(December 18, 2023), Alan Higgins shares… and challenges.

It’ll soon be Christmas Eve and we’ll all be looking forward to Christmas Day and all the joy that it brings. I don’t know about you but I love Christmas Day… except I can’t stand all the build-up to it.  Christmas songs are played on the radio from mid-November and Christmas adverts seem to get on our TV screens and in stores earlier each year, indeed so many weeks before the great day. 

To me it gets a bit tiresome at times.  And people on Facebook remind me that there’s only so many days to go until Christmas!  Ah well – call me a grumpy old man, but I’ll be glad when Christmas Day comes and all the charging-about-like-‘eejits’ comes to an end and we can relax, open our presents, have a nice meal and fall asleep in front of the TV.

But that’s not what Christmas is – it’s about the arrival of the Saviour of the world, the King of kings and Lord of lords (Revelation 19:16).  It’s about Jesus – Immanuel – God with us (Matthew 1:23)!

You won’t find any of this Christmas-charging-about in the opening chapter of Matthew’s gospel! Rather we’re told about a young couple, Joseph and Mary, who were pledged to be married and what happened.  Joseph was –

1) A good man

• In Joseph and Mary’s day to be engaged was a more serious state than it is in many societies today. 
• It was like a legal contract by the couple about a year before they were to be married.
• However, the couple would be called husband and wife by everyone even before the wedding. 
• But… the girl would remain with her parents in their house until the time came for the marriage. 
• To call off the marriage would be like a legal divorce. 

And this is what Joseph must have been contemplating after he discovered that Mary was pregnant. His first thoughts must have been that Mary had not been loyal, faithful, to him.

Joseph must have been a good man, a very good man, because he didn’t want to cause Mary any harm by making it public knowledge, but was thinking of having a private divorce (Matthew 1:18-20a).  That would be the kindest thing to do for Mary, that way it would avoid shame being heaped on her. 

And he didn’t act in a hurry. Joseph was taking his time thinking things through and deciding what he should do – when he had that dream (Matthew 1:20b).

I don’t know about you but I can never remember my dreams – I know I have them but if someone was to ask me what I dreamed about last night I couldn’t tell you. My wife Linda is able to tell me vividly what her dreams were, who was in them and what she thinks they mean. 

2) Unheralded, but invaluable
The dream Joseph had was something he would remember the rest of his days. Indeed something which would change the whole course of history. 

Now we know little about Joseph. The Bible doesn’t tell us much – he wasn’t someone who had a central, ‘starring’ role to serve the Lord and fulfil His plan.

• But he was open to obeying the directions of God, for that matter supernatural leadings!
• God can greatly use (has used) quiet, steady, faithful people like Joseph to help bring about His will!
• Humility doesn’t need to be noticed and admired regarding things done or being done. 
• Joseph was perfectly happy to be in a supporting role. 

Jesus, obviously, and even Mary, had much more central roles in the gospels: Joseph was an unheralded but still very valuable figure in all of it. I suppose when we think of ourselves, perhaps we are people who don’t have starring roles in the church. But just like Joseph we can be people who willingly accept God’s calling on our lives – whatever that calling may be.  We can let His Holy Spirit work through us to see His kingdom extended and lives won for Christ as we become more and more like Him. 

If Joseph hadn’t accepted the role God had for him then the ‘Christmas’ story could have gone very differently. And if we don’t accept God’s role for us then there could be people out there who never encounter Jesus – let’s be people who stand up for Jesus.

3) Self-controlled, unafraid
Joseph was a man who had much self-control. Self-control is an often-under-appreciated fruit of the Spirit. Imagine if Joseph hadn’t controlled himself… how God’s plan would have been distrupted!

Note also: Sometimes God withholds something from us just for a time, for our good, before giving it to us at the right time. Joseph had to keep Mary pure for a time, but the Bible records that later they had children of their own – four other sons, and daughters, as well. Matthew 13:55-56 (speaking of Jesus) records, ‘Isn’t this the carpenter’s son? Isn’t his mother’s name Mary, and aren’t his brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas? Aren’t all his sisters with us?’  Perhaps that time of Joseph’s self-control was difficult, but it was well worth it.

