FBCWest 534 | Joseph - Action in Response to Faith
Recorded On: 12/18/2022
Bulletin
Hymn # 82 “Go Tell It on the Mountain”
SCRIPTURE READING – Matthew 28:19 & 20
Giving of Selves and Our Offerings
OFFERTORY PRAYER
OFFERTORY MUSIC – Pru Hungate
Praise and Worship
“Echo Holy”
“Only King Forever”
“Goodness of God”
Proclamation of the Word
Message by Pastor Joe
“Joseph: Action in Response to Faith”
PRAYER TIME / Time of Reflection
“He Shall Reign Forevermore”
Benediction “God Really Loves Us”
Acknowledgements and Announcements
Sermon Notes
Matthew 1:18 & 19 Joseph, hearing of Mary’s pregnancy decides to divorce her privately so she would not be disgraced
Matthew 1:20 – 23 Angel comes to Joseph and tells him not to be afraid to take Mary as his wife because what has happened is according to God’s plan and doing
Matthew 24 & 25 Joseph did as the angel commanded and took took Mary as his wife and kept her a virgin until she gave birth to Jesus
Scritpures
Transcript of Service
Sometimes we just need to slow down. Take a deep breath. And say. Our Lord. The king of the universe. He still. And even though we run to and fro. He gives us his peace. The peace that passes all understand. So if you will turn in your Bibles to chapter, the first chapter of Matthew. We will continue on with. If you will, the Christmas story. The Christmas story is such a great story. Such a great narrative. Such a great teaching. Why I have not kept it to one week? That we've shown throughout the various aspects of the Christmas story. And this is one that sometimes gets overlooked. But I think it's worthy for us to look at it and worthy for us to emulate what Joseph does. And so in the first chapter of Matthew, starting with verse. 18 it says this. Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows. When his mother, Mary, had been patroled to Joseph before they came together, she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit. The teaching will continue to be. That Jesus. Came forth from a virgin. The Old Testament predicted that we'll see that in a moment. The scriptures tell us. That he was born of a virgin. And yet you will hear theologians. The fact It tells us that before. Mary and Joseph came together that she was already found with child. By the Holy Spirit. The next verse follows and says. They were. And Joseph, her husband, being a righteous man, not wanting to disgrace her plan to set send her away. What does this mean? Joseph, being a righteous man, followed what God had told him to do. Followed not only the prescripts of what the law commanded, but he did so. With the heart. Of following the Lord, he was a righteous man. But being a righteous man. We also didn't want to. Participate if you will in unrighteousness. And so Mary, having been found to be with child, and they were betrothed, which is different than our engagement in in our engagement, we simply ask someone to marry us, and they say yes, and we set a date. And you're not married until that formal commitment and ceremony. And so. Or in the Jewish law you became betrothed. That was a contractual arrangement, sometimes made by the parents, sometimes made by others, but it was a contractual relationship. But there was a period of time between that contractual and when the marriage became fully. And so they're in that intermediate stage contractually married. But have not yet come together. And Joseph, being a righteous man, saying wait a minute. I don't want to participate in Mary's.
