Escape to Egypt

[0:00] You can look across at somebody else's Bible or if you'd like a Bible from the shelf.! I'm sure Pete will supply one or two if you need it because you just help it to be helpful! So you can see where I'm trying to go this morning and what I'm trying to speak about.

[0:19] So we're going to come and hear what God says about Jesus. Let's ask for his help. Heavenly Father, we need our eyes opening. We need our hearts opening so that we can see wonderful things about Jesus Christ out of your word. Please will you go over and beyond the speaker and even the hearers and you yourself be our teacher and to show us the glories and goodness of Jesus and what it is to be one of his people. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.

[1:09] Well, it is about Jesus. That's what the Bible is all about and particularly the Gospels which we have read to us. What is your picture of Jesus? We're reading Matthew's Gospel and he has a definite agenda as the sort of picture we have of Jesus. But what is your picture of him? We've had all the Christmas things and the child born in the stable surrounded by shepherds and perhaps animals and perhaps wise men, although I don't think the story really gives us reason to think that they're all there at the same time. And maybe mixed in with that is Santa. And it all becomes a bit of a fairy story and a bit of a harmless, nice fairy story. Is Jesus to you a figure in a children's book or some sort of pale figure looking rather western, although of course he wasn't western, was he? A bit distant and certainly irrelevant. Is that the picture you have of Jesus? Because Matthew would be appalled at that and he would say that's really not the Jesus who really exists. And he wants to press on us this thought of a forever king who rules the world, who makes the cosmos new, who addresses justice, righteousness, evil at the deepest possible level and who saves his people from their sins.

[2:50] That's the sort of Jesus that Matthew wants to present to us. And in this part of the chapter, we're going to be looking at chapter 2 verses 13 to 23. He wants to not only tell us that Jesus is the Messiah, but to add another set of levels and layers to our understanding of Jesus, which is actually quite mind-stretching and relevant personally to people. And I'm going to try and persuade us of that this morning. So shall we look back at where we've got to so far? Because it is all part of a continuous narrative. The wise men's story was about dodgy foreigners. These magi, we don't really know much about them. They're important people, but we don't know much more about that. They come to Jesus via a special star. The star really takes them so far. Then they have to go to the scriptures to find

[3:52] Jesus. Matthew has his agenda. He says it right at the beginning. This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David. And in 1.16 he says, Jesus who is called Messiah. And in verse 17 he says, from the exile to the Messiah. And by emphasizing that, or repeating it, he's emphasizing, this is my thesis. This is what I want to persuade you of, that Jesus is the Jewish Messiah.

[4:22] And the wise men search carefully and they find him. And the keynotes of what happens are the worship that the wise men bring and the great joy, actually. They're exceedingly overjoyed by this.

[4:38] And when we looked at it last time, we could sort of personalize that and say, that could be our story too, that compared with the Jewish people who are the family of Jesus, we are outsiders, and we're the dodgy foreigners who can come to Jesus through all sorts of different means, but focusing in on the scripture and come to be his worshippers too. And another thing that this story brought us to last time was this rather unpleasant fact, a stark fact, that the baby king already has enemies who use lies and hate to kill him, to get rid of him. So that's what we got to last time.

[5:28] And in this bit of the story, this is the escape to Egypt. Matthew's been insisting that Jesus is the Messiah. And he now wants to add to our understanding some more layers of richness to see something of the greatness of Jesus. And one of the things that is the keynote here is fulfillment. And I'll just point it out to you in verse 15. Can you see there it says, and so was fulfilled. And in verse 17, it says, and so was fulfilled. And in verse 23, it says, so was fulfilled. So fulfillment is something that's going on here. Fulfillment of the God-given scriptures around Jesus. It's not just prophesying floods or the outcome of the American election or something like that. Fulfillment around Jesus.

