her, no midwife, no female relatives, no comfort
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  Speaker 1: or dignity. The irony is staggering. The creator of the
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  Speaker 1: universe was about to be born, and there was no
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  Speaker 1: room for him in the comfortable places. The King of
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  Speaker 1: kings would make his entrance in the lowliest of settings.
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  Speaker 1: This wasn't a failure of God's plan. This was the plan.
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  Speaker 1: The Messiah would come not in power and glory, but
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  Speaker 1: in humility and poverty. He would identify with the lowest,
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  Speaker 1: the forgotten, the ones with nowhere to go. But at
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  Speaker 1: that moment, Mary and Joseph simply dealt with the reality
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  Speaker 1: before them. They had a stable, and it would have
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  Speaker 1: to do there. In that stable, Mary gave birth. The
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  Speaker 1: Gospel of Luke describes it simply in chapter two, verse seven.
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  Speaker 1: She gave birth to her first born, a son. No
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  Speaker 1: elaborate details no dramatic description, just the plain fact. The
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  Speaker 1: Son of God was born. The eternal word became flesh.
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  Speaker 1: The promised Messiah entered human history as a baby. Mary,
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  Speaker 1: like every mother, endured the pain of labor, and when
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  Speaker 1: it was over, she held her son in her arms.
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  Speaker 1: She looked into the face of the child the Angel
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  Speaker 1: had promised, the child conceived by the Holy Spirit, the
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  Speaker 1: child who would save his people from their sins. The
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  Speaker 1: verse continues. She wrapped him in cloths. These were strips
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  Speaker 1: of fabric used to swaddle newborns, a common practice that
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  Speaker 1: helped babies feel secure and kept them warm. Mary tended
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  Speaker 1: to her baby just as any mother would, rapping him
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  Speaker 1: carefully protecting his tiny body. Then came the detail that
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  Speaker 1: shows just how humble this birth was, and placed him
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  Speaker 1: in a manger. A manger was a feeding trough for animals.
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  Speaker 1: It was probably made of stone or wood filled with hay.
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  Speaker 1: This became the new born king's first bed. No cradle,
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  Speaker 1: no soft linens, no nurse, just a manger in a stable.
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  Speaker 1: The son of God, who created the stars and set
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  Speaker 1: the planets in motion, who spoke the world into existence,
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  Speaker 1: lay in a feeding trough. The one whom angels worship
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  Speaker 1: entered the world in absolute poverty. No crowds gathered, no
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  Speaker 1: officials took note, no royal announcements were made. The birth
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  Speaker 1: that would change everything happened in complete obscurity, witnessed only
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  Speaker 1: by Mary and Joseph and perhaps a few animals. But
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  Speaker 1: this was exactly how it needed to be. The Messiah
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  Speaker 1: came not to the powerful and proud, but to the
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  Speaker 1: humble and poor. He identified with the lowest. From his
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  Speaker 1: very first breath, he knew what it meant to have
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  Speaker 1: no proper place, to be overlooked, to be born into hardship.
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  Speaker 1: Mary held her son close, Joseph stood watch over them both,
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  Speaker 1: and there in that stable, with the smell of animals
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  Speaker 1: and the sound of Bethlehem's crowded streets outside, the rescue
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  Speaker 1: of humanity had begun. While Mary and Joseph were settling
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  Speaker 1: into their humble stable with the new born Jesus, something
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: extraordinary was happening in the fields outside Bethlehem. Shepherds were
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: out there, keeping watch over their flocks during the night hours.
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: These weren't respected members of society. Shepherds lived rough lives,
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: sleeping outdoors, constantly moving with their sheep. Their work made
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: them ceremonially unclean according to religious laws, and most people
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: looked down on them. They were considered unreliable, so much
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: so that their testimony wasn't even accepted in Jewish courts.
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: But on this night, God chose these overlooked men to
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: receive the first announcement of the Saviour's birth. Luke Chapter two,
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: verse eight sets the scene. And there were shepherds living
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: out in the fields near by, keeping watch over their
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: flocks at night. It was an ordinary night. They were
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: doing what they always did, watching for predators, making sure
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: the sheep stayed together, probably talking quietly among themselves or
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: sitting in silence under the stars. Then suddenly everything changed.
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: Verse nine tells us what happened. An Angel of the
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: shone around them, and they were terrified. Imagine the darkness
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: being ripped apart by blazing light. An angel stood before them,
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: surrounded by the glory of God, a brightness beyond anything natural,
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: a holiness that made them shake with fear. They had
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: never seen anything like this. Nothing in their simple shepherd
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: lives had prepared them for this moment. Their first reaction
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: was pure terror. They probably fell to the ground, shielding
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: their eyes, hearts pounding. Was this judgment? Were they about
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: to die? But the Angel spoke, and his fur words
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: were meant to calm their fear. Verse ten records what
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: he said, do not be afraid. I bring you good
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: news that will cause great joy for all the people.
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: Good news, not judgment, not condemnation, good news, and not
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: just for the rich or powerful or religious elite, but
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: for all people, even for shepherds. Then came the announcement
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: they would never forget. Verse eleven. To day, in the
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: town of David, a savior has been born to you.
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: He is the Messiah, the Lord to day, right now,
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: not in the future, not as a distant promise. The
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: Savior had been born, The Messiah, the one Israel had
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: been waiting for. The Lord himself had arrived, and it
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: happened in Bethlehem, the town of David, just a short
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: distance from where they were standing. The shepherds must have
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: been stunned. The Messiah born to night. Here, the Angel
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: continued in verse twelve, giving them a sign so they
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: could find this newborn king. This will be a signed
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: to you. You will find a baby wrapped in cloths
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: and lying in a manger, a manger, not a palace,
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: not even a proper house, a feeding trough in a stable.
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: The sign was the humility itself. The Messiah had come
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: in poverty in a way that shepherds could relate to.
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: He was accessible to them, born in circumstances they understood.
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: Before the shepherds could fully process what the Angel had
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: told them, something even more spectacular happened. The lone Angel
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: was joined by an entire army of heaven. Luke Chapter two,
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: verse thirteen describes the moment. Suddenly a great company of
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: the heavenly host appeared, with the Angel praising God and saying,
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: the sky exploded with divine beings. Hundreds, maybe thousands of
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: angels appeared, filling the night with supernatural light and glory.
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: These were the armies of Heaven, the servants of God,
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: and they had come to celebrate the birth of the Savior.
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: What did they say? Verse fourteen gives us their song
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: Glory to God in the Highest Heaven, and on earth,
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: peace to those on whom His favor rests. Glory to
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: God in the Highest. The angels gave honor and praise
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: to God for what he was doing this birth was
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: worth celebrating in heaven. The plan of salvation, set in
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: motion before the world began, was now unfolding on earth,
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: and peace on earth to those on whom God's favor rests.
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: The Messiah's coming would bring peace, not the absence of conflict,
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: but the peace that comes from being reconciled to God.
