The Lord’s Message:  Word of God Speak:  Joseph

The Lord’s Message:  Word of God Speak:  Joseph
Date:  December 14, 2025
Where:  Tilghman Methodist Church
Scripture Reference:  Matthew 1:18-25

            This Sunday, we are going to look at the most overlooked, but equally important, person in the Christmas story, Joseph.

            Let us pray.

            We are continuing our sermon series, Word of God Speak.  We started out with an elderly Jewish priest, Zechariah’s divine appointment with God’s angel Gabriel in the temple in Jerusalem.  Gabriel told Zechariah that God had heard he and his wife Elizabeth’s prayer to have a child.  Even though they were well past child-bearing age, Elizabeth would become pregnant and give birth to a son.  They were to name this son John.  John would be filled with the Holy Spirit from birth.  John would have a special ministry of preparing people to welcome the Messiah.  Last Sunday, God sent the angel Gabriel to a young, devout, betrothed virgin named Mary.  Mary lived in an off the beaten path village of a few hundred people.  This village, Nazareth, was in a basin surrounded by hills in Galilee.  The message that Gabriel brought to Mary was she was highly favored, the Lord was with her, she was blessed by God to be the mother of the Messiah, Jesus. 

            Now we continue with the Christmas account, with a man named Joseph, to whom Mary is betrothed.  Please open your Bibles to Matthew 1:18-25, which can be found page 1496 in your pew Bibles.  There are three steps to marriage in the Jewish world during the time of Jesus.  Engagement happens when the bride and groom are quite young and is often arranged by the parents.  Betrothal, the previous engagement is now binding.  During the time of betrothal, the couple were referred to as husband and wife.  A betrothal could only be broken by divorce.  Marriage took place one year after the betrothal, with a wedding ceremony.  During the Marriage feast, the groom takes his bride to his home that he has prepared for her.  In Matthew 1:18, Joseph learns from Mary that she is pregnant by the Holy Spirit.  Now how would you react when the woman to whom you are going to be married says that she is pregnant by God?  Okay, Mary and pigs can fly. 

            Now Joseph is left with two options as far as he sees it.  He could accuse Mary of adultery, even though they are not married.  In Deuteronomy 22:23-24, the Bible gives a law about just this situation.  The other option to break the betrothal was by divorce.   This is explained in Deuteronomy 24:1. The wife is then able to marry another man.   From verse 19, we know that Joseph is a very righteous man and does not want to publicly disgrace Mary.  He chose to divorce her quietly.   

            He is wrestling with his decision.  He loves Mary, but if she had simply told him the truth, he could have accepted it.  “Joseph, I met another man, we made love, and now I am pregnant.”  As hard as that would have been for him to accept, he would have been able to deal it.  After all Mary is a beautiful, young, attractive woman, any man would easily fall in love with her.  I am quite older, and my age is starting to show.  I think these may have been some of Joseph’s thoughts as he is wrestling with the Mary’s pregnancy.  He decides to sleep on his decision.  Anybody ever tried to sleep when you know you have to make a tough decision?  I know I have, and I do not get much sleep. 

            Look at verses 20-21.  Now, God sends an angel to Joseph in a dream.  Does anyone here ever feel they are the last to know?  You are the one that is at the end of the telephone game.  God sent the angel Gabriel to Zechariah and Mary in plain sight.  Why couldn’t God have sent the angel Gabriel to Joseph after going to Mary?  After all, Gabriel was in Nazareth.  Surely, it would not have been too difficult for the angel to show up at Joseph’s carpentry shop.  This would have saved Joseph from the worry and the wrestling with what Mary has told him an angel said. 

            I am not one that would ever speak for God.  I know of another man that wrestled with God.  This man’s name was Jacob.  Jacob trusted in himself many times, instead of God.  He stole his brother Esau’s birthright.  He tricked his father, Isaac, into thinking that he was Esau in order to receive his father’s blessing.  He even conned his uncle out of his sheep.  The name Jacob means deceiver. 

            One night as he is about to meet up with Esau again, Jacob is wrestling with the fact that his older brother might be wanting some revenge.  Let us see what happens to Jacob in Genesis 32:22-28.  After wrestling with God, God changed his name from Jacob (deceiver) to Israel (he will follow).  Instead of Jacob trusting in himself, he trusted in God.  Maybe that is where you are this morning.  You are wrestling with a problem or a situation, maybe even an addiction.  You need to turn it over to God and trust in Him. 

            Even though it says that Joseph was a righteous man, maybe he needed to learn to trust God and do what God tells him to do.  This was going to be very important for the life of himself, Mary, and Jesus.  Let us look at the events that unfold with Joseph, Mary, and Jesus. 

            First off, just the travel to Bethlehem as a woman 9 months pregnant.  Both Joseph and Mary had to have faith and trust in God.  This was a very difficult journey.  It is about 80 miles between Nazareth and Bethlehem.  To make the journey on a donkey, would take about a week.  Then when they get there, because of the census, they quickly find out that there is no place for them to stay.  A man offers them the use of his stable.  We have these beautiful nativities.  All clean and pristine.  Have you ever been in a barn with animals?  It is by no means clean and pristine.  It is smelly and noisy.  Filled with many germs.  Joseph had a make a place in the barn with some fresh, clean straw for Mary to give birth.  After the birth, there was no crib available.  Joseph had to use an animals’ feed trough.  The perfect place for a baby to be born, don’t you think?  I am sure that Joseph must have been depressed.  He could not even provide a place for his wife to give birth or a crib for the baby to sleep in.  He had to have faith and trust in God. 

            After about three years, they are living in a house and everything is falling in place, they are interrupted again.  A few wise men bring gifts to Jesus.  Then in a dream, Joseph is told by an angel that he must pack up the family and flee to Egypt to escape the wrath of King Herod.  King Herod wanted to kill Jesus, Matthew 2:13. Once again, Joseph had to have faith and trust in God.  Then after King Herod dies, Joseph is thinking that they will return back to Bethlehem and pick up their lives, Matthew 2:19.  Once again, an angel comes to Joseph in a dream and tells him not to go back to Bethlehem, because King Herod’s son, King Archelaus,

Matthew 2:21-23.  King Archelaus was more corrupt than his father and he would have had Jesus killed.  So, Joseph has faith and trust in God. He takes Mary and Jesus back to the off the beaten pathway, forgotten village of Nazareth.  Jesus grows up there in peace and seclusion. 

            Look how many prophecies were fulfilled:  virgin will give birth to a son named Immanuel, (God is with us), the birth of the Messiah is to take place in Bethlehem, Out of Egypt I called my son, a voice of mothers Ramah and Rachel weeping for their children, and the Messiah will be called a Nazarene.  The prophets revealed God’s plan long ago.  A main reason why it came to fruition just like God said it was because of the forgotten person in the Nativity event, Joseph.  For his part, Joseph had to learn to fully trust in God and do what God says.

            This is Joseph response to the message from the angel in his dream, verses 24-25

            We need to learn to not do everything by our own power, but trust in God and do what it says to do in the way that He tells us to do it.  When we learn this, we will not have to wrestle with our struggles in life in our own power.  Instead, we will trust in God and allow him to show us the way to overcome these struggles.  “Thy will be done, not mine.”

            Let us continue to listen to God and do what He says.  Amen.