[6:24] So I'll just do it in two helpings. As I go through the story itself, just make sure we've got the idea of the story. It's always worth doing it carefully so we don't miss anything. And then I'd like to focus in on the fulfillment aspect of it and try and lead us into that. So we'll go through the story and then we'll look at the fulfillment. So let's go through the story first of all. So verse 13 says, when the wise men had gone, when the magi had gone, there's a behold, there are some beholds that don't get translated. Behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. Get up, he said, and you'll notice Joseph has to get up several times in this. Get up, take the child and his mother, it's always that way around, the child and his mother, and escape to Egypt and stay there until I tell you. For Herod is going to search for the child to kill him. There's various killings going on, different words in each case, to destroy the child here. So I'll put it up as a picture.

[7:34] The magi have gone, behold, an angel appears in a dream and says, escape to Egypt. So there's the child and the child and the child. That's the first thing that happens. So first thing is you must escape.

[8:01] Okay, let's do the next verse. Verse 14 and 15. So he got up, he was told, was he told to get up? Yeah, he was told to get up and he gets up. He takes the child, he took the child and his mother, you notice it's that way around, child and his mother, by night, during the night and left for Egypt until the death of Herod. So Joseph got up, do we get him getting up, taking the child and his mother, he goes at night to Egypt. I don't know how many miles it was, but it's a pretty long journey. He goes from Bethlehem to Egypt until the death of Herod. And at that point, Matthew says there's a fulfillment.

[8:48] We'll come to the fulfillment in due course, but he says, and so was fulfilled something. We'll come back to the something. Okay, with me so far? Let's look at the next verses, 16 to 18. When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, the words means mocked or made fun of, belittled. When Herod realized he'd been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious and gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had carefully learned from the Magi. The two years sort of gives us an indication that the Magi were not operating at exactly the same night as the shepherds. There might even be a two-year gap because Jesus is not referred to as a baby but a child. So just putting it up again, there's Herod who feels he's been mocked. He's angry and he's sent, and this time the word for kill is sort of lift away, and he's going to kill all the boys who are less than two years old, two years and under. So here's the poor little chaps and they all get killed. And it's a very sad thing, so I've put some tears on there. Awful, awful thing. And there's something fulfilled, and we'll come to the fulfillment in a moment. Okay, still with me? Let's look at the next bit of the story. After Herod died, there's another behold in here. Behold, this always seems to have a behold when there's an angel. I guess it's because it's a bit of a shock. Behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream, so there's another dream here, to Joseph in Egypt and said, get up, so there's another get up, take the child and his mother, you'll notice it's that way around, and go to the land of Israel for those who are trying to take the child's life are dead. So he got up. He's doing a lot of getting up, isn't he? He took the child and his mother, it's that way around, as you notice. Went to the land of Israel, but I'll stop at that point, because that's as far as we go. So Joseph's in Egypt, he hears that Herod has died, and there's an angel and a dream, and the angel says, get up, take the child and his mother, and go to the land of

[11:22] Israel. So that's where he's heading now. But there's two parts in this. He hears, and this is the quote, where are we? For those who are trying to take the child's life are dead, or it literally says they who are dead who are trying to take the soul of the child, or the life of the child.

[11:44] And the next part says this, 21 to 23, so he got up, took the child and his mother, went to the land of Israel, but when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea, in the place of his father, Herod, he was afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream, and there's a special word for being warned, which has cropped up at some times before. I think the wise men were warned in a dream in verse 12. Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee, so that's up north, and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth, and there's another fulfillment. So I'll put this on the screen. He got up, took the child and his mother to the land of Israel. He heard that Herod had been replaced by Archelaus. I might say this later, but archa means sort of chief, laos means people. So this person has the very modest title of number one of the people. Seems a bit big-headed to me. So Archelaus is king, and Joseph is frightened, and he has a warning from a dream in an angel, an angel in a dream, and he goes up north to Galilee, to Nazareth. Okay, and we're also told that there's a fulfillment.

[13:12] Okay, so that's the elements of the story. You've got it quite clear, and at various points there's something that's fulfilled. Now before we go on to the fulfillment, it's worth sort of pondering what a strange set of providences these are. It involves the removal of Joseph and Mary and the child and his mother. They go various places. It involves this horrible, the slaughter of these poor little boys. It involves this wicked, cruel king. And you think, couldn't God have got rid of Herod earlier? I mean, he seems to survive. He does die, but why didn't God arrange for him to die before he had the idea of killing all these children?

