The following is an uncorrected transcript generated by a transcription service. Before quoting in print, please check the corresponding audio for accuracy.
00:02 Good afternoon, church. I think this roughly qualifies as jeans.
00:07 I still have a way to go before I wear a t-shirt up here.
00:17 Now, uh Christmas is around the corner. You know, December is my favorite month.
00:24 Not least because you know I celebrate my birthday during this month you know but
00:30 as I was growing up always you know towards the end of the year around about December time it's kind of time to wind
00:37 down right uh for those of you who are working you might be expecting a huge bonus at the end of the year for the
00:43 students you know uh vacation is in full swing school holidays right
00:50 and uh in Malaysia uh although it is a Muslim country and Christmas is not officially a public holiday yet it's
00:58 very hard to miss Christmas isn't it okay uh you walk into any shopping mall
01:04 you know you are greeted almost every one of them by a huge Christmas tree walk into any restaurant and you hear
01:10 Christmas music being piped okay now some of you might be planning uh Christmas lunch or dinner okay in fact
01:18 yesterday my cell group and another cell group Steven Sha cell group right we had a combined uh uh uh lunch you might be
01:24 thinking about you know guest list uh what to cook you know some of you might be thinking about your shopping list
01:30 what to buy and put under the Christmas tree you know so we are filled with all these traditions of Christmas right that
01:36 occupies our attention sometimes it's easy for us actually you know to uh lose
01:43 track of the real significance of Christmas
01:48 you know to many of ush this is the picture perfect Christmas isn't All right. Uh I don't know how many how
01:56 many of you actually receive postcards, but this this picture of Christmas is
02:01 the romanticized version, you know, the sanitized version with uh very clear
02:07 skies, starry nights, you know. Um now
02:12 unfortunately it's an oversimplification. Okay. Uh and actually many aspect of this drawing is
02:20 wrong. Okay. Um the problem with this is that with the oversimplification
02:27 we tend to lose a lot of the human dramas that are actually associated with the Christmas story and this and and it
02:34 is with these human dramas okay uh that we learn the real significance of
02:40 Christmas. So I think it is very useful as we approach Christmas that the church
02:45 leadership has decided to take a fresh look okay at what Christmas mean to us
02:51 through the eyes of three individuals uh who participated directly uh with the
02:59 Christmas story. Uh I'm going to kick off this miniseries with Christmas
03:04 through the eyes of Joseph. Next week, our brother uh David Adams is going to
03:10 talk about Christmas through the eyes of Mary. And then uh last but not least, Elder
03:15 Edian is going to view Christmas from Zachariah's perspective. Uh three
03:22 messages in this series before we reach Christmas Day and then Arnold will give us a Christmas message.
03:29 Before we carry on, let us commit this time to the Lord in prayer. Let us pray.
03:36 Dear heavenly father, we thank you for your holy scriptures which is profitable for our instruction, for conviction, for
03:44 correction and for training in righteousness. May your holy spirit be upon us to
03:50 accomplish what you have what you desire. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
03:57 Now for those of you who are taking notes, I've got three takeaways for you today. All right? You can write your notes right and anchor them. The first
04:04 point we're going to see, God uses ordinary people to accomplish extraordinary work. Second point, Joseph
04:12 exemplifies the selfless spirit of Christmas. And last but not least,
04:17 obedience is a hallmark in our journey of faith.
04:23 So who is Joseph? Now, Joseph
04:29 is only mentioned in directly in two passages in the Bible and one of them is
04:35 the passage that we have just read at the beginning uh in Matthew. Uh the other is the Christmas account that is
04:41 to be found in Luke. Okay. Apart from this, there are a couple of indirect references but that's about it. Okay.
04:49 When you think about Christmas, Joseph doesn't normally come to your mind. All
04:55 right? We think about Mary, all right? Because she's the mother of Jesus. We might even think of uh, you know, when
05:01 we picture the nativity scene, right? The three wise men, you know, okay, so if there was a play here about
05:07 Christmas, the character Joseph, right, probably wouldn't even make it as a supporting actor. In fact, his part,
05:14 right, has got no dialogue. Joseph never said a word in the Bible.