In that first recorded dream of Joseph’s, the angel called him a son of David. This is an important statement as it shows that by Joseph, Jesus would be a king from the line of the family of King David.  Then the angel went on tell young Joseph not to be worried: ‘Do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit’ (Matthew 1:20). 

Joseph is encouraged not to hesitate in taking Mary as his wife; the angel goes on to explain the truth about what had happened to Mary… 

• That the child inside her was miraculously conceived by the Holy Spirit!
• That ‘She will give birth to a son.’
• And when born, Joseph would be his earthly father – ‘… you are to give him the name Jesus’(v21).

It was normal in those days for the father to give the child a name, in Joseph’s case… Jesus. And the name Jesus is so important as it is a version of the Old Testament name Joshua (yehôshûa‛) meaning ‘The Lord saves.’ 

And in the dream the angel told Joseph that Jesus would save people from their sins. Can you imagine for a moment being told that your son was going to be the Saviour of the world?  This humble, decent man was to be the father of the greatest human to ever live! 

Incidentally, the birth of this baby had been prophesied around 700 years before by Isaiah (which I’m sure Joseph was familiar with). ‘Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call Him Immanuel’ (Isaiah 7:14). Immanuel means God with us…  Jesus was God with us here on earth!

When Joseph woke up from his sleep he did what the angel had told him. I would imagine that this would have been difficult for him but being a God-fearing, God-honouring Jew he knew that it was the right thing for him to do. 

And I can imagine too that it would have been very difficult for him to go and publicly accept Mary as his wife, as I’m sure many tongues would have been wagging in their village. Can you imagine the talk of the village – this young girl is having a baby and it isn’t Joseph’s!  But Joseph married Mary anyway and the baby was later born in a stable in Bethlehem.    

4) Obedient and protective
Like his namesake in the Old Testament, Joseph had dreams in which God spoke to him. In Matthew 2:13-15 we read of a second one, after the wise men’s visitation –
‘When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and His mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.” So he got up, took the child and His mother during the night and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.”’                                                                                        

And that obedient servant took his son to Egypt and so the prophecy of Hosea 11:1 was fulfilled.

In Matthew 2:19-21, we read of a third dream to which Joseph was also obedient… this one leading him to bring Jesus and Mary back home – ‘After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child’s life are dead.” So he got up, took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel.’

Verse 22-23 speak of Joseph’s protectiveness: ‘But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there.’ Then a fourth dream – ‘Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee, and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets, that he would be called a Nazarene.’

Joseph seems to have been a man who dreamed a lot, a man who, when God told him to do something, was quick to obey without questioning a lot.  Oh to be a bit more like Joseph in my own life.  To obey God whenever He tells me to do something instead of questioning Him and wanting to see things more clearly before accepting that He knows best.  I think we all could do with being a wee bit more like Joseph!

So, what about you this Christmas? 
Do you, dear reader, know Jesus the Saviour of the world, the King of kings and Lord of Lords, Immanuel – God with us? 

If not, wouldn’t today – even before Christmas – be a great time to get to know Jesus personally in your life.  Genuinely repentant, ask forgiveness of sins. Accept Him, believe in Him and commit to following Him.

This Christmas let’s be people, who like Joseph, accept the role that God has for us.  He accepted his as conveyed in his dreams, which may have been difficult for him to understand, but what a role that turned out to be!

Who knows what lies ahead when we accept God’s call on our lives.  Be sure we accept God’s call on our lives – we have His Holy Spirit with us in this 21^st century to direct us in all we think and do. And let’s be people in our locales who have the Holy Spirit directing our lives so that we can witness Jesus to those around us whether they be our family, our neighbours, our friends or those in our local community.  

Let’s make Christmas 2023 a time to remember by putting Jesus first in everything we say, in everything we think and in everything we do. 

And then let’s dream big dreams of seeing our community, our country and our world won for Jesus.

Suggested prayer:
Father God, thank you for Jesus.  Thank you that He came to earth as a newborn baby all those years ago. That same baby became the man who died on Calvary’s cross so that all our sins could be forgiven. Help us to put our trust in Him and to follow Him the rest of our days. In His name Jesus – Immanuel, God with us. Amen.

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Alan Higgins served at Willowfield Parish Church, East Belfast, Northern Ireland, for 17 years. Although retired, he ministers around as God leads, including interim pastoring, blessing many. Link: OnlinerConnect@gmail.com
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