Introduction:
The year was 1929. The Roaring Twenties were in full swing. People were happy; the economy was in full boom. Despite the dangers of speculation, many believed the stock market would climb indefinetly. After all, in a six year period, the Dow Jones had risen 5 fold.
Then it happened. Black Thursday. The Stock Market Crashed. And the economoy burst. Many people saw their investments, their financial hopes, and their dreams virutally disappear overnight. Wealth was replaced with simply trying to survive. The dreams of the 20’s were replaced with the hopelessness of the 30s as the United States settled into 12 years of the Great Depression. It certainly was not how those who lived in the prime of the 20’s pictured the future.
Common Ground:
Maybe you can relate. I would bet that you have had a dream for what you want your future to look like? Maybe it was the dream of owning your own business; maybe it was the dream of the perfect marriage; maybe it was the dream of starting a family; maybe it was the dream of graduating and going to the perfect school; or using that scholarship to play football for a Big Ten University. The skies the limit for dreams.
But the reality is this. While, sometimes dreams come true, more times than not, in this world, the dreams we have fail to materialize the way we picture them.
And here’s what happens. Instead of living the dream of happily ever after, we end up divorced; instead of the dream family, the doctor tells us we are unable to have children; instead of running our own business, we are rejected financing and find ourselves broke and unemployed; instead of going to that university, we find ourselves attending community college; instead of football on a scholarship, we find ourselves battling just to recover from a serious injury.
And we wake up seeing the hopes and dreams we once had for our future have come crashing down into the reality of life. We are left holding the shattered pieces. Have you ever been left wondering?
Key Question:
What do we do when our dream for the perfect future bursts?
Text:
Take a look at today’s story with me.
Matthew 1:18a (NLT)
18 This is how Jesus the Messiah was born. His mother, Mary, was engaged to be married to Joseph.
Matthew tells us there is an engagement that has taken place. Understand that engagements in the first Century were much more binding than they are today.
Engagements were arranged by the parents; they were public ceremonies witnessed by family and friends and could only be broken through divorce. Sexual relations were forbidden until after the wedding. The terms “husband” and “wife” were used for engaged couples during the engagement.
Now listen to what happens in the narrative.
Matthew 1:18b (NLT)
But before the marriage took place, while she was still a virgin, she became pregnant through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Before they tie the knot Mary becomes pregnant. Matthew tells us the inside information that Mary is still a virgin. But the problem is this: Joseph isn’t privy to the information. He only has Mary’s account. So when Mary tells him she’s pregnant, he has questions. He knows he’s not the father.
Men, picture this situation for a moment. You are engaged to marry the love of your life. You have already purchased the engagement ring at great cost. The idea is becoming a reality. You are anticipating this woman being your (insert congregation names here) Mrs. Barber; Mrs. Bettin; Mrs. Sears. What hopes and dreams did you have?
How would you feel; What would you do, then, if you found out that your fiancé is pregnant? And how would you react if you knew you were not the father? Would you believe her when she told you she was still a virgin? Despite what the tabloids tell us it doesn’t work that way!
The trust in the relationship would be shattered. Both people would share in feelings of disgrace, There would be plenty of questions and not enough answers. We might be thinking “I thought I knew you”; “I thought you cared for me”; ”how could you be intimate with someone else.” And the dream? The dream for both partners would come crashing down into reality. The engagement would likely end.
How does Joseph respond? Matthew tells us (vs. 19)
Matthew 1:19 (NLT)
19 Joseph, her fiancé, was a good man and did not want to disgrace her publicly, so he decided to break the engagement quietly.
Joseph doesn’t seem to believe the story either. He believes Mary has given the gift of her virginity to someone else. So he decides to break off the engagement. He does it quietly.
That’s not how I might handle it. In this world, acts of disgrace are often followed by heaping more disgrace. Do you know what I mean by that?
Joseph feeling disgraced by Mary’s impurity might have broken or destroyed something she valued; he might have gone out with someone else just to get back at her; he could have dreamed up ways to hurt Mary or the guy responsible; he could have buried his own feelings of disgrace under the cloud of alcohol or drugs. Disgrace is often followed by disgrace. That’s the way it works. Disgrace spreads. Disgrace shatters dreams and vision for the future.
But not with Joseph. Even in his own disgrace, he demonstrates his care for Mary and her well-being.
It’s an act of Grace. Do you see it? Disgrace is a move away from grace. He did not want to be the one who exposed Mary to public disgrace. He did not want to make a move away from grace. So he decides to handle a divorce quietly. That’s quite a statement in the narrative in light of how women were treated in the 1st Century. Often women were treated as second class citizens; inferior to men.
