The Village Church
Interrupted by Christmas - Pt 2 - Joseph - Audio
to know the history behind Precious Lord, the God who wrote that it came after he lost his wife and child in a car accident, he penned that song as a prayer to his God, Precious Lord, take my hand, Precious Lord, leave me home and he does that. Last week we talked about the interruptions that came to Mary's life by the angel Gabriel. We talked about a greeting that he brought to her that was actually a call that was actually grace. We talked about a message of hope and a power that was supernatural. She ended the sermon last time with Mary's wonderful submission to and faith in God's promises. Do you remember her words to the angel? She said, "Behold, I am the servant of the Lord that it be to me according to your word." She was on board. She fully embraced the interruptions to her life to be used as a vessel of the Lord of God, to be the one to bear the Son of God. But what is that in of the story? There's a Christmas story in there. Was the Lord done moving and working now that Mary was on board and had submitted to his will? Was he done? Was the story over? Could she just wait nine months and Jesus come and all will be good? No. Someone else's life had to be interrupted. Someone else had to be brought on board. Someone else had to submit to God's promises here. When I was in college, a guy came and spoke at a mission conference at my church and he spoke on the will of God. In the sermon, he told an illustration about a man who felt that the Lord was calling him to be a missionary, to grow overseas, to be a missionary. So this man approached his pastor with the sense of calling and the man told this pastor that, "I feel that God is calling me to be a missionary." And the pastor responded to this man with a simple but provoking question. He also said, "Has he also called your wife?" The pastor's point to this man was that if the Lord is calling you to grow overseas to be a missionary, then somehow he's going to be calling your wife to be on board with that too, because again, you're both at one flesh, not going to call you without also calling her. So let me ask you, who was the other person whose life needed to be interrupted next? Who? Yes, Joseph. The man that married was to marry. Today, we're going to look at the interruptions of Christmas in his life. So if we would please stand as we read God's word. Matthew chapter 1, Matthew chapter 1, beginning in verse 18. The birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way, when his mother and Mary had been thrilled to Joseph. Before they came together, she was found to be with the child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband, Joseph, then a just man, and unwilling to put her to shame resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which she conceives in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son. You shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. All this took place to fulfill what the Lord has spoken by the prophet, behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel. Jesus means God with this. When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him. He took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to his son, and he called his name Jesus. Let us pray. Father, as we come to your truth, as we come before your Holy Word, once again we call upon your spirit to take what is preached and apply it to the hearts of your people, and heart into my heart as well, Father. We pray that he will move in a mighty way, that I would decrease and you would increase in what takes place here. It's all about Jesus, all about him, and all areas of life. Jesus glorified yourself in crafting my prayer, amen. You may be seated. The interruptions of Christmas in the life of Joseph. The first thing we want to look at is that there was an interruption to his pending marriage to Mary. Verse 18 says that Mary was bethrode to Joseph, and the custom of being bethrode was very different from our modern practice of engagement. This custom lasted for a year, with the girl still living in her father's house until the groom came to get her. This custom also involved an official agreement between the two people who were going to be married. This agreement took place before witnesses, and when a woman and man was bethrode to each other, they were legally bounded to one another by contract, and it could not be broken. It can only be broken by going through the form of process of being divorced. Even though they were not officially married yet, they were still legally bound by each other. Those are going to take place, and they couldn't end this stage, only through divorce could it end it. Another thing, end this stage and end this custom, Mary and Joseph could not come together intimately either, at this point even, because they were not officially again. This was the life situation of Mary and Joseph. They would be thrilled to one another, and in this situation, in this process, Mary was found to be with child, and so the logical mind, to the logical mind, you would think, "Okay, this marriage is now interrupted, is it actually going to take place?" You can't overlook the historical context in which Mary lived. At this point, she was four months pregnant, but Joseph had not came to get her from her father's house. So, the question is, who's the baby's daddy? That's the question. If you're Joseph, and if you're Mary's daddy, you're like, "Well, who's the baby's daddy?" Was Joseph the father? And if Joseph was the father, then we got an issue, because premarital relations was not in a sociable, acceptable sin, like it is in our culture, in this culture. It was not socially acceptable. There were consequences for it, if these two have come together in an intimate way, without being formally married. But based on the context, we know that he was not the father. The text says, "Before they came together, and yes, that means came