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: This peace was for those who received God's favor, those
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: who would believe and trust in the Savior. The shepherds
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: watched and listened, overwhelmed by the sight and sound of
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: this heavenly worship. How long did it last, we don't know,
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: but it was enough to change them forever. Then, as
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: suddenly as they had appeared, the angels were gone. Verse
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: fifteen tells us when the angels had left them and
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: gone into heaven, the shepherd said to one another, let's
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: which the Lord has told us about. The glory faded,
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: the light dimmed, the night grew quiet again. But the
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: shepherds weren't the same. They had received a message from
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: God himself, and they had to respond. Notice what they decided,
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: Let's go see this thing that has happened. They didn't
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: dismiss it as a dream or a vision. They didn't
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: decide to wait until morning or send some one else
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: to check. They moved immediately and noticed they left their flocks,
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: the very thing they were supposed to be guarding. This
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: was a risk. Leaving sheep unprotected at night meant they
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: could be scattered or killed by prayers. But the shepherds
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: went anyway. The message was too important. The Savior had
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: been born and they had to see him. The Gospel
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: of Luke tells us what happened next in the shepherd's story,
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: but then moves forward in time to an important moment
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: in Jesus's early life. After his birth, Mary and Joseph
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: followed the requirements of Jewish law concerning a newborn son.
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: Luke Chapter two, verse twenty one begins on the eighth day,
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: when it was time to circumcise the child. He was
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: named Jesus, the name the Angel had given him before
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: he was conceived. Eight days after birth, every Jewish boy
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: was circumcised as a sign of the covenant between God
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: and Abraham's descendants. On this day, the baby was officially
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: given his name. Mary and Joseph called him Jesus exactly
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: as the Angel Gabriel had commanded Mary, and as the
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: Angel had told Joseph in his dream. Then, after Mary's
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: time of purification was complete, they took another step of obedience.
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: Verse twenty two explains when the time came for the
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: purification rites required by the Law of Moses, Joseph and
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: Mary took him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord.
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: According to the law, a woman who gave birth to
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: a son was ceremonially unclean for forty days. After this
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: period she had to offer a sacrifice at the temple. Also,
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: every firstborn son was to be consecrated to the Lord,
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: set apart as belonging to God. So Joseph and Mary
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: made the journey from Bethlehem to Jerusalem, only about six miles,
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: but still a trip that required effort with a new
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: born baby. They went to the Temple, that magnificent structure
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: built by Herod, the center of Jewish worship. Verse twenty
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: three tells us why they presented Jesus to the Lord.
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: As it is written in the Law of the Lord,
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: every first born male is to be consecrated to the Lord.
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: This was based on what happened in Egypt when God
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: struck down the firstborn sons of the Egyptians, but spared
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: the Israelites. In memory of that every firstborn Israelite son
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: belonged to God in a special way. Then came the sacrifice.
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: Verse twenty four describes what they brought and to offer
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: a sacrifice, in keeping with what is said in the
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: Law of the Lord, a pair of doves or two
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: young pigeons. The law actually required a lamb for this
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: purification offering, but there was an exception for poor people.
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: They could bring two birds instead. Joseph and Mary brought birds,
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: not a lamb. This tells us they were poor. They
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: couldn't afford the more expensive sacrifice. The family that carried
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: God's son to the temple did so in poverty, offering
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: the sacrifice of the poor. They obeyed the law completely,
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: but they did it without wealth or status. What they
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: didn't know was that this routine visit to the temple
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: was about to become anything but routine. Inside the temple
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: courts that day was an old man named Simeon. Luke
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: tells us about him in Chapter two, verse twenty five. Now,
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel,
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: and the Holy Spirit was on him. Simeon was a
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: good man who loved God and followed his ways. He
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: was devout, meaning he took his faith seriously and lived
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: it out daily. And he was waiting, waiting for God
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: to comfort and redeem Israel, waiting for the Messiah to come.
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: The Holy Spirit was on him, which meant he had
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: a special connection to God, a sensitivity to divine leading.
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: And God had made Simeon a specific promise recorded in
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: verse twenty six. It had been revealed to him by
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: had seen in the Lord's Messiah. Imagine carrying that promise
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: for years, maybe decades. Simeon knew that before his death
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: he would see the Messiah with his own eyes. Every
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: day was lived in expectation. Every trip to the temple
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: carried the possibility that this would be the day. And
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: on this particular day, the Holy Spirit prompted him to
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: go to the temple. Verse twenty seven says, Moved by
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. He didn't
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: know why, he just knew he needed to be there.
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: So he went, trusting the Spirit's leading. And then he
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: saw them, a young couple bringing their baby for the
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: presentation ceremony. There was nothing obviously special about them. They
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: looked like any other poor family, fulfilling the law's requirements.
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: But Simeon knew. The Holy Spirit revealed to him that
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: this baby, this helpless infant, being carried by a poor couple,
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: was the one he had been waiting for. This was
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: the Lord's Messiah. Verse twenty eight describes what happened next.
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying,
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: this old man reached out and took the baby Jesus
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: from Mary's arms. He held the savior of the world,
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: the fulfillment of centuries of prophecy, the hope of Israel,
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: and he burst into worship. His words are recorded in
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: verses twenty nine through thirty two. Sovereign Lord, as you
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: have promised, you may now dismiss your servant in peace.
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: prepared in the sight of all nations, a light for
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: revelation to the gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel.
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: Simeon was ready to die now. He had seen what
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: God promised him, salvation in the flesh, and he understood
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: something profound. This salvation wasn't just for Jews. This baby
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: would be a light to the gentiles, to all the
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: nations of the world, and he would bring glory to Israel.
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: Mary and Joseph stood there amazed. Verse thirty three tells
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: us the child's father and mother marveled at what was
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: said about him. They knew their son was special. Angels
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: had told them both, But hearing these prophecies spoken over
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: him by a stranger, a man moved by the Holy Spirit,
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: must have filled them with wonder all over again. Then
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: Simeon blessed them and turned to Mary with words that
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: were both wonderful and terrible. Verses thirty four and thirty
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: five record what he said, This child is destined to
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: to be a sign that will be spoken against, so
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed, and
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: a sword will pierce your own soul too. This baby
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: would divide people. Some would rise because of him, others
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: would fall. He would be opposed, rejected, spoken again, and
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: Mary herself would experience deep pain a sword piercing her soul,
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: a pain that would come from watching her son suffer.
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: Simeon gave Mary a glimpse of the future, a warning
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: of the cost of being the Messiah's mother. But for
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: now his waiting was over. He had seen the Lord's
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: salvation with his own eyes. As soon as Simeon finished speaking,
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: another person approached. This time it was a woman very
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: old who had spent most of her life in the temple.
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: Luke Chapter two, verses thirty six and thirty seven introduce her.
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: There was also a prophet, Anna, the daughter of Penuel
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: of the tribe of Asher. She was very old. She
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: had lived with her husband seven years after her marriage,
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: and then was a widow until she was eighty four.
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: She never left the temple, but worship night and day,
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: fasting and praying. Anna was a prophetess, someone who s
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: spoke messages from God. She belonged to the tribe of Asher,
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: one of the northern tribes of Israel. Her life story
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: was one of devotion born from loss. She had married
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: young and lived with her husband for only seven years
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: before he died. Then she became a widow. Instead of remarrying,
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: she devoted herself completely to God. For decades, possibly more
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: than sixty years, she had made the temple her home.
