The Great Carpenter
1 Peter 2:24 Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.
1. The Usefulness of Wood. It was wood with which a carpenter worked, and out of wood came many useful things. In Bible times it wasn’t so much furniture and decorations that were made, though they were, but more important by far, a carpenter made plows, yokes for animals, and other agricultural machinery, ladders, doorways and doors, wooden locks and keys, and lattice work for windows. It was wood from which much of the Temple walls were made, as well as the Temple furnishings, and it was wood that was used in the sacrifice of millions upon millions of animals, from the days of Adam and Eve until the time of Jesus. Wood was very useful, though also relatively rare in the Land of Israel, even though there is some evidence that it was more abundant then than it is today.
2. Wood Abused. Like virtually everything, however, this blessing of God can be abused, and it was abused in many ways, in the Bible. It was wood, the trunk and branches of a tree, where the snake slithered up in the Garden of Eden, and from which the devil inside the snake spoke to Eve and lured her into rebelling against her God; from the wood of that tree the serpent conquered and enslaved the entire human race and turned them against their Creator to lives of self-centeredness and rebellion. And sometimes, wood is involved in specific acts in that rebellion.
It was wood which many skilled carpenters took, and very carefully, very skillfully, sometimes even very beautifully, turned into…idols. A detailed description of a craftsman making an idol from wood is given in a number of segments in the Book of Isaiah, off and on in chapters 40 through 46. With this wood the craftsman would make a disgusting misrepresentation of what he thought was a god, but in fact was not, and no one was smart enough to catch on that from the same block of wood which he had used to make his “god,” he took pieces and used it to bake bread in an oven or simply to warm himself.
It was wood that the heathen nations all around used for their detestable Asherah poles, and even the Israelites adopted the custom. When God called Gideon to free His people from the Midianites Gideon began by cutting down his own father’s idolatrous pole (Judges 6:25ff.)
It was wood that formed the shaft of King Saul’s spear, which he threw several times at the innocent young David and once at his own son Jonathan, in an angry attempt to destroy them (1 Samuel 18, 19, 20).
It was wood with which King Nebuchadnezzar heated his fiery furnace seven times hotter than normal in an attempt to execute three good men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, for no crime other than refusing to bow in worship to anything but the true God (Daniel 3).
It was wood from which the wicked Haman built his 75-foot high gallows to hang Queen Esther’s cousin Mordecai (Esther 5:9-14).
And we don’t know for sure, but it might have been wood which the first murderer, Cain, the son of Adam and Eve, used in the murder of his brother Abel (Genesis 4). We do know that it was wood which many of Jesus’ enemies carried as clubs in their hands as they came to arrest Him in the Garden of Gethsemane (Matthew 26:47). Yes, wood, a blessing from God, could easily be abused by both the devil and the sinful human race.
3. Wood to the Rescue. Yet God overcame the abuses of the devil and the world. For sin and rebellion, He prescribed sacrifices, sacrifices of animals, parts of which would be burned, and other parts cooked, over…wood. This was accepted as satisfaction for sin. But beyond that, there were some noteworthy Bible examples of God using wood to save His people:
It was wood from which Noah and his three sons built an ark 450 feet long, to rescue their family and representatives of each kind of animal from the flood waters that were going to come upon the earth, and from the ungodly people who would be buried in those waters (Genesis 6).
It was wood from which Moses’ staff was made, the staff which became a snake (Exodus 4:1-4), the staff which he stretched out again and again over the land of Egypt to bring forth the plagues with which the Lord afflicted Israel’s enemies, the staff which he lifted up over the Red Sea (Exodus 14:16), and the waters parted, and the Israelites marched through on dry land. With this same staff the Lord ordered him to strike a rock and extract water for several million people in the desert (Exodus17:5-6). This staff Moses held up over the battle with the Amalekites, as his brother Aaron, along with Hur, helped him hold his hands up so that the Israelites could win the battle (Exodus 17:8ff.)
It was wood, also, from which Aaron’s staff was made, the staff which also became a snake and swallowed the staffs-turned-into-snakes of Pharaoh’s officials (Exodus 7:8-12), the staff which later budded and blossomed and produced almonds to prove that Aaron was the chosen high priest of God (Numbers 17:1-11).
