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The Love of the Father (Matthew1:18-25)
43 Plays2 years ago
The Love of the Father (Matthew1:18-25)
Sunday Message recorded 04 December 2022
by Deacon Davis Bragg
First Baptist Church
1700 Milam
Columbus, TX, USA 78934
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Transcript
Davis's Journey to Deaconship
00:00:06
Speaker
Approximately six months ago, on behalf of the deacons, I contacted Davis and provided him those qualifications, those biblical qualifications you just heard, and asked him if he would consider serving as a deacon alongside the deacon body here and for this church. After some self-examination and discussions with Heather,
00:00:34
Speaker
He came back and he said, I would be honored to serve as a deacon. In our process, the next step would be a personal interview that Davis would have with an ordination council. And that council was made up, consisted of the pastor and the chairman of the deacons. After that,
00:00:59
Speaker
interview with Davis, they came back with a unanimous recommendation that we ordained him as a deacon. But they also discovered during that interview process his desire to be ordained to the ministry. The deacon body fully supported that, and a few months ago he presented his testimony here to the church, and the church voted on that.
00:01:29
Speaker
And that was also unanimous. Davis and his wife, Heather, have one daughter, Riley. He has a undergraduate degree from University of Alabama, but he also has a master's degree from Southwest Theological Seminary.
00:01:50
Speaker
We've heard his testimony a few months ago, but we also want you to hear his heart this morning. So we've asked him to come and to bring a message that the Lord has laid on his heart.
Introduction to Sermon and Personal Background
00:02:05
Speaker
Davis. Good morning, church family.
00:02:16
Speaker
If you are hoping to see somebody as beautiful as John Gregory this morning or as wise as Victor Morrison, I apologize because I am not that. Y'all join me in prayer. Father God, we thank you for this morning. Father, we thank you for a church body and we get to gather. Father, we get to study your word. We get to be in community with one another.
00:02:41
Speaker
Father, I just pray over this morning, I pray that as we dive into your word, Father, that you would reveal yourself to us. Father, I pray that as I speak, Father, that my words would be seasoned with salt. Father, I pray that if there's anything that is of me that has spoken this morning, that I pray that it would be forgotten. But Father, if it is of you, I pray that it'd be taken to heart and applied to our lives. Father, I pray over this morning, I pray over this message, and we give it all to you. That's your name and pray. Amen.
00:03:11
Speaker
So as Gary said, I am from Alabama, so I apologize, I'm not a Texan by nature. I went to the University of Alabama back in 2014 through 2018, got a business degree there, and then I moved out here to Fort Worth and righteously became a Texan. I got my Master's of Theological Studies at Southwestern Seminary, and I wrapped that up a few years ago.
00:03:40
Speaker
My wife Heather is here in the back, as well as much of my family, my in-laws, my dad, my mom, and many friends as well. So I appreciate them being here.
Joseph's Story in Matthew: Righteousness and Obedience
00:03:55
Speaker
This morning, we're going to be going through Matthew chapter 1, verses 18 through 25. And as we kind of dive into this story, there's several aspects that really stand out. So we're going to be talking about Christmas through the eyes of Joseph.
00:04:10
Speaker
And as I was going through this passage, really what stood out to me were three things. One, the righteousness of Joseph. Two, the obedience of Joseph. And then three, the love of the Father. And the love of the Father being the love of Joseph, but also the love of God the Father. So as you're turning there, I'm gonna set my water bottle down because Lord knows I will need it.
00:04:37
Speaker
And I'll ask you to stand with me as we read out of God's word. Matthew 1, verses 18 through 25, read this. The birth of Jesus Christ came about this way.
00:04:53
Speaker
After his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, it was discovered before they came together that she was pregnant by the Holy Spirit. So her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her publicly, decided to divorce her secretly. But after he had considered these things, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared to him in a dream saying, Joseph,
00:05:15
Speaker
Son of David, don't be afraid to take Mary as your wife, because what has been conceived in her is by the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.
00:05:29
Speaker
Now, all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet. See, the virgin will become pregnant and give birth to a son, and they will name him Emmanuel, which is translated, God is with us. When Joseph got up from sleeping, he did as the Lord's angel had commanded him. He married her, but he did not know her intimately until she gave birth to a son, and he named him Jesus. Thank you. You may be seated.
00:05:57
Speaker
So as I already stated, there's kind of three facets of my message this morning. The righteousness of Joseph, the obedience of Joseph, and then the love of the Father. We're gonna kind of dive into the righteousness of Joseph first and foremost. So I wanna give you some context as to marriage. So as we read this passage of text, we see that Mary had been engaged to Joseph, right?
