Joseph’s Obedience: Embracing Contentment in Unexpected Circumstances

Odom, Jonathon

Finding Contentment at Christmas • Sermon • Submitted a year ago • Presented a year ago

Matthew 1:24–25

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Transcript

Last week talked about two sources of discontentment: 1) lack of clarity 2) a lack of control.

If we look deeper, what’s the source? Fear. (evident in both Mary & Joseph)

How does discontentment manifest itself? What are the symptoms and signs? Disobedience and grumbling

How do obtain contentment? Surrender, How do we maintain contentment? Obedience.

Action:

What is an area of your life you’ve been disobedient and need to repent, walk in obedience?

What’s an area your grumbling? Maybe your obeying but not with joy.

Intro

How many of you know Phil 4:13?

Philippians 4:13 ESV

13 I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

Do you know the verse that precedes it?

Philippians 4:11–12 ESV

11 Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. 12 I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need.

How do we do this how do we find contentment wether rich or poor? Single or married? Childless or a life full of grandkids? A’s or F’s? Finals week or Christmas break. How do we find contentment in all of it?

One other verse to consider:

Hebrews 13:5 ESV

5 Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

Contentment is found IN the presence of God

Matthew 1:23 ESV

23 “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).

Immanuel - God want’s to be with us. Do we want to be with Him?

Do we want contentment?

If we want contentment, how do we maintain it?

If contentment is found in the presence of God - how do we maintain proximity to God? What’s the secret to being content in any and all circumstances?

How did Jesus find contentment on the Cross?

Jesus knew how to walk in contentment, Paul learned how to walk in contentment and so did Joseph.

Considering calling the whole thing off

Luke 1 & Mary

Matthew 1 & Joseph

Matthew 1:18–19 ESV

When a couple became engaged in this culture, it was not like engagement today in our world so remove any thoughts you have of a first Century Golden Bachelor. The families of Mary and Joseph likely arranged the marriage, or at least Mary’s father was very involved approving it. The engagement was a more formal pledge that Mary was to be married to Joseph and it was legally binding, you would actually need a divorce to end the engagement. Even though they were bound to each other, they were not to be with each other until the wedding. It would have been unlikely that Mary and Joseph were ever alone together prior to their wedding. Which makes the news of her pregnancy quite the scandal.

Joseph then had it in his mind to divorce her quietly. According to Old Testament law, a woman engaged to be married who sleeps with another man is guilty of adultery and, according to the Law, could be stoned along with the man she slept with (Deut. 22). Joseph could have made this a big deal and publicly humiliated Mary, having her face the full consequences of the Law. But, he doesn’t. It is we become content, we begin to see how God is using us. rt of a larger plan of God to bring redemption. uase and not complains clear Joseph isn’t buying the “the Child is from God” story that Mary is telling him, but who would? He also doesn’t know what happened. Maybe it was another guy in the village, maybe she was abused against her will by a Roman solider, which wasn’t uncommon. So to protect her, he plans to end the marriage quietly.

Which tells us something about being righteous, doesn’t it? Joseph was doing the right thing, but he was doing it in the right way. No doubt he was deeply hurt. This had been his plan and his future too. He would need to start over, find another woman who isn’t already pledged to be married and wait even longer to begin a family of his own. But in his hurt, and likely anger, he is still fair, kind, and gracious. Guys: our world tells us the sign of our strength as men is how much we can muscle up. Joseph shows us, to be a real man, we do the right thing, but always do it in the right way. Truth with grace.

Why call it off? Fear

Matthew 1:20–21 ESV

20 But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”

Fear is the root of discontentment

Recap Last week. Give story that exemplifies the two sources.

Lack clarity on major/career plan

Lack clarity in relationships (DTRs)

Lack clarity - on when to retire, how to retire

Lack clarity - on what house to buy

Lack control - can’t change you’re grade and now have to re-take the course

Lack control - can’t control being friend zoned

Lack control - can’t control your friend’s investment. maybe you want deep relationships and that isn’t being reciprocated.