It was wood that God told Moses to use to turn the waters of Marah from bitter to sweet (Exodus 15:22-25).
It was wood from which the Ark of the Covenant was made, covered with gold, to be the place of God’s presence on this earth, and to lead the Israelites across the Jordan River (Joshua 3) and often into battle.
It was wood from which the tent peg was made which a woman named Jael drove into the forehead of the enemy general Sisera, nailing down the victory of the Israelites over their Canaanite enemies in the days of Deborah and Barak (Judges 4:21).
But perhaps the most significant event in the Old Testament: After the Israelites complained and the Lord sent poisonous snakes to bite them, it was wood on which the Lord instructed Moses to hang a bronze snake, so that anyone bitten could look and be cured (Numbers 21:4-9). Yes, the Lord knows how to work with wood for His saving purposes.
4. Jesus the Carpenter. Centuries later God sent His Son to earth, and He was wrapped in cloths and laid in a manger – made of what? I’m sure it was wood.
And it was wood with which Jesus was in contact every day of His life for 30 years, as He grew up the son of a carpenter (Matthew 13:55), and Himself was called a carpenter (Mark 6:3). Tradition has it that Jesus specialized in wooden plows and yokes for animals; but whatever Jesus made, I suspect you didn’t have to worry about its quality! For all His working life His hands touched wood every day – not only the objects He was making, but the tools He used, the saw handle, the hammer handle, the handles of the ax and the adze. Jesus no doubt felt very comfortable with wood, and it was an honorable profession, which He most likely used to support His mother once His stepfather Joseph died. An honorable profession, but not Jesus’ ultimate profession. One day the carpenter shop in the village of Nazareth was closed, because Jesus had a different calling.
5. The Wood of the Cross. Jesus went forth, and preached, and told parables, and performed miracles, and healed diseases, and gathered and trained disciples. He was done working on wood. He was heading toward the day when wood was going to work on Him.
It was wood with which Jesus was in contact the very last day of His life. Wood was the only solid substance He had contact with His final hours: His back against the wood of the cross, His hands and feet nailed to wood. Only it was turned around: During His previous career as a carpenter He would pound in the nails; now the nails were pounded into Him. During His previous career as a carpenter the palms of His hands would touch the wood; now the backs of His hands were touching.
Did Jesus feel comfortable with the wood of the cross? No way. Although He had been a carpenter, and although, further, He was the Creator of wood, He did not feel at home on the cross. He wasn’t there to feel comfortable, or at home. He was there to pay the price of our sins. The wood of the cross was not burned to make Jesus a fiery offering, but it became His altar just the same, the altar on which He took away the sins of the world.
It might be noteworthy that 5 times, when the Epistles refer to the physical structure of the cross, they do not call it a “cross,” nor even a “tree,” but the original language literally says, “wood” (in Greek, “xylos,” from which we get the word “xylophone”): Acts 5:30, 10:39, and 13:29, and then the final two, which I’ll quote using the literal translation:
Galatians 3:13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on wood.”
And 1 Peter 2:24 He Himself bore our sins in His body on the wood, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by His wounds you have been healed.
It was wood that God used as the framework of our salvation. Not very comfortable wood, but blessed wood. The devil, who by wood once overcame, has now by wood been overcome. By Jesus’ wounds we have been healed, and now let us not demand a comfortable life, but undergo whatever the Lord sends us. After all, speaking of wood, “His rod and His staff, they comfort me” (Psalm 23:1).
“SERMON BODY”
Back in the days of the Bible, though, there were people who were extremely skilled in
carpentry. In fact, they were very skilled in the nation of Israel because of the fact that
there were so few trees in Israel. This forced the carpenters back in Bible times to learn
techniques that were highly skilled, so that they would not waste wood. Wood was so
rare, it was so expensive, that they became very skilled at techniques of using wood so
that nothing would be wasted.
