LIFE LESSONS
JOSEPH, FATHER OF JESUS
FATHER’S DAY
DR. JIM DIXON
MATTHEW 1:18-25
JUNE 19, 2005
Mother’s Day was established in the year 1914 as a day of national recognition for moms and it was signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson that same year. Shortly thereafter, a woman named Sonora Dodd in Spokane, Washington, decided there ought to be a Father’s Day. She had gone to church on Mother’s Day, heard a Mother’s Day sermon and she thought, “Why don’t we have a Father’s Day?” Her mother had died when she was very young, and she had been reared by her father along with her five brothers and sisters. She really wanted a Father’s Day. She was supported in this by the Spokane Ministerial Association and also by the Young Man’s Christian Association, the YMCA, and so she tried to establish Father’s Day nationally and she failed. It’s hard to believe but for years and decades, various people tried to establish a national Father’s Day. It never happened. Father’s Day was not established until it was signed into law by Richard Nixon in 1972. The truth is we have been a nation slow to recognize and honor dads.
We do honor dads this morning and we do that as we look at the earthly dad of our Lord Jesus Christ, this man named Joseph. From the life of Joseph we have two life lessons, and the first life lesson is this: If you would be a great dad, you must seek first the kingdom of heaven. Nothing is more important than this. If you would be a great dad, you must seek first the kingdom of heaven.
In Italy there is a city named Bologna. That city is known for its art treasures. It’s known for its university. The University at Bologna is one of the oldest universities in the world. It’s known for its churches. There are more than 130 churches in Bologna that date back to the 13th century or earlier. Of course, the city of Bologna is known for its history in general.
I want to tell you a story that comes from the history of Bologna. Now, I want to acknowledge that the name Bologna can also be pronounced baloney and that’s what you’re probably going to think this story is, but this story is true and it took place in the year 1005. It was in that year that soldiers from the city state of Modena came to the outskirts of the city state of Bologna. Now, this was a time in European history where there were many city states and these were cities that had their own kings. They had their own military forces. Soldiers from the city of Modena came through the outskirts of Bologna and they came to the Bologna community well. These soldiers were young and they were mischievous and so they decided, almost playfully, to just steal the bucket from the community well of Bologna. They took the bucket back to Modena.
The authorities in Bologna knew the bucket had no real value but a principal was involved and so they sent representatives to Modena to get the bucket back. Words were exchanged and tempers flared. These two great city states, Bologna and Modena, came to the very brink of war. The Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire was named Henry II. He had ties to Modena, to the city state there. He was afraid that Bologna would attack Modena and he knew that the armies of Bologna were superior. He was afraid that they would destroy the city of Modena. The Emperor, Henry II, asked his son, the King of Sardinia, to take the Sardinian armies to help protect the city of Medina, and this they did. Sure enough, in the year 1006 the armies of Bologna attacked the city of Modena. They wanted to get their bucket back.
Thousands of people died. Blood covered the earth. The armies of Bologna failed to retrieve the bucket but they did manage to capture the son of the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, the King of Sardinia. They took him back to Bologna and they put him in prison. They incarcerated him there. When the Holy Roman Emperor heard about this, he was panicked. His son was in a dungeon. He was desperate to free his son so he offered the King of Bologna a huge treasure if he would set his son free. According to legend, he offered a gold chain seven miles long. It’s probably not true but historians do believe he offered a vast treasure to the King of Bologna if he would set the son free. The King of Bologna and the authorities in Bologna said, “Forget it! We want our bucket back!” And so the war continued for 18 more years. Countless lives spent. Bloodshed. Their treasuries drained.
Finally in the year 1024, the son of the emperor died in that dungeon. Just two months later the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, Henry II himself died. Today, you can go to Modena and you can go to the great cathedral there and you can still see the bucket. In an iron cage, the bucket that caused two once great city states to go to war, the bucket that cost the shedding of much blood and drained the treasuries of two city states. Amazing.
