Title: Jesus’ Dad
Introduction:
Last week we talked about Mary. This week I want to look at Christmas from the perspective of Jesus’ father, Joseph – not his real father but His borrowed father – His earthly father. And His own hometown folks didn’t understand this son of Joseph.
You know, the Lord did a lot of borrowing when He was on this earth, including borrowing some things at His birth. They borrowed a barn and it’s manger in order to let Jesus be born into this world. He borrowed a little boy’s lunch to feed 5,000 men. He borrowed a donkey in order to come into Jerusalem for the last time. Jesus borrowed a lot of things that brought glory to His Name – even at His death He used a borrowed tomb.
The Bible doesn’t have a whole lot to say about Jesus’ borrowed earthly father, but what it does say is pretty interesting and pretty relevant for each of us.
Let’s look at the Christmas event through the eyes of Joseph. Let’s get a little background so that we know a little bit about the predicament that Joseph was facing.
He was betrothed or espoused to Mary. Now, there were three stages that led to a Jewish marriage in those days.
First, there was the engagement stage, which was not between the two who were going to get married, but between the parents of the children.
Basically what would happen is that if a mom and dad had a son, and in their community someone had a daughter about their sons age, the parents would get together with the parents of the daughter and begin to talk about marriage for their children. And if they had a good relationship with each other, and if they felt their children had similar backgrounds, they would make a contract for marriage. The Jews felt that young people did not possess the wisdom to make that kind of a decision, so the parents made the decision for them. Sounds good to me!
Then, the second stage was called the betrothal or espousal stage. This is where Joseph and Mary are. It was a time of building a relationship, of coming to know one another. It was a time of planning & dreaming & happy expectations. This is a one-year period in which the couple was like our engagement period today – yet there’s was more binding in those days. Sounds good to me! It was a contract, signed by the parents, but they weren’t to live together during that year. It was a binding contract that required divorce as the only way to break the contract.
Now let me say this to the young people here – I won’t charge you for this. If someone is pressuring you, saying, "If you really love me, prove it by giving yourself to me," then you say, "If you really love me, you’ll wait, because I’m going to save myself for the one I marry. If you’re not willing to wait, then you’re not the one." If they’re willing to sin w/ me, they may be willing to sin against me! Marriages built upon lust are insecure, because if you can lust after one person, you can lust after another. But marriages built upon love exhibit trust & commitment & faithfulness.
Paul Harvey tells about a airline stewardess who was being harassed by a slightly inebriated man up in the first class section who was making passes at her & trying to get her to agree to meet him in his hotel suite that night. With some difficulty she got away from him, only to encounter another man at the rear of the plane acting the same way, trying to find out where she was staying, & making suggestive proposals to her about that night.
At last, the pilot announced that they were making their final approach for landing. Once again the guy in front offered her a key to his hotel suite & begged her to meet him there. To his obvious delight, she smiled at him & accepted his key, placing it securely in the pocket of her apron. Then she worked her way back towards the rear of the plane. When she got there she took the key out of her pocket & with a big smile handed it to the other guy & said, "Now don’t be late."
There are all kinds of ways to say "No," aren’t there? And you need to learn how to say "No."
The Bible tells us that Mary & Joseph saved themselves for one another until they were married.
Then, the third stage was the marriage itself, about 1 year from the time of the betrothal, when the groom would come to the bride’s home and take her back to his home to consummate the marriage.
Mary and Joseph are in the second stage of this process when the angel comes and speaks to Joseph.
Five things we can appreciate and apply to our lives as we look at Joseph.
1. We can appreciate his Relationship with God the Father.
In verse 19 we can see that Joseph hade a personal and special relationship with God the Father, because the Holy Spirit says that he was a “just” man. And he how “just” he is in the dilemma he’s facing.
He had no desire to disgrace Mary, so he wanted to put her away privately, secretly. The righteousness of Joseph caused him to seek the best interest of Mary, not to get angry because he was facing a problem.
We looked at the problems Mary was causing by accepting this task from the Lord. But I can imagine she went to visit Joseph after that encounter with the angel and said something like this: “Joe, honey, I’m uh, well, uh, what I’m trying to say is ………I’m pregnant.”