In fact, as we think about the carpenters that lived in Israel in Bible times, let us think
about our Lord, Jesus Christ. The Bible says that when it came time for Him to be born of
the virgin, Mary, He was born into a family that was very familiar with carpentry. In fact,
the stepfather of our Lord Jesus Christ, Joseph, was a carpenter in the city of Nazareth, in
the province of Galilee. The Lord, Jesus Christ, therefore, was raised in a carpenter's
family. It was a custom among the Jews of the 1st century to teach their sons the skills
that the father in the family had. So probably, somewhere around the age of 15, the Lord
Jesus Christ began to learn from His stepfather, Joseph, the skills involved in being a
carpenter. There was a saying among the Jewish men in the nation of Israel: "If you do
not teach your son how to work, you teach him how to be a thief." So in all probability,
about the age of 15, Jesus Christ began learning carpentry skills from His stepfather,
Joseph.
As we read through the sermons of Jesus, there are many references to things that a
carpenter would think about. For example, Jesus spoke about the "narrow gate" that we
have to go through. You can imagine Him thinking about various gates that He had made
along with His stepfather, Joseph. He talked about building a house "upon the rock" and
not "upon the sand", another concept that a good 1st century carpenter would have known
about. In a beautiful passage, in Matthew 11:29, Jesus said that His "yoke" was easy.
Based on His carpentry skills, He could make a yoke that was comfortable for the
animals. In Matthew 21:33, He talked about building a tower in a vineyard. In another
place, He told the parable of a king who was going to build a tower but did not count the
cost. And you can just see the mind of a carpenter working there. You have to know the
expenses before you begin a project such as that. Jesus spoke about the chief
"cornerstone." And in Matthew 13:55, He is referred to as "the son of a carpenter."
But I would like to skip ahead from the time in which He worked as a carpenter to the
time that He began His public ministry. There were two occasions where Jesus went back
to His hometown of Nazareth and preached there to the people. One occasion was in
Luke, chapter 4. And as he began to preach to the people there, from Isaiah, Chapter 61,
at first the people were just overwhelmed with the message that Jesus was giving them.
But then, they became upset at Him and they reached the point where they were angry at
Him, and they tried to kill Him before He was able to leave town on that occasion.
But there was another time where our Lord Jesus went back to His hometown, again to
preach to the people, and their reaction this time was similar to what happened the first
time; that is, at first they were overwhelmed by what He was saying, but then they got
upset! And on this second occasion, what upset them was the fact that they knew that He
was a carpenter.
Would you look with me, please, at Mark 6. I want to read verses 1-6, as the Lord
returned to His hometown of Nazareth. Notice the reaction of the people as He began
preaching.
"And He went out from there and He came into His hometown and His disciples followed
Him. And when the Sabbath had come, He began to teach in the synagogue and many
listeners were astonished, saying, 'Where did this man get these things? And what is this
wisdom given to Him, and such miracles, as these performed by His hands? Is not this the
carpenter? The son of Mary and the brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon?
And are not His sisters here with us?' And they took offense at Him. And Jesus said to
them, 'A prophet is not without honor except in His hometown, and among His own
relatives, and in His own household.' And He could do no miracle there except that He
laid His hands upon a few sick people and healed them. And He wondered at their
unbelief."
Notice again, back in verse 3, that after initially being enthralled with His message, they
said to themselves, "Isn't this the carpenter, the son of Mary?" And based on that, they
came to where they rejected Jesus Christ. Well, apparently, Jesus was not ashamed of
being a carpenter from the age of 15 up until the age of 30, when His public ministry
began.
I would like to ask you to think with me, for a few moments, about the significance of the
fact that Jesus Christ served as a carpenter actually much longer than He ever served as a
preacher. There are several things that are very significant about His profession as being
a carpenter. Number one, the fact that he was a carpenter, for those 15 years, emphasizes
that God respects all honorable work that we might do, even manual labor, as a carpenter
would have been engaged in. That, in itself, was a hard lesson for the Jews to learn, in the
city of Nazareth. Jesus did not meet their concept of being the Messiah because He had
been a carpenter from the age of 15 on up.
They expected the Messiah to be born in a palace. He wasn't; He was born in a stable.