together, she was found to be with child." The child was from the Holy Spirit, and with that statement, Matthew lets us know that this message of hope that Gabriel spoke to Mary last week finally came true. She was now pregnant with the Son of God. Now, even though Mary knew this, she knew where the angel told her, it's unlikely that Gabriel went around all the other people in Jerusalem and told them what happened. Okay, now, Joe, Mary's father, you know, your daughter's going to be pregnant, but it's going to be able to hold the spirit. So, cut us some slack. Cut us some slack. He came to Mary only to deliver that message. And so, in God's eyes, Mary was favored, but in the eyes of man, she appeared to be an adulterous, basically. You're adulterous. That's what you are. How could you do this? So Mary's reputation was interrupted about this. You see, we think the Christmas story is wonderful and all, but it was hardships as involved as well for them. See, we don't see that because we didn't live it. They lived it. It's more than a story for them. It was their life, their life, the virgin birth, wonderful and awesome, but at the same time, I believe it was hard and difficult. How was it difficult, you ask yourself? Your marriage to Joseph was not in trouble. Questions about whether or not it was going to actually happen. It was in jeopardy. Even Joseph thought she was guilty of this. He thought she was guilty of a doctor. Can you blame him? Who? What? An angel? Told you this, really. Oh, you're kidding me. Is it the best you could come up with? Gabriel came to you and said, "You're going to be with God's child?" Really. So you can imagine that Joseph now, his life is interrupted as well. And what was his response when he found that Mary had this child? Verse 19 says, "Her husband, Joseph, been a just man and unwilling to put her to shame resolve to divorce her quietly." He resolved to divorce her quietly. These two statements about Joseph, his shows that he was in a state of tension. On one hand, he was just, he wanted to do what was right. And what does that mean? And as one Christian said, it referred to his right behavior according to the law. He wanted to do what was right in the eyes of God, what was right according to the law. And according to the Mosaic law, he had a right to expose Mary as adulterous. And if he did that, what was going to happen to her? He was going to die, that was a penalty for adultery. Not like there's no penalty for us now, but if you live back here, it was a steep penalty. It should have been stolen to death. But Joseph, it says, was unwilling to put her to shame, unwilling to do it. He wanted to do what was right, but on the other hand, he was unwilling to cause her shame. He did not want to expose her. He did not want to degrade her. He was unwilling to do so. But the question is, what was he going to do? He wasn't going to marry her still, but he didn't want to cause her shame. So he decided, let's handle this in a private manner. I would divorce you quietly, and we'd be done with it. No witnesses. I guess you have some witnesses, but we're not going to expose you to the whole group of people, the whole congregation, who will do it quietly. Doing this time of the year, there's going to be many church plays that retell the Christmas story, a lot of them. I've been part of some. I was actually in some. You're going to have stories that retell the conversation with Gabrielle and Mary. You're going to have the birth and the manger. You're going to have the visits of the wise men. Those are wonderful plays, but at times, when we think about the Christmas story, we overlook the fact that there is more than just a story, more than just a story. For Mary and Joseph, as I said, it was real life. It was their life. They lived it. It was part of their life story, and the interruptions to their life here was not always a battle roses. There were hardships, there were difficulties that led to the birth of Christ. Do you believe that? The text says, Joseph resolved to divorce Mary quietly. With this decision, the marriage was off. I mean, he was like, "Peace, I'm out, I'm gone. I'm not going to expose you, but I'm not marrying you either. I'm out." And he was walking out the door, walking out the door, and I asked you, "What's so wonderful about that? What's so Christmassy about this?" The marriage being over. This doesn't come out in the plays, in the books that we read, that he was gone. You see, I love the fact that God's Word, it never dehumanized the people that's on the pages of the Bible. They're not just puppets on the pages of God's Word. We see that humanity. We see the tension that Joseph dealt with here. We see it. I'm sure there was Pam. I'm sure he felt betrayed, because he didn't fully understand what was going on at this point. He was a just man, but he didn't want to put her to shame. You see, Joseph's situation is different than then ours, because none of us here are going to be in this place where you're going to have a virgin and be with a child like this, but what he experiences is common to us all, tension. Do you ever experience tension, or is it just Joseph and me that experience tension? Some of you right now are in this state of tension, about something, job, relationships, personal issues, issues amongst other believers. You're in tension about something. There are going to be seasons in your life where you are in the midst of some difficulty and hardship, and you don't know what to do about it. And sometimes all you can say, "Lord, I don't know what's happening. I can't explain what's happening." But during those moments you've got to say, "Lord, I'm going to trust you in the midst of it." It's going to be those times when you don't have any answers, when you're going to like, "I don't know what to do. I don't know what to say. I don't know how to deal with this." During those times you've got to know and trust in the Lord. You see, the