IN A DREAM #1
Matthew 1:18-25
18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ happened this way. While his mother Mary was engaged to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. 19 Because Joseph, her husband to be, was a righteous man, and because he did not want to disgrace her, he intended to divorce her privately. 20 When he had contemplated this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, because the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will give birth to a son and you will name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” 22 This all happened so that what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet would be fulfilled: 23 “Look! The virgin will conceive and bear a son, and they will call him Emmanuel,” which means “God with us.” 24 When Joseph awoke from sleep he did what the angel of the Lord told him. He took his wife, 25 but did not have marital relations with her until she gave birth to a son, whom he named Jesus.
Last year, I shared a few messages based on Luke’s Christmas stories, and this year I am doing the same thing, only with Matthew’s Christmas stories. Both Gospel writers tell us the same basic truth – that Jesus was born in Bethlehem and God announced that birth miraculously. But each Gospel writer focuses on how that birth affected a particular group of people besides Joseph and Mary. Luke highlighted what God was doing in the lives of Zechariah, Elizabeth, John the Baptist in his mother’s womb, the shepherds around Bethlehem, and Simeon and Anna. For Luke, the primary source for these stories appears to be Mary.
But with Matthew, the focus changes. He chooses stories that illustrate what he said about Jesus: that he is the son of David and Abraham. Joseph is a key figure in these stories. When I reread these stories in preparation for this series of sermons, I noticed that the same phrase appeared numerous times. That is why I titled all the messages “IN A DREAM.” We see that phrase in verse 20 of today’s text. It also appears four times in Matthew 2. Once the recipients of the dream are the group of wise men, but in every other instance, Joseph receives the dream.
When God is about to do something significant in redemption history, he often announces it by giving someone a dream. When someone is in danger, God sometimes intervenes by revealing that fact in a dream.
There is something else that is kind of peculiar about these Joseph stories. If you read through them, you might notice that Joseph does not say anything in any of the narratives. I don’t think that Joseph had been struck mute like Zechariah was. But it seems odd that no word in all the narratives is attributed to Joseph. Here, we have stories about the adoptive father of Jesus himself, but not one of his actual words is recorded. That’s right. Our Christmas plays must invent words for Joseph because not one of his words is recorded in Matthew or Luke. Even when Luke tells the story of Joseph and Mary finding Jesus in the temple when he was twelve, only Mary has a speaking part.
I don’t think Joseph was a functional mute. I just think his part in the Christmas stories had more to do with what he did than what he said. He was sensitive to what God was doing in his life. Some people can have dreams every night and pay no attention to them, but not Joseph. When the angel Gabriel visited Mary, it was while she was awake. But when the angels spoke to Joseph, it was in dreams. It was just as real in either situation. Why did God choose to reveal himself to Joseph through dreams? Maybe God had spoken to Joseph at other times in his life through dreams. Maybe that was why it was settled for Joseph once he had the dream. He would obey the dream because he knew it was God’s real revelation.
The story begins with Mary’s BLESSING (18).
Matthew reduces the whole story of Gabriel’s announcement to Mary into one verse. You can read all the details about that visit in Luke chapter 1, but Matthew is only concerned with this detail: that Mary “was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit.” It was a blessing. What Matthew wanted to make clear was the fact that Mary was going to give birth. In verse 20, “the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.” In verse 21, she “will give birth to a son.” In verse 23, “The virgin will conceive and bear a son.” In verse 25, Joseph “did not have marital relations with her until she gave birth.” At some point in history, some heretics will emerge and insist that Jesus was not a real human being – that he only appeared to be in the flesh. Matthew spoke to that heresy directly here. Joseph had a dream about Jesus. But Jesus was not a dream. He was a real human child, and he was a blessing.
Like most blessings from the Lord, Mary’s pregnancy was also challenging. When Mary told Joseph she was pregnant, Joseph’s immediate reaction was wrong but understandable.
We learn of Joseph’s PLAN (19).
Before his dream, Joseph only knew that Mary was pregnant and that the child was not his son. His plan for dealing with that blessing was to abandon Mary. He did not want to accuse her of infidelity and force her to undergo a public trial, so he decided to break off the engagement privately and let Mary deal with the consequences of her lack of self-control alone. He could not imagine a scenario in which Mary was telling the truth. No angel had visited him yet, so as much as it pained him to lose his fiancé, he thought that was the only choice to make.
Then we learn of the angel’s CHALLENGE (20).