00:06:27
Speaker
The process of Jewish marriage was outlined kind of such. Engagement is a time in which sons were chosen a wife by their parents, and it was arranged. It was an arranged marriage.
00:06:40
Speaker
Betrothal was kind of the second step in which engagement became legal and binding. They were known as husband or wife, and it typically lasted a year. The only way an engagement could be broken was by divorce. So that's why, as we see in this passage of scripture, we see that Joseph decided to divorce her secretly because that was the only way that he could break that. And then marriage being the final step, it takes place after the wedding and after the year of betrothal.
00:07:11
Speaker
So now as we kind of dive into this, we kind of have a little bit of context for what marriage engagement betrothal looks like. But the conception of Jesus was by the Holy Spirit. Not by any other means, but by the Holy Spirit. I want you to imagine just for a second, if somebody came to you and said, your wife is pregnant by the Holy Spirit. For myself, I think I might meet that with a little bit of question. And I might be like, well, you're crazy.
00:07:41
Speaker
But here we see the beauty of God's redemptive plan and the beauty of God's redemptive program. Charles Spurgeon has a quote and he says, there was no other way of his being born being Jesus, for had he been of a sinful father, how should he have possessed a sinless nature? He is born of a woman that he might be human, but not by man that he might not be sinful.
00:08:06
Speaker
The beauty of Christ being conceived by the Holy Spirit is that which Jesus could be perfect, right? And he was only conceived by the Holy Spirit because he could be, so he could be sinless.
Jewish Customs and Joseph's Integrity
00:08:22
Speaker
So this is our savior that we get to hope in, a sinless Jesus.
00:08:29
Speaker
A little bit about Joseph. Joseph, who we know to be the stepfather of Jesus, because again, he was not conceived by Joseph and Mary, he was conceived by the Holy Spirit. So Joseph is kind of this stepfather figure in Jesus's life. Joseph, ironically enough, as Victor asked me to preach on Joseph, I was like, oh, sweet, this is great. Well, Joseph's only mentioned 16 times in scripture.
00:08:56
Speaker
Thanks, Victor. Appreciate it. No, but Joseph is mentioned 16 times in Scripture. We know Joseph to be a carpenter. The Greek word for carpenter as describing Joseph is this word called tecton.
00:09:13
Speaker
Tecton would be the word that would describe somebody that would make doors, they would make shutters, but they're also a type of carpenter that works with wood that would make things like a yoke, that would yoke together animals. They're also the kind that would make implements and tools and things of that sort. So as we read later on in scripture, and we read about
00:09:42
Speaker
Christ saying, take my yoke upon you, gives a little bit more beautiful of a picture. Because as Joseph discipled Jesus to become a carpenter, Jesus would have known how to make a yoke, which is pretty dang cool.
00:10:00
Speaker
Joseph at this time and Mary at this time would have been thought to be in their early teens, so they were super, super young, which makes the wisdom and the discernment of Joseph that much more impressive. Matthew 1 verse 19 talks about Joseph being a righteous man. It says, so her husband, Joseph, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her publicly, decided to divorce her secretly.
00:10:29
Speaker
That word righteous or righteousness in the Greek is decious, which typically has an understanding or a definition of being righteous, innocent, just, upright. It's pretty interesting that Matthew chose this word to describe Joseph because Matthew is painting a picture that Joseph has set out to live a God-fearing life.
00:10:55
Speaker
He has chosen this word because Joseph has decided, and long before this has happened, he has sought to become a righteous man. I think it's important for us as Christians to remember Romans 3.23, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, right? Every single one of us fall into that category. Joseph himself as well.
00:11:17
Speaker
But it's also important for us to realize that as believers in and followers of Christ, our righteousness is not our own. 2 Corinthians 5, 21 says this, He, being God, made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf so that we might become the righteousness of God.
00:11:40
Speaker
So as we look at Joseph, and as we examine our lives, we know that we, the righteousness that we have in and of ourselves is from God the Father. Not from any other place, not from any good doing that I do or you do, it is from God the Father. So as we look at the righteousness of Joseph, I don't want us to be distracted by the fact that, man, Joseph was just such a righteous man. No, he was righteous because of what God did through him.
00:12:09
Speaker
So Joseph's righteousness is shown in the way that he sought to deal with the situation. Joseph was brought the situation. He says, hey, your wife, again, they're in the engagement stage. They were known as husband and wife. Your wife is pregnant, but pregnant by the Holy Spirit. At the time, Joseph, I can only imagine being told that his wife is pregnant, knowing that he had not known her intimately. Your wife is pregnant. And so now Joseph has a decision.
