The Faith of Obedience (Joseph)

Introduction

Good morning and Happy Advent! Our Christmas series this years is drawing us into great Christmas songs of anticipation like that one. “Come thou long expected Jesus...” His mother Mary was not the only one who was “expecting” when it came to this baby. Since the day that our first parents Adam and Eve were kicked out of the garden of Eden we have been expecting the arrival of this baby to fix all that is broken in our world.

And so each year this season draws us back into the beauty, mystery and intrigue of how this all came to be. How Immanuel, God with us, came to be… well “with us”. And Jesus came into this world through a family and this makes this time very special for families and many of us have the tradition of reading the Christmas story with our family.

My Father was not a very learned man. Since his father was not the man that he was supposed to be, my father dropped out of High School to get a job so he could bring home something to his mom for his 7 brothers and 3 sisters. And from the start he was a blue collar guy in every respect, but I still remember how he would gather my mother, brother and sisters into the living room each Christmas and surrounded by the lights of Christmas we would watch as he unzippeed his big brown leather case and open up his well used Bible to Luke chapter 2 and began to read…

Luke 2:1–5 (ESV)

In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. And all went to be registered, each to his own town.

And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child.

Tension

And even today these words bring back the memory of this sweet Christmas tradition when I would sit in that room and picture Joseph walking along leading the donkey that carried a very pregnant Mary. It is cinematic in scope and romantic in feel. The scene is just pregnant… pun intended... with anticipation and expectancy as they fearlessly journey together toward Bethlehem.

But maybe if we zoomed in a little closer, we may have been able to see that these larger than life characters dealt with all of this “destiny” stuff a little closer to the way we would have. Maybe in the midst of their joy, they too struggled with questions and doubts about how all this could be. Maybe their journey had moments more like this…

VIDEO: Come Thou Long Expected Jesus (Joseph)

Well, now we know a few things we didn’t know before. Their donkey was named Delilah and she had some attitude. Plus Joseph apparently... was some kind of donkey whisperer! Obviously our friends the Skitguys took some poetic license there, but it is fun to stop and wonder about what it must have been like for Joseph leading up to that first Christmas morning.

He was facing many more questions than he could have had answers for and he must have been greatly concerned about how things would go and what people would think. And we know from Scripture that unlike so many of the other characters in this story, Joseph only had a dream to go on. Remember?

● Zechariah left the Temple unable to speak. So he knew God was up to something.

● Mary was pregnant and with… all that going on…she could not deny God was at work.

● The shepherds had each other as they wondered about the message that came from a night sky full of angels.

● The Wisemen were directed by the star that literally moved to show them the way.

But Joseph had to put his faith in a message he received angles in a dream. He had to trust that this sense that he had while he slept was more than just some spicy matza bread doing a work on his mind… that it was actually a divine message from God!

That takes a great amount of faith!

Too often we think of men of faith being men of great learning, wisdom and understanding. The well-read leadership types who speak at big conferences or hit the streets as street preachers or apologists. But in Joseph we have a quiet, blue collared carpenter kind of faith. Nothing flashy about his story, in fact we don’t really know much about him and yet… he may have been the most faith-filled character in the entire Advent story.

Because his faith led him to a humble yet radical obedience. He simply chose to take God at his word, obey what He said, and in doing so, set an example that all of us can follow.

So open up to you Bibles to Matthew chapter 1, starting in verse 18. We will stop for a moment and pray, and we will walk through the story of Joseph’s obedient faith together.

Truth

One of the first things we can recognize in Joseph’s story is how…

1. Faith requires obeying God even in Difficult Times (Matthew 1:18-25)

Obeying God is challenging even in the best of times. It goes against our original nature, our sin nature. It is true that when we put our faith in Jesus we are born again, we become new creations and are given a new nature... but it will take the rest of our lives to learn how to live out of that new nature. Every Christian faces the daily challenge to putting to death all the old hurts, habits and fears of our old nature and live out of our new faith in Jesus Christ… and this challenge is intensified when we are hit with very difficult times.

And suffice it to say, Joseph was hit with a very difficult time. His fiancé just announced that she is pregnant and he knows the baby isn’t his. On top of that, she told him some story about how this baby is from God and so He is the “Son of God”. How do you even respond to something like this?

That is so much to take in and for a good-hearted man like Joseph this means trying to do the right thing despite the apparent wrong done to you. So he looks to quietly minimize the damage to all those involved and handle things as quickly and discretely as possible. This was Joseph’s plan.

Starting in verse 18 of Matthew chapter 1 we read…

Matthew 1:18–19 (ESV)

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.

And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly.

