[Frank Dunkle] Have you noticed it’s that time of year again? If you’ve been into a retail store or even some of the grocery stores, it’s that time of year. You’re hearing that type of music. The decorations are going up. They’re already in place. There’s a 12-foot Santa in my neighborhood. It’s inflatable, but boy, you don’t miss that one. I think one of the local radio stations switched to playing all Christmas music all the time. And I think they made that switch right after October 31st. And what do we in the Church of God do? We mostly determine to not look. We determine to not listen. If we think about what is called Christmas, it’s mostly to remind ourselves that this celebration of the winter solstice dates back many centuries before the birth of Jesus Christ, and that it originated with many pagan myths. We may even have a little bit of a smug attitude as we think about that, the things that we know. And even more so when secular and even serious religious scholars agree with us, that Christ wasn’t born at the winter solstice.

These customs have been around a long time. And it’s fairly normal to have a sermon this time of year, you know, to explain these things. And I came this close to writing one. Actually, well, no, I came close to writing one of those and then I decided to do something a little bit different. And, you know, it’s good to do that. It is good for us to review what we know about, you know, the customs around us and why we keep the traditions that we do. But that’s still not what my message today will be about. It is related, though.

You know, a lot of our fellow countrymen today are looking forward to these holidays because they’re eager to focus on something happy. You know, admittedly, 2020 has not been a year that people are going to look back with great fondness. Well, some people will. I’m sure there have been some good things happen. But a lot of people want to think of something good. They want some inspiration. And I sympathize with those feelings. Not enough that I want to say, “Yeah, let’s do Christmas. That’ll be okay.” No, not like that. But it’s worth reminding us, that the birth of Jesus Christ was a wondrous event. It was good news. It was happy. It wasn’t a winter event by any means. But there is plenty of inspiration if we focus on who and what Jesus Christ was as a man and, of course, what He is now.

Today, I’d like to consider something else, though. I’d like to consider some of the other people that were involved in the coming of Christ to this earth as a man. It’s easy to overlook that, especially when we’re trying to look the other way when we hear people talk about the nativity and what they think is Christmas. But some of those other people, they were called on for some special jobs, big jobs, huge responsibility. They weren’t called on to just sing pretty songs. It wasn’t about just gazing at this baby. And I’ve listened to some of the songs. But they had important responsibilities to meet. So that’s where I want to say within what we commonly call the Christmas story, even though we know that’s not what it is, if we look at the beginning of Matthew and the beginning of Luke, there are some examples of people responding to God that we don’t want to overlook. So, I’ll say this is not a Christmas sermon, not really an anti-Christmas sermon. But it’s a focus on how people reacted when God had a job for them to do, gave them a big job. God calls various people. He calls us for various responsibilities. And, matter of fact, I wrote it right down here. He called you. He called you to be in His church, and He called me. And He has responsibilities for us.

Let’s, if you will, turn to Deuteronomy 10. I wasn’t going to read this, but I thought, you know, I want to look at some of the call to extra duty, but there is a baseline that applies to all of us. In Deuteronomy 10:12, we see some of that. Now it says, “Now, Israel, many of us are descended from Israel, but even if not, we’re the Israel of God called to be in His church.” And it says, “What does the Lord your God require of you? What does He require? Fear the Lord your God. Walk in all His ways, to love Him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul, and to keep the commandments of the Lord and His statutes, which I command you today, for your good.” Okay, that’s for all of us. That’s enough for a lifetime, isn’t it? That’s no small matter. As Mr. Phelps was saying, we’ve got to clean up the little things in our life and the big ones and keep big ones from coming in. When you think of it, though, sometimes even still, there’s something beyond that. God may call on some of us for a specific service, you know, something that goes above and beyond what we would normally be doing. And if He does, when He does, what will you say?