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: She didn't literally never leave. The point is that she
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: was always there, constantly engaged in worship. She fasted regularly,
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: denying herself food to focus on prayer. She prayed continually,
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: bringing Israel's needs before God day after day, year after year.
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: She waited for God to fulfill his promises. And on
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: this day, at this exact moment, she saw what she
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: had been waiting for. Verse thirty eight tells Us coming
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: up to them at that very moment, she gave thanks
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: to God and spoke about the child to all who
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem. Just as
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: Simeon was holding Jesus and prophesying over him, Anna arrived.
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: It wasn't coincidence, it was divine timing. She saw the baby,
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: and she knew the Holy Spirit revealed to her what
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: Simeon already understood. This was the Messiah. Her first response
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: was thanksgiving. She praised God for allowing her to see
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: this day. Then she did something important. She told others.
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: Anna spoke about the child to everyone in the temple
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: who was waiting for redemption. Not everyone just those who
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: were watching and hoping for God to save Jerusalem, to
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: restore Israel, to send the Messiah. These were people like
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: her and Simeon, faithful people who hadn't given up hope.
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: She became a witness, a herald, an announcer of good
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: news the massas Sire had come and she had seen him.
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: She was probably one of the first people to publicly
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: testify about Jesus, to spread the word about who he was.
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: Mary and Joseph heard Anna's words, witnessed her joy, and
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: saw her rush off to tell others. Two elderly saints,
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: a man and a woman, both led by the Holy Spirit,
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: had confirmed what the angels had told them. Their son
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: was indeed the promised One. After Jesus was born in Bethlehem,
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: something remarkable happened far away in the East. The Gospel
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: of Matthew chapter two tells this part of the story,
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: beginning in verse one. After Jesus was born in Bethlehem.
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: In Judea, during the time of King Herod, maji from
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: the east came to Jerusalem. The Magi were wise men,
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: scholars who studied the stars. They came from the east,
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: probably Persia or Babylon. Hundreds of miles away. These weren't Jews.
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: They were gentiles, foreigners who worshiped differently and followed different customs.
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: But they had seen something in the sky that captured
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: their attention. Verse two tells us what they said when
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: they arrived in Jerusalem. Where is the one who has
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: been born king of the Jews? We saw his star
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: when it rose and have come to worship him. They
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: saw a star, something unusual in the heavens that they
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: interpreted as a sign of a king's birth, and they
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: connected this star specifically to the Jews. How did they know.
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: Perhaps they had access to Jewish scriptures. Perhaps God revealed
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: it to them directly. The Bible doesn't say. What matters
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: is that they believed this sign was important enough to
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: travel for months across dangerous terrain to find this new
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: born king. They came to worship him, bringing valuable gifts
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: with them. They went to Jerusalem first, because that's where
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: you'd expect to find a king king in the capital city,
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: in the palace. But when they started asking around about
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: a new born king of the Jews, they created a problem.
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: Matthew tells us in verse three. When King Herod heard this,
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. Herod was
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: the King of the Jews, at least that was his title.
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: The Romans had appointed him, and he ruled with an
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: iron fist. He was paranoid about any one threatening his
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: throne and had already killed multiple family members he suspected
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: of plotting against him. Now foreign scholars show up asking
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: about another king of the Jews, someone born recently. This
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: was a direct threat to Herod's power, and he was disturbed, troubled, agitated, alarmed.
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: All Jerusalem was disturbed too. When Herod was upset, people suffered.
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: The whole city knew that this question about a new
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: born king could lead to violence. Herod took action. Verse
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: four says when he had called together all the people's
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: where the Messiah was to be born. He gathered the
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: religious experts, the chief priests who ran the temple, and
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: the teachers who studied scripture. He asked them a direct question,
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: where should the Messiah be born? If there was prophecy
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: about a coming king, where did it say he would appear.
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: They knew the answer immediately. Verses five and six record
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: their response in Bethlehem in Judea. They replied, for this
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: is what the prophet has written. But you, Bethlehem, in
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: the land of Judah, are by no means least among
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: the rulers of Judah. For out of you will come
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel. Bethlehem. The
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: prophet Micah had said it clearly, seven hundred years earlier,
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: the Messiah would come from Bethlehem, the town of David.
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: These scholars knew the scriptures, they could quote the prophecy,
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: but they weren't out looking for the Messiah themselves. Herod
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: now had the information he needed. He called the magi
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: to a private meeting recorded in verse seven. Then Herod
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: called the magi secretly and found out from them the
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: exact time the star had appeared. He wanted to know
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: when they first saw the star, because that would tell
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: him how old this child might be. He was gathering intelligence,
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: making plans, but he hid his true intentions. Verse eight
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: shows his deception. He sent them to Bethlehem and said,
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: go and search carefully for the child. As soon as
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: you find him, report to me, so that I too
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: may go and worship him. Herod claimed he wanted to
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: worship this new born king. But that was a lie.
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: He had no intention of worshiping anyone. He wanted to
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: find this child and eliminate the threat. The Magi didn't
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: know about Herod's evil plans. They believed his words and
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: set out for Bethlehem, about six miles south of Jerusalem.
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: And as they traveled, something wonderful happened. Verses nine and
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: ten describe it. After they had heard the king, they
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: went on their way, and the star they had seen
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: over the place where the child was. When they saw
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: the star, they were overjoyed. The star appeared again, guiding
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: them to the exact location. This wasn't just a distant
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: light in the sky any more. It moved ahead of
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: them and then stopped over a specific place. The Magi
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: were filled with joy. Their long journey was about to
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: reach its goal. Verse eleven tells us what happened next.
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: On coming to the house, they saw the child with
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him.
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: of gold, frankincense, and myrrhr. Notice it says house, not stable.
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: Some time had passed since Jesus's birth. Joseph had found
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: better accommodations in Bethlehem. The family was no longer in
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: the stable where Jesus was born. The Meiji entered and
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: saw the child with Mary. They didn't see royal robes
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: or palace guards. They saw a poor family in a
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: simple house. But they knew who this child was. They
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: bowed down in worship. These learned, wealthy foreigners honored a
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: toddler as king. Then they presented their gifts, gold, frankincense,
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: and murr. These were expensive, valuable items. Gold was the
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: gift for royalty, frankincense was used in worship fitting for deity.
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: Murrh was used for burial, hinting at the death this
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: child would one day face. These gifts would also provide
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: resources for the family in the difficult days ahead. God
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: was already preparing for what was coming. After the Magi
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: had worshiped and given their gifts, God intervened again. Verse
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: twelve says, and having been warned in a dream not
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: to go back to Herod, they returned to their country
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: by another route. God warned them in a dream, don't
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: return to Herod. Don't report back. He doesn't want to
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: worship he wants to kill. The Magi obeyed immediately. They
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: left Judea by a different road, avoiding Jerusalem entirely, and
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: returned to their homeland. They had found the king they sought,
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: worshiped him, and now they disappeared from the story. After
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: the Magi left, Joseph received his own warning from God.
