MEN OF COURAGE
“Joseph: Courage
@ Christmas”
Matthew 1:18-25; 2:13-23
December 20, 2015
Courage Develops in Crises & Difficult Decisions
Courage Is Willing to Do the Right Thing No Matter the Cost
Courage Puts Others First
Courage Listens Intently to the Voice of God and Responds in Great Faith
Courage Is Trusting in God’s Promises
2
MEN OF COURAGE
“Joseph: Courage at Christmas”
Matthew 1:18-25 & 2:13-23
December 20, 2015 A.M. Service
Courage develops in crisis & in difficult decisions
Can’t display courage or develop courage until we are faced with those kinds of crises or some difficult decision in our lives. It doesn’t take courage to make easy decisions.
Courage is willing to do the right thing no matter the cost
Shame, gossip, wasn’t what I wanted or imagined, etc.
Courage puts others first
in marrying her, in his belief in her, love for her protecting her, providing for her, in keeping her pure, a virgin until Jesus was born.
Courage listens intently to the voice of God and responds in great faith
He does this three different times
Courage in making the righteous decision isn’t always the right decision. We always need to start at the place of being people of courage who start towards the righteous decision and as we seek the Lord we discover what is the right righteous decision to make.
We don’t make decisions blindly or in blind stupidity!
And our response to that is crucial – think if Joseph hadn’t listened and obeyed! God’s plan wouldn’t have been thwarted, he could have used some other person or some other way, but Joseph would have missed out.
There are decisions in our lives that we must respond because they could have a great effect on someone else’s life and their future and direction.
Courage is trusting in God’s Promises
“Courage is not the absence of fear, but instead acting in spite of it.”
–
Poem - Edgar A. Guest
Where the going’s smooth and pleasant
You will always find the throng,
For the many—more’s the pity—
Seem to like to drift along.
But the steps that call for courage,
And the task that’s hard to do
In the end results in glory
For the never-wavering few.
The divine heredity (vv. 18-25). Matt 1:16 and 18 make it clear that Jesus Christ's birth was different from that of any other Jewish boy named in the genealogy. Matthew pointed out that Joseph did not "beget" Jesus Christ. Rather, Joseph was the "husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ." Jesus was born of an earthly mother without the need of an earthly father. This is known as the doctrine of the Virgin Birth.
Every child born into the world is a totally new creature. But Jesus Christ, being eternal God (John 1:1,14), existed before Mary and Joseph or any of His earthly ancestors. If Jesus Christ were conceived and born just as any other baby, then He could not be God. It was necessary for Him to enter this world through an earthly mother, but not to be begotten by an earthly father. By a miracle of the Holy Spirit, Jesus was conceived in the womb of Mary, a virgin (Luke 1:26-38).
Some have raised the question that perhaps Mary was not a virgin. They say that Matt 1:23 should be translated "young woman." But the word translated virgin in this verse always means virgin and cannot be translated "young woman."
Both Mary and Joseph belonged to the house of David. The Old Testament prophecies indicated that the Messiah would be born, of a woman (Gen 3:15), of the seed of Abraham (Gen 22:18), through the tribe of Judah (Gen 49:10), and of the family of David (2 Sam 7:12-13). Matthew's genealogy traced the be through Solomon, while Luke's traced it through Nathan, another one of David's sons. It is worth noting that Jesus Christ is the only Jew alive who can actually prove His claims to the throne of David! All of the other records were destroyed when the Romans took Jerusalem in A.D. 70.
To the Jewish people in that day, betrothal (engagement) was equivalent to marriage except that the man and woman did not live together. They were called "husband and wife," and, at the end of the engagement period, the marriage was consummated. If a betrothed woman became pregnant it was considered adultery (see Deut 22:13-21). But Joseph did not punish or divorce Mary when he discovered she was with child, for the Lord had revealed the truth to him. All of this fulfilled Isa 7:14.