Joseph is right in the middle of a tough situation. But being the “just” man that he was, he couldn’t ethically marry Mary. She’s broken God’s law, and he doesn’t want to marry someone who unrighteous. Mary was with child by somebody, and he knew it wasn’t him. And that was tearing him apart inside.
But the same righteousness that would not allow him to marry her will also not allow him to publicly disgrace her. He could have! He had every right to, but he didn’t want to embarrass her. He was a just man, and he truly loved Mary.
And back in that culture, it would have been an incredible stigma for him to have a pregnant wife before their marriage. In fact the Law said she should be stoned to death, just like the woman in John 8 who had committed adultery. And Joseph would have had to throw the first stone.
Joseph could have disgraced her publicly, saying, “I’m not the father of that child, someone else is.” And the community would have put her into a public shunning period along with her family, then a public stoning would have taken place. But not Joseph.
His righteousness would not allow him to do that. I like how Joseph responded when he knew what he should do. His commitment was a result of his character. His decision was to put her away privately, because he loved God the Father and he loved Mary. He wanted to show NT mercy and grace, rather than the harshness of the OT law.
But isn’t this true of us? There are times when our own families, our close friends, the people who are closest to us, cause us some of our greatest tests to our relationship to God. The people we love most will test our relationship with God. Our loyalty to loved ones and our loyalty to God will be tested. Joseph was being tested with that very thing here.
But that’s what I appreciate about Joseph – his strong and solid relationship with God. His righteousness before God was more important to him than the criticisms of those close to him.
2. We can appreciate Joseph’s Attitude toward Mary.
Look how Joseph reacted to Mary in the midst of all this (vss. 19-20). How would you have reacted?
Well, Joseph was thinking about all this, pondering in his mind what to do. He was hurt, and confused, disappointed and felt betrayed. Mary, the woman he loves and had trusted; the woman he knew was righteous too was now pregnant. He knew it didn’t fit her character, the woman he had come to know and love. And it kept whirling around in his mind ‘what am I going to do about this situation.”
The natural reaction for a lot of us in this situation would be “why did she do this to me?” And we would have looked at self, and asked “how could she do this to me, after all the plans we made, and the commitments we made, and love we gave? And now this!”
Eddie Arnold had a song that never made the big-time, but it was pretty good. He sang, "My pain comes & goes. It comes in the morning & it goes all night long."
Do you know it’s not just our actions that reflect our Christianity but our reactions. You see, actions are planned; reactions aren’t. Reactions come from the heart. Reactions come when something comes our way that we didn’t plan on, and we didn’t want it to happen.
Look how Joseph reacted. He could have reacted very selfishly, asking, “Why is this happening to me? How could she do this to me?” But his reaction, because he was a just and righteous man was “How can I protect her? I don’t want to publicly disgrace the woman I love. I’ll just put her away privately. I love her too much to disgrace and embarrass her. I’m going to do my best to protect her.”
What a revelation of his heart. He was a just man, holy in heart, filled with love for God, unselfish and righteous.
You can tell a lot about a man by the way he treats his wife. (wives go ahead and elbow your husbands)
Now men, it’s our turn. You can tell a lot about a woman by the way she treats her husband (men, go ahead and elbow them back).
Didn’t Joseph have a great attitude? A man is known not by how he acts when he is control of things, but how he reacts when things are beyond his control. When things are out of control, that’s when we really see what in our hearts. That hits home, doesn’t it!
3. We can appreciate Joseph’s Sensitivity to God.
Joseph had his plan all ready to go in vss. 20-21. He was going to put Mary away privately. But then God comes and interrupts those plans. And you know what? Joseph was sensitive to God’s message.
Has God ever done that with you? Just about the time you have your life plans all made up, or your plans for the week or the day all ready to go, or your career path is already set, God comes along and says “Uh, by the way Moyer, that’s not what I want you to do.”
Sometimes we just get the idea that God is butting in on our plans, don’t we?!
That’s what God was doing with Joseph here, saying basically, “Now here’s what I want you to do. Skip your plans, here’s Mine.” If God interrupted Joseph and Mary’s wedding plans, realize that our Christmas plans are fair game for God too.