They expected Jesus to be born into a royal family; He wasn't, He was born by the virgin,
Mary, with His stepfather, Joseph. They expected Jesus to be raised and to be taught
military skills. What they really thought was the Messiah would be trained as a soldier;
that ultimately, He would raise an army. He would be the general of that army, and based
on that military power, He would force the Romans out of Judea. He would then become
a king and establish the Jewish nation in Palestine. That was the Jewish view of the
Messiah early in the first century.
But it didn't happen that way. He wasn't born in a palace to a royal family. He was not
trained as a soldier or a military leader. He was trained to be a carpenter! Why? Because
He wanted to identify Himself with the common people. He wanted to identify Himself
with the dignity of manual labor. He wanted us to understand that as long as it is honest
work that we are engaged in, then any job is respectable in the eyes of God. That is not
the way the people of Nazareth saw being a carpenter. They were prejudiced here against
those who worked with their hands. "Is this not the carpenter?"
Notice, in verse 3, they continued by saying, "Is this not the carpenter, the son of Mary?"
Some people say, "Well, Joseph must have died by this point", and that is very possible;
nevertheless, they could have said, "Is this not the son of Mary and the late Joseph?"
What we see here is that they were continuing to insult Christ by assuming that He was
illegitimate. That's why Joseph is not mentioned in verse 3. Not only did they look down
on Him for being a carpenter, but they assumed that He was born illegitimately and not of
the virgin, Mary. Jesus, therefore, chose being a carpenter because He wanted to
demonstrate the dignity of manual labor.
When I was growing up, my dad used to say to my sister and me that he didn't care what
we did in life. We could even become garbage men (or women, in her case, as the case
may be); we could even pick up garbage for a living, as long as it was honest work and as
long as we remained faithful to God. That is exactly what I have taught my children as
they grew up in our household. It doesn't matter what you do in life, as long as it is honest
work and as long as you remain faithful to God. I think that is what Jesus is telling us
here, by choosing carpentry as His profession for these early years of His adult life. Any
profession can be carried out for the glory of God.
There's a tombstone over in Great Britain. And on the tombstone there is an epitaph
written for a man who died, who was buried there. The man's name was Thomas Cobb. I
want to read what that tombstone says: "Here lies Thomas Cobb, who mended shoes to
the glory of God, for 40 years." What a great statement that is! We can mend shoes for a
living. We can write musical compositions for a living as Johann Sebastian Bach did; and
on every piece that he wrote, he put the letters "SDG", which stood for "Sola Deo
Gloria"-- to God alone be the glory. Whether it is manual labor, whether it is mental
labor, whether we are involved in some kind of other profession, we can still glorify God
with the kind of work that we do.
Earlier this year, there was a great Christian man who passed away in Nashville,
Tennessee. His name was Miles Ezell, Sr. In fact, on the south side of Nashville, there is
a school named after him, the Ezell-Harding Christian School there, from kindergarten up
through high school; a very fine school, a number of my nieces and nephews attend
Ezell-Harding. The word "Ezell" there refers back to Brother Ezell, Sr. He began his life
as an adult by having a dairy. He worked hard. Through his manual labor and through the
grace of God, that dairy grew. If you ever go through Nashville today, I'm sure you will
hear of Purity Dairies. Purity Dairies was established by Miles Ezell, Sr. He was such a
good man. He was made an elder for the Una Church of Christ, just the next congregation
down the road from where I grew up; a very faithful man, and there is no telling the good
that was done by the light of that man in terms of mission work, in terms of support,
particularly, that he gave to the country of Africa and the churches there. Here was a
great, Godly, Christian man who was a manual laborer, starting out with his own dairy.
Jesus, therefore, I think, would have a warm compliment for a dairy man or anybody else
who has an honest job and who uses that job for the glory of God. Jesus Christ began as a
carpenter.
Let's think of something else that is significant about Christ as a carpenter, and that is the
nature of His work as a carpenter. What kind of work does a carpenter do? There are
really two things that a carpenter does. He repairs things and he builds things from
scratch. Think about those two parts of a carpenter's job. In the first place, many times we
call a carpenter to repair something that has become broken. Maybe a chair has a broken
leg to it or the kitchen table has broken and we need that wood repaired. Sometimes,
there may be a big storm that comes through and there's a giant tree that falls across the
roof of the house and caves it in. Who do we call? We call the best team of carpenters
that we can find. We want them to repair the damage. In the same way, Jesus Christ was
a spiritual carpenter. People brought to Him their broken lives and He was able to repair
them just as He does today.
