Intro:

A few weeks ago I was visiting with one of our senior saints. I was talking about Christmas and she said, “I don’t know how they had babies back then.” I said something like, “yes and to be traveling during the ninth month of pregnancy!” We continued our conversation, I then parted ways, but I have to imagine the travel that happened in order for the first Christmas was very difficult.

But think about Christmas today. Our difficulty and even our busyness is of our own doing.

What do you have to get done for Christmas?

Shout some things out:

Bake cookies

More shopping

More decorating

Wrap gifts

Travel

Groceries

Etc.

These are all great things, but they are nothing compared to what Mary and Joseph went through. I am not meaning to criticize anyone here either.

Now, switch gears, think with me about a difficult time that ended okay… Maybe you did not know that God was going to use it for good until sometime later. Maybe you were laid off for a while but then God gave you a better job. Maybe you were laid off but then you realized you didn’t even need the job. Maybe something else was taken from you…

I also believe that God can use our hard times.

We are going to look at Luke 2:1-7 and mainly focus on the journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem.

A few years ago, I had Elvis playing on the CD player while Meagan, myself and our two girls were driving around looking for a fishing spot. I thought it was great fun. But Meagan said something like, “Great, my idea of fun, driving around getting car sick while listening to Elvis.”

But when we think about Mary and Joseph traveling it was not in a car, they had no CD player, and, unfortunately, no Elvis music.

Think about it, they are traveling, Mary is in her ninth month of pregnancy. Mary could not have been enjoying this as a sight-seeing journey. But God used this difficult journey to bring the Savior into the world.

Let me say right now, I greatly benefited in ideas as well as cultural, geographical information from Adam Hamilton’s book, The Journey.[1]

Theme:

Mary and Joseph had a difficult journey heading into Jesus’ birth. God was going to use this for the good.

Application:

Let God use difficult things you go through for His glory and purposes.

Let’s read the passage:

Luke 2:1-7:

In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. ² (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) ³ And everyone went to their own town to register.

⁴ So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. ⁵ He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. ⁶ While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, ⁷ and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.

1. Let’s start by talking about what led up to the journey.
   1. It is likely that while Mary was visiting her relative, Elizabeth, she went to see Joseph and tell him that she was pregnant. During that time She would have been in Ein Karem which is close to Bethlehem, which is where Joseph is from. Of course, Joseph was likely upset but then God spoke to him in a dream (Matthew 1:20-23) and he decided to stay by her.
   2. Following that, it is likely that they talked to her parents and planned a wedding. We could call it eloping if we want. It is likely that they got married when she was about five months pregnant with our Lord.
   3. There could have been people questioning things, likely there were.
   4. It is likely that they traveled the 70 some miles back to Nazareth for the wedding.
   5. It was common in that day that there would be a formal engagement. Following the formal engagement a husband would build a room onto his father’s house. About a year later he would marry the bride to be and they would live at the father of the groom’s house until they could afford their own house and land.
   6. In this case things are different. Maybe, they planned to live at Joseph’s parent’s house after baby Jesus was born. However, they were in Nazareth prior to the census. It seems that they were planning to give birth in Nazareth. Nazareth would allow Mary to be close to her parents and maybe a midwife that she would know.
   7. But then the census comes. The census meant that they would have to travel to Bethlehem. Bethlehem was Joseph’s hometown and since Mary was married to him she would have to register with him in Bethlehem. It is likely that Joseph’s parents had a home in Bethlehem.
   8. So, now they have to travel.
   9. Mary is likely nine months pregnant, do you think she was excited to travel? What do you think?
   10. I think she might have been thinking, “This is not how it was supposed to be. Why am I going through this?” She likely was having a hard time.
   11. Sometimes we, also, are in difficult situations and we may be asking questions of the Lord as well. We may be going through cancer, loss of a loved one, out of work, dealing with difficult children. We can be sure that God is with us. We can be sure that God can also use what we are going through for His glory and will.
   12. The route: There are two likely routes: and the following information about the route comes from the book The Journey by Adam Hamilton
       1. (There is a third route but not mentioned that often by scholars)
       2. The first route would have taken Mary and Joseph to the east, crossing the Jordan, then south sixty miles, and finally recrossing the Jordan near Jericho and west to Bethlehem. This route would have been followed by the Jews wishing to avoid the Samaritans who were a people of mixed race whose faith was largely influenced by Judaism but that had its own distinctive elements. The land of the Samaritans, Samaria— separated the Northern region of Galilee from the southern region of Judea. Many Jews considered the Samaritans unclean, or heretics, or worse. Because of the conflict with Samaritans, some Jews felt it might be dangerous to travel through Samaria; hence, for purity or safety many Jews went out of their way to avoid passing through it. But taking this route around Samaria would have added twenty or thirty miles to Mary and Joseph’s journey— perhaps two days.

