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"Believe God like Joseph" Advent 4, year A Mathew 1:18-25

by Clancy Nixon

December 12, 2004

Church of the Holy Spirit

Ashburn, Virginia

We don't know very much about Joseph the carpenter. In all the gospels, Joseph is

never recorded as saying anything. In our Christmas pageants, Joseph is present, but not

in the spotlight, which is reserved for Mary and Jesus. In the genealogy of Jesus which

ends at Matthew, chapter 1, verse 16, Joseph is identified as a direct descendant of King

David, but Joseph is also called the husband of Mary, for he is not the biological father of

Jesus. Because Joseph understood that he was not to be center stage, God is able to be in

the center of this drama.

Early in our marriage, Ginger and I considered moving to her hometown, Mobile,

Alabama, to begin our life there. I interviewed with some Mobile law firms. We talked

with her family about what our life would be like if we moved there. Ginger's brother

Daly said that for the first few years, I would be known in Mobile as the husband of

Ginger Baumhauer. After a while, I would become known for who I was. That was a

hard dynamic to contemplate. Well, we stayed in Washington and now I'm known as the

husband of Ginger Nixon! In the gospel drama, Joseph is known not just for a few years,

but for all eternity, as the husband of Mary. That is a place of humility. Joseph was

called to play a small part in the greatest drama of all.

1. God is able to give your life meaning. You and I will probably be forgotten

by human history a few years after we die. That does not make us insignificant. You and

I have a destiny that is far greater than human history. God is able to do all things, and

God has given us an awesome destiny. All believers have been given a small part to play

in the great drama of salvation history, what Dante called The Divine Comedy. We find

meaning for our little stories because they are caught up in God's bigger story.

Look at Matthew chapter one, verse 18, found on page 955 of your blue Bibles.

Let's read it together: "Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came

together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit." Each Jewish wedding

in those days had three stages: 1. Engagement, 2. Betrothal, and 3. Wedding. The

Engagement was arranged by contract by the parents of the couple to be married, usually

long before they reached marrying age. The Betrothal was done by formal ceremony, and

could only be undone by divorce. Betrothal lasted about a year, and was a time when the

couple was expected to get to know one another and to keep sexually abstinent. The

Wedding was another formal ceremony, followed by a party lasting several days and

nights, when the relationship was consummated.

In verse 18, Joseph discovers that Mary is pregnant during the Betrothal period.

While our culture treats this as normal today, it was a very big deal back then, a life or

death deal. The penalty for adultery was death by stoning. Mary seemed to have broken

her vows of betrothal. The news must have been a spear piercing Joseph's heart. At

some point, Mary told Joseph the story we know from Luke 1 about how the Angel

Gabriel had visited her, and told her that she would bear the Messiah, even though she

was still a Virgin. We don't know when Mary told Joseph this, or how he responded

when he first heard this story. All we know is that Joseph was making a plan to divorce

his betrothed quietly. Joseph chose love over law. Mary would not be stoned, and she

would not be subject to a public hearing. Most likely, the townspeople of Nazareth were

abuzz with gossip over Mary's pregnancy, and Joseph did not want to give them any

more fodder for the gossip mill.

Verse 19 gives us an important clue about Joseph: It says that Joseph was a

"righteous" man who did not want his wife to suffer public disgrace. Other translations

use these words instead of the word "righteous" to describe Joseph here: noble, upright,

principled, blameless, and conforming to God's ways and man's. This was no ordinary

Joe. Since Paul the Apostle, Christians know that righteousness comes by faith. If

Joseph is known as righteous, it means that he believed God. Indeed, Joseph's great faith

comes clear in what happens later. Joseph learned that God is able to do all things.

Believe God God is able.

2. God is able to turn your sorrows into joy. God intervened for Joseph in an

unusual way. Verse 20: The Lord sends his Angel to speak to Joseph in a dream, and

tells him that Mary's pregnancy is indeed by the Holy Spirit, and her son Jesus will save

his people from their sins. Joseph had been heartbroken, but now he realizes that God is

doing something bigger than he first imagined, that it's not about him. Joseph believed

the angel, he believed Mary, so he adopted the child as his own. Joseph was an excellent

father, protecting his family from harm. His sorrow was turned to joy only when he

believed that God has a great purpose for his life. Believe God God is able.

3. Believe God in painful circumstances. When our lives take a nasty turn, we can

cry out to God, like Joseph probably did, something like this: "Oh God, where are you?

What are you doing through this?" God's call to Joseph came in the middle of

circumstances that appeared shameful. Notice carefully: God did not change Joseph's

circumstances. Mary didn't lose the baby; instead, God gave Joseph faith to change his

attitude about his circumstances. God gave Joseph a way to understand his greater

purpose in the middle of painful circumstances. This applies to you and me as well.

When you are in a tight place, a place of sorrow, God wants you to believe him for

deliverance. That is called faith. God wants you to believe him for victory. Sometimes

God will remove the obstacle completely. Just don't expect that your deliverance will

always mean a change in circumstances, or a victory over circumstances often your

victory will come in the midst of painful circumstances. For Joseph, the pregnancy of his

wife by another was not an obstacle to his calling, but was the very bedrock of his

calling. I think of Joni Eareckson Tada, who God used previously because she is

paralyzed, or Nicky Cruz, the former gang member that God uses to reach kids in the

street. Or Chuck Colson, former hatchet man for Richard Nixon, who went to jail in the

Watergate Scandal. God humbled Colson, who received Christ in his broken condition.