[14:08] God waited however many years it was. Then he killed him. Why did he wait? And couldn't God have protected the child some other way? He had angels. Couldn't he have sent an angel so that when the soldiers came to the door of Joseph's house, the angels stood in the way or blinded the soldiers or deceived them and they went to the next house? Why couldn't that have happened? God uses escape, run away. He uses geography, make sure there's a big distance between you and the danger, and dreams and angels. It's a curious mixture, isn't it? That's what God did. And couldn't that slaughter be prevented? You know, couldn't angels have stopped it all happening? And I have no answer to that. I have no answer to that. Was it right for Joseph to be fearful to go back to Bethlehem?

[15:07] Shouldn't he have said, well, I'll go and God will protect me? No, he feared and an angel came and said, you're right, you need to get out and go up north and you'll be safe. So if you think about it, it's a peculiar set of things that God orchestrated, isn't it? And you might say, well, why did he do it like that?

[15:26] You know, if I'd been in charge, I would have made sure Herod got nowhere near those children, I would have had him killed earlier, and et cetera, et cetera. And I suppose we just have to say, well, there are questions like this. We don't know the answer. God is working his purposes out.

[15:47] And despite our questions, and in the end, we just have to say, well, God knows what he's doing. Is that right? We just have to say that. Why did God let that happen? Why did God do it that way?

[15:59] Why he could easily have, da, da, da. You say, well, I don't know. But I do believe God does the right thing. And I do believe he works it all together for good. And I do believe he has my best interests at heart. And I just have to rest in that. Is that right? Yeah. Okay, well, let's look at the fulfillment. I've been thinking about this. I've been listening to somebody on the podcast talking about it, and I'm still getting my head around it. Fulfillment. The word is not a difficult word.

[16:36] It's a sort of word for fill. This was filled. So was filled. And we've just got fill and fill up. And that seems fairly simple. But the more you think about it, the more there is to try and get your head around the way that Matthew uses this. And of course, he's authorized by Christ to use the word this way, because this is gospel scripture. So let's have a little think. I've got a few ideas to put into our heads the sort of seeds of the idea of fulfillment. So one very obvious fulfillment would be something like a promise. So here are my plans to build you a dog kennel.

[17:21] And this is something I'm going to do in the future. I'm being quite explicit. This is referring to the future. I'll build you a dog kennel. And there is the kennel that I built you. So the plans are fulfilled. The promise has been kept. That's a fulfillment thing. I was talking about the future.

[17:37] I was quite explicit. And now I've done it. So I've moved from promise and plan to action and accomplishment. That's fairly straightforward, isn't it? There are parts of the Bible where something is explicitly promised for the future, and God does it. So fulfillment.

[17:54] Now then, filling something. So I don't think it's a very good drawing of a balloon, but it's a sort of half full balloon, and then a nearly full balloon, and then a bursting full balloon.

[18:09] Things in the Bible that get filled, they start in a small way, maybe like when, now who was it? Jacob was at the house of God, Bethel, and went to sleep on one stone and saw a ladder. And that started.

[18:29] And then you get the house of God as being a tent, which is a bigger thing. That's the house of God. And then you get the temple, which has got many stones and is the house of God. And there's a sort of filling up of the idea of fuller and fuller and fuller, until the fullest of that is Jesus, in whom the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily. So there's a movement of fulfillment like that, like blowing up a balloon. Or this one, which is perhaps a little bit more difficult to get one's head around. The idea from something that already exists, without a promise of the future, but it already exists, to the fullest possible expression of it. So what's the fulfillment of a kite? So I'm, don't answer it, because I'm going to answer it. A kite is something that flies in the air. How could, it doesn't say, I will promise to build you a kite. There's no promises attached to it, it just is a thing. But what would be the fulfillment of that? The biggest possible version of it, I'll put a picture of the wonderful, it's an Airbus 380, isn't it? Operated by Emerus. Fantastic machine. But I'm saying there's a sort of sense in which the fulfillment of a kite is an Airbus 380. Wonderful, a fullest possible expression of what it is to fly in the air. It's even got people in it. Amazing. Now, I've got a couple more things of fulfillment.

