25th December 2024

Joseph’s Silent Obedience

Passage: Matthew 1:20-24, 27:46, Luke 2:6-7, Philippians 2:6-8
Service Type:

The birth of any child reveals the miracle of God’s creation, but the birth of Jesus Christ uniquely bridges Heaven and Earth. Through Joseph’s eyes, we see the extraordinary responsibility of raising One who was both fully human and fully Divine. The humility of Christ’s birth in a manger foreshadows His ultimate purpose – to become the perfect sacrifice for humanity’s salvation. This same Jesus, who began His earthly journey as a helpless infant, now reigns as King of Kings, watching over us until His return.

Automatically Generated Transcript

[00:00:00] I’d like to ask you a question about Christmas. What aspect of Christmas do you like most? Now that may depend on how old you are, and it may depend on background families and what your families did on Christmas Day. Our family’s quite divided because some of us are well, we’re here, and there’s others who are meeting in one house because they’ve all got COVID, and we’re keeping separate. But Christmas for me, I’ve got something that is a very special part.

[00:00:37] I’m asking you what part of Christmas is it that you like? What aspect of it, whether it be in a shopping center or whether it be in the church, what part of Christmas? Anybody want to volunteer? Oh, you like coming to church? So it’s something to celebrate in church. Thank you, you’re my friend, and I’ll pay you later. Anybody else want to say what part of Christmas you like most, yes? Celebrating the birth of Christ.

[00:01:10] Well, celebrating the birth of Christ, that’s exactly the whole thing, and the aspect of that birth of Christ that really brings it to you, for me, listen, it’s actually a little baby. And I always lament when shopping centers will have some sort of Christmas display, but they don’t have the nativity scene which has got Mary and the baby, and Joseph standing there looking very proud.

[00:01:38] Sometimes they put the wise men in when they didn’t turn up to two years later, but anyway, that’s what people do, but it’s a baby, and I have a reason for that, because I think I came into the baby business a little late and Heidi, who’s here, she won’t mind my saying, when she was about to be born and I raced up to the hospital with Michelle, and there was this scene where eventually the labor came, and the little nurse who was the first time ever

[00:02:12] being on deck for that sort of event, ran out crying and left me with Michelle to be able to give instructions, which wasn’t necessarily well done, I did give instructions, and baby Heidi turned up and she looked as though she looked at me. Now I know from studies that they don’t, the brain can’t interpret everything straight away when they’re born, but she looked as though she knew who I was, at least that was the appearance.

[00:02:42] And I was overawed by the miracle of a human birth. Did you hear it for me? The miracle of a human birth. I don’t know that I’ve ever gotten over that awareness of what it is for a baby to be born to come into the world. But in our Christmas story, that baby born also had a double parentage. And you know that not only was he known to be Joseph and Mary’s boy, but Joseph wasn’t actually the physical father and he was a very practical man, a carpenter. Do you know in the storyline of Christmas, you’ll find that Joseph has got no recorded words. He’s not down in the Bible or saying anything. However, every time a vision came and God spoke to him, he did it. The chief thing about Joseph is his actions. He always obeyed.

[00:03:43] Our church down in Sydney had a musical. And I keep forgetting what the name of it was, but the people of our church, the promise, the people of the church wanted me to be involved in it. Now Michelle and others were involved because they were used to doing musical things. But they wanted to make me have a part. And the part they gave me was called Joseph’s Song. And I had to learn these words of Joseph’s Song. And it was a very touching thing because I’d already recognised the miracle of any baby born coming into the world. But Joseph’s Song is a recognition of a very special baby and that he’s known to be the father, but he’s not physically, but he’s the father with responsibility to respond to that Christmas moment.

[00:04:44] And the song that I had to sing was really touching. I want to read you some of the words. And in this particular song, in the middle of the musical, I think I had to carry a baby. I can’t remember who the baby was, but they made me looking after a baby and being Joseph. Father, show me where I fit into the 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? How can I raise a king? These are the words of Joseph and Joseph’s Song.

[00:06:01] He looks so small, his face, his hands, so fair. And when he cries, when he cries, he just, it seems as though the sun disappears. But when he laughs, it shines again. How could it be? There’s a couple of other choruses in it. And it hit me that day singing the song. The Majesty, the marvel of not only a baby, but a baby who’s both human through Mary, he’s physically human. But also, Mary had been promised that the Holy Spirit would overshadow her, such that that which was to be born in her would be holy, the Holy Son of God.