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: Matthew Chapter two, verse thirteen records what happened when they
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: had gone. An angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: in a dream. Get up, he said, take the child
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: I tell you, for Herod is going to search for
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: the child to kill him. An angel appeared to Joseph
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: in a dream, just as an angel had told him
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: to marry Mary. Now another dream came with urgent instructions,
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: Get up, don't wait, take Jesus and Mary and flee
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: to Egypt. Herod is planning to kill the child. Egypt
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: was the traditional place of refuge for Jews in danger.
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: It was outside Herod's jurisdiction, beyond his reach, but it
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: was also far away, perhaps a journey of two hundred
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: miles or more through difficult terrain, Joseph didn't hesitate. Verse
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: fourteen tells us, so he got up, took the child
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: and his mother during the night, and left for Egypt
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: during the night. Immediately as soon as he woke from
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: the dream, Joseph moved. He gathered Mary and Jesus, took
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: whatever they could carry, probably including the valuable gifts from
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: the Magi, and left Bethlehem in darkness. They became refugees,
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: fleeing for their lives. The King of the universe was
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: now a hunted child escaping a murderous king. Verse fifteen
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: ads where he stayed until the death of Herod, and
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: prophet out of Egypt, I called my son. Joseph kept
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: the family in Egypt until Herod died. This fulfilled another
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: prophecy from Hoseiah, where God spoke about calling his son
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: out of Egypt, originally referring to Israel's exodus, now finding
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: its ultimate meaning in Jesus. But back in Bethlehem, Herod
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: was waiting for the Magi to return. When they didn't
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: come back, he realized they had tricked him. His anger exploded.
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: Verse sixteen describes what happened next When Herod realized that
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious,
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: and he gave orders to kill all the boys in
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: under in accordance with the time he had learned from
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: the Magi. Unable to find the specific child, Herod decided
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: to kill them all. Every male child in Bethlehem two
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: years old or younger would be murdered. He calculated the
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: age based on when the Magi said they first saw
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: the star. This was genocide on a small scale, a
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: massacre of innocent children. Soldiers went house to house, ripping
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: babies from their mother's arms, killing toddlers in the streets.
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: The screams and grief must have been unbearable. Bethlehem was
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: a small town. There were probably only about twenty to
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: thirty boys in that age range, but that didn't make
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: it any less horrific. Twenty or thirty murders of innocent children,
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: all because Herod wanted to eliminate one possible threat to
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: his throne. Matthew records in Verses seventeen and eighteen that
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: this fulfilled another prophecy. Then what was said through the
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled. A voice is heard in Rama
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: weeping and great mourning, Rachel, weeping for her children and
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: refusing to be comforted because they are no more. Jeremiah
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: had spoken of Rachel, the mother of Israel, weeping for
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: her children who were killed or exiled. Now that ancient
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: sorrow found a new expression in the mothers of Bethlehem
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: mourning their slaughtered sons. Herod's evil secured his throne for
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: a little while longer, but the child he sought was
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: safe in Egypt, protected by God's direct intervention. Joseph, Mary,
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: and Jesus were already far from Bethlehem when Herod's soldiers
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: arrived to kill the children. The angel's warning had saved them,
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: but now they faced a new challenge, life as refugees
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: in a foreign land. Egypt had a large Jewish population,
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: so they wouldn't be completely alone, but they were still strangers,
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: displaced from their home, living in uncertainty. How long they
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: need to stay? When could they return? They didn't know.
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: What we do know is that Joseph provided for his
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: family there. He lightly worked as a carpenter, using his
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: skills to earn money for food and shelter. The gifts
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: from the magi, the gold Frankinsons and Merh probably helped
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: them survive this difficult period. Jesus spent his first years
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: in Egypt. He was too young to remember it, but
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: it was part of his story. The Messiah of Israel
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: lived as a refugee, just as Israel itself had once
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: lived in Egypt. Then Herod died, The tyrant who had
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: tried to kill Jesus was gone, and God spoke to
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: Joseph again. Matthew Chapter two, verse nineteen tells us after
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: dream to Joseph in Egypt. Another dream, another angel. This
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: was the third time God had sent an angel to
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: Joseph with specific instructions. Joseph had learned to listen and obey.
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: Verse twenty records the angel's message, get up, take the
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel.
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: For those who were trying to take the child's life
• 50:16
  Speaker 1: are dead. The danger had passed. Those who wanted to
• 50:20
  Speaker 1: kill Jesus. Herod and his supporters were no longer a threat.
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: It was safe to come home once again. Joseph responded immediately.
• 50:29
  Speaker 1: Verse twenty one says, so he got up, took the
• 50:32
  Speaker 1: child and his mother and went to the land of Israel.
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: They packed up their life in Egypt and began the
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: long journey back. They were going home to Israel, to
• 50:42
  Speaker 1: the land God had promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
• 50:47
  Speaker 1: But when they arrived and Joseph learned more about the
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: political situation, he became concerned. Verse twenty two explains, but
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in
• 50:59
  Speaker 1: place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there.
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: Archilaius was Herod's son, and he was proving to be
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: just as cruel as his father. Going back to Bethlehem,
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: which was in Judea under Archilaius's rule, might still be dangerous.
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: So Joseph waited for God's guidance, and God gave it.
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: district of Galilee. Another dream, another warning, don't settle in Judea,
• 51:28
  Speaker 1: go to Galilee instead. Galilee was ruled by a different
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: son of Herod, Herod Antipas, and was apparently safer. Verse
• 51:37
  Speaker 1: twenty three tells us where they went, and he went
• 51:40
  Speaker 1: and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: what was said through the prophets that he would be
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: called a Nazarene. They returned to Nazareth, Mary's hometown, the
• 51:52
  Speaker 1: place where the angel had first appeared to her. There
• 51:56
  Speaker 1: Joseph set up his carpenter shop again. There they raised Jesus.
• 52:00
  Speaker 1: There he would grow up, learning and working and preparing
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: for the ministry that would change the world. The family
• 52:07
  Speaker 1: had already made their way back to Israel after Herod's death,
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: but their journey wasn't quite finished. They had started toward Judea,
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: probably planning to settle near Bethlehem again, but changed course
• 52:20
  Speaker 1: when Joseph learned about Archelaus. Now they were heading north
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: to Galilee, to a small town tucked into the hills.
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: Matthew chapter two, verse twenty three describes their arrival. And
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: was fulfilled what was said through the prophets that he
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: would be called a Nazarene. Nazareth was Mary's home town,
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: the place where she had grown up, where the angel
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: Gabriel had first appeared to her. It was a tiny village,
• 52:51
  Speaker 1: so small that it's never mentioned in the Old Testament
• 52:55
  Speaker 1: or in any ancient Jewish writings outside the Bible, most
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: people had never heard of it. When Jesus later began
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: his ministry, someone would ask sarcastically, can anything good come
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: from Nazareth. That's how the place was viewed as insignificant, unremarkable,
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: a nowhere town in the hills of Galilee. But this
• 53:16
  Speaker 1: was where God directed Joseph to raise his son, not
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: in Jerusalem near the temple, not in a prestigious city
• 53:23
  Speaker 1: where scholars gathered. In Nazareth, among ordinary people living an
• 53:29
  Speaker 1: ordinary life, Joseph found a house for his family Mary,
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: reconnected with relatives and old friends. They settled into the
• 53:37
  Speaker 1: rhythms of small town life. The years of running and
• 53:41
  Speaker 1: hiding were over. They could finally build a stable home.
