- When our children were minors,
there was a clause in our will concerning their custody
in the case that both Lise and I should die
leaving them without natural parents,
something that all parents at one time
or another have to consider.
You know, sometimes mom passes away or dad has an accident.
But I've known and heard when both parents are killed,
leaving small children behind.
So when it came to choosing who would be their guardians,
we had a hard time.
We wanted the best for them of course,
physically, someone who could take care of them,
and emotionally, but spiritually as well.
And I remember, we were living in Montreal at the time
and our families, both of our families,
both Lise and I, our families
were not members of the church.
And the church wasn't very large,
so that was kind of a tough decision.
Many of you younger parents are in this situation.
Think about it.
Who would you choose to leave your children to
if you had to?
I'm amazed to think that God, our Heavenly Father,
had exactly this choice to make
in sending Jesus His Son to be born here on Earth.
I mean, who would He choose to be Jesus' earthly father
and entrust into his hands the care for His Son?
Now if it were me,
don't you love playing that game?
If I was God,
and if God would have asked me for my advice in the matter,
I would have chosen a devout,
wealthy, rabbi living in Jerusalem.
You know, someone to teach him about religion of course,
someone powerful and influential
in the major religious center of Israel.
Someone respected and experienced in raising children.
I'm not going to send my only son to Earth
to be raised by some, you know,
some novice.
So as is His habit,
God did not take my advice on that matter.
When it came to choosing an earthly father for Jesus,
who did He choose?
Joseph of Nazareth.
Think about it, Joseph of Nazareth.
He was not a rabbi.
He was not a priest, not from that group.
He was poor.
He was unknown.
He lived far from the seat of power in Nazareth.
He had no family experience that we know of.
And yet, with all of this going against him,
God chose Joseph nevertheless.
My question is, why?
We've just gone through the Christmas holiday
with the birth of Jesus,
which is the focus of that and rightly so.
Tonight, I want to shift that focus
and look at some of the reasons
why God chose Joseph to become the earthly father
of this baby, Jesus.
And hopefully how Joseph can serve today
as an example for us as modern day fathers.
Well, this story begins in Matthew 1:18.
Let's read that.
Matthew writes, "Now the birth
of Jesus Christ was as follows.
When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph,
before they came together,
she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit."
Just an aside here, isn't the Bible compact
the way it writes things?
Just that small little verse,
you could unpack that for hours.
Mary and Joseph lived in Nazareth,
about 70 miles or so northwest of Jerusalem.
They were betrothed.
Today, we'd say engaged to be married.
In that particular culture, to be betrothed
was as binding as an actual marriage.
You took vows.
You exchanged a dowery and needed a divorce
in order to dissolve this union,
even if the couple had not yet been sexually intimate.
You still needed a divorce to break the betrothal.
In normal circumstances, there would be a betrothal
followed by a period of preparation for the wedding feast,
which was followed by the actual cohabitation.
Now when the wedding feast would take place,
the groom with his party of attendants
would wind his way through the streets
of the village with music and merriment
and go to the house of his betrothed
in order to bring his bride to the wedding feast.
After the celebration, she would return to his home
to begin their married life together.
So until this point, all had been going as planned
with Joseph, like all grooms, busy preparing the feast
in his home for his new bride.
Before going to her house to fetch his bride however,
we read that he learns in some way
that his supposed virgin bride is pregnant,
but he does not know as of yet how she has become so.
Imagine his great disappointment.
We kind of just gloss over it, you know.
Joseph was told, and that's it.
Think about it.
Joseph is a man, a normal healthy man.
The girl he loves and promises to marry
is now pregnant with somebody else's baby
as far as he's concerned.
He's been cheated on.
He's been ridiculed.
He's been embarrassed.
His plans and his dreams, destroyed.
But in this moment of pain and confusion,
we get a glimpse of the type of character Joseph had
that factored into God's choice of him
as Jesus' earthly father.
You see, Joseph was merciful.
