Psalm 16:11: “You Show Me the Path of Life”

INTRODUCTION

Here we are at the door of another year. It isn’t often that we get to come to church on New Year’s Day. But here we are.

None of us knows what this new year holds for us—of sorrows, of joys, of challenges, of surprises. We only know that we are walking with Jesus, our Savior and our Friend.

At the beginning of the 16th Psalm the psalmist cries out:

Protect me, O God, for in you I take refuge.

I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord;

I have no good apart from you.”

And at the end of this same psalm the psalmist expresses his confidence with these words:

You show me the path of life.

In your presence is fullness of joy;

in your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

So today, as we enter the New Year, we will think together about the path of life on which we are all journeying to the Promised Land.

We began our journey when we were born, and each day brings us closer to its end.

According to Matthew 7:13-14, in the Sermon on the Mount, life is a journey with two roads and two destinies. Jesus said, “Enter through the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction, and there are many who take it. For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life and there are few who find it.”

I want to talk about that that hard road, the road that one enters through the narrow gate, the road that leads to life. And that is the road the psalmist speaks of when he says to his God: “Show me the path of life.”

I. We are not born on the path of life. We are born on the path of death. But God does not will that we should continue on that path. God invites every one of us to travel the road that leads to life.

That doesn’t mean that you need to have a conversion story. Maybe that time you committed yourself to Christ was so long ago that you can’t remember making a definite decision. Maybe your faith came so gradually that you don’t know at just which point in your life you passed—as Jesus put it—“from death to life.”

With me, I remember a time when I worried whether I was—as they said it in our church—“saved.” Some of our preachers insisted that to be “saved” one must remember the time when one experienced assurance of salvation. That used to trouble me because I couldn’t remember such an experience. But sometime in my middle teens I came to the confidence that I did believe—and that Jesus was my Savior.

So though I don’t have a conversion story, I do remember an important encounter with God that changed my life. During my freshman year in college, during Christmas break in 1948, I attended a student missionary conference, and during that week I suddenly understood what it meant to live for Jesus.

I realized that faith wasn’t just a belief in the gospel, but a life of obedience—a life with God at the center. That is what it means to believe: to give myself to Jesus. A Bible verse that stood out for me was 1 Corinthians 6:19-20: “You are not your own; you were bought with a price, so glorify God in your body.”

B. But it’s not enough to simply to make a decision for God. The psalmist prays: “Show me the path of life.” Walking with God is a learning experience. Walking with Jesus through life means making many decisions—making ever new beginnings.

Every day we commit ourselves to God. We begin each day determined to live to please our Lord. We seek to live up to our calling and show in our behavior the generosity, kindness, humility, and faithfulness that the Bible calls “the fruits of the Spirit.”

That’s what we mean by walking on the path of life. It’s the path that shows we have the life of Christ in us. It is the path that leads to life—eternal life.

The path of life leads to a glorious future in the eternal Kingdom of the Father.

II. Some people think of New Year’s Day as a good time to make resolutions—to do away with old harmful habits and “turn over a new leaf.”

A. But New Year’s resolutions are hard to keep. New Year’s resolutions seldom lead to permanent change.

This New Year’s Day is a good time to talk about some strategies we can use to make changes in our lives that we have been putting off.

In the book of Hebrews the author says, “Lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed.”

When the writer says, “Make straight paths for your feet,” he is telling us to make rules for ourselves and stick to them. Rules are not bad. We need rules to keep us on the path of life.

B. Psychologists tell us that one reason New Year’s resolutions are so hard to keep is that people make too many of them.

We get carried away with all the things in our lives we need to change and we get too ambitions.

For example, I may make a resolution to pray 10 minutes every day, and read a chapter from my New Testament each day, to take a walk every day, to skip desserts, and to watch less TV. That’s way too many changes to try to make at one time.

So my suggestion is to make just one resolution at a time, keep it simple and not too ambitious.

For example, if you are dissatisfied with your prayer life, you might make a resolution to make a list of things you want to pray about—things to give thanks for and people to pray for. Then pray over that list every day until daily prayer becomes a habit.

Once something becomes a habit, it requires no will power to keep it up. It is easier to continue doing it than not. It’s like brushing your teeth. You don’t decide each day to brush your teeth; you just do it. Just so, prayer should be a habit—something you just do at a set time each day.

III. We have talked about the Path of Life. Now we look at the last part of our verse—the glorious destination that path leads to.

A. If you’ve been coming to these services, you know that I never get tired of talking about Heaven. The psalm ends—

In your presence is fullness of joy;

in your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

Joys on earth are foretastes of heaven.

