Presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation
Army, 29 December 2013 by Captain Michael Ramsay
In the lead up to Christmas we looked at the genealogy and the lineage
of Christ. Today, I want to look one more time at an important person in that
list. Joseph the son of Israel is often referred as ‘Joseph the Dreamer’ for
the dreams he has about his father, mother, brothers and the dreams he
interprets for Pharaoh and his servants. This Sunday we are looking at Joseph, the
legal guardian of Jesus. Joseph is an interesting person. Joseph is a righteous
man. Joseph is Jesus’ stepfather. And this Joseph is no less a dreamer than was
his namesake in the book of Genesis (Another more common OT comparison in these
chapters is, of course, that of Jesus to Moses; cf. Josephus Antiquities II,
205-7, 15-16 [ix. 2-3]).[1]
When we are first introduced to Joseph, we understand that he is
descended from some pretty famous ancestors who he traces all the way back to
Abraham.[2]
Matthew Chapter 1 reads:
This is the genealogy of
Jesus the Messiah the son of David, the son of Abraham:
Abraham was the father
of Isaac,
Isaac the father of
Jacob,
Jacob the father of
Judah and his brothers,
Judah the father of
Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar,
Perez the father of
Hezron,
Hezron the father of
Ram,
Ram the father of
Amminadab,
Amminadab the father of
Nahshon,
Nahshon the father of
Salmon,
Salmon the father of
Boaz, whose mother was Rahab,
Boaz the father of Obed,
whose mother was Ruth,
Obed the father of
Jesse,
and Jesse the father
of King David.
David was the father of
Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah’s wife,
Solomon the father of
Rehoboam,
Rehoboam the father of
Abijah,
Abijah the father of
Asa,
Asa the father of
Jehoshaphat,
Jehoshaphat the father
of Jehoram,
Jehoram the father of
Uzziah,
Uzziah the father of
Jotham,
Jotham the father of
Ahaz,
Ahaz the father of
Hezekiah,
Hezekiah the father
of Manasseh,
Manasseh the father of
Amon,
Amon the father of
Josiah,
and Josiah the father
of Jeconiah and his brothers at the time of the exile to Babylon.
After the exile to
Babylon:
Jeconiah was the father
of Shealtiel,
Shealtiel the father of
Zerubbabel,
Zerubbabel the father
of Abihud,
Abihud the father of
Eliakim,
Eliakim the father of
Azor,
Azor the father of
Zadok,
Zadok the father of
Akim,
Akim the father of
Elihud,
Elihud the father of
Eleazar,
Eleazar the father of
Matthan,
Matthan the father of
Jacob,
and Jacob the father
of Joseph, the husband of Mary, and Mary was the mother of Jesus who is called
the Messiah.
We have studied a number of these people in the months leading up to
Christmas and the significance of God preordaining them to be in the lineage
and genealogy of the Christ. Now we come to a very interesting verse in the
lineage of the Christ. Matthew 1:16, which we just read: “and Jacob the father
of Joseph, the husband of Mary, and Mary was the mother of Jesus who is called
the Messiah.” You will notice that it says that even though Joseph’s genealogy
provides the lineage of Jesus, it does not say that Joseph is Jesus’ birth
father.[3]
It says that he was instead “the husband of Mary, and Mary was the mother of
Jesus who is called the Messiah.” To this point in the story we know two things
about Joseph:
1)
He is
Jesus’ legal father
2)
He is
not Jesus’ biological father
Reading the story to this point then raises a couple of questions:
1)
Who is
Jesus’ biological father?
2)
Why
does Joseph take Mary’s son to raise as his own?
A response to these, Matthew tells us in Chapter 1:18-25:
This is how
the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be
married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant
through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law,
and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to
divorce her quietly.
But after
he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and
said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife,
because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth
to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his
people from their sins.”
All this
took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin
will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which
means “God with us”).
When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded
him and took Mary home as his wife. But he did not consummate their marriage
until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.