First quality that you find out about him.
Verse 19 it says, and Joseph her husband,
being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her,
planned to send her away secretly.
The Bible says he was righteous or just,
meaning that he wanted to do what was right before God
and before man in this difficult and painful situation.
This quality made him react with mercy in this situation
because he knew that God wants us to be merciful
to those who hurt us, (Proverbs 11:17).
Now because he is a good Jew,
he can't just marry a woman pregnant by another man.
This is not permitted.
Deuteronomy 24:1-4 prohibits this,
even if he does love her.
So he has only two options.
One, to divorce her openly with public testimony,
which would clear him of any responsibility,
but would publicly disgrace Mary.
Two, to pursue a quiet bill of divorcement
without a public trial.
This would save Mary public shame,
but it puts him in a difficult position
of shouldering some of the ridicule that might follow.
There would always be some doubt about his integrity.
People would be saying well look at Mary,
man, she was pregnant,
and he divorced her privately, secretly.
What's going on here?
What did he do wrong?
What does he got to hide?
And so in choosing the second option
that puts himself at risk,
we see his mercy and his kindness
towards someone that he may have perceived
at the time as a person who hurt him.
He was yet kind and merciful to her.
Another quality that favored Joseph with God
was the fact that he was a humble man.
Keep reading verse 20.
But when he had considered this,
behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him
in a dream saying, Joseph, son of David,
do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife,
for the child who has been conceived
in her is of the Holy Spirit.
She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus,
for he will save his people from their sins.
Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken
by the Lord through the prophet,
behold the virgin shall be with child
and shall bear a son, and they shall call his name
Immanuel, which translated means God with us.
And Joseph awoke from his 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 Jesus.
Notice that once Joseph has chosen a plan of action,
God sends him a dream in which he reveals
to him the true nature of Mary's pregnancy
and what he wants Joseph to do.
And notice in the dream,
even in the dream, scripture is quoted
in order to support what is being said to Joseph.
In this sequence, we clearly see a quality
in Joseph that is quite appealing to God.
He was a humble man.
Now, humility is the absence of the desire
to always impose one's own will.
A humble man accepts the fact
that he doesn't get his own way all the time.
Joseph had a right by law
to refuse to take Mary as his wife.
After all, he had gone the second mile
in agreeing to divorce her quietly,
saving her public disgrace.
I mean, could a man do even more?
And Joseph had a right to complain.
If anybody had a right to complain, this man did.
The child that he did accept was born in a stable.
He had to flee to Egypt.
He had to move again to Nazareth
and no sexual relations with his wife
until she had the baby that was not his.
That was quite a sacrifice for just an ordinary man.
Joseph even had a right to demand special privileges.
He was given the task of caring for God's son,
but he remained poor and had to continue
to work in order to earn a living.
And here's the amazing thing, Joseph did not complain.
He gave up his rights.
He gave up his demands.
He gave up even his needs in order to serve God's purpose
and the needs of others, Mary and the baby Jesus.
In this, we see his great humility
and a key reason why God chose him.
I want you to turn to Luke 2:21 for a moment
to read about two episodes in Jesus' life
where Joseph is not specifically mentioned,
but clearly demonstrates another reason
why God chose him to be Jesus' earthly father.
In Luke chapter 2, verse 21 to 24,
Luke writes, and when eight days had passed
before his circumcision, his name was then called Jesus,
the name given by the angel
before he was conceived in the womb.
And when the days for their purification
according to the law of Moses were completed,
they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord.
As it is written in the Law of the Lord
every firstborn male that opens the womb
shall be called holy to the Lord.
And to offer a sacrifice according
to what was said in the Law of the Lord,
a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.
And then a little further down in verse 39,
Luke continues to write, when they had performed everything
according to to the Law of the Lord,
they returned to Galilee to their own city of Nazareth.
The child continued to grow and become strong,
increasing in wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him.
Now his parents went to Jerusalem
every year at the feast of the Passover.
