The Atmosphere of Heaven

Today is St. Valentine’s Day, when lovers exchange gifts, flowers and greeting cards to express affection for each other. It is named in honor of a 3rd century martyr who became the patron saint of lovers.

Human beings are capable of love because we are created in the image of God. God is love. He wants his love to be demonstrated in our lives.

For the past few weeks I have been examining what is believed to be the greatest written treatise on love, 1 Corinthians 13. Even secular anthologies of English literature include this “love chapter” from the Bible because of its beauty and eloquence. It is indeed great literature.

However, this biblical passage is about more than romantic love, friendship, or any other natural affection. What it describes is a supernatural, self-giving love which has a profoundly Christian meaning.

Love is the governing principle of heaven. God’s love is to be the very atmosphere in which we live as Christians. John Stott illustrated it this way. “Take a fish as an obvious example. God created fish to live and thrive in water, whether salt or fresh. Gills are adapted to absorb oxygen from water, so water is the element in which a fish finds its identity, its ‘fishness,’ its freedom. It finds itself in the element for which it was created: water. It is limited to water, but in that limitation is liberty.

“Suppose you had a little tropical fish in one of those old-fashioned spherical goldfish bowls. Suppose that little fish swam round and round his blessed little bowl until its frustration became unbearable. The fish decided to make a bid for freedom and leap out of the bowl. If it landed in a pond in your backyard, it would increase its freedom because there would be more water to swim in. But if it landed on the concrete or on the carpet, then its bid for freedom would spell death.

“If fish were meant for water, what are human beings made for?  . . . What is the element in which human beings find themselves, as water is the element in which a fish finds itself?

“I don’t hesitate to say that according to scripture, the answer is love. Human beings are made for love because God is love. When he created us in his own image, he gave us the capacity to love and to be loved. So human beings find their destiny in loving God and in loving their neighbors.”

1 Corinthians 13:8 says, “Love never fails.” This is because God never fails. Love is eternal because God is eternal. He expressed his love for us in sending his Son to die for our sins to purchase eternal salvation for us (Romans 5:8; John 3:16). “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God” (1 John 3:1). Having received the love of God, we are called to share the love of God. This is how we bring the atmosphere of heaven to earth.

A young woman named Michelle lived in a northern city in the US. She decided to move into a rough neighborhood to try to help people living in poverty. She started tutoring kids and getting involved with their families. Some of her church friends heard about what she was doing and started asking what those families needed.

Michelle’s friends made lists of the needs and circulated them until they found people who could meet those tangible needs. It worked like an underground love network. When I heard about this they were servicing 430 families in the name of Christ and the network was growing.

Love brings the atmosphere of heaven to earth. Happy Valentine’s Day!

Pastor Randy Faulkner

Love in Action

Years ago a young woman volunteered to be a missionary in Mexico. Her heart was filled with love for the people she served there. In fact, she made a notation in the margin of her Bible next to the love chapter, 1 Corinthians 13. She wrote: “Love for the Mexicans.”

Whenever she read 1 Corinthians 13, she read it this way: “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love for the Mexicans, I am become as a sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal.” Her love for the people of Mexico enabled her to win many of them to Jesus Christ.

After years of unselfish service she became gravely ill. Not long before her death, her Mexican friends gathered tearfully around her sickbed to say farewell. Before she died, she asked them not to bring flowers to her funeral, but instead to bring Bibles to give away.

They did this. Bibles and New Testaments were stacked around her casket. Later her friends gave them to those who did not have a copy of the word of God. Even after her death her witness was carried on in the lives of the people she had loved to the Lord.

The love described in 1 Corinthians 13 is not natural, it is supernatural. Romans 5:5 says it is only possible “because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit whom he has given us.” The apostle John wrote, “This is the message you heard from the beginning: we should love one another” ( 1 John 3:11). Love is one of the main evidences that a person is a real Christian (1 John 3:14).

1 Corinthians 13 is majestic in its poetic expression. It is also convicting in its application. It describes what family life, church life, and community life can be when people put love into action.

The priority of love (1 Corinthians 13:1-3)

Without love, eloquence becomes dissonance. The languages of earth and heaven spoken without love, would sound like a clanging discord. Spiritual gifts, as desirable as they are, are useless without love. Even unselfish acts, without loving motives, are unprofitable.

