You won't find tell of a king killing innocent children,
of a community devastated,
of Jesus' family having to flee as refugees.
But we're being reminded here that from the very beginning
of the life of Jesus, there was a cost to him
in becoming Emmanuel, God with us.
We're reminded that Jesus left the glory of heaven
and he had this very humble birth in the stable.
And from his earliest days,
there was a sense of spiritual opposition and battle
wherever Jesus was.
Now, given that the gospel writers are really selective
about what they tell us about the early years of Jesus.
So you read Luke and you read Matthew,
you don't discover very much.
We need to ask ourselves,
why does Matthew record this particular story?
I think it helps us to see two themes
that we can trace through Matthew's gospel.
We see Jesus at the center of a spiritual battle
and we see that Jesus fulfills the purpose and the plan of God.
So we're going to see how these things work out in our text.
First of all, we're going to think about Jesus and spiritual battle.
Now, boys and girls, I don't know if you've ever realized
how many of our favorite stories are about a battle
between the good guys and the bad guys.
So we can think about that from stories like the three little pigs.
They're the good guys.
The big bad wolf, he's the bad guy.
We can think about a story like Star Wars,
where there's loads of good guys, loads of bad guys.
But we are all in our hearts.
What we really want when we read these stories
is we want good to win, don't we?
We want the good guys to win.
We want the bad guys to be defeated.
There is this story of good and evil that we enjoy
because we want to see good win.
And that's really important to the story of Jesus.
Jesus is God's good and true king
and he's come to defeat all that is bad and all that is evil.
And so we find when we've read the first two chapters of Matthew,
we discover that the Christmas story is full of the supernatural.
And we discover that God is at work
and that God sends angels and the angels bring messages.
We find that Jesus comes by the power of God's spirit
to become Emmanuel, God with us.
But we also discover in this passage that the devil is active,
that there is spiritual attack, there's spiritual battle going on.
In fact, one way to read the Bible
is to read the Bible as the history of spiritual warfare.
We can go all the way back to the beginning of the Bible
when everything was perfect.
There was Adam and Eve, but then the snake came,
that the devil came in the serpent.
He came as the destroyer.
He came as the deceiver to pull Adam and Eve away
from trusting the word of God
to believing that God was holding back something good from them.
So begins the fall into sin.
And so we begin to see this battle of good and evil
that then plays out throughout the Bible history
and throughout the history of the world.
We see the devil often working through anti-God figures
to fight against, to destroy God's purposes and God's people.
Here in our story, who's the anti-God figure?
It's King Herod.
Read with me again what the angels say in verse 13.
The angel comes to Joseph,
get up, take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt.
Stay there until I tell you,
for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.
Herod has heard that God's promised king has come
and he wants to get rid of this king.
Verse 16.
When Herod realized that he'd been outwitted by the Magi,
he was furious and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem
and its vicinity who were two years old and under.
Here is a king who devastates a community
in order to hang on to power,
in order to try and get rid of God's king, Jesus.
Here is Herod killing, historians will tell us,
maybe between 20 and 30 innocent little baby boys
in order to hold on to power.
Actually, we discover this is quite in keeping
with Herod's character.
Herod, the king, killed three of his own sons
to make sure he could remain king,
killed 300 of his court officials
because he was worried about conspiracy.
Here is a man who will do anything to stay in power
so he wants to get rid of Jesus.
So when we read a passage like this,
we're reading a story of intense spiritual battle.
Herod is the human player,
but we discover that Jesus is in the devil's sights here.
If we can kill God's king, we can kill God's good purposes.
That is the way the devil seeks to operate.
So as we read the story,
we read with a sense of threat and urgency,
but we also saw that in this battle between good and evil,
God protects and saves his own son.
And he does it in a variety of different ways.
He uses the angels to deliver these messages
to keep Jesus safe.
He uses his own mother and father,
Joseph and Mary,
in order to keep Jesus safe.
But again, the question,
why does Matthew focus on these horrible events?
Why not move from his birth to his public ministry?
Well, it reminds us, doesn't it,
that from the very beginning,
the forces of darkness are lining up against Jesus.
And we see it as he begins his public ministry,
as Jesus is out in the wilderness.
He then is faced with the devil coming and tempting him.
We find as Jesus moves around in various communities,
engaged in his ministry,
that he's often confronted by evil spirits.
There is this sense of tension between good and evil.
And then we get to the cross, of course,
where we see the devil causing Judas to betray Jesus.
And we find the Jewish religious leaders
conspiring together to get rid of Jesus.