When you read about stories like that, you cannot help but think of Jeremiah 2:5 where God said to Israel, “You have spent your lives on worthless things and you yourselves have become worthless.” This is the world we live in. We live in a world where many people spend their lives striving after worthless things. You have striven after worthless things. Many people strive after worthless things in the world in which we live and they have become worthless, meaningless things. People fight for meaningless things, worthless things. Many dads strive after worthless things and they produce children who strive after worthless things.
Think of Ecclesiastes, chapter 1. “Vanity of vanities. All is vanity.” This is of course the world in which we live, a world in which many people give their lives in the pursuit of things that just don’t matter. But Jesus said, “Seek first the kingdom of heaven. Seek first the kingdom of God and its righteousness.” That’s what Jesus said. Nothing is more important than this. This is true in parenting as this is true in life. “Seek first the kingdom of God and its righteousness.” Maybe when Jesus spoke those words, He was reminded just a little bit of His earthly dad.
We don’t know a lot about Joseph. There’s a lot of mystery surrounding Joseph. We don’t even know the name of Joseph’s dad. In Matthew’s genealogy, Joseph’s dad is named Jacob. In Luke’s genealogy, Joseph’s dad is named Heli, the Hellenized form of the Hebrew name Eli or Elijah. But which was it? Was Joseph’s dad named Jacob or Heli? Some Bible scholars believe that Matthew’s genealogy is tracing Jesus’ genealogy through Joseph and that Luke is tracing Jesus’ lineage through Mary. Some Bible scholars think vice versa. Some Bible scholars believe that the differences in the genealogies have to do with leverite marriage, that perhaps Heli was the brother of Jacob and Jacob died and Heli took Jacob’s wife and Heli and Jacob’s wife then produced Joseph. Some Bible scholars believe that these genealogies reflect Jewish midrash. We don’t know.
There’s a lot we don’t know about Joseph but we know this. We know that Joseph was a righteous man. He was a just man. We’re told that in the Bible. Joseph was a just man. The Greek word is “dikaios,” which means, “righteous.” Joseph lived a life where he sought to please God, where he submitted to the Word of God, where he sought to be fair to other people. He was just. We know that Joseph was the son of David. We know he was devout. We know that, in the second century before Christ, during the reign of the Maccabean ruler Aristobulus, many devout Jews in Judea moved northward into Galilee because they wanted to convert the pagan Galileans. It’s believed that the descendants, the family of Joseph, were amongst those devout Jews that went north into Galilee to convert the pagan Galileans.
We know that Joseph took Jesus to Jerusalem for the rites of purification at the proper time. We know that he offered in the Temple two turtle doves. We know that Joseph was poor because, by Jewish law, two turtle doves were only sufficient as an offering if you were in abject poverty. So he was poor but he was faithful. We know that Joseph honored the feast and the festivals, the holy days. He made the pilgrimage from Galilee to Jerusalem every year at the time of the great feast. He made the Hajj. He was faithful. We know that he was humble. When the Angel of the Lord said to Joseph, “Your betrothed, Mary… Do not be afraid to take her as your wife for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.” Joseph accepted that with humility. It’s like God was saying to him, “You’re not a factor. This baby is really not yours, not your biological offspring. You really didn’t have anything to do with it.
But Joseph submitted. Joseph was faithful. He was a visionary man, a man of visionary dreams. The Bible records three different visionary dreams given to Joseph. The first, concerning the virgin birth. The second, the call of God to Joseph to take his family and move to Egypt, to leave his people, to uproot, to leave everything he knew and to move to Egypt for a period of time to protect the family. Then that final visionary dream where he was called to return. This was a man committed to the kingdom of heaven. God chose such a man, a man committed to the kingdom of God and its righteousness.
What kind of person are you? What kind of dad are you? Are you committed to the kingdom of God first and to its righteousness first? Is that the kind of Dad you are?
