Why Following Jesus is Difficult: The Story of Joseph

Today on Summit Life with J.D.

Greer. I think the Holy Spirit is laying out the pattern from Jesus' birth for how people are going to have to follow him. So I'm gonna give you four elements from Joseph's life about following Jesus that are not, listen, that are not just an inspiring example from the past.

They're a compelling example in the present. This is how your life is going to look if you actually follow Jesus. Welcome to Christmas Week on Summit Life with J.D. Greer.

I'm your host, Molly Bitovitch. What an exciting week as we work our way towards Christmas Day and the culmination of the season. Now, I think we'd all agree that the nativity scene is usually painted as a very picturesque moment. You've got the beautiful newborn baby with his parents and surrounded by smiling shepherds, gentle sheep and shining angels. But today, Pastor J.D. reminds us of the story behind that moment and what the little baby's birth really meant for Mary and Joseph. It's part of our series called Upside Down Christmas, and you can catch up on previous messages at J.D.

Greer.com. But right now, let's get right into the message titled Why Following Jesus is Difficult, The Story of Joseph. Matthew chapter one and two. There are a lot of people who simply lack the resolve to genuinely follow Jesus. They would like to, but to really go all in requires a motivation beyond what they currently possess.

I think that I have been surrounded by those kinds of people all of my life. They follow Jesus when it's easy, when, for example, they are part of a group of friends who are all doing it, when it naturally fits within their lifestyle. But they simply lack the verve to do it when it's hard, to stand alone, to swim upstream, to keep going when there is nobody standing behind them going, come on, you can do it.

That's when these people putter out and they fall behind. Make no mistake, to actually follow Jesus is difficult, very difficult. You see, there's a great irony in the Christian life. Following Jesus ushers you into a life that is simultaneously the most joyful and the most difficult life on earth. John 10, 10 tells you that Jesus came to give you life and life more abundantly. Psalm 16, 11 says that in God's presence is the fullness of joy.

Psalm 84, 10 says it is better to spend one day in God's presence than 10,000 anywhere else. But Matthew 16 also tells you that if you're gonna follow Jesus, you gotta take up your cross to follow him. I don't know what kind of image that gives to you, but I can assure you that in the ancient world, it was not a pleasant one. Today we wear crosses made out of diamonds around our necks as pieces of jewelry. And there's nothing wrong with that if you have one on, I'm not singling you out, I'm just telling you that back then in the ancient days, they would not have done that. That was a symbol to them of oppression, torture and death that caused horror in the people who saw it. In those days, normal, nice people did not get a cross tattooed onto them.

Here's how I can help you understand that. Imagine if you went over to somebody's house that you'd just gotten to know, one of your neighbor's house and in their baby room, above their baby's crib was a little hangman's noose hanging down out of the ceiling. And then you go into their kitchen and above their kitchen table is a picture of an electric chair. And then in their living room, they got a picture above their sofa of a group of men standing in front of a firing squad.

You don't stick around for dinner and your kids don't go over there on a play date, right? Because that's just, it's creepy, it's not, it's weird. That's the image that Jesus chose that this is gonna define you. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15 that if the resurrection is not true, then followers of Jesus are the people that ought to be the most pitied people in the whole world.

Why? Because their lives were characterized by a cross and by suffering. If the resurrection didn't happen, then they were pathetic.

That's why he said that. For Paul, following Jesus meant suffering, sacrifice and persecution. It meant living with unanswered questions and unfulfilled dreams, dying in many ways, a loser. And Paul said, you know what? If I get to the end of my life and it's all a hoax, I can assure you, I am not gonna say, oh, you know, but it was still all great.

It was an abundant life. Oh, glorious delusion. He's not gonna be saying that. He says, if I get to the end of my life and it's a hoax, then I am of all men most pathetic.

This is a question I've asked you before. Does the resurrection have to be true in order for you to consider your life good? Does the resurrection have to be true in order for you to consider your life good? If not, you're probably not living a life of sacrifice. The reason I say that, it's how I heard Christians all my life say things like, you know what, if I get to the end of life and it's just not true, I said it was an abundant life and I was blessed and I don't really care if it's true.

And I'm like, Paul would never have said that, never. Because Paul said, my life is characterized by a cross and the resurrection not true, this is pathetic. To actually go all the way with Jesus, you gotta have a strong grasp on why he is worth it. And that's what you're gonna see in Matthew one and two. Matthew's gonna show you right out of the gate.

He's gonna show you what it looks like to follow Jesus and how you gain the motivation to actually do it, okay? You're gonna see a story this morning of the first followers of Jesus. By the way, if I asked you who the first followers of Jesus was, I bet you get the question wrong.

