WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:08.279 Alright, well we read from Matthew chapter 2 verse 13 to 23 as we work our way through 00:00:08.279 --> 00:00:10.439 the Matthew Christmas story. 00:00:10.439 --> 00:00:16.280 And if you look closely at it with me, you'll probably have noticed already that this is 00:00:16.280 --> 00:00:19.519 not your average Christmas text. 00:00:19.519 --> 00:00:27.359 Herod the king of Judea under the Roman Empire asked the wise men to find this baby that 00:00:27.359 --> 00:00:29.699 he started prophecies about. 00:00:29.699 --> 00:00:34.320 Because the prophecies say that he's to be the king and he's nervous about this rivalry 00:00:34.320 --> 00:00:38.200 between his kingship and whatever this baby might mean. 00:00:38.200 --> 00:00:44.119 And so he says to the wise men, go and find him so I can come to and worship him. 00:00:44.119 --> 00:00:47.039 And of course what he really means is I'm going to kill the baby. 00:00:47.039 --> 00:00:49.439 I'm going to murder him if you tell me where he is. 00:00:49.439 --> 00:00:53.280 And the wise men catch on to that and they come back at the beginning of this passage 00:00:53.280 --> 00:00:54.760 and they don't tell Herod. 00:00:54.760 --> 00:00:55.760 They flee. 00:00:55.759 --> 00:01:03.519 And Herod in response is enraged and he orders that all the little boys under the age of 00:01:03.519 --> 00:01:09.439 two, so Jesus must have been two or less at this time, under the age of two in the Bethlehemite 00:01:09.439 --> 00:01:11.519 region be murdered. 00:01:11.519 --> 00:01:16.599 Now we don't know how many that is but it was a great atrocity and a genocide, a genocide 00:01:16.599 --> 00:01:17.599 of sorts. 00:01:17.599 --> 00:01:25.319 And this text has been called throughout church history the massacre of the innocents. 00:01:25.319 --> 00:01:29.079 And it has a parallel text to the massacre of the innocents in the Old Testament. 00:01:29.079 --> 00:01:35.000 We read that from Exodus chapter one when Pharaoh orders all the little boys to be killed, 00:01:35.000 --> 00:01:37.479 the Israelite boys to be murdered in Egypt. 00:01:37.479 --> 00:01:44.759 Now in 2018 we had lived here before Heather and my wife and I and our kids. 00:01:44.759 --> 00:01:52.759 And in 2018 I preached my last sermon here at St. Columbus and the text at the time were 00:01:52.760 --> 00:01:59.600