Before we examine some of the examples in the New Testament, I want to look at a couple of passages in the Old Testament to sort of establish my basis for this. We’ll begin in Ezekiel 22. Ezekiel 22:29, this is the passage that I guess was underlined and emphasized to me when I was an ambassador student, so I tried to emphasize it to the students as they come in because I think it’s something important for all of us. It’s God was looking out over Israel, actually, you know, getting down to the people of Judah at a time when things were bad and He was having trouble finding those who were willing to stand up for Him. That could apply to our time today or any time. Let’s begin in Ezekiel 22:29, “‘The people of the land have used oppressions, committed robbery, mistreated the poor and the needy, and they wrongfully oppress the stranger. So I sought for a man among them, who would make a wall, and stand in the gap before Me on behalf of the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found no one. Therefore, I have poured out My indignation on them; I have consumed them with the fire of My wrath and I’ve recompensed their deeds on their own hands… on their own heads,’ says the Lord God.”

This is intriguing. Sometimes I’ve wondered, is God speaking symbolically? In some ways, He might well be, but just think, was there a time in Israel’s history when God wanted to call someone to do a special job, to stand up for everyone else? He couldn’t find anyone to call on to do that job, and no one suitable to ask. It reminds me a little bit of that story in Genesis 18. We won’t turn there. But you know the story pretty well, when God comes and visits Abraham, and has dinner with him, and says, “I’m checking out Sodom and Gomorrah. Their sin is so bad, going to have to destroy them.” And we know the story. Abraham thought probably of his nephew, Lot, who he knew lived there. And so he says, “Well, are you going to destroy the whole city? What if there are some righteous people there?” He starts off saying, “What if there are 50 righteous people?” And God agrees, “Well, okay, if there’s 50, I won’t destroy it.” Abraham says, “Well, just imagine this now, You’re God, You’re merciful, if five are lacking, would you wipe out a whole city for the lack of five?” And the discussion continues. I don’t want to look at that. They finally narrow it down to an agreement of if there are 10 righteous in those cities, God would spare them all. There were not. They weren’t there.

And here in Ezekiel, we see God has a job and it seems there was no man or no woman He can even ask to do it. Suppose you’re living in Israel at that time. Let’s say God is looking for someone, build up the wall, stand in the gap. Not necessarily an easy job, mind you. I’m not saying it’s like picking gum up off the street. Although that’s a terrible example. That’s not easy to do, either. But you know what I mean. And if God approached you and said, “I need someone to do this special job, and this is the role you need to play,” we can... I’m saying you, but I’m saying me also. What would I say?

As I said, I want to look at some New Testament examples, but let’s look at the antithesis. Another example here in the Old. And it’s in the book of Isaiah. Isaiah 6:8, here’s where I say, you know, knowing myself, I fear that I might fall short if I were the one called on, but I know what I would want to look like. And maybe that counts for something because I’m planning ahead thinking, “This is what I want my answer to be like.” And Isaiah 6, we believe this might be him telling the story of his own calling. You know, how do you get to be a prophet? You don’t go down to the employment office and fill out an application. “I think I’ll be a prophet, any company’s hiring?” Basically, you get chosen by God. He says, “I want you to be the prophet to do this job.” And Isaiah seems to start with God giving him a vision of His throne.

And let’s drop to Isaiah 6:8. As Isaiah is seeing this and he’s describing, you know, just amazing vision and angels, and he says, “Also I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send and who will go for us?’” And Isaiah says, “Here I am. Send me.” That’s amazing to me. You know, I’m not going to explore Isaiah’s life and his work. But I just think it’s amazing that he stood up. He didn’t even know for sure what the assignment would be, it seems. He knew, “I need to send someone.” And he said, “Okay, I’ll do it.” God’s Word shows a variety of other responses. We study, you know, Moses made excuses. He tried to get out of it. Finally, he said, “Please send somebody else.” When God called Jeremiah, He said, “I’ve known you from the time you were in the womb.” Jeremiah says, “I’m just a kid. I’m too young. I can’t go do that.” I love Jonah. He didn’t say anything. He just got up and ran the other way. What will you say? And I have to ask, what will I say? That’s where I want to come to the story that many people look at this time of year and they’re out of place in their timing. But we want to turn, if you will, to Luke 1, because there are some great examples of people who God called on to do a particular job and not an easy one.

