Bunbury
Sun am
26/12/10
“Joseph the ignored man of Christmas”
Intro: As we look at the Christmas story every year there are an array of people / animals / events that all figure in the Christmas story.
But there is what we might call the forgotten man of Christmas whose influence we need to make everything work.
Joseph is the forgotten / ignored man of Christmas.
I want to preach t/m on the ignored man of Christmas.
Text: Matthew 2:1-14 (NKJV) 1Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, 2saying, “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him.” 3When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. 4And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. 5So they said to him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written by the prophet: 6 ‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, Are not the least among the rulers of Judah; For out of you shall come a Ruler Who will shepherd My people Israel.’ 7Then Herod, when he had secretly called the wise men, determined from them what time the star appeared. 8And he sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the young Child, and when you have found Him, bring back word to me, that I may come and worship Him also.”9When they heard the king, they departed; and behold, the star which they had seen in the East went before them, till it came and stood over where the young Child was. 10When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy. 11And when they had come into the house, they saw the young Child with Mary His mother, and fell down and worshiped Him. And when they had opened their treasures, they presented gifts to Him: gold, frankincense, and myrrh.12Then, being divinely warned in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed for their own country another way.13Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, “Arise, take the young Child and His mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I bring you word; for Herod will seek the young Child to destroy Him.”14When he arose, he took the young Child and His mother by night and departed for Egypt,
# 1. He was sensitive in confusing circumstances.
A. Joseph models for us the kind of sensitivity God wants us to develop to hearing his voice.
a. Much of life is going to present us w/ confusing circ.
i. There are going to be times / seasons / situations / events in your life / family that you are not going to u/s.
ii. I’m talking about things that won’t fit into the framework of your u/s of what God is doing in your life.
iii. Things that will seem to be totally out of sync w/ everything else that is going on in your life.
b. When you take a look into the Bible you’ll find that this is often what God allows in our lives.
i. It happened to Jacob’s son Joseph ..... he’s a young man who has been hearing from God & he’s excited about it.
ii. But b/4 he has a chance to figure out the exciting realities of where God’s taking him & what God is doing in his life ...... he finds h/s down in Egypt for sale in a slave auction!
iii. That’s what I call out of sync w/ what God seems to be doing in your life.
c. Here’s another Joseph ..... engaged to be married to a pretty young lady named Mary.
i. She’s the kind of young lady he can commit his whole life to ...... she’s godly / quietly submissive / has a good testimony / she’s dedicated to him....
ii. But then the bombshell drops as Joseph finds out some shattering news – Mary is pregnant!
iii. Now that news is bad enough even when you are the father of the earlier than expected new baby!
iv. But it’s shattering news when you discover that it’s not your baby & even worse when the bride to be is saying ...... I’ve been faithful to you all along!
B. As we look at Joseph we see that he is a man who has a sensitivity to God in confusing circ.
a. And this is where Joseph’s sensitivity to God saves the day!
i. A sensitivity to God is what saves men / women in the midst of life’s sometimes horribly confusing circ.
ii. Joseph could have been mad / angry / upset / even ready to do Mary or himself violence but .....
iii. He’s sensitive to the voice of God – listen to what happens here ........
Matthew 1:19-20 (NKJV) 19Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not wanting to make her a public example, was minded to put her away secretly. 20But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.
b. Now think about this b/c here is a battle raging on two fronts at once.
i. On one hand Joseph has a young lady on his arm every day .... in the market place / as they walked along the roads of Galilee going to a friend’s house for dinner etc, who is pregnant!
ii. He is beginning to notice the groups of people standing together & talking while they look in his direction!
iii. He is no doubt dubbed the sucker of Galilee ..... ‘poor guy, he’s going to marry Mary who is pregnant to another guy!”
iv. But on the other front here is a battle that is raging in his heart as God speaks to him in that still small voice that says trust Me in this Joseph & everything will work out!
v. You see God builds on our breakthroughs to lead us on to greater challenges.
c. Now as the confusion begins to wain ..... Joseph has heard the angelic choir / seen the adoring shepherds, been visited by wise men, met Simeon the prophet in the temple.
i. But b/4 he has a chance to really recover from one victory in the midst of confusing circ God now calls upon Joseph’s sensitivity again...... listen .....
Vs 13. 13Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, “Arise, take the young Child and His mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I bring you word;
ii. Think about this ...... Joseph is now being told by God to do something that God said to His people – Don’t do this!
Deuteronomy 17:16 (NKJV) 16But he shall not multiply horses for himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses, for the LORD has said to you, ‘You shall not return that way again.’
iii. It didn’t make sense! Don’t do this God says but now he’s hearing God say ...... this is the right action for these circ!
iv. You see that’s what a sensitivity to God will do ..... it will help you to make right choices / decisions in the confusing circ of life!
# 2. He was willing to wait on God’s will.
A. When we look at Joseph what we see is a man who has patience in discovering the will of God.
a. Now we need to think about this great quality & realise that it is not ignoring the will of God but waiting on the will of God.
i. Sometimes people pretend to be waiting on God when in reality they have forgotten about God!
ii. They haven’t heard the voice of God in many years ..... they aren’t orientating their lives towards God will ..... there hasn’t been any progress in the will of God.
iii. They aren’t thinking about their next move / where God is going to lead them next / what exciting new phase they might be led into.
iv. For some people their waiting on God is an excuse to go AWOL.