05:21 Yet, God has had chosen him. okay to do a pivotal work
05:29 right in the Christmas story. And God chose Joseph to be Jesus' earthly
05:35 father. Now I think uh in some sense the
05:42 Catholics right does a better job than us Protestants in honoring uh some of
05:48 the heroes of faith you know. So if you had a chance to go to Europe, right, uh you see a lot of cathedrals that are
05:55 named after people like uh St. Peters, you know, St. Paul's. Okay. A few months
06:00 back, my wife and I had the opportunity to uh go to Rome. Okay. And um our tour
06:06 guide actually uh took us to this place uh which is actually a church. It's called St. Joseph of the Carpenters.
06:14 Okay. This is a church is at least 500 years old. and the uh fraternity of
06:20 carpenters you know actually raised money to refurbish this church right in
06:25 honor of Joseph okay Mary's husband the
06:30 inside of it is actually very nice as you can see but the church you know we brought here and we were told that this
06:37 church is largely okay used for weddings you know it's very pretty inside okay in
06:42 fact I remember you know my wife uh uh you know wanted to suggest that we had an impromptu uh um retaking of our vows,
06:51 you know. Okay. Fortunately, I sped off fast enough before the idea could take root.
07:00 Joseph is also often portrayed in the arts. Okay. And the Catholics envision them or envision him, okay, to be an old
07:08 man. Actually this idea started off sometime I know in the uh fifth century.
07:14 Okay. Probably because the Catholics want to support the idea that Mary was
07:21 uh perpetual virgin. Okay. So the story goes that uh Joseph was actually 90
07:28 years old uh when he was uh betro know uh when Mary was betrod to him. Okay.
07:35 and he had uh children and the children that you know spoken of u uh in the
07:41 Bible who are Jesus' brothers and sisters who were actually Joseph's children in a previous marriage.
07:48 Well, I find it a little bit difficult to uh believe that. Okay. I think it is
07:54 a fabricated story personally although you can uh
07:60 say that it is unlikely remotely likely. Okay. But it is definitely uh not
08:07 probable. Uh so more likely is that Joseph was a
08:14 young man according to uh customs and tradition. Okay. Uh
08:20 why why do I say that? Because the lifespan of the people in those days
08:26 average about 35 to 40. Okay. In fact the average lifespan today you know is
08:32 what 70 to 80. So to say that Joseph was 90 years old, you know, was a little bit
08:38 far-fetched. But the idea is what? The idea is right that he was so old that he actually had no interest, right, in any
08:44 sexual union. Okay? And therefore, Mary became a perpetual virgin. Okay? Uh but
08:50 more likely, Joseph was a young man at the time of the story, he was probably in his upper teens.
08:57 How do we know that? Because in ancient Jewish uh marriages, okay, uh the girl
09:04 is typically betroved, okay, at around about the age between 12 to 14 after she
09:10 had her, you know, uh actually after she just reached puberty, okay, and the boy
09:16 would typically be about two or three years older, okay? Because when the boy
09:22 reaches puberty, he would have entered into a trade, okay? in order to start
09:27 making a living, right? To support a bride.
09:32 So, I favor the picture on the right. Huh? Okay.
09:40 So, Joseph, the Bible tells us, was a carpenter. Okay. In fact, we read in
09:48 Matthew chapter 13 uh 54 to verse 56.
09:55 Uh this was when Jesus returned to his hometown of Nazareth. All right? And he
10:00 was invited to preach right in the synagogue. And coming to his hometown, he taught in their synagogue so that
10:08 they were astonished. The people who heard Jesus were astonished and said, "Where did this man get his wisdom and
10:15 these mighty works? Is not this the carpenter's son? Is not his mother
10:20 called Mary? And are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas?
10:27 And are not all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things?" Okay. So in this particular
10:34 verse we are told that uh Jesus father was a carpenter. Okay. And the Greek
10:42 word that was used for carpenter is the word tecton. Tecton is actually a general term uh to
10:51 uh refer to a workman. Okay. In this case probably a workman that uses a lot
10:57 of wood. Okay. But in those days in ancient uh Israel, most of the houses
11:04 were made of uh mud or they stayed in caves. So a workman or a tacton in those
11:11 days were not building fanciful buildings. They were more likely uh building things
11:20 like a window uh panes, door frames uh
11:25 you know small furniture, chest of drawers uh and also farm implements.
