IN THE BACKGROUND

Introduction

-{Matthew 1}

-I love reading novels and watching movies and TV shows, and something that is important to me are strong characters that help the story move along smoothly. When we think of such characters we usually think of the main characters of the story, be they a Frodo or a Luke Skywalker or a Huckleberry Finn or whatever. And yet sometimes there are background characters that can impact the story as well.

~You could make a joke maybe about a few like the red-shirt uniformed guys in the original Star Trek. You knew that if a red-shirt uniform guy was going on an away mission with the main characters that he was going to die. But at least you knew when they went on the missions that the main characters would be safe.

~But maybe a more noble character might be Dum Dum Dugan who was part of Captain America’s Howling Commandos in the first Captain America movie. He was part of Cap’s forces that raided various Hydra compounds—and if you don’t know which one I’m talking about he’s the one with the rounded bowler hat and the big mustache. He was a background character in the movies that helped Cap’s story go along. He actually gets a lot more story in the comics where he ends up leading the unit in Cap’s place and even would have a big part in the agency SHIELD in its early days.

-The reason I bring that up is because sometimes the background characters can make an impact. There is one real person in the Bible who I see to be like that. His story is relegated to Jesus’ early life and remains in the background because he is mentioned only a handful of times. And I am referring to Joseph.

~His part of the story is mostly consigned to Matthew chapters 1 & 2 and Luke chapters 1 & 2, and even there he is in the background. If he is mentioned elsewhere in Scripture, it either refers to him as Mary’s husband or Jesus’ father (we know that to mean earthly stepfather). Yet even though he is a background character (so to speak), he has an important role to play.

-Something that we might not think about is how Joseph played an important part in Jesus’ early development. Now, it’s hard for us to fathom that Jesus developed as a person knowing that Jesus is both God and man, but Jesus actually grew and developed over time like an ordinary human because of the fact that He is fully human. Luke 2:52 tells us that Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man. And Joseph played a crucial role to that happening. Joseph was given a great responsibility.

-What I was us to see about Joseph this morning is that Joseph was an ordinary man who remained a mere background character in the gospel story, but he nevertheless was used mightily by God to advance His redemptive purposes because Joseph had the characteristics and integrity and virtue to be used of God.

~And what I want us to take away from the passage today is that us ordinary people who work in the background can develop those same characteristics and integrity and virtue that makes us useful to God’s plans and purposes in advancing His kingdom on earth.

READ Matthew 1:18-24

Matthew 1:18–24 ESV

18 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. 19 And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. 20 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. 21 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” 22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: 23 “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us). 24 When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife,

-I want to answer the question today: What characteristics made Joseph, this ordinary man, this background character, so important such that we ought to develop these characteristics in our lives as well? What made Joseph useable by God?

1) Joseph was righteous

-We find in the passage that Mary was betrothed to Joseph. Now, in Biblical times, the whole wedding and marriage process was a lot different from what we are used to. What would happen is that the couple would become betrothed to one another, and in a special sense they were partially married at that point, but not fully married so as to enjoy the privileges of marriage.

~The next step was that after the bridegroom had a household prepared for a wife and family, he and his friends and family would come to the bride’s parent’s house and bring her to the house that he had prepared. And there would be a wedding and there would be a big feast and they’d party for days.

-Joseph and Mary were in that early betrothal part of their relationship—what I call partially married. But they had not moved on to that next step of Joseph going to get Mary and bring her to the house and have the wedding proper.

~But in the sight of the Jewish religion, for all intents and purposes, they were married enough that if something were to happen, they would have to get a divorce to dissolve the relationship.

-I say all that to give us some context. In v. 19 it says that Joseph was a just man—other translations might say that he is a righteous man. And by describing Joseph in that way what it’s saying is that Joseph was a good guy, upright in character, he followed God’s law, and he was faithful to God as best as he could. He celebrated the festivals; he gave the sacrifices. He worshipped and followed Yahweh.