00:12:39
Speaker
In this timeframe, what normally would have happened in the instance of infidelity is the wife would have been publicly humiliated and more than likely stoned to death. So Joseph had a decision to make, and Joseph chose to divorce her quietly, being righteous and just and upright.
00:13:02
Speaker
A theologian, his name is Poole, says that their being betrothed was a thing publicly taken notice of, and he could not put her away so privately, but there must be witnesses of it. The meaning therefore must be as privately as the nature of a thing would bear. Charles Spurgeon says, when we have to do a severe thing, let us choose the tenderest manner. Maybe we shall not have to do it at all.
00:13:29
Speaker
And I believe this was Joseph's response to the situation, right? He chose to do the tenderest thing that he possibly could, and that was to divorce her quietly. But then as we see, and as I was pondering this, and I was thinking about this, the old adage, the old phrase, WWJD, what would Jesus do, popped into my mind, right? And I can only imagine now,
00:13:57
Speaker
Joseph didn't have the cool little bracelet that says WWJD on it. But I can only imagine that Joseph was in this situation, he was thinking to himself, man, what should I do, right? And as we look at the righteousness, the justness of God the Father, as we look at the justness and righteousness of Joseph, he sought to divorce her quietly. He didn't want to publicly humiliate his wife.
00:14:24
Speaker
As we look at God being the example of righteousness, we know that God is just, right? He is going to stand up for the right thing. We know that He is holy. He is completely blameless. He is pure, but He's also gentle.
00:14:41
Speaker
He's kind, he's loving, he's considerate, and he puts others' interests above their own, above his own. And so as we look at Joseph, I think that is a beautiful picture of Joseph exemplifying who God is. He was gentle, he was kind, he was loving, and he put his wife's interests above his own. And I personally think that we can all rip a page out of that book.
00:15:08
Speaker
that maybe our response to a situation that is tough or hard, that we can respond in a manner, as Spurgeon says, that we might be by be, it's okay, that we might respond and let us choose the tenderest manner that maybe if we do that, we would not have to do it at all. Kind of the second section that I wanna go into is the obedience of Joseph.
00:15:37
Speaker
Matthew 1, verse 20, talking about, but after he had considered these things, talking about divorcing Mary, but after he had considered these things, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared to him in a dream saying, Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, because what has been conceived in her is by the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.
00:16:09
Speaker
Looking at a biblical definition of what obedience is, I think it's important for us to always look back at scripture. John 14, 15 says this, it says, if you love me, this is Jesus, if you love me, you will obey my commands. Well, here in the story, we see Joseph receive a command from the angel of the Lord and he responds in obedience. The Holman Bible dictionary defines obedience as hearing God's word and acting accordingly. What a picture, right?
00:16:41
Speaker
In this story, we hear Joseph hear the word of the Lord by an angel and we see him act accordingly, right? I love that the angel of the Lord comes to Joseph and he says, don't be afraid, do not be afraid. That verbiage, fear not or be not afraid is listed 103 times throughout scripture.
00:17:08
Speaker
So Joseph is told by the angel of God, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. Why? Because what is conceived in her is by the Holy Spirit. The faith required of Joseph to believe that and have faith in that and to trust that is extraordinary. And if you think about this as being a young teenager and being told, don't be afraid, this is of the Holy Spirit. I can only imagine the fear.
00:17:36
Speaker
and the anxiety and the stress of the situation, right? But an angel of the Lord says, do not fear. In today's world, it's kind of funny because in order for us to trust somebody or to get a job, right? We have to provide references. We have to get background checks. Practically have to give a DNA sample. You get a social security number, right?
00:18:03
Speaker
All of this just so that you can trust someone. But Joseph did not require any of that. Joseph took God at his word and said, I trust you. And so I will not divorce my wife. I will not divorce her quietly. I will trust in you and trust that you are true and you are holy and you are blameless and you are trustworthy.
00:18:28
Speaker
I also think about the situation. Imagine being told that, hey, your son is going to save the world. If somebody told me Riley Kate was gonna save the world, I'd be like, you're crazy. But what a picture. I think it's important for us to note too, the fact that God the Father chose Joseph, a sinful man, to become the father of a man that one day would save the world.