We find the Roman authorities agreeing to get rid of Jesus.
And so we've got this union,
this conspiracy of evil.
But at the same time,
we're being reminded that God is in control.
Herod is full of threat,
but Herod's threat fails.
Herod wanted to kill Jesus,
but notice twice in verse 15,
then verse 19,
we're told very simply after Herod died,
when Herod died.
Herod died,
Jesus still alive.
God's purpose continues.
And actually,
Herod's schemes,
the devil's schemes,
serve to fulfill prophecy.
So as Mary and Joseph and Jesus flee to Egypt,
so was fulfilled,
verse 15,
what the Lord had said through the prophet,
out of Egypt I called my son.
God is in control.
Even in the political situation,
Joseph and Mary and Jesus come back.
They're worried about Archelaus,
verse 22.
They go and move to Nazareth instead of to Judea.
And again,
that's fulfilling prophecy.
So think about this for Matthew's first readers.
What is he trying to say to them?
He's saying to them,
have courage.
God is in control.
God's purposes are accomplished.
As they begin to face trouble,
they are living as a Christian community.
Take heart.
God is in control.
At every point in the story of Jesus,
there is victory.
So here,
when Herod tries to destroy him,
he's kept safe.
When the devil comes to tempt Jesus,
he remains faithful.
He resists temptation by the power of God's word.
The demons confront him,
and he drives the demons out.
And then on the cross,
when it looked like Jesus was facing defeat,
we're told that that's the point
where Jesus wins a decisive victory,
that he defeats and disarms
the power of Satan and sin and death.
The eternal plan of God is accomplished.
So again,
the message from Matthew is,
take courage.
If your faith is in Jesus,
you're on the winning side.
There will be battle.
There will be opposition.
But just as Jesus won,
so if your faith is in Jesus,
so you are on the winning side.
Some points of application for us.
When we look around the world,
we see that spiritual battle
still rages on.
Maybe you saw on the BBC or elsewhere,
the reports on raids taking place
on some of the house churches in China.
Again, we're seeing a crackdown
from the government.
We're seeing members and ministers
being arrested.
We need to remember to pray
for our persecuted brothers and sisters in Christ,
but also to remember that God continues
to build his church,
even while facing opposition.
But that spiritual battle
doesn't just rage on in the world,
it also rages in our own hearts.
I was reminded of a quote this week
from C.S. Lewis's Screwtape Letters,
fictional conversations
between a senior devil Screwtape
and a junior devil Wormwood.
And one of the things
that Screwtape says is this,
it's funny how mortals always picture us
putting things into their minds.
In reality, our best work is done
by keeping things out.
So part of the spiritual battle,
part of what the devil wants to do
is he wants to, for example,
distract us
so we don't think about eternal things.
So we think about the goodness of God
we're so busy thinking about here and now.
He wants to keep things out
so that we can even come to church
and have religion,
but have it without Christ
and without salvation
and without the joy of the gospel.
That the devil would try and keep things
like a sense of guilt
and conviction of sin
out of our hearts and our minds
so we never repent
and turn back to God.
So there's this battle that's going on,
not just out there,
but also in our own hearts and lives.
As one Bible commentator says,
if we are determined
to get our own way at all costs,
we will go to any length
to eliminate all trace of Jesus
and his claims on our lives.
I wonder if that's our internal battle
just now,
trying to get rid of the claims of Jesus,
trying to shut him out.
But you know,
the battle also goes on
in Christian hearts too.
That yes, Jesus has won a victory
and yes, we are redeemed,
but still that battle still goes on.
One example of this,
just to make it practical for us,
is think about our attitude
towards, let's say, Bible reading.
So Jesus said,
anyone who loves me
will obey my teaching.
John 14, 23.
So there's a connection
between love for Jesus
and the word of God.
To lose interest in the Bible, therefore,
is to lose interest in God.
Now, as we as Christians
reflect on our own
spiritual life and experience,
either now or in the past,
I imagine most of us,
maybe all of us,
have had times when
reading the Bible was hard,
where it was the last thing
that we wanted to do,
where we did it out of a sense of duty,
but not of a sense of joy,
because we would meet God then.
There is spiritual battle
in our hearts all the time
to fight against sin,
to fight to desire God above other things.
And it's important for us
to be realistic about that.
Some people have the idea
that when I come to Jesus,
when I become a Christian,
everything will become wonderful,
that life will become perfect.
But the Bible is full of the language
of battle and warfare,
and that's much more realistic
of what happens in our own hearts.