Joseph finds out that
his fiancée is pregnant but not by him. Last Sunday we spoke to this a little
bit.[4]
We spoke about how Joseph was a righteous man and that when he found out that
his fiancée became pregnant by someone other than himself, knowing that if he
wanted he could actually have her stoned to death; but he didn’t. He was a
righteous man and he wanted to divorce her quietly.
It was then that Joseph has a dream. And it is in this dream that an
angel tells Joseph that he is still to marry his fiancée and the angel also
tells Joseph what to name this son. Joseph then wakes from his dream and he
does everything just as he was instructed in his dream.
If you were in his place and your girlfriend became pregnant not by
yourself and you had decided to break up with her then that night you have a
dream about an angel telling you not to break up with her but to go ahead and
marry her and you also dream about what to name the child and who the child
would become, would you think that was true? What would you do? Joseph believes
his dream and Joseph does everything that the angel in his dream tells him to
do – including marrying Mary and refraining from having any physical relations
with her until her son is born.
Then, Matthew Chapter 2:1-11:
After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in
Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and
asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star
when it rose and have come to worship him.”
When King Herod heard this he was
disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. When he had called together all the
people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah
was to be born. “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the
prophet has written:
“‘But you,
Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no
means least among the rulers of Judah;
for out of
you will come a ruler
who will
shepherd my people Israel.’”
Then Herod called the Magi secretly
and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. He sent them to
Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find
him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.”
After they had heard the king, they
went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them
until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star,
they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother
Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures
and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.”
Joseph is present when these strangers show up with great gifts for the
newborn son. This would be quite a sign for anyone and everyone (see Numbers
22:17).[5]
It must have been a wonderful confirmation for Joseph that indeed his dream was
from God and indeed his obedience to the angel in his dream was obedience to
God himself. Joseph must have thought and felt so many things with the birth of
his legal son here who was and who is the Son of God, Himself.
And then, Matthew 2:13-14:
When they had gone, an angel of the
Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his
mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to
search for the child to kill him.”
So he got up, took the child and his
mother during the night and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of
Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of
Egypt I called my son.”
After time has passed here, Joseph has another dream about an angel.
This time he dreams about an angel telling him to leave for a foreign country
with his wife and her young son. Joseph, a young dad, then takes his young wife
and his young child and goes to a foreign country without any family waiting
for him there, without any job waiting for him there, without any support
network waiting for him there and he has a young wife and a young child to care
for. He takes them away from all the supports that are available for him at
home because of a dream he has of an angel again.
He is proved right again by following this dream, just as he was by
following the instructions given him through the previous dream. Matthew
2:16-18:
When Herod realized that he had been
outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys
in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance
with the time he had learned from the Magi. Then what was said through the
prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled:
“A voice is
heard in Ramah,
weeping and
great mourning,
Rachel
weeping for her children
and refusing
to be comforted,
because they
are no more.”
And then yet again, after however much time Joseph spends living,
working and raising his family in Egypt – they are settled now - Joseph has yet
another dream, Matthew 1:19-23:
After Herod died, an angel of the
Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, “Get up, take the child
and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take
the child’s life are dead.”
So he got up, took the child and his
mother and went to the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus was
reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there.
Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee, and he
went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said
through the prophets, that he would be called a Nazarene.
Joseph is a righteous man, the Bible tells us. And Joseph the dreamer
has had quite a challenging time of his adult life so far. Let’s think about
it: His wife has given birth to a child, not his own. He has a dream so he
married her. He then dreams again so he takes his wife and the child to a
foreign country without any job or any family and he finally gets settled and
now he has yet another dream. This dream tells him to walk away from everything
that he is working on in Egypt, quit his work, and pack up his wife and child
again (and maybe even other children at this point). Joseph does this again.
Because of a dream he has, he moves his family back to Judea. Upon returning to
Judea, he doesn’t like the political situation and so he moves up north, out in
the country. He moves to Galilee, to the town of Nazareth where he proceeds to
disappear from our records all together.[6]
We never hear of him again. This is all we know of Joseph, the legal guardian,
the stepfather of Jesus.
