Main Idea: When God speaks there is always an invitation to share the unexpected.

This morning we continue our series for Advent called, "When God Speaks." As we said last week, Christmas is about God speaking. Woven all through the stories of the birth of Jesus is the fantastic reality that God chose to communicate to people by announcing to them the wonder and miracle of the birth of Jesus Christ. He spoke to Zechariah, Joseph, Mary, and the Shepherds but ultimately He spoke most completely in His Son Jesus Christ. Christmas is about God speaking. The only question is: Are we listening?

One of the things that God says when he speaks is that there is always an invitation to share the unexpected. In other words, when he speaks to us he offers us the opportunity to join him, participate with him in doing something that is unpredictable. When God spoke to Moses from the burning bush, he told him he was inviting him to join him in delivering the nation of Israel from their slavery to Pharaoh, the Egyptian king. Moses’ response was less than impressive because he argued with God and suggested that his brother Aaron was more suited for the job (Ex. 3-4). When God spoke to Moses he invited him to share the unexpected—that he, a nomadic shepherd, would challenge the authority of the greatest human authority in the land. When God spoke to Moses, Moses’ response was, "Find someone else!"

I’m thankful that that wasn’t Joseph’s response when God spoke to him. When God spoke to Joseph and invited him to share in the unexpected activity of God, Joseph said, "yes" with his life. I believe Joseph far too often is relegated to a "stand in" role in the Christmas stories. Yet when you see the courage, faith, risk and obedience that Joseph demonstrated, you see a man who shows each of us how we are to respond when God speaks.

There’s an underlying principle in God’s relationship to his children and that is that when he speaks he invites us to become involved with him in his work. Henry Blackaby calls this one of the seven realities of experiencing God. What that means is that God is already at work in our world and our life. When he shows us through the Bible, the Holy Spirit, prayer, circumstances or the church where he is at work that becomes his invitation to join him where he is at work. So it’s not that we have to go out and look for something to do for God, it is finding where God is at work and answering his invitation to share or participate in that work.

There’s a catch, though, and it is this: God’s invitation to share the unexpected, to join him in his work, always leads us too what Blackaby calls "A crisis of belief that requires faith and action." Henry Blackaby says, "God is wanting to reveal Himself to a watching world. He does not call you to get involved just so people can see what you can do. He calls you to an assignment that you cannot do without Him. The assignment will have God-sized dimensions. When God asks you to do something that you cannot do, you will face a crisis of belief. You will have to decide what you really believe about God. Can He and will He do what He has said He wants to do through you? What you do in response to His invitation reveals what you believe about God regardless of what you say." (Experiencing God, 1994, Broadman & Holman).

That is exactly where Joseph is in our story for this morning, for God had spoken to him, inviting him to share the unexpected. Joseph faced a crisis of belief as to whether or not he would accept the invitation or walk away. If you don’t believe he could have said "no" to God’s invitation, then the whole story is meaningless. What did God say when he invited Joseph to share the unexpected?

One thing I believe God said to Joseph was that he invited him to join him in accomplishing the unthinkable. (Matt. 1:18-20) Matthew immediately introduces us to the crisis of belief that Joseph faced. Joseph was engaged to Mary and in Jewish law an engagement was just as binding as a marriage ceremony. The only thing missing was the living together as husband and wife under the same roof. While waiting to complete their marriage, Mary tells Joseph that she is pregnant due to God doing the unthinkable and the impossible. She explained to Joseph that the child she bore was not the result of immorality on her part but that God’s Holy Spirit had miraculously created life within her without any human source.

Joseph’s response no doubt was one of hurt, grief, anger, sorrow and confusion. His plan because of his love for Mary as well as his devotion to God was deal with this privately. He had every right under Jewish law to publicly humiliate her and even have her stoned. Yet he decided that it would be better for her to be sent away and maybe over time the wounds in his heart could heal.

It was at this point that God spoke to Joseph through an angel in a dream telling Joseph to not walk away from Mary but to go ahead and marry her. Then the angel adds, "For the child within her has been conceived by the Holy Spirit" (Matt. 1:20 NLT). In other words, "Joseph, this is God at work. No matter how unthinkable and insane it sounds, Joseph, this is God working. Join him in accomplishing what your mind can’t conceive!" For Joseph, it would have been cultural suicide to have taken Mary as his wife due to the suspicious pregnancy. Yet when invited by God to join him in accomplishing the unthinkable, Joseph said "yes!"

