Journal: Southern Baptist Journal of Theology
Volume: SBJT 16:1 (Spring 2012)
Article: Sermon: Joseph Of Nazareth Is A Single-Issue Evangelical: The Father Of Jesus, The Cries Of The Helpless, And Change You Can Believe In (Matt 2:13-23)
Author: Russell D. Moore

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SBJT 16:1 (Spring 2012) p. 56

Sermon: Joseph Of Nazareth Is A Single-Issue Evangelical: The Father Of Jesus, The Cries Of The Helpless, And Change You Can Believe In (Matt 2:13-23)1

Russell D. Moore

Russell D. Moore is Senior Vice President for Academic Administration and Dean of the School of Theology at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, where he also serves as Professor of Christian Theology and Ethics.

Dr. Moore serves as the Executive Editor for The Southern Baptist Journal of Theology and is a Senior Editor of Touchstone: A Journal of Mere Christianity. In addition, he is the author of The Kingdom of Christ: The New Evangelical Perspective (Crossway, 2004), Adopted for Life: The Priority of Adoption for Christian Families and Churches (Crossway, 2009), and Tempted and Tried: Temptation and the Triumph of Christ (Cross way, 2 011).

I played a cow in my first grade Christmas pageant. And I had more lines than the kid who played Joseph. The cattle were lowing and the babies were awake, but Joseph never really had much to say. He seemed to be not much more than a prop for Mary and the doll in the manger, the one who merely shrugged his shoulders and stood beside her when the innkeeper said there was no room in the inn. But the way in which Joseph w a s portrayed in this play was not altogether uncommon. For many of us think of Joseph as nothing more than a bit character in the biblical storyline. Matthew, however, portrays him as something vastly different than that in this text. He presents Joseph as a character in a story—a story that has played out before and is essential to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Matthew informs us in the first chapter that Joseph was a just and righteous man; the Holy Spirit even commends his life and faith. We see this same walk of faith in the writing of one of Joseph’s other sons, James, who was the pastor of the church at Jerusalem and writes about religion that is “pure and undefiled,” that visits “orphans and widows in their affliction,” (Jas 1:27) and speaks of faith as not merely agreeing to a set of facts but as something that lives and breathes and carries itself out into life. W hat I want to ask is, could it be that the kind of tumult around us as we carry out the mission of the church, as we seek to reclaim and expand upon the legacy that has been given before, could that same kind of tumult have surrounded this man Joseph? And could it be that the walk of faith that God commanded and commended in Joseph of Nazareth is the very walk of faith that he still calls us to today?

SBJT 16:1 (Spring 2012) p. 57

The Walk Of Faith Means Wrestling Wit...

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