fingerprint of God is all over what Joseph and Mary is going through. His fingerprint of God is all over your life as well, even in stuff that is hard, even in stuff that is difficult. The question is, do you believe it? Do you really believe it when it comes down to it? And for most of the times, no, you don't believe it. God enters into the fears and the tensions and the hardships and difficulties that we face. He enters into those things with us, just like He did Joseph here. God was not going to let him walk out the door. That's why He interrupted Joseph's fear, his tension, and even his decision to walk away. He did it with comfort. Look at verses 20 and 23, "Behold, as He considered these things, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, 'Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, so that which is conceiving her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins, and all this took place to fulfill what the Lord has spoke about the Prophet. Behold, the virgin shall perceive and bear a son, that shall call him Emmanuel." This phrase, but as he considered these things, this tells me that Joseph, even if he made the decision, was still in tension, I think he made the resolve to divorce her, he was still in the midst of tension about the whole situation. He was restless, I think, and the tense goes on to say, "Behold," now every time you see a word like that in the Bible, you should signal something that, "I need to pay attention to where He's getting ready to cycle." That's very important, and it is very important for this situation because God shows up in the midst of Joseph's attention. His fear, his restlessness, he shows up to him in the dream through this angel, which could have been the angel Gabriel, it doesn't say, but I assume it was, he appeared to him in the dream and said, "Joseph, Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, but that which is conceiving hers from the Holy Spirit, she will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins." How did the Lord comfort Joseph here? He took him and pointed him to the son that wasn't even born yet. He took him to Jesus, he wasn't even born yet. The angel of the Lord corrected Joseph's understanding of what had actually happened to Mary and gave him the proper understanding. Mary was not an adulterous Joseph, so don't fear to take her as your wife. The child inside of her does not belong to some unknown man, it was conceived in her by the Holy Spirit, and in this dream the angel also told him, "He is to call this child Jesus, Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins." In other words, Joseph, this child is a savior. Notice that when Gabriel spoke to Mary, they would go name him Jesus, but he didn't tell her this part, he was going to save his people from that sin. Hope, Joseph. The hope of salvation is in this child. Not only that, but Matthew puts points to verse 22 and it shows that this child is actually the fulfillment of the prophecy in Isaiah, the version of conception, and the birth of Christ fulfilled the prophecy spoke by Isaiah in Isaiah 7, 14, and in that verse it says, "This child should be called Emmanuel." These names of Jesus, these names of Christ, Jesus, God saves, Emmanuel, God with us. That's who he takes him to, the child who is a savior, the child who is God in the flesh. He saves his people from their sins, how? Joseph doesn't know this shit, but we do. How does he save his people from their sins? Who died through his death, through the cross? You may ask yourself, who are these people that he's talking about here? Who are these people? Have you ever read a genealogy of Jesus in chapter one of Matthew? Have you ever read a genealogy? What do you think about that? Who's all what kind of people are in that genealogy, adulterous, prostitutes, heroes, deceivers, Gentiles, broken, messed up people? It covers the whole scheme of everybody, in that listen, in that genealogy. You have one man who actually slept with his two daughters in the same genealogy. Jacob, the deceiver, Abraham wasn't too righteous either, the things he did. And so you see, Jesus is the savior of all, that's his people, messed up, sinful, broken people. That's who he's coming to save. He's going to save us from our sins, not coming to conquer the Romans, but he's coming to conquer our sin that separates us from the love of God. That's what he's coming to. That's what he's going to be. Do you know that Jesus? The next name, Emmanuel, God is with us. In the incarnation, God was with us in the flesh, in a physical sense. But now that Jesus ascended to glory, God is with us through his spirit. He lives in every believer. And if you are a believer, if you know Jesus and God's spirit lives in you and God is with you, through his spirit. How are we confident, just like Joseph, we go to the sign. Have you been to the sign lately to receive comfort, or do you go to other places? Where do you go to receive your comfort? Where do you go when life gets tough, when you beat down? Where do you run to? Matthew says, run to your Savior, embrace his promises that he's always with us, even to the end of the age. He's Emmanuel. Still, what did he tell the apostles in the Great Commission? I would be with you always. That's a promise. But do we believe it? Always. I'll be with you always. I'll be with you when life is good. I'll be with you when life is bad. I'll be with you when life is in between. No matter what stage of the life you're in, guess what? I am, Emmanuel, well, with you. You've got a hole on to those things. You take your attention to Jesus. You take your hardships and difficulties to Jesus. You take all your issues, all your brokenness, and all your sense of self-righteousness to Jesus, whatever it is. You cast your burdens upon him. Why? Why? Why? Because he cares, but do you believe he cares. A lot of times we don't. If you struggle to know that God cares for you, look at the