The practice of love (1 Corinthians 13:4-7)

Here is the clearest description of love to be found anywhere. This is love in action. We would recognize real love if we saw it. And we have seen it in the life of our Lord Jesus. These verses describe Jesus and any who would live as he lived.

One who acts in a loving way will be slow to anger (James 1:19) and gracious. Loving persons will not have exaggerated opinions of themselves. Love produces actions that are appropriate, tactful, above reproach. Love is not selfish. It is not easily offended or irritable. Love forgives and does not keep score of wrongs.

Loving actions are always consistent with truth and justice (1 John 3:17-18). Love takes no pleasure in wrong. Love suppresses evil reports and gossip. It always has an ear for good  words. It believes the best about other people.  Love causes one to be optimistic and courageous.

The permanence of love (1 Corinthians 13:8-9)

Paul is telling his readers that prophecies, tongues and knowledge as special manifestations will soon pass away. Love will endure forever.

The presence of love (1 Corinthians 13:10-12)

“When perfection comes” may refer to the eternal state when the Lord makes “all things new” (Revelation 21:5) and “the imperfect disappears.” The New Testament often uses the word “perfect” to refer to the second coming of Jesus Christ. This life is like childhood. Eternity with Christ is like maturity. This life is like a first century mirror of polished metal, an imperfect reflection. But in eternity we shall see Christ himself, the perfect embodiment of love, “face to face,” and enjoy his presence forever.

Pastor Randy Faulkner

 

A Picture of Love

My father was a pastor,  college administrator, and a teacher. In his early ministry he was an artist who used colorful chalk drawings on Christian themes to illustrate spiritual truths. People loved to watch him depict biblical scenes with artistic skill. He would draw a large picture during a church meeting accompanied by background music.

Ahead of time he had traced the faint outline of his picture in pencil. Then when he drew the colored rendering in chalk, the depth and richness of the picture appeared, especially when illuminated with colored lights. The effect was almost magical.

1 Corinthians 13 is an outline of a Christ-controlled life, a life of of love. The description given there is like my dad’s preliminary sketch, made visible when the full drawing was completed. It is a description of Jesus’s love in the life of a believer who is surrendered to him.

For example, it says that love is patient (1 Corinthians 13:4). There may be occasions when righteous indignation is in order, but a loving Christian will seldom reach that point.

I read an illustration of two mountain goats who met on a narrow ledge. There was no room to pass. They both reared and bucked, but neither one gave way. Repeatedly they backed up, charged and locked horns. Each one held his ground and stood unmovable. Finally the more sensible one knelt down and let the other climb over him. Both of them went happily on their way.

Love is kind. This is another aspect of Christ’s love. It is a word which means “mellow,” in the place of harshness and severity.

An anonymous poet wrote: “Let us be kind; the way is long and lonely, and human hearts are asking for this blessing only — that we be kind.

“We cannot know the grief that man may borrow; we cannot see the souls storm swept by sorrow; but love can shine upon the way, today, tomorrow — let us be kind.

“To age and youth let gracious words be spoken; upon the wheel of pain so many weary lives are broken; we live in vain who give no tender token — let us be kind.

“Let us be kind; the setting sun will soon be in the west; too late the flowers are laid upon the quiet breast — let us be kind.”

Love does not envy, does not boast, is not proud. Jesus said of himself, “I am gentle and humble in heart” (Matthew 11:29). The loving person is a humble person. The loving person is like Jesus.

Love is unselfish. Love seeks the good of others. We always see this in the life of Jesus.

Love is trusting. “It is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.” The loving person does not keep a tally of offenses. Love commits the list to the Lord and does not bring it up again.

Love is truthful. It “rejoices with the truth” (1 Corinthians 13:6). Those who are infused with Christ’s love have no difficulty affirming the truth wherever it is found: in others, in oneself, in the scriptures, in Jesus who said, “I am the truth” (John 14:6).

Love is optimistic. Love “always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” Christ’s love never fails. It is durable, resilient, and it refuses to accept defeat.

If someone could draw a portrait of Christ, it would look like the outline of love we see in 1 Corinthians 13. If we want to be like Jesus, ours will be lives of love.