11:31 So the picture that we get right of a tecton in those days is not a master
11:36 craftsman. Okay, they have another word for master for that and that would be aki tecton which we derive the word
11:44 architect from. Okay. So in all likelihood
11:51 the profession of tecton or carpenter was not a very highly regarded
11:58 profession. Sure is not as lowly as a shepherd or somebody who does mining or you know
12:04 take out the rubbish or whatever. Okay. But it certainly wasn't uh the same
12:10 echelon as the rabbi or the scribes, you know, or the Pharisees or physician,
12:17 right, for that matter. In other words,
12:23 Joseph can really be called an average Joe. Okay. What does this tell us about
12:29 God? that he chose Joseph to serve as Jesus' earthly father and raise Jesus as
12:36 his own son. Why didn't he choose a priest, a rabbi, a physician, an educated lawyer, or even
12:44 an architecton? Well, you may remember another story that
12:50 provides us the answer. Okay, if you remember how God chose his anointed king in
12:57 Samuel chapter 16, now this was when the people of Israel
13:04 chose Saul as king on the basis of his physical appeal and
13:11 Saul failed God and the nation miserably. God then commanded Samuel to seek out
13:19 Jesse and from amongst Jesse's sons to choose a king.
13:24 In 1st Samuel chapter 16 6-7 we read when they came he that mean that
13:32 is Samuel looked on Eli and thought and Eli is Jesse's elder son surely the
13:38 Lord's anointed is before him. But the Lord said to Samuel, "Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his
13:45 statue, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees." Now get
13:51 this. Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.
13:58 Man chose Saul because of his outward physicality. God chose David because David was after
14:08 God's own heart. So similarly we read that
14:13 Joseph was a just and righteous man. And when Joseph was referred to as a just
14:20 and righteous man, this is actually a a Hebrew term, right? That means he was
14:26 actually a believer just as Noah, right? Was a righteous man. Okay, Joseph was a
14:32 righteous man. There's something very interesting
14:39 as Matthew recounts the story of Christmas. Before he got into the story,
14:45 he actually spent the first chapter in Matthew stating the genealogy of
14:52 Jesus and therefore the genealogy of Joseph. Okay. Now I know genealogy is
14:58 not something that we often read you know because you know by the time you get to the first 10 verses you it's hard
15:04 to keep awake but notice something very interesting in this genealogy. Okay there are four names that are mentioned
15:11 that is quite unusual but Matthew purposely inserted it into uh the list.
15:18 They are Tama, Rahab, Ruth and the wife of Uriah.
15:25 The wife of Uriah as you would know uh would be
15:31 David and not David and Bashibba. Right
15:38 now for Tama, if you were to read Genesis, Tama is the daughter-in-law of
15:43 Judah and she disguised herself as a prostitute in order to trick the
15:48 father-in-law in sleeping with her. So she wore a veil and then you know all this just to have an offspring okay to
15:56 carry on the inheritance. Then we have Rahab the prostitute who
16:02 hit the spies as they scouted out the promised land before they entered in.
16:07 Ruth the Moabitete who was a foreign woman considered an outcast
16:14 but set her faith on the God of Israel. Last but not least, we have Bashiba.
16:22 Okay, whom David the king took advantage of. Sent her husband to the battlefield
16:27 to have him killed so that he could marry her.
16:32 Now, each of these four women knew pain, brokenness, and hardship. In one way or
16:38 another, each had been despised as unclean or as a sinner and shamed by the
16:43 people in their communities. But ultimately in spite of their background,
16:50 in spite of their circumstances, God used them, blessed them and their
16:56 offsprings, and they became a part of God's redemptive work in the world.
17:03 You see throughout the Bible, God's standard operating procedure,
17:09 okay, his modus operandi is to not use people with pedigree.
17:18 He makes it a point to use people who are lowly, who are weak, who are
17:23 considered rejects and outcast. Consider 1 Corinthians chapter 1:26-30.
17:31 For consider your calling, brothers. Not many of you were wise according to worldly standards. Not many were
17:37 powerful. Not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the
17:43 world to shame the wise. God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. God chose what is low and
17:49 despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are. Why? So that no human being might
17:58 boast in the presence of God.