• This first route is believed by many pastors, teachers, and Biblical scholars to be the route that Joseph and Mary would have taken. Some argue that this route along the Jordan would also have been easier to travel because the Jordan River valley is a plain, and there is some truth to this.

1. The second route and the one Adam Hamilton thinks likely, was more direct. It took them nearly due south from Nazareth through the Jezreel Valley and along the road known as the Way of the Patriarchs. This route was easier through the first half of the journey, though the second half included some hills and mountains, with well known places to stop for water along the way. This route would have meant two fewer days of travel than the first route described.
2. In following the route through Samaria, the holy family would have been retracing sixteen hundred years of Biblical history.
3. The first century Jewish Historian, Josephus, is said to have noted that during the Passover, when large numbers of Jews were making their way to Jerusalem, it was not uncommon for Jews to go through Samaria.

• Hundreds of thousands of others would be traveling south from Galilee just like Mary and Joseph.
• It was in this area, in the center of this country that God appeared to Abraham and promised to give this land to his descendants.
  1. Here Jacob saw angels ascending and descending to and from Heaven.
  2. [If they went this way] Mary and Joseph’s Caravan made camp near springs and wells each night that had been used since the time of the Patriarchs, including “Jacob’s Well” near the town of Sychar.
  3. They passed the place where Joseph, the son of Jacob, whose story we recall from the Old Testament, was buried after his bones were brought back from Egypt.
  4. They came to Shiloh, where Joshua had set up the tent of meeting and the Ark of the Covenant.
  5. They walked where the great early prophets Samuel, Elijah, and Elisha ministered.
  6. They followed the path of the Assyrian army when it came to destroy the northern kingdom of Israel and where the armies of Babylon marched as they invaded Judea and Jerusalem itself and carried away its people.
  7. They also retraced the steps of the exiles who returned singing “unto Zion” after the Exile was over.
  8. God walked with His people through all of these journeys.

1. If they took this route it would have been a recounting geographically of God’s salvation history. Also, the Baby in her womb was and is the Apex of this history.
2. Later in John 4:10 and 14 we see that Jesus stopped in Samaria at Jacob’s well in Sychar and offered a woman “living water.”
3. Luke 10 and Jesus’ scandalous parable of the good Samaritan in which He made a Samaritan man the example of what it means to “Love your neighbor as yourself,” showing the Samaritan to be more righteous than either a Jewish priest or a Levite.
4. Did Jesus learn this attitude from His mother and father?
5. Who are our Samaritans and where is our Samaria?
6. Which groups do we feel an aversion for?
7. Where are the places in our own city, country or world that we would avoid because we are uncomfortable with “those people”?

1. Let’s think about the travel
   1. There is no mention of a donkey though Joseph likely would have procured an animal for her to ride on. The apocryphal Gospel of James does mention a donkey.
   2. They would have a descent from the hills into the Jezreel Valley. This would have been the easiest part of the journey and may have taken the first two days.
   3. The Jezreel Valley was the location of so many of the ancient battles that it became synonymous with war and bloodshed. The writer of Revelation saw the final, apocalyptic battle between good and evil—the battle of Armageddon— taking place here. (Armageddon means “hill of Megiddo,” with Megiddo being a city built upon a hill along the Jezreel Valley— see Revelation 16:16.)
   4. The child in Mary’s womb would be called the Prince of Peace yet someday will return on a white horse, to wage war against evil and ultimately to triumph over it (Rev. 19:11-16).
   5. The journey would get more difficult after several days. Following the ancient road that curved back and forth as it ascended and descended the hills and mountains of central Israel.
   6. Mary and Joseph would have traveled up higher and higher hills.
   7. From Jerusalem it would only be a few hours walk to Bethlehem across several miles of arid desert and some hills.
   8. Then they arrive at Bethlehem.