~Now, because of his being righteous and just, he would not and could not have any part of winking at sin or seeming to ignore sin or give the impression of being a part of sin. So now, here is Mary who is pregnant, and Joseph knows he had nothing to do with it. Just on the surface level, from the way things looked, it would have seemed that Mary committed adultery, because remember they were legally partially married, so it would be considered adultery.

~Mary probably told Joseph all about what the angel had told her about her still being a virgin and the Holy Spirit coming upon her and her giving birth to the Messiah and all of that. And, let’s face it, anyone who was told that story would have reacted the same way: YEAH, RIGHT.

-So, Joseph, being righteous, was going to pursue divorce because he could not in good conscience wink at her unfaithfulness and by extension share in her guilt. By divorcing Mary, Joseph thought that he was doing the right thing in the eyes of God. He didn’t want to dishonor God by connecting himself to what Mary did by all appearances.

-So, here is the lesson for us. Strive to do what is right in God’s eyes and according to God’s Word in all that we do and say and think and even in our attitudes. We want to seek to please God.

~Unfortunately, what seems to be so prevalent in our current Christian culture is that so many people seek to please men, seek to please themselves, and seek to conform themselves to the values of the world so that they cease trying to do what is right according to God.

-What makes a person righteous first is faith in Jesus Christ which gives us a right standing before God, but then in the power of the Holy Spirit doing what is right according to God, not man, not the world. What us Christians need to hear is that God is the one that determines what is right and just, not the current political atmosphere. Political activists do not tell us what is right and just; the social movements of the day do not determine what is right—God does as He has revealed it through His Word.

~And, like Joseph, we seek to please God by doing what is right by what He says.

2) Joseph was merciful

-Joseph wanted to do right in the sight of God, but that did not mean that he was going to purposely hurt someone in order to make that happen.

~When you look at his situation, he was under the assumption that Mary committed adultery. In his mind Mary had betrayed him. But Joseph was not going to take his hurt and let it turn into anger and bitterness and then do whatever he could to hurt Mary back. Joseph was not going to seek revenge against Mary because of what he perceived she had done to him.

-Our passage says that Joseph was just/right and so he would do what was right in the eyes of God. But then it says that he was unwilling to put her to shame, or another translation might be that he was not going to disgrace her. So, his plan was to divorce her quietly.

~This means that Joseph wasn’t going to make a public spectacle over what happened, and he wasn’t going to drag her name through the mud. Joseph could have easily gone around and started bad-mouthing Mary, calling her all sorts of unflattering names. He could have spread rumors and gossiped and turned the small village against her. Not that they didn’t already know what was going on, but he could have made things so much worse for her.

~And, on top of all that, if Joseph wanted to be extra mean, Jewish law said that adulterers should be put to death by stoning. He could have riled up the town and had her put to death.

-But that is not what Joseph did—it says he had no desire to put her to shame. Out of love and mercy he wanted to do things quietly. He did not want to make life hard on her. He did not want to heap guilt and shame upon her. He wanted to show her mercy.

-Somehow, people have come to the conclusion that in order to do what is right in God’s eyes you need to absolutely lambaste someone and belittle them if they have done wrong or they are perceived as being in the wrong. People think that to be just and righteous you have to destroy someone. Just look at what Christians do even to other Christians on social media.

-But Joseph shows us a better way. Whether or not someone is wrong, has done wrong, or has even done you wrong, you do right in God’s eyes but you also show mercy to others. In a verse that I seem to have come back to quite often in the last few months:

O people, the Lord has told you what is good,

and this is what he requires of you:

to do what is right, to love mercy,

and to walk humbly with your God.

(Micah 6:8 NLT)

-What does God desire? How do you please God? You do what is right according to Him, but you also love mercy. You can do right and be merciful to those who do wrong.

~Or as Jesus reminded us:

Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye. (Matthew 7:3–5 ESV)

-Someone has hurt you or done you wrong, you don’t seek to get back at them. You do right and you love mercy. You make sure your thoughts and attitudes and actions are right according to God in His Word, but you also show mercy to others. Because, guess what, you’re a sinner just like them.