If something is "unthinkable," it is something that is beyond our human mind to grasp or think. God specializes in things that you and I have not even dreamed possible. For example, in the former Indian city of Bombay, now called, Mumbai, there are over 17 million people. Within that 17 million is one group of people called Koli who are around 3.5 million, which amounts to less than a third of one percent of India’s one billion people. There are less than two percent of the Koli that are Christians with no known Christian churches. The Koli people, because of their tribal boundaries, are deeply resistant to the gospel. It would seem that it would be unthinkable to try to penetrate that group of people so vast yet so resistant. Yet God knows them all by name and grieves that they have not responded. He asks you and me to join him in praying that he would raise up the handful of Koli believers to be witnesses to a people so resistant to the gospel.

What seems to us unthinkable is where God wants us to join him!

Not only did God ask Joseph to join him in accomplishing the unthinkable, he also asked him to join him in telling the unbelievable (Matt. 1:21-23). While Joseph is still dreaming, the angel continues by telling Joseph that Mary will have a Son and that his name would be Jesus. Then the angel adds, "For he will save his people from their sins." He continues by affirming that this child would be uniquely born and have a unique mission that was promised long ago through the prophet Isaiah!

What is so unbelievable? Not that Mary would have a son. There was a 50/50 chance of that. Not that he would be named Jesus because there were others named that, for the name meant "God saves." Every time a father gave a son that name it was a claim of faith that God would deliver the people from the rule of oppressors. What was unbelievable was that this child would be "God with us," God in human flesh. Also, that this child would accomplish what almost 2000 years of tradition and ritual could not and that is do something about the load of sin that each person bore. That a baby would be able to do all that was unbelievable.

While we don’t have any record of Joseph ever telling anyone about this truth, I can’t imagine his keeping it a secret. Oh, I doubt if he went to the synagogue and stood up on a Saturday morning and said, "My son is really God and will someday provide a way to save you from your sins!" But I do believe that because Joseph was such a man of deep faith that it wasn’t a secret either. The joy of Joseph’s life was, I believe, quietly telling those who would listen the unbelievable good news that through this child all the guilt and shame of their sins would be forgiven, that they could be saved.

God asked Melody and Sam Harrell to join him in telling the children in Sub-Saharan Africa the unbelievable news that God loves them and Jesus Christ is their hope. They have worked in Kenya since 1999 with a program called "Kids Heart," which is a ministry to very young orphans particularly infected and affected by HIV/AIDS. They realize that they do not have the power to cure HIV/AIDS but they are called to tell vulnerable children the unbelievable news that God loves them and they show that by their compassionate holistic care for them. The health of those children is in jeopardy because of the sins of their families. Yet God is there telling them they are loved.

God says to you and me to join him in telling the unbelievable! Your gifts to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering or the Global Mission Offering connect you with thousands of men and women just like the Harrell’s, who are telling more than just children the unbelievable news that God through Jesus Christ can save them from their sins! God asks us to join him in making sure that millions will know the truth of this unbelievable news!

God asked Joseph to share in accomplishing the unbelievable, telling the unbelievable but he also asked him to join him in doing the unreasonable. (Matt. 1:24-25) There is so much about what God was asking Joseph to do that did not make sense. Here he was a capable man who could, no doubt, be free from living the rest of his life with the doubt and suspicion that marrying a now pregnant Mary would bring. He would be free from gossip, stares, rejection and stigma of his culture. He could easily have said, "No!" when God offered him the invitation to join him in what he was doing to bring Jesus into the world. Yet he chose to accept the opportunity and he "did what the angel commanded" (v. 24).

In verse 24 in the NLT it says that Joseph acted, "when he woke up." Yet in the NASV it says, "And Joseph arose from his sleep, and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him…" (v. 24). I’ve read this story countless times but I never noticed the immediacy with which Joseph acted. While it may have been that he sort of tossed and turned and then woke up. I believe that Joseph woke up from the dream and went out in the night and took Mary home with him! Again, it was the most unreasonable thing to do but when given the invitation to join God in doing the unreasonable, Joseph said, "Yes!"

Carter Bolin was the youngest high school football coach in South Carolina 4-A history. He took his team to the state semifinals for the first time since 1950. His school was in the east Charleston area and was next door to his church, East Cooper Baptist Church. God touched Carter’s heart and he and his wife became staff members of East Cooper Baptist, serving there for 18 years. His key role was to mobilize the congregation to follow Christ into the world.

One time while they were on a trip home from a two-week mission trip to India, his wife told him on the plane, "I could never serve in India." Then by the time the plane touched down in South Carolina she was in tears. When Carter asked why, she said, "I realized that I trust God with my kids in a safe place like our home, but I don’t trust him enough to take them to India. We’re just paying lip service." Carter and his wife returned to India with their children and serve in Calcutta, a city 27 million, among the Muslim people. They are seeking to plant the gospel in 30,000 Muslim villages.