People assume Joseph dies young because Jesus’ mother and brothers are
mentioned more than once in the documents that we have but if you search your
scriptures, you will notice that Joseph is not. Here is a man who gave up
everything that he had worked for on more than one occasion to follow a dream;
here is a man who has given up everything in his life more than once to follow
God. It was not apparently an easy life he led: repeatedly dropping everything.
He travels from Judea to Egypt to Galilee and Nazareth. And then after doing
all of this, the presumption is that he dies early. He gives up everything to
follow his God-given dreams. He gives up everything to follow God and God uses
the obedience of this man to bless the whole world.
He gives up everything to follow the Lord and this is exactly what we
too are called to do today. And in so doing Jesus promises, Matthew 19:29-30,
that “everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother
or wife or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much
and will inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and many
who are last will be first.” Joseph gives up his whole life to follow the Lord
as God leads him through dreams. Joseph has the choice on more than one
occasion to either focus on his own needs and the apparent needs of his family
or to follow the Lord’s direction and each time it is recorded, he follows the
Lord’s leading. So too do we have this choice today. Jesus says and Matthew
records that we can either work to be first in this world or we can give up our
whole life to follow Christ and thus be first in the next. May we today follow
the example of Joseph. It is my prayer that each of us here will choose God’s
eternal life over our own plans for own life. For, as Matthew reminds us,
“everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or
wife or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and
will inherit eternal life.”
We are now invited to stand and sing together "I believe in Jesus"
and if this song is true of you today, I invite you that as you leave the
sanctuary today, you can write your name on a leaf here that we will add to the
‘Vine of Christ’ that we have been working on. As we each write our names on a
leaf and leave it at the mercy seat, it will be a public acknowledgement that
indeed we believe in Jesus.
Let us sing.
---
[1] Cf. D.A. Carson, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, The,
Pradis CD-ROM:Matthew/Exposition of Matthew/I. Prologue: The Origin and Birth
of Jesus the Christ (1:1-2:23)/C. The Visit of the Magi (2:1-12), Book Version:
4.0.2
[2] Cf. Captain Michael Ramsay, 'Matthew 1:1-17, Luke 3:23-38: De Vine
Final,' presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army,
(Sheepspeak.com: Swift Current, SK: 24 November 2013). Available on-line:
http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2013/11/matthew-11-17-luke-323-38-de-vine-final.html
for the summary sermon of this series.
[3] Cf. R. T. France, Matthew: An Introduction and Commentary.
Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 1985 (Tyndale New Testament
Commentaries 1), S. 76: This
new phraseology makes it clear that Matthew does not regard Jesus as Joseph’s
son physically, and vv. 18–25 will explain this at length.
[4] Captain Michael Ramsay, 'Matthew 1:18-2:18: What is your choice?'
presented to the Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army, (Sheepspeak.com:
Swift Current, Sk: 23 December, 2013 and 26 December 2010). Available on-line:
http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2013/12/matthew-118-218-what-is-your-choice.html
cf. also Captain Michael Ramsay, 'Luke 1:26-37: Do You Believe?' Presented to
the Nipawin Corps 14 December 2008. Available on-line:
http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2008/12/luke-126-37-do-you-believe.html and
Captain Michael Ramsay, 'Matthew 1:18-25: Do you believe?' Presented to each
Nipawin and Tisdale Corps, 24 December 2007 and the CFOT chapel in Winnipeg,
December 2006. Available on-line:
http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2008/12/matthew-118-25-do-you-believe.html
[5] Cf. Daniel J. Harrington, The Gopel of Matthew, (Sagra
Pagina: Liturgical Press: Collegeville, Minnesota, 1991), p. 48 re. the
prophecy of Balaam as it relates to this episode.
[6] Cf. Daniel J. Harrington, The Gopel of Matthew, (Sagra
Pagina: Liturgical Press: Collegeville, Minnesota, 1991), p. 45-46 re.
Nazareth.
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