Christmas 2024 - Joseph

Joseph

This morning we are on week three of looking at the different characters of the true Christmas story.

So far we have see the angel Gabriel that came to Mary, then last week we seen Mary.

This morning we are looking at Joseph the husband of Mary.

We are going to look at some things that Joseph went through, and did as he steps up as Mary’s husband, and takes on the earthly role of father to Jesus.

We know from the last two weeks that Joseph did not have anything to do with the conception of Jesus.

Joseph is not mentioned a lot in Scripture, but there is still things we can learn from him

The last two weeks we have look in Luke chapter one, this morning we will be looking in Matthew chapter one.

Luke very briefly mentions Joseph in chapter two, but Matthew gives us the account of Joseph encounter with the angel of the Lord

As we look at our text this morning there are three things we can learn from Joseph.

We will see that Joseph was called a righteous man, he was told do not be afraid, and that everything happening is to fulfill prophecy.

Look with me at our text this morning.

Matthew 1:18–25 NASB95

18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: when His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit. 19 And Joseph her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly. 20 But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for the Child who has been conceived in her is of 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 Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet: 23 “Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which translated means, “God with us.” 24 And Joseph awoke from his sleep and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took Mary as his wife, 25 but kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a Son; and he called His name Jesus.

Pray

I. Righteous Man

Matthew 1:18–19 NASB95

18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: when His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit. 19 And Joseph her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly.

Marriages in Bible times were not made for love, per se, but for the mutual benefit of both families involved.

Jewish marriages were usually arranged by the fathers of the bride and groom and would begin with a betrothal, or engagement.

The bride’s and groom’s feelings on the marriage were not usually taken into consideration, and it was possible that the bride and groom had never met before the betrothal. Betrothals could even be agreed upon when the couple was very young.

In these cases, the engagement would stand until the bride and groom were old enough to marry.

A Jewish betrothal was an important part of the marriage process and was as binding as marriage itself.

Those initiating the betrothal and witnesses to the event would likely sign a marriage contract.

Therefore, if one or both parties wished to end the betrothal, they would be required to get a divorce.

We see this in the case of Mary and Joseph, who were pledged to be married; when Mary was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit, Joseph considered divorcing Mary quietly to protect her reputation

Before the completion of the betrothal period, Mary was found to be with child, she became pregnant, even though she was a virgin, it appeared that Mary was guilty of adultery.

The seventh of the ten commandments is against adultery.

Exodus 20:14 NASB95

14 “You shall not commit adultery.

The penalty for adultery in the Old Testament was death.

Leviticus 20:10 NASB95

10 ‘If there is a man who commits adultery with another man’s wife, one who commits adultery with his friend’s wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.

We then have a example of a woman caught in adultery in John 8:3-5

John 8:3–5 NASB95

3 The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery, and having set her in the center of the court, 4 they said to Him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in adultery, in the very act. 5 “Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women; what then do You say?”

Here we have these religious leaders bring a woman caught in adultery to Jesus trying to see what his response would be.

They state that the law of Moses commanded her to be stoned.

Deuteronomy 22:23–24 NASB95

23 “If there is a girl who is a virgin engaged to a man, and another man finds her in the city and lies with her, 24 then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city and you shall stone them to death; the girl, because she did not cry out in the city, and the man, because he has violated his neighbor’s wife. Thus you shall purge the evil from among you.

With these verses we see that it was customary for a person found in adultery to be stoned to death.

Our main text tells us that Joseph was a righteous man.

Matthew’s title of Joseph as a righteous man does not imply sinless perfection but regularly refers to one who is law-abiding, upright in character, and generally obedient and faithful to God’s commandments.

Joseph’s righteousness meant that he was merciful; thus he did not intend to disgrace Mary.

With that Joseph upon finding out that Mary was pregnant decided to divorce her in secret.

Joseph’s righteousness leads him to want to spare Mary the disgrace of public divorce and the legal proceedings for a suspected adulteress.

Jewish laws typically required a man to divorce an adulterous wife, but Joseph proposed to send her away secretly, which is to divorce her in private, which would be in the sense of a settlement out of court.

In these two verses we see that Joseph was a Godly man, he was merciful toward Mary, even though culturally he should have taken her and had her stoned to death, he did not.

There is a lot of things that culturally we should do a specific way, but being Godly people we need to have mercy in situations.

II. Do Not Be Afraid

Matthew 1:20–21 NASB95

20 But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for the Child who has been conceived in her is of 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.”