• But think about Jesus’ birth. If Joseph is from Bethlehem, why no place to stay.
  1. Think about a first century home:
     1. central room that served as a kitchen and living area
     2. sleeping quarters where parents slept

• guest room where children slept and they yielded to guests when there was company

1. when there were guests the children slept with their parents or in the living area
2. there was also a stable or small barn either behind the home or, in the case of homes built around caves, beneath the home. The stable protected the animals from predators or animals at night.

1. Assuming that Joseph’s family was of modest income, they would have had one guest room. The guest room might hold bed mats for 6 people sleeping side by side. The main living room and kitchen could hold several more.
2. How many of Joseph’s extended family were in Bethlehem because of the census?
3. If Joseph had four or five siblings and each of them had family, it is easy to see why there would have been no room in the guest room.
4. Imagine her sitting on the birthing stole, between contractions choking back the tears, thinking this is not how it was supposed to be. She was not supposed to be giving birth in her in-laws barn.

1. Some final applications:
   1. This was not a silent night
   2. All was not calm and bright
   3. It was a disappointing and depressing night. It was hard.
   4. He was born not in a hospital, or in a guest room but in a stable.
   5. We all have journeys that are difficult:
      1. Jacob’s son, Joseph, was sold into slavery. (Gen. 37)
      2. David fled Saul and fled to the Philistines for a few years (1 Samuel 19ff and chapter 27) and he wrote Psalms asking, “Why do You allow my enemies to prosper?” “When are You going to save me?” That was not the end of the story.
      3. Shadrach, Meshech and Abednego were told to bow down and worship the king’s image, but they didn’t. (Daniel 3) That was not the end of the story.
      4. The people of Israel were exiled for 50 years but that was not the end.
      5. Now, the child born in a stable would walk to Calvary, but that was not the end of the story.

All of us take difficult journeys but God walks with us on the journeys. God redeems the journeys and that is not the end of the story.

Mary could not see that the angels would be rejoicing. She could not see that we would be reading the story two thousand years later.  However, we are.

Prayer

God created us to be with him. (Genesis 1-2)

Our sin separated us from God. (Genesis 3)

Sins cannot be removed by good deeds (Gen 4-Mal 4)

Paying the price for sin, Jesus died and rose again. (Matthew – Luke)

Everyone who trusts in him alone has eternal life. (John – Jude)

Life that’s eternal means we will be with Jesus forever. (Revelation 22:5)

[1] Rev 2:20-23

Hamilton, Adam (2011-09-01). The Journey: Walking the Road to Bethlehem. Abingdon Press. Kindle Edition.

Opening:

The American storyteller Garrison Keillor recently claimed that you don’t have to believe in Jesus to have a great Christmas. Keillor said,

Although you may decide that instead of Christmas carols you are going to hold hands and breathe in unison, Christmas will still live deep in the cockles of your heart—or actually in your neo-cortex, stored as zillions of neuron impulses … It’s [your brain] that sends tears to your eyes when you smell the saffron cookies that your grandma used to make or you sing Silent Night. So Christmas is: number one lights, number two food, number three song, number four being with people you like. You need no more.

Tim Keller comments on Keillor’s quote:

Keillor is saying that it doesn’t matter whether you believe in God or not. You can still hold hands, you can still breathe in unison. All the good feelings of Christmas are just a reaction in our brain. But here’s why that doesn’t work. I know enough about Garrison Keillor to know that he is very upset with cruelty and prejudice. But if it’s really true that there is no God, if there is no supernatural or miracles, and if everything is a function of natural causes—if that is all true, then it is also true that love, and joy, and even cruelty and prejudice are just all chemical reactions stored in our brain. Keillor is against cruelty and prejudice, but if it’s true that everything is just chemistry, then how in the world can you say there’s a moral difference between love and cruelty, between kissing someone or killing someone? They’re both nothing but neuro-chemical responses. So if there is no God, and if Christmas is all about lights, songs, and being with nice people and your neo-cortex going crazy about it, then I don’t see how Keillor can stand up and say that there is something wrong with cruelty and prejudice. He can’t do it. Without the theology behind Christmas, you lose the core meaning of Christmas.[1]

So, as we move towards Christmas remember the importance of what is happening. Remember the reality and the truth of what is happening. Next, to get closer to today’s message, we see certain values present in Mary’s Magnificat. We see certain values addressed. The Magnificat is addressing injustice. We’ll look at that in a moment, but let’s look at a bigger picture. The Gospel is addressing injustice. Somehow we know and we believe in morality. Somehow we know and we believe that certain things are wrong and others are right. Somehow we believe in love. We believe in joy. We get these values somewhere. The Bible teaches that we get these values from God. (Romans 1:18-19; 2:15) Even more than that, we believe that certain things are wrong. If we believe certain things are wrong like murder, stealing, telling lies and just being mean, which the Bible calls sin. How do we make it right? Jesus’ death and resurrection takes care of our sin.