18:04 How many times when people are asked to serve in a ministry to serve God, have you heard of
18:11 the excuses? No, I'm too young, you know. Well, consider David. David was
18:16 only 13 when he was anointed king. No, I'm too old, you know. Well, consider
18:22 Moses. He was 80 when God called him to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. And
18:29 this is my favorite one. I'm very common on Noah, I'm not qualified. You know,
18:34 guess what? None of us are actually.
18:40 That's a given. Not being qualified is a given. God must save sinners like us,
18:46 sanctify them, and then transform them into instruments he can use.
18:52 God chooses the humble, the weak, the lowly, and meek. Why? So there's no
18:58 question when their lives change the world, it is God's power that gets the credit and not us.
19:06 So the first thing that we learned right from the account of the Christmas story is that God uses
19:13 Joseph, average Joe we might call him, okay, for his own purpose.
19:21 God can use ordinary people for his extraordinary work and that includes you
19:27 and me. Now let's see how the Christmas story
19:34 began right for Joseph. Huh? In Matthew chapter 1 18 we read. Now the
19:41 birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. when his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph before they came
19:49 together she was found to be with child from the Holy Ghost. Right off the bat
19:54 there was a big scandal and this is a big deal you know in a
19:60 Chinese customer we call it tail moa you know wearing the green hat that means
20:07 you have your girlfriend or your wife while sleeping with somebody and that's a big deal okay now in order to
20:15 understand the magnitude of this problem okay we have to understand a little bit right about uh the Jewish marriage
20:22 custom You know nowadays when people two people
20:28 get engaged right after a while you know it may be a very short time if they
20:33 don't like each other they just break off the engagement this is especially very common in uh you know sorry to say
20:39 that but in the western culture and it's true okay but unfortunately this has also seeped into the eastern culture but
20:45 in back in those days marriage was not just an affair between two person
20:51 it's actually a business transactions between two families. Okay, when we talk
20:56 about engagement or bethrower, we are talking about one family, okay, going
21:03 into another family uh uh and and very likely uh a girl may be betrod when she
21:10 was a child. Okay. Uh so the marriage is actually divided
21:16 into two parts. the betroer and then the wedding ceremony and the feast.
21:21 And between these two events, the timing could be at least 12 months to anywhere
21:27 upwards of 12 months to huh. It could be, you know, remember that uh in the
21:33 Old Testament uh how long did um who was that Jacob? Okay. Wait for
21:41 uh was it Rebecca? Right. Seven years. Uh Rachel, sorry. Rachel. Yeah. Uh
21:50 so in the middle of this is actually a
21:56 marriage contract. A contract is actually signed between
22:01 the man and the woman. Okay. With a man promising to provide for the woman. And
22:10 you most usually okay a sum of money would have changed hands. Okay. the
22:15 bridegroom's uh uh parents right would have paid a quite a large sum of money uh to the bride's parents.
22:24 Now if they were to break the engagement for any reason uh they would have to
22:31 call the priest and they have to announce the reason for breaking up and that would be considered a divorce. So
22:38 in other words in the ancient days when they when two people get together to to to to marry okay at the brower stage
22:46 they were already considered right effectively a man and wife right although the
22:52 marriage is not consumated yet until you reach the wedding ceremony okay or the
22:58 wedding feast. So the marriage contract which is called the kuba is actually a very important
23:04 contract. Okay. Now why is this significant?
23:13 It is significant, right? Because
23:18 when Joseph found out that Mary was pregnant, the customary thing and the
23:25 socially acceptable thing, okay, is for him to break off the marriage.
23:32 Now, to say that Joseph was disappointed with Mary, right, would have been really an understatement. Okay, Joseph must
23:38 have felt really confused, betrayed, and even angry. And I'm sure although he
23:43 wanted to believe Mary was a virtuous woman, conventional logic, right, would
23:49 tell him it was impossible for Mary to be pregnant without being involved with another man. Now remember, Joseph at
23:56 this stage, right, they didn't know, all right, anything about God's plan. Now, in such circumstances, it would be
24:03 customary and socially acceptable for for Joseph to call off the marriage. If he wanted to, he could have gone through
24:10 a public divorce to declare that he had nothing to do with the pregnancy in order to maintain his honor. All right?
24:17 And the judge, right, may even allow him to take back the bride money.
24:25 But that would mean putting Mary through public humiliation as an adulterer.
