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Jim Clements · Tidal Church Moncton · December 14, 2025 · Who Needs Christmas series

Jim Clements looks at Matthew 1:18-25 and the angel's words to Joseph, that Jesus will save His people from their sins. Christmas is about more than forgiveness. Jesus came to set us free from sin's power and give us full life.

More from Jim Clements · The Who Needs Christmas series

Topics: Grace, Discipleship, Christmas

Transcript

[0:00] Now let's get down to the birth of Jesus, our Messiah. When we think about, when we jump into Matthew, right in the first gospel, right away, there is no doubt in Matthew's mind what is about to happen. The long awaited, that Messiah is to show up, he gets right. The business in verse 18, in Matthew 1, it says, this is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about. So if you're ever wondering what that scripture was about, you just read that section, right? This is what it's all about. His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph, her husband, was faithful to the law and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace. He had a mind to divorce her quietly.

[0:45] But after he considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son and you are to give Him the name Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins. So we look at this scripture and we think of right away the birth of Jesus, the virgin birth, angels appearing, and we start to begin to think, man, like, we've put so much into the name Jesus. So I did some research to find out, like, the actual term Messiah is a Hebrew term. Now there's a Greek term that gets used quite a bit too for Messiah.

[1:30] And a lot of times people confuse that to be like last names. Anybody know what that is? Well, you're quiet. Christ. Like it's, and we think of that like His last name. Like it's not Mary and Joseph Christ and her son Jesus, right? It's the Greek interpretation of the word Messiah from Hebrew. And so when we think of names, if we were just stay on names for a minute, the name Jesus is actually a Latin translation from the Greek word to the Hebrew word. That's Yeshua, which is actual name of Jesus. So when we think of Yah, and you think of the Jewish and Greek language, they both do not have the letter J in it. So they can't make the sound "ju."

[2:18] And so Joshua is the name of the Messiah. That's where we also get the name and the name for them comes of Joshua because the J is not in there. But that's where we get it when it comes into play. Now, can you imagine being told that the Messiah's coming and it's gonna be your son? And you think about in those scriptures, when we look at the expectation for the Jewish people, like they weren't looking for another Moses, they weren't looking for another lawmaker. Like they were looking for a Joshua, like a warrior, like someone that was going to push back on all the oppression and all the loss that they've had. The scripture that we read says, "His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit."

[3:13] Little bit of history when it comes to scripture, when you read through in the first century, if this would've happened, she would've been stoned or burned for that. Because unlike, we have an adolescent culture now that we understand more. And, but back then you were set aside to be married to somebody by the time you're 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, and you're being married and you're committed to that. And so for this to happen in this time, it was just unusual. And for her to be pregnant created a complication. But can you imagine Mary, when she comes home and she's discovered she's pregnant and she's having a conversation with her parents, can you imagine, "Hey, Mom, Dad, I gotta sit you down for a minute."

[4:00] And they go, "Okay, no problem. What's going on?" And they go, "Well, I'm pregnant." "Who's the boy in the neighborhood? Who have you been hanging out with?" And she'd be like, "No, no, no. There's no boy involved, no boy involved. It was an angel. An angel told me that the Holy Spirit is done." Can you, like, you would think, they would begin to think like, "Okay, she's crazy," right? They, you would think at that point in time, because no boy was involved. You're telling me that an angel came to you and now poor Joseph is going, "What? You're pregnant." And him knowing, as the scripture told us, because Joseph was faithful to the law and yet still did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had a mind to divorce her quietly.

[4:49] That's what we read. The law told them he couldn't marry her. The law also told them that he had to shame her. And so Joseph is caught in this tough spot. Like what is he gonna do? Now he does have the option that it says that he, you know, he's caught between law and grace, law, grace. And then he just has this mind that, you know what, I'll just divorce her quietly. 'Cause he had that option. He could go to a priest and just say, "Hey, this is what's going on. Like she's saying an angel got her pregnant, no other guys involved and it wasn't me. And whatever contract I have with this family, like can we just like void it and they can go their way and I'll go my way." And that's not what happened. As we all know.