Pastor Randy Faulkner

Love at First Sight

A scholar wrote a treatise on the theme of love. He was an unmarried man who’d had little personal experience with the opposite sex. In his research he consulted numerous books and articles by famous writers. His research spanned many months.

When he was finally ready to submit his writings to a publisher, he made arrangements with a secretary to type the manuscript. When he walked into her office something unexpected happened. Their eyes met. Their pulses quickened. A strange feeling swept over both of them. It was love at first sight!

The subject of his research was no longer an abstract theory. It had become a matter of personal experience. In this way he learned and understood more about his topic in a few seconds than he had gleaned through months of tedious research. For love to be fully appreciated, it must be experienced.

That is why 1 Corinthians 13 is in the Bible. It is the greatest treatise ever written on the subject of love. The eminent scholar Philip Schaff wrote in the margin of his Greek New Testament at 1 Corinthians 13: “This is a psalm of love. It is the Song of Songs of the New Testament. This is the height of the epistle. Love is the solution to all difficulties, the cure of all ills in the Corinthian church. If Paul had written nothing else, he would still be one of the world’s greatest writers and benefactors.”

In the original language of the New Testament, the word for “love” used there is a word that was used almost exclusively by early Christian writers. Many Bible students believe that the word was invented by Christians to denote the God-like love which can only be produced by the Holy Spirit.

This Greek word, agape, as used in 1 Corinthians 13, is not a natural love. It is the result, in the life of a believer, of a Christ-filled life. According to 1 Corinthians 13, love is greater than spiritual gifts, greater than oratory, greater than prophecy, greater than knowledge, greater than faith, greater than philanthropy, and greater even than martyrdom! It is, Paul wrote, “the most excellent way” (1 Corinthians 12:31).

Amy Carmichael was a Christian missionary in India who dedicated her life to rescuing children and ministering to women. She wrote many books of devotion that were deeply spiritual. She wrote a little book that is both convicting and powerfully motivating. It is titled “IF.” Here are a few excerpts.

“IF I have not compassion on my fellow servant even as my Lord had pity on me, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

“IF I belittle those whom I am called to serve, talk of their weak points in contrast, perhaps with what I think of as my strong points; if I adopt a superior attitude . . . then I know nothing of Calvary love.

“IF I can easily discuss the shortcomings and the sins of any; if I can speak in a casual way even of a child’s misdoings, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

“IF I can write an unkind letter, speak an unkind word, think an unkind thought without grief and shame, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

“IF I do not feel far more for the grieved Savior, than for my worried self when troublesome things occur, then I know nothing of Calvary love.”

This is the difference between theory and experience. This is Christian love at first sight.

Pastor Randy Faulkner

 

Equal in God’s Sight

Monday will be Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in the United States. His memory is honored in America and around the world because of his leadership in the Civil Rights Movement. He influenced many Americans to better understand the plight of their neighbors who experienced racial prejudice every day simply because their skin was black.

As a pastor, I preached against racial prejudice. I tried to show from the Bible that God welcomes the worship of people of all  races and cultures. The apostle John wrote about the heavenly scene and the multitude assembled around the throne of God: “from every nation, tribe, people and language” (Revelation 7:9). If God accepts them, how can we reject them? If God loves them, how can we hate them?

Yet as a boy growing up in the South in the 1950s, I accepted the institutionalized racism that was a way of life in my city. African Americans were allowed to attend the church in which I was reared, but they were relegated the back rows of the balcony. In the department store downtown I drank from a water fountain labeled “Whites Only.” Black people were required to sit in the back of city buses. Their children had to attend inferior schools.

I knew these things but as a boy I did not have the wisdom or the vocabulary to understand or oppose racism. White supremacy was everywhere. It was the air I breathed. The adults in my life did not so much indoctrinate me in the belief, as they passively accepted the prevailing cultural assumptions of racial bias.

The closest they came to undermining it was to teach us the Sunday School song “Jesus Loves the Little Children of the World. Red, and yellow, black and white, they are precious in his sight.”

The Civil Rights Movement under Dr. King became a social force that influenced the attitudes of many Americans. Some whites became hardened in their opposition to integration in public schools, voting rights, and equal opportunity in the workplace for black Americans.

