The True Father
Notes
Transcript
What is he to do?
What is he to do?
I just can’t imagine what was going through the mind of Joseph at that moment.
Here before him, an innocent child born to Mary, his wife, someone who he had no sexual relations with but was told by an angel that this child was conceived of the Holy Spirit and that this child’s name is Jesus (which means Saviour).
For this child would save His people from their sins.
The gospel of Matthew proclaims that this fulfills the prophecy found in Isaiah 7:14
14 Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.
This indicating Jesus’ birth has been foretold about 700 years before it happened!
Desire of Ages Chapter 1—“God with Us”
Our little world, under the curse of sin the one dark blot in His glorious creation, will be honored above all other worlds in the universe of God. Here, where the Son of God tabernacled in humanity; where the King of glory lived and suffered and died,—here, when He shall make all things new, the tabernacle of God shall be with men, “and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God.” And through endless ages as the redeemed walk in the light of the Lord, they will praise Him for His unspeakable Gift,—
Immanuel, “God with us”.
Joseph, is comforting his wife in a stable, with Jesus, and thousands of questions running through his mind.
Nevermind the foul stench of the stable, or how their clothes have bits of straw clinging to it.
Ultimately, one question that will bother Joseph and any father if they were to be put in this unique situation; “how do I bring this child up?”
How do I train God?
How do I train God?
That is indeed the million dollar question right? How do you train God?
Throughout the gospel or even in the New Testament, not much is recorded about the life of Joseph, we are only given a few verses that reveal the relationship that Joseph had with Jesus.
Yet, what kind of man was he? Was he a good example to Jesus? Was he a good and faithful father?
Who is Joseph?
Who is Joseph?
For Joseph, we a shown through the book of Matthew that he is of the lineage of David, the great king of Israel.
But, this doesn’t even matter as Jesus is not of Joseph’s seed because Jesus was conceived of the Holy Spirit.
So, how does Jesus take the throne of David if He is not from Joseph’s line? Well, Jesus does come from the line of David through Mary His earthly mother. But inheritance usually goes through the male line, in which case, Jesus has no inheritance on this earth.
As for Joseph, what is it about him that reveals to us who he is, how can this man be a earthly father to Jesus?
Joseph’s character
Joseph’s character
We can see the character of Joseph when we look at his relationship with Mary.
19 Joseph, to whom she was engaged, was a righteous man and did not want to disgrace her publicly, so he decided to break the engagement quietly.
The word righteous in Greek is δίκαιος which means righteous and just in English, it means someone who conforms to the law or custom, because in order to be righteous it means someone who does the right thing by following the laws of their religion.
Now, according to the custom of Joseph’s religion, Judaism, Mary was betrothed to Joseph, from Joseph’s perspective, she dishonoured Joseph because she is pregnant.
According to the Torah, she is to be stoned for her unfaithfulness. But, Joseph’s action shows his love and respect for Mary and as the verse reveals didn’t “...want to disgrace her publicly.”
We also are shown that despite Joseph not being the biological father to Jesus, that he would still protect the mother and Child from danger
For example Joseph heeded the voice of the angel and fled to Egypt to protect Jesus, and when king Herod died he took his family to Nazareth.
Joseph could have gone to Judea but he feared king Herod’s son as he reigned over Judea and ensured the safety of Jesus from king Herod’s dynasty.
Joseph could have avoided all this trouble by just abandoning Mary and Jesus in Egypt or in Bethlehem, Joseph could lived a successful life but Joseph sacrificed all that and remained faithful to his wife and to Jesus because he loved them.
Joseph loves Jesus and adopted Him as his own son, and Joseph became Jesus’ father, through Joseph's adoption of Jesus, He inherits the throne of David through adoption.
Joseph an anti-type of the Father
Joseph an anti-type of the Father
Joseph’s role in Jesus’ life was of real importance to His upbringing.
And again, although we don’t have a lot of information about Joseph we at least have some idea of his character and love for Jesus.
He was seen as a righteous man, someone who believed in the law of God and I would presume that this would have translated to Jesus as a child.
You have to remember, that even though Jesus is God, He was also 100% human, and though Jesus was Divine, He still had to experience the same experiences that every child experiences as they grow up.
Joseph being a child of King Solomon, he would have heeded his ancestors advice.
6 Train up a child in the way he should go,
And when he is old he will not depart from it.
Parents play a huge role in bringing up and training their children in the way of the Lord, this is especially important for Jewish families where religion is central to the family relationship.
Joseph is the anti type, of the Father in Heaven, Jesus is not biologically Joseph's Son, yet Joseph's love for Jesus, he adopts Him as his own and protects Him.
The Heavenly Father, the True Father, though He created us, Jesus says when we were in sin:
44 For you are the children of your father the devil, and you love to do the evil things he does. He was a murderer from the beginning. He has always hated the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, it is consistent with his character; for he is a liar and the father of lies.
But for those that want to change from their sinful ways, Jesus said earlier.
42 Jesus told them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, because I have come to you from God. I am not here on my own, but he sent me.
Those that love His Son; those that love the True Father in Heaven, those that see Jesus as the one who would take away the sin of the world.
We are adopted as His children and as Joseph protected Jesus from Herod and adopted Jesus as his son, God adopts us and protects His children from the evil one.
7 How precious is Your lovingkindness, O God!
And the children of men take refuge in the shadow of Your wings.
8 They drink their fill of the abundance of Your house;
And You give them to drink of the river of Your delights.
9 For with You is the fountain of life;
In Your light we see light.
Mary of course is important in Jesus’ journey, but Joseph no doubt played a part in Jesus’ upbringing and help shaped Jesus to the man that is to be an example of faith and fellowship with the True Father.
Christmas reveals the Father’s love
Christmas reveals the Father’s love
Christmas is a time that reveals the Father’s love for humanity, Immanuel, God with us.
A well known verse gives credit to this fact:
16 “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.
This infant’s future will face ridicule, abandonment, rejection, unspeakable pain and death. This child will soon carry the burden of humanity's sin that no mere man can bare.
But, this child is willing to go through all that to appease our True Father and show us the pathway to salvation through His sacrifice.
Christmas is a reminder how far our Father and our Creator is willing to go to save humanity from their sin and to show us how much we’re loved.
6 We are all infected and impure with sin.
When we display our righteous deeds,
they are nothing but filthy rags.
Like autumn leaves, we wither and fall,
and our sins sweep us away like the wind.
7 Yet no one calls on your name
or pleads with you for mercy.
Therefore, you have turned away from us
and turned us over to our sins.
8 And yet, O Lord, you are our Father.
We are the clay, and you are the potter.
We all are formed by your hand.
My friends, God came to this world as a baby, He willingly came in this innocent form to be like us, to experience what it is to be human.
Joseph, the legal and earthly fatherof Jesus, protected Jesus and made Him his Son. Joseph would have taught Jesus and pointed Him to the Great Jehovah.
Jesus our Saviour, who is 100% God and 100% human, would reveal to the world our True Father and would give His own life so that we can have victory over our sin and give us hope for an eternal future with our True Father.
Would you welcome Jesus into your life? Would you let Jesus you our True Father who is in Heaven?
Why not experience your True Father in Jesus.