[19:54] A pattern. In Greek, a pattern is a typos, from which we get the English word type. And if you've grown up in churches, you will probably have heard people talking about types. You think, if you haven't grown up in church, you'll think a type means a guy. You know, some type with a black beard was walking down the road. It doesn't mean that. It means, or type is what you do on a typewriter. Anybody know what a typewriter used to be? Yeah. Yeah. But it doesn't mean any of those things. It means a pattern. A typos is a type, a pattern. So there's a pattern. Just a sort of squirly pattern. But you could do things with that pattern. You could sort of make it two-dimensional and put it on its side. Or you could stretch it out. And you're taking the same pattern and just doing stuff with it. And the Bible actually uses the idea of types, patterns that get repeated with variations. And usually moving in the direction of bigger and better and fuller.

[21:05] Please notice that the type, it never had a future thing attached to it as a promise, like the plans to make the dog kennel. It just was. But you can find it again, bigger and better.

[21:19] And this too is a movement from the type to its fulfillment. Let me give you another idea. A movement from shadow to substance. So there's a picture. I hope it makes sense. There's a person, there's the sun casting a shadow, and that's the shadow.

[21:41] The Bible talks about shadows. The shadow is the vague thing. It's not the real thing, but it's there. And the solid real thing is the body. That's the actual, that's the real thing.

[21:59] And this is the shadow that it casts. And you might like to think of, in the Bible, shadows are cast backwards in time from the Christ, who is the real thing. Shadows are cast backwards in time to all sorts of things in the Old Testament. So, for example, in Colossians, he says that the Jewish calendars and the Jewish feasts are a shadow of the things to come. And the reality, the real thing, is the Christ. Which, of course, is why we shouldn't get too tied up with Jewish feasts and festivals, because they are meant to point us to the real thing, which is Christ. And we shouldn't be sort of going back to the shadow stuff. Okay, so I've given you some ideas about fulfillment, and I hope they'll help us as we come and look at these particular examples. And you can join in with this. So, thinking this time of patterns, I'll put the squirrely pattern on there.

[23:02] In the first few verses, we have a cruel king who fears the rising generation, and who kills babies, and there's one particular baby that escapes. That's the pattern. Anybody like to suggest where that pattern has been seen before? In the Bible. Moses in the bulrushes. And who was the king that was trying to kill him? Pharaoh. So, we're in Egypt. We've got Pharaoh. He's trying to kill.

[23:37] He tries to kill all the babies, yes. Moses escaped by being put into a Moses basket. I suppose it wasn't called a Moses basket at that point. And so, there's a, what you'd say, a typology, a type here, a pattern.

[23:54] And then, as the pattern crops up in Matthew, who is the Moses figure? When the pattern crops up in Matthew, who is the part of the pattern that corresponds to Moses?

[24:10] Moses. No. Moses. The Moses is the baby that escapes. Jesus. So, there's a likeness between Jesus and Moses. And who in the pattern, as it crops up in Matthew, is the Pharaoh figure?

[24:31] Herod. So, we've got a fulfillment of a pattern. And it's ironic because the king of the Jews, Herod, becomes the wicked Pharaoh figure. And the Moses figure is Jesus. And it's a pity that we do these sort of things at Christmas and then stop. Because Matthew is putting in place a typology of Jesus as the new Moses. And if we were to go a bit further, we'd see him develop this.

[25:02] What things is Moses famous for? You'll have to say a bit louder because I won't be able to hear otherwise. Moses is famous for various things. Ten Commandments.

[25:18] Rescue. Rescue. Yep. What journey did the people take under Moses? Exodus. The Exodus. The Exodus. From Egypt, bonded in Egypt to the Promised Land. Those are the big Moses things, aren't they? And in this issue of types, we wonder if this same pattern is repeated in Jesus, bigger and better. And of course, the answer is yes. So, let me just see what I'm going to say next.

[25:49] I'll let you do this. Where did Moses go to get the Ten Commandments? Mountain. Which mountain was it? Mount Sinai. So, he goes up the mountain and gets the law.

