Joseph, Father of Jesus

SLIDE 1 I saw study last week from LifeWay that found two-thirds of Americans (65%) say Christmas should be more about Jesus. If that sounds good you should know that in 2014, 79% of Americans were likely to agree with that statement. It’s gone down more than 10% in just four years. For a long time people have believed that Christmas is too commercialized, but fewer and fewer understand what Christmas is really about. Christmas, many believe, is about Santa Clause and presents under a tree. Others believe Christmas is about family and traditions. None of those is correct. Christmas is about Jesus Christ. We have to look no further than the name of the holiday to understand what it’s about – Christmas, which means Christ’s Mass. Christmas started as a day to go to church and worship God remembering the birth of his Son and our Savior Jesus Christ.

With all that in mind I’ve titled the series I’m preaching this month Christmas Revealed. The first sermon talked about how Jesus is the light of the world. Isaiah talked about a light shining in the darkness and that light was Jesus. Last week Michael preached the second sermon looking at the genealogy of Jesus reminding us that no one in his family tree was perfect – just as we aren’t – and pointing out how we’ve been grafted into the family tree of Jesus. SLIDE 2 This morning’s message is again from Matthew 1, so turn with me to the first chapter of Matthew, and is titled, “The Fathers of Jesus.” I say “fathers” because while the people of the day believed Joseph to be Jesus’ father, our text from Matthew tells us the real father of Jesus was God. Both understandings are important.

Our text picks up after Matthew’s genealogy and tells the story of Jesus’ birth as it related to Joseph. So what can we learn about Jesus? Let’s read the text.

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

20 But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 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.”

22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 23 “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).

24 When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. 25 But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus. (Matthew 1:18-25)

I want to point out three truths we learn about Jesus from this story: SLIDE 3 Jesus is God, Jesus is human, and Jesus is God with us.

SLIDE 4 First, we learn that Jesus is God.

You can understand how uneasy Joseph must have felt about the good news Mary shared with him about her pregnancy. He knew it wasn’t his baby. And this stuff about an angel didn’t make any sense. Joseph had to decide if he would believe her. By continuing in his marriage plans with Mary not only would she be disgraced by this pregnancy, but he would be as well. Everyone would think that either they had been together or that she had been unfaithful to him. What should he do?

Old Testament law allowed him to make her pregnancy know publicly and to then have her stoned. That’s what the religious leaders were asking Jesus about when they brought to him a woman caught in adultery. Joseph, however, decided to be kind and just quietly divorce her because he didn’t want to stone her and he didn’t want to publicly embarrass her. That was his decision until an angel appeared to him in a dream. And what was the message of the angel? That what Mary had said was true. She had not been unfaithful. The baby she was carrying was conceived by the Holy Spirit. This baby was God. Jesus is God.

This was inconceivable to the Jews. They believed their coming Messiah would be sent by God, but never in their wildest imagination did they conceive of him being God.

Matthew is not the only biblical author to make this claim about Jesus. John starts his gospel account saying: SLIDE 5

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. SLIDE 6 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. (John 1:1-3)

Paul said in Colossians: SLIDE 7

For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form. (Colossians 2:9)

And Peter wrote: SLIDE 8

Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ have received a faith as precious as ours. (2 Peter 1:1)

Jesus is both God and Savior. Each of these authors attests to the deity of Jesus. Jesus never claimed to be God in so many words. He never said, “Hey people, I’m God. You know who led your forefathers out of Egypt? That was me.” However, Jesus certainly displayed his deity in the things he did and in what he said. Jesus often talked about coming back and judging the earth. That’s something only God will be able to do. And then, in John 8 Jesus told the Jews: SLIDE 9

“Very truly I tell you, before Abraham was born, I am!” (John 8:58)

That might not sound like much to us, but it was fighting words for the Jews. They understood that Jesus was equating himself with God. This is what God had told Moses at the burning bush. Moses asked who he should say sent him to free the Israelites and God said, “Tell them I am sent you.” So what did the Jews do? SLIDE 10

At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds. (John 8:59)

They were ready to kill Jesus for claiming to be God, but thousands believed him and came to worship him. Jesus is God. Just let that sink in this morning. Jesus is God.

SLIDE 11 Second, in this story from Matthew we learn that Jesus is human.

Have you ever wondered what Jesus looked like? If you do a search for pictures of Jesus on the internet you’ll come up with thousands of ideas of what people think Jesus might have looked like. Most of them depict Jesus with shoulder length hair and a well-trimmed beard. They all make Jesus look appealing. But that’s not the way Isaiah described Jesus. SLIDE 12

He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. (Isaiah 53:2)

The Bible does talk about some men people were thought were handsome: Joseph (the son of Jacob), Saul (Israel’s first king), and David for example. The Bible speaks well of their appearances. But Jesus isn’t among them. Isaiah prophesied that Jesus would be plain and ordinary – not much special about him – perhaps even unattractive. That’s not usually the way we think about Jesus.

Later in the gospel of Matthew we learn that Joseph was a carpenter. Actually, he was just a general tradesman. Jesus would have learned the same. He didn’t do anything special. He had an ordinary job. He was just like one of us and would have gone completely unnoticed if he hadn’t started going around healing people. Jesus was completely human.

