As we open to Matthew 1, whenever I look at the cast of Christmas: one member stands out because he is so quiet.
Joseph is one of the main characters: he opens the Christmas story in Matthew 1 and closes the story in Luke 2. In case you didn't think what that means, he's in every scene in all 4 of the chapters devoted to Christ's birth. Joseph can be called:
The
Quiet Man
But even though he is central to all the events, one of the key players, the first amazing fact is that Joseph has no recorded words. Joseph thinks, prays, and obeys: but never is recorded as saying anything.
I like to say that if I was ever asked to be in a Christmas play, Joseph is the part in the play I would choose because: he never said a word, he just stands there smiling and doing what he is told to do!
The second and even more amazing truth about Joseph is that the ONLY thing we are absolutely sure Joseph ever said was: Joseph was the first to declare the Name of JESUS. Just as the Scriptures say, it was on the 8th day after Christ's birth, when He was circumcised, that Joseph stepped forward and spoke the Name that is above every name and said His Name will be called: Jesus!
This season of remembering Christ's Birth, pause with me in God's Word and extract some powerful truths by observing what the Scriptures reveal and imply about this amazing young man Joseph, who walked with the Lord.
It was nearly 2,000 years ago that God spoke to a young, teenaged couple. They had been engaged for marriage since their childhood, by their parents. Mary[1] was by all available data from this historic period somewhere between 14 and 17 years of age, and Joseph was most likely betwe
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Pastor John Barnett has been devouring the Word of God for over 30 years. John, now the teaching pastor of Calvary Bible Church in Kalamazoo, Michigan has served congregations in Oklahoma, New England, Georgia and California. He also served on the Faculty of the Master's College...