Because you would think like Peter, James, John, those are the first ones. Matthew starts to process a whole lot sooner than that and shows you two people who began to follow Jesus. They were the first Christians before anybody else. And you're gonna see the pattern for how people would follow Jesus in them that applies to you this day. Matthew chapter one, let's begin in verse 18.

Matthew 1, 18. Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother, Mary, had been betrothed to Joseph before they came together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband, Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to put her away quietly or divorce her quietly. Can you imagine for just a minute how painful and humiliating this was for Joseph? Well, of course, as you could probably understand, Joseph doesn't believe her. He's like, oh, right, the Holy Ghost got you pregnant.

Yeah, and it gave you that pet unicorn that you're saying you got in your backyard too, I'm sure. But Joseph was, for whatever it was worth, he was a pretty good guy and he was kind. So he arranged to break the betrothal quietly.

Legally, by the way, he could have had her stoned. Verse 20, that as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. And she will bear a son, and you will call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet. Behold, the virgin will conceive and bear a son, and they will call his name Immanuel, which means God with us. When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him.

He took his wife, but he knew her not until she had given birth to a son, and they called his name Jesus. Do you ever wonder why God did it this way? I mean, think about it for just a minute.

Why, if God could do things any way that he wanted, why did God choose to do it this way? I mean, it ruined both of their reputations. The angel did not show up and explain the situation to everybody else.

The angel didn't send out a news bulletin to all of her family and friends, declaring that she really was an impure. Everyone else from that point on thought of Mary as an impure girl. When they were looking through the yearbook later, and they came to Mary's picture, the girls that had been her friends were like, oh, remember what happened to her?

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, remember? Who knew that was a part of her life? Who knew she had that kind of dark side? Then we thought she was sweet little, you know, God-loving Mary, but turns out she's got a dark side. And to our knowledge, by the way, as far as we know, there was never any clarification or vindication given until the New Testament was written 30 or 40 years later. And then by that point, it was mostly irrelevant. When Joseph married her, it seemed like he was confessing that the baby was actually his.

So this pregnancy ruined both of their reputations in the community. Mary did not get the storybook wedding she had always dreamed about with her dad walking her down the aisle and all of her friends and all of her family present. I know that for many women, your wedding day is the most highly anticipated, planned-for, and expensive day of your life. My daughter, Allie, has been practicing walking down the aisle since she could take her first steps. I kid you not, from the time that kid could just amble around, she'd been like, Daddy, watch it, I'm gonna walk down the aisle. We've had this running conversation now for about five years of when I get married, I want this. And when I get married, I want this to happen. Dave, when I get married, this. And every time my response is always the same, save your money.

Save your money, because your mom and I gave away all that money to all in, so you're gonna have to pay for it yourself. Just because Mary lived 2,000 years ago, don't assume that she was vastly different. Her dreams of her own beautiful wedding day were absolutely shattered, ruined.

Not by an angry mother-in-law, by the way, but by Jesus himself. I mean, not only that, eventually they're gonna have to leave their family. They're gonna have to flee their homelands. They're gonna have to get rid of everything because of Jesus. To see abundant life, to see abundant life. Is this what you signed up for? To see abundant life.

Is this what you signed on the dotted line for? Why did God do it this way? I think the Holy Spirit is laying out the pattern from Jesus' birth for how people are going to have to follow him. So I'm gonna give you four elements from Joseph's life about following Jesus that are not, listen, that are not just an inspiring example from the past.

They're a compelling example in the present. This is how your life is going to look if you actually follow Jesus. Number one, what following Jesus looks like.

I see four different elements. First one, letter A. Trust and absolute obedience.

Trust and absolute obedience. Joseph had to believe the impossible and to risk everything on the fact that the impossible was true. Several years ago, I had a friend who became a Christian when he lived in Egypt, in the Islamic part of Egypt. When he became a Christian over there because he met a church planter from America who shared Christ with him, and over the process of six or seven months, this guy who I'll call Timothy, he became convinced that Jesus was the Messiah. He was an Islamic imam, which meant it was like an Islamic priest. And so he quietly converted to Jesus and was trying to figure out exactly what to do and was keeping a journal and just writing out prayers, which he thought was private.