• 53:45
  Speaker 1: Jesus would grow up here, walking these dusty streets, playing
• 53:49
  Speaker 1: with local children, learning the Galilean accent that would later
• 53:53
  Speaker 1: identify him as a Northerner. Nazareth became his home town,
• 53:59
  Speaker 1: so much so that people would call him Jesus of
• 54:02
  Speaker 1: Nazareth for the rest of his life. The prophecy Matthew
• 54:06
  Speaker 1: mentions that he would be called a Nazarene. Isn't a
• 54:09
  Speaker 1: direct quote from any single Old Testament passage. It's probably
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: a word play on several prophecies that spoke of the
• 54:18
  Speaker 1: Messiah as a branch netzer in Hebrew, or as one
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: who would be despised and rejected. Being from Nazareth fulfilled
• 54:26
  Speaker 1: both ideas. His name connected to branch and his home
• 54:30
  Speaker 1: town was looked down upon. But for now, none of
• 54:33
  Speaker 1: this matter to young Jesus. He was just a child
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: coming home, starting a new life in a small town,
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: surrounded by family. Joseph was a tecton, the Greek word
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: used in the Gospels to describe his trade. This is
• 54:48
  Speaker 1: usually translated as carpenter, but it meant more than just
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: someone who worked with wood. A tecton was a craftsman,
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: a builder, some one skilled with his hands who could
• 54:58
  Speaker 1: work with wood, stone, and possibly even metal. In Nazareth,
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: Joseph set up his workshop. It was probably a simple space,
• 55:08
  Speaker 1: maybe attached to their house or in a nearby building.
• 55:11
  Speaker 1: Here he built and repaired things for the people of
• 55:14
  Speaker 1: the village and the surrounding area. He made furniture, tables, chairs, stools,
• 55:20
  Speaker 1: storage chests. He crafted farming tools, plows, yokes for oxen,
• 55:25
  Speaker 1: handles for various implements. He might have done construction work,
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: helping to build or repair houses. When something broke, people
• 55:34
  Speaker 1: brought it to Joseph to fix. This was honest, hard work.
• 55:38
  Speaker 1: Joseph earned his living with his hands, serving his neighbors
• 55:42
  Speaker 1: through his skills. There was nothing glamorous about it, but
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: it was dignified labor that provided for his family, and
• 55:51
  Speaker 1: Jesus was right there beside him. As a boy, Jesus
• 55:56
  Speaker 1: watched Joseph work. He saw how his earthly father met
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: should carefully, chose good materials, worked with precision and integrity.
• 56:05
  Speaker 1: He heard Joseph talk with customers, negotiate prices, promise to
• 56:10
  Speaker 1: have things ready on time. Then, as Jesus grew older,
• 56:14
  Speaker 1: he started helping, at first with small tasks, holding tools,
• 56:18
  Speaker 1: fetching materials, cleaning up, then learning to use the tools
• 56:22
  Speaker 1: himself under Joseph's patient instruction, feeling the grain of the wood,
• 56:27
  Speaker 1: learning which pieces were strong and which would split, Understanding
• 56:31
  Speaker 1: how to join pieces together so they wouldn't come apart.
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: The Gospel of Mark chapter six, verse three tells us
• 56:39
  Speaker 1: something important. When Jesus later returned to Nazareth as an
• 56:43
  Speaker 1: adult and taught in the synagogue. The people were astonished
• 56:46
  Speaker 1: and said, isn't this the carpenter. Isn't this Mary's son
• 56:51
  Speaker 1: and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon. Aren't
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: his sisters here with us? They called Jesus the carpenter,
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: not just the carpenter's son, but the carpenter himself. This
• 57:04
  Speaker 1: means Jesus actually took up Joseph's trade. He worked in
• 57:08
  Speaker 1: that shop, He built things with his hands, He served customers.
• 57:12
  Speaker 1: He earned money through manual labor. The son of God,
• 57:16
  Speaker 1: through whom all things were created, learned to create on
• 57:19
  Speaker 1: a human scale, making a chair instead of a mountain,
• 57:23
  Speaker 1: crafting a door instead of designing the gates of heaven.
• 57:28
  Speaker 1: His hands that would one day heal the sick and
• 57:30
  Speaker 1: raise the dead. First got callouses from soaring wood and
• 57:34
  Speaker 1: shaping stone. This wasn't a waste of time. This was
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: part of his preparation. Jesus learned what it meant to work,
• 57:42
  Speaker 1: to earn bread by the sweat of his brow, to
• 57:45
  Speaker 1: serve others through skilled labor. He experienced the satisfaction of
• 57:50
  Speaker 1: making something useful and the frustration when a project went wrong.
• 57:54
  Speaker 1: He understood working people because he was one of them.
• 57:58
  Speaker 1: When he later taught about bill and Foundations, about light
• 58:02
  Speaker 1: and heavy burdens, about faithful workers and lazy ones, he
• 58:06
  Speaker 1: spoke from experience. He knew what he was talking about
• 58:09
  Speaker 1: because he had lived it. Joseph trained Jesus, not just
• 58:13
  Speaker 1: in carpentry, but in character. How to keep your word,
• 58:16
  Speaker 1: how to do excellent work even when no one is watching,
• 58:20
  Speaker 1: how to treat people fairly, how to honor God in
• 58:23
  Speaker 1: everything you do. The workshop in Nazareth was Jesus's classroom
• 58:28
  Speaker 1: for many years, and Joseph was his teacher. While Joseph
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: taught Jesus the carpenter's trade, Mary had her own crucial
• 58:36
  Speaker 1: role in raising the Messiah. She was his mother in
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: every sense, nursing him as a baby, teaching him to
• 58:43
  Speaker 1: walk and talk, caring for him when he was sick,
• 58:46
  Speaker 1: comforting him when he was hurt. But Mary also carried
• 58:50
  Speaker 1: knowledge that no one else had. She knew things about
• 58:53
  Speaker 1: Jesus that even Joseph had only heard second hand. She
• 58:56
  Speaker 1: had been visited by Gabriel, She had felt Jesus move
• 59:00
  Speaker 1: within her before he was born. She had pondered all
• 59:03
  Speaker 1: these miraculous events in her heart. As Luke tells, us. Luke,
• 59:07
  Speaker 1: chapter two, verse nineteen, after the Shepherd's visited, says, but
• 59:11
  Speaker 1: Mary treasured up all these things and pondering them in
• 59:15
  Speaker 1: her heart. And again in verse fifty one, after finding
• 59:19
  Speaker 1: Jesus in the temple, Luke repeats, but his mother treasured
• 59:23
  Speaker 1: all these things in her heart. Mary remembered, she thought
• 59:27
  Speaker 1: deeply about what it all meant. She didn't broadcast these
• 59:30
  Speaker 1: mysteries to everyone, but she held them close, thinking about them,
• 59:33
  Speaker 1: trying to understand. And surely she shared some of this
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: with Jesus as he grew. She would have told him
• 59:40
  Speaker 1: about Gabriel's visit, about what the angel said about Elizabeth's greeting.