The ministry of Prison Fellowship was born because Colson went to prison. Angel Tree

ministry helps many children of prisoners because God didn't let Colson escape prison.

Because Joseph believed God about this child, he was able to see Herod's intent to kill all

the baby boys in Bethlehem not as a convenient way to solve his problem, but rather as

cause to flee to protect the Child. Circumstances did not get better for Joseph. The Holy

Family had to cool their heels in Egypt until Herod died. In the process, Joseph had to

stay away from his home, his family and friends, and his business in Nazareth even

longer. Jesus lived under the cloud of illegitimacy his entire life, but the Holy Family

believed God anyway. Believe God God is able.

4. God is able to guide you in unusual ways. Joseph heard angels speak to him in

dreams four times in these first two chapters of Matthew. Each time, he did what the

angel told him. The baby Jesus was protected. Verse 24: When Joseph woke up, he did

what the angel of the Lord commanded him. It takes faith for anyone to believe that God

is able to use your dreams to speak to you. It takes faith to believe that God is speaking

to you today in dreams and visions and gentle impressions. It is so easy to miss leadings

like this! [Raise hand] How many of you have ever experienced God speaking to you

through a dream? I have. I had a recurring nightmare for years about a demon chasing

me. After a long time, God showed me that this dream pointed to a spiritual reality. I got

deliverance from this very real demon at a Leanne Payne conference, and it changed my

life radically. I'm sure that we all have dreams that do not come from God, but instead

come from our own subconscious mind, our own sinful nature, just wish fulfillment, or

anxiety dreams. Like every other leading you might get, you need to test any unusual

dream you get before you follow it. I'm planning to teach a sermon series this winter on

how to listen to God, and how to discern whether a leading is from God or not. Stay

tuned!

Count on this: if you never pay attention to dreams, then you will never hear God

speak to you through a dream. You have closed the door to that possibility. Friends, God

is able to guide you in unusual ways. God told Joseph how he could believe what his

pregnant fiancée said, and when to hi-tail it out of town, `cause trouble is coming. Do you

believe that this scripture is true? Do you believe that God is able to do the same great

things for you and me today? Ask God to lead you through dreams and visions, and

words and circumstances, and gentle impressions - and He will. You have not because

you ask not. James 1:5 says, "If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives

to all liberally without reproach, and it will be given to him." Believe God God is able.

5. God is able to do all things for you through Christ. We have not yet begun to

believe God. There is so much more of his work and his power that we have not yet seen.

Joseph got to see a Virgin Birth and to raise the Messiah. This week, I've been reading

George Marsden's great new biography of Jonathan Edwards. Edwards got to see God

move in revival so powerfully that his town of Northampton, Massachusetts, and

everyone in it, came humbly to Christ in 1734. Teenagers, heads up: The Great

Awakening started with teenagers, when Edwards preached at a funeral of one who

died young. Edwards preached the shortness of life, the vanity of seeking fleeting sensual

pleasures, when they could enjoy spiritual pleasures for eternity. The teenagers responded

to the message with confession and repentance, and God gave them power to live holy

lives. The adults in town saw their example and followed quickly. The Awakening spread

throughout New England, and across the pond to England, where young John Wesley

heard of it. God is able to use you to change your culture. God is able to take teenage

musicians and glorify himself while they lead adults in worship. Amen? Believe God

God is able.

When a young child has a birthday these days, not only the birthday boy or girl gets

gifts, but every other child also gets something. That's not how it was when I grew up.

This Advent, I am doing a Beth Moore study with my wife called Believing God. You

know how some kids whine and wish when it is not their birthday they whine about

what they didn't get, and they wish for what they want. Beth Moore says we can be like

that in spiritual things, beloved. When we observe someone who is really walking with

the Lord, whose prayers are regularly answered, who is full of Holy Spirit power, -

someone like Ginger - what do you do? Do you believe that that same power is available

to you, if you would only believe? No, usually we whine that those saints just have more

grace than we do, and we wish we had their anointing. Beth Moore says we've got to

stop whining and wishing, and do more believing and receiving! I say Amen! The

promise is for all of us! Beloved, God is able! Say it with me: God is able.

An Advent theme is wake up, o sleepers! Verse 24: When Joseph woke up, he did

what the Lord commanded him. Like Joseph, God wants to wake us up and shake us out

of our slumber. You see these Chinese slippers? Ginger's father gave these to me they

are made of silk, and they are very comfy but they aren't very rugged. In a spiritual

sense, many of us never take these off. We want God to bless us, and God does promise

us He will bless us. It's just that our idea of blessing and God's idea are very different.

Our idea of blessing is to have more padding on our shoes and our lives- more time in

slippers. Beth says we need to take off our bedroom slippers and put on our hiking boots.

We have places to go in the spirit. I have trod mountains in these boots in Pennsylvania,

Vermont, Massachusetts, California and Colorado. God says, "How beautiful on the

mountains are the feet of those who bring good news." We need to step out in our boots.

Believe God for your next step in faith. If we are to do what Joseph did, to believe God

for miracles, then we need to obey God like Joseph did.

The good news of the gospel is not that Joseph is a good example of faith for us, or

even that Jesus is a good example. The good news is that God loves us even in our

laziness and folly, and that if we will let him, God himself will transform us. Believe

God God is able. Amen?

Let's pray. Give us faith, O Lord. Save us from whining and wishing. Move us to

believing and receiving. Prepare us to receive more guidance, Lord, more blessings,

Lord more power, Lord more of you.