Boys and girls,
I don't know if you went
ice skating this Christmas.
I don't know if you went down
to the skating rink
at St. Andrew's Square.
I went down to watch,
not to skate,
because that would have gone badly for me.
But one thing that I noticed,
I was there for just like
two or three minutes,
you notice two types of skaters.
You see the ones
who are obviously very accomplished,
and they kind of glide along.
You get the odd spin here and there.
It looks really simple.
You'd watch them and think,
wow, it looks so straightforward.
But then,
you'd see the other people,
and they'd be gripping on to the side,
and the skates would be slipping
all the time,
and you felt like there was just moments
before they were going to hit the deck.
When it comes to the Christian life,
do we expect that it's about gliding along,
or do we expect it to be a battle
to get ourselves to the finish?
It's important for us to be realistic.
It's a battle to trust God.
It's a battle to obey,
but it's a battle that's well worth fighting.
And there's good news for us.
There's good news for us
because we remember that the victory
has been won by our King,
by King Jesus,
on the cross and through His resurrection.
And so to give us an image
from Pilgrim's Progress,
maybe you've read Pilgrim's Progress.
One of the images there for Christian
as he's on this pilgrimage
is that while our enemies are real,
and that battle is real,
they're like lions that are chained.
So there is fear,
and there is attack,
but we need to remember
that those enemies are chained,
that the battle has been won by Jesus.
So that's something of Jesus
and spiritual battle.
Let's now think together
about Jesus and the purposes of God.
One of the things that we discover
in Matthew's Gospel
is so many times we find
reference to the Old Testament.
Jesus as fulfillment
of Old Testament prophecies.
So three times we're told
in our passage here,
so was fulfilled
what the Lord had said
through His prophet.
So let's think about those
three things that we discover.
What do they say
about God's purposes?
So verse 15,
just to remind ourselves,
so was fulfilled
what the Lord had said
through the prophet,
out of Egypt
I called my son.
Okay, first thing to realize,
Jesus comes as God's Savior.
Now again, boys and girls,
I don't know if you've noticed this.
Adults, I don't know
if you've noticed this either.
How similar
some of the early stories
of Moses and Jesus are.
Remember the story of Moses
when he was born?
There was a king, wasn't there?
He was called Pharaoh,
and he wanted to get rid of
all the baby boys
who were born to the Israelites.
And so what had to happen?
Moses had to be put in a basket
to be kept safe
from a king
who wanted to get rid of him.
Now that's just like Jesus,
isn't it?
Just as Moses would grow up
to be God's chosen deliverer,
so Jesus would grow up
to be God's chosen deliverer.
And then we know the story
of what happened
when Moses grew up.
God said to him,
go to Pharaoh
and say,
let my people go.
And it was Moses
who was chosen
to lead Israel
out of slavery
into freedom
to become the people of God.
And again,
that's just like Jesus.
Jesus comes to set us free
from a slavery far worse
than being worked to death
in Egypt,
slavery to sin,
where we can't know God,
where we're far from God,
where we're under the guilt of God,
Jesus sets us free
because he breaks the power of sin
and he enables us then
to become the children of God.
So we discover the connection there
between the story of Moses
and the story of Jesus.
The great saving event
in the Old Testament,
the Exodus,
prepares the way
for the salvation
that Jesus comes to bring.
Now, if you notice
in your footnote,
this is a quotation
from Hosea,
Hosea chapter 11,
verse 1.
That prophecy from Hosea,
that quotation,
it sees Israel being rebuked
for being an unfaithful son.
It says,
out of Egypt,
I called my son,
but the more I called,
the further they went,
trusting in false gods,
guilty of injustice
and walking away from God.
We discover that they
were not
living
with faith
and obedience
towards God
who would be
their father.
And what we understand
is that their failure
is our failure too.
When we look
at our own hearts,
we discover
that not one of us
can say that we have been
perfectly faithful,
that we've perfectly
followed God,
that we've perfectly
loved God.
All of us have
gone astray.
So then the Bible
would say all of us
by nature are slaves
to sin
and we cannot break free
from that slavery.
But Jesus comes,
thinking about the story
of Moses,
Jesus comes to be
our rescuer.
Jesus comes to be
our Passover lamb.
He is killed
so that the judgment
that should fall on us
falls on Jesus
so that we can be set free.
Jesus is our
perfect representative,
perfectly obedient for us,
goes ahead of us.