Lack control - can’t control your child’s response, maybe you so long for them to walk intimately with Jesus and they are living wayward

But what’s at the core, at the root of discontentment? Fear.

yes we lack clarity on whether our crush likes us but the solution isn’t a DTR although that’s helpful. the problem is we’re scared they don’t like us in return.

yes, we lack control, we can’t control another’s emotions and make them un-friendzone us, but the problem isn’t being friendzoned the problem is fear of lonlieness, or fear of rejection.

yes, we lack clarity on when to retire or what house to buy or what job to apply for but the solution isn’t “an answer” core issue is we are afraid God won’t provide.

Both Mary and Joseph we’re fearful

Luke 1:29–31 ESV

29 But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. 30 And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.

Matthew 1:20 ESV

Mary handled her fear and obtained contentment through surrender. Surrender is the evidence of trust.

Joseph displayed his trust and maintained contentment by walking in obedience.

Two signs of contentment

1. Obedience

Matthew 1:24–25 ESV

24 When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, 25 but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.

Joseph did the right thing, in the right way, right away. There was no delay in his obedience.

Each time the Word of God came to Joseph, he obeyed. The angel said, marry Mary, and he did. The angel said “Go to Egypt” and he did. The angel said “Go back to Israel” and he did. The angel said “Go to Galilee” and he did.

Obedience is an issue of trust. We obey God when we are content in our trust of God. Disobedience is an issue of distrust. We disobey God when we aren’t content to trust Him. We don’t trust Him because we are afraid.

For example,

§ We do the wrong things with our friends at school because we are afraid of not being accepted by them. We know what we are doing is wrong, but the fear of being left out is greater than our trust in God.

§ We don’t give generously with our finances. God clearly calls us to be generous in Scripture. If you aren’t giving you aren’t being obedient. When we don’t give it is because we are afraid of not having enough. The fear of not having enough or the fear of missing out on what we could have is greater than our trust in God.

§ We don’t share our faith with others because we are scared of rejection or failure. We are afraid of them rejecting us, or them rejecting God because we didn’t do it right and we feel like a failure with something so important to us. So our fear of failure or rejection is greater than our trust in God.

Obedience can be a great test for us of our contentment. Is there an area in your life where you aren’t obeying God? Being generous, sharing gossip, watching things which aren’t honoring of human beings, not telling the truth? What is likely at the root of those actions, thoughts, or attitudes is a lack of contentment and some fear. A fear that God’s ways are not good and that your ways would be better than God’s ways.

2. don’t complain/grumble

There is a second sign we learn from Joseph about contentment. We are content when we obey God. But we are also content when we don’t grumble and complain in the midst of our obedience.

After the birth of Jesus, King Herod hears about this newly born King of the Jews, and he wants to have Jesus killed. So as men come looking to kill Jesus, the angel tells Joseph to escape to Egypt and then, after Herod’s death, the angel tells Joseph to return. The going to and returning from Egypt is a powerful symbol. It is a way of reenacting the entire story of Israel. The people of Israel went to Egypt in the midst of a famine in the land, with the help of another guy named Joseph, by the way, and then after being enslaved by Egypt for hundreds of years, they were led out of Egypt and into the Promised Land, which is Israel. If you read the story of Israel’s exodus from Egypt to Israel it is a story filled with grumbling. The people complained about EVERYTHING. They followed God, they did, mostly, the things He told them to do, but they grumbled about it the entire way. Eventually, their grumbling kept them out of the Promised Land and they spent an entire generation wandering in the desert.