A few moments ago, we sang Number 62: "Bring Christ your broken life, so marred by
sin. He will create anew, make whole again. Your empty wasted years, He will restore,
and your iniquities, remember no more." Beloved, the Great Carpenter can look down
upon us and see what messes we have made of our lives. He can take that mess we've
made, that awful mistake that we committed and He can begin to repair the damage and
allow the healing to start. There's a beautiful verse that maybe we overlook sometimes,
along these lines. It's Matthew 12, verse 20, talking about Jesus Christ. The Bible says
this: "A battered reed, He will not break off; and a smoldering wick, He will not put out."
That's very interesting! Here is a reed out here that maybe the wind has bent over, and it's
about to break off and to die. The Bible says that Jesus does not go out there and stomp
on that thing, and break it off so it goes ahead and dies. He doesn't do that. "A broken
reed, He will not break off; and a smoldering wick, He will not put out."
Here's a lamp that has a wick in it, and it's burned down and the wick is just about to go
out. Jesus Christ does not go over there and blow it out! He doesn't do that! In a spiritual
sense, which is what the verse is referring to (Matthew 12:20), we look at our lives, and
we see, many times, we are like that broken reed! I mean, we're just about ready to leave
this life through despair, through depression, through all of the mistakes that we have
made, and Christ does not go over and stomp on us!
And many times we are like the smoldering wick. We're just at the bottom of life.
Everything that can happen to us has happened. We have been defeated by life! But He
does not go over and blow that little flame out! The Great Carpenter begins to work with
that reed and that little flame and begins to rebuild our lives... if we will let Him. Christ,
therefore, as a carpenter, repairs our lives and doesn't just go ahead and allow us to suffer
in misery.
There's a second thing that a carpenter does: he builds new items. Jesus is the Great
Carpenter because John 1:3 says, "All things came into being by Him, and apart from
Him, nothing came into being that has come into being." Can you imagine a carpenter
who has built the universe? And yet, that's what the Bible says. Everything that has been
created was made by this carpenter! In the first century, Jesus was still building. He said,
"Upon this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not overpower it."
On the day of Pentecost, in Acts 2, here's the Great Carpenter who built His church and
brought it into existence and put it into service. Did you know the Bible tells us that Jesus
is still a carpenter today? There's something that He is still working on today! In John
14:2, He said, "In My Father's house are many dwelling places, if it were not so, I would
have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you." As the Great Carpenter, He is
constructing places for us that we will dwell in once we reach Heaven.
So we see that He was a carpenter in the sense that He repairs things -- our lives. And He
also builds things from scratch. There's a third idea that is significant when we consider
Christ as a carpenter. And that is, how does a carpenter think? When a carpenter sees a
piece of wood, how does he look at that piece of wood? Well, the answer is, he sees it
differently from the way most other people see the wood. Most people would look at a
piece of wood out here and say, "Well, it's got all these knots in it; it's got cracks in it; it's
got some ink on it where they stamped it at the lumber yard", and maybe it's bowed a
little and so forth. A carpenter doesn't look at wood that way. The carpenter sees the
potential that the wood has. A carpenter says, "Well, I can glue those knots back in. In
some cases, that crack can be fixed and that warp can be taken out with a plane or joiner",
and various other imperfections can be worked out. The carpenter sees the potential of
the wood, not the problems of the wood!
You know what kind of wood is most in demand today? Old barn sidings. We look at
wood like that and we say, "That's worthless." That's not the way carpenters see it. It's
used for many decorative purposes and various other things today, and it's in very short
supply, apparently. We say, "Well, there's no potential in that wood." A carpenter says, "I
think I can use that." We go out behind a factory and there's some old wooden crates
there that are going to be thrown away. A carpenter is standing there looking at that
thinking, "I wonder all the things that I could make out of the wood that is in that old
crate."
