Dwight Fletcher | Christmas breeze - Change in season - Part I

Merry Christmas everyone! May this season be a great season for you and your family and may 2019 be your best year yet.

The Christmas breeze is blowing so nice and cool, don't you just love it? Christmas breeze is an indication that the season has changed. For some of us, Christmas time is also a time of change. The season of our lives change and with it comes new challenges.

Today, let us consider someone whom we seldom think about during the Christmas season but for whom Christmas brought change and challenge. When we think of Christmas we think about Mary and the virgin birth, obviously Jesus, the shepherds, the wise men. We even think of the animals in the manger, but have we considered Joseph, Jesus' stepfather.

Joseph gets overlooked most of the time but that does not mean we should underestimate what we can learn from him. Why did God choose Joseph to be Jesus' human father? The answer will become evident as we look at how Joseph responds to the change in season; the changes and challenges the first Christmas threw his way.

We often view Joseph like an extra (an actor/performer in a film or production who appears in a non-speaking/silent capacity, usually in background) in the Christmas movie rather than a leading man. This is because he never speaks during the entire story. When you look in the Bible neither the book of Matthew nor Luke recorded Joseph speaking one word.

So, because we don't hear Joseph speaking, it's easy to assume that he is unimportant to the story. But have you noticed that Joseph is very significant to the way the entire Christmas story developed?
A popular maxim is that action speaks louder than words and in the Christmas story we don't hear Joseph speaking but we see his actions. Joseph is a man of action and as we read the Christmas story, we see God talking to Joseph and we see Joseph's action:
-    We see Joseph listening to God speak.
-    We see Joseph moving his family from one location to another.
-    We see Joseph struggling with his conscience and personal fears about what to do with Mary now that he's discovered she's pregnant.

So rather than listen to Joseph, we end up watching him in action. This was no accident. God cast Joseph in this role for a reason and we can learn a lot from Joseph.

ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS!

Many of us tend to believe that we are not important to the Kingdom of God because we don't have a part to play that is up front. So, we easily identify with Joseph as he represents us. As we look at the story of Joseph, we will learn that even the people that are quieter and less visible are extremely important to the Kingdom. We are all important to the Kingdom. Have you ever thought about it, there might have been no Christmas if Joseph had responded differently? Joseph may be quiet, but he was the right man for the job.
So, before we look at the lessons, we can learn from Joseph. Let us take a moment and look at the man God chose to raise His Son.

JOSEPH HAD AN UNEXPECTED DEVELOPMENT

"This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph…" Matthew 1:18a NIV
His life was set, he had met a wonderful girl who was the love of his life. She had met his parents and friends and they approved of her. Her parents had met him, and they loved him. He was now engaged and, in their culture, an engagement to be married was considered as binding as a marriage. But amid all this anticipation came a big challenge we read in Matthew 1:18b (NIV), "Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit."

WHAT! This was not just a little change, it was like a category five hurricane coming at him instead of a gentle Christmas breeze. This was devastating news. It is hard to imagine the depth of Joseph's horror when he discovered that Mary was pregnant. It would be a problem in today's world but back then it would be 100 times worse. And then the story she must have told him - she saw a bright light and an angel of the Lord appeared to her and now she is pregnant by the Holy Spirit. One can only imagine what was going through Joseph's mind as he listened to Mary. One moment his life was set, and in another his world was falling apart. His plans were shattered.

How should we respond when our world falls apart? When everything we have dreamed about and desired for years is in our sight, one-minute total bliss and the next total devastation. Well, Joseph's response helps us understand how we should response in moments of crisis. So, join us next week as we look at lesson we can learn from Joseph, Jesus' earthly father.