Sermon Cloud

Map It's 70 miles from Nazareth in the north to Bethlehem in the south. No big deal with a car. We drove about 350 miles roundtrip yesterday for a family Christmas meal in Des Moines. But by foot, it was at least a week's journey. I don't know if you can see the map well enough to notice the topography, but it would've been a very difficult journey. They would've been going over small mountains. It would've been rocky, treacherous terrain. And it wouldn't have been very safe, either. The wilderness was full of bandits and robbers. Not an easy journey and the timing wasn't so great, either.
Dads, you can remember your wives in their final trimester. Imagine telling your 8 month pregnant wife. "Climb up on this donkey. We're going to go on a little week/week and a half trek through the mountains. And if we're lucky, we won't get mugged and left for dead.
If I were Joseph, I would've been ____. Right as my fiancé enters her final trimester, the high and mighty Roman emperor August (whom Jews would've despised anyway) decides it's time for a census. "I've gotta risk my life on this journey, just so you can better know how to tax me?" Imagine being stuck in the DMV for a week, with a pregnant wife, a stinky donkey while the guy next to you keeps trying to pick your pocket.
If I were Joseph, leading my wife's donkey along those treacherous Roman roads, I would've been saying some pretty unchristian things under my breath (or maybe not under my breath) about the Roman Government.
I'll be honest and admit I'd probably be saying some not so nice things about God, too. In fact, most of my anger would've been directed at God. There's no way Caesar Augustus is going to give any consideration to a pregnant peasant girl. But God should've known better?
We talked about this last Sunday. Mary is the first and only virgin in history to test positive on a pregnancy test. Why was she pregnant? Because with God, the impossible becomes possible. But why couldn't God have waited until after the census? The world's been waiting thousands of years for a Savior, what's another few months going to hurt? I'm sure Joseph was frustrated with God's timing.
And I'm sure Mary also had her questions about God's timing. A week on the back of a donkey gives you a lot of time to think. I wonder if she feared for the baby growing inside of her. She knew he would be a social outcast his entire life, simply because his mom got pregnant before she was married. And the same with her. The rumors and whispers would follow mother and son their entire life.
If God could send an angel to freak Joseph out and declare "I'm the reason she's pregnant and you're going to marry her anyway." Would it have been that hard for the messenger of God to show up on their wedding night and tell Joseph he needed to wait a little longer? It sure would've made things a lot easier for Mary and Jesus.
And you know what happened when Joseph and Mary finally got to Bethlehem. There was no place to deliver the baby. Every room in town was booked. The only way to get shelter was to bunk alongside the inkeeper's animals. We like to imagine a cozy barn, but it was likely just a cave.
Because of God's timing, Mary and Joseph found themselves in a cold, smelly cave a week's journey away from home and family. As Joseph was trying to find an unsoiled piece of cave floor for his fiancé to give birth, I'm sure he was praising God for God's incredible timing.
I'm pretty confident I wouldn't have handled it well if I'd been Joseph, because when I've faced situations similar to Joseph, I didn't handle it the greatest.
Three years ago I was driving a truck for Fed Ex. As you can imagine, this is not the greatest time of year to work in the shipping industry. But generally I enjoyed the job, but I hoped to have no long-term future with Fed Ex. My job at Fed Ex was simply a way for Erin and me to make it financially while I worked toward God's calling on my life to start a church here in Gardner. While I had a pretty strong hope that I wouldn't be driving a truck forever, I certainly had my doubts.
We'd had our first informational meeting about 3 months earlier. We had about 12 adults at that first meeting. We started meeting for Bible studies on Sunday nights and by December of 04, we had maybe 15 adults coming to those meeting. We'd set out an offering basket during the bible studies and talk about how their giving was going to help get the church started. But you can imagine that with just a handful of people, the offerings weren't too big. And I started to wonder whether we'd ever be able to pay rent on a building, let alone have me be a full-time pastor.
The plan all along had been for me to work another job during that first year we spent getting ready to open our doors to the community in September of 05. But being the obsessively worrisome, impatient person that I am I started to freak out about the future. What kind of pastor am I going to be if I have to spend 25 hours a week driving a truck? How am I going to have time to study? To do bible studies with people, to visit a family in the hospital. And I started to not only worry, but to get angry.
I looked across town at a church plant who had gotten a lot of money from the denomination and wondered why I couldn't be like that guy, just working one job. Before graduating seminary, I'd talked with a large church in the area about being their evangelism pastor, but just knew that wasn't the right thing. But then I saw a friend from seminary get hired as their youth pastor and as I was spinning out in the snow trying to do my route, I couldn't help but think, "boy, that seems like a cushy job."
But the crazy thing that I'm not proud about was that even while I was working at Fed Ex, I had plenty of time to prepare for our Bible studies. They'd let me off early to meet with families. Things were working out but I kept worrying about the future.
When dispatch would ask me to stay on road longer to cover another route, I'd get so mad. Not because I was missing anything that particular night, but I worrying about the future. What if 6 months from now I'm still working at Fed Ex, a church family is in the hospital and I miss visiting hours because I'm covering another route. Josh Vance ran the route just north of me and he'd tell you, I had a bad attitude that whole year we worked together. First 4 years I was fine, I'm not too proud of the 5th year. Although maybe it was just working with Josh that put me in a bad attitude.
But why was I frustrated? Because I was scared of the future. Things weren't going the way I thought they should. I wasn't convinced that God knew what he was doing. If God could adjust his plans to my timeline, things would be a lot easier.