We follow after him
and through his
perfect sacrifice
we have our way
to forgiveness
and our way
to freedom.
So Matthew wants us
to remember
that the story
of Jesus
is the story
of God's Savior
coming.
Now the second
prophecy
is in verse 17.
Then what was said
through the prophet
Jeremiah this time
was fulfilled.
A voice is heard
in Ramah
weeping
and great mourning,
Rachel weeping
for her children
and refusing
to be comforted
for they are no more.
This comes from
Jeremiah chapter 31
verse 15.
The sorrow,
the mourning
in this context
is that God
is saying
families are going
to be taken
into exile.
But Jeremiah 31
as a whole
is a reminder
that there is hope
beyond sorrow.
There is a hope
beyond sorrow
for Israel.
There is a hope
beyond sorrow
for us
because of Jesus.
In Jeremiah chapter 31
although they are told
that there will be
exile,
families will be
taken away,
there will also be
restoration.
That God will again
show everlasting love
to his people.
That he will enter
into a new covenant
with his people.
He will write his law
on their hearts.
So why does Matthew
as he reads his Old Testament,
why does he apply
this text
to the situation
that we've just read about?
Babies being killed
in Bethlehem.
Well there's sorrow
isn't there?
There's slaughter
of innocent children
which is an evil
wicked thing
which brings sorrow.
But how do we see hope
beyond the sorrow?
Because Jesus
the Savior King
is kept safe.
And just as
is promised
in Jeremiah 31
it's through Jesus
that relationships
are restored.
It's through Jesus
that we can be
reconciled to God.
That we can be
in the family of God.
As we look at the life
and the death
of Jesus
we find that evidence
of God's
everlasting love.
Of his
loving commitment
to save
his own people.
And just as Jesus said
that it's in his body
and his blood
it's through his death
on the cross
that the new covenant
is secured
for his people.
That we can belong
to God
because Jesus
gave his life
as a ransom
for many.
So we're reminded
that there is sorrow
but there is hope
beyond sorrow
because Jesus
is kept safe.
And then in verse 23
we find our final
reference to prophecy.
He went and lived
in a town called Nazareth.
So was fulfilled
what was said
through the prophets.
He will be called
a Nazarene.
Now this is different
because there's no
single text here
that's being referred to
but rather
Matthew is drawing
certain facts together
to make the point
that Jesus comes
as God's
humble
saviour.
So there are lots
of prophecies
in the Old Testament
that speak of a Messiah
who will be
humble.
He will be born
and live
in a humble
unimportant
place.
And at the time
of Jesus
Nazareth
was just that
kind of place.
It was a
backwater town
not a place
of great note
or significance.
So Nathaniel
one of Jesus'
disciples
when Philip
came and said
I think I found
the Messiah
it's Jesus
of Nazareth
Nathaniel said
can anything good
come out of Nazareth?
So it was one
of those times
you didn't really
expect anybody
great or good
to come from
but it's all
in keeping
with God's
good purpose
that his saviour
would come
in humility
that Jesus'
life would be
a humble
life.
And this
reminds us
Christianity
is not a
religion of
power.
It's not a
religion of
status.
It's not a
religion that's
all about
performance.
Rather it
speaks
grace
and kindness
and mercy
from God
to the
humble
and to the
weak
and to the
needy.
And we see
that all
through the
story of
Jesus.
Jesus the
one who's
born in
a stable.
Jesus the
one who lives
as a refugee.
Jesus the
one who makes
this home
in a
despised
town.
Jesus who
associates
with the
tax collectors,
the sinners,
the outsiders,
the despised
ones.
Jesus who
dies that
awful death
on the
cross.
The hidden
part, this
hidden part of
the Christmas
story, is
saying really
important things
to us.
It's reminding
us of
Jesus, our
humble
saviour.
It's reminding
us that he
came into
this earth in
order to
enter into
spiritual battle
on behalf of
his people.
To give us
freedom instead
of slavery.
To give us
hope instead
of sorrow.
Jesus has
come for us.
He has fought
for us.
He has died
for us,
securing the
victory for us.
Now he rules
and reigns
for us
in the glory
of heaven.
And one day
he'll come back
again to take
his people
to be
with him.
So as we
think about
King Jesus,
as we think
about the
purposes of
God this
Christmas,
the basic
question we need
to ask
ourselves is,
are we on
his side?
Is he my
king?
Am I willing
to submit
to his good
and loving
rule?
That way heningar
can begin
as we
learn
as strangely
with his
Jen
on
inher
to
an
man
when
he
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