2006-11-26 - Joseph - Matt 1 18-24
Message: Joseph Newport Baptist Church
Scr: Matt 1:18-24, 2:13, 19-23 Date: 2006-11-26
Intro: Typical situation – young man and woman in love… engaged to be married… phone rings… bad news… she’s pregnant… he didn’t do it.
Everyone thought they would be married… high school sweethearts… He decides to break it off… before he does he prays about it… she says she still loves him… wants to marry him… it was a mistake… please forgive me… He thinks about it… decides to marry her… those who accuse him of causing the problem… he apologizes to them as if he did it… the minister lectures them both on why they should have waited… their families are embarrassed… but they get married immediately to try and minimize the scandal… and the child is raised by a man who protected his mother, who guarded her honour and took the punishment on himself for a mistake he did not make…
Explanation – Joseph found himself in a similar situation. Mary contacts him, pregnant. What can he do? He’s a good guy, he loves her, doesn’t want to hurt her… (Jewish law required that she be stoned to death!) so he decides to divorce her (Jewish engagement was marriage without living together for 1 year). He scandalizes the neighborhood though, when he obeys God and takes Mary instead to be his wife immediately.
TS – Joseph - truly a man of God. Joseph was probably a mature man. He was a blue-collar worker, a carpenter.
He probably was a good one, no doubt skilled with his hands and good with details.
Joseph was a man of integrity, a man of faith, a sensible man, a willing servant, and level headed
Most important, Joseph was willing to obey. Perhaps that’s why God chose Joseph to raise his Son...
Today, let’s look at Joseph and the example he offers us.
Our Scripture is from two New Testament sources - Matthew 1;18-24 and Matthew 2:13, 19-23
1) JOSEPH OBEYED. HE TOOK MARY INTO HIS HOME AS HIS WIFE
a) He protected Mary, removed her social stigma, and provided godly leadership to his family.
i) Joseph taking that stand protected Mary from the vicious gossip that could have come. it would be strange for someone nine months pregnant to make that long trip for the census registration. She did not have to go. Joseph could have registered for both of them. One suggestion was that maybe he took his wife with her to protect her from all the whispers she would have had to endure if she had stayed home.
b) Obeying was not an easy thing for Joseph to do.
i) He knew he would face the taunts and laughter of his neighbors and community.
(1) He can’t keep his wife happy - She wandered even before the wedding
(2) He can’t keep his zipper zipped and his lusts in control.
(3) He must have cried out "God Why?!"
c) CAN WE OBEY LIKE JOSEPH?
i) Change habits and lifestyles in faithfulness to God?
(1) Joshua 24:14 Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD .
ii) Welcome the unwelcome and accept the offensive? (Jesus did!)
(1) Luke 15:1 -ff - Now the tax collectors and "sinners" were all gathering around to hear him. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, "This man welcomes sinners and eats with them." Then Jesus told them this parable: lost sheep, lost coin, lost son
iii) You see, our goal as believers and as a church is obedience to God’s plan:
(1) to reverse the status of the lost.
(2) God’s grace is the offer of acceptance to the unacceptable.
(3) In the three parables, each "finding" was followed by a celebration with family and friends. As the Scripture says, there is true joy in heaven over one lost who is found.
2) JOSEPH OBEYED. HE FLED INTO EGYPT.
a) There was much this caused him to give up.
i) His family, his employment, his position
ii) From a position of respect in town, he became a fugitive, hiding in Egypt
b) CAN WE OBEY LIKE JOSEPH?
i) Give up our possessions, our positions, our pride?
(1) These can be the most difficult habits to give up. We tend to stockpile our belongings, safeguard our positions, and shield our pride. They are the most difficult things to turn over to God. But they are what he wants most of all. Because God knows if we are willing to give him our possessions, then greed will not enslave us. If we can surrender our position, then God can restore us to the position He wants. If we can humble our pride, then God can use for his purposes. Joseph obeyed and gave up each of these. Can we?
ii) Accept the total ownership of our life by God?
(1) Ephesians 3:7-8 I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God’s grace given me through the working of his power. Although I am less than the least of all God’s people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.