[5:37] And as he considered it, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph, son of David." Now he's not the literal son of David, but he's reminding him that he's in the lineage of David. That he belongs who he is and where he is come from, from his family lineages, in the lineage of David, because for the Jews, this is what they've been expecting, is that the Messiah would come from there. He says, "Do not." The angel says, "Do not be afraid. Take Mary as your wife." If you can imagine in communities, if there are anything like they are today, like how in the world is that a secret? How, like, everybody knows everybody's business today. And if you don't, then they put it on the internet and then everybody knows it and everybody argues about it for a while and then everybody's forgot what was really shared the first time.

[6:28] Now nobody knows what actually happened. And so now they're talking about things that didn't even happen because they don't know what happened when the first person shared it to where they got to. So again, imagine in a community now they're finding this kind of stuff out and it's a big mess and it's a small community and Joseph is trying to figure it out, but then all of a sudden it kind of makes sense to 'em. So, "Do not be afraid. Take Mary home as your wife because what is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit." So he goes, "All right, so she's pregnant. Maybe not that many people know other than her parents. If I go home, take her home, I marry her and be, and we become a husband and wife, then it looks like the child's my child and everything's good.

[7:13] Like what is a mess is now good. But nobody was expecting that. Matthew even quotes later on, some of us can see in Scripture, we go through it that, he said that there will be a virgin with a baby and you'll name Him Immanuel, God with us. And when you dig into the Scripture, you go back to the original Hebrew word that Isaiah used. The actual word that Isaiah used was not the primary word for the word virgin. And so therefore the word that he did use was the word that actually meant maiden or young woman. It didn't mean virgin. And so they were not even expecting this from any sense of their imagination or what would happen.

[7:58] The Jewish culture, when they looked at it, they were wanting their Messiah to be a warrior, a Joshua, a fighter. They were expecting Him to come from the lineage Himself of David. And that's why the Scripture previously is so important. They were expecting the Messiah to have an earthly father. So when we think about, okay, why does Matthew add this into the Scripture for us? Why is this part of the Christmas story? 'Cause it seems really weird to just have in the middle of here. But with Greeks in, with the Greek influence, they had this influence of the gods and conceiving children with the women on earth. And like, if I was to say, like, Hercules, do we know who the father Hercules is? You'd say, Zeus, don't be afraid.

[8:45] No one's gonna, like, hunt you down 'cause you said Zeus. And then so there's this whole concept. And so the Jewish people would not write this in there because of that kind of influence. And you're going, okay, so it seems weird. Why would Matthew put this in there? Well, it's simple because it's true. And he wanted people to know when they recounted these Scriptures that it was true. And even when you think about it, like, this day and age, I have yet, I've been in ministry for 30 years, nobody has come up to me and go, "I follow Jesus Christ because He's the Messiah and He was born of a virgin birth." Nobody's ever said that to me. They come up and they tell me 'cause He died on the cross and died for their sins and was resurrected.

[9:36] It's just unusual. So it has to be true. If Scripture tells us, she will give birth to a son, you are to give Him the name Jesus. Joshua. Joshua. I imagine Joseph in his dream, like, I don't know about you, but when I think of dreaming and I think of his stories, like, how much could play out. Like if you could argue in your dreams when things are going on, but you're like unconscious usually. Well, hopefully always. And I think of Joseph in this situation and the angel appears and he says, you know, your son is gonna be the Messiah and I want you to give Him the name Joshua, Jesus. And he is like, my son? Like, now this time, like, like, hang on, angel.