[26:05] Did Jesus do anything similar? Sorry, I'm not catching all of this. Is that right?

[26:18] Mount of Temptation. There's the Mount of Temptation, yes. Calvary is a mountain, yeah. Transfiguration. Yes. Well, I was going to go with the Sermon on the Mount because he goes up the mountain and gives a new law, as it were. You know, he talks about that you have heard it written, but I say to you.

[26:38] So, there's a strong Moses likeness there. And I think somebody mentioned he led the people, Moses led the people out of bondage. And of course, Jesus does that in a bigger and better way.

[26:53] Moses led the people from the sort of physical bondage of chains and slavery and zero-hours contracts. To make pyramids. Jesus leads his people and he leads them into the Promised Land. Jesus delivers his people from the slavery to Satan and sin and brings us safe home to glory.

[27:18] So, it's the pattern, but it's repeated bigger and better in Jesus. He leads people out of bondage and gives them a new way of life, like the Sermon on the Mount.

[27:28] And just to bring that thought to a conclusion, in Hebrews, this comparison is made between the Moses and Jesus. And he boils it down to this. Both of them are in the house of God. But Moses is a servant in the house of God. And Jesus is a son in the house of God. And he would say, if the son sets you free, then you are free indeed. This is the liberty that Jesus brings. And I'll just boil it down to this point.

[28:10] Moses set people free, but Jesus does it better. If the son sets you free, you are free indeed. And by God's grace, we are free to live.

[28:22] We are free to enjoy. We are free to give. We are free to receive. We are free to hope. We are free to be the people that God wants us to be.

[28:33] We are set free from the bondage of sin and brought into the light of Jesus Christ. And there's a freedom there which we should be grateful for. And may we all know it. Amen.

[28:43] Let's come on a little bit more of the fulfillment. So the pattern, let me just see where am I going with this. Yeah, so the pattern of Exodus is the experience of the people of Israel in Egypt.

[28:59] The people went down and became a nation in slavery. And God said, I'm going to, if you want to look at it in Exodus 4, 22, 23, please feel free to do so.

[29:14] This is what God said in the Exodus. Exodus 4, 22 and 23. Say to Pharaoh, this is what the Lord says, Israel is my firstborn son, and I told you, let my son go, so that he may worship me.

[29:39] But you refuse to let him go, so I will kill your firstborn son. The Exodus is in many ways a story of firstborn sons. And God says of his people Israel, that people is my firstborn son.

[29:52] Let my son go, that he may serve me. And that is the fundamental of the life of Israel as she was meant to live it.

[30:04] It was meant to be looking back on what God had done. And if you like to turn to Hosea chapter 11, you'll see the prophet reflecting back on what God did.

[30:23] I'll give you a moment to find Hosea 11 because I was struggling to find it myself. It might be on page 908 or something like that. If you look at it there, he says, when Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.

[30:41] But the more they were called, the more they went away from me. They sacrificed to the bales, they burned incense to images, et cetera. It was I who taught Ephraim to walk, taking them by the arms, but they did not realize it was I who healed them.

[30:57] I led them with the cords of human kindness, with ties of love. To them I was like one who lifts a little child to the cheek and bent down to feed them. So it's saying, I rescued my people from Egypt.

[31:10] It was like being a dad to a little toddler. I love this little one and I taught this little one to walk and I held them and I cuddled them and I loved them and now look what's happened.

[31:26] That's what it's saying, isn't it? It was meant, Israel was just meant to be grateful and she wasn't. She was meant to live life with thankfulness that God had done this for us.

[31:42] and it doesn't really need any further explanation than that. I found a page on the internet where a guy was talking about gratitude as the basis of life with God and a philosopher said, I think, therefore I am.

[32:02] And the writer said, wouldn't it be better to say, I thank, therefore I am. The deep reality of being human is not so much that I can think but that I can thank.

[32:15] That I can realise when somebody's done something for me and I can just be grateful to that person and I can think what God has done for me and I can just live a lot of gratitude.

[32:25] I thank, therefore I am. But of course, this is where Israel exactly failed. When Israel was a child, I loved him and out of Egypt I called my son. That's the quote.