So, Mary is pregnant with Jesus. She is likely a little bit down. She may be very down. She doesn’t know how she is going to handle everything coming her way, but she is encouraged by her relative Elizabeth.  Have you ever been encouraged?

Have you ever thought you had more coming your way than you could handle?

Who encouraged you?

Who motivated you?

Let’s look at the passage.

Let’s read Luke 1:39-45:

At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea,  where she entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth.  When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear!  But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?  As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her!  

Theme: Mary visits Elizabeth and she is encouraged

Applications: Kneel before Jesus as Lord and be used of God to encourage others.

1. Kneel before Jesus as Lord.
   1. We need to notice who the first person to call Jesus Lord was. If you look at this passage it was Elizabeth.
   2. Let me put this in context. The angel Gabriel visit Mary and tells her she is going to be pregnant with the Messiah. That happens in Luke 1:26-38. That passage ends with Mary saying, “I am the Lord’s servant…” Then Mary leaves and goes to visit her relative Elizabeth. This was likely an 8-9 day journey through Mountains and rough land. She is going from Nazareth to Ein Karem which is the traditional location of Elizabeth and Zachariah’s home.

• Adam Hamilton believes that another reason for Mary to visit Elizabeth would be the proximity of her home to the home of Joseph. Tradition says that her home would have been in Ein Karem just about an hour walk and a few miles from the Temple mount in Jerusalem. Ein Karem is mentioned in Jeremiah 6:1 and Nehemiah 3:14 as “Beth-Haccherem” Ein Karem is 80 miles from Mary’s home in Nazareth. This may have taken 8-9 days and she would not have traveled alone. Mary stayed with Elizabeth until the end of the pregnancy.[2]

1. Mary enters Elizabeth’s house and says, “Elizabeth, it’s me!” Then the baby in Elizabeth’s womb, John the Baptizer, leaped in her womb. Verse 41 says that Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. Understand that is an amazing statement. In the Old Testament only prophets and certain kings received the Holy Spirit. So, in Psalm 51:11: King David laments: “Take not the Holy Spirit from me.” There was a fear of losing the Holy Spirit.
2. It was once said, “I wonder what it was like for Moses to talk to God as he did.” Yet Moses could have thought, “What is it like to have God with you?” We receive the Holy Spirit when we commit to Christ (John 14-17). We have God with us. (2 Cor. 6:16) Don’t take this lightly.
3. Now, having the Holy Spirit, Elizabeth encourages Mary.

• She says in verse 42: “Blessed are you among women and blessed is the child that you bear.”
• Imagine Mary being down and struggling with this task and now her relative is saying, “You are blessed.” “You are really blessed.”

1. But verse 43: “But why am I so favored that the mother of my Lord should come to me?”
2. Catch this: Elizabeth is an ordinary person and God calls her to do an extraordinary thing. She is bearing John the Baptizer. She is encouraging Mary. She is saying, “Who am I?” But then she calls Jesus Lord.
3. How would she know? She is filled with the Holy Spirit and so she is the first to call Jesus Lord.

• Romans 10:9-10 tells us to call Jesus Lord, do you?
• In verses 39-45: 3 times the word “blessed” is used. Twice it refers to Mary and once to Jesus.

1. Be an encourager.
   1. Mary is likely 10 days pregnant at this point. She has not been pregnant long.
   2. She needs encouraged and Elizabeth gave her that encouragement.

• Everyone needs an encourager. Let me jump to mentors. Elizabeth is an older woman, that is not Mary’s mom, who can voice wisdom in her life. I have often heard that everyone should have a mentor, everyone should be mentoring someone else and everyone should have a peer that they can connect with. How are you doing in this area?

1. I heard about a church that decided to take this mentoring seriously, so on all of their committees they chose to have one third of the participants be fifty-five and older, one third are to be thirty-five through fifty-five years old and one third of the committee are to be thirty five and younger. What a great idea for mentoring.