[10:22] Like, why me? Like, and you want me to give Him this name? Like, this is the name that we've been waiting for. This is the Messiah that we've been waiting for since Abraham. Like, we thought God forgot about us. To tell you the truth. I mean, I can see having that kind of conversation with the angel when they came and you've been waiting all this time. And then the angel goes, she will give birth to a son and you will give Him the name Jesus, Joshua. And Joseph has gotta be thinking, well, the dreams, I don't know about you, but sometimes I wake up outta dreams and I'm just like, oh, I don't know about that. And he's gonna be sitting there thinking, man, is this really gonna happen? And Joseph's like, and then he goes, because He will save His, and and like Joseph, like, if it was me in a dream, I'd be interrupt, wait now, wait now, like, no, I know what He's gonna do.

[11:10] Like, I've been studying Scripture. Like, I know what He's gonna do, what the Messiah's gonna do. Like, we know the history, like, we know the word that's been said. I know what He's gonna do. He's gonna save His people, He's gonna the oppression, the Romans, everything that we've lost. And then angel coming keeps looking and he goes, "from their," and Joseph goes, you don't need to say "from their," like, I just told you. Like, we know, we know what's gonna happen. Why do you keep doing this? And then the angel goes, their sins. And Joseph goes, hang on a second, from their sins, like, you could survey all the Jewish people, you could ask them, like, "Hey, what's the one thing that you need? What is it that you would benefit from? What's the thing that you would want the Messiah to save you from if you had the chance?"

[11:56] And he said, I'm pretty sure that's not a felt need in the Jewish community right now. That's probably what it would go like in our dreams. He might even say to the angel, have you not heard of Maslow's hierarchy of needs? Like, angel, let me show you something here. Like, there's basic things that people need, like food and water. Then they need the, like, safety. They need to have, like, a belongingness, they need to have self-esteem, they need to have self-actualization. I can just see the angel sitting there just going, this guy's crazy. Even Joseph, just think of him in his mind when he is, this is all happening, he goes, save from the sin. Like, hey, angel, like, we've got, like, a save us from the sin system. Have you not seen the temple on the top of the mountain? Like, did you miss that?

[12:42] Like, there's a whole book there written about all the sins we could possibly have and how we could be saved from those sins. Like, we don't need another save from the sin system. But like anybody who encounters God, your free will potentially disappears. And Matthew 1:24, when Joseph awoke, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and he took Mary to be his wife. See, I'm really always hesitant when people come to me and they said they heard God say something to them and then they don't do what God told them to do.

[13:28] Because the thing is, if you hear God tell you something, you're gonna do exactly what Joseph did. And whatever you're doing, you're gonna stop. If you gotta stop it, you're gonna move wherever He wants you to move. You're gonna do exactly what He tells you to do because He's God. We think we have free will. We've gotta, like, oh, I don't know about that. Like, I like to get, make my own choices. I like to decide things for myself and like if I lit a fire here right now, I can light a fire. Well, probably the board will chase me down and fire extinguishers and don't be here long and I can go with my own free will. I can go, I can put my hand in that fire and I can let the fire burn my hand.

[14:14] I can hold it there and hold it there and hold it there. And eventually I'm gonna take my hand outta that fire because my pain overcomes my free will of wanting to put my hand in the fire. When God comes and speaks to you through an angel, through His own voice, you will only do what He tells you to do. See, some of us, we don't get really excited when we hear about Jesus and our sin life and how we should live. It was the same then, it's same now, thousands and thousands of years later, people still react the same way. So why are so many of us, when we hear the gospel, we hear the saving grace, we hear all that we hear and we don't respond in the way that we should?

[15:09] I wanna remind you specifically what the angel said. You were to give Him the name Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins. But that's not what a lot of us hear. A lot of us hear this: You were to give Him the name Jesus because He will forgive His people of their sins. You notice what's the difference there? See, we gotta resist reducing Christmas to being about just forgiveness because the birth of Jesus is so much more than just forgiveness. See, we live in a culture where, like, I do something wrong. God forgives me. I do something wrong. God forgives me.