If we stop for a moment and consider Joseph’s character, we have to remember who it is that Mary is carrying in her womb. I think the example of graceful character that Joseph showed was important to God. It seems to me that God wants Joseph’s example of graceful character in the life of Jesus. Why? Because God desires and uses graceful character to mold graceful people.
It has been my experience that parents (especially fathers) who exhibit grace often have children who exhibit grace. Parents who act with disgrace often will have children who carry the characteristics of disgrace as well. It bodes well for us as parents to act with grace.
Joseph is feeling disgraced but acts with grace. And in our text, God breaks the silence of a shattered dream and He sends a message to Joseph through an angel named Gabriel.
Matthew 1:20-21
20 As 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.
I love how the instructions from the angel begin. God knows who Joseph is. Joseph is not an unknown person. God calls him by name and lineage. And he urges him "Do not be afriad to take Mary as your wife." If you have experienced "betrayal" fear is a byproduct. Think about it for a moment. Joseph’s trust for Mary would have been shattered. This fear was about to ruin the engagement. Fear was about to shatter the dream. Fear does that; fear of intimacy, fear of discovery, fear of being known, fear of failure.
What would happen if we heard the words from Gabriel and applied them to our marriages? Do not be afriad to take our spouse as our wife (or husband)? What would happen if we removed fear from our marriages and our families? For some marriages, healing would occur. The dream would start to be restored.
The angel then tells, "You can believe the story that Mary told you. She has not given the gift of her virginity to another man. The child she bears is conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit. You do not have to be afraid to trust her, because what Mary has told you is true."
T add punch to the message, it seems to me that Gabriel goes a step further. He reminds Joseph of an O.T. prophecy about the Messiah.
Matthew 1:22-23 (NLT)
22 All 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.’”
Joseph has to conclude that Mary is pregnant as a virgin as foretold by the prophet Isaiah in Scripture! This was predicted centuries ago. While it is unexpected to Joseph, it is not unexpected to God. This is part of God’s plan. And this child will have a nickname: God with us. God amongst us. God a part of us. That’s who Jesus is. God came in the flesh!
The message Joseph gets is clear. You are to remain a part of Mary’s life. You will take Mary to be your wife. You will be there in the picture when she gives birth to the child. You will be there to be this child’s father! And you will name this child, Jesus. And her is the plan. He will save his people from their sins. And when God takes on the flesh of a baby, when God is conceived in the womb of a virgin, God invites Joseph to be present in the picture to raise him as his own son.
What an awesome responsibility presented to Joseph. Joseph is directly inserted into God’s greater plan of redemption. He would raise the Son of God as his own.
“Dream restored?” Certainly Yes. But I see so much more. I see a dream that altered and then the expanded to included God’s plans for the future. That’s how God works.
Answer:
When our dreams burst it simply gives God the opportunity to expand them.
God can and does expand our crushed dreams into something even greater that we ever could have imagined on our own. We simply have to be willing to give up the old dream (if needed) and follow the new direction that God provides. Look at Joseph.
Matthew 1:24-25 (NLT)
24 When Joseph woke up, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded and took Mary as his wife. 25 But he did not have sexual relations with her until her son was born. And Joseph named him Jesus.
He followed the dream instructions he had received verbatim. He took Mary to be his wife. You realize there were consequences don’t you? His neighbors and family would think he was the natural father of this child. It had to hurt his reputation. But Joseph bore the disgrace with grace. He gave up one of the privileges of marriage, sex, until after Jesus was born. It seems to me that he wanted to ensure that there would be no mistaking that Jesus was born of a virgin. And he even gave the child the name, Jesus.
Joseph was a willing vessel to be used in God’s plan of redemption.
If your dreams are shattered and broken; if reality has left your vision of the future in shambles; look to God. Let him alter the dream and expand it.
Folks, if we examine our lives, we realize that sometimes holding onto our shattered dreams will hinder God’s plan for us. Joseph was about to leave Mary. In order for God to use us, sometimes, we have to be willing to change course to fit into God’s plans.
I know how hard It can be hard to give up our version of a dream: what marriage should look like; what our family should look like; what church should look like; what the future should look like. We all have a picture of what is perfect. But the rub is this. When we dream, our vision is limited to our comprehension. When God dreams, his vision is perfect. And God will work for his glory.
Are we willing to let God take us where we are at right now and change the course of our dreams to meet his plans? It might mean giving up a tradition, a habit, and idea. It might not be easy; it seldom is. But God can take our wildest dreams and expand them if we allow Him.
(At this point I used the testimony of person in the congregation who has seen God rework his/her plans ) The emphasis was on their vision of the future, how that failed to work, and how God used that failure and reworked it when they were willing to make a new dream more they they could ask or imagine.)
The invitation has been extended. We simply need to be willing vessels to let God work.