Before the Messiah, the prophesied one who would come and be a Savior and deliver Israel, before He would begin His ministry, God had planned and He’d shown in prophecy that He would send a herald, as we use it. He would send a prophet to clear the way and prepare the people for the Messiah. Now, it’s interesting. Before this one could come, and it said He would come in the spirit and power of Elijah. But to be ready to do that, first he had to be born. He had to grow up. He had to, you know, have some moral training. And we could say God probably wanted a special set of parents to raise that person. So, in Luke 1:5, we see who God chose. “There was in the days of Herod, king of Judah, a certain priest named Zacharias of the division of Abijah. His wife was of the daughters of Aaron.” So, they’re both of the Levitical family of the priesthood. “Her name was Elizabeth. And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinance of the Lord blameless.”

So that passage I read in Deuteronomy 10, they had that down, and that’s good. But they had no children because Elizabeth was barren. And they were both well advanced in years. So here are two people qualified to do the job, I would say. They’ve got what it takes to make up the gap. Let me say that differently. Make up the wall and stand in the gap. I knew I’d mess that up. You know, they worshipped and obeyed God. They’d lived a good life serving Him. I would guess they were probably disappointed that they hadn’t had children to this point. I have a little taste of what that feels like. And whatever the reason and the timing, though, God decided, “Now you’re ready.” Maybe He wanted a more mature couple with some experience for this job. So, He sends an angel to inform them, call them to duty. In verse 8, “So it was,” this is of Zacharias, “while he was serving his priest before God in the order of his division, according to the custom of the priesthood, his lot fell to burn incense.”

Now, they had way more priests than could go in and do it every day. Back in the time when God established this with Moses and Aaron, you had Aaron and his sons, but the family had grown. So, they took turns coming to Jerusalem and serving. And then they drew lots, who would be one of the people to go in to do this duty that’s done only twice a day, burning incense. Zacharias gets his opportunity. So, he goes in. In verse 10, “The whole multitude of the people was outside praying outside at the hour of incense. Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing on the right side of the altar of incense. Zacharias saw him. He was troubled, fear fell on him. The angel said, ‘Don’t be afraid, Zacharias. Your prayer is heard. And your wife, Elizabeth, will bear you a son. You shall call his name John.’” And we’ll learn later there’s nobody else in his family by that name. So, this stands out a little. “You’ll have joy and gladness. Many will rejoice at his birth, for he’ll be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink. He will also be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb.” Some wonder if he had a type of a Nazirite vow from birth. We know he was to abstain from liquor.

“And he’ll turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God.” And what he says next we’ll be telling. “He will also go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” Zacharias would have known his Scriptures. He would have thought part of that’s coming from Malachi. This is the one that’s coming before the Messiah. Zacharias said to the angel... And here’s where we wonder about Zacharias’ attitude. “How shall I know this? I’m an old man. My wife is well advanced in years.” The angel answered, “I’m Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God and was sent to speak to you to bring these glad tidings. But behold, you’ll be mute and not able to speak until the day these things take place.’” And then we get to why. Why strike him mute? “Because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their own time.” Zacharias asked for a sign. Well, he got one. Makes me think twice, because I asked God some... I don’t know if I’ve asked, “Show me a great sign,” but I’ve asked questions and wondered, why mute? Well, we wonder.

There is an indication of what is mentioned later, that indicates perhaps he also was made deaf, because at one point when they want to ask him something, they do it with signs. So maybe he was mute and deaf. He was going to be that way for at least nine months. We would be speculating, but we could guess, gave him some time, some time to think, to ponder, study God’s Word, because he’d been told what the job was. “You’re going to raise the herald of the Messiah, the one that’s going to go ahead and prepare the way.” We can only wonder if he’d responded in a more favorable way, maybe that wouldn’t have happened. But then again, I don’t want to be too critical of Zacharias because I think that happened to me, an angel appears and says, “Hey, Frank, you’re going to take this on.” What would I say? And what would you say?

You know, the story shows, of course, Elizabeth did become pregnant. It doesn’t tell us what she said when she learned the news. Some of her words appear later. But I’m guessing she was a little more favorable, even though, as Zacharias says, she’s well-stricken in years. Man, I’m not sure that’s the way your wife wants you to describe her. One thing we can say, though, Zacharias might have had a little trouble, but he did accept his assignment.

