I.Sunday School teacher: "Why did Mary and Joseph take Jesus with them to Jerusalem?" Little Joanie: "Maybe they couldn't get a baby-sitter?"
A.We live in a pagan world that will do everything it can to ignore the Christmas story.
1.But it is for us in the counterculture of the Christianity to shout the message of God’s love to this world so desperate for real love.
2.We need to tell our children, our grandchildren and everyone the Greatest Love Story.
B.We need to do it with a bit of humor and place it in our terms.
1.Like could you imagine Jesus being born today with all the ways modern, parents want to capture all the memories on video.
2.Just imagine the wise men's visit today.
3.Mary to Joseph, “Joseph, will you grab the video camera? I've got to get this on tape.”
a.Mary speaks to the wise men, “Say, would you mind backing up and approaching the house again, maybe a little more slowly this time, but with some eager expressions please?”
b.“OK-- no, that camel is blocking the angle.”
II.Joseph is one of those characters in the Bible that does not get very much press.
A.If you were to cast a modern day movie star in the role of Joseph who would you pick?
1.Surely not Arnold Schwatsnagger.
a.You would not pick Tom Cruise.
b.Maybe if he were still alive, you might pick Jimmy Stewart, the down home boy from Indiana Pennsylvania.
2.He loved his wife to be, He love his adoptive son, and He loved God.
B.Even the Bible give little mention of him siting his name only sixteen times.
1.He is not even mentioned in the Gospel of Mark.
2.In all respects he was a very common man without much notice.
III.He loved his wife to be because he did not put her away after he found her to be pregnant.
A. 18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows. When His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit.
1.The word in the Greek for came together is the same as live together and have marital relationships.
2.Before this marriage could be consummated, Mary was already pregnant and it was known to him. Perhaps she had left for her cousin Elizabeth’s and the new had spread.
3.This normally would have meant breaking the betrothal agreement.
a.And since they were betrothed to each other, she could be stoned for adultery or for fornication. Deut. 22:23-24
b.But even without God’s dream, Joseph loved Mary and wanted to protect her from harm.
B.19 And Joseph her husband, being a righteous man, and not wanting to disgrace her, desired to put her away secretly.
1.The word here in the Greek for righteous is “one who seeks justice and fairness”
2.The word “put away quietly” found in the King James and New American is rightly translated in the New International.
a.It quite literally means “divorce.”
b.Betrothal was a legal marriage except for consummation and it took a degree of divorce to free both parties from their obligations.
c.Joseph was willing to set Mary free from her contract perhaps because she wanted to marry the father of her baby.
3.Joseph must have felt enraged and betrayed when he found out Mary was pregnant.
a.He knew he had not had any relations with her.
b.He must have wanted to know what man dared defile his bride to be.
c.He must have been so hurt and felt Mary had forsaken him.
d.But even in his rage and hurt, he could not think of embarrassing her in public or jeopardizing her life.
e.He was a religious, good man; and therefore inclined to be merciful as God is, and to forgive as one that was forgiven.
f.He loved her that much.
IV.God chose a man who would love His son because he love God.
A.He could not give Jesus any worldly greatness for he resided in a lowly remote village called Nazareth.
1.He could make no rightful claim to be Jesus’ father.
2.He could give Jesus no earthy or heavenly wealth or power.
3.He would never even see Jesus achieve greatness.
B.But he accepted his calling to raise the Son of God.
1.The angel asked him to give the Christ the name Jesus.
a.He was asked to take this baby’s mother as his wife.
b.In essence Joseph was being summoned to provide a home for the Savior of the world.
2.He gave Jesus his family name.
a.The baby Jesus was legally of the linage of David through BOTH his mother and earthly father.
b.But he did not limit his fathering to merely giving a name.
C.He loved Jesus by becoming Jesus’ defender and protector.
1.He took Jesus and his mother to EGYPT when he knew there was danger.
2.He brought them back when Herod the Great was dead.
D.He was a provider to the best of his ability.
1.Even though he was poor he provided shelter and food.
2.Some times it was a stable.
3.There were times it was hard to feed five boys and several girls.
E.He made sure Jesus was raised properly in the faith.
1.Jesus was circumcised on the eighth day as the law required.
2.He was trained in the law so he could the Temple when he was twelve.
3.But mostly, Joseph became an example of faith to the young Jesus.
4.When he learned of Mary’s pregnancy, he waited patiently on the Lord and prayed for guidance and God gave him direction in a dream.
F.Joseph in love gave Jesus a trade - carpentry.
1.The Greek word used in Matt. 13:55 actually means craftsman or builder.
2.This helped Him relate to the people.
a.He was not some theological school book boy who came talking to the populous.
b.Jesus was a man who knew what it was to hard physical work just to make ends meet.
c.Jesus had callouses on his hands and probably a strong physic.
3.The Gospel of Mark may not have mentioned Joseph by name, but it gives him the highest honor.
a.Mark 6:3 "Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and brother of James, and Joses, and Judas, and Simon? Are not His sisters here with us?"(NAS)
b.The people called Jesus a carpenter.
4.Tradition says that after Joseph early death Jesus used this simple trade to provide for His mother and the family until the start of His ministry at the age of thirty.
5.Carpentry gave Jesus a storehouse of experience He used in His parables.
a.The parable about a proper foundation for building a house is like building our life upon following God rather than ourselves:
Matt 7:24 "Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine, and acts upon them, may be compared to a wise man, who built his house upon the rock.
26 "And everyone who hears these words of Mine, and does not act upon them, will be like a foolish man, who built his house upon the sand.
b.The parable of the man who thought all of life was building a bigger and better business but would very quickly lose his eternal soul:
Luke 12:18 "And he said, `This is what I will do: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. (NAS)
c.The parable of the builder who first sits down and calculates the cost of what he is to build is similar to a person calculating first the cost of faithfully following Christ as one of His disciples:
Luke 14:28 "For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost, to see if he has enough to complete it? (NAS)
d.The parable of hiring laborers at different times and yet paying them all the same is like receiving Christ. We can receive Him at 6 years old or at 96 years old and both will receive heaven.
Matt 20:1 "For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. (NAS)
G.Joseph loved his adoptive son.
1.Joseph love His mother by being willing not to shame her but took her as his wife for life.
2.Joseph loved Jesus very much for he went back to Jerusalem search for Him after He got separated from His parents.
3.Joseph loved Jesus because he was willing to raise a boy who was not his own.
4.And this reminds us that we are the adoptive children of God through Jesus.
Rom 8:15 For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, "Abba! Father!" (NAS)
V.Joseph loved God.
A.This was an awesome and overwhelming task given to Joseph.
1.He could have said, “It’s none of my business, He is not my son.”
a.He could have said, “Gaily Gee I’m just a carpenter.
b.I am not equipped to do such a big thing.
2.Instead of saying anything, Joseph submitted to God and God gave him the power;
“And Joseph arose from his sleep, and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took {her} as his wife,” (Matt 1:24 NAS)
B.This Christmas lets us follow Joseph’s example and love our spouses, our children, our family and God, for the real story of Christmas is God’s love coming into the world.
C.LET US PRAY: Thank you Holy Father for bringing Your love into the world on that first Christmas. Thank you for choosing Joseph a man who loved Mary, Jesus and You. We praise you that Joseph’s love taught the Son of God how to pound a nail. Thank You for his modeling of steadiness, faithfulness, workmanship, obedience and love. May we so show Your love in this season and throughout our lives.
