WHY JOSEPH
Matthew 1:18-25
Intro: There’s a story of a poor family - hard-working parents with a large number of children - where the woman discovers that she has an incurable illness and will die within a year. Her husband is a good man, but obviously incapable of looking after the large number of children alone - particularly in those days when there was no government assistance or social security. And so the heartbreaking tale is of this mother who goes out searching for loving parents who will care for all of her children; she wants to have them all placed before she is taken.
. As I think about this story, I think about the birth of Jesus. Just like that woman who loved her children so much that she wanted to personally choose parents for them, and not leave it to chance, God in the same way went looking for parents to raise His beloved, only-begotten Son.
. He searched the earth, and He found a young girl who we believe was just a teenager. A young woman who had found favor with God as scripture describes her.
. God also searched for a father for His son. Not a biological father but one who would fill the role of earthly father to the perfect child.
. Now I know that some of you may think that your child is perfect but I have news for you. They are not.
. There has never been but one child who was perfect and that child is the one we celebrate every year of Dec. 25th . Jesus Christ.
. We started the advent season this morning anticipating the celebration of the arrival of this perfect child.
. As I was reading the Christmas story that is so familiar to all of us, God impressed upon me the question, why Joseph.
. Of all the Jewish people who were alive at that time, why Joseph.
. I know why he had to be a descendent of David. That was what had been prophesied. But why Joseph. Of the hundreds of thousands of Available men, why would God choose this man.
. We see Mary talked about and almost deified in some religions but we don’t hear a lot about Joseph.
. While God chose Mary to be the mother of His Son, He chose Joseph to be His earthly father.
. What did God see in this lowly carpenter that He would entrust the raising of His son to him?
. What can we learn by looking at this man that God chose for this responsibility.
. Lets look at our scripture.
. Mt 1:18-25;
. This is how Jesus the Messiah was born. His mother, Mary, was engaged to be married to Joseph. But before the marriage took place, while she was still a virgin, she became pregnant through the power of the Holy Spirit.19Joseph, her fiancé, was a good man and did not want to disgrace her publicly, so he decided to break the engagement quietly.
20As he considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream. “Joseph, son of David,” the angel said, “do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. For the child within her was conceived by the Holy Spirit.21And she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”
22All of this occurred to fulfill the Lord’s message through his prophet:
23“Look! The virgin will conceive a child She will give birth to a son and they will call him Immanuel, which means ‘God is with us.’ ”
24When Joseph woke up, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded and took Mary as his wife.25But he did not have sexual relations with her until her son was born. And Joseph named him Jesus.
. The first thing that God saw in Joseph was a person who was willing to submit to God no matter the cost.
. A person who TRUSTED God.
. Think about this. Put yourself in Joseph’s position. You is engaged to this girl who you love. She comes in one day and announces to you that she is pregnant.
.You say wait a minute. The wedding has already been planned. The wedding is soon. We were going to settle in Nazareth a build a family and now you tell me that you are pregnant.
. Here in verse 19, our scripture says that Joseph was a good man. If he hadn’t been, it was all over. He could have taken this what he thought to be a slap in the face and make this public and everyone would have dragged her into the street and stoned her.
. Nobody would have blamed you. That was what they did with women who were caught in adultery. It would be obvious to everyone that she was guilty. You can only hide a pregnancy for so long.
. Joseph was going to break the engagement quietly and as they used to say when it was shameful to be pregnant and the family could send her away somewhere to have the baby.
. What Joseph didn’t know was that God had other plans for Him.
. Vs 20&21 tell us that as he was considering doing these things, God told him that he had other plans for him.
. 20As he considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream. “Joseph, son of David,” the angel said, “do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. For the child within her was conceived by the Holy Spirit.21And she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”
. The angel told Joseph to Trust God.
. Trust me Joseph. This is part of my plan.
. I know you don’t understand all of this but just trust in Me and everything will be all right.
. Joseph was obviously a man of faith but sometimes its hard to live by faith isn’t it.
. I’m sure that Joseph had his idea of what God would do and he had his expectations of God. It’s easy to have faith as long as God does what we want and expect Him to do.
. The problems come in when God doesn’t do or conform to what we expect . Then trust becomes hard doesn’t it?
.Joseph trusted God. Don’t you know that he had a list of questions for God. There was no way that he could have understood all that was going on.
. Scholars have studied this story for ages now and we still have questions for God about this miraculous birth. There are people who call themselves Christian but still have issues with the virgin birth.