Let’s move ahead to verse 57, later in this same chapter. I want to read this because I want to give Zacharias the credit for turning his attitude around and devoting himself to this job. “Now, Elizabeth’s full time came for her to be delivered, and she brought forth a son. When her neighbors and relatives heard how the Lord had shown great mercy to her, they rejoiced with her. So it was on the eighth day that they came to circumcise the child. They would have called him by the name of his father, Zacharias. His mother answered, ‘No, he shall be called John.’ They said to her, ‘Well, there’s no one among your relatives who’s called by this name.’ So they made signs to his father.’” I’m sure it wasn’t American sign language. Maybe it was Palestine sign language. Sorry, I didn’t write the humor in there. I’m making it up as I go.

But they made signs, “‘What do you want to call him?’ He asked for a writing tablet. He wrote, ‘His name is John.’ Immediately, his mouth was loosed and he spoke praising God.” Remember, Gabriel had specified, “The name will be John,” something out of the ordinary. I would like to take it that when Zacharias willingly complied with that small detail of God’s instruction, maybe that’s an indication that he was on full board. He was going to comply with everything God wanted him to do. And we got to say, you know, what he was going to do wasn’t necessarily easy. It’s a special, you know, thing to raise someone for a special job. Did I use special twice in that sentence? Sorry about that. And I’ve got a little bit of sympathy for him, you know, talk about how he was advanced in years. You know, raising a child when you’re a little older is a little tough. I’m guessing Zacharias was well older than me.

So, hey, you know, something else. I shared the story when Sue found out she was pregnant, her first word was, “Now?” I’m not sure if that’s the response Gabriel would have been looking for, either. But we weren’t called on to do something like that. This was above and beyond. You know, we know every parent has a special responsibility. Read Deuteronomy 6. That’s something that’s on all of us. Don’t go read it right now. You can read it a little bit later. And we all want to do that. We want to raise our children, teach them God’s way. Imagine if God says, “But you’ve got something more.” They took it on.

Let’s read what Zechariah said, now that he can speak. We’ll begin in verse 67. “Now his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Spirit, and prophesied...” So, this is God working through him, saying, “Blessed is the Lord God of Israel, for He has visited and redeemed His people. He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant David, as He spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets, who have been since the world began, that we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all who hate us to perform the mercy promised to our fathers, to remember His holy covenant, the oath which He swore to our father Abraham, to grant us that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve Him without fear.”

I’m going to pause there because Israel, of course, as a nation, had enemies. We, as a spiritual nation, have enemies to be delivered from. And Paul calls the greatest enemy death. But we can look forward to being delivered even from that enemy. And Zacharias is singing this praise to God, acknowledging who is the great one. In verse 75, he says, “In holiness and righteousness before Him all the days of our life.” And then he addresses this little baby that’s just being given its name. “You, child, will be called the prophet of the Highest, for you will go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways, to give knowledge of salvation to His people by the remission of their sins, through the tender mercy of our God, with which the dayspring from on high is visited us to give light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide our feet in the way of peace.”

I imagine while he’s looking at that baby, saying, “You’ve got a lot ahead of you and a huge job.” And Zacharias might have thought, “And it’s my job to get you ready for that.” But you know what? He was saying to God, by virtue of this eloquent speech, I would say that he’s taking it on. He’s ready to stand up, to stand in the gap. So, it said, moved and guided by God’s Spirit, ultimately, in response to God’s action, he praised God and predicted these wonderful things. Would you say that? Would I, when God calls on us for a fabulous, but very difficult job to do?

Let’s move on to the next person in this story. I skipped over a large portion of Luke 1. I wanted to take in all of what Zacharias experienced. But we all know about six months after that angel came and spoke to Zacharias, he made another visit. He visited a young woman in Galilee, a young woman named Mary. She had a unique and an incredibly important job to do. We’ll begin in verse 26. Surely God knew well what He was doing when He chose her, but we don’t know what He’d done by way of preparation. I’m pretty certain that she wasn’t born without sin, the immaculate conception that some churches teach, but I imagine God made sure she had the right influence and the right upbringing.