• The Gospel is counter-cultural, let’s look at the Magnificat.
  56. I want to put out some verses from the Magnificat. Mary’s Magnificat is in verses 46-56.
  57. Magnificat comes from the Latin: “magnify” or “praise” this is based on the way Mary began her Psalm: “My Soul Magnifies the Lord.”

• Mary was from a town so small it could barely be a dot on a map. Joseph was a carpenter and his net worth could fit in a tool box.

1. He scatters the proud and pulls down the mighty from their thrones. (verses 51-52)
2. Compare this with what Jesus will later say:
3. Jesus had said, “the first shall be last and the last shall be first.”

• Jesus said, “if you really want to be great you will be the servant of others.”
• Jesus said, “If you are invited to a wedding banquet take the lower seat.”

1. Jesus said, “Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord and He will lift you up.” (Matthew 20:16, 26; Luke 14:8-11; James 4:10)
2. In Mary’s Magnificat we find a picture of a God who is for the underdog and is for people who have been made to be feel like nobodies. Those are the ones He lifts up. That is the character of the God proclaimed in the Scriptures. That is the character of His Son.
3. The Magnificat says that “He has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty handed.” (verse 53)

• This is an opportunity for the rich to humble themselves and be used of God.
• The Magnificat is counter-cultural. The Magnificat is about how God uses ordinary people for extraordinary things.

So, review:

Mary and Elizabeth, two ordinary people who God used to do the extraordinary.

Theme: Mary visits Elizabeth and she is encouraged

Applications: Kneel before Jesus as Lord and be used of God to encourage others.

Do you know Jesus?

God created us to be with him. (Genesis 1-2)

Our sin separated us from God. (Genesis 3)

Sins cannot be removed by good deeds (Gen 4-Mal 4)

Paying the price for sin, Jesus died and rose again. (Matthew – Luke)

Everyone who trusts in him alone has eternal life. (John – Jude)

Life that’s eternal means we will be with Jesus forever. (Revelation 22:5)

Pray

[1] Adapted from Tim Keller, “God with Us: Conversations with Tim Keller about Christmas”

[2] Hamilton, Adam (2011-09-01). The Journey: Walking the Road to Bethlehem. Abingdon Press. Kindle Edition.

Tell me about Joseph. Shout out something that you know about Joseph.

Think about your nativity scene. How many of you have a Nativity Set?

Is Joseph old or young?

So little is known about Joseph that by the beginning of the second century, Christians began to develop traditions about him— traditions that are not likely historically accurate, although we cannot be sure. They began to teach that Joseph was an elderly widower when he married Mary; one source says he was 93 at the time and lived to be 111, dying when Jesus was 18. This tradition seemed to have developed as a way of asserting that a kind elderly gentleman took Mary in to care for her, and since he was more like a grandfather than a husband, the marriage was never consummated and Mary remained a virgin throughout her life. This picture of Joseph also provided one possible explanation for the brothers and sisters of Jesus mentioned in Matthew 13: 55-56 and elsewhere: they could have been Joseph’s children by a deceased wife. (Roman Catholics, for whom the doctrine of the perpetual virginity of Mary is important, will also point out that “brothers and sisters” in the Gospels can also mean cousins or close family members.)

This idea that Joseph was elderly is represented in a good deal of art from the Orthodox and Roman Catholic traditions, where Joseph is often portrayed as an older man. Most Protestants who regard the second-century traditions that developed about Joseph as spurious assume that Joseph was likely the age of any other young man getting married at the time— around fourteen or fifteen. So, Protestant portrayals tend to show Joseph as a young man. (As an aside, take a look at your nativity set and see if your Joseph is portrayed as an older man or a young man; if he is older the artist likely came from a Roman Catholic or Eastern Orthodox tradition.)

Theme:

Today, I want to talk about Joseph. I want to tell you that Joseph was ordinary. I want to tell you that God used Him.

Application:

I want to tell you to never discount the ordinary. God will use ordinary events, ordinary people and you.

Let’s read Matthew 1:18-25:

This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. ¹⁹ Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet^[e] did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.

²⁰ But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. ²¹ She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”

²² All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet:²³ “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).

²⁴ When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. ²⁵ But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.