[00:07:03] Joseph, no doubt, found out all those details. I was going to say along the trail, but I don’t know how much talking they did as they rode those donkeys to Bethlehem. And when at last there wasn’t anywhere for the baby to be born, just as stable, with those cows doing their noise in the background, with sheep perhaps, and other animals we don’t know. There in the manger, the king of kings to be, he came into the world in a baby. And I want to say that ever since then, the coming of a baby, although it’s not the Son of God per se, but it is a human baby as Heidi was, always reminds me of the miracle of a birth.

[00:08:03] How much more this morning we can marvel at the birth of the eternal Son of God. Michelle and I were talking about at home what it is for the baby to be the king of kings. And she thought through that maybe when he died it was like going all the way circle. We had a bit of a disagreement there because I think it took the depth of all the character of the Christ one, both God and man, when he prayed in the garden of Gethsemane and he saw the horror of what was coming on him, that he would bear the sin of the world, that he would do the only thing possible to be done to get about our salvation. And he said, Father if this cup could pass from me but not my will but yours be done. And he gave into the plan of the father, because in his humanity he almost shrank

[00:09:07] not just the nails and the hands and the spike in his head and the whipping on his back and all the ugliness of the crowd, but because on that cross he bore the sin of the world and was separated from the father so much that in the dark hours it all happened to him And at the end of that, he cried, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me because of the wrench between the eternal Son and the Holy Father because of your sins and mine? He came as a baby, I’m sure when he lay there in the manger, he was just looking cute and smiling when people smile or maybe crying when he wanted something to drink, but he went through life successfully that he might qualify to pay for your sin and mine. At the end of his life, he says, Father, into your hands, I commend my spirit. He went down to the place of the lost, place of the dead.

[00:10:19] Hades is the Greek word for it, but it’s a place of both the good and the bad. It’s a place for those who will go to hell eventually and those who will go to glory. And after his resurrection, he was taken from the earth and back to heaven where he was crowned King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He’s that now. He’s watching now. He’s our Saviour in heaven now, one day to return at the end of the age. This Jesus, I remember him as a baby, not that I was there, but through Joseph’s songs, that sense of responsibility too enormous for poor Joseph. Not a person who’s a big time talker, he’s not recorded saying anything, but what is

[00:11:12] recorded of him that every time heaven called on him to do something, he obeyed. In the beginning of a proper relationship with Jesus, who is called to Christ, Jesus, the one born in Bethlehem, is when you give him the surrender of your soul, when you ask him to be your Saviour and Lord, and from that moment on, you be like Joseph and you do as the instructions from heaven comes. This Christmas day, will you remember baby Jesus? I wish those places, shopping centers would go back to putting on the nativity scene. I thank the Lord for that musical our church did. You know the people of the church, part of their reason for making me sing Joseph’s song was that they saw I really wasn’t very familiar with babies.

[00:12:15] There was a time when I went to go out to do a little run that would take me across lunchtime and back again, and Michelle saw me as a good opportunity and she ran down and put baby Heidi in the back of the car, I’m sure you don’t remember this, in the safety belt, and I drove off not knowing what Michelle had done and I came back a couple of hours later, whatever it was, for Michelle to tell me I’d be taking Heidi around everywhere. This was a big story in the church, I used to put a Heidi snippet in every week’s bulletin and the people all laughed at it and that’s why I think they gave me Joseph’s song. Every time you look at a baby there, the miracle of just human birth, we need to recognise especially at Christmas time when the baby is the eternal king to be. He’s the one that in that song about Mary, Mary did you know, one of the lines is did

[00:13:19] you know when you went to kiss your baby, you kissed the face of God. There’s something very sacred here, you’re now remembering the birth of Jesus and who he is and we need to recognise this King of Kings and in the beginning of his history of us, he came as a helpless baby and was born in a manger. Let’s pray. Heavenly Father, we give you thanks this morning for the King of Kings who came to earth in the most humble way imaginable, in the humility of being a baby who’s helpless, who is guileless so far, a baby who is completely in dependence on those around him and the provision made for Jesus was in a manger and this little baby who grew up to learn to walk with heaven, to be obedient to the calls that came to him, to be sinless that he might qualify to be our sacrifice and die for our sins. There’s nothing less that we could do at Christmas time but sing his song, bless his name and rest in him as our personal saviour and Lord. Thank you in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Topics:

Listen to a recent sermon