In the same way, Jesus Christ looks at us today; what does He see? Does He see all of the
flaws that will doom us eternally? That's how we look at people. We see their
imperfections; Christ, though, sees their potential. Christ looked at a man, who was a
fisherman, by the name of Simon. And Christ said, "You are Simon, the son of John; you
shall be called ?Cephas'", which translated means "Peter" or "rock." Can you imagine
what Peter's friends must have said on that occasion? They must have laughed and
laughed and laughed. "You mean, Simon -- this guy -- is going to be a rock in Your
kingdom some day? Jesus Christ, You've got to be kidding! This guy's nothing but a
braggart. He's nothing but a show off. He's not going to amount to anything!" But Christ
saw his potential. Jesus Christ said, "I'm going to rename him 'the rock' because he will
be a rock in My kingdom."
A carpenter, therefore, sees the potential in that wood, and not the flaws and
imperfections that might doom it in the eyes of others. Beloved, The Great Carpenter is
still working with us today. He know which tools to use on us to bring out our potential.
He knows when maybe we need to be sanded down, and He carries that out. He knows
when maybe we need to be polished...and He carries that out. He knows when various
other things need to be done in our lives to bring out the talents that we have...and He
carries those things out, if we will allow Him to do so. He sees our potential and works
on that.
There's a final way in which Jesus, as a carpenter, is significant to us today, and this is in
the manner of His death. The Lord Jesus Christ could have chosen to die in a number of
ways. He could have chosen to be beheaded, as was John the Baptist. He could have
chosen to be stoned to death, as they were in the old law of Moses, but He didn't choose
to be stoned or to be beheaded. He could have chosen to be shot to death with an arrow,
as was King Ahab, back in the book of 1 Kings, Chapter 22. But instead, He chose to die
a carpenter's death, because the Roman soldiers took a hammer and nails, the tools of a
carpenter. And they nailed the Son of God to a wooden cross. It was an ugly way to die.
And yet it was altogether fitting, for the Great Carpenter. Why, therefore, did He go
through this kind of death? He went through this kind of death so that He might buy us
from Satan. His blood would result in our forgiveness of sins, if we accepted it. When we
were forgiven of our sins, then we could be transferred from the domain of darkness into
the kingdom of light, which is the Lord's church. So, when the Great Carpenter died on a
wooden cross, it was to bring about our redemption of sins. And it was a fitting way for
such a carpenter to depart.
The Great Carpenter, therefore, demonstrates the value of honest work. He demonstrates
the fact that He can repair lives and build things from scratch. He demonstrates that He
can see the potential that we have, as we ought to see potential in one another, that He
can work with us. And it also shows that He died a carpenter's death on a wooden cross.
I hope that some of things have encouraged you. If you are not a member of the body of
Christ, then please think about the fact that the Carpenter died for you and for your sins.
And as He bled to death upon the wooden cross, He was bleeding to death for your sins,
as well as those who have already obeyed the gospel. We would urge you, therefore, to
believe in Christ, to repent of your sins, to make the good confession, then to be baptized
by immersion in water for the forgiveness of your sins, and enter in to the family of the
Great Carpenter.
Special thanks to Pastor Mark Porinsky
Faith Evangelical Lutheran Church
And
Raymond T. Exum
Crystal Lake Church of Christ
Notice to Sermon Central Users:
My name is William Poovey, and I pastor at Bethel Church in Olar, SC. I have been a long-time user of Sermon Central and truly appreciate its content and contributors. Some of the best sermons I’ve ever preached have been reworked material from this website. As you use the material from my sermon bank, understand that it is work that has been done from not just myself, but from hundreds of other pastors as well. If you see part of your message, or a lot of your message with my name on it and this upsets you, please email me and I will quickly respond and cite you as the main source. My intent is not to claim someone’s work as my own. I am disclaiming up front that I use the resources from Sermon Central and appreciate the tool. I simply want all those who use my work to know that some of these messages were inspired by the Holy Spirit working through other pastors. Because I do use the messages of other pastors I waive all claims of originality or origin of creativity for the messages posted under my messages. I pray God blesses your preaching ministry for the glory of His Kingdom.
Respectfully,
William Poovey