3) Joseph was obedient

-Joseph had these plans in his mind to divorce Mary quietly and go on with his life, but then God intervened. An angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream confirming the story that Mary had told him. She truly was with child by the Holy Spirit. And he’s given instructions about what God wanted him to do. He was to go ahead with the wedding and bring Mary into his home and make her his wife.

~He was then to take the role of earthly father for this child. At the child’s circumcision when Jewish males were given their name, Joseph was to name the child Jesus, the name means Yahweh saves and that’s exactly what this child would do—save people from sin. And by giving the child the name at that time, he was taking the child in as his own and so the child would legally be Joseph’s son, which would make the child a legal heir of King David.

-Joseph could easily have ignored the dream. He could have dismissed the dream for something other than it actually being a message from God. I’ve never had an angel appear to me in a dream, but I suppose it would be hard to dismiss it as something other than what it was. But Joseph could have just refused to do what he was told. Out of the hurt and confusion and everything it could have just been him refusing to do what God was telling him to do.

-But what does the passage say? V. 24 WHEN JOSEPH WOKE FROM SLEEP, HE DID AS THE ANGEL OF THE LORD COMMANDED HIM.

~What we see here is that Joseph was receptive to the Word of God and then he was obedient to the Word of God. Joseph took God’s command for what it was (a Word and revelation from the Lord) and seeing that it was a Word from the Lord, he conformed his actions to follow it.

-This is so important—receiving the Word of God and then obeying the Word of God. We find the Word of God in Scripture, and there is a lot there. We know that because of our sinful nature we don’t receive or obey it most of the time, and that is why we have a wonderful Savior in Jesus Christ. And yet, we also want to please God, and nothing pleases God more that obeying what He has revealed.

-I mentioned earlier that Joseph was righteous and do what was right, but by him also being a sinner he could have chosen to ignore what God said because he didn’t like it or didn’t agree with it. He could have said I’M MAD AT MARY AND DO I’M NOT GOING TO DO IT. How many of us while we are studying Scripture and we then come across something that ought to be a part of our lives but we don’t like it or we disagree with it? We come to a crossroads there, because here's the thing: it doesn’t matter if we like it or agree with it—if God has said it, then we’re supposed to do it.

~God says I’m supposed to forgive so and so, but I’m not going to do it—I’d rather hold on to my bitterness than do what God says. God says that I’m supposed to love my neighbor, but I don’t think God has met my neighbor, because if He did He wouldn’t make me do it. Or other things like that.

-If anyone had a genuine gripe, it was Joseph. He was still reeling from what he thought was betrayal, and he had all the hurt feelings to go with it. But God gave a Word, and Joseph received it and he obeyed. Will we be like Joseph?

Conclusion

-There’s probably a whole lot more that we could say about Joseph—but the thing is, he isn’t even the main person of this passage. Joseph isn’t the focus. This passage is about Jesus Christ. God sent His Son to be fully human so that He would be the ultimate revelation of God and then be the perfect sacrifice for sins. Joseph is just a background character.

-And here’s the thing, too often we think that we are the stars of the show (so to speak). We think that our lives are about us. It’s the ME show. But guess what, we are just background characters. Jesus Christ is who everything is all about. When you look in Scripture, there are wonderful truths about our lives, but it’s all centered on what Christ has done for us, our identity in Christ, who we are in Christ.

~I remember seeing a video by some preacher and he was preaching about David and Goliath and he was talking about how we are David and we can conquer our giants and all that. I wanted to say to him, SIT DOWN SON BEFORE YOU HURT YOURSELF. David is a type or foreshadowing of Christ. Jesus Christ is the hero, not us.

-But just because we are background characters doesn’t mean we don’t have an important role to play. There is so little about Joseph in Scripture, he was in the background, yet what an amazing role he played in the story of redemption. And God used him because he developed characteristics that made him useable.

-My prayer is that we would do the same. So, Christian, maybe you want to come to the altar and pray that God develops that character within you and make yourself available for Him to use as He sees fit.

-But maybe God can’t use you yet because you don’t belong to Him. You are a child of God when you repent and believe in Jesus Christ…