Divine Qualification and Prophecy Fulfillment
00:18:59
Speaker
What a crazy thing, but what a beautiful thing. All throughout scripture, we see God use people in situations in which they are not worthy to even be in the genealogy of God the Father, but yet He uses them. Yet another example of the fact that God does not call the qualified, but He qualifies the called. So as we look at Jesus and we look at Joseph,
00:19:27
Speaker
God qualified Joseph for this job. So Joseph and Mary did what the Lord called them to do. In this passage of text, as we look at Matthew, this is more so telling us where Jesus came from. If you look at Luke chapter two, that tells you more of the birth of Jesus and how it went about. So if you're interested in that, I encourage you to look at Luke chapter two.
00:19:54
Speaker
But man, the obedience of Joseph to hear the word of the Lord and to respond accordingly. Kind of my last section that I want us to go through is the love of a father. The love of a father being the love of God, the father, number one, to send his son. But number two, the love of a father being Joseph.
00:20:16
Speaker
who is loving his son, who is actually not in and of him, but he is of God the Father, conceived by the Holy Spirit. And Joseph responds and says, I am going to love this child as if it is my own. It says, now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet. See, the virgin will become pregnant and give birth to a son, and they will name him Emmanuel, which is translated, God is with us.
00:20:44
Speaker
When Joseph got up from sleeping, he did as the Lord's angel had commanded him. He married her, but he did not owe her intimately until she gave birth to a son and he named him Jesus. There are two fathers in this story, one that we read about and then one that we do not read about, but we can fill in the blanks here. Number one being God the Father, the love of God the Father.
00:21:08
Speaker
John 3 16, we've all heard it, we all know it. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever should believe in him shall not perish but have eternal life. God the father sent his son Jesus to live on this earth in human form. He was perfect and he was blameless. And he did that so that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. What a picture.
00:21:33
Speaker
Isaiah 7.14 says that therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Emmanuel. We have the picture, we have the prophecy in Isaiah of the fact that one day God will send a sign. He will send a sign and the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and you shall call his name Emmanuel. God with us.
00:21:59
Speaker
Verse John 4.9 says, in this, the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only son into the world so that we might live through him. That's where we are today, that we get to live through Jesus, not through any other means, but through Jesus. Second, in this story, we see the love of Joseph, right? Think about this, I mentioned it earlier. God's redemptive plan,
00:22:29
Speaker
When I say his redemptive plan, his plan for salvation for all of us was through a man, a sinful man, who would then take ownership of a child that was not his own, raise him up, disciple him, steward the gift of life that is Jesus. And this was all a part of God's plan. That's pretty wild.
00:22:52
Speaker
Joseph's response to this command and to this challenge of being the father of Jesus, the spotless lamb that would come, that would live a perfect life, and that would one day die on a cross for our sins. Joseph's response to that was, here I am, Lord, send me. While in this passage, we only see Joseph's righteousness and obedience. In other places in scripture, we see the links that Joseph took to take care of Jesus.
00:23:22
Speaker
He was in Galilee and they had to go to Bethlehem. It was over a 70 mile journey and Joseph was willing to put his wife on a donkey and to make that trek so that the prophecy could be fulfilled. The obedience of Joseph. I can't help but think as we go through this story, I can't help but think about the impact that Joseph would have had on Jesus. So as Jesus was growing up, we see throughout scripture that Jesus was a carpenter.
00:23:53
Speaker
for 30 years. And when he was 30, he was baptized by John the Baptist and just started his ministry. So for those first 30 years, we see Jesus as a carpenter, which he learned from his father, Joseph. Now it's estimated that Joseph passed away at some point before Jesus' ministry took place, which was probably being about Joseph's teens.
00:24:21
Speaker
But we see that Joseph passed on what he did, right? He passed on the carpentry, the Greek word here is tecton. Tecton being the guy that makes the doors, the windows, the yokes, right? Architecton, which was another Greek word, which means kind of like a, which where we get the word architect would be like a general contractor, somebody that oversees, right? But Joseph was just a tecton. He was a lowly carpenter.
00:24:51
Speaker
But we see Jesus stepping into that. And I have no doubt, as we look at how Jesus responds to certain situations, I'm sure that he probably learned a lot of that from his father, Joseph.
The Symbolism in Jesus's Upbringing
00:25:05
Speaker
Matthew 11, 29, it says, take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. That has a little bit different meaning when you think about the trade that Joseph would have learned from, or sorry, that Jesus would have learned from his father, Joseph. Ephesians 2, 19 through 21 say, so then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God.
00:25:32
Speaker
built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone in whom the whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple and the Lord. It's also thought that carpenters in this time would also have been masons. They would have been stone workers, right? So there's no doubt in my mind that Joseph has also passed on this idea of being a mason, this trade.