As Joseph is pondering how he is going to divorce Mary in secret, an angel of the Lord appears to him in a dream.

We are not told how Joseph found out about Mary being with child, but he has evidently found it out, and is sleeping on his plan to divorce her in private.

As he is sleeping in his dream the angel appears to him.

The angel tells Joseph to not be afraid, he is not meaning afraid of this visit from the angel, but not to be afraid to take Mary as his wife.

Now for Joseph to take Mary as his wife would make it appear to outsiders that as Mary begins to show her pregnancy that she had conceived by Joseph and not in an act of adultery.

This would take the heat or spotlight off of Mary in a sense.

As before Joseph takes her as his wife, she was betrothed and it would be known that Mary in human sense was an adulteress.

But as the angel continues in telling Joseph that Mary is with child but that she conceived through the power of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit did not come to Mary and have marital relations with her, but rather through the life-giving power of the Holy Spirit causes Mary to conceive which allowed the conception apart from the usual means required.

Joseph is instructed to name Mary’s baby Jesus.

The name Jesus comes from the Hebrew name translated Joshua which means Jehovah is Salvation or the Lord is Salvation.

The angel communicates the meaning of the name that is to be given to the baby.

The angel states that He (that is Jesus) will save His people from their sins.

From our first sermon in this series on the angel, Gabriel tells Mary.

Luke 1:31–32 NASB95

31 “And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus. 32 “He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David;

The Jewish people looking for the Messiah, they were looking for a person to come and set up an earthly throne and deliver them from the Roman rule.

It was not Roman rule that Jesus would delivering His people but from the rule of sin at this time.

We should not be afraid to do what God calls and leads us to do, even when it goes against cultural norms.

III. Fulfillment of Prophecy

Matthew 1:22–25 NASB95

22 Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet: 23 “Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which translated means, “God with us.” 24 And Joseph awoke from his sleep and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took Mary as his wife, 25 but kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a Son; and he called His name Jesus.

Verse 15 is a quote from Isaiah 7:14

Isaiah 7:14 NASB95

14 “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel.

Matthew gives us the translation of the name Immanuel, which is God with us.

Joseph takes Mary to be his wife, that is they are no longer betrothed or engaged but fully married, with the exception that Joseph kept Mary as a virgin until after the birth of Jesus.

This was important for the fact that no one could say, that Mary conceived through Joseph.

The probability that Jesus could have fulfilled eight of the sixty major prophecies would be only 1 in 10 to the 17 power, that is 10 with 17 zeros following it.

Peter W. Stoner claims that many silver dollars (10 to the 17 power) would be enough to cover the face of the entire state of Texas two feet deep.

Now Texas is the second largest state in the US by land mass which covers 268,596 square miles.

Ranking in the world, Texas would be around 39th in the world by land mass, making it larger than most countries in the world by land mass.

Taking this huge land mass and covering it in two feet of silver dollars, who would suppose that a blindfolded man, heading out of Dallas by foot in any direction, would be able, on his very first attempt, to pick up one specifically marked silver dollar out of the 10 to the 17th power.

That is what Jesus accomplished in just eight of the sixty major prophecies.

Richard Halverson wrote:

“The fact is, the birth, crucifixion, and bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ are celebrated worldwide by folk of every race, language, and color, every year.

And believing in Jesus, they have been delivered from the most evil, disastrous, frustrating, debilitating habits and life forms possible.

The real problem with Jesus Christ is not that folk can't believe in Him—but that they won't believe in Him.”

Joseph could have easily just taken Marry and had her stoned to death, from a human perspective she had committed adultery.

But Joseph was a righteous man, he was merciful and did not want to hurt Marry in any way.

When God sent His messenger to speak to Joseph, he did not play it off as some crazy dream.

Joseph was not afraid to be obedient to what God was calling him to do, take Marry as his wife.

He could have sat and made excuses, but he was obedient.

Through the obedience of Mary and Joseph, many prophecies were fulfilled.

Just as we can see the prophecies that Jesus has already fulfilled, we need to know that the prophecies and promises that has been given about the end of time, will also come about, all in God’s perfect timing.

One of those is found in John 14:3 as Jesus gives believers reassurance that He will come back for us.

John 14:3 NASB95

3 “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.

Jesus will come again one day, are you prepared.

Mary and Joseph did what was instructed of them to be prepared.

The way to be prepared is to receive the free gift of salvation that has been provided for you.