Spiritually there is a crisis in fatherhood. I read a study that Rick Warren, Saddleback Community Church, reported on, a Scandinavian study that was centered in Sweden. According to the study, in Scandinavia when moms attend church regularly and dads rarely, only 3% of the time do kids grow up to be regular church attendees. When moms attend church regularly and dads never, only 2% of the time do the kids grow up and become regular church attendees. When dads and moms both attend church regularly in Scandinavia, 33% of the time the kids grow up to become regular church attendees. Here’s the amazing thing. When dads attend church regularly and mothers rarely, 38% of the time the kids grow up to become regular church attendees. When dads attend church regularly and mothers never, 44% of the time the children grow up to become regular church attendees.
Now, I don’t know. Scandinavia must be a weird place, but one thing is clear. When it comes to spirituality, dads are very important. In the United States of America in 1952, 47% of people attending church every Sunday were men—47% of church attendees on a given Sunday were men in 1952. Today it’s 39%; 39% of church attendees on a given Sunday, on an average Sunday, are men in America today. In fact that’s why, on Mother’s Day, it’s one of the highest attendance Sundays in America and Father’s Day is really one of the poorest. There’s this crisis spiritually in the lives of dads.
You might be saying, “Maybe church attendance isn’t that important but remember God says, “Forsake not the assembling of yourselves together.” Jesus said, “I will build My church and the gates of hell, the gates of Hades, the powers of hell, will not prevail against it.” The Bible tells us that the Church is the Bride of Christ and it’s precious to Him. Even if you look at all aspects of Christian life, according to a recent Barna Research Study, in virtually every area of Christian endeavor, men lag behind women.
If you’re a dad today, you’ve got a choice to make—whether you’re going to be different or whether you’re just going to be like everyone else. Are you going to set that example? Are you going to seek first the kingdom of God? Are you going to seek first His righteousness? Nothing is more important than this. If you want to have children who grow up to love Christ and believe and will stand strong to serve Christ all the days of their lives, you’ve got to model that. I thank God that I had a dad who modeled that.
My dad died almost ten years ago. Time just seems to fly. I miss my dad. My mom and dad lived in California and they would call me here every week, every Sunday. I was the third-born son. My dad would always start out by saying, “Is this #3?” I miss those phone calls. My dad modeled commitment to the church. My dad was an elder. My dad was a deacon. My dad was a Sunday School teacher. My dad gave generously and sacrificially to the work of the church and the work of the kingdom of heaven on earth. My brothers Greg and Gary are here today. They’re here every Sunday. We seek to live for Christ because of our mom and dad. That’s part of the reason. Those are the people God used in our lives. So you see, on this Father’s Day, nothing is more important than this, that you as a dad seek first the kingdom of God and its righteousness.
There’s a second life lesson from Joseph and that is this: Great dads temper justice with mercy. Have you ever wondered what happens to people when they die? The Bible tells us that there are only two eternal destinies. There’s heaven and there is hell. But of course many theologians find this too black and white. They view this as too simplistic, so some theologians have come up with a Doctrine of Universalism. According to this doctrine, ultimately everybody will go to heaven. To Universalists, this seems just. This seems fair.
Other theologians have come up with a doctrine of annihilationism. According to this doctrine, hell doesn’t really exist, or if it does exist, it’s simply annihilation, cessation of existence. People who are evil will just be eradicated. They will simply cease to exist, annihilationism. To those who believe in this doctrine, this seems more fair and more just because even evil people shouldn’t have to suffer forever. Of course, other theologians come up with the Doctrine of Purgatory because even people who are bound for heaven should have to suffer a little bit. I mean, we’re all fallen and even if that suffering is not punitive, even if it’s sanctifying, we all need a little purgatory. That just seems fair. That just seems just.
Of course, other theologians have come up with a doctrine of limbo, from the Latin word “limbus,” which means, “border” or “between.” According to these theologians, there are some people that really don’t belong in hell or heaven. It wouldn’t be fair if they were in hell or heaven. They need to be in some kind of limbo, something between. This might be true of children who die in infancy or adults who live and die and never even hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For these theologians, limbo seems just and fair.