And now, the time comes. Luke 1:26, “In the six month,” this is the six month, we believe, of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, “the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin, betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary.” And studying the Gospel accounts, I’ve learned there were a lot of Mary’s in those days. And I did some research, you would think I would have known this before, but that’s the derivative of the name Miriam, as in Moses’ sister. So, no wonder it was so popular among the Jews. Miriam was a hero as well. Anyways, her name was Mary.

And in verse 28, “Having come in, the angel said to her, ‘Rejoice highly favored one, the Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women.’” She saw him, she was troubled at the saying. Considered what manner of greeting this was. I could see what might be... And I wonder, we’re not told what Gabriel looked like. I’m not sure if he had like a cow’s body and four heads and four wings. And, you know, some of the angels we see described in the Old Testament were pretty scary looking. But even if he looked more like a human being, this stranger walks in and says, “You’re highly blessed.” And she said, “What are you talking about?” It probably showed on her face. Gabriel speaks to calm her fears, tell her why she’s so favored. Verse 30, “The angel said to her, ‘Don’t be afraid, Mary. You’ve found favor with God. Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, shall call His name Jesus.’”

On speaking of names, of course, Jesus is the later version... It’s the same name as the Hebrews used for Joshua. Some would pronounce it Yeshua. It’s the name that means “salvation from the eternal,” a very good name. “And He will be great and will be called the Son of the Highest. The Lord God will give Him the throne of His father, David, and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever. And of His kingdom, there will be no end.” My guess is that Mary knew Scripture and knew prophecy. She would recognize by what Gabriel is saying is that these are descriptions of the Messiah, the anointed one, the one that God promised to come from the descendants of David to free His people, to rule in righteousness.

Wow. Can you imagine being told, “Yeah, you knew this was going to happen. And it’s happening in your family.” If God sent an angel to tell you something like that, what would you say? I look at myself and I wonder, you know, would I be like Moses? Can you choose someone else? I’m not able to do this. That’s what makes it all the more impressive, because many of you are probably saying, “Yeah, I might do that.” Mary didn’t. She did have a question. You know, because what she was told, it involved, just having a baby. And, you know, we could see what she says. let’s read in verse 34. Mary said to the angel, “Um...” It doesn’t say, “Um,” but I imagine she might have said the Hebrew “um...” “How can this be since I don’t know a man?” Now, this doesn’t indicate a bad attitude or resistance. And she didn’t ask for a miraculous sign. But in our modern vernacular, she might say, “I’m not sexually active. You know, there’s no father. So how could I get pregnant and have a son?” Gabriel calmly explains, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you. Therefore also that holy one who is to be born will be called the Son of God.”

There it is. He told her what would happen. He told her how it could happen. God called on Mary to do an important and a difficult assignment. And I could say that’s an understatement. And what did she say? In verse 38, she said, “Behold, the maidservant of the Lord, let it be to me, according to your Word.” And so Gabriel departed, didn’t leave any lingering mutinous or anything like that. But I see the similarity in what we read in Isaiah 6. “Here I am, send me.” Mary had essentially said, “I’m your girl. Let it be the way you said” or a calm, “Yeah, I’ll do it.” Now, Luke continues in the story. He describes how Mary went to visit Elizabeth, stayed with her for three months. And we see Elizabeth very enthusiastic greeting when Mary comes in, inspired through the Holy Spirit. I’m not going to read that, but we’ll see that Mary herself responded with praise.

What Mary said has been put to music many times. It’s known in Catholic circles and probably others as the Magnificat. I might not be pronouncing it properly. Randy is saying no, I’m not. Oh, well. It’s called something that sounds religious. I had to say that with the webcast on. What I would mention is, I would say, though, because other churches have an improper veneration of Mary and try to make her into something that God didn’t intend, we tend to ignore this passage sometimes. It’s not very often we do read it in services and note the importance of what she says. And it doesn’t need to be that way. You know, we’re not going to celebrate Christmas if I read this, but we want to acknowledge, Mary was someone special, and she didn’t do it on our own.

Let’s begin in verse 46. Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord.” She didn’t look in the mirror and say, “How great am I.” No, she magnified the Lord and she said, “And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior, for He has regarded the lowly state of His maidservant. And behold, henceforth, all generations will call me blessed.” Why? “He who is mighty has done great things for me. And holy is His name and His mercy is on those who fear Him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with His arm. He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.”