Unrighteousness because she's pregnant. He decides that he's going to put her away secretly. That's a nice way of saying he's going to divorce her secretly. But the reason he's going to divorce her secretly is because he does not want to disgrace. During his righteousness he is not self-righteous. He's not vindictive. He simply says I don't want to participate, but I don't want to add further harm to her. So I'm going to divorce her, but I'm going to do that secretly so that she's not further disgraced in the community and others by going through a divorce proceeding that says the reason I want a divorce is she's on faith. When he had considered this, behold, an Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream scene, and I. Want to stop there? This stream is not like yours in my stream. I'm sure like you like me, I've had some really real dreams. I've also had some really strange dreams. And there'll be some dreams that you have that you want to share with and say you know what I dreamt and whatever. And I've also known dreams have been so real that you kind of want to do something about it. And I remember one time as a a teenager. My mother was mad at me and she said that I did something. I go. I didn't do that. When you think I did that and all of a sudden she. Paused and she goes. Did I dream there? I go, you must have because I didn't do that, you know, not I may not be totally innocent, but I didn't do that. And so there's this sometimes that we get caught up in dreams that we think are so real, but that is not what happens here. You see, it says. An Angel the Lord appeared to him in a dream he didn't dream about an Angel. An Angel appeared to him in a dream, which means that this dream is one of the ways God communicates to his people. It will talk about. That old men and young men will dream, dreams and prophecy. So part of God this talking to you. Is in this. Not dream state of sleep, but this dream state of God communicating and in this dream of communication an Angel appears to Joseph. And and this Angel, said Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife or the child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. This Angel tells Joseph that this child is unique. One-of-a-kind. In all of the history of humanity. Previously a. Angel came to Zacharias, who was an old man. Who is married to an old woman who is barren? And that Angel said, you're going to have a child. You're going to have a son and your name him John and this child while in the womb will be filled with the Holy Spirit. Which again makes him different than most children. And he has been ordained with a task to be the forerunner of the Messiah. The Angel here tells Joseph not that he's going to be full of the Holy Spirit, but that he has been conceived that he's been created by the Holy Spirit. This makes Jesus the Messiah unique in all of humanity. He truly is the son of God. So when you hear people discuss. Well as. Jesus Jesus was just a good teacher. Jesus was a prophet. And I'm going well, if Jesus was such a good teacher. Why don't you do what he teaches us to do? You know things like. Love one another as he's loved us and gave himself. Up for it. The love God with all the heart, all of mine and all our soul and all our strength to love our neighbor as herself. As we read earlier, we go therefore.
And teach all that he's commanded. Making disciples you don't see people who say that he's a good teacher following his teaching. But part of his teaching was I am. Part of his teaching was. I am the son of. When he said I am the son of man, he didn't say I'm human. He's saying I'm that guy who and Daniel was talking about with the ancient of days comes I'm I'm God. That's his teaching. And as far as the prophet, yeah he was a prophet. He said that the. You destroy him in three days he would rise again. He also told us he's coming back. But you can tell people don't treat that as a prophecy because we live as if he's not. But to deny who he is. Is to deny the testimony of Jesus. It is to deny the testimony of the scriptures. And it is denied the testimony of God himself. As God said, behold, my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased. So Jesus is the son of God. He has been conceived by the Holy Spirit and Joseph is told this so that he doesn't have to be concerned about Mary being unfaithful to him. But then Mary has been used as a vessel to bring forth the son. Of God. She will bear a son. And you shall call his name Jesus. Just like John was pre named, Jesus has been pre named as well. He is going to be and that Jesus is the Greek form. The Hebrew former yahshua. His name shall be yahshua Jesus. You're the name of that. Or he will save his people from their sins. Notice it didn't say he will cover his people from their sins. He didn't say we'll ignore their sins. He said he will save them from theirs. A wonderful John had a great ministry. He's going to proclaim the coming of the Messiah, but John could only point Jesus, who was the one who was going to fulfill the scriptures and was going to fulfill the fact that we no longer have to carry and be burden and be ashamed of our sin. Because he.