24:31 And we know from the Old Testament in Deuteronomy chapter 23 that the punishment for being an adulterer what
24:36 would be death by stoning. Now although they were living in Roman times okay
24:44 where they were not allowed to ex uh execute anybody only the Romans were allowed to carry out capital punishment
24:49 okay you can imagine the disgrace uh that Mary would have to go through okay
24:55 if Joseph were to want a public divorce
25:02 u Mary would be immediately considered an outcast okay or even a harlot okay and no man would ever want to touch
25:13 But did Joseph go ahead and do what was
25:18 common in those days? No. We read in verse 19, "And her husband Joseph being
25:24 a just man in some version it says a righteous man and unwilling to put her
25:30 to shame resolved to divorce her quietly."
25:38 And this is where Joseph's character really shines through. Okay? He decided to quietly divorce Mary with
25:45 the intention of not putting her to shame. In other words, Joseph was prepared to forgo his rights, his
25:52 reputation, in order to protect someone who had sinned against him. He would
25:57 just allow people to assume he had taken advantage of Mary. And now he had a
26:02 change of heart. You know what a guy h okay I mean you
26:08 know he was really a gentleman but isn't that the for the spirit of forgiveness that Joseph is uh exhibiting here
26:18 but God is not finished with Joseph yet. Okay we continue the story. But as he
26:26 considered these things, right, in uh verse 20, behold, an angel of the Lord
26:32 appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not fear to
26:39 take Mary as your wife.
26:44 For that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus,
26:50 for he will save his people from their sins." Now all this took place to fulfill what
26:56 the Lord has spoken by the prophet, behold the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and so on and so forth.
27:04 Now after what must have been a long struggle and probably uh Joseph crying himself to sleep uh an angel of the Lord
27:11 appeared in a dream to him, okay, and corroborated Mary's uh version of the
27:16 story. So he must have gotten some relief. All right. Wow. you know, at least Mary,
27:23 okay, was faithful to me, okay? But still consider the implication of what
27:30 the angel of the Lord is commanding Joseph to do.
27:37 The angel of the Lord is telling Joseph to go ahead and marry Mary.
27:44 What does that mean? What is the implication of that? It means that for the rest of his life, Joseph will be
27:50 remembered by his friends, his family, and the community that he was responsible for a shotgun wedding.
27:58 Okay. Now, I do not know at what stage of pregnancy Mary was at,
28:04 okay, and whether it was visible, right, that she was pregnant. Nowadays, right, it's quite common to see pregnant ladies
28:10 walk down the aisle, but in those days, it would have been a total disgrace. And
28:15 Joseph's honor, all right, would have been compromised not only to his friends, his family, but to the
28:22 community at large. In those days, they don't live in big cities. No, okay, the village is probably only a few hundred people and everybody knows everybody.
28:31 Now, if I had kept quiet, right, and assume and let people assume that, you know, he
28:37 was responsible for the pregnancy, all right, he would have been disgraced. But if he wanted to tell the truth and
28:44 if somebody would ask him right is Jesus your son okay and being a righteous man he couldn't lie okay that means he would
28:50 have admitted that he married an adulterous woman so either way it's a loose loose situation for him
28:59 and yet what did Joseph do now he had a choice to make
29:05 he could follow his original plan and divorce Mary quietly and just walk Okay.
29:10 Okay. But he saw God's mission.
29:18 He knew that Mary was bearing the child of God and that the child of God would
29:25 one day save his people from their sins. I'm sure this was not lost on Joseph.
29:32 And that's why he agreed. He agreed that in spite of the public humiliation that
29:39 he would endured that the fact that he would be stigmatized for the rest of his life,
29:46 he agreed to go ahead and marry Mary.
29:53 This can only happen when Joseph put God's glory ahead of his own glory. So
29:59 compassion, forgiveness, sacrifice, and emptying of oneself for the sake of
30:05 others. Isn't that the spirit of Christmas? Now, Joseph, remember, he's the agrieved party here. Yet, for the
30:12 sake of Mary and for the cause of God, he was prepared to empty himself of his
30:17 pride, his reputation, his ego.