Jesus became a baby with all the needs and limitations of baby – Mary had to feed him and change his diaper. Have you ever thought of Jesus having to learn to walk and talk? As he grew up Jesus still had the limitations of a human body. He was thirsty and hungry and he got tired. More importantly, Jesus suffered trials and experienced temptations just like everyone else does. Jesus was just as human as the rest of us while at the same time being God. This is difficult to understand, but the author of Hebrews explains it this way. SLIDE 13

14 Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death – that is, the devil – SLIDE 14 15 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. 16 For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham’s descendants. SLIDE 15 17 For this reason he had to be made like them, fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. SLIDE 16 18 Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted. (Hebrews 2:14-18)

Jesus was human. He experienced the things we experience. Therefore he understands the problems we face. When we are hurting and feel like no one understands us or knows how we feel – Jesus does. When we feel lonely and isolated in our pain and suffering – Jesus knows. He has experienced all the things we have experienced. He has been there. He can relate to us and comfort us and guide us out of our dark pit. Because Jesus was human he understands and because Jesus is God he has an infinite power to comfort us. You can trust him with your deepest pain. You can rely on him to give you comfort and strength. He knows, he understands, and he has the power to comfort, strengthen and bring you through. Jesus is both God and human.

SLIDE 17 And third, in these verses from Matthew we learn that Jesus is God with us.

That’s the meaning of the name Immanuel, one of two names given in this passage. The first name is Jesus. The angel instructed Joseph to name the baby Jesus. The name Jesus is the New Testament version of the Old Testament name Joshua. It means “God saves.” Jesus was a common name at that time. People named their sons Jesus like we use the name John. People liked that name because of its meaning. They never gave out hope that one day God would send the Messiah. Perhaps it might even be their own son. But it’s the angel that directed first Mary and then Joseph to name the child Jesus. However, only Joseph is given the reason:

You are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins. (Matthew 1:21b)

The second name we find in the passage is Immanuel. This name comes from a prophecy about the Messiah in the book of Isaiah. SLIDE 18

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. (Isaiah 7:14)

Matthew explains that the name Immanuel means “God with us.” This is often called the “incarnation” – a term used to describe God becoming a man. Jesus is God with us. SLIDE 19 God didn’t just create the earth and then leave us on our own. God came to earth to be with us. That tells us a lot about God – he wants to be with us. The creator of the universe wants to be with us. Is there any religion that makes that claim? No. God is personal. He’s loving and compassionate. He wants to know us and he wants us to know him.

In an article for Christian Standard magazine, preacher and college president Matt Proctor reflects on God being with us. He wrote:

My 5-year-old, Carl, and my 3-year-old, Conrad, love it when I dress like them. After they put on jeans and a blue T-shirt, they'll come ask me to wear jeans and a blue T-shirt. When I do, they have a saying. They will survey me, survey themselves, and say, “Look, Dad – same, same.” For my birthday, Carl bought me a North Carolina blue mesh shirt because he has a North Carolina blue mesh shirt. We could be “same, same.”

When I play living room football with my boys, Conrad will not let me play standing – so big and scary and towering above him. The theological term for this is “completely Other.” Instead he insists I get on my knees. When I am down at eye-level, Conrad puts his hand on my shoulder and says, “There. See, Dad – same, same.” They like it when I enter their world. This summer, I scraped my leg working on my house. When Conrad fell down and scraped his leg, he pointed at my scab, then showed me his and said, “Hey, Dad – same, same.”

Here's the point, God himself has felt what we feel. In the Incarnation, he chose not to stay “completely Other.” He got down at eye-level, and in the Incarnation, God experienced what it’s like to be tired and discouraged. He knows what it’s like to hurt and bleed. On the cross, Jesus himself prayed a psalm of lament: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Psalm 22:1).

In your pain, you may be tempted to say, “God, you have no idea what I’m going through. You have no idea how bad I’m hurting.” But God can respond, “Yes, I do.” He can point to your wounds and then to his own and say, “Look: same, same. Me too. I have entered your world, and I know how you feel. I have been there, I am with you now, I care, and I can help.”

Jesus is fully God, but he’s also fully human. Jesus is therefore God with us. What does this mean for us?

For starters, it means we can’t just call Jesus a good teacher or even just a prophet. Neither of those makes sense once we learn that Jesus didn’t believe those to be true. Jesus and the New Testament said that Jesus is God. Either that’s true or else Jesus isn’t a good teacher or a prophet. Instead, he would be a liar or a lunatic. But because we believe Jesus to be both God and man we call him Lord.

Second, it means we can trust Jesus. As the author of Hebrews said, Jesus has experienced trials and sufferings just like we have. He’s been there and he’s now there for us.

Christmas is all about Jesus – how God came to earth as a man to save us from our sins. At this Christmas time, we need to reflect on our Savior – God and man – who entered our world to be with us and to save us. The incarnation – Jesus taking on flesh – didn’t happen merely to let us know that God exists. It happened to bring God near so he can be with us. Jesus left heaven and came to earth in order to get near us. What you doing now to truly be with him?