Obedience to Arrival: Joseph
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Holy One, as we prepare for the advent of Christ,Give us your spirit of wisdom.As we seek to embody your love in the world,Give us your spirit of good counsel.As we seek to be faithful,Give us eyes to see beyond the obvious.As we gather in this hour, we lift all in need before you.
(Here, the people may add particular intercessions or thanksgivings.)
May we be instruments of your peace on earthas we accept the gifts of your Spirit.
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. 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,
Something I’ve noticed this year as I’ve studied the nativity story for both the Bible Study on Angels of the Nativity and for the sermon series of the Advent season. It is the personal descriptions of the men and women God chose to work through in order to bring His Son, Jesus, into the world.
And I’ll start with an unlikely person to consider when we are talking about the nativity story, the prophet Daniel. Daniel, like Zechariah (who we will look at next week) and Mary, and likely Joseph, was also visited by the Angel Gabriel who revealed to him what God was about to do. The visitation with Daniel occurred approximately 500 years earlier and the message given to him from God regarded several future events that would come to pass - including the span of time before the Messiah arrived. For our purposes this morning, I’d like you to listen to how Daniel is greeted by the angel Gabriel in Daniel 10:11
And he said to me, “O Daniel, man greatly beloved, give heed to the words that I speak to you, and stand upright, for now I have been sent to you.” While he was speaking this word to me, I stood up trembling.
Listen to what is written about the Priest Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth, Luke 1:6 “And they were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord.”
And consider the familiar greeting that the Angel Gabriel spoke to Jesus’ soon to be mother Mary, Luke 1:28
And he came to her and said, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.”
And then, we have the subject of today’s sermon, Joseph. Matthew 1:19
And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly.
Greatly beloved, righteous, just, highly favored - the Bible makes it clear the types of people God uses to accomplish His will to redeem the world. This caused me to expand my search and look for other faithful men and women were described in the scriptures with such words.
Then the Lord said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation.
There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil.
At Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion of what was known as the Italian Cohort, a devout man who feared God with all his household, gave alms generously to the people, and prayed continually to God.
And now, my daughter, do not be afraid, I will do for you all that you ask, for all the assembly of my people know that you are a worthy woman.
Who does God tend to entrust with great responsibility?
Those who fear Him, who love Him, who are faithful and obedient. God examines our hearts and will use those who trust in Him to do mighty things. We are not talking about perfect people, there are none, but those who seek to please the Lord. In the book of Acts, the Apostle Paul, in making the case for accepting Christ by walking his listeners through the history of God’s people, when he states in Acts 13:22
he raised up David to be their king, of whom he testified and said, ‘I have found in David the son of Jesse a man after my heart, who will do all my will.’
That is who God searches for and takes delight in, men and women who have a heart for Him, who will voluntarily and obediently do all He has willed.
When God examined Joseph’s heart, he determined that this would be the perfect earthly father for His Son. That is an incredible honor and we so often under appreciate it. We do not know much about Joseph, but the picture we are given is enough.
Joseph was a just and compassionate man. Even though he was most likely angry, hurt and embarrassed by the assumed betrayal of his betrothed wife when he found out she was pregnant, and knowing his own reputation would diminished as he became the talk of the town, he was willing to quietly divorce and spare Mary the harshest of punishments, including the possibility of death by stoning. He protected her.
In fact, that appears to be his dominant character strength: Joseph was a protector.
He would have probably made a great Police Officer, Firefighter or Military Operator. It was his nature. Protector - doing whatever is necessary to keep his family safe. We see his protective nature in action during each passage where he is mentioned in Matthew’s gospel.
After the visit of the Magi, we read in Matthew 2:13-15
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.” And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, “Out of Egypt I called my son.”
After Herod died, an angel again spoke to Joseph in a dream and instructed him to return to Israel. But then he heard that Herod’s son was reigning in the place of his father, his own internal radar told him the situation was still dangerous. God confirmed his concern and once again, through a dream, he was guided to head to Nazareth instead of Bethlehem. This is where he would raise his son, setting the example of godliness and hard work.
… they returned into Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. And the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom. And the favor of God was upon him.
Throughout the nativity story, God spoke to Joseph through dreams, just like his Old Testament namesake in the book of Genesis. Joseph would awaken from a dream, and convinced the message was real, and he acted upon it. He had learned to hear and respond to God’s voice. He did not hesitate - he packed up the family and hit the road. The danger was real - Herod proved that when he sent his troops out to kill all the male children in Bethlehem.
And the more I think about it, the more awestruck I am at God’s plan to save the world. God sent his One and Only Begotten Son into this dangerous world, and entrusted His safety and upbringing to a human couple. God could have just as easily posted angels round Jesus and said “don’t let anything happen to him.” Instead, he gives Joseph a series of dreams and then sits back and says to angels around him, let’s see what he does. No angelic army surrounding the child like a Secret Service detail. What we do have is a protective mom and dad, listening for the Lord’s guidance and responding in faith. Dealing with hardship, packing up the family, embarking on long journeys, starting over.
That is an incredible amount of trust given to ordinary people. It kinda shows you what we are capable of when we fear the Lord, and we listen and respond to HIs leading.
Think about it:
He trusted Noah with a decades long boat building project so that humanity could move forward.
He trusted that a righteous man named Job could endure great loss and still keep the faith so that countless others would be encouraged to maintain faith and trust in God even when life's circumstances are difficult and the reasons are not clear.
He entrusted a simple shepherd boy named David with a kingdom and a promise - that one of his descendants would be an everlasting king of a kingdom that would not end.
He trusted a elderly priest and his wife to raise and instruct the greatest man to ever live - John the Baptist. That’s not my words, that is what Jesus said in Matthew 11:11
Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.
And he entrusted two nobodies….Joseph and Mary to protect and raise the Son of God.
Think about what He can do with you! “Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.”
When God examines your heart, does he say “I have found one who will do all of my will?”
It is an exciting invitation, to turn away from living for yourself and instead, choosing to live for God. To learn to listen to his voice, whether by reading scripture, quiet prayer time, dreams, or strong impressions placed on your heart, however he chooses to speak to you - and then acting on it.
God’s will is to redeem all of humanity - and he is entrusting you to make sure people know what He has done. Obedience is sharing the gospel through our words and actions - one person at a time.
Let us pray.