Will save their people from their sin. Now there is an explanation. That Matthew gives in the middle of an event because he wants us to understand, and he's writing to generally a Jewish audience that God is fulfilling a Old Testament prophecy. And he says now all this took place to fulfill what was. Spoken to by the Lord through the Prophet. You hold the virgin shall be with child, and shall bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel, which translated means God with. First off. Matthew is saying. This is the fulfillment of scripture. You think that it's difficult? For an old man and an old woman. Have a child? We've done it a couple of times. We did it with Abraham and Sarah. And he's done it with Zacharias. And Elizabeth. But as he told Mary. A child shall be conceived from a virgin. For nothing is impossible. So we come to celebrate the birth of this one. Who's not an ordinary child, not just an ordinary baby, but one who is Emmanuel. God with. Not just God at some near location, but God with. And the promise that we have been given that has been fulfilled, that he dwells within his people. We talk about Jesus living in our heart. But that's what he does. He comes and he dwells, and he lives within us. It is God with us, not just from the time that he became a baby till he was ascended to heaven and he still God with us. He is still Emmanuel. And Joseph walked from the sleep and did as the Angel of the Lord commanded him, and took Mary as his wife. But kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a son and he called his name. So here's a couple of things. Has been given a name that Joseph obeys by naming Jesus that he also keeps Mary a virgin until. Now our Effic brothers and sisters want to say that the Virgin Mary is still a virgin. That's not what the scriptures say. First, here the scripture says he kept her virgin until the birth. We're also told that a bunch of brothers and sisters come to Jesus while Jesus is ministering and think he's a little crazy want to. Bring him home. They're not really believers. Think he's kind of out there? Well, they say well. That's not really brothers and sisters in the biological sense. It's it's while we call each other brother and sister. Well, if that's true, then what Jesus says makes no sense, because if. There were just brothers and sisters as we call each other brothers and sisters. Then why does he say well, who's my brother, who's my sister but the one who does the will of God? Mary gave birth as a virgin. She didn't stay there. Joseph and Mary had a regular marital relationship. Now we hear. A lot of people say, well, Joseph must have died sometime before Jesus Ministry because XY&Z. It's possible. It's also possible he lived to be rightful age. And his job. Was to continue being a Carpenter and making some money for the family. Because the story is not about Jose. We talk about and we see Mary kind of in some of these scriptures. We all get to identify with Jesus in this point about how Mary comes him and said, well, there's a problem at a wedding and you need to fix it. And if you've been a child of a mom, you know she's always trying to get you to fix things. Is the mall. On top of that, we see because there was a. Prophecy that said that her soul would be Pierce. And she was there at his crucifixion. For that to happen. But again, the story is not about Mary, not about Joseph, it's about. Yahshua Jesus the Messiah. But we need. Emulate Joseph in this sense. Noticed as soon as he awoke from the dream he took action. It says. He awoke from the sleep. He and did as the Angel. Of the Lord met. He didn't say he thought about it and wondered if it was a good idea or he struggled with the idea.
He took immediate action because God had told him to take immediate action. But we all want to wait. Even when it comes to salvation, there's this time when we hear the spirit calling us to faith. We hold on to the Pew. And say. Maybe next week. Maybe later. Or God calls us to some ministry, and while you know it, that's really hard and I don't know and we want to put it off and put it off and put it off. Joseph said. You're married to Mary. Continue on. And raise. The son of God. Preaching every week. I don't think it's that hard. Sometimes the hardest part is. Knowing what the. Next theories ought to be or whatever. Not tough I guess if you don't like to talk. It'll be a real struggle. Pastoring a church. To be difficult. Can be more difficult at sometimes than others. When everybody loves everybody and then everybody thinks you're wonderful. Kind of cool and everybody thinks you're kind of. Antichrist is not so great. But sometimes it can be difficult. Joseph ministry Be there and protect and raise the son of God. Everybody, and rightfully so. Bless his Mary. Rightfully so, she is favored by. Joseph's, the head of the house. Shows his righteousness by doing what God says to do immediate. As Mary, we need to emulate her and that she submitted to God's will. And when we submit to God's will we need to be like Joseph and to do it immediately? And not to find excuse and not to find delay and not to find reasons to do something. To do what he was called to. Do kept her a virgin. Didn't matter what his biological urges were. Kept her. And then he. Was protector. And the leader of the family. That was to. Now, as difficult as that might have been. Think about the bless. That this child that they're going to. And start with. The first steps that he. The steps of. When he drives you crazy and you're afraid because you don't know where he is and you finally find him in the temple and he says. Guess what, I'm in my father's house. Sometimes the ministry that God calls for us to do. May seem unusual. And may seem difficult. But there are blessings untold while we are faithful in doing. Like Joseph We may not get a lot of. Pages in the scriptures about who we are and what we did. The gardener And God bless. And God. Gives his people. So you may. Not be called to raise the son of God. We've been told as we sang the first song. Pellet on a mount.
That Jesus Christ is. He's not just a baby. He's not just a child of peace. He is the Lord of Lords, and he is the King of Kings. And we worship him because he deserves it because he is God. In the flesh. God with. And he hasn't left us or forsaken us, he is still Emmanuel. And so when we rush here and there, and are afraid that we don't have enough money to buy the gifts that we need to buy, or that we might have left somebody out, and we're so afraid that we might hurt somebody's feelings. That God not just gave you a gift that. What we call Christmas Day. It continues to do so. Because God is still with. And all of. Large people.