00:25:58
Speaker
So as we read about Christ being the cornerstone, he no doubt had an idea of how stones would go together and how the cornerstone was so pivotal for a building to be built upon. Man, I just had another little epiphany popping my head, right? Jesus talks about, I am the way, the truth and the life. Well, if you think about a building, you have to go through a door, do you not? Every single one of us in this sanctuary came through a door.
00:26:29
Speaker
Jesus, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. Well, Jesus was the carpenter that used to make doors." Wow. That's pretty cool. As I kind of wrap this up, I don't want us to glaze over the beauty of a father. I don't want us to skip over the beauty of Joseph taking a child that is not his own and loving on him and shepherding him and discipling him.
00:26:59
Speaker
I don't wanna glaze over the fact that God the Father also shepherded and discipled and loved and cared for his son, Jesus. I asked some of the guys that I work with out at Pine Cove to tell me what their father or their stepfather had taught them. And I wanna read you some of their responses. My dad taught me a lot about working hard and not expecting anything in return, not doing things to get anything back.
00:27:26
Speaker
but doing them to help and serve, not working out of pride, but out of love. Another one said, my father was always training me to always be aware and make quality decisions, although at the time I couldn't really see that or understand why he was so strict on me. My father has a hard way of showing love and care. He wasn't taught that way of loving because his father didn't model that well.
00:27:49
Speaker
I've learned a lot over the years and will use some of what he taught me, but I can improve on the way that I show my family love in ways that my father couldn't. But I am so fortunate though, for my dad being a constant rock in my life and giving me what his father couldn't. Another said, joy through suffering. I've learned joy through suffering. He says, I think, he says, just as he suffered in his last years, he maintained his joy through prayer, reading the word, laughter, et cetera.
00:28:18
Speaker
He taught me that God has a purpose for all things. During his time in the hospital, he would say that God wanted him to share the gospel to the nurses and doctors there. He taught me that hard work is a very important thing. Nothing was too hard or underneath him to put food on the table. This last one is one that is pretty dang impressive in light of what we're talking about.
00:28:42
Speaker
The thing my stepdad taught me was the importance of being there, even when it wasn't his responsibility to do so. Joseph, when we think about Jesus, Joseph sought to be there for Jesus, even though it wasn't his son. I remember him, my dad, I remember him singing a song at church when I was a child called He Wasn't His Son.
00:29:12
Speaker
It was about Joseph caring for Jesus. Sometimes when we care for someone who is not our direct responsibility, we are doing what God would have us do, like the Good Samaritan. So as we think about the Christmas story, as we think about the love of the Father, as we think about the love of God the Father, as we think about the love of Jesus that would come and live on this earth, die on a cross for our sins,
00:29:38
Speaker
and one day save us from our sins. I don't want us to lose sight of the fact of the love of the Father, because ultimately that is why all of us are here.
Call to Obedience: Embracing the Season
00:29:51
Speaker
I know for myself, my father is sitting right here in this room, and my dad taught me what integrity looks like. He taught me what character looks like. He taught me what it looks like to pursue the Lord, your God with all of your heart, with all of your soul, with all of your mind.
00:30:06
Speaker
He taught me what being a man looks like. And so as I stand here today, and we've got these fancy certificates over here, and that's all exciting and whatnot, I just want us to recognize that number one, God the Father loves us more than anything in this whole world. He loved us enough that he was sent his son, Jesus.
00:30:27
Speaker
that he would be born of a human woman, Mary, that he would be the son of Joseph, a sinful man, right? But God loved us enough to send his only son, that we might live through him one day. What a beautiful story.
00:30:48
Speaker
We're gonna sing a song here in just a few moments. And I would encourage anyone that wants to respond that maybe has not given their life to the Lord to respond. I pray just that the Lord would speak to you. And I just pray that you would respond accordingly. Because ultimately obedience, as we just talked about, is hearing of the Lord and acting accordingly.
00:31:18
Speaker
Let me pray for us and then we will sing. Father God, thank you so much for this morning. Father, thank you for your son, Jesus. Father, we thank you for Joseph and the example that he has set of righteousness, of obedience, and of love. Father, I pray for our congregation this morning. Father, I pray that we would hear of your word and that we would act accordingly, that we would respond.
00:31:44
Speaker
Father, I pray over the coming days and the weeks, Father, that as we prepare for this Christmas season and the excitement of your son being born and sent to this earth, Father, I pray that we would act accordingly. Father, may you go before us as you always do. We love you. Thanks for having me pray. Amen.
00:32:10
Speaker
This is a ministry of First Baptist Church, located at 1700 Milam Street, Columbus, Texas.