1. ‘The Forgotten Christmas Character’ Joseph was a carpenter (teknon - tradesman) Joseph disappeared from the Gospel record Joseph’s character (dikaios – good, just, righteous) Joseph’s obedience to & trust in God ‘The Virgin Birth of Jesus’ The Virginal Conception of Jesus

2. Matthew 1 18 This is how Jesus the Messiah was born. His mother, Mary, was engaged [betrothed] to be married to Joseph. But before the marriage took place, while she was still a virgin, she became pregnant through the power of the Holy Spirit. 19 Joseph, her fiancé, was a good man and did not want to disgrace her publicly, so he decided to break the engagement [divorce her] quietly. 20 As he considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream. “Joseph, son of David,” the angel said, “do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. For the child within her was conceived by the Holy Spirit. 21 And she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”

3. 22 All of this occurred to fulfil the Lord’s message through his prophet: 23 “Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel, which means ‘God is with us.’” 24 When Joseph woke up, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded and took Mary as his wife. 25 But he did not have sexual relations with her until her son was born. And Joseph named him Jesus.

4. Genealogies indicate legal descent Matthew 1 v 16 “and Joseph, who was married to Mary, the mother of Jesus, who was called the Messiah.” (NLT) Rather than: “and Joseph, who was the father of Jesus.” Luke 3 v 23 “When Jesus began his work, he was about 30 years old. He was the son, so people thought, of Joseph, who was the son of Heli….” (GNB) These Gospels are very clear in asserting the virgin birth of Jesus.

5. Objections to the Virgin Birth 1. A theological story created by the early Christians after Jesus’ resurrection to explain that Jesus was God’s Messiah from birth. 2. No other references to it in the early preaching of Acts or other early New Testaments letters, hence a lack of evidence. Two rules of Bible interpretation 1. The correct interpretation is the plain & simple one. 2. When heroes are portrayed in a negative way, the story is most likely genuine. A response to an emerging heresy

6. Reformer Martin Luther once remarked, that the Incarnation consists of three miracles: “The first, that God became man; the second, that a virgin was a mother; and the third, that the heart of man should believe this.”