3) JOSEPH OBEYED. HE CAME BACK HOME.
a) This was a risky move for Joseph to take.
i) The king was dead, but that doesn’t mean his policies have died. Herod’s son is still on the throne. I believe God allowed Joseph to return to his former home town for Mary and the baby’s protection , to fulfill scripture, and as a blessing to Joseph for his loyalty, giving him the chance to again have the chance to live a life with his extended family.
ii) It demanded starting over yet again.
iii) Joseph lost his business and livelihood when he fled from Israel to Egypt. Now, God calls him to again uproot his family and lose the new business he has established to return home. It can be hard to have to keep starting over again. But Joseph did it - he obeyed.
b) CAN WE OBEY LIKE JOSEPH?
i) Can we step beyond our fears and hesitations?
(1) Can you and I trust God enough to give up all we’ve held important and start over again? Can we step aside from a life style that does not please God and begin in a new way as God’s new child?
(2) Can we start over again?
4) JOSEPH OBEYED: HE RAISED JESUS AS HIS SON.
a) He fulfilled the daily responsibilities of being a father.
i) He taught his son what a boy needed to know to successful grow into manhood
ii) He never "knew" the results of his faithful obeying.
b) Mary came to know the outcome of her faithfulness. As Simeon prophesied, Mary would experience a sword in her heart (Luke 2:35) as she watched her son suffer and die. But she would live to see the resurrection and experience the birth of Christ’s church.
c) Joseph witnessed the miracle from the glory side of heaven (which our faith says is even better)
d) CAN WE OBEY LIKE JOSEPH?
i) Can we willingly serve God without thought of personal outcome?
ii) Can we pour out our efforts for God without ever seeing success?
(1) Like Joseph, we sometimes cry "Why?" And all we hear in response is "Trust Me." God’s ways are not always our ways. God’s thoughts are higher than our thoughts. We wish there were answers, but all we can hear is "Trust Me." Can we trust God to bring success out of our effects that seem to be only failure?
(2) I heard a wise man just this week say that "living in faith is almost like walking backwards. We can’t see where we are going. We aren’t sure where to place each step. All we can see is the past behind us, never where the next step will lead ahead. And God says "Trust Me." Look at all the ways I have helped in the past. Remember all the times I have been there. Now, take that step backwards in confidence - in faith that I control. Can we obey like Joseph...
iii) GOD OFTEN WILL CALL US TO DO MORE THAN WE THINK WE CAN DO. BUT HE NEVER WILL CALL US TO DO MORE THAN HE CAN DO.
(1) Henry Blackaby in his book Knowing and Doing the Will of God, made an encouraging observation. He writes: Some people say, "God will never ask me to do something I can’t do." I have come to the place in my life that, if the assignment I sense God is giving me is something that I know I can handle, I know it probably is not from God. The kind of assignments God gives in the Bible are always God-sized. They are always beyond what people can do, because He wants to demonstrate His nature, His strength, His provision, and His kindness to His people and to a watching world. That is the only way the world will come to know him.
iv) In the Bible, God always is giving God-sized instructions.
(1) Abraham - to found a nation when Sarai his wife was too old to have children
(2) Moses - to lead the nation across the sea, bring water from a rock, and fulfill the promise of Israel
(3) Gideon - defeat the Midianite army of thousands with 300 men
(4) Jesus told the disciples to feed the multitudes, share his message and make disciples of all the nations.
(5) None of these things were humanly possible. But each of them were within God’s ability and God’s call.
Conclusion –
Are we able to obey like Joseph? Yes we are! God longs for and looks for men and women who will obey when he calls to faithfulness!
There’s a poem that begins:
Are you able, says the Master, to be crucified with me?
Yea, the sturdy dreamers answer, to the death we’ll follow thee.
Lord, we are able, our spirits are thine.
Remold them, make us, like thee divine.
Thy guiding radiance above us shall be
a beacon to God to love and loyalty.
So the call is to each one of us.... "WILL YOU OBEY? ARE YOU ABLE?
Prayer –