[15:54] I do something wrong. God forgives me. I don't follow what He wants me to do. God will forgive me. I do something wrong. God forgives me. And we've lived in this culture of forgiveness. And maybe for a lot of you and maybe even those that are online, is that that's been your whole religious or your Christian experience is that you've been living and getting forgiven. You mess up, He forgives me. I mess up, He forgives me. That's not what Jesus came for. That's us reducing Christmas and the birth of Christ to just forgiveness. Jesus came in the spirit of Joshua so that you may be saved from your sins, from the kingdom of sin, from the dominion of sin, from the power of sin, from the slavery of sin.

[16:50] He has promised us deliverance, salvation and power over sin. That's what He came for. If you remember the story of when the people dragged the woman, the adulterer, up to Jesus and they were trying to trick Him and dragged her up onto the Mount and put her down in front. And He said, what would you do? The law says to stone her. 30 yards away is where they're sacrificing animals for sin and for, and just make it all happen. In 75 yards, probably about away is a Holy of Holies. And here they are on the Mount, and they're saying, stone her. Well, number one, you would never stone anyone on the Mount. That would never happen. But Jesus calls their bluff like, man, I don't, for me when I look at this stuff, Jesus, like, He's so smart.

[17:41] Like, He just gets it right and He puts you right in your place in a perfect timing. And He says, well, if you want to stone her, then take her down to the Valley of Johanna. That's where you can go stone her. But let me just ask you to do one thing. Whoever is without sin, you start. Whoever is without sin, you start. And slowly they disappear over time. Jesus asks the woman, where are your accusers? And she says, they left. And then He says this line that a lot of us hold onto. We can say it's famous, it's well known. And it says, neither do I condemn you, neither do I condemn you.

[18:32] But there's an important second part that comes to that. When He tells her that, He then goes on and says, leave your life of sin. And when we read that, the first question that pops into our head, we should be able to go, I can live a life without sin, like Jesus told her to leave your life of sin. That's what He wants for us. That's what He's offering us. Can we live a life without sin? Jesus says we can live a life without sin. We can sin no more. We can leave the dominion that sin has over us. We can leave the slavery that sin has over us. John 10:10 says this, the thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy.

[19:24] But I come that you might have life and have it to the full. We can look at that as the enemy, who's the thief coming to steal and destroy. But I actually, for me when I read that, I just think it's just Jesus just defining what thieves are like. They steal and destroy. I mean, there's no difference today, right? Thieves steal and destroy today. But then He says, I come so you may have it, have life and have it to the full. He's contrasting sin. And what He offers is the direct contrast that He is bringing. Having life and having it to the full sounds a lot more than just forgiveness. And don't hear me wrong, forgiveness is great. Not saying it's not part of it, but forgiveness.

[20:12] When we receive forgiveness, that just puts us back at zero. That just puts us back at even, and for us. When we accept Christ as our Lord and Savior, a lot of us begin waiting for heaven. We become like waiters and we're just like waiting for heaven, waiting for Jesus to come back, waiting for this to happen, waiting for them. We turn into waiters when we accept Him and we live our lives to the fullest that He has planned for us without sin in it. We're living it now. It's eternal life. It gets down into the Scriptures in Romans 6. Romans 6 starts with a word, therefore, and when you see the word therefore in Scripture, usually a command is coming next.

[21:01] Therefore, and then we're given direction. Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer any part of yourself to the sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourself to God as those who have been brought from death to life and offer every part of yourself to Him as an instrument of righteousness. For sin shall no longer be your master because you are not under the law, but under grace. See, we do have a choice. The Scripture tells us in our, we have a choice. Sin can't be in our lives every day. We can live lives free of sin.

[21:48] Paul tells us through this Scripture that sin is not your master. That's what he's telling us. Sin is not your master. See, some of us say, well, that's really difficult, and they, and we get into justifying different things we do, say or whatever. But that's just sin. Like, just call it what it is. I think we're all old enough, understanding enough, read enough that sin, if you're not following it, the decisions you make, the words that you speak, the relationships that you have, the engagement of whatever it is you're engaging with on a daily basis is not life giving and honoring to the God that we serve.