The dream made all the difference. The angel encouraged Joseph not to let his fear make him give up on his relationship with Mary. Her child is not a mistake. He is the Holy Spirit’s work. The angel told Joseph that Mary would give birth to that child and that he – Joseph – would be right there with her.
Then we learn of the angel’s INSTRUCTION (21).
Joseph would name his adopted son Yeshua because that means “He saves.” The world needs to know that the LORD saves. He saves his people – not just from foreign rulers or present dangers. He saves his people from their sins. No other human being would ever be able to do that. But Jesus is special. His birth is special. His life is unique. His purpose is one that only he could achieve. He is more than a king. He is more than a temporary deliverer. He is the Savior.
Then, we learn Matthew’s EXPLANATION (22-23).
Matthew breaks into his own narrative to explain something about Jesus that even the angel did not reveal. Matthew says that this all happened to fulfill the prophecy of Isaiah that when the virgin gives birth, it would be to Emmanuel: God with us.
“God with us” can only happen by means of an incarnation. John tells us that the divine WORD “became flesh and took up residence among us. We saw his glory — the glory of the one and only, full of grace and truth, who came from the Father” (John 1:14). Joseph adopted Jesus, but Jesus was already God’s Son. The LORD wanted all of us to know that he had not abandoned us. Jesus is his proof. That is why they called him Emmanuel. And the Lord Jesus will never abandon his followers. That is why Jesus told us that he is with us always, to the end of the age (Matthew 28:20).
The final thing we learn is Joseph’s OBEDIENCE (24-25).
The dream had given Joseph all the assurance he needed. He woke up from sleep and went to the courthouse to sign his marriage license. He got out of his pajamas and put on his tuxedo. His breakfast would be his marriage feast. From then on, Joseph did not question his role in God’s plan.
Joseph was a craftsman – a builder. He made his living constructing things out of wood and stone. He was also a dreamer. I’m sure he had daydreamed many times about starting a new life with that young lady. But he wanted to do it right. He had a plan and was going to stick to that plan. But then the angel appeared to him in a dream. Suddenly, Joseph’s plans didn’t matter. Once he knew God’s plan, Joseph was all in.
If we learn anything from Joseph, we must learn how to respond to God’s revelation as he did. We must be open to letting God tell us the whole truth from his word. Then, we need to have the courage to walk in that truth. The walk will probably not be easy. It certainly wasn’t easy for Joseph. He had to live his whole life under the shadow of an accusation he could not disprove. He had to raise the Son of God – a challenge that any of us would find daunting. He had to travel to Bethlehem at the worst time to travel there. They wound up sleeping with the animals that night. Later, they had to entertain foreign wise men. Then, they had to become refugees in Egypt for a while. When they returned, they were forced to go back to Nazareth – far from Jerusalem because the government still wanted baby Jesus dead.
In the Old Testament, we read about someone called Joseph, son of Jacob, who was a dreamer. His dreams got him into serious trouble, but finally, he became a savior of his people. Here, in the New Testament, we encounter another Joseph – also a son of Jacob (Matthew 1:16). He is also a dreamer. He heard God speaking to him through an angel in his dreams. He obeyed every instruction. His story challenges us to follow in his footsteps.
You might have some plans for the rest of your life. Joseph had a plan. But he was humble enough to turn his back on his plan when he learned God’s plan. He was sensitive enough to God’s will that when the dream led him in a different direction, that is the direction he went. He was courageous enough to endure all kinds of misfortune because he would stay in the center of God’s will. His love for Mary was not enough to keep them together, but his love for the LORD was.
Every year we wish each other a Merry Christmas. This year, I want to wish you all a Joseph Christmas.
For further study:
Boice James Montgomery. The King Has Come. Christian Focus Publications 1992. pp. 51-61.
Brown Raymond E. The Birth of the Messiah: A Commentary on the Infancy Narratives in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. New updated ed. Doubleday 1993. pp. 122-163.
Cottrell Stephen. Walking Backwards to Christmas. SPCK 2014. pp. 59-68.
Gleddiesmith Stacey. Welcoming the Stranger: Readying Ourselves for Christmas. Regent College Pub 2010. pp. 44-45.
Jeremiah David. Why the Nativity? Turning point ed. Tyndale House 2006. pp. 25-29.
Laferton Carl. Rescuing Christmas: The Search for Joy That Lasts. GOOD Book Company 2017. pp. 61-63.
Moltmann Jürgen. The Way of Jesus Christ: Christology in Messianic Dimensions. 1st Fortress Press ed. Fortress Press 1993. pp. 80-87.
jeffersonvann 