It reminds me, and we’ve been going through the Proverbs with my son, Connor, and we see how often God says He doesn’t like pride, arrogance. He scatters the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He put down the mighty from their thrones and exalted the lowly. We think... what’s that song we sing based on 1 Corinthians? “Not Many Wise Men Now Are Called.” That’s us. We’ve been exalted to be in God’s family because of how great God is, nothing about us. He has filled the hungry with good things. The rich, He sent away empty. He has helped to serve in Israel, in remembrance of His mercy as He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and his seed forever.

We remember, in this church, we talk about the promises God made to Abraham and how important it was that God did fulfill them and is fulfilling them. And we have enjoyed the benefits of that. Mary reminded us that God fulfills His promises to Abraham. And we see what this young woman, young woman who was called on God to take on a lifelong duty. What was her response? She accepted the assignment and she focused on praising God. And I wish I were like that more. You know, I wish, whenever I do something good or I’m given a responsibility, I would focus always on God’s mercy and His love. Mary did that. Mary’s an example. God has shown mercy to all of us. He gives us all special opportunities.

What do we say in response? And we wonder, with big things ahead, you know, when God calls on us for something even bigger, what will you say? Now, there are other special examples in the story of Luke. Actually, I’ve read over it a number of times before the sermon. I’m interested in what Simon said when they brought him in to be dedicated, and Anna comes and worships.

Interestingly, though, Luke leaves out one of the major players, maybe because Luke focuses so much on what people said. I enjoy reading that, but that other person is named Joseph. We can’t find him... Well, he’s mentioned, but we don’t see what he said. But we need to turn to Matthew’s account. So, let’s go to Matthew 1. It’s easy to get into Malachi when you’re going to Matthew 1, but that’s okay. It’s easy to get back to Matthew from there.

As I said, we’ve been reading to see how people reacted and what they said when God gave them a special job and when He gave him a tough assignment. And I’ve been asking, what would you say? But here we can bear down and see it’s less about words than the intent and the thought that motivates those words. And that’s where I’ll remind you... I won’t turn to Matthew 12:34. But Christ said, “Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks,” from what’s inside us. In here, that’s what comes out. Let’s go to Matthew 1:18. I was going to say something. I’ll save it till I’ve read a little bit. Matthew says, “Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows. After His mother, Mary was betrothed to Joseph. Before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit. Then Joseph, her husband,” that is her engaged, “being a just man, not wanting to make her a public example, was minded to put her away secretly.”

This matches the account in Luke. But I can’t help but wonder, and I don’t have a way of finding the answers, but what exactly did Joseph know? One thing we are certain that he did know, his fiancé’s pregnant, and he knows it wasn’t from him. I wonder, you know, knowing the way marriage customs were, they might not have seen each other much during that period between their marriage perhaps being arranged and them coming together. But we don’t know for sure they didn’t spend time together. But, you know, if Mary came to him and said, “Some angel came to me and said, ‘I’m going to be pregnant with God’s child.’” Someone told you that story, what would you say? And the reason I’m bringing that up, you could think how easy is it to believe a story like that? It’s not hard to blame Joseph for calling off the wedding.

What I think is really important is to see how much we should give him credit that he wasn’t cruel. He wasn’t vindictive. He was willing to do this privately, even secretly. Now, some people have speculated that perhaps he was older. Perhaps this was a second marriage for him. And that’s possible. But nothing in Scripture tells us that it’s true. It’s possible that he was a young man excited about getting married to the love of his life. And now, she’s pregnant by someone else. If that was the case, and even if it wasn’t, his reaction was very loving and very patient. He didn’t want to make an example of her. He didn’t want her put to death, which some laws would call for. But, of course, there’s way more to it than that. Let’s continue in verse 20. “While he thought about these things...”