Joseph, the earthly father of Jesus, had so much he could have complained about in his situation, and what we see Joseph do is unlike his ancestors; we don’t hear him complain. Think about all he could have complained about to God:

§ He is raising and caring for a son that wasn’t his own

§ He endured a life-long speculation about his wife, in the small villages it is possible most people knew Jesus wasn’t Joseph’s biological child

§ Think of all the hopes and dreams Joseph had for his family and life, almost all of them changed, and we don’t know if Joseph lived long enough to even see Jesus’ earthly ministry

§ He had the King of the Jews looking to kill his wife’s child…and probably him

§ He was forced to run off to a land of his enemies as a refugee where he had no protection and little, if any, community

Not grumbling or complaining is a sign of contentment. Even if someone is obedient but they do it with a grumbling attitude, it isn’t honoring.

If I ask, hypothetically, my kids to help clean up after dinner and they don’t help, am I honored as their father? No. My kids live in my house and one way they honor me is by obeying what I tell them to do. But, if my kids go into the kitchen and gripe and complain about the dishes while washing them, am I honored? They are obeying me. No! The grumbling in the midst of obedience is still not honoring.

In the same way, when we obey God with a grumpy attitude and we grumble and complain, it is not honoring to God.

Philippians 2:14–15 (ESV)

14 Do all things without grumbling or disputing, 15 that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world,

Action

We can be people who grow in contentment by asking two questions:

1. Where am I disobeying God or where am I complaining?

These are signs there is something keeping us from fully trusting God. We either don’t trust God’s way or we are trusting enough to do them but we don’t fully believe it will work for our good, so we complain and grumble against God.

2. What am I afraid of?

Address the context of this story

But one day all of this changed. He finds out his fiancée is pregnant. She claims the child is from God and that she is still a virgin. Which would have sounded to him about as likely a story as it first sounds to us. He plans to call things off but then he has a dream where an angel of the Lord tells him it is true and he should still marry, Mary. He does. Then a few years later, Magi from the East come and present rather odd gifts to his wife’s son. Then, in the middle of the night, he has another dream informing him that the king of Israel, a guy named Herod, wants to kill the child, which likely meant him too, and he is to escape to Egypt. So in the middle of the night he gets up and flees to another country. Then, after some time he has another dream that king Herod is dead so they should return to Israel, but things are still uncertain at home so in another dream he is told to move to region of Galilee.

contextulize

Read the text

Matthew 1:18–25 ESV

18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. 19 And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. 20 But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” 22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: 23 “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us). 24 When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, 25 but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.

Perhaps we think, “Yeah, but an angel showed up in his dream. If an angel told me which house to buy, I’d be pretty content too.” But that isn’t fair to the details we have in the story. The angel was actually quite vague on a lot of important details. And, while we might not have angelic dreams, we have something Joseph didn’t have. The completion of God’s Word. In fact, if we could talk with Joseph, I wonder if he would say to us, “Sure, I had a few dreams on angelic instruction, but you hold in your hand the revelation of God’s plan of redemption. God’s instruction on how to live, the answer to humanity’s longing questions of meaning and purpose, the full story of how God became human, how God took on sin and death, how God became King, and how God will restore all things. And it sits on your nightstand or is available in multiple translations in your pocket.”

How do we respond to the word of God? first - surrender but then what? what follows surrender?

Matthew 1:24–25 ESV

24 When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, 25 but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.

Interesting tie in as I was thinking about the gospel portion of the sermon, how did Jesus find contentment on the cross? Obedience Phil 2:8 “obedient to the point of death”

Philippians 2:8 ESV

8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Life, joy, contentment isn’t found in disobedience

but in death, in obeying God and His Word even when it’s painful even when it’s difficult

4 encou

Matthew 1:20–21 ESV

Matthew 2:12 ESV

12 And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way.

Matthew 2:13 ESV

13 Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.”

Matthew 2:19 ESV

19 But when Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt,

12/10 Joseph’s Obedience: Embracing Contentment in Unexpected Circumstances Matt. 1:24-25 D. Hummel

Joseph’s obedience: the ridicule he endured in the culture of the time and his acceptance of God’s providence as his only anchor.

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