He hid it under his bed, that's where he hid his Bible. He said he returned home one day and standing outside of his house was a group of people from his village, his mom standing on the front porch and she had in her hand this journal. She said that she walked up to him and she took this journal, she threw it down at his feet, reached down, took off her shoe and slapped him in the face, spit in his face and said, if this is what you wrote, you are dead to me, you are no longer my son. He said this mob commenced to beating me until he said they literally left me for dead. He said they thought I was dead after nightfall came, he said I came to, I came back to consciousness and I managed to drag myself, get out of my village and get to the house of this American who had shared Christ with me and eventually he got out of the country and to this day is not allowed to go back because they put a death sentence on his head. As he's telling me the story, he's referencing his brother and his sister. He said that he loved so very much and when this happened, she was 13 years old, he was about 19 and he said that, I said something about, I was like, well, what does your sister think about this? He looked at me, he said, I have no idea. He said the last time I saw my sister was on that day that I returned home and was beaten like that and then he looked at me very seriously and he said, that was the price, that was the price for following Jesus.

That's what I had to choose. I had to choose whether or not he was worth it. The only way that kind of thing makes any sense is if Jesus actually rose from the dead, is if the impossible actually came true. He didn't choose Jesus because it was his preference. He didn't choose Jesus because that was culturally the easiest path. He chose him because he believed the impossible had taken place and he risked everything on it.

By the way, the church planner who left the United States to go live there didn't go live there because he liked Egyptian culture. He went there because he believed that what Jesus said was true, that he was the way, the truth, and the life. That there is no salvation apart from him and therefore people all over the world have got to know that. They believe the impossible and they risk everything on it. In fact, if you struggle being sacrificial in your giving or just in your life, let me tell you why. It is because you lack confidence in the promises of God. People who lack confidence in God's promises will throw some guilt money in the offering plate when it goes by from time to time, especially when I preach an emotional sermon that kind of gets at you a little bit. You'll throw your lunch money in, you'll throw a little guilt money, but to actually give in a sustained sacrificial way, you'll never make it until you are absolutely convinced the impossible is true. To forgive a father who has sexually abused you takes a bold confidence in God's forgiveness and his ability to work all things for good.

Can I tell you something? I don't mean this to be offensive, but Oprah is not gonna give you the resources to forgive a father who sexually abused you. The only resources that you're gonna be able to tap into is when you understand that there is a God whose forgiveness is larger than yours and his ability to work all things for good goes beyond other people's ability to work things for evil.

Without that, you'll never have the strength to forgive. Following Jesus, I mean really following him, not just playing religious games, means trust in the impossible and absolute obedience. Here's the second thing, B, acceptance of a sentence of death. Acceptance of a sentence of death. Mary's out of wedlock pregnancy put her under a literal death sentence in Jewish law. Beyond that, I told you Mary and Joseph had to die to their good name, they had to die to their cherished dreams, they had to die to their families, they had to die to their homelands.

When you follow Jesus, it means acceptance of a sentence of death. John Bunyan, who wrote Pilgrim's Progress, which is still the greatest selling English book of all time, spent many years in prison for preaching the gospel in his own country in England. They told him that if he would simply stop preaching the gospel, he could go home to his family.

He was not a young, single radical, he was a married man who had at least three children when he first went into prison, one of whom was blind. Bunyan wrote these words in prison. He said, the parting with my wife and poor children has often been to me in this place like the pulling of the flesh from my bones. I've often brought to my mind the many hardships, miseries, and wants that my poor family has had to meet with, especially my poor, blind child who lays nearer to my heart than all else I have besides. If I would ever suffer rightly, I know that I must first pass a sentence of death upon everything that can properly be called a thing of this life. Even to reckon myself, my wife, my children, my health, my enjoyments, and all as dead to me and myself as dead to them. By the way, I'm not talking about any delinquency of being a good father or good husband. Because you know what, following Jesus makes you a better father and husband.

But I'm just saying that when Jesus said, come and follow me, he said pick up a cross, which was absolute and total. He said, John, I mean, excuse me, Luke 14, 26, if any man would come after me. If any man comes after me, he's gotta hate father and mother. He's gotta hate wife and children. He's gotta hate brothers and sisters.

Yes, even his own life. And unless he does that, he can never be my disciple. He's not talking about actually developing feelings of hate for those because he makes you love them more. What he's talking about is your love and commitment to Jesus becomes so strong that there is absolutely nothing that competes with doing what he has told you to do.

It means acceptance of a sentence of death, that you die to everything and you become alive to the will of Jesus in your life. By the way, that right there ain't gonna grow a church, just so you know. The way you grow a church is preaching all that abundant life stuff.

Right here, this clears out a church. So if you're like, I wanna leave, I totally understand that, at least I understand the emotion I'm just telling you, you need to consider this is not me saying this, I'm quoting to you the words of Jesus. Here we go, letter C, the third thing, self-denial. Self-denial, verse 25 tells you that Joseph did not know Mary or have sex with her until after the birth of Jesus. So not only did he have to wait a year in betrothal, he waited another year after she finds out she's pregnant before he is able to be together with his wife.

