Christmas Through The Eyes Of A Quiet Carpenter Series

Christmas Through the Eyes of a Quiet Carpenter

Series: Christmas Through Their Eyes

Chuck Sligh

December 22, 2019

NOTE: A PowerPoint presentation is available for this sermon by request at chucksligh@hotmail.com. Please mention the title of the sermon and the Bible text to help me find the sermon in my archives.

TEXT: Turn to Matthew 1:18-25 (TO BE READ LATER)

INTRODUCTION

Christmas is always a special time of year. Families have their different traditions: decorating the Christmas tree, hanging stockings, traveling to visit family and friends, spending a lot of money! Many people enjoy driving around the local towns and villages in Germany or in neighborhoods in the U.S., looking at the twinkling lights used to beautifully decorate towns or people’s homes. In Germany at least, if you drive around, you’ll inevitably come across various nativity scenes displaying the birth of Jesus. Many churches throughout the land will tell the story of Jesus’ birth through dramas and children’s plays—reenacting those wondrous events.

The cast of characters associated with the story of Jesus’ birth is pretty interesting.

We recognize them by their unique speaking parts.

First are THE ANGELS who take center stage to announce the birth of the Savior. They appear to Joseph to announce that the name of the child would be Jesus. The archangel Gabriel makes the unforgettable announcement to Mary. And an angelic army interrupts the shepherds, shouting, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.” (Luke 2:14).

Next on stage is MARY, whose selection by God humbles her, causing her to spontaneously break forth in a beautiful hymn of thanksgiving recorded in Luke 1:46-56 – The first two verses give us a sense of her heart-song: “And Mary said, ‘My soul…magnifies the Lord, And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior. 48 For he has regarded the lowly estate of his maidservant: for, behold, from now onward all generations will call me blessed.”

Then THE WISE MEN come on stage, desperate in their search to find the newborn King and prepared to present Him with gifts of honor. ¬– They ask, “Where is he who is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and have come to worship him.” (Matthew 2:2).

And of course, we can’t forget THE SHEPHERDS, who become the early evangelists. In Luke 2, the shepherds hurry to find the baby the angels had told them about. Luke says, “And when they had seen him, they made known…the saying what had been told them concerning this child.” (Luke 2:17).

Now here’s the strange thing about the whole story: only Joseph has no speaking part. He’s the lone silent member of the cast and is often forgotten. ANGELS bring heavenly greetings; MARY sings a praiseful solo; WISE MEN speak to Harod and his advisors; and SHEPHERDS preach—but JOSEPH is silent. No lines are attributed to him—no sound bites, no quotes—only SILENCE

It’s still astonishing to me that nowhere in these verses do we hear Joseph’s voice. In fact, as we search the Gospels, we discover that they don’t record even a single word from the mouth of Jesus’ earthly father, the humble carpenter of Nazereth. But, as people sometimes say, actions often speak louder than words!

Though he has no speaking part, that didn’t mean he didn’t have a point of view. We’ve been in short Christmas series titled, Christmas Through Their Eyes. We saw what Christmas looked like through the eyes of Zacharias and Elizabeth three weeks ago and Mary two weeks ago. How did Joseph see Christmas as it played out in his life?...

I. FIRST, JOSEPH SAW CHRISTMAS THROUGH THE EYES OF MERCY – Look with me at verses 18-19 – “Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way: When his mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found to be pregnant from the Holy Spirit. 19 Then Joseph, her husband, being a just man, and not willing to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her privately.”

We’re introduced to Joseph in the middle of a personal crisis. Having become engaged to a beautiful young girl, he has worked hard to establish an income to support his new bride and begin a family. He’s in love; he’s committed to Mary, who loves him too. Or at least he believed she loved him—until the news that his bride-to-be is pregnant.

Heart-broken and feeling betrayed, how should he respond? Should he publicly shame her? Should he turn her over to the authorities to be punished? You know…that was a thing back then.

Her explanation of the pregnancy was unbelievable…even blasphemous if not true. If Mary would not have been stoned on the charge of adultery, she could have been stoned on the charge of blasphemy. Verse 19 describes Joseph as a “just” man, which literally means “righteous” and tells us that Joseph was justified before God. That is, he was what the Bible calls “saved.”