30:26 Does that remind you of our Lord Jesus Christ? Philippians 2:5-8
30:33 it says, "Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of
30:40 God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied
30:45 himself, emptied himself of his rights, of his glory
30:52 by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of man and being found in human form, he humbled himself
30:59 by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
31:08 Joseph embodies the spirit of Christmas. Now all of us are familiar with the hymn
31:17 Amazing Grace, right? Written by John Newton. Now John Newton, if you remember, he was a slave trader, right?
31:24 At the height of the British Empire. William Wilberforce was a contemporary of John Newton.
31:30 He was born in a rather well-off family and he became a politician at a very
31:36 young age you know a very successful uh politician uh but you know he was very
31:44 spent with his money uh and he did not use his time very wisely okay that was
31:50 until his conversion right in his early 20s when he became a Christian okay which he
31:56 labeled as the great conversion Okay. He had a passion
32:03 for abolishing the slave trade. So it was John Newton who persuaded him to
32:09 remain as a politician in order to fight for the rights of the slaves.
32:19 Now during his life,
32:25 William Wilberforce was threatened more than once. He was publicly criticized. He lost many
32:31 friends and he faced extreme political pressure. In fact, his health often
32:38 suffered. Okay. because of what he tried to do as a parliamentarian, as a
32:43 politician, he relentlessly, right, submitted bill after bill to abolish the slave trade.
32:52 Okay? And finally in 1807, victory came
32:58 after 20 years of perseverance. But he did not stop there. He fought
33:04 another 26 years, okay? in order to abolish slavery altogether in the entire
33:10 British colonies. What's remarkable about William
33:16 Wilberfor, right, is that when he became a Christian, he reoriented his life,
33:21 right, for the service of God. So instead of asking how God could help
33:27 him be a better politician, okay, he asked how being a politician
33:34 can help to advance God's agenda in the world. You know, a lot of us, right, when we
33:40 talk about our relationship with God, you know, we say how can uh God be a part of our lives,
33:49 right? Some of us uh God plays a small part in our life.
33:55 Some of us while we're very active in church, God plays a bigger part in our life. But you know something,
34:03 this is not the way Williamforce right uh view his relationship with God.
34:09 God is not just a part of our life. Okay. We have to start viewing us as
34:15 part of God's kingdom. Isn't it?
34:21 So, William Wilberforce did not do uh social justice work, right, just for the sake of saving uh the blacks, right? As
34:29 an end in itself. He saw God's agenda, he saw God's glory being dishonored,
34:36 right? When wicked men sent people into slavery.
34:43 You see the difference there? He wasn't praying to God, right? to help him to become a better politician.
34:48 Right? Okay. In order to uh glorify himself, he was asking God, how can I be
34:55 a part of your agenda? How can I glorify you? Okay. By being better at what I do.
35:02 I think in the same way, Joseph, right, was able to see the big picture. He was
35:07 able to see, hey, I'm now going to be part of God's plan. You know, God is now
35:13 asking me to be part of his redemptive work, right? in order to take care of
35:18 his earthly son.
35:27 So God not only uses ordinary people for his work. Joseph exemplifies the spirit of
35:34 Christmas, a spirit of compassion, a spirit of humility and that of
35:40 sacrificial love. And that involves also looking at the
35:47 world from God's perspective rather than our own little compartmentalized perspective.
35:59 And God was not finished with Joseph yet. As we read on, okay,
36:07 after the birth of Christ, Joseph had a dream. We read in verse 13
36:13 of Matthew chapter 2, now when they had departed, the wise man has departed. Okay, behold, an angel of the Lord
36:21 appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, "Arise, take the child and his mother
36:26 and flee to Egypt and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search
36:32 for the child to destroy him." And he rose and took the child and his mother
36:37 by night and departed to Egypt. You know what's amazing when I read this
36:42 passage and the Christmas story before
36:49 you know silence actually speaks volume. You know that Joseph never once
36:56 questioned God. Never did he bargain with God or challenged him.
37:03 If you remember when Moses caught uh when God called Moses, right? What did Moses say? I'm not good enough. I can't
37:10 speak. I have a, you know, I stammer. No, I have a stuttle or whatever. Okay. And God had to say, "No, don't worry."
37:16 All right. I will give you Aaron who will be your mouthpiece. We just did judges. And remember the
37:23 story of uh Gideon, right? Gideon. Gideon had to test God.
37:29 He had to, you know, put out a fleece, right? Not once, two or three times.