We all can look back on times of great joy, when our hearts were so full, we thought we could hold no more. Those feelings never lasted—but they were a foretaste of the time when we will be in God’s presence—which the psalmist calls “fullness of Joy,” and that Jesus calls, “Entering into the joy of the Lord.”

On earth, we experience pleasures—sometimes such great pleasures that we wish we could repeat them a hundred times. But earthly pleasures don’t last.

In God’s presence—the psalmist says—are pleasures forevermore.

B. Some humans are so earthbound that they can’t imagine any pleasures greater than watching TV or eating a fine dinner or playing a game with friends.

But we who have discovered the goodness of God know that we have something to look forward to that is far, far better than anything we will leave behind.

Here is how one author describes Heaven:

“Heaven is a community of those who love God and whom God loves. It is like a weaving in which each [of us is a] thread [which] touches every other thread in a spark of loving light, so that the whole web shines like a field of stars” (Jeffrey Burton Russell, A History of Heaven.)

Someday we will live with saints and angels in the Paradise of God. It will be a life of ever new discoveries and ever new delights, and it will never end. We will see Jesus, and we will be like him, for we will see him as he is (1 John 3:2).

No matter how hard life becomes, that’s something to look forward to.

Luke 1:26-34 & Matthew 1:18-25: Mary and Joseph: Chosen by God

INTRODUCTION

When we read and ponder the story of Christmas, we rightly give more of our thoughts to Mary, our Lord’s mother than we do to Joseph. Scripture gives more attention to Mary. It even gives her some speaking parts. Mary has five sentences and a long poem, while we only read about Joseph. The gospels don’t record a single word Joseph said.

But Joseph is important too. And when God chose the family in which the Savior was to be raised, he chose both Mary and Joseph as the parents to whom he would entrust his Son, the Savior.

Mary would nurse her baby, change his diapers, and teach him to his first words. Together, Mary and Joseph would teach their toddler to say “please” and “thank you,” to follow the rules, to share his toys, and to be considerate of others. Little Jesus—even though he was the incarnate Son of God, was still a thoroughly human little child. Mary and Joseph were his first teachers.

From his parents, Jesus learned to pray. From them he learned his Bible verses. With them he went to church—it was called “synagogue.”

Mary and Joseph took seriously the instructions in the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy, where they read:

“The Lord is our God, the Lord alone.

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,

and with all your soul, and with all your might.

Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart.

Recite them to your children

and talk about them when you are at home

and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise.”

(Deuteronomy 6:4-7)

We can be sure that Mary and Joseph talked about these things in their home. They made sure that their holy child learned what it meant to love God. And they taught him the other commandment that goes with it: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18).

Mary and Joseph not only repeated these words to their child, but they showed in their lives what it meant to love God and to love others.

This is not to deny that, even while a child, Jesus often surprised his parents with insights into God’s working, that came, not from human teaching, but from his Father in heaven. As little Jesus grew, we believe that even as a child, Jesus became aware that he had a special relationship with his heavenly Father.

And that is why, when Jesus as a lad of twelve sat among the teachers in the Temple asking questions, he amazed them with his understanding and his answers (Luke 2.47).

Mary and Joseph guided Jesus through childhood, and the teen years, and into adulthood.

Joseph taught Jesus the woodworkers’ trade. And when Joseph died—apparently sometime before Jesus’s public ministry—Jesus continued to work as a carpenter and help his mother in her responsibilities for his younger brothers and sisters.

Our purpose today is to look with you at the character of Mary and Joseph, and see what these exemplary people might teach us.

I. First, let’s talk about Mary, our Lord’s mother.

A. Luke introduces us to Mary with these words:

The angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.”

But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.

The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David.

He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”

Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?”

The angel said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God. …”

Then Mary said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.”

B. Mary was especially dear to God. The angel calls her “Favored One.”

Jewish girls married young. Mary was probably a teen-ager, but she was now destined by God for a role in the history of salvation that would be the greatest privilege and the greatest responsibility that any human could be given.

Mary was perplexed. So the angel explained how this would come about.

This miraculous pregnancy confronted Mary with a big problem. She was pregnant, and she was unmarried. Who would believe her story?

I suppose—overwhelmed by the problems she would face—she could have declined the honor. But she made this magnificent response: “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word,”

Mary accepted God’s mission for her with humility, obedience, and faith.

C. The next thing we read is that Mary set out on a long journey to see a relative of hers, Elizabeth, who was also pregnant with a miraculous child.

Maybe, facing all the talk that her unexpected pregnancy would cause, Mary chose to get out of town and seek the counsel and support of this godly relative.

Anyway, Mary journeyed many miles from her home in Galilee, through Samaria, and into the hills of Judah to see Elizabeth.

And when she arrived at Elizabeth’s house, Elizabeth greeted her enthusiastically: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me?”