Before we leave this important section, we must consider the three names assigned to God's Son. The name Jesus means "Saviour" and comes from the Hebrew name, Joshua ("Jehovah is salvation"). There were many Jewish boys with the name Joshua (or, in the Greek, Jesus); but Mary's Boy was called "Jesus the Christ." The word Christ means "anointed"; it is the Greek equivalent of Messiah. He is "Jesus the Messiah." Jesus is His human name; Christ is His official title; and Immanuel describes who He is - "God with us." Jesus Christ is God! We find this name 'Immanuel" in Isa 7:14 and 8:8.
The King, then, was a Jewish male who is also the divine Son of God. But, did anybody acknowledge His kingship? Yes, the magi from the East came and worshiped Him.
The Humility of the King (Matt. 2:19-23)
Herod died in 4 B.C., which means that Jesus was born sometime between 6 and 5 B.C. It is impossible not to notice the parallel between Matt 2:20 and Ex 4:19, the call of Moses. As God's Son, Jesus was in Egypt and Was Called out to go to Israel. Moses was outside Egypt, hiding for his life, and he was Called to return to Egypt. But in both cases, God's Program of redemption was involved. It took courage for Joseph and his family to leave Egypt and it took courage for Moses to return to Egypt.
Archelaus was one of Herod's sons, and to him Herod had willed the title of king. However, the Jews discovered that, in spite of his promises of kindness, Archelaus was as wicked as his father. So they sent a delegation to Rome, to Protest his crowning. Augustus Caesar agreed with the Jews and made Archelaus an ethnarch over half of his father's kingdom. (Jesus may have had this bit of Jewish history in mind when He told the Parable of the Pounds in Luke 19:11-27.)
The whole episode is a good example of how God leads His children. Joseph knew that he and his family were no safer under the rule of Archelaus than they had been under Herod the Great. It is likely they were heading back to Bethlehem when they discovered that Archelaus was on the throne. Certainly, Joseph and Mary prayed, waited, and sought God's will. Common sense told them to be careful; faith told them to wait. In due tune, God spoke to Joseph in a dream, and he took his wife and her Son to Nazareth, Which had been their home earlier (Matt 2:19-20).
But even this fulfilled prophecy! Once again, Matthew points out that every detail in the life of Jesus was foretold in the Scriptures. It is important to note that Matthew did not refer to Only One Prophet in Matt 2:23, but instead says "that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets" (plural).
We Will not find any specific prophecy that called Jesus a "Nazarene. 11 The term Nazarene was one of reproach - . "Can there any good thing come Out of Nazareth?" (John 1:46) In many Old Testament prophecies, the Messiah's lowly life of rejection is mentioned; and this may be what Matthew had in mind (see Ps 22; Isa 53:2-3,8). The term "Nazarene" was applied both to Jesus and His followers (Acts 24:5); and He was often called "Jesus of Nazareth" (Matt 21:11; Mark 14:67; John 18:5,7).
But perhaps Matthew, led by the Spirit, saw a spiritual connection between the name "Nazarene" and the Hebrew word netzer, which means "a branch or shoot." Several Prophets apply this title to Jesus (see Isa 4:2; 11:1; Jer 23:5; 33:15; Zech 3:8; 6:12-13).
Our Lord grew up in Nazareth and was identified with that city. In fact, His enemies thought He had been born there; for they said that He came from Galilee (John 7:50-52). Had they investigated the temple records, they would have discovered that He had, been born in Bethlehem.
Who ever heard of a king being born 'in a humble village and growing up in a despised city? The humility of the King is certainly something to admire and imitate (Phil 2:1-13).
Ancient biographers sometimes praised the miraculous births of their subjects (especially prominent in the Old Testament), but there are no close parallels to the virgin birth. Greeks told stories of gods impregnating women, but the text indicates that Mary's conception was not sexual; nor does the Old Testament (or Jewish tradition) ascribe sexual characteristics to God. Many miraculous birth stories in the ancient world (including Jewish accounts, e.g., *1 Enoch 106) are heavily embroidered with mythical imagery (e.g., babies filling houses with light), in contrast with the straightforward narrative style of this passage (cf. similarly Ex 2:1-10).