1. Let’s start by talking about Joseph as ordinary.
   1. Joseph never said a word in the Gospels. He is never quoted.
   2. Joseph is from Bethlehem.
   3. In Matthew, Nazareth is not mentioned until 2:23. Then Jesus would have been at least two years old.
   4. In Matthew’s Gospel, Bethlehem appears to be Joseph’s hometown. Luke 2:3 would seem to corroborate this when it notes that, with the census.
   5. Since Nazareth was certainly Mary’s hometown, Joseph and Mary’s engagement was most likely long-distance, arranged by their respective families in Bethlehem and Nazareth. Mary’s visit to her cousin Elizabeth (Luke 1: 39-56). The traditional location of Elizabeth and Zechariah’s home is called Ein Karem, only four miles from Bethlehem. So, immediately upon discovering she was pregnant, Mary traveled nine days south to a town four miles from Bethlehem, where she would spend the next three months.
   6. Since Joseph’s hometown was Bethlehem, then it would have been during this time that Joseph visited Mary and learned that his betrothed was pregnant. It would have been during this time, these first three months of Mary’s pregnancy, that Joseph would have had his own “annunciation” by means of a dream.
   7. I learned something recently and that is Following those events, he would have taken Mary back to Nazareth, where the couple was married and began their life together until forced to return to Bethlehem for the census.
   8. Bethlehem means “House of Bread.” It was home to laborers and sheepherders, but it was also home to farmers who grew wheat and barley and likely to millers and bakers— hence the name, “House of Bread.” We can surmise that bread was baked there and then probably delivered to customers in Jerusalem.
   9. Bethlehem and Nazareth were both common, ordinary places. Joseph was a common, ordinary man.
   10. A few years ago I mentioned that Joseph would have been a common day laborer and I received a question later on. Carpenter in that day was not the same as a carpenter today. As I wrote in my Chimes article, to be a carpenter meant “one who works with their hands.”
   11. There was not a lot of wood in Israel and Joseph likely worked with stone or even in the fields. This was a common, ordinary job. It was not a respectable job. It was hard work. It was back breaking work. The occupation was just above the servant status.
   12. Joseph was ordinary. Don’t discount what God will do through the ordinary.
2. God did the extraordinary through Joseph.

1. Joseph could have had Mary stoned. He could have divorced her. But he did not. First he could expose her as unfaithful and maybe she could be stoned, though that was rare in the first century. She would probably suffer shame of a public divorce. (Deut. 22:23-24)
2. A second option was to grant her a private divorce, in which case Joseph needed only to hand her a written certificate in the presence of two witnesses (cf. Num. 5:11-31).75
3. His third option was to remain engaged and not divorce Mary, but this alternative appeared to Joseph to require him to break the Mosaic Law (Lev. 20:10).
   1. You know I bet that once it was out that Mary was pregnant Joseph had all kinds of people telling him what to do. Don’t you think there were many people telling Joseph their opinion? If your spouse is pregnant by another man wouldn’t some of your co workers be telling you various things? People are probably telling Joseph to have her stoned. People are probably telling him to make a statement with this. People are probably telling him to divorce her quietly. And I am sure he has friends saying, “Ya know Joseph, I have known Mary’s family. We are waiting on the Messiah, maybe she is pregnant by the Holy Spirit.” There may be those saying, “Ya know Joseph, I have heard about Zechariah the priest, his wife wasn’t supposed to get pregnant and she is. Supposedly, he saw the angel Gabriel. Maybe God is doing something new. Maybe you should believe her.”
      1. God spoke to Joseph in a dream. (Matthew 1:20-21) Joseph obeyed. Joseph likely went to see Mary while she was at Elizabeth’s place and that is when he found out she was pregnant. In the walk home he may have been boiling. He might have been weeping as he walked away. But he calmed down. He would have had about a ninety minute walk home. During this time he must have thought about how much the news would damage Mary. He must have thought about how she could be stoned. Then God spoke to Joseph.
      2. He surrendered to the Lord (verses 20-25 show how he followed what the Angel of the Lord said. Verse 24 specifically says that he obeyed)
      3. So verse 19 says that he would divorce her quietly.
      4. Verse 19 says that he was going to do that because he was a righteous man.
      5. Then verse 20 has the angel of the Lord coming to Joseph in a dream. The child to be conceived is from the Holy Spirit.
      6. Verse 21 has the angel telling Joseph that He will save His people from their sins. Then verse 22 is stating that this is happening to fulfill what and Isaiah 7:14 says. Verse 23: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”(which means “God with us”).
      7. Verses 24-25 show that Joseph obeyed what the angel said.
      8. Joseph was faithful to God’s Word including purity (Verse 25 says that he kept her a virgin until the birth.).
      9. This was the man who was the earthly father of Christ the King.

