Created for Good Works: God's Answer to Your Dilemma

Introduction

This Sunday, Yves TARALLO steps into the pulpit with a clear theme: "Created for good works and to serve." A phrase that echoes Ephesians 2:10: "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we would walk in them." But before talking about works, the preacher will take us to contemplate the one who, first of all, said "yes" to an impossible mission: Joseph, Mary's husband.

The text for the sermon is Matthew 1:18-25, the account of Jesus's birth seen through Joseph's eyes. A man facing an impossible dilemma: his fiancée is pregnant, and he can't understand how. What should he do? Follow the law? Follow his heart? And what if, right when all your options seem bad, God had a completely unexpected answer for you?

Yves TARALLO offers this reading: Joseph's dilemma mirrors the great divine dilemma, and it points forward to the solution God devises for us: Jesus, Emmanuel, "God with us." It's by learning to trust that answer that you, in turn, can be set free to live out the good works for which you were created.

Outline of the message

1. Becoming like a little child to receive the Word

Before opening Matthew 1, the preacher quotes Matthew 18:3: "Most certainly I tell you, unless you turn, and become as little children, you will in no way enter into the Kingdom of Heaven." Why start there? Because no biblical message will bear fruit if we listen to it with a hardened, calculating, armored adult heart.

Yves TARALLO pauses on a photo he projects: a child who spontaneously comes to ease the pain of the one carrying the cross. We don't know if it's Jesus, we don't know who it is, but what matters is the gesture. The child doesn't analyze. He doesn't calculate. He sees suffering and acts. That's what a heart looks like when it welcomes the Word and lives it out.

Even before hearing Joseph's story, he invites you to position yourself like a little child before God: not coming with ready-made answers, but with a heart that waits for God to speak. It's from that posture that "good works" are born, not from our performance, but from our availability.

2. Joseph's dilemma: when every option seems bad

Matthew doesn't tell the story of Jesus's birth from Mary's side, the way Luke does. He tells it from Joseph's side. And the story opens on a catastrophe: Mary, his fiancée, is pregnant, and he had nothing to do with it.

The preacher takes time to explain the context. Jewish betrothal wasn't like our modern engagement. It was a commitment nearly as binding as marriage itself. Each partner still lived at home, cohabitation wasn't socially acceptable, but they were already legally bound. A breakup at that stage was called a divorce. And a pregnancy outside that bond amounted to adultery.

Joseph therefore finds himself facing a heart-wrenching choice, like something out of Corneille's play, where Rodrigue loves Chimène but her father has humiliated his own. A dilemma where no option is truly satisfying. Maybe you too have found yourself caught in such a vice at some point (in your family, your church, your work, your school, your relationships), a conflict between your emotions and your reason, between law and compassion. What should you do?

Joseph, the text tells us, is a righteous man. He refuses to expose Mary publicly, which would have put her at risk of being stoned. He finds the least bad of the human solutions: to divorce her quietly. Apply the law, yes, but discreetly, to limit the damage. A solution combining compassion and justice. Humanly speaking, a wise one. But God had planned a far more surprising outcome.

3. God's unexpected answer: the angel in the dream

"But while he thought about these things," the text says, an angel of the Lord appears to him in a dream. God uses this means with Joseph three times: to tell him to take Mary as his wife, to flee to Egypt when Herod wants to kill all the children, and to return to Israel after the king's death.

And what the angel says is even more surprising than his appearance: "Joseph, son of David, don't be afraid to take to yourself Mary, your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit." Imagine Joseph's shock, joy, and deep relief. Here was the answer to his dilemma, a solution only God could bring.

Yves TARALLO drives the point home: God still acts this way today, even if it isn't always as dramatic. If you're going through a crisis, a season of uncertainty, a dead end, look to God, seek his will. He can turn your dead ends into places of revelation, into places where his presence is made known.

Notice, in passing, Mary's wisdom. She said nothing to Joseph. She preferred to let God himself explain the situation. Because in his place, would he really have believed such a story coming from his fiancée's mouth? She showed wisdom by waiting for the answer to come from above. And the answer came.

4. The great divine dilemma: how can a holy God love sinners?

Joseph's dilemma, says the preacher, mirrors a far greater dilemma: the great divine dilemma. God is love. Therefore he wants to do us good, to shower us with blessings. But he is also perfectly holy and just. He cannot simply overlook our sins.

God finds himself, in a sense, in the same position toward us, sinners, that Joseph found himself in toward Mary. One possible answer would have been for him to "divorce us quietly," to keep a certain distance. That, in fact, is the answer most religions give: you can have a relationship with God, but since you're not up to the standard, you keep enough distance to avoid risking being struck down by his wrath.

But God chose another option, one far more compelling for anyone who doesn't want a distant relationship with him but longs for deep, intimate communion with him. Jesus is God's unexpected answer. By taking on himself the sins of his people, he opens the gate of heaven that had been closed by Adam's disobedience, while still satisfying God's justice.

Yves TARALLO offers an image: the doors of Notre-Dame de Paris, reopened to the public after long, careful restoration work. In the same way, the gates of paradise had been closed because of our sins. When Christ came to die for our sins, it was as if those gates opened once more, and God could pour out all his love with no obstacle left standing. Joseph was able to take Mary into his home. The Son of God can take us into his home, cherish us, bless us, show us his goodness, his compassion, his grace, all the riches of his kindness, and this in spite of our past.

5. Emmanuel: the human dilemma finds its answer in trust

Matthew interprets the virgin birth of Jesus as the fulfillment of a very old prophecy, given several centuries earlier by the prophet Isaiah, one of the two greatest prophets of the Old Testament: "Behold, the virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel," which is translated, "God with us" (Isaiah 7:14).