So these verses reveal the piety of this man,
another reason why Jesus chose him.
He was a pious man.
You know, piety is that attitude
where one considers the things
and the people related to God with great respect.
Pious people have great respect for God's word.
Pious people have great respect for the worship of the Lord.
Pious people have great respect
for the men and the women of God.
That's what piety is all about.
Joseph was a pious man.
As the head of his home and family,
he took seriously the responsibility
of training his eldest son, Jesus,
in the ways and in the teachings of God.
We see this in his obeying the law for circumcision
and his yearly pilgrimages to Jerusalem,
which were time-consuming and expensive for a poor family.
You know, we come to church and it takes, what?
Nobody travels more than an hour to come to worship
I don't believe, not in this congregation.
You don't have to.
These things would take days and days
and days to go to Jerusalem.
Verse 40 tells us that Jesus grew strong physically.
Well, how did he do that?
Well, through hard work alongside his father
as was the custom of the time.
It also tells us that he grew wise mentally
and emotionally, no doubt through the careful teaching
and example of his earthly father, Joseph.
This is why God gave him an earthly father
in the first place, so that Jesus could learn
to be a man as men are supposed to be.
We have no recorded dialogue between Jesus and Joseph.
Wouldn't you love to have something, a little snippet?
Nothing, this man gave his entire life over
to the direction that God pointed him in.
Great sacrifice, great self-denial, great piety,
great humility, and yet, you don't hear a single word
from his lips throughout the New Testament.
Surely, they spoke, Jesus and Joseph.
And surely Joseph taught his son
in the morning and in the evening the things of God
as good Jews were supposed to do, Deuteronomy 11:9.
As I mentioned before, it was a 140-mile round trip
from Nazareth to Jerusalem each year, mainly on foot.
And every Sabbath day the family was
at the synagogue for worship.
The Bible says that this was Jesus' habit.
He was in the synagogue as was his habit, Luke 4:16.
What do you think?
A habit learned at the early age
at the example of his earthly father, Joseph.
Joseph demonstrates his piety and reverence for God
in the way he trained his family to respect God's commands
and how he himself led by example.
When we look at Jesus' human character,
we see much of Joseph's pious character
imprinted right there.
This is why God chose this particular man
for this particular task.
After reading all of this,
why do you think God chose Joseph to raise his son?
Was it because he was rich or smart or powerful?
No, I say he chose Joseph because
he was like men were designed to be.
I repeat that.
God chose Joseph because Joseph, he wasn't a superman.
He wasn't a quote, a holy man.
He was a man in the design that God designed men to be,
kind and merciful, humble,
respectful of God and his commands.
This is the summit of what a man can be.
Today, we have many descriptions
on television and books, online, in movies,
what a man is supposed to be.
He's supposed to be sexy and strong
and rich and powerful and educated.
I ask you a question.
Take a look at the condition of the world
and especially the family guided by men
who are sexy and brave and powerful and proud.
Wars begun and perpetuated by such men.
Oppression of the weak, especially the poor,
children, and women by such men.
The church profaned and divided by such men.
Have we not read enough news reports
in the last month or so about powerful men
and what they have done to women?
What the world needs and what families need,
what the church needs, what God wants,
are not powerful men or proud men or good-looking men.
What we need are real men like Joseph of Nazareth.
Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not down on men.
This is not a sermon about male bashing.
Enough of that going on out there.
On the contrary, I want to remind you that the Bible says
that it's a glorious thing to be a man.
It's not popular today to be male
because males are portrayed as naturally being
foolish and brutish and inferior.
Being a man is not better than being a woman,
but God loves men, and he has blessed men in special ways.
I mean, the first human was a man, Adam.
And God entrusted to a man the building
of the ark through which mankind was saved, Noah.
And he gave the promise of a savior to a man, Abraham,
and he chose a man to lead his people out of slavery, Moses.
And he chose men to be his kings
and prophets, like David and Isaiah.
And he chose men to write his holy words.