In our day the word “divorce” may seem out of place here, but in Joseph’s day a betrothal was a legal arrangement that required a legal process to dissolve it. They couldn’t just “break up”, give back the ring and get on their lives. It was already a matter of public record, but it didn't’ have to become a public spectacle.

This gives us a great picture of the kind of man that Joseph was. It was typical for a man who was betrayed in the way that Joseph thought he was, to make a big deal about the betrayal so that the whole community would know the kind of girl she was and the kind of family she came from.

He would have plastered it all over his Facebook page, rage through a Youtube video and make sure everyone in his social network knew to stay away from this tainted woman who had brought this great shame on herself and her family. Ok that is closer to what it might look like today but in their day the stakes were much higher.

Depending on the circumstances, the law went as far as capital punishment for violating a legal betrothal like this... but Joseph’s heart was far from any of this. He set out to respectfully remove himself and his family from this perceived dishonor while causing as little damage as possible to Mary and her family. Ultimately there was only one problem with his plan…it was not God’s plan.

Matthew 1:20–25 (ESV)

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.

She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”

All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).

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

During the most difficult time of Joseph’s life, God fulfilled his Word by calling this young carpenter to an extraordinary obedience.

From the outside, no one would have blamed him if he would have followed his original plan? No one would have even known that Joseph had a dream, so at worst they would have just thought him noble for choosing to dissolve the marriage in such a gracious way.

Except that faith-fueled obedience is not about who is watching or who knows what. This kind of obedience has an audience of one. It is about trusting God’s plan even when it seems impossible and everyone else says it doesn’t make sense. Joseph’s faith leads him to the obedience of a righteous man who resolutely trusts God’s plan to be the best plan.

And the baby that He would name Jesus will grow up to teach these very things things. In John 16:33 we hear Jesus say…

John 16:33 (ESV)

I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

Difficult times are a reality of this world… but the Advent of Jesus brings us peace because He has overcome the world!

What a promise! God is not asking us to hop on our donkey and take a pregnant wife on a journey, but He is asking us to trust, that no matter how difficult life gets, we have peace in Jesus because He has overcome the world.

He’s got this. He’s got us. The Son of God, the Prince of Peace is the one who will give us a sense of calm in the midst of the storms of our lives and see us through the difficult times.

Joseph is a great example for us in how to experience the peace of God as we obey the word of God… even in the midst of the difficulties of life.

Secondly, Joseph’s story shows us how:

2. Faith leads to obeying God even In Distant Places (Matthew 2:13-18)

If we were to pull what we have of Joseph’s story out from the rest of the story of Advent we would find that he actually has visits from 3 different angels in a dream.

It was not Christmas Eve and they were not angels from Christmas past, present or future… “God bless us everyone”... but He did have three encounters.

We have already looked at the first one, when he is instructed to take Mary as his wife even though she is pregnant with someone else’s baby.

The Second comes after the Wisemen make their visit to see the Christ child. We looked at their story last week, but we stopped in verse 12. That is where the story of the Wisemen stop, but their decision not to return to Herod had terrible ripple effects in deep brokenness that our world can display.

God prepared Joseph to meet these new challenges by sending him another Angel in a dream. Moving down to Matthew chapter 2 verse 13 it says...

Matthew 2:13–14 (ESV)

Now when they (wisemen) 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.” And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt

Joseph could never have imagined that making sweet Mary his bride would lead him down this kind of path. Surely, by now he just wanted to go back home and try to return his life to some level of normal but that was not to be.

It was not safe to go home, and the text gives us the horrible details of why…

Matthew 2:16 (ESV)

Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men.

Matthew 2:17–18 (ESV)

Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah: “A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be comforted, because they are no more.”

This dark part of the story rarely makes it into most Christmas readings, but it shows us the importance of Joseph’s obedient faith in God.

Even as a baby, Jesus’ life was a threat to those who crave earthly power. God the Father worked through Joseph the stand-in-father to protect the Son of God so that he could grow up to fulfill the mission He was sent to accomplish. So, the Angel in Joseph’s second dream says, “Take the family to Egypt.”

Now understand, Egypt is not a “safe place”…..it is just a safer place right now. Joseph would never have chose this on his own. This is a foreign land and Joseph, Mary, and Jesus are now refugees seeking asylum from a tyrannical ruler. They are far away from family, friends and the familiar. They have each other, and they have God and that is pretty much it.

APPLICATION

Have you ever been there? I don’t mean to Egypt, but have you ever found yourself in a distant place far away from family, friends or the familiar? Maybe you physically moved a great distance away, but you could also experience being emotionally or socially distant. Sometimes we can experience a sense of feeling all alone, even in a room full of people we know.

And when everything else seems distant, it is a short jump to start believing that God has somehow abandoned us as well.

