A Portrait Of Joseph

A PORTRAIT OF JOSEPH

MATTHEW 1:18-25

MATTHEW 2:13-23

INTRODUCTION… My very first dream (p)

I would like to begin this morning by telling you about the very first dream I can remember. It is not a long dream. I honestly do not know how old I was when I had this dream, I think I was in first or second grade. The setting of the dream is my back yard. I am sitting at a picnic table playing and all of a sudden I feel the vibrations of large steps coming toward me. One large stomp after another. Pretty soon, Godzilla or King Kong or some other huge monster comes over the trees and spots me sitting at the picnic table. I scream in fear and wonder where I should go. I naturally duck under the table to hide from the monster. The monster walks over to the table, stares down, and steps right on the table… squishing me. Then I woke up. Exciting huh? While I was talking, you may have thought of a recent dream that you had. We all have dreams. In the passages we are going to read today, dreams are used by God for His purposes. Let’s read.

READ MATTHEW 1:18-25

18 This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. 19 Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly. 20 But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins." 22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 23 "The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel"--which means, "God with us." 24 When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. 25 But he had no union with her until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.

READ MATTHEW 2:13-23

13 When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. "Get up," he said, "take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him." 14 So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, 15 where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: "Out of Egypt I called my son." 16 When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. 17 Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled: 18 "A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more." 19 After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt 20 and said, "Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child’s life are dead." 21 So he got up, took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. 22 But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee, 23 and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets: "He will be called a Nazarene."

I. THE SITUATION

The situation we are going to look at this morning centers around a man named Joseph. So let’s begin by looking at what we know about this man named Joseph, not just from the passage that we read, but from the Gospel of Luke as well.

We know from Luke 3:23 and other associated passages that Joseph’s father’s name was Heli and he came from the line of King David which means he was related to a whole lot of people in the town of Bethlehem. His family was a royal line.