And I'm sure Joseph and Mary were feeling the same way. I wonder how Joseph would've felt if he'd known the Apostle Paul would write these words a few decades later. Galatians 4:4-5 When the right time came. I'm sure it didn't feel like the right time to Joseph and Mary, but looking back through history, it seems that God did know what he was doing after all.
Centuries before Jesus' birth, God made some promises about the Messiah. And through Joseph and Mary, he fulfilled those promises.
First of all, God promised the Messiah would be born to a virgin. Isaiah 7:14 For anyone to believe that Mary was truly a virgin, she had to be unmarried. Because in those days, the marriage ceremony wasn't complete until the couple consummated their marriage. Seriously, after the vows, the couple was ushered into a private room while the crowd waited right outside the door. When they emerged from the room with a smile on their face, the marriage was complete and the dancing began. And I thought I was nervous on my wedding night.
If Joseph and Mary had been married, how would we really know that Jesus had no earthly father? God did know what he was doing.
God also promised that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem. Micah 5:2 What a funny coincidence that a decree by Caesar Augustus would result in this promise being fulfilled. Maybe God's timeline does work out.
We could go on and on with OT promises being fulfilled by the birth of Jesus. But there were some other amazing things going on in history. I'll give you a couple historical terms.
The first term is Pax Romana. This phrase means "the peace of Rome." About 25 years before the birth of Jesus Julius Caesar was assonated, which sent Rome into a civil war. Incidentally, just before he was assonated, Julius Ceasar was rumored to have asked, "E tu, Brute?"
But when Caesar Augustus rose to power, Rome began two centuries of unprecedented peace and unprecedented wealth. So with no wars to fight, Rome's armies built roads. Roads that united the entire Roman Empire. They even posted guards along the roads to protect travelers.
Rome also worked to unite their entire empire through the Greek language. Since the OT story of the Tower of Babel, it's the only time in history that the entire known world has been united by a common language.
Rome's peace also meant the Jewish religion received legal protection. Whenever Rome conquered a new group of people, they always allowed them to continue practicing their religion, as long as they added the new faith claim, "Caesar is Lord." But Jews refused. It took Rome decades to realize that no matter how many they intimidated, no matter now many they killed, the Jews would not worship Caesar. So the Jews became Rome's only exception to their law of Caesar worship. And just when Rome passes this law, Jesus is born. Roman law allowed Jesus to teach freely.
And because Christianity began as a movement within Judaism (Christians were Jews who believed Jesus to be the Messiah) Christianity received the same legal protection for it's first several decades.
And here's another historical term for you, Diaspora. The word literally means "dispersion." Just before Jesus' birth, Jews began to be leave Jerusalem and migrate all across the Roman Empire. And in 70 AD, there were some Jews who stupidly tried to overthrow Rome but Roman soldiers slaughtered them. And to add insult to injury, they destroyed the Jewish temple. The Jews fled Jerusalem for their lives.
And here's why it's significant for Christianity. Christianity began as a movement within Judaism. Christians were those who acknowledged Jesus as the long awaited Jewish Messiah. So when Jewish Christians began to do what Jesus told them to do, leave Jerusalem and take the message of Christianity all across the world, they received the same legal protection as other Jews.
They also had good, safe roads to travel across the Roman Empire. Because of the Diaspora, they found hospitable Jewish believers all across the world. And no matter what far-off country or city they traveled to, the people there spoke the same Greek language.
At just the right time, Jesus was born into the world. At a time in which his followers were able to spread his message of salvation all throughout the known world.
Two things we can know about God's timing. First of all, it's always perfect.
God isn't early and isn't late. It may not be according to our timetable, but God's timing is always perfect.
Secondly, God's timing is always purposeful. God is always working in our lives. He knows what he wants to accomplish in our lives. And in his wisdom and with his power, he makes it happen at just the right time.
Do you believe that? Can you believe that? We've got questions. Things don't seem right to us. We worry about the future. God isn't operating on our timeline. But can we trust him? Can we have the faith that trusts the God of impeccable timing?
Although I'm not proud of my attitude during that last year at Fed Ex, I sure am grateful now that I had to go through that. I am still so grateful for the privilege of being able to pastor full-time. I do not take that for granted. And I hurt for a couple pastors in Gardner who have to work other jobs and I hurt for them.
Our denomination in KC started a church plant right before TF and one right after TF, both of which got a lot of money, so the pastors didn't have to work another job. For whatever reason, those churches are closed now and we're still going. That year at Fed Ex solidified my resolve. We're going to do whatever it takes for us to become the church God wants us to be.
I'll still say it wasn't the easiest thing to be starting a church while driving for Fed Ex. But looking back, I know it was the right thing. I'm thankful for the experience and I'm thankful for God's timing. I guess he really did know what he was doing after all.

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