The title of our Advent sermon series at Pawnee Baptist Church this
year has been “Fear Not.”
The series is
based on the idea that it can be scary to follow God’s plan for your life – and
it is derived from the fact that almost every time an angel appears in scripture,
he must begin the conversation with some form of those words – Fear Not.
In the story of the birth of Jesus, there are several angelic
appearances, but there are not enough available “Sunday Mornings” to cover them
all, so for the story of the angelic appearance to Joseph in Matthew chapter 1,
I am creating this blog post.
The big idea for this particular appearance of the angel and for this
blog post goes something like this:
It is never foolish to follow God’s plan.
In Matthew 1:19-25, we find Joseph’s story as it relates to the birth
of Jesus. It is fairly short, but
it contains a vast wealth of truth related to the importance of following God’s
plan regardless of how foolish it may seem to do so. It is a story of scandal and heartbreak – but also a story
of obedience and faith.
Joseph was a carpenter who was engaged to a young (probably teenage)
girl named Mary. However, they had
not yet come together as man and wife, which meant that Joseph was probably
still trying to establish himself so that he could support his bride.
During this time, Joseph discovers that his fiancée had become
pregnant. There it the
scandal. He knew it was not his
baby. That could only mean Mary
had been unfaithful. She was
obviously not the person he believed her to be. There is the heartbreak.
Because Mary had been found to be pregnant, the Apostle Matthew tells
us that Joseph had already begun the process of quietly divorcing her. This action alone demonstrates the
honor and integrity of Joseph as a man of God. Matthew says he was a “just” man. Imagine hearing Mary tell her side of the story. Of course you couldn’t believe
her. It simply was not possible
for a virgin to be pregnant. And
yet, you still loved her and, as an honorable man, you didn’t want to expose
her to public humiliation and shame.
In truth, if you had not been such an honorable man, you could have her
stoned to death. The law justified
it. No one would question your
actions. Instead, you determine to
put her away quietly and hope that she can make the best of her life.
God, however, had other plans for Joseph. Through the visitation of an angel in a dream, God revealed
that he wanted Joseph to take Mary – an unwed pregnant girl – to be his wife
and raise her son as his own son.
Mary had done nothing worthy of shame or even divorce because her
pregnancy was just as Mary had claimed – of the Holy Spirit. Furthermore, this
child would be special. He would
save his people from their sins.
Joseph would be honored to be able to adopt him as his own son – except
that Joseph had a pretty big problem.
Taking Mary to be his bride under these circumstances would be the most
foolish thing he could do. Today
we have the testimony of the Holy Spirit and of eyewitnesses in history of the
resurrection of Jesus Christ and yet we still have large segments of people
today – even Christians - who are unwilling to accept that Mary was
virgin. How much more difficulty,
in that moment on that day, would Joseph’s family and social circle have in
believing it to be true.
I can just imagine what his peers, family, and even his spiritual
leaders would have said to him.
They would have accused him of being a fool – acting unwisely. They would have warned him of the
social scorn they would experience.
They would have warned him how it would negatively impact his carpentry
business. We have already
speculated that he had not fully established himself in the business world
because they had not come together yet.
The public ire of taking in an unfaithful, pregnant woman as a bride –
and then adopting her son as your own – would surely have set back his career
plans. For Joseph to follow God’s
path would mean to go against all conventional wisdom.
But Joseph had a promise to God that is also available to us. The promise is this:
Conventional wisdom is foolishness to God
The Apostle Paul spoke to it most plainly in 1 Corinthians 3:16-20
18 Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is
wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. 19 For the
wisdom of this world is folly with God. For it is written, “He catches the wise
in their craftiness,” 20 and again, “The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise,
that they are futile.”
And so Joseph did the unconventional,
unwise thing; he was obedient to the call and took Mary as his wife. Imagine if you can the amount of faith
it took on his part to trust that God would honor his seemingly unwise
actions. To be obedient would
literally mean placing all of their lives directly into the hands of God.
How exactly did that turn out? Did they flourish? Examination of the
scripture suggests that it does not appear they were very well off
financially. Were there other
problems because of his decision?
Well, it turns out they did have to flee for their lives and live as
refugees in Egypt for a while when Herod tried to kill Jesus. I can’t imagine that would have looked
good to an outsider examining Joseph’s choices. From the world’s perspective,
taking in Mary and adopting Jesus probably ruined his life.
Here again, though, we can lean of the
wisdom of God as being superior to the wisdom of man. True blessings cannot be measured in terms of earthly wealth
or social status. Consider this: Joseph
got the blessing and the pleasure of raising the Son of God. Just sit back and think about that for
a few minutes. Jesus was
sinless. Jesus was perfect. As a father, I cannot even imagine the
joy he experienced. No
spankings. No “taking a
break.” No discipline
necessary. No arguments over why I
wouldn’t allow him to go do this or that.
No need to “nag” him because he is making poor life choices. If only, right? (NOTE: MY children,
though not as perfect as Jesus, were pretty close to perfect – and if you
believe that, well… shame on you.)
Since we know that Joseph died before
Jesus entered his ministry, I don’t think it would be out of the realm of
reality to speculate that he died a very happy and blessed man.
Now think about your own situation.
No matter what it is that God has in
store for you to do while we are on this earth, if it is his plan and his will,
then there is no foolishness in it.
The world may consider it foolishness. It may even seem foolish to you. As Paul also said in 1 Corinthians 1:18, “For the word of
the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it
is the power of God.” I know that
in my own life there have been a number of times when I knew without a doubt
that God had called me to do something – but to many around me, it was
foolishness. But I can testify
that God is faithful. He has
ALWAYS seen me through it. Never have I regretting doing that which he had
called me to do. Never has what
seemed foolish at first turned out to be foolish. And in every case, God has been magnified and I have been
blessed. When we are
obedient to God’s calling on our lives, we can be assured that we are working
in the power of God.