Some opposed the Civil Rights Movement with violence. I remember when, in 1963, white supremacists bombed a church in Birmingham, Alabama, on a Sunday morning killing four young girls as they attended Sunday School, and injuring 20 other black worshipers. Whites infected with racial hatred murdered many civil rights activists, including Dr. King himself.

Others, myself included, began to better understand the plight of our African American neighbors who lived under white supremacist ideology. I began to actively oppose racial discrimination. I hope I have outgrown the attitude that one’s skin color has anything to do with one’s value, intelligence, dignity, or human potential. I fervently believe that racism is not only sinfully wrong, it is stupid.

Some of the people I knew  as I was growing up in the 1950s tried to use the Bible to teach that people of some races were meant to be slaves (the curse on Ham; the fact that slavery was allowed in Hebrew law; the fact that Paul did not teach against the institution of slavery in the Roman empire).

In view of this, it is amazing that so many enslaved people and their descendants became Christians. Could it be that they saw in Jesus the one who took on himself the form of a bond slave and died to save us (Philippians2:7)? Could it be that they felt in him the love and acceptance they did not feel from their bigoted white neighbors?

Throughout my ministry as a pastor I taught against racial prejudice. I called attention to what the Bible says in Acts 17:26– “From one man (Adam) he (God) made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live.”

Since all humans are descended from one man, they are equal in God’s sight. This cancels any theory of inherent racial superiority. God’s word tells us not to show partiality (James 2:1). Peter rightly learned that “God does not show favoritism, but accepts men from every nation” (Acts 10:34). Because this is God’s attitude, I want it to be my attitude toward people of other races.

I will have these things on my mind as I remember Dr. King on Monday.

Pastor Randy Faulkner

 

No Place for Anti-Semitism

Jesus was a Jew. His apostles were Jews. The first Christians were Jews. Most of the Holy Bible was written by Jews. It says of the Jews that “God did not reject his people whom he foreknew” (Romans 11:2).

The scripture also says that “There is no difference between Jew and Gentile — the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call upon him, for everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved” (Romans 10:12-13). This is quoting the Jewish prophets Isaiah and Joel to teach that salvation is by grace through faith for people of all ethnic backgrounds, Jewish as well as Gentile.

This means that there is no place for anti-Jewish bigotry among Christians, or anywhere else. The US Department of Education has documented an alarming rise in harassment, intimidation, and discrimination against Jewish students in American universities. These demonstrations have been attributed to the conduct of the state of Israel in its war against terrorism.

One does not have to agree with every policy of the nation of Israel to say that anti-Semitic hatred and violence are just plain wrong, and sinful. Martin Luther said as much early in his ministry. But, famously, and unfortunately, his later writings laid the groundwork for the 20th century’s  explosion of violence against the Jewish population of Europe under Adolf Hitler.

Luther wrote, in a document called “Against the Jews and their Lies,” that Jewish synagogues should be burned, properties confiscated, books should be burned, travel restricted, and persecution tolerated. These inflammatory rantings provoked unspeakable horrors  against the Jews of Luther’s day. They are an embarrassment to all who identify themselves as followers of Jesus.

It is hard for us to understand Luther’s anti-Semitism. I do not think we should dismiss it by saying, “Well, he was just a man of his times. This was a part of his cultural heritage as a German.” That may be true, but Luther was also a man of the scriptures. He knew what the apostle Paul had written, “My heart’s desire and prayer for the Israelites is that they may be saved” (Romans 10:1). Did Luther become embittered against Jews because they refused to voluntarily convert to Christianity?

He also knew and believed what the Bible teaches about the forgiveness of sin. There is a familiar story Luther told about himself. He said that the devil approached him one day and tried to use the fact that every person is fallible. The accuser reminded Luther of his sins. He presented him with a long list of his past failures of which he was indeed guilty.

When Satan finished Luther asked him if he had omitted some of his sins. “Think a little harder. You must have forgotten some!” The devil complied and added some other sins to the list. Then Luther said, “That’s fine, now write across that list in red ink, ‘The blood of Jesus Christ God’s Son cleanses us from all sin!'” There was nothing the devil could say to that.

Luther knew the scripture which says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).