Is there anything about that decision that makes sense? Was it reasonable? Is it reasonable to think that a handful of Christians can reach 30,000 villages? No, it is unreasonable! Yet when offered the opportunity to join God in doing the unreasonable Carter and his family responded by saying, "If not us, who? If not now, when?" God asked Joseph to do the unreasonable and take pregnant Mary as his wife. He asked Carter Bolin and his family to do the unreasonable and go to India and share the gospel among 27 million people. God is a God who invites us to join him in doing what is unreasonable.

There is one last place that God asked Joseph to join him and that is he asked him to join him in going where it was unknown. (Matt. 2:13-15, 19-23). Matthew 2:1-12 tells the story of the Wise Men coming to visit the holy family most likely in Bethlehem when Jesus was still an infant. Because Herod ‘s jealousy had been stirred by the visit of the Wise Men the baby Jesus’ life was now threatened. So after the Wise Men had left an angel again came to Joseph and told him to leave immediately for Egypt. The Bible says that once again Joseph did what he was asked and left for Egypt, staying there until he once again was told in another dream to return to Palestine due to Herod’s death.

Think about it for a moment. Joseph and Mary are both from Nazareth. The trip to Bethlehem may have been the longest journey of their life. Now with an infant son and a wife, he is told to leave and go to a place unknown because the child’s life as well as theirs was in danger. We don’t know if they had any extended family there, how they survived, how old Jesus was when they left or really how old he was when they came back. All we know is that when God told Joseph to leave for the unknown, Joseph did just that. God invited Joseph to join him where it is unknown and Joseph said, "Yes!"

Three years ago Oliver Graham had a perfect job with a perfect family. He was a medical sales rep with top-dollar contracts and a good salary. But God got the Graham’s attention, called them to the unknown by asking them to go to Q-City, China. They had no knowledge of the language, the culture, the customs or the challenges before them. Yet when faced with the unknown, they said "yes." Now after being in China for 20 months, God has used them to make Christ known in the unknown of Q-City, China. They began with mentoring six Chinese believers and 20 months later those believers have started more than 55 churches and led lover 4,000 people to Christ. They have struggled, learned and grown yet because of their obedience to go where it is unknown, the destiny of people is being changed. God speaks and he asks us to join him ingoing where it’s unknown.

I realize that I have mainly applied this story of Joseph’s response when God spoke to him to the area of world missions. There is much about world missions that is unthinkable because of the scope of the need, unbelievable because of the love of God, unreasonable because of the cost required and unknown because of the risks involved. Yet those same things apply to you and me when God speaks to us! He is asking you to join him in accomplishing what you never dreamed was possible. He is asking you to join him in telling others the message of his love that is unbelievable. He may be asking you to connect with him in doing what to everyone else is unreasonable. He just may be asking some of you to join him in going where it is unknown. When God speaks there is always an invitation to share the unexpected.

Erwin McManus tells the story of his son Aaron going to youth camp one summer: "He was just a little guy, and I was kind of glad because it was a church camp. I figured he wasn’t going to hear all those ghost stories, because ghost stories can really cause a kid to have nightmares. But unfortunately, since it was a Christian camp and they didn’t tell ghost stories, because we don’t believe in ghosts, they told demon and Satan stories instead. And so when Aaron got home, he was terrified.

"‘Dad, don’t turn off the light!’ he said before going to bed. ‘No, Daddy, could you stay here with me? Daddy I’m afraid. They told all these stories about demons.’ And I wanted to say, ‘They’re not real.’ I said, ‘Aaron, I will not pray for you to be safe, I will pray that God will make you dangerous, so dangerous that demons will flee when you enter the room.’ And he goes, ‘All right. But pray I would be really, really dangerous, Daddy.’"

I believe the most dangerous figure in the stories of Jesus’ birth wasn’t Herod but Joseph. He was dangerous because instead of playing it safe he dared to join God in sharing the unexpected. Real people with real struggle with real faith do it all the time when they decide to stop paying lip service and join God where he is working. God is speaking and he is inviting you to join him in sharing the unexpected. The question is: Are you listening?

(Resources not cited: CBF Fellowship magazine, The Commission magazine.)

Sunday, December 4, 2005

Dr. Bruce Tippit, Pastor

First Baptist Church

Jonesboro, Arkansas

btippit@fbcjonesboro.org