Do you know what makes it hard to be sensitive to God’s plans? I’m so glad you ask questions that I have answers for.
a). Our own plans. We have them all laid out, for our marriage, home, career, pension and retirement, and then God says “No, here’s what I want you to do.”
b). It’s hard to be sensitive to God when you’re emotionally involved with the problem. Joseph loved Mary; who was to be his wife. I don’t know if you know what that’s like to try to get someone to listen to you when they are emotionally involved, but it makes things tough.
When I do my pre-marriage counseling, I sometime wonder if it’s worthwhile. They are so emotionally involved that they don’t hear you – they just want me to get it done and over with. That’s why it’s so important to get young people to decide early on that as a Christian young person, I will date and marry only a Christian, before they get so emotionally involved and can’t hear sound advice. Trying to counsel a young couple is like a waste of time – batting their eyes at each other while trying to listen to the preacher give them sound advice and instruction.
c) It’s hard to be sensitive to God when risks are involved. For Joseph to take her as his wife would be a risk either way he goes. Did he really believe her? Did her parents and his parents believe her? There was the risk of the community saying “Ah-hah!” and receiving their scorn.
d) It’s hard to be sensitive to God when God’s plans don’t seem to make sense. Can you imagine Joseph trying to explain this to his parents? “Uh, dad, you’re not going to believe this, but Mary is with child of the Holy Spirit.” And dad says, “you’re right, son, I don’t believe it. Try another story.” This was an unbelievable plan. Or maybe it was just a bad dream, or maybe I ate the wrong thing last night. This doesn’t make sense.
e). And finally, it’s hard to be sensitive to God when others don’t understand. The whole community won’t believe this, let alone Joseph’s parents.
But Joseph is sensitive to God. He says, “okay” to the angel messenger, “I’ll do what you say”, just like Mary did when she said “be it unto me according to Your Word.” Both Mary and Joseph are great examples of holy hearts that have been sanctified through and through, down to the core of their being where self has been enthroned and will not allow trust in God, but self has been crucified.
God picked a just and righteous man that was sensitive to God.
I love Peanuts cartoons. Do you remember the one where Lucy and Marcia are going to school together? It’s Christmas time. And Lucy, you know, is always talking. And Lucy says to Marcia, “Today, I’m going to ask the school teacher if I can be Mary in the Christmas play.”
And Marcia gently replies, “She’s already asked me to be Mary.”
Lucy, not listening, continues to chatter, “I think I would make a wonderful Mary. I think I’m the one she will pick.”
Marcia again replies gently, “Yesterday the teacher asked me to be Mary.”
Lucy is still not listening and continues her chatter saying, “It just seems appropriate that I would be Mary because I’m the one in the class that is so outstanding in everything.”
Marcia continues to try to gently get across to her that the teacher has already asked her to be Mary. But Lucy goes on and on saying, “My favorite scene is where Gabriel comes to me and tells me I’m going to have the Christ-Child.”
Finally Marcia says in great frustration, and shouts so she can be heard “Lucy, Gabriel would never come to you, you never listen!”
Could it be true that some us are Lucy? God isn’t about to come to us with His birth in our hearts because we’re just talking away, making our own plans and goals without consulting Him. So He looks for some Marcia, who is sensitive to His voice and His will.
Expect your plans to be interrupted. Nothing in your life is off limits to God. Get God’s take on your interruptions. When God disrupts your plans, He’s trying to accomplish His.
Like Joseph we can be sensitive to God.
4. We can also appreciate Joseph because He was obedient to God.
We can see his obedience in 4 passages of Scripture. Here in vs. 24, where it says he did what the angel said, taking Mary to be his wife.
Then in 2:13-15 Jesus is born, and the wise men inquired about Christ from Herod. They were told to go find Him and come back and tell Herod where the King of the Jews was. When the wise men left the angel again appeared to Joseph and tells him to move the family to Egypt.
Then in 2:19-21 Joseph is told to return to Israel and he obeyed. Then in 2:22-23 he was warned of God about the new ruler in Judea and was directed to Galilee, where they became members of the Nazareth Community.
Joseph doesn’t say a single word in the Gospels. He listens and obeys.
But the point is that he was obedient to God. Don’t you want to be obedient like that, saying “yes” to the voice of God as He speaks to us through His Word?