37:37 And what about Jonah, the prophet, right? Whom God, you know, sent to preach to uh the people of Nineve,
37:43 right? God asked him to go to Nineve, right? He ran the other way. But for Joseph, no. We read in the
37:51 Bible, he just do it. He was the quiet achiever.
37:59 Now just in case uh you think that what God is asking him to do is easy
38:05 well think again it's not the journey right from Bethlehem
38:10 to Egypt right is a very very long journey okay something like 700 kilometers
38:17 and this is a journey right not to go on a holiday you know
38:22 Joseph had to uproot okay pick himself up his family, his little child in order
38:29 to escape persecution. If he had stayed all right, his child would surely have died because Herod was executing all the
38:37 boys under 2 years old. Now, I'm sure of late in the past couple
38:43 of years, you have seen, you know, in the news, right, or newspaper pictures
38:49 of Syrian refugees escaping a war. Uh, and it's a terrible sight. And this
38:57 is what essentially Joseph had to do. You know, in Egypt, Joseph, Mary, and
39:04 baby Jesus were essentially refugees in an un unfamiliar environment, having
39:11 to rely on the charity of others. But yet, Joseph trusted God, and God
39:18 provided for Joseph and his family. Now you may be
39:24 wondering how did God provide for Joseph and his family? Remember the visit of the wise men? What did they bring along?
39:31 They brought along what? Gold, frankincense, and myrr, right? And these are precious stuff, right? And I and
39:38 some of the commentators, right, believe that this is how God provided for Joseph and his family to see them through,
39:45 okay, their time in Egypt.
39:50 So we are all on a journey. What journey are you on?
39:58 What kind of journey has God called you to take?
40:04 Now we heard earlier on Dylan's testimony. He has been called on a journey of mission.
40:11 Some of you has been called on a journey of suffering. You may be suffering from
40:17 a terminal disease, cancer. Some of you may be called to a journey
40:23 of uh a bad marriage or difficult children.
40:29 Whatever it is, our journeys are always filled with obstacles, speed bumps.
40:35 Okay? But remember, as with Joseph, God is
40:42 always there to see us through. He will provide for us.
40:49 How do I know? Because God himself did it.
40:54 Jesus Christ himself took the ultimate journey when he went to the cross.
41:07 And there's an irony here, you know, when God took Joseph and his family out
41:15 of Bethlehem, right? Okay. To go to Egypt, God was saving them, okay? Out of
41:21 danger, into a safe heaven, right? But with Jesus, God did not do that. God
41:28 sent Jesus into danger. All right? the danger of the cross in order to save us.
41:38 So brothers and sisters in Christ, we can take comfort that whatever journey
41:44 that God has given us, he will surely be faithful to provide and to take us
41:52 through. All we need to do is to obey.
42:05 So as I conclude and ask the uh worship team to come up,
42:13 I want to remind us of the story of Christmas. And as we approach Christmas
42:19 Day, let us not be too taken up with traditions. Let us be reflective. Let us
42:27 remember that God can use ordinary people like you and I to accomplish his
42:33 work. Let's take heart all right from the example of Joseph that he exemplifies
42:39 the spirit of Christmas, the spirit of forgiveness, the spirit of love, the
42:46 spirit of caring for others. And maybe during this Christmas season
42:52 right we will be more keenly aware of the people around us and especially
42:58 people who are going through a tough journey right at this time.
43:04 Do you know uh we have refugees among us you know okay people who are escaping right persecution from their home
43:11 countries. Let us go to God in prayer. Let us pray.
43:19 Dear heavenly father, as we uh approach Christmas,
43:25 we pray Lord that you help us to see the real significance of
43:31 this important and momentous event
43:37 that God would send his only begotten son
43:46 born a human child in a lowly estate in a manger
43:55 that God in he all his glory and his magnificence should constrain himself
44:01 into something so insignificant as a human body
44:06 and that he humbled himself and yet he suffered
44:12 in order to purchase for himself a people. a people whom he loved.
44:20 Lord, as we reflect upon the story of Christmas through the eyes of Joseph,
44:27 may once again appreciate a new this wonderful message of love.
44:35 We thank you for our Lord Jesus. And we ask, oh Lord, that this Christmas be may
44:40 be especially meaningful to each and every one of us. For we ask all this in Jesus name. Amen.