1:18. Betrothal (erusin) then was more binding than most engagements are today and was normally accompanied by the groom's payment of at least part of the bride price. Betrothal, which commonly lasted a year, meant that bride and groom were officially pledged to each other but had not yet consummated the marriage; advances toward anyone else were thus regarded as adulterous (Deut 22:23-27). Two witnesses, mutual consent (normally) and the groom's declaration were necessary to establish Jewish betrothals (in Roman betrothals, consent alone sufficed). Although rings were used in the Roman world, it is not clear whether Palestinian Jews used them in this early period.
Mary would have probably been between the ages of twelve and fourteen (sixteen at the oldest), Joseph perhaps between eighteen and twenty; their parents likely arranged their marriage, with Mary and Joseph's consent. Premarital privacy between betrothed persons was permitted in Judea but apparently frowned upon in Galilee, so Mary and Joseph may well not have had any time alone together at this point.
1:19. The penalty for adultery under Old Testament law was death by stoning, and this penalty applied to infidelity during betrothal as well (Deut 22:23-24). In New Testament times, Joseph would have merely been required to divorce Mary and expose her to shame; the death penalty was rarely if ever executed for this offense. (Betrothals were so binding that if a woman's fiancé died, she was considered a widow; betrothals could otherwise be terminated only by divorce.) But a woman with a child, divorced for such infidelity, would be hard pressed ever to find another husband, leaving her without means of support if her parents died.
But because divorces could be effected by a simple document with two witnesses, Joseph could have divorced her without making her shame more widely known. (It was necessary to involve a judge only if the wife were the one requesting that the husband divorce her.) Much later *rabbinic tradition charges that Mary slept with another man, but Joseph's marrying her (v. 24) demonstrates that he did not believe this was the case.
1:20. In the Old Testament, angels often brought messages in dreams; in Greek literature, deceased people (as well as pagan deities) often brought messages, but this occurs nowhere in the Bible. The Old Testament does mention expert dream interpreters, like Daniel (Dan 1:17; 2:19-45) and Jacob's son Joseph (Gen 37:5-11; 40:1-41:57). Most stories from here in Matt 1 to the end of Matt 2 involve supernatural guidance (dreams or the star).
1:21. The name Jesus (*Aramaic Yeeshuwa`, Greek Ieesous) means "God is salvation" in Hebrew. Parents often intended the names they gave children to have some meaning, but if God gave the name, it had special signficance. The Old Testament taught that God's people would be saved in the time of the *Messiah (Jer 23:5-6), and Jewish readers in the first century would have understood this salvation to mean more than just personal forgiveness. They prayed for the day when God would deliver his people from the consequences of their sins — from subjugation beneath their enemies; many believed that this deliverance would occur when their people as a whole reformed and turned wholeheartedly to God. Jesus came to deliver his people from personal sin and thus to deliver them from its judgment as well.
1:22-23. Matthew cites Isa 7:14 and indicates a broad familiarity with Isaiah's context. In that context, Assyria would lay waste Israel and Aram before "a son" was grown (Isa 7:14-17); "a son" thus seems to refer to Isaiah's own son (8:3-4). But all the names of Isaiah's children were meant as signs pointing beyond themselves (8:18), and to whom would "Immanuel," or "God with us" (7:14), more aptly point than to the son of David rightly called "Mighty God" (9:6; cf. 10:21; 11:1)?
1:24-25. Joseph acts like Old Testament men and women of God who obeyed God's call even when it went against all human common sense. Marriage consisted of covenant (at the betrothal; the marital contract also involved a monetary transaction between families), a ceremony and consummation, which ratified the marriage, normally on the first night of the seven-day wedding. Joseph here officially marries Mary but abstains from consummating the marriage until after Jesus is born. Jewish teachers thought that men had to marry young because they could not resist temptation (many even blamed a woman's uncovered hair for inducing lust). Joseph, who lives with Mary but exercises self-control, thus provides a strong role model for sexual purity.