[32:36] That's the original. And Matthew is saying that that is fulfilled. Let's just go back to Matthew. So we've got to verse 15.

[32:48] And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet, out of Egypt I called my son. And so this is a fulfilment. That was the thing back in the days of Exodus.

[33:01] out of Egypt I called my son Israel. And he says, now this is fulfilled now. And this is fulfilled in Jesus and his family coming out of Egypt back into the land of Israel.

[33:19] And if you think about it, it's quite a peculiar way of saying something that's been fulfilled, isn't it? But that's what he says. There's a fulfilment here. Out of Egypt I called my son.

[33:30] I think what he's doing is this. He's saying, that is summing up what I did for my people Israel. And here is my real son, my supreme son Jesus.

[33:46] And he has exactly the same experience as Israel. And if we were to go through Matthew's Gospel, we would find him showing that the experience of Israel gets lived out in Jesus.

[34:03] Better, bigger, more wonderful, where and where Israel fails, Jesus succeeds. If I say to you the number 40, would that strike up anything as regards Israel and as regards Jesus?

[34:20] So 40 years in the desert being tempted and tested and failing and 40 days, Jesus in the desert being tempted and succeeding.

[34:36] And it's fascinating that in all the quotes that Jesus gives when he's tempted, they all refer to Israel's experience in the desert. So there's a sense of Jesus being the real Israel.

[34:52] Jesus being the Israel that should have been but that ethnic Israel failed to be. Jesus as God's son is the true Israel. And there's lots of ways one could draw on that but let me just put it this way.

[35:07] The idea of Jesus summing up his people is a very precious idea. One person represents and wraps up the whole people.

[35:19] It's a little bit like the vine, isn't it? That we are the branches and we're joined to the vine. Christ sums up and includes all his people.

[35:31] We are one with him. We are in union with him. And all the blessings of the Christian life flow from that closeness and union we have with the Lord Jesus.

[35:43] That he and his people are really one. Stay connected to the Lord Jesus.

[35:53] Abide in me says Jesus and I will abide in you. And the one who abides in me will produce much fruit. That's something for us, isn't it? Let's go on a little bit further.

[36:06] So the next fulfillment is in verse 17. It is to do with Herod killing all these poor little boys and Rachel, the mother, weeping for the loss of their children.

[36:22] And I'll just stop to say that this is such a sad thing, isn't it? And I can't say any more than that, that it's a sad thing. And we asked earlier, why does God allow it?

[36:32] And we don't know the answer. But we do know, as it says, surely the judge of all the earth will do right. I think in the end we just have to stop at that point. God does the right thing, even though it might be hurtful and tearful and sad.

[36:48] But he's doing the right thing. Now having said that, the passage that is quoted in Jeremiah, and if you want to look it up, I believe it is Jeremiah 31.15.

[37:05] The passage that he quotes is actually not about children at all. It is, it's in Jeremiah 31.15. I think most of you would have a Bible, so I can ask you to look at it.

[37:21] Jeremiah 31.15. This is what the Lord says, a voice is heard in Ramah, mourning and great weeping, Rachel weeping for her children, refusing to be comforted because they are no more.

[37:32] This is what the Lord says, restrain your voice from weeping and your eyes from tears, for your work will be rewarded, declares the Lord. They will return from the land of the enemy, so there is hope for your descendants, declares the Lord.

[37:47] Your children will return to their own land. And what he's actually talking about is the return of people from exile. He's saying, you're sad because the enemy invaded and took your family away and that's a sad thing, but stop weeping, dry your eyes because they will return, they will return and they will come back home again.

[38:11] That's what the passage is actually about. And it's not so much a passage of sadness as saying, dry your tears because God is going to bring that all right again and he'll bring your descendants back home.

[38:25] So again, this is a sort of pattern thing that's being fulfilled, isn't it? The tears of the survivors of the exile in Babylon will have their tears dried and there will be a return.

[38:44] And of course, that is what happened. That's the original pattern. And as it's fulfilled, Matthew says, look, there are tears here in Israel but they will turn to joy because this is fulfilled in Jesus.