So, he’s thinking, “I’ll put her away privately. I don’t want to hurt her.” But he’s thinking, “I can’t marry her.” Behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream. “Joseph, son of David, don’t be afraid to take to you Mary, your wife. That which is conceived of her is of the Holy Spirit. She will bring forth a Son, and you...” and you’re going to be part of this Joseph, “...you will call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”

Remember, Joshua means “salvation from God.” “So all this was done, that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying, ‘Behold, the virgin will be with child and bear a Son. And they shall call His name Emmanuel,’ which is translated, ‘God with us.’” Boy, that puts a different light on things. I think it was interesting when He said, “Don’t be afraid to marry her.” That makes me wonder if... imagine Mary told Joseph this story and he believed her. “Okay, Mary, you’re pregnant with God’s child. I don’t think I want to get in the middle of that.” I mean, talk about competition. Well, even if... That’s a humorous way of looking at it, but how tough is it to take on the role of stepfather, and then stepfather to the Son of God? But here, though, as a message from God to Joseph, saying, “Joseph, I want you. I can’t be there raising Him in flesh and blood. I need a man to be the stepfather. Joseph, you’re that man.” Could be like God’s telling Joseph, “I want you to raise My Son.”

What a calling. Does the responsibility get any bigger than that? And the answer is, yes, it does. For Jesus Christ, the responsibility was bigger. But it’s hard to imagine one that any of us would take on. What did Joseph say? What would you say? Here’s what I was going to comment on earlier. We don’t know what he said. You know, as I was preparing this, I looked, and we got Zacharias’ words, and Elizabeth, and Mary. I was surprised, and here’s where I’m going to put a disclaimer, because a lot of times I’ll say something like this in a sermon, and a little bit later, someone will come and say, “No, it’s over here,” and, you know, back in 2 Chronicles, but as far as I know, there’s no place in Scripture where we see a single word that Joseph said, recorded. Now I’m sure he wasn’t mute like Zacharias. We just don’t have his words. The Bible doesn’t tell us what he said. But in life, often, actions speak much louder than words. And the Bible does tell us what Joseph did. Let’s look in verse 24.

“Joseph, then being aroused from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took his wife, and did not know her until she’d brought forth her firstborn Son, and he called His name Jesus.” So, those actions speak loudly. Joseph did as he was told. I’m sure he spoke. We don’t know what he said. And I won’t read through the rest of the chapter. But it’s interesting... Let me say that more slowly. It’s interesting to see that he continued to do as he was told, because they were down in Bethlehem, of course, they have the baby, so that these wise men, these magi, show up bringing gifts. That’s handy. But, of course, they also stopped and visited Herod beforehand. And Herod wanted to know, “Where’s this king of the Jews supposed to be born? Bethlehem, huh? Well, go find Him and let me know. And I want to go and worship Him too.” As we know, though, Herod wasn’t that type.

And the wise men were warned by God, and they went another way. So Herod said, “Okay. I’m going to have to kill all the babies in that area.” Just before it could happen, God sent a message to Joseph. “Joseph, take your wife and the baby and go to Egypt.” And you know what Joseph did? He went. He went that very night. He didn’t think about it. You know, he didn’t hesitate. He didn’t say, “Can I have a sign?” He did what he was told. I guess I’ve got a tremendous appreciation for that because I’m not like that. I’m one of those people who, “Let me think about it. Let’s check things out.” You can talk to Sue about that. Sometimes it’s very aggravating. We recently bought a new mattress. I’ve been talking about buying a mattress for like three years. Finally, Sue said, “Let’s go out and shop.” And we bought a mattress that night. Now, I’m glad it wasn’t... You know, if God sent me a message saying, “Frank, you need to buy a mattress...” Now, I’m thinking how silly that is by comparison. But God sends a message to Joseph to do something much more difficult, and he went and did it. Sometime later, he’s down in Egypt, doing business, raising a Son, gets a message, “Go back to Judea.” And he did it. He did.

We might think of Joseph as being a man of few words, because his words aren’t recorded. Maybe he was one who didn’t talk a lot. But he’s a man who followed God’s direction. He set an example for us in that way. He set an example for me, because I wonder, what would I do? If I were called on, called to raise a child that was not mine, I’ve never had that opportunity, and it’s not something I’m saying everyone should do. I’ve seen some men do it. Matter of fact, I had two of my good friends when I was a teenager, up in the Columbus congregation, they had a stepfather. And I saw him interact with them, treated them as his own children. He taught them God’s way, taught them to grow to be responsible men to raise their own families. That was an honorable thing to do. If someone asked you to do that, what would you say? I’m sure it wouldn’t be easy. But I imagine Joseph was deeply involved with Jesus’ life.