[22:34] Then it's sin. If it's leading you away from Him, sin is no longer your master is what we need to know. When I was a kid, I was probably about nine years old. I don't remember the exact date. So if I said a different age, I was 8, 9, 10 years old, Somewhere in there when I lived in Corner Brook, Newfoundland and on the, it's amazing the details you remember. And on Country Road, a tent meeting came and like there was a parking lot one day and then there was a tent the next day and it was like Bible classes and services going on. And I went to there and they'd never give you this now because they would consider it unsafe, but I got this framed, probably 11 by 14 scripture, real glass in it.

[23:22] Imagine that. Here you go. Take that home with you and you gotta walk whatever distance with you, right? Real glass in it. And this was the scripture in it in Romans 6, "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord." The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life. See, sin kills things. That's all it does. It just kills things. Some of you're in here and I'm not trying to be critical or judgmental or anything, but we can all admit that we either know people or we've experienced, or sin has killed a marriage.

[24:15] We can all acknowledge that sin has killed our finances due to lack of control. Sin has killed relationships with friends or family members. Sin has killed close relationships and even how we think of ourselves when it comes to addictions. Like, sin kills things. Sin kills. Wherever sin is, something is dying as a result of having it in your life. You may be the only one that knows, but the sin that's in your life is killing something, even forgiven. Sin kills things.

[25:04] Even forgiven sin kills things. If we think about the people that are incarcerated right now in many facilities, they committed a sin. Sin was in their life and a number of them have found the gospel of Jesus Christ while they've been incarcerated and they're forgiven and they're free from sin, but their forgiven sin still is killing things. And the relationships that they have and the other interactions of what happened as a result of their crime. Forgiven sin still kills things. The wages of sin is death. But the gift is Christmas.

[25:52] It's the birth of a baby in a manger who went from a manger to a throne, who says you can be saved from your sin. It's not the law of God. It's the Spirit of God in you. And maybe you made a decision at some point in time in your life already, you're a believer and you made a decision as a child in children's ministry. Maybe it was at youth camp, maybe like someone dragged you to service or you dragged someone to service or you both got dragged or whatever, you got told you get a good meal cooked for you if you came to church or and you made a decision to follow Christ. But some of you're waiting for someone to tell you that you can live a life without sin.

[26:41] Some of you're working through life like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz with your red slippers and you're just waiting for someone to tell you that you can come home. Some of you are just wandering around lost. You can come home anytime you want. You can live a life that's sin-free anytime you want. You can say no to sin anytime when you're ready. For those of you that are followers of Jesus in the room, if you made the decision to follow Him every day of your life and He's forgiven you and put you back to even, I want you to just look up here for a minute.

[27:29] If you're distracted by anything else, just focus and look this way, 'cause I want to tell you, sin is not your master. Sin is not your master. Lust is not your master. Lack of self-control in areas of your life is not your master. The abuse of alcohol is not your master. Prescription drugs are not your master. Your anger is not your master. Your jealousy is not your master. Your habit that you won't give up is not your master. Whatever it is in your life that's putting sin in your life, it is not your master, because of Christmas, because the baby born in a manger didn't come just for forgiveness.

[28:19] He came so that you can be set free from... Sin is why He came. You may say, "I don't live that way. I find it tough." Do you know what? You've just gotta make the decision that you need to get your lack of self-control under control. There's been horrific things happen to a lot of people in their lives. But the Lord and Savior who was born as a babe in a manger and rose to a throne that the world recognizes, that the world tries to fight against, is telling you sin is not your master.

[29:09] You just need to make that change in your life and in your thought process, that sin is not gonna be your master. Sin will speak to you. Sin will taunt you. Sin will tempt you. Sin will bait you. Sin is not gonna leave you alone. It's gonna try and make you make decisions you shouldn't make and choices you shouldn't make. But you just gotta say, "Sin, you are not my master." Is what you have to say. Maybe you need to start a practice every morning. When the scripture talked about our instruments to be meant for good, it's our instruments that cause us to fall into sin.