• 59:45
  Speaker 1: When Mary visited her, she would have recounted the night
• 59:48
  Speaker 1: of his birth, the Shepherd's story, Simeon's prophecy, Anna's joy.
• 59:54
  Speaker 1: She taught him the scriptures. Jewish mothers were responsible for
• 59:57
  Speaker 1: teaching their children, especially when they were young. Jesus would
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 1: have learned the Shamah, the great declaration that the Lord,
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 1: our God, the Lord is one, from Mary's lips. He
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 1: would have heard the stories of Abraham, Moses, and David
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 1: as she recounted them. Mary taught him the Psalms, the proverbs,
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 1: the words of the prophets. She helped him memorize passages,
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 1: She explained what they meant. All this happened in their home,
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 1: in the normal rhythms of daily life. She also taught
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 1: him about worship and prayer. Jewish families prayed together, observed
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 1: the Sabbath together, celebrated the feasts together. Mary made sure
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 1: Jesus learned these practices, not just as rituals, but as
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 1: ways of honoring God. Jesus also had siblings Mark names
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 1: them James, Joseph, Judas, and Simon, plus sisters whose names
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 1: we don't know. Mary raised all these children, but she
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 1: knew Jesus was different. She balanced treating him like any
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 1: other son with knowing he was the son of God.
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 1: She disciplined him when needed. Though the Bible suggests he
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: never sinned, he still needed guidance and instruction as he
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 1: learned and grew. She fed him, clothed him, kept him safe.
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 1: She worried about him like any mother worries, but she
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 1: also watched him with wonder, seeing both his perfect humanity
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 1: and occasional glimpses of his divine nature. She was raising
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 1: the Messiah, and she took this responsibility seriously while still
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 1: loving him as her son. The Bible gives us very
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 1: little detail about Jesus's childhood and teenage years. Most of
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 1: his first thirty years are hidden from us, but Luke
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 1: provides one crucial summary that tells us what was happening
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 1: during all those quiet years in Nazareth, Luke, chapter two,
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 1: verse forty says, and the child grew and became strong.
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 1: He was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 1: was on him. Jesus grew. This is important. He experienced
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 1: real human development. He wasn't pretending to be human. He
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 1: was genuinely growing up. As a baby, he couldn't walk
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 1: or talk. He had to learn these things. As a child,
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 1: he didn't know everything. He had to gain knowledge and understanding.
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 1: He became strong physically. He went from being a weak
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 1: infant to a strong child to a robust young man
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 1: working in Joseph's shop built muscle, walking everywhere in a
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 1: time before cars or bicycles built endurance. He experienced the
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 1: normal physical development of any healthy boy. He was filled
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 1: with wisdom. Wisdom isn't just knowledge. It's the ability to
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 1: apply knowledge rightly, to make good decisions, to understand how
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 1: life works. Jesus grew in wisdom as he learned from experience,
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 1: from scripture, from observing people, from the teaching of Joseph
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 1: and Mary, and the grace of God was on him
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 1: even as a child. Even during these hidden years, God's
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 1: favor and blessing rested on Jesus. There was something special
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 1: about him that people could sense, even if they couldn't
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 1: explain it. Later, Luke gives us another summary. After the
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 1: incident in the Temple, Chapter two, verse fifty two tells
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 1: Us and Jesus grew in wisdom and stature and in
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 1: favor with God and man. Again, we see growth in wisdom,
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 1: his understanding deepened as he matured, and growth in stature.
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 1: He got taller, stronger, more physically mature. But Luke adds
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 1: two more dimensions. He grew in favor with God and
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 1: with people. His relationship with his heavenly Father deepened, his
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 1: awareness of his identity and mission developed, his prayer life matured,
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 1: his understanding of scripture expanded, and he also grew in
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 1: favor with people. This means people liked him. He wasn't
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 1: a strange, isolated child. He had friends. He was kind, helpful, respectful,
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 1: people in Nazareth saw him as a good young man,
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 1: someone who honored his parents and worked hard and treated
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 1: others well. This was genuine development, not play acting. Jesus
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 1: didn't arrive on Earth already knowing everything he would later know.
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 1: He learned, he grew, he developed, but he did it
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 1: perfectly without sin, without the rebellion or selfishness that marks
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 1: other people's growth. He asked questions and listened to answers.
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 1: He made discoveries. He had moments of realization and insight.
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 1: He experienced the joy of understanding something new and the
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 1: satisfaction of mastering a new skill. All of this was
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 1: preparing him for what was to come. Every year of growth,
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 1: every lesson learned, every experience in Nazareth was part of
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 1: God's plan to prepare the Messiah for his mission. When
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 1: Jesus turned twelve years old, something important happened. This was
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 1: the age when Jewish boys were considered ready to take
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 1: on the responsibilities of the law. They were becoming men,
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 1: transitioning from childhood to adulthood, and for the first time
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 1: that we know of, Jesus went to Jerusalem for Passover
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 1: with his parents. Luke chapter two, verse forty one tells us.
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 1: Every year jesus parents went to Jerusalem for the festival
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 1: of the Passover. This was their regular practice. Joseph and
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 1: Mary were devout Jews who made the pilgrimage to Jerusalem
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 1: every year for this most important feast. Passover celebrated Israel's
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 1: deliverance from Egypt when God struck down the Egyptian first born,
• 1:05:52
  Speaker 1: but spared the Israelites, who marked their door posts with
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 1: lamb's blood. It was a week long celebration held in
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 1: the spring. Jews from all over Israel and even from
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 1: other countries, streamed to Jerusalem to observe it. The city
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 1: swelled with pilgrims. Families camped outside the walls. Thousands of
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 1: lambs were sacrificed in the Temple. Verse forty two continues.
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 1: When he was twelve years old, they went up to
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 1: the festival according to the custom. This particular Passover was
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 1: special because Jesus was now twelve. He was old enough
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 1: to fully participate, to understand the significance, to take part
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 1: in the rituals as a young man rather than just
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 1: as a child. The journey from Nazareth to Jerusalem was
• 1:06:40
  Speaker 1: about sixty five miles. It took several days of walking.
• 1:06:44
  Speaker 1: Families often traveled in groups for safety and fellowship. They
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 1: sang psalms along the way, especially the songs of Ascent
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 1: that pilgrims traditionally sang as they went up to Jerusalem.
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 1: When they arrived, Jesus saw Jerusalem in all its glory.
• 1:07:02
  Speaker 1: The Temple dominated the skyline, a massive structure covered in
• 1:07:06
  Speaker 1: white stone and gold glittering in the sun. Herod the
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 1: Great had rebuilt it on a grand scale, making it
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 1: one of the wonders of the ancient world. Jesus entered
• 1:07:19
  Speaker 1: the temple courts with his parents. He saw the priests
• 1:07:22
  Speaker 1: in their special garments. He smelled the incense and the
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 1: burning sacrifices. He heard the Levites singing. He witnessed thousands
• 1:07:31
  Speaker 1: of people worshiping God in this central place of Jewish faith.
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 1: For a twelve year old boy from a small village,
• 1:07:38
  Speaker 1: this must have been overwhelming, but for Jesus it was
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 1: also something more. This was his father's house, though Joseph
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 1: and Mary didn't yet fully understand what that would mean.