Now sometimes God feels distant because we have pushed him away by choosing to continue in unrepentant sin. The answer to that is simply to repent, turn away from your sin and the sweetness of your relationship can then be restored.

But I am talking more about the times when circumstances beyond our control make it seem like God is far away, in a distant place. This can be a dry season in our spiritual life, or a time when someone close to us lets us down or times when the darkness of this broken world around us just makes us wonder if God is moving in it at all.

It is at these times when I find it most helpful to remind myself of what is true. Because my feelings, real as they are, are still just feelings. The truth exists outside of how I feel about something. So when we feel distant from God, we need to remind ourselves of what we know to be true. [BIBLE]

Moses told God’s people in the Old Testament

Deuteronomy 31:8 (ESV)

It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.”

The resurrected Jesus commissioned us New Testament Christians with these words...

Matthew 28:20b (ESV)

And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

And the whole point of the Advent season is to stop and take time to remember and reflect on the arrival of Jesus… and the Angel told Joseph,

“they will call him Immanuel (which means -God with us)”.

Christmas is the story of God coming to be with us. We may feel distant from Him, but the truth is that we are never far from Him. We celebrate his coming into this world by being born in a manger but he left us with the promise to continue to be with us to the “end of the age.”

During this holiday season, if you are gathering together with others and still there is something that is making you feel distant from family, friends or the familiar then hold tight to the truth that God is not distant.

And obeying him in faith can lead you into peace even in distant places.

Finally, Joseph shows us how to:

3. Faith leads us to obey God In Daily Life (Matthew 2:19-23)

Not every part of Joseph’s story is filled with unique and challenging adventures. The final dream we have of Joseph’s is something of a call back “home”, or at least closer to home:

Matthew 2:19–23 (ESV)

But when Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying, “Rise, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the child’s life are dead.”

Saddle up Delilah, here we go again!

And he rose and took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there, and being warned in a dream he withdrew to the district of Galilee.

And he went and lived in a city called Nazareth, so that what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled, that he would be called a Nazarene.

Archelaus was a tyrant even worse than his father, King Herod. He began his reign by having 3,000 prominent citizens killed. His reputation alone would cause any good father…or stepfather... to think twice about raising a child within his arms reach… but this is especially true when that child is the long awaited Messiah.

So even though he got the green light to go home, he couldn’t head home in the fullest sense. To protect his family, Joseph re-established his family in the backwoods region of Nazareth.

But he was finally able to settle down, return to his blue collar work as a carpenter and grow his family with his wife Mary by his side. Sometimes the images of Jesus Mary and Joseph causes us to forget that Jesus grew up in a family complete with siblings, half-brothers and sisters at least.

And so Joseph’s daily life got back to a new normal, or as normal as it could be trying to be a Father to the Son of God, so the significance of his role was far from over.

Gospel Application

Some people see our lives as either a series of unfortunate events or a string of lucky breaks, but as Christians we know that God is working through even our daily life choices to accomplish his good plan in our lives.

Did you notice that each of these dramatic experiences in Joseph’s life ended up fulfilling a long expected Prophecy?

The Angel told Joseph of the Holy Spirit’s role in Mary’s pregnancy… which fulfilled the prophecy of a virgins birth.

The Angel told Joseph to escape to Egypt with his faimily... which fulfilled the prophecy of God calling his son out of Egypt.

The Angel told Joseph it was safe to return home and he ends up in Nazareth, which fulfills the prophecy of him being called a “Nazarene”.

All of our lives are this blend of significant life-altering events and routine day-to-day patterns but it is the consistent obedience to God’s Word that builds up the foundational faith of the followers of God.

In his most famous sermon, Jesus taught us that:

Matthew 7:24–25 (ESV)

“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.

That’s a blue-collar verse if I ever heard one! I can almost see the man glitter falling…

Hearing the Word of God is good, but obeying it or “putting it into practice” is the key to dealing with the brokenness of this life. This is a challenge for most of us. We just don’t always think about it on a daily basis. We get sidetracked by life, work, family, finances and even holiday celebrations can push this important message so far back on the back burner that it falls behind the stove!

But when you think of this blue-collared, faithful man who cared for Mary and helped raise the Messiah, remember his legacy of quiet obedient faith. God said, “go,” and Joseph said okay.

He didn’t have to be some great religious person.

He didn’t have to know how everything was going to work out.

He didn’t have to be seen and respected by others… actually his story pretty much ends here in Matthew chapter 2... but his legacy of obedient faith continues on to us today.

Obedient Faith, even in difficult times, distant places and daily lives.

What it would it take for you to move from where you are now into leaving a legacy like this?

Let’s pray into that together.