Then Elizabeth said, “Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.”

When Elizabeth emphasized Mary’s faith, she indicated that Mary had a choice whether to accept this responsibility. And being woman of faith, she obeyed.

We don’t know whether Mary was pretty or plain. We don’t know whether she had a brilliant mind—or whether she had great spiritual insight. We don’t know whether she had lots of friends, or whether she was shy. But we can be sure that she was a thoughtful girl—good and kind and loving.

D. Generally, in the Bible it is in response to faith that God does his mighty works. When Elizabeth said, “Blessed is she who believed…,” Elizabeth bore witness that it was because of Mary’s faith that this great event came to pass in this way—the incarnation of the Son of God.

When we consider the splendor of the Incarnation, we can believe that Mary’s faith was great indeed. Elizabeth saw the grace that came to Mary, and she saw Mary’s faith that made her fit for the grace that God bestowed on her.

II. Now we come to Joseph. Joseph also had a role to play in the story of redemption.

A. Joseph shows up in the Gospel of Matthew. Luke is Mary’s story. Matthew is Joseph’s story.

Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly.

(Although they were not yet married, because they were betrothed, they were considered already husband and wife. Joseph would need to dismiss her to break the engagement. Not willing to put her to any more shame, Joseph resolved to do this privately. Joseph was disappointed; Joseph was perplexed, but he was tender-hearted, and he wanted to do the right thing.)

But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” …

When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife, but had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son, and he named him Jesus.

B. So Joseph also got a visit from an angel, but with him it was in a dream. From the angel, he received welcome news. And Joseph obeyed.

Evidently, Joseph was the decision-maker in the family. When King Herod set out to kill the baby Jesus, the angel appeared again to Joseph, and Joseph took his little family to Egypt.

And later when King Herod died, the Lord appeared again to Joseph and told them they could return to Bethlehem. But when he learned that one of Herod’s unsavory sons was ruling over Judea, Joseph decided to take Mary and the baby to Nazareth, where Jesus would grow up.

C. I think that God chose Joseph to be Jesus’s human father because God knew that Joseph was a humble, obedient, believing man.

Joseph appears only one more time in the gospel story. When Jesus was 12, the family went to the Temple in Jerusalem, and it was there that Jesus got separated from his parents when they started back home to Nazareth. When his parents missed Jesus, they went back to Jerusalem and searched all the likely places where the boy might be and found him in the Temple among the teachers, asking his questions.

But here again it is Mary who gets the speaking part. She says, “Son, why have you treated us like this? Look, your father and I have been searching for you in great anxiety.”

We can be sure that Joseph also had something to say about this distressing event.

I think that one reason why we don’t have any quotations from Joseph in our gospels is that the reminiscences come from Mary. If, as we believe, Joseph had died sometime before Jesus began his ministry, Luke and Matthew wouldn’t have been able to learn from his memories. So they had to rely on Mary’s memories for the story.

One other feature of Matthew’s gospel shows Joseph’s importance. Matthew begins his gospel with a long genealogy that ties the story of Jesus to Old Testament history. But he doesn’t trace Jesus’s descent through Mary, as we might expect. Matthew begins his gospel by tracing Jesus’s descent from Abraham, through David, and finally through Joseph—Jesus’s foster-father.

Abraham was favored at the beginning of the line because he was a person of faith who obeyed. Joseph was chosen at the end of the line because he was also a person of faith who obeyed.

Genetically, Jesus was not Joseph’s son, but Joseph was the human father God chose for his Son, our Savior.

D. God didn’t choose a ruler to serve as father for his Son. He didn’t choose a rabbi. He chose a humble working man—a carpenter. But he chose a godly man.

I like it that Mary’s role in the story overshadows Joseph’s. I think Joseph was all right with that. Joseph and Mary were both devoted people. They were the people who guided Jesus through infancy, childhood, and adolescence, and early adulthood. All they aspired to was to be faithful to that which God had entrusted them with.

CONCLUSION

When we think of Christmas, both Mary and Joseph fade into the background. Because the Christmas story is about Jesus—the human baby who came into the world as God incarnate to show us the glory of the Father.

I like it that we don’t have a lot of detail about either Mary or Joseph. Mary and Joseph didn’t crave fame; they were servants. A wise teacher said, “No Christian ought to be ambitious of anything but to fill as unobtrusively as possible the place in life which God has given him” (James Denney, on 1 Thessalonians 4:11, in The Expositor’s Bible). Mary and Joseph unobtrusively filled the place God gave them.

The way God chose to give his Son to the world is instructive. He chose two ordinary, working people, people who were examples to us of faithfulness, obedience, and humility.

And that is a lesson for us at Christmas time.