One wonders, did Luther ever confess the sin of anti-Semitism?

Pastor Randy Faulkner

 

Looking Back; Looking Ahead

The ancient Romans worshipped a deity called Janus. On Roman coins, archways and doorways, he was depicted as having two faces, looking backward and forward. He was considered to be the god of beginnings, entrances and exits, after whom the month of January was named.

Having entered the month of January, we are conscious of the beginning of a new year and the passing of time. Our government’s chief conservator of time is the U.S. Naval Observatory. According to the agency’s website, it is responsible for maintaining the Department of Defense’s precise time and time intervals, the Master Clock, timing for Global Positioning Systems, two-way satellite time transfers, and telephone time. All of this gives the impression that time is a resource which can be managed.

We often speak of time as being our own, a personal birthright. It is better to think of time as a gift. We did not create it, We cannot hold onto it or control it. Yet it is good to try to understand the value of time and how to use it wisely. The Bible helps us to think wisely about time.

Looking back

Some people seem paralyzed by past regrets, bad choices, wasted time, or hurts inflicted by others or upon others. “If only I had it to do over.” “If only I had started sooner.” “If only I could forgive myself.” The “if only” game is not a creative strategy for dealing with the past. It is frustrating and self-defeating.

There is a better way for dealing with those yesterdays of regret. Paul the apostle put it like this: “Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13-14).

Paul was putting his regrets behind him. He had plenty of regrets. He said in his writings that he was unworthy to be called an apostle because in his past life he had been a persecutor of the church, a murderer, a blasphemer, and the chief of sinners. But he had confessed his sins and repented. He had accepted God’s forgiveness through Christ.

Look at the past as a driver of an automobile might use a rear-view mirror. Glance back occasionally, but don’t constantly look back. The past is a reference, like a rear-view mirror. We cannot move confidently into the future if we are constantly looking back. If we try to drive a car forward while looking back through the rear-view mirror we’ll surely run into trouble.

Looking forward

Anxiety about the future is common today. I have read that depression ranks among the most common diagnoses made by primary care doctors. This is especially true among high school students, who are being unduly influenced by social media. According to the Centers for Disease Control, suicide is the third-largest cause of death among American youths aged 14-18.

Jesus’ words in Matthew chapter 6 are an antidote to anxiety. He tells us how to face the future. “Do not worry,” Jesus said, about the accumulation of material things, about the length of your life, or about keeping up appearances (Matthew 6:25-29). You are, he says, more than a display rack for the latest designer fashions. You are a soul with an eternal destiny.

Your life, he says, has a vastly more important significance than the money you make, or the clothes you wear, or the food you eat. Don’t let these things be substitutes for God. Rather, cultivate faith in your heavenly Father. He knows you, he loves you and he will provide for you (Matthew 6:30-33). Ruth Graham said, “Worry and worship cannot live in the same heart. They are mutually exclusive.”

With a heart of worship for the God who gives life, live it one day at a time. Jesus said, “Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself” (Matthew 6:34).

Sometime today, try this experiment. Look at a clock with a second hand. Watch the second hand when it reaches twelve, then follow it as it sweeps down toward the number six. The six is still future as the second hand approaches. What happens when the second hand reaches and passes the six? It is in the past. It is over. Gone forever.

That part of your life is gone in an instant. You have just experienced time as it passes us by. We cannot stop it. We cannot control it. But we can choose to make the most of the time God has given us today to prepare to live with him in eternity, beyond time.

Pastor Randy Faulkner

 

 

Not To Be Forgotten

During this season we are reminded of prominent people who have died during the year just past. Their names and photographs appear briefly in news reports before our attention is drawn to the Rose Parade, football games and the crowds gathered in Times Square for the celebration of the new year.

No matter now famous or infamous they were, it seems that they are soon forgotten by most of us. Do you remember the people on last year’s list?

Knowing how forgetful we are, the writer of Psalm 136 drives home a refrain to remind us of the love of God. He repeats it 26 times. It is a great theme to take with us into the new year: “His love endures forever.” Like a hammer hitting a nail, he pounds it into our consciousness: “His love endures forever.” This is how he wants us to think about God.