[29:55] And maybe every morning, maybe if it helps you to get on your knees or you sit or whatever way and posture is good for you, that you start every day, just go and say, "God, I'm gonna give You my instruments. God, I give You my hands. May they not find their way to sin. God, I give You my eyes, I give You my ears, I give You my mouth, I give You my feet. I give You my heart. I give all my instruments to You for Your glory. Not my glory, for Your glory. God, may they not be used by sin. May they not be tempted. May they not be taunted. May they not be baited. May they not find their way into sin. God, may they find their way glorifying You." And maybe that's what we need to start every morning and just say, "I present myself to You."

[30:43] For those of you that are here today and maybe you're trying to figure faith out, and when you drive down the road and you see like the nativity scenes, you go like, "Man, these Christians, like they really believe this stuff. Like they're crazy, like virgin birth. Like baby, this is wrong. Like they really believe this. Like they're all nuts." And you're trying to figure it all out and you're in here. I want to tell you something so that you hear this also when you're ready, when you're ready, sin is not your master either. You may choose to make decisions and the decisions you make may lead you in sin and cause things to die in your life. But when you're ready, there's Christmas because sin is not your master.

[31:31] Jesus came so that we may be free and saved from our sin. You are not under the law. You are under grace, the grace that is brought by a baby. So who needs Christmas? We need Christmas. Christmas is an open invitation to remind us that we don't have to live a life of sin. Christmas is an open invitation to say, "Sin, you are not my master." Christmas is so that everyone could have life and live it to the full. And as Jesus said to the woman, "Leave your life of sin." Matthew 1:21.

[32:20] "You are to give Him the name Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins." In a moment we're gonna sing a song. I'm gonna invite the prayer team to come up, and for them to come up now. And if there's any board members or pastors that happen to be in the room, I just wanna invite you to come up because I want to give you an opportunity today to come forward and say, "Sin, you're not my master." And I know what it's like to sit there. Most of you didn't know me. You know, I haven't been a pastor my entire life, and I've sat in the chairs where you're sat, and you know what, I even hung on to the pew in front of me when God was calling me.

[33:07] But if you're ready, one of the best things you can do is to enter into His space that's safe. That's a space where people will say, "Sin, you're not my master." And so maybe if you're a believer and you've been living a life that's been away from the church for a while, or away that God would want you to live, this is the perfect opportunity for you to walk. And I know the aisle looks long, and I know there's a lot of people left and right of you, in front of you. People gonna look at you. You gotta go all the way in the balcony. Whatever all that is, that's just the enemy. And there's no better time. When you hear in your spirit, God speaking to it, saying, "Welcome home.

[33:53] Come home and tell sin, 'You're not your master.'" Whether it's your first time or whether you just need to recommit to say, "Jesus, You are my Lord and Savior. Please forgive me of all my sins. Please help me to be strong, to say, 'Sin, you are not my master.' Jesus is my master." The baby born in a manger and rose to a throne to be the King of kings, Lord of lords, wants you to live a life that's free of sin. So as we play this song and sing, don't be distracted, don't be discouraged.

[34:42] Come and receive what the King of Kings has for you. Father, we thank You for Your love. We thank You for all that You give us. But Father, most of all, we thank You for Your Son Jesus, for the sacrifice, for the birth, so that Christmas is the open invitation to come. So Father, for those that are, that have said the words I said and have prayed and sincerely just said, "I don't want sin to be my master anymore. I'm tired of things dying. I'm dying. I'm tired of what is killing." May You give them the courage. May You give them the strength, for today is the day that some people will say, "Sin, you are not my master, and I'm gonna live a life that is free from sin."

[35:35] And it's in Jesus' name we pray and ask this. Amen.