5. Finally, we can appreciate Joseph’s desire to glorify God.
In verse 25 Joseph, it says, kept Mary a virgin until Jesus was born. He was so thrilled with the plan of God that he abstained from his wife. He did all he could to keep people from thinking that Jesus was His own biological son, instead of trying to hide it. He wanted God glorified in the miraculous virgin birth that was about to take place. He didn’t want to mess up God’s plans. He was faithful to take Jesus to the Temple for worship and to the annual feasts of Israel. Our kids are watching our faithfulness.
I love to be around people who will give God the glory, who are always pointing to Him.
For over 1,000 years the Jews had been waiting for the Messiah to come. Over 300 times God had directed the prophets to prophesy concerning Him. And the result was that the O.T. prophets had predicted almost every stage of the life of Jesus hundreds of years before it happened.
They predicted that He would be born of a virgin, that He would be born in Bethlehem & come out of Egypt, that He would grow up in Nazareth, that He would be betrayed for 30 pieces of silver, that He would be crucified, that He would be buried in a borrowed tomb, & that He would arise from the dead. To have more than 300 prophecies fulfilled so literally cannot be mere coincidence. They were fulfilled because they are the prophecies of God, & God’s prophecies are always true. So when the angel appeared to Joseph, & said, "Don’t be afraid, because all of this is true," his disappointment turned to joy, because he loved Mary very much.
Conclude:
Scripture has left us with the most important knowledge of who Joseph was: "a righteous man" The Bible doesn’t say much about Joseph, but what it does say has a lot for us. He probably had a short life, probably dead by the time Jesus died on the Cross. But I can’t help but think that Joseph, as a just man, was to some degree a model to Jesus as he was growing up. Fathers are not only needed for the physical act of CONCEIVING a child; they are also needed for the spiritual act of RAISING a child. The child was conceived in the womb of Mary “by the Holy Ghost” - a miracle took place so there was no need for a man to be involved in the conception. But a man WAS still needed to fill the role of father in Jesus’ childhood. He was a borrowed father for a short period of time in Jesus’ life, but his life has a lot to say to us. Joseph may have thought that being righteous involved doing the proper thing; he found out that it is also about being the right person.
If you take these five things that we can appreciate about Joseph – His relationship with God the Father; his attitude toward Mary, his wife, and women in general; his sensitivity to God; his obedience to God, and his desire to glorify God – you see them all in the life of our Lord Jesus, the Son of God.
And these qualities in Joseph are what God wants from each of us – qualities of righteousness. We can have that personal relationship with God where He can call us righteous. We can have that right attitude of love for our wives, mothers, and daughters, and women. We can have the right attitude toward people in general because this kind of attitude is a choice we make, just as it was a choice for Joseph in spite of the dilemma he faced.
We can be sensitive to God’s voice if we’ll take the time to stop and listen, which I think all of us have a hard time doing, especially at Christmas time, when we have all the gifts to buy, programs to attend, lights and decorations to put. But in the midst of it all we can be obedient to God’s Word, just like Joseph. We can desire to glorify God in all things if we’ll let Him put grace in our hearts.
Let’s not brush these qualities off as good for Joseph, and good back in his day, but let’s make them a part of our personalities today, letting the grace of God make us just and righteous and holy in all things all the days of our life.
Joseph was just as ordinary as you, hardworking, blue-collar kind of man; yet the Bible says he was a just man. And each one of us can be made that way too by the grace of God. If ordinary Joseph was that way, so can you.
I mean, that’s why Jesus came down to earth in the first place. He knew we were unjust and unholy, and without God, without righteousness, without hope. But God, in the fullness of time, when man could see the desperateness of his need, God then sent forth His Son, born of a woman, a virgin, to redeem those who were in the slavery of sin and He bought us with His own blood, and then adopted us into His family. Then, because we became His child, God sent forth the Holy Spirit into our hearts so that we can be empowered and motivated and cleansed within to live like His children, and so that we could become heirs of all that is His in heaven and earth.
It began when Jesus was born into this world. But for us to become “just” and righteous He needs to be born in us. And He will do it today if we’ll believe and trust Him for what He promises to do in us.
If you’re not living the life Joseph lived but you want to, then seek and call out to the Lord for His Spirit to so fill you that God can say “there’s a “just” person.”
Prayer: Lord God, when we observe the action of this mature, responsible man; when we study his compassionate involvement, his disciplined restraint, his plain obedience, all woven together into righteous action, we know that we too can live in accordance with Your will for our lives.