*** Scott Maclean was still officially registered w/ the Royal Australian Navy when he came into our church here in Bunbury & got saved. For some reason Scott abandoned his duties in the Navy & wandered off into his own life ...... while still on duty. He didn’t have permission to leave his post / no longer report for duty / take extended leave.
You can imagine how nervous he would have been when he finally reported back to the Navy & was willing to take his punishment for abandoning his duty. He could have been charged & imprisoned for failing to be relieved of his post in a correct & proper manner. But fortunately for Scott he had a high authority that stepped into the pict & granted him leave to fulfil a higher calling!
v. Ask y/s the question t/m ....... are you still on duty?
b. There is no higher calling / vocation / endeavour in life than to be pursuing the will / call of God for your life.
i. For Joseph the call of God meant going down into Egypt ..... a place every spiritual / God fearing Jew drew back from as outside the will of God.
ii. For Joseph it meant bearing reproach / being a foreigner / living as an outcast / being scorned.
iii. Does that sound anything like the will of God you’re called to today? B/c the truth is that if you’re doing the will of God you’re not going to completely fit in!
B. The hardest thing about the will of God is that sometimes He’s going to say wait!
a. Waiting is something that most of us don’t do well.
i. For most of us the closest we come to wait is being distracted by something else!
ii. In other words we’re not really waiting ....... we’ve just allowed other things to distract us for a while.
*** We had a dog in Fiji called Mack. Mack was a real little personality, pure beast at the best of times, motivated by his animal appetites. Not long after we got Mack I began to teach him to sit down a few feet from his dog bowl & wait until I told him to eat. I can still remember as he would sit there waiting for me to say ‘Go’. He would often tremble in anticipation of the meal that was in his bowl. The only thing that separated him from his food was my word. And how he hated waiting for me to give him the OK!!!
iii. Human nature hates waiting on God’s will ........
1 Samuel 10:8 (NKJV) 8You shall go down before me to Gilgal; and surely I will come down to you to offer burnt offerings and make sacrifices of peace offerings. Seven days you shall wait, till I come to you and show you what you should do.”
iv. Here is a man of God w/ a call of God on his life & all he has to do is wait on God & God will show him (through the prophet) what to do.
v. But he can’t wait! He’s not willing to trust God that the waiting is the best / smartest thing to do!
1 Samuel 13:8-10 (NKJV) 8Then he waited seven days, according to the time set by Samuel. But Samuel did not come to Gilgal; and the people were scattered from him. 9So Saul said, “Bring a burnt offering and peace offerings here to me.” And he offered the burnt offering.
10Now it happened, as soon as he had finished presenting the burnt offering, that Samuel came; and Saul went out to meet him, that he might greet him.
vi. Here is a man who lost a kingdom b/c he couldn’t wait, b/c he couldn’t trust God’s timing in the midst of his confusing circ.
b. Joseph realised that any plan / move / decision he made w/o hearing from or being led by God would jeopardise what God had already done in his life.
i. You see if God wants you to wait it’s b/c he wants to save you from a wreckage.
*** On our honeymoon we came to road works. The flagman wasn’t clear about what he wanted me to do so I started to go. As soon as I started he began yelling at me .....stop I said! When he got mad I returned his attitude. Then he responded by saying you want to go ..... fine, go right ahead & as I looked down the road a massive earth scraper came roaring across the road & had I have gone it would have crushed our vehicle like a tin can!
ii. You see if god calls you to wait it’s b/c he wants to save you from a wreckage.
Vs 13. “Arise, take the young Child and His mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I bring you word; for Herod will seek the young Child to destroy Him.”
iii. When God tells you to wait it’s b/c He has a perfect plan & he wants to save you from disaster that can wreck the will of God for your life.
# 3. He looked past the temporal & saw the eternal.
A. Joseph was the man of the moment.
a. Joseph’s life is like a brief appearance on the stage of eternity.
i. When you think about Joseph ..... his role in everything God was doing is like the role of an extra in a movie.
*** When a movie is made there are always the stars / co stars / supporting roles etc. To make the movie / storyline work all of these are necessary but there are also another group of people needed –extras! These are the guys whose who involvement in the movie is to walk behind in the background of some scene. Their job is to simply create a backdrop for the main event.
ii. In a very real sense Joseph is like a movie extra ...... he’s a part of the backdrop.
iii. He is the man walking in the background of the movie scene who provides atmosphere for what’s really happening.
iv. In the overall event of the birth & early life of Christ his appearance on the stage is momentary & seemingly insignificant.
b. After coming back into the land of Israel we hear nothing more about him.
i. He fades from the scene w/o another word being heard about him or from him.
ii. He is the man of the moment & then he passes from the pict never to be heard from again, not to be mentioned again.
B. Although he was the man of the moment his influence continues forever.
a. His role was temporal but in this he was able to see the eternal!
i. Joseph gives every one of us an example to follow ...... b/c although his role is temporal His influence is eternal.
ii. Don’t underestimate your place in the eternal plan of God for your life ...... you may appear in the stage of God’s great plan for a moment but your influence could last for eternity!
iii. W/o Joseph Mary would have been an abandoned single mother.
iv. W/o Joseph Jesus – God’s plan for the salvation of all mankind would have been at the mercy of Herod’s sword.
v. W/o Joseph Jesus might have been left to grow up in the land of Egypt as a forgotten foreigner.
vi. W/o Joseph Jesus would never have known what it was like to grow up in a godly home w/ a loving father figure.
vii. He was the man of the moment but his influence continues forever.