cross. What more proof do you need that he cares? What more proof that he sent Jesus to die? To die? Do you understand that? Do I understand that? It's not about that. Christmas is not about that. It's about leading Jesus to the cross. Now, that looks good, but Christmas is about a child who was born to die for our sins. That's Christmas. It was the beginning stages that Jesus was on the path to the cross from the day he was conceived. It was all leading them. You've got to see that. It was all leading to that event. He came to save us from our sins. I don't know if I lost my spot. I hate going off on tangents. So the interruption of Christmas is about Jesus as our Savior and it's about him as Emmanuel being with us. You have to embrace him as Emmanuel. A lot of times we embrace him as Savior, but do you embrace him as Emmanuel too, that he got you in this life. Do not walk up through this life as orphans, but as sons and daughters of Bikini, and he's your shepherd, and you are his sheep, and he got you, and he got you, and that means that nothing in all creation could separate you from the love of God is in Christ. Nothing in all creation. You are eternally secure in him. Not even your suffering can do it. You see, he comforts us also through his word. He comforts us through the Holy Spirit. He comforts us also through other believers, other Christians as well, and that's why it's important that we are connected to a body of believers, because there's going to be times and seasons in your life when you're going to need a brother and sister to walk alongside you, to remind you of the gospel, to remind you of those promises, because they are times where I just don't believe them, and I need to have Richard, the butch, or Doug to come in, or Travis, say, "Brother, this is what Jesus is doing for you. These are the God's promises to you. You've got to rest in that." And I get to do that for them too. That's the body at work in loving one another. That's a side note. As Joseph was comfort in his dream, he woke from that dream empowered. He was empowered when he woke from that dream. He was empowered to do what? To move forward and marry and marry, and taking her as his wife. Even though, even though the angel was still going to be hard, he said, "How a lot of things to go through," but he stepped out on faith and I'm going to trust the Lord here. He takes it. When Joseph woke from his sleep, he did, as the angel of the Lord commanded him, he took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. You can't tell me God was at work in that situation. He was married, but had to wait nine months to consummate the marriage? God was at work here. You've got to see that, that Joseph was standing on the words of the Lord as he stepped out of faith to fulfill his role. Why wasn't it important for Joseph to stay in the picture? God didn't need him, did he? He could have did it without him. Why wasn't it important for him to stay in the picture, to have Joseph in the picture? Because nothing is impossible with God. That's what the angel Gabriel told Mary. You see God works supernaturally, but he also chooses to work through natural means as well. In this situation, he chose to use the family structure he created to bring his son into the world. Jesus was not conceived naturally, but he was going to be raised up in the natural family. God works supernaturally in your life and he also works through natural means in your life. Every day life, he works. Think about Joseph in this situation. What was waiting for them out that Jesus was born? Death. Herod wanted to kill the child. Who did the angel come to to protect the child in Mary? Joseph. The angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph again in the dream, take the child. Herod is trying to kill the child. So the girl was going to use Joseph as a vessel to protect Mary and to protect the son of God. So he was going to use it. He had a role to play and the Lord brought him along in that role, strengthen him to fulfill that role. Through his conference, Jesus can empower you in this life. Are you empowered this morning? Are you empowered? Walking in the spirit and power chief, who you want to be empowered this morning, that you go to the sun and faith, hold on to those promises. And this is what the son has to say to each and every one of you this morning, he who began a good work in you would carry it on to completion to a day of Christ Jesus. You say, well, what does that mean? That's a sanctifying statement. He who began the good work in your life, in your marriage, in your family, in my life would carry it on to completion to the day of Christ Jesus. That's one of those promises. That's an Immanuel well promise that I'm with you to the end of the ages, let us pray. Lord Jesus, I thank you that you are our Immanuel, our Savior who died for our sins, for also the God who was with us through your spirit. That what you are doing in us, Lord, you will be the one to carry it on to completion. That you are faithful, that you were never forsaken. And so I pray, Lord, for everyone here and the issues and the situations and the hardships and the challenges that they are in, that you didn't meet them where they are. I pray for those who have hard times in the holiday season, and for a lot of people in our city, that it's holidays are not good. And so I pray, Lord, that you meet them in their pain and comfort them for the comfort of Christ, the comfort of your body. Well, you are good, you are so faithful, you are so awesome, you know, I pray that we be able to see you as you truly are, a God who conferences their people, a God who is good, a God who is faithful, a God who will sustain us, a God who will provide for us, a God who will restore us, prepare us, Lord, as we move forward this week, pray for our families and our kids, we watch over them and draw us closer to the heart of Christ in all that we do, Christ in my pray. Amen. [BLANK_AUDIO]