. Joseph trusted God and placed his faith in Him.
. We find ourselves in the same position as Joseph some times.
. We see things that don’t make any sense.
. Christmas is a time of love and peace and sharing and all we see is violence and sadness and hate.
. I’m sure Joseph thought to himself, how can this happen. I don’t understand.
. God said Trust Me Joseph.
. At times I want to cry out to God screaming how can this be Lord. How can this happen.
. God says Trust Me.
. I know this is the common answer for the things that we don’t understand but it is true.
. God’s ways are not our ways. We can’t begin to fathom His thoughts.
. God says to us through Joseph, Trust Me.
. God chose Joseph to be the earthly father of His Son because he was a man Who Trusted God.
. We too must be a person who Trusts God.
. The next reason God chose Joseph was because of his KINDNESS and love for other people.
. God chose Joseph to be his Sons earthly father because he was KIND
. Joseph was a person who cared about other people.
. Joseph could have made life a living hell for Mary but God saw his heart and knew that in his heart, he was a kind person.
. Joseph’s job in all of this was to take care of Mary and the baby.
. That’s what God needed him to do.
. Mary was already pregnant. The baby had been conceived through the spirit of God. He needed someone with a kind heart to care for them.
.Let me give you an example of a kind heart.
. James was a 7th grade student who was bigger than any of the other students in his Sunday school class. His mother had been an alcoholic when he was born, & as a result, James just did not have all the mental capabilities that the rest of his classmates had. But somehow he managed to get by.
Christmas time came & his class decided to put on a Christmas pageant. Since he was the biggest, James was selected to be the innkeeper. After all, the innkeeper is kind of a villain in the Christmas drama. So they coached James to be just as mean as he possibly could be.
Well, the night came for the Christmas play. And in it, Mary & Joseph came to Bethlehem, went to the Inn & knocked on its door. James opened the door & said, "What do you want?" just as mean & gruff as he could possibly be.
Joseph said, "We need a room. We need a place to stay tonight." "Well, you’ll have to stay someplace else," said James, "because there’s no room here. There’s no room in the Inn."
Joseph said, "But my wife’s expecting a baby just any time now. Isn’t there someplace where we can stay, where we are protected from the cold & where she can deliver her child?" "No," said James, "There’s no room here."
Then suddenly there was a silence on the stage. It was one of those embarrassing moments when you know that someone has forgotten the lines. From behind the curtains you could hear the prompter saying, "Begone. Begone." James was supposed to speak, but for some reason he had choked up & forgotten to say "Begone."
Finally, after he had been coached for several long seconds, James managed to say, "Begone." Mary & Joseph sadly turned to leave. But just as they did, James said, "Wait a minute. Wait a minute. You can have my room."
. James was much like Joseph, He had a kind heart.
. Christmas came because of Joseph’s kind heart.
. Christmas can only come for us if we have a kind heart and learn to care about others.
. After all isn’t that what Jesus was all about. His love and kindness for mankind.
. God chose Joseph because of his kind heart.
. Finally, God chose Joseph because of his Obedience
.Look at vs 24
. 24When Joseph woke up, he did as the angel of the Lord
Commanded and took Mary as his wife.
. Joseph was obedient to God. He did what God told him to do.
. Joseph was a rare man indeed in respect to this.
. You see our human nature is to rebel isn’t it?
Think about it, from the time we can crawl or walk we are trying to go our own way aren’t we.
. God needed someone who would be obedient to Him to be His earthly father.
. Christmas calls for obedience from us.
. We need to not only celebrate Christmas in our own families, we must obedient to God’s word and tell others about this child who we celebrate and worship.
. It’s very easy to become focused inward as a church and as a family this time of year .
. We must be obedient to God and share this good news during this holiday season.
. There’s an old hymn called Trust and Obey. The chorus goes like this: Trust and obey, for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey.
.Joseph trusted God and was obedient to Him.
.If we are to truly celebrate the birth of our savior Jesus, we need to have the heart of Joseph.
. Trust in God, be obedient to His word and show Christian kindness to our fellow man.
. God chose Joseph because of what He saw in his heart.
. Let’s use Joseph as our inspiration this Holiday season.
*** To my Christian brothers and sisters, thank you for taking the time to read this sermon. I ask that you take another second and score this for me. I am always open to feedback so that I can continue to grow in the proclamation of God’s word.
May God bless you as you continue to strive to walk worthy of His calling.
Sources:
The Holy Bible, NLT
Melvin Newland, Sermon Central
James May, Sermon Central