We know brothers and sisters came along later. Joseph taught Jesus and maybe the younger brothers how to be carpenters. I imagine those hours in the shop, teaching them how to use the tools and to do the craft, but also teaching them how to live God’s way, talking about God’s Word. We know that the family went up every year to Jerusalem to worship. I’m sure Joseph was involved in that. We don’t know Joseph’s exact words, because we don’t need to know. The Bible tells us what he did, and that, we do need to know. God called on Joseph to do a job that no one had ever had to do before and no one would ever have to do again, you know, raised the Messiah from a baby. Joseph had to change his whole life around, sacrifice whatever he planned to do for himself to accomplish that, and he did it. What would you do?

We’ve been living in some pretty interesting times lately, haven’t we? We get directives we don’t like, our plans are upset, restrictions imposed on us. And I don’t want to examine that, but it makes me wonder, is this a foretaste of more dramatic things ahead? I don’t want to look into end-time prophecy, necessarily. But as I look at this, it just makes me think we might live to see things more difficult than we ever imagined even this time last year.

We don’t know what we might be called on even by God Himself to do. And we know God called us into His Church. Not a single one of you is here by accident. You’re not here just because of your parents. You know, I tell young people sometimes, “Maybe God called your parents because He wants you.” I don’t think it works that way. But everyone is here. You didn’t slip in the door without God noticing. He wants every one of us. And we responded. That’s a wonderful thing. And we’re striving to do... I don’t want to call it a base minimum, what we read in Deuteronomy 10, because that’s very big. Walk by God’s law, His Word. You know, I like to pair that with Micah 6:8, where he says, “He’s shown you what’s good...” Now, I’m going to hesitate, because I didn’t write it down, “that the weightier matters of the law, to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God.” I knew I could get it out. We’re all doing that, and we want to do that through the rest of our lives. Again, relate it back to Mr. Phelps’ sermonette. We want to take care of the little things, the broken windows, and we want to get any big things that might have slipped in. But what if there’s more? What if God calls for us for something bigger?

Another one of my favorite Scriptures is in the book of Esther. And I’ll just note it, because I don’t want to turn there and get involved in the story, but 4:14, where Mordecai sent a message to Esther saying, “Who knows, but what you have come to the kingdom for a time like this?” That’s shooken me ever since I was a, you know, young man, studying at Ambassador, when one of my professors looked at all of us and said, “Who knows but what you are called to God’s Church for a time such as this?” If that happens, God calls on you for a special assignment, what would you say? And don’t think it couldn’t happen. It happened to Zacharias and Elizabeth. It happened to Joseph and Mary. It could happen to you and me. Not their exact same assignment, of course. The Messiah only had to come once. But then again, as I said, when we have children, we’ve got to take it upon us to prepare them in the best way we can. So, we looked at Deuteronomy 6 fairly often because of how important that is.

I’m not going to presume to try to imagine what God might ask us to do. But I take comfort in knowing it’s not going to be more than we can do. Another scripture that I won’t turn to, in 1 Corinthians 10, is where God says, “We won’t be tried in a way greater than we can bear.” He’ll make a way of escape if necessary. But I’d like to think He’ll give us the strength to not look for a way of escape. He’ll be there with us. He might ask us to do something that’s hard. If that time comes, what will we say? I want to bring it back to Ezekiel 22, just to remind us of that. And again, I’m not bringing this up to say, “Oh, we’ve been deficient, but just for us to be ready.” Ezekiel 22:30, it says, “So I sought for being among them who would make a wall and stand in the gap before Me on behalf of the land, that I should not destroy it. But I found no one.” I want to urge us as the Church of God to make sure that that last part is not fulfilled in our time. Let it never be said that in this era of God’s Church, God cannot find someone who will stand in the gap. If He’s looking for someone, and if He calls on you, what will you say?