[39:01] In Jesus, the tears will be wiped away and there will be rejoicing because he will bring his people home. And in Jesus Christ, our tears are wiped away or will be wiped away at some point.

[39:16] And all will be made new and there's that precious promise about the world to come. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Now, the Bible doesn't say that the Christian life is non-stop joy and rejoice in happiness.

[39:33] Although there is great joy but it does say that one day whatever tears have been shed will be wiped away and forgotten and there'll be no more sin or sighing or death but everything will be made new and that's a fulfilment of that passage there and I think that's a great thing for us to look forward to.

[40:01] Amen. Indeed. let's come to this last fulfilment which is the most peculiar of them all actually. It's in verse 23 he went and lived in a town called Nazareth and so was fulfilled what was said in the prophets that he would be called a Nazarene.

[40:18] It's sort of a bit left field this a bit like the kite being fulfilled in an Airbus 380 whatever the number is. He will be called a Nazarene. This is a fulfilment.

[40:29] Well I already told you that Nazareth is a uncouth and rubbishy place you know in the I won't go down that way but it it was an uncouth and rubbishy place in the beginning of John's gospel somebody says Nazareth can anything good come out of Nazareth you know they don't talk properly they're ignorant they're you know uncouth and rubbishy and which chapter and verse refers to this which chapter and verse says he will be called a Nazarene and you could start looking at the front of your Bible now and read it all the way through looking for the verse that says he shall be called a Nazarene and you will not find it because there is no verse that says in so many words he will be called a Nazarene there are various things which are like word plays on that so a Nazarite might be a Nazarite was a particular servant of God in the Old Testament there were various

[41:39] Nazarites but perhaps the thing that Matthew has in mind when he says here's something that you know is fulfilled was back in the Old Testament times when the Babylonians invaded the tree of the royal family of David was cut down there's a tree stump cut down but there was a promise and this is a promise a future looking promise of a branch that will come up and I've copied and pasted from my dictionary so that you know I'm not pulling the wool over your eyes the word for branch is Nazarite it's written there as Netzer but it will be pronounced Nazar and maybe this is what Matthew has in mind he will be called Mr.

[42:35] Branch or Mr. Branchman because the promise was that a branch will spring up from the stump of the royal family of David and here in the most unlikely way will come life out of death he thought it was all finished but here is this branch springing up full of life and vigour a sprouting up of the royal family from an apparently dead stump in the most unlikely place he will be called Mr.

[43:08] Branchman he will be called a Nazarene putting together lots of things that prophets have said and putting it into this word play and here is a fulfilment and for Jesus to be a Nazarene is very very characteristic of the gospel and of the ministry of Jesus the king lives in this uncouth and rubbishy place and has a common accent because he's been brought up in Nazareth but he's still the king I guess he might even have suffered to agree some sort of racial prejudice or ethnic prejudice because he came from that part of the world and had that sort of accent but isn't it wonderful of the Lord Jesus that he was called a Nazarene that he didn't find identifying with rubbishy people from rubbishy places and bringing them into his family it was characteristic of him it's characteristic of the way he operates because as Paul says if you look around there's not many noble not many

[44:25] I can't remember how it goes not many wonderful by worldly standards but God chose the weak things of this world for his purposes and the things that are nothing to bring to nothing the things that are he chose people like us we're in a sense Nazareth people I mean Nazarenes and that is our Lord Jesus and I asked at the beginning what do you think of Jesus and I wonder whether you would see him as just a Nazarene an uncouth person an irrelevant person from a rubbishy place or whether you would see him as Matthew would tell us as the Lord of glory let's sing together let's sing this song of our relationship of believers to Jesus

[45:29] Jesus lover of my soul let me to your presence fly while the gathering waters roll while the tempest still is high hide me oh my saviour hide till the storm of life is past safe into the haven guide and receive my soul at last you oh Christ are all I want more than all in you I find raise the fallen cheer the faint heal the sick and lead the blind just and holy is your name I am all unworthiness false and full of sin I am you are full of truth and grace let's sing this closing song about the Lord Jesus Thank you.