And he chose men to be his leaders
in his church and in the home.
God chose the male nature to clothe the world's savior.
It's okay to be a man because Jesus was a man.
However, God expects a lot from men
because he has given them a lot.
To whom much is given, much will be required.
The problems that exist in the world
are not caused by just men.
They are caused by men who refuse to accept
their responsibilities as men and as fathers.
The trouble with this world is that there are
just not enough Josephs in it,
men who strive to be kind and merciful
and lead their homes through self-sacrifice
and service and fidelity.
Men who are in awe of the Lord
and are able to instill this reverence
for almighty God into their children and their church.
Men who contribute good families to society
for its betterment, not just monuments
to their personal achievements.
Many men go through a period of questioning,
usually around middle age.
Have I done enough?
I could have done this.
I could have, should have, would have.
I should be further in my career.
My brother's richer than I am.
I missed my chance, you know.
You know, all kinds of self-doubt.
Ask yourself this question instead,
what kind of family have I contributed to society?
That's the question to ask.
Have you contributed a good family to society?
Have you tried to do that?
What good is building a business or a pension
or a reputation if your wife and your children
are deprived of love and direction?
Remember, when children grow up,
they will follow your example, not your advice.
A survey on college campuses wanted to determine
what person was the most influential
in determining the choice or the rejection of a career.
Over 70% of respondents said that it was their fathers
who were the primary influence in their lives.
And here's the interesting part,
whether that was positive or negative.
In other words, I did what I did
because I wanted to do what my father did.
Or I did what I did because the last thing
I wanted to do was what my father did.
But it was always the father.
Not always, but the majority.
It was always what the father did affected
what the child did or did not do.
The father is point zero.
Let us therefore, brothers,
think.
Like a poem that I want to read,
have in our minds the idea of this poem.
I rarely read poetry, but this one was a good one,
and it fit in the context of this sermon.
It's a good thing to be a man.
It's important to be a real man like Joseph,
and that idea is captured well in this poem
by a fellow named Michael Card.
It's called Joseph's song, and he talks about
how it must have felt to be Joseph, and I read it for you.
How could it be this baby in my arms
sleeping now so peacefully, the Son of God the angel said.
How could it be?
Lord, I know he's not my own,
not of my flesh, not of my bone.
Still Father let this baby be the son of my love.
Father show me where I fit into this plan of yours.
How can a man be father to the Son of God?
Lord, for all my life I've been a simple carpenter.
How can I raise a king?
He looks so small, his face and hands so fair.
And when He cries the sun just seems to disappear.
But when He laughs, it shines again.
How could this be?
How could it be this baby in my arms
sleeping now so peacefully, the Son of God the angel said.
How could this be?
And so, brethren, and I asked the women here also
to encourage your husbands and brothers
and sons and fathers.
Let us strive to act in such a way
to be worthy of the nature and calling
that God has given to us as men,
as husbands, as fathers, as brothers, as sons.
Let us glorify God and mold our lives according
to the image of Christ using all the godly examples
given to us, including Joseph, a real man, a true father,
so our sons have in us a model
from which to fashion their sons,
and thus carry on the spiritual heritage
for the generations of fathers to come
until Jesus, our Lord, returns to be with us.
On this Lord's day, I call especially
upon the men in this congregation to examine their lives
in light what your Heavenly Father
calls upon you to be and to do.
I encourage you to obey the Father, of course,
in repentance and baptism if you have refused his invitation
in the past, so he can become your father.
And I encourage you men to return to your father
if you have lived like a man of the world,
instead of living and acting like a man of God.
And I encourage you to come for prayer
if you need help being the kind of man
that you are striving to be in the Lord, a man like Joseph.
And I encourage you to identify yourself
if you wish to be a part of this congregation
and serve like men ought to serve, the Lord's church.
Whatever your need is as a man
and as a father, a son or a brother,
we encourage you to come to the Lord now
as we stand and as we sing our song of encouragement.