Saturday, December 12, 2015

Fear Not: Joseph's Angelic Encounter

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.

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