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 1: They celebrated Passover according to all the customs, the special
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 1: meal with unleavened bread and bitter herbs, The retelling of
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 1: the Exeterus story, the singing of the Hallel Psalms. Jesus
• 1:08:04
  Speaker 1: participated in it, all learning, observing, experiencing this great feast
• 1:08:10
  Speaker 1: for the first time as a young man. Then, when
• 1:08:14
  Speaker 1: the festival was over, it was time to return home.
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 1: After the Passover celebration ended, Joseph and Mary began the
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 1: journey back to Nazareth with the other pilgrims from their region.
• 1:08:26
  Speaker 1: Luke Chapter two, verse forty three describes what happened after
• 1:08:30
  Speaker 1: the festival was over. While his parents were returning home.
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 1: The boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but they were
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 1: unaware of it. Jesus stayed in Jerusalem. He didn't leave
• 1:08:41
  Speaker 1: with his parents, but they didn't know this, at least
• 1:08:45
  Speaker 1: not at first. How could they not notice? Verse forty
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 1: four explains thinking he was in their company, they traveled
• 1:08:53
  Speaker 1: on for a day. Then they began looking for him
• 1:08:56
  Speaker 1: among their relatives and friends, and b they were traveling
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 1: in a large group of people from their area, all
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 1: heading back to Galilee together. It was normal for children
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 1: and teenagers to walk with cousins or friends, rather than
• 1:09:11
  Speaker 1: staying right beside their parents the whole time, So Mary
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 1: and Joseph assumed Jesus was somewhere in the group. They
• 1:09:18
  Speaker 1: walked for a full day, probably covering about fifteen or
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 1: twenty miles. Then, when they stopped for the night, they
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 1: looked for Jesus so they could be together as a family.
• 1:09:29
  Speaker 1: They checked with relatives. Is Jesus with you? They asked, friends,
• 1:09:33
  Speaker 1: have you seen our son? No one had seen him.
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 1: He wasn't with the group, He wasn't anywhere. The realization
• 1:09:41
  Speaker 1: must have hit them like a physical blow. Jesus was missing.
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 1: He was back in Jerusalem, somewhere, a city packed with
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 1: thousands of pilgrims, with travelers from all over, with dangers
• 1:09:54
  Speaker 1: and crowds and countless places a twelve year old could be.
• 1:09:57
  Speaker 1: Verse forty five tells us what they did when they
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 1: did not find him. They went back to Jerusalem to
• 1:10:03
  Speaker 1: look for him. They turned around immediately and headed back,
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 1: probably traveling through the night or starting at first light.
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 1: Every parent knows the fear they must have felt, the
• 1:10:14
  Speaker 1: sick worry, the racing thoughts, the desperate prayers. Where was he?
• 1:10:18
  Speaker 1: Was he hurt? Had something happened to him? They searched
• 1:10:22
  Speaker 1: through Jerusalem, probably retracing their steps from the week before
• 1:10:27
  Speaker 1: they checked the places they had stayed. They asked anyone
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 1: who might have seen a boy from Galilee. They looked
• 1:10:34
  Speaker 1: and looked. Verse forty six describes what finally happened. After
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 1: three days, They found him in the temple courts, sitting
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 1: among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions.
• 1:10:48
  Speaker 1: Three days, three days of searching, three days of fear
• 1:10:52
  Speaker 1: and worry. And where did they find him? In the
• 1:10:55
  Speaker 1: temple courts, the very center of Jewish learning and worship.
• 1:10:58
  Speaker 1: He was sitting with the tea, the scribes and rabbis,
• 1:11:02
  Speaker 1: the experts in the law, and the prophets. These were
• 1:11:05
  Speaker 1: the most learned men in Israel, and twelve year old
• 1:11:09
  Speaker 1: Jesus was among them, not as a passive listener, but
• 1:11:12
  Speaker 1: as an engaged participant. He was listening to them, paying
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 1: attention to their discussions about scripture, absorbing their explanations and interpretations,
• 1:11:23
  Speaker 1: and he was asking them questions, not random questions, but thoughtful,
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 1: probing questions that showed deep understanding. Verse forty seven tells
• 1:11:34
  Speaker 1: us the teacher's reaction. Everyone who heard him was amazed
• 1:11:38
  Speaker 1: at his understanding and his answers. They were astonished this
• 1:11:44
  Speaker 1: boy from Nazareth. This son of a carpenter had an
• 1:11:47
  Speaker 1: understanding of scripture that surpassed his years. When they asked
• 1:11:51
  Speaker 1: him questions, his answers revealed wisdom and insight that amazed them.
• 1:11:56
  Speaker 1: He wasn't just repeating what he had been taught. He
• 1:11:58
  Speaker 1: was demonstrating genuine comprehension. This was the first time we
• 1:12:03
  Speaker 1: see Jesus displaying his unique spiritual depth in a public way.
• 1:12:08
  Speaker 1: The teachers in the temple recognized that something remarkable was
• 1:12:12
  Speaker 1: happening in this conversation with a twelve year old. When
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 1: Mary and Joseph finally spotted Jesus, their relief quickly turned
• 1:12:20
  Speaker 1: to confusion and even frustration. Luke, chapter two, verse forty
• 1:12:24
  Speaker 1: eight records Mary's response. When his parents saw him, they
• 1:12:28
  Speaker 1: were astonished. His mother said to him, son, why have
• 1:12:33
  Speaker 1: you treated us like this? Your father and I have
• 1:12:36
  Speaker 1: been anxiously searching for you. Mary spoke, as any mother would,
• 1:12:41
  Speaker 1: with a mixture of relief and reproach. Why have you
• 1:12:44
  Speaker 1: done this to us? They had been desperately worried, searching
• 1:12:49
  Speaker 1: for three days, fearing the worst, and here he was,
• 1:12:53
  Speaker 1: calmly sitting in the temple having theological discussions. Notice Mary's words,
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 1: your father and I have in searching for you. She
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 1: called Joseph his father. This was natural. Joseph was the
• 1:13:05
  Speaker 1: man who raised him, provided for him, taught him. In
• 1:13:09
  Speaker 1: every practical sense, Joseph was his father. But Jesus's response
• 1:13:14
  Speaker 1: revealed something about his growing awareness of his true identity.
• 1:13:19
  Speaker 1: Verse forty nine records his words, why were you searching
• 1:13:23
  Speaker 1: for me? He asked? Didn't you know I had to
• 1:13:26
  Speaker 1: be in my father's house. This is the first recorded
• 1:13:29
  Speaker 1: statement of Jesus in the Bible, and it's significant. He
• 1:13:33
  Speaker 1: corrected Mary's reference to Joseph as his father by pointing
• 1:13:37
  Speaker 1: to his real father, God. Didn't you know I had
• 1:13:42
  Speaker 1: to be in my father's house. He wasn't being disrespectful
• 1:13:45
  Speaker 1: to Mary or Joseph. He was stating a truth about
• 1:13:48
  Speaker 1: his identity and his purpose. The Temple was his father's house,
• 1:13:53
  Speaker 1: and he had to be there. There was a necessity,
• 1:13:56
  Speaker 1: a divine purpose in what he was doing. This was
• 1:13:59
  Speaker 1: all so the first hint of his mission, becoming conscious
• 1:14:03
  Speaker 1: in his human awareness. At twelve years old, Jesus understood
• 1:14:09
  Speaker 1: that he had a unique relationship with God, that he
• 1:14:12
  Speaker 1: belonged in the Temple, that there was something he had
• 1:14:15
  Speaker 1: to do. Some translations say about my father's business instead
• 1:14:21
  Speaker 1: of in my father's house. Either way, the meaning is similar.