The historical context of this prophecy is Ahaz, king of Judah. A king who was supposed to know God, yet who trembles like a leaf because several kings have joined forces against him and are threatening to invade his capital. To face this threat, Ahaz makes an alliance with a rising power (Assyria) and counts on it to come to his aid. The prophet Isaiah comes to tell him: it is God you're supposed to trust in this kind of situation, before you trust human support. You may even ask for a sign if you want proof that God is with you.

Ahaz then finds himself facing a dilemma: accept the sign and let go of his very tangible alliance with Assyria, or keep placing his trust in the visible rather than in the invisible God. He chooses the visible. And history shows that the king of Assyria eventually turned against the king of Judah and invaded the country.

Joseph's dilemma mirrored the great divine dilemma. Ahaz's dilemma mirrors the great human dilemma: in whom do you choose to place your trust to be delivered from your fears? In the invisible God, by putting your faith into action? Or in your fragile human supports, more tangible, more visible, more material, but ultimately unworthy of trust?

Isaiah then tells the unbelieving king that God will still give him a sign, not an immediate one, but one for a distant future: a virgin will bear a son, who will be called Immanuel, God with us. This son will be the sign of God's presence in the midst of his people. The presence of a holy God in the midst of a sinful people, because it is precisely this Son who will make the people righteous.

How often, like Ahaz, do you choose bad options when facing a dilemma? Christ, through his sacrifice, wipes out your sins and transfers you into his kingdom. If you place your trust in him (as Joseph believed and obeyed the angel's word), Christ unites you to himself and clothes you with his perfect righteousness. Then God can take you to himself, without hesitation, just as Joseph took Mary into his home and loved her until death parted them. But with Christ, who has conquered death, it is not "until death do us part," it is into eternity.

6. "Get your house in order": God invites himself into your home

Toward the end of the message, Yves TARALLO returns to a simple image: when you're expecting a distinguished guest, what do you do? You tidy the house. You put everything in order. And he quotes Revelation 3:20: "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, then I will come in to him, and will dine with him, and he with me."

God wants to invite himself into your home today. Maybe he has something to tell you. One of the songs from the service said: "Get ready, tidy your house, tidy your room." That little phrase we say to children, God is whispering it to you too. Not because you have to be flawless before he comes in, but because the one inviting himself to your home is too precious for you to leave him at the threshold. He wants to dine with you. He wants to show you the fullness of who he is.

Here is the connection to today's theme: you are created for good works. But these good works are not, first of all, a checklist to complete. They flow out of communion, out of a God who comes to dine with you, who restores your trust, who frees you from your dilemmas by giving himself as the answer.

Key takeaways

1. Listen to the Word like a little child. Without a child's heart, the message slips past you. The kingdom opens to those who receive it without armoring themselves.
2. Your dilemma is not the end of the story. As with Joseph, the best human solution you can imagine may still be far from the one God is preparing.
3. God resolved his own dilemma in Jesus. He could have kept you at a distance; he chose instead to come and live with you. Emmanuel, "God with us."
4. When facing your fears, don't make Ahaz's choice. Don't stake your life on visible supports at the expense of the invisible God who has proven himself time and again.
5. Good works are born out of communion. You are created to serve, but it begins with opening the door to the one who is knocking.

Personal application

Take a moment before God and ask yourself honestly:

1. What dilemma am I carrying right now, a heart-wrenching choice where every option seems bad? Have I truly laid it before God, or am I "thinking about these things" all on my own, inside my own head?
2. Does my prayer resemble Mary's wisdom, waiting for God himself to explain the situation, or am I trying to convince others before listening to God?
3. Am I choosing, like Ahaz, the visible support at the expense of the invisible God? What "kings of Assyria" am I tempted to lean on today?
4. Am I keeping my distance from God, as though his holiness condemns me, when in fact the cross has precisely opened the door of his house to me?
5. What "good work prepared beforehand" (Ephesians 2:10) am I putting off today? Is there some concrete act of service where God is whispering to me: "tidy your room, I'm on my way"?

Verses cited

• Matthew 1:18-25: the birth of Jesus seen through Joseph and the angel's message.
• Matthew 18:3: "Unless you turn, and become as little children..."
• Isaiah 7:10-14: the prophecy given to King Ahaz: "The virgin shall conceive... they shall call his name Immanuel."
• Ephesians 2:10: "We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works."
• Revelation 3:20: "Behold, I stand at the door and knock."
• John 14:2-3: "In my Father's house are many homes."

Frequently asked questions

How does Joseph's story relate to the theme of "good works"?

Because the good works of Ephesians 2:10 are not, first of all, religious performance, but the response of a heart that has received grace. Joseph is the first to say "yes" to God's impossible mission: to welcome Mary, to raise Jesus. He becomes the model of someone who, having trusted God's word in his own dilemma, then allows himself to be used for God's work. Every good work begins with that same trust.

How can we recognize God's "unexpected answer" to a dilemma today?

Yves TARALLO doesn't promise visions of angels. He invites us to three postures: waiting on God in prayer, seeking his will in his Word, and staying open to outcomes you hadn't considered. The most humanly clever solution (like Joseph's quiet divorce) isn't necessarily the one God is preparing. His answer often arrives once you stop trying to manufacture it yourself.

What should we take away from the contrast between Joseph and Ahaz?

Two men, two dilemmas, two opposite responses. Joseph listens to God's word and takes Mary into his home: God comes to dwell among his people. Ahaz refuses God's sign and bets on Assyria: the power he leaned on eventually turns against him. The contrast puts a question in front of you: which does your own way of handling fear look like today, Joseph's faith or Ahaz's calculation?