All of this is the concern of theologians. They’re concerned that God is just. They’re concerned that God is a just God, that God is fair. You don’t have to worry about that because the Bible tells us God is just. God is holy. He is righteous. He is just. He is fair. You don’t have to worry about that. The question is are YOU just? Am I just? Do we seek justice? Do we seek righteousness. Do we want to treat other people fairly? Do we want to honor God in how we live? Are we righteous? Of course, the Bible tells us Joseph was. Joseph was a just man, as we have seen, “dikaios,” the root of “dikaiosune,” which is the Greek for righteousness. Joseph was such a man. He lived in accordance with the will of God, submitting to the commandments of God. He sought to live by the Word of God. He sought to treat his fellow human beings with fairness and justice. This was Joseph. Yet Joseph was a man who tempered justice with mercy. This was the kind of heart he had. In this sense too, he was like God because God tempers justice with mercy and we can all be grateful. Joseph was a man like that. He had a heart like that to temper justice with mercy.
Joseph discovered that his betrothed, Mary, was pregnant. Betrothal in the Jewish culture in biblical times was like the first stage in marriage. It could only be broken by divorce. During the betrothal the bride and the groom were to abstain from sexual relations and Joseph knew that he had been pure with Mary and yet here’s Mary pregnant. Joseph assumed that she had committed fornication or adultery. To understand the situation Joseph was in, you’ve got to understand the Jewish concept of shame. In biblical times, Jewish culture had a very different understanding of shame than our American culture does today. American culture is individualistic. We’re concerned with the rights of the individual here in America. We don’t want to hurt individuals. Jewish culture is collective. Jewish culture in biblical times thought in terms of society, not the individual. The Jews were concerned about the health of society. They did not want to hurt society.
Here in America we don’t want to shame an individual because that hurts them. But the Jews were more concerned with hurting society and so they were willing to shame the individual. In fact, Jews thought if you didn’t shame the individual when the individual did wrong, then ultimately you would ruin society, and that there’s no shame. Society just crumbles. Morally society crumbles if there’s no shame for individuals who do wrong. And so you see in Israel in the time of Joseph if a woman in betrothal became pregnant and committed fornication or adultery, she was to be divorced publicly for the sake of shame, for the health of society. This was the situation Joseph faced.
Joseph was a just man. He was a righteous man. He knew the rules. He knew what God said in Deuteronomy, chapter 22. Joseph knew and he wanted to please God but he was a man of mercy and he cared so much for Mary. He was “unwilling to put her to shame,” the Bible says. He resolved that he would divorce her quietly. In fact you can see in the passage of scripture that he still wanted to marry her. There’s every indication that he wanted to consummate the marriage, take her as his wife, but he was afraid. He didn’t know how God would feel about that. He was a just man. The angel said to him, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife. Do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife.” It’s the root word “phobos.” There is every indication that Joseph wanted still to marry Mary, to take her as his wife. You see his heart. A just man that is willing to temper justice with mercy. I promise you, God is like that, and I promise you that you can’t be a great dad unless you temper justice with mercy.
There’s a wonderful Hebrew word. I’m sure this word was precious to Joseph as it was to most Jews. This Hebrew word is “hesed.” It’s transliterated into the English as “hesed.” The Hebrew can be pronounced in a variety of ways with a very hard “H” and the final “D” being kind of a “th” sound, but this word has been called the most beautiful word in the Hebrew language and it is.
In the Septuagint, this word hesed takes four different Greek words to translate it. As you go through the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament, you see four different Greek words used to translate hesed. There’s the Greek word “agape” which means, “love, divine love.” There’s the Greek word “eleos,” which means, “mercy.” There’s the Greek word “charis” which means, “grace.” There’s the Greek word “chrestos,” which means, “kindness.” All of these words are used in the Septuagint to render hesed. It was a covenant word to describe the way God deals with the covenant community and the way people in the covenant community are to treat each other. It meant to temper justice with mercy, with kindness, with love, with grace. It’s so important we learn that because we’re going to teach our kids the Gospel and if we want our children to be drawn to Jesus, if we want them to come to the foot of the cross and accept Jesus as Savior and Lord, they’re going to have to see that you stand for justice, that there are boundaries, there is right and there is wrong, but they’re also going to have to see that you’re filled with mercy. That’s the key to being a great dad. It’s so important.