• The purpose of this passage is not to talk about ordinary, the purpose is to talk about the birth of Jesus. But God did use the ordinary.
  1. Are you willing to be used of God?
  2. What about ordinary people, events, places, do you discount them?
  3. Do you think, “God could never use me…”?
  4. Do you discount others?
  5. Now, notice that Joseph obeyed and we must as well. Notice that many times in Scriptures God uses people who were discounted such as John 8 and the woman in adultery, but also notice that Jesus says, “Go and sin no more.” (John 8:11)
  6. But He first said, “I do not condemn you” (she was given forgiveness) and we all need forgiven, we need to know that we are forgiven.  It is that forgiveness that drives us to serve God, to live for Him, to honor Him.  Forgiveness is a stronger force than saying “go sin no more.” The “sin no more part” will naturally follow and flow out of our gratitude of being forgiven so extravagantly, so completely. How can we resist loving a God who does that? How can we resist giving our all for Him who gave His all? How can we resist doing whatever He asks of us?  If we do resist, then we either do not have an understanding of His extravagant forgiveness or we are unable to forgive ourselves.  But He has forgiven us, so if we refuse to forgive ourselves, we are sinning by not accepting His forgiveness.[1]
  7. We must follow Him. Are you following?
  8. Follow Jesus, God will use you.
  9. Trust that God will use your children and grandchildren as well. Trust that God will show up and use the most unlikely of circumstances.
  10. I believe this and I believe this is so that He is more glorified. Our lives are about God’s glory.

In a short devotional for Christmas, writer Paul Williams reflects on why he still remembers one particular Christmas pageant from 1981. It all starts with a strep-stricken son. He writes:

The dull eyes tipped me off before he could open his mouth. Jonathan had strep throat. It seemed the children in our family picked up strep two or three times a year, and someone always had it during the holidays.

Jonathan had been excited about the nursery school Christmas play for a couple of weeks. He would be Joseph. Mary would be played by a Jewish girl from down the block. Yes, her parents had given permission for her to be in the Christmas pageant.

With neck glands swollen and his voice a nasally whine, Jonathan begged to go to the festivities. Against our better judgment, we acquiesced. Bundling our son in his warmest coat, we drove the five short miles to the Central Islip Church of Christ. By the time all the parents had squeezed into the small auditorium, Jonathan was as white as the pillowcase he was wearing as a head covering. He looked fragile and diminutive.

Cathy and I sat on the front row. Jonathan came down the aisle hand in hand with Mary, and the two sat down on the second step below the manger, recently retrieved from its usual home in the boiler room. Jonathan was looking paler still, all the light out of his big blue eyes. He looked at us and managed a weak smile.

As soon as the play was over we hauled Jonathan off to the doctor’s office. Since our family doctor was a friend, we sneaked in and out in no time. Filled with penicillin, our son was feeling better the next morning. I do not remember much about the rest of that Christmas season, though I am sure it was utterly delightful, as all Christmas celebrations are.

I have often pondered why that is my only remembrance of that Christmas, in December of 1981. Of all the memories of all our family Christmas experiences, what makes that one event stand out?

I know the reason.

Christmas is truly about frail vulnerability, freely chosen. With heart in throat God watched his infant Son cry and squirm in the cold manger, where there was no penicillin.

I know how I felt watching my son with his head resting in those small hands, wanting to be brave, but weak and unsteady. I can only imagine what my heavenly Father thought, seeing his infant Son in the hands of a frightened young girl.[2]

Used by permission. For more articles like this, visitChristianStandard.com.

Paul Williams, “And So It Goes: One Christmas Pageant,”ChristianStandard.com(11-18-09)

God created us to be with him. (Genesis 1-2)

Our sin separated us from God. (Genesis 3)

Sins cannot be removed by good deeds (Gen 4-Mal 4)

Paying the price for sin, Jesus died and rose again. (Matthew – Luke)

Everyone who trusts in him alone has eternal life. (John – Jude)

Life that’s eternal means we will be with Jesus forever. (Revelation 22:5)

Pray

[1] Janet Wise’s comments

[2] http://www.preachingtoday.com/search/?query=joseph&searcharea=illustrations&type=keyword