That's significant, I think, right? Following Jesus means denying yourself some of the things that you might otherwise enjoy. You see, we have single people in this church who are not willing to wait to have sex and you're not even married.

Here is Joseph who was married and is still waiting because this is the will of Jesus. And you think that you're a follower of Jesus and he's okay with the fact that you're just going to exempt yourself from this particular command of his and that you can come in here and sit down like everything's fine. I'm gonna go ahead and tell you right now that unless you're willing to forsake what he has forbidden, you can never be his follower. So you have got to come to a place where you deny yourself things that he has forbidden because you are surrendered to do what he says in his timing and in his way. We have couples in this church who are living together but are not married, why?

Because it's the easier thing for you. Until you are willing to deny yourself things that you might otherwise obtain, things that other people in our culture are gonna do, you're never going to be a follower of Jesus. To follow him means you deny yourself and you commit to do things his way. Here's the last one, letter D. Willingness to embrace inconvenience.

Willingness to embrace inconvenience. Do you realize how much Jesus' birth complicated Joseph's life? It messed up his relationships with his family. It messed up relationships with his friends, his job.

I mean, in those days if people in your community did not like you, then they wouldn't bring you their business. So Jesus, this whole pregnancy thing totally messed up Joseph's business. Eventually, by the way, he had to move and start over. I'll tell you this, serving Jesus is rarely convenient.

Oh, well, I worked hard all week and I got kids. Yeah, I look forward to hearing you explain that one to Mary in heaven. My church had the audacity to ask me to help take care of my own kids once a month.

And Mary's like, yeah, I had to bear somebody else's kid for nine months and give birth to it and got ostracized for my family because of him. But tell me about your story, oh great man of faith. The people in our church who serve our community don't do it because it's convenient. They do it because they're committed to Jesus. I know that not everybody is called to every ministry.

I'm not trying to imply that. I'm just saying if you don't have a ministry that is in some way inconvenient for you, I'm at least putting a question mark above whether or not you're actually following him because it always means inconvenience. Taking up a cross is never like convenient. Adoption and fostering children is never convenient.

Just ask somebody who's done it. By the way, if you start doing it because it's a preference or a fad or because you think it's gonna look cool on your Christmas card, that's gonna wear off, I promise you. You get involved in adoption and fostering children for one reason. God told us to care for the ones that everybody else has forgotten about.

And you do it as a way of loving him. Sharing Christ is rarely that convenient for me. Whether that's reaching out to a neighbor or striking up a conversation with a guy next to me in a plane, it's rarely convenient. I mean, there have been times in my life where I just did not feel like getting to know a new person, like a new neighbor or something like that. You know, because I'm like, I'd just much rather hang out with the friends I got. I feel like walking across the street to meet them is like, hi, you know, I got way too many friends already.

What's your name? That's almost what I feel like. Now, thankfully, right now, I have some totally awesome neighbors that I really like. So I don't feel like that way about any of them.

So if you're here this morning, I'm not talking about you, okay? But there are times when it's just never convenient. We don't do it because it's convenient. We do it because it's a great commission. And this week, sitting next to a guy on an airplane, I just had a couple of really intense days of ministry. And I sit down next to there and I just, it's just one of those things, the guy sitting next to me, I'm feeling the Holy Spirit say, you know, you need to strike up a conversation with this guy and I know that you think that I do that because I'm a pastor, I'm an extrovert, and I just really enjoy this. I know that's what you think. You're like, oh, if I was a pastor, I'd do it too.

I don't do it. I don't, I'm sitting there thinking, oh, I just wanna, I mean, God, I need to rest. I just wanna read my book. That's all I want, the next hour, that's all that I want, God. And, you know, Jesus is like, yep, I hung on a cross naked for six hours on a Friday and you need a break. Let's go ahead and talk about that one for a while.

I strike up the conversation. Not because it's convenient, but because it's the great commission. It's what he told us to do. A challenging message from Pastor J.D.

Greer and Summit Life. And I have to wonder what Joseph's life would have been like if he hadn't followed through with getting married. He might've had the perfect little life he thought he was destined to have, but he would have missed out on Jesus.

Like J.D. said, when we're committed to the great commission and sharing the gospel, it's not gonna be convenient. It's gonna mean giving up our time, our energy, and even our money in order to be obedient to what God has called us to do. But when we take that step, we're entering into God's mission and we'll see him work in the most amazing ways. That's our goal as a ministry, to say yes to God's call and step out in faith and bring the gospel to people all across the country and around the world through the radio and web.

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Or go online to jdgrier.com. I'm Molly Vidovitch. Be sure to listen Tuesday when we'll continue this study of Joseph right here on Summit Life with J.D. Greer. Today's program was produced and sponsored by J.D. Greer Ministries.