• 1:14:26
  Speaker 1: Jesus was focused on his heavenly father's purposes, but Mary
• 1:14:30
  Speaker 1: and Joseph didn't fully understand. Verse fifty tells us but
• 1:14:34
  Speaker 1: they did not understand what he was saying to them.
• 1:14:37
  Speaker 1: They knew Jesus was special. Angels had told them both
• 1:14:42
  Speaker 1: about his divine conception and his role as savior, but
• 1:14:46
  Speaker 1: this statement about God being his father and about having
• 1:14:50
  Speaker 1: to be in the temple, they didn't grasp what he meant.
• 1:14:54
  Speaker 1: This must have been part of the mystery of raising Jesus.
• 1:14:57
  Speaker 1: They knew he was the son of God in a
• 1:14:59
  Speaker 1: unique way, but watching him grow up as a normal boy,
• 1:15:03
  Speaker 1: seeing him learn and develop, they couldn't always see how
• 1:15:06
  Speaker 1: his divine nature and human nature fit together. Jesus's words
• 1:15:11
  Speaker 1: in the temple were a glimpse into his growing self awareness,
• 1:15:15
  Speaker 1: his understanding of who he was and why he had
• 1:15:18
  Speaker 1: come to earth, but it would be many years before
• 1:15:22
  Speaker 1: he would fully step into that mission. After this profound
• 1:15:26
  Speaker 1: statement about his father's house, Jesus did something that might
• 1:15:30
  Speaker 1: seem surprising. Luke Chapter two, Verse fifty one tells us,
• 1:15:34
  Speaker 1: then he went down to Nazareth with them and was
• 1:15:37
  Speaker 1: obedient to them. He went home. He submitted to his
• 1:15:41
  Speaker 1: parents authority, even though he had just declared his unique
• 1:15:45
  Speaker 1: relationship with God the Father, even though he had amazed
• 1:15:48
  Speaker 1: the teachers in the temple with his wisdom. He returned
• 1:15:51
  Speaker 1: to Nazareth and lived under Joseph and Mary's guidance. The
• 1:15:55
  Speaker 1: word used here obedient means he was subject to them.
• 1:15:59
  Speaker 1: He submitted to their authority. The son of God honored
• 1:16:03
  Speaker 1: the fifth commandment to honor your father and mother. He
• 1:16:07
  Speaker 1: placed himself under human authority, accepting the limitations and structures
• 1:16:12
  Speaker 1: of family life. This is remarkable. Jesus could have stayed
• 1:16:16
  Speaker 1: in Jerusalem, he could have continued his discussions with the teachers.
• 1:16:20
  Speaker 1: At twelve, he already had wisdom that surpassed theirs. But
• 1:16:24
  Speaker 1: instead he went back to being a carpenter's son in Nazareth.
• 1:16:29
  Speaker 1: Luke adds the note we saw earlier. But his mother
• 1:16:32
  Speaker 1: treasured all these things in her heart. Mary didn't forget
• 1:16:37
  Speaker 1: this incident. She pondered it, thought about it, tried to
• 1:16:41
  Speaker 1: understand it. It was another piece of the puzzle of
• 1:16:45
  Speaker 1: who her son really was then comes the summary verse.
• 1:16:49
  Speaker 1: We already looked at verse fifty two, and Jesus grew
• 1:16:54
  Speaker 1: in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.
• 1:16:59
  Speaker 1: He continued to develop, to learn to mature. The temple
• 1:17:04
  Speaker 1: incident wasn't the start of his public ministry. That was
• 1:17:08
  Speaker 1: still eighteen years away. It was just one moment that
• 1:17:12
  Speaker 1: pulled back the curtain briefly on who he was becoming.
• 1:17:15
  Speaker 1: After this, the Bible is silent about Jesus's life until
• 1:17:20
  Speaker 1: he begins his ministry at about age thirty. We don't
• 1:17:24
  Speaker 1: know anything specific about what happened during those eighteen years.
• 1:17:28
  Speaker 1: We can assume he continued working as a carpenter, probably
• 1:17:32
  Speaker 1: taking over the business when Joseph died, which must have
• 1:17:36
  Speaker 1: happened sometime during these years, since Joseph is never mentioned
• 1:17:40
  Speaker 1: during Jesus's ministry, while Mary is. He lived an ordinary
• 1:17:44
  Speaker 1: life in an ordinary town. He worked with his hands,
• 1:17:48
  Speaker 1: He provided for his mother and siblings. He went to
• 1:17:51
  Speaker 1: synagogue every Sabbath, He celebrated the feasts, He maintained friendships,
• 1:17:56
  Speaker 1: he served his community. Nothing extraordinary happen, and at least
• 1:18:01
  Speaker 1: nothing the Bible records for eighteen years. The savior of
• 1:18:05
  Speaker 1: the world, lived in obscurity, unknown beyond his small village,
• 1:18:09
  Speaker 1: working as a craftsman, waiting for the right time. This
• 1:18:13
  Speaker 1: teaches us something important. Those years weren't wasted. God wasn't
• 1:18:18
  Speaker 1: in a hurry. Jesus needed to fully experience human life, work,
• 1:18:23
  Speaker 1: family responsibilities, community relationships, the rhythms of daily existence. He
• 1:18:29
  Speaker 1: needed to understand what it meant to be human in
• 1:18:32
  Speaker 1: every way before he could serve as the perfect mediator
• 1:18:36
  Speaker 1: between God and humanity. The silent years shaped him, prepared him,
• 1:18:42
  Speaker 1: made him ready, and when the time finally came for
• 1:18:45
  Speaker 1: him to step into public ministry, he would do so
• 1:18:48
  Speaker 1: as someone who truly understood the people he came to save.
• 1:18:53
  Speaker 1: If this journey through the early life of Jesus has
• 1:18:55
  Speaker 1: touched your heart, don't keep it to yourself. Hit that
• 1:18:59
  Speaker 1: subscribe button so you won't miss the next chapters of
• 1:19:02
  Speaker 1: this incredible story. Share this video with your family and
• 1:19:06
  Speaker 1: friends who need to hear the truth about who Jesus
• 1:19:09
  Speaker 1: really was and what he came to do. The story
• 1:19:14
  Speaker 1: of Joseph, Mary and Jesus is not just ancient history.
• 1:19:17
  Speaker 1: It's the foundation of our faith, the proof that God
• 1:19:21
  Speaker 1: keeps his promises and the beginning of our salvation. Let's
• 1:19:25
  Speaker 1: spread this truth together. Subscribe now, and let's continue walking
• 1:19:30
  Speaker 1: through the life of Christ together. The best is yet
• 1:19:33
  Speaker 1: to come.