There’s a story I want to conclude with. It was told by Lee Strobel in his book, “Experiencing the Passion of Jesus.” It’s about a pastor. This pastor was in his study at church and the phone rings. It’s a dad whose 8-year-old daughter has just stolen a book from the church bookstore. This dad says to the pastor, “Hey, my daughter has stolen a book from the bookstore. Her mom and I found out. She feels horrible about it. We feel horrible about it. I think we can use this as a lesson. Would you be willing, pastor, if I bring my daughter by and you kind of instruct her a little bit about this and she makes her confession and you use it as a teaching moment?” The pastor said, “Sure.” The pastor thought to himself and prayed about it and thought, “I want to teach her about grace, not simply obedience but also grace.”
So the dad and the daughter came by. The pastor said to this 8-year-old girl. “Is it true that you stole a book from the bookstore?” She said, “Yes, it is.” She said, “I took it. I’m so sorry.” The pastor said, “Why did you do it?” She said, “I saw the book and I really wanted it, but I don’t have any money. I know I shouldn’t have taken it. I feel so bad and I’m so sorry. I’ll never do it again. I promise. I promise.” The pastor said, “What do you think I should do? What do you think we should do?” She said, “I think there should be some consequences.” The pastor said, “Well, I think you should pay for the book. It’s a $10 book, and because you stole, I think it would be right if you gave an extra $20, so that you give $30.” The pastor looked at this 8-year-old girl and the dad looked at the 8-year old girl and she just looked stunned. She’s thinking, “Where am I going to get 30 bucks?” The pastor said, “You can pay it off over a period of time.” She’s thinking, “Oh, where am I going to get that money?”
Then the pastor did what he really had planned to do and felt led to do. He opened his desk drawer, took out his checkbook, wrote a check for $30 to the girl, and he gave it to her. He said, “I love you.” He said, “I care about you. Your dad loves you more than I do. He cares more about you, but nobody loves you as much as Jesus. Nobody cares about you as much as Jesus. That’s why He paid the penalty for your sins. That’s why He died on the cross. He wants you to understand that and know that.” He gave that $30 to the girl. There was just joy on her face and shock. The pastor said and the dad said that they could see an awareness. Something clicked. She understood the cross. She understood in a fresh way the Gospel.
I promise you, unless you show mercy you can’t teach the Gospel to your kids. I promise you. Again, I thank God that my dad was a man of mercy and that my dad had mercy on me. My dad was a strict disciplinarian. My brothers and I can guarantee you that. My dad was a strict disciplinarian, but he was also a man of mercy and we could see Jesus there. I remember when my dad won a handball tournament in Glendale, California, at the YMCA, a city tournament. My dad was a handball player. My dad won this big trophy. My dad brought the trophy home. He was so proud of it. I was very young, and I tended to break things. My oldest brother always said, “You plus something equals nothing.” I think he was trying to build my self-esteem. The first thing my dad said when he brought the trophy home was, “Jimmy, don’t touch this.” He said, “You’re not allowed to touch this. I’m going to put it here on the mantle. You can look at it but, Jimmy, you’re not allowed to touch this.”
One day my dad was gone, and I was kind of wandering around the house. I saw this trophy. I knew I wasn’t supposed to touch it, but it looked so cool and I wanted to see how much it weighed. I wanted to see what it felt like. Nobody else was there. I lifted it up and tried to bring it in so I could look at it and I dropped it. It just fell and shattered. It just broke. I thought, “Oh, no! My dad’s going to come home and I’m not going to survive this!”
I remember my dad came home and when my dad saw that trophy destroyed, the look on his face. He just looked so sad, so disappointed. Then he looked at me and the amazing thing is I saw compassion in his face. You can believe in Jesus when you have a dad like that. Right? This is really important that we have these life lessons in Joseph about a really great dad to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. If you temper justice with mercy, you’re going to be a great dad and the power of the Holy Spirit is going to work in your home. Let’s look to the Lord with a word of prayer.