Why is this theme repeated so often in this single Hebrew poem? The most obvious reason is that the writer wants to help us remember what God is like. Repetition is an aid to learning. Isn’t that how we learned the alphabet, or the multiplication tables, or the periodic table of the elements when we were in school?

Another reason the theme is repeated is that it represents a form of congregational worship. Imagine two choirs, one singing, “Give thanks to the Lord for he is good;” the other choir answering antiphonally, “His love endures forever.” Worship is to be participatory and we are being invited to join the refrain, “His love endures forever.”

The psalmist does not want us to think of God as we think of the celebrities who appear for awhile on the world stage, then pass away, forgotten. He intends for the Lord to remain the center of our thinking and of our worship. This is a good reminder for us as we begin a new year.

Remember God’s goodness

The word “love,” used here, appears over 250 times in the Old Testament. It is sometimes translated “lovingkindness,” or “mercy.” It is God’s steadfast love, or covenant love. It is the unchanging goodness of God which binds him to keep faith with his people. We will need to remember that in 2025, in seasons of change or uncertainty, or trouble. God is always good. His love never fails (Psalm 136:1).

Remember God’s greatness

Psalm 136:2-9 reminds us of God’s sovereignty. He is “Lord of lords” (a title the New Testament ascribes to Jesus!). He is the creator of the heavens and the earth, the sun, moon and stars. The psalmist invites us to look around at creation and see it as a work of God’s steadfast love.

Then he recounts, in poetic fashion, some facts of Israel’s history which reveal the Lord’s intervention on their behalf (Psalm 136:10-20). He rescued his people from bondage in Egypt, led them safely through the Red Sea, and gave them victory over their enemies. All of this is evidence of God’s covenant love, so he repeats the theme, “His love endures forever.” The greatness of God is not to be forgotten!

Remember God’s generosity

Psalm 136:21-26 tells how the Lord generously provided a homeland for his people. The Promised Land was to be their inheritance in perpetuity. When Israel sinned against God, and he judged them by removing them from the land, they could know that in his covenant faithfulness, he would someday liberate them and restore them to the land (Psalm 136:23-24). The prophets often wrote of Israel’s ultimate restoration.

The fashions and the famous of the world fade and pass away. But we may be sure that “God’s love endures forever.” We must never forget this. Through the coming year we will need to remind ourselves of this, just as the theme punctuates the psalm.

J. A. Motyer said of this psalm, “From the beginning of creation, to the climax of redemption, from the first making of the heavens to the final inheritance of the saints, all is to be seen against the background of the love of God. That love is both indestructible, because it is covenant love, and boundless, because it endures forever.”

Pastor Randy Faulkner

 

The Quiet Strength of Faithful Man

Joseph is described in the Bible as a righteous man who sought to follow God’s law. This means that his life was regulated by the moral standards of the Word of God. I think it is safe to say that he lived every day in the awareness of the will and guidance of God.

When an angel brought a message from heaven, he was obedient to God’s call. He was to assume his role as the fatherly provider and protector of the infant Jesus and his virgin mother Mary. Joseph was faithful.

Caleb Saenz has written, “Joseph is to be Jesus’ earthly father, but his choice to receive that calling is less a one-time acceptance and more a daily choice to follow through with his new identity and the responsibilities it entails.” There can be no doubt that Joseph took seriously those responsibilities. His influence was a righteous influence.

The degree to which Joseph’s influence shaped the human life of Jesus is a mystery. The Bible is silent on this matter. But since Jesus was also a carpenter (Mark 6:3), we may assume that he learned this trade from Joseph. Like Joseph, our Lord was a “righteous” carpenter. May not the quiet strength, the healthy masculinity, and the courage we see in the human Jesus be, in some sense, attributable to the faithful example of Joseph?

Hebrews 5:8 tells us that Jesus “learned obedience.” How can it be said that the Son of God needed to “learn” anything? Yet in his humanity Jesus experienced the developmental stages of childhood in submission  to his parents (Luke 2:39-40, 51-52). And the man whom God appointed to be the human guardian to the child Jesus was a faithful, humble, righteous man, a carpenter named Joseph, the husband of Mary.

It seems likely that Joseph died before Jesus began his public ministry. He is absent from the references to Jesus’ family we find in the gospels. His earthly work was done. He was faithful to his calling. It was a big task — to provide, to protect, and to teach. The extent to which Joseph taught Jesus by passing on his beliefs is unknown. But he fulfilled his fatherly role as a faithful man.

Joseph is an example to us. Like him, we want to say “yes” to God’s will for our lives, whatever that means. The U.S. Army recruits thousands of volunteers every year with such challenging words as these: “As a soldier . . . you’ll experience things you never thought possible and go places most people only read about.” Joseph said “yes” to God. If we do that, God will use us too.

Joseph’s example also reminds us to evaluate our lives. Joseph was “a righteous man.” He navigated his way through a world of sin without being stained or polluted by it. When we are tempted to make moral compromises, we need the grace of God to resist temptation. “God is faithful and he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it” (1 Corinthians 10:13).

Joseph was a man of influence. He doubtless had a significant influence in the life of Jesus in his youth. You and I have influence, too. God is calling us to use it to influence others toward his Son and the salvation he offers to the world.

Joseph was not a theologian, a priest, or an apostle. But as a humble working man, a decisive man, a courageous man, and as a man of faith, he had a role in changing the world.

Pastor Randy Faulkner

The Quiet Strength of a Courageous Man

Living quietly as a craftsman in Nazareth did not require much of Joseph in the way of courage. No defiant acts of political intrigue. No insurrection against the Roman occupation. Joseph is not described in heroic terms.

Yet when he faced the greatest crisis of his life, he displayed unusual courage. I think he behaved as a hero.

Joseph was required by Roman edict to travel to his hometown of Bethlehem (Luke 2:1-7). It was not a good time for him and his wife to make such a journey. Mary was well along in her pregnancy. This must have been disruptive and inconvenient. The journey must have been slow and unpleasant.

When they arrived, Bethlehem was filled with visitors who were there to comply with the Roman registration. The homes were crowded with relatives. The inns were overrun. There was no place for them to stay other than a stable for animals.

“While they were there the time came for the baby to be born and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger” (Luke 2:7).

We may assume this happened not long after their arrival in Bethlehem. There is no mention of a midwife, and no description of Jesus’ actual birth. Did Joseph deliver the baby?

They stayed in Bethlehem several months after Jesus was born, perhaps as long as two years (Matthew 2:16). Then a second dream came to Joseph as a message from heaven (Matthew 2:13-15). Hurry up! Escape while you can! Flee to Egypt! Herod the king is going to try to kill the child.

Joseph acted courageously and left Bethlehem during the night with his little family. This was the second of three journeys in the Christmas story. It must have been slow going with a baby, travelling through the wilderness the hundred miles to Egypt.

Historians tell us there were over a million Jews living in Alexandria at the time. Joseph and Mary may have lived as refugees among this expatriate community. In Egypt they found temporary protection from the evil despot who was motivated by Satan to destroy the baby Jesus. The fate of humanity and God’s plan of salvation hung on Joseph’s heroic obedience to God.

We do not know how long the holy family stayed in Egypt. We are told that it was until the death of King Herod (Matthew 2:19-20). The stay in Egypt had been prophesied in the Old Testament (Matthew 2:15), “Out of Egypt I called my son.”

This is an allusion to Hosea 11:1, which refers originally to the exodus of the Hebrew nation from their slavery in Egypt. Matthew applied this prophesy to Jesus, who was the typological fulfillment of all that the nation Israel had failed to be in the divine plan. Hosea wrote more than he knew. His words had a deeper significance, pointing beyond the nation Israel, to the Lord Jesus Christ. The exodus of the children of Israel in their infancy was a pointer to  Joseph’s heroic rescue of Jesus in his infancy.

After the death of king Herod, Joseph received another message in a dream. He was instructed to return with the child and his mother to the land of Israel. An additional dream guided him specifically to Galilee. Once again, Joseph obeyed. Once again, they travelled. Once again, prophesy was fulfilled, “He shall be called a Nazarene” (Matthew 2:22-23).

Nazareth was a small, obscure place. All his life our Lord was referred to as “Jesus of Nazareth.” It was there that Joseph taught his adopted son the trade of carpentry (Mark 6:3). It was there that “Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men” (Luke 2:52). This was due in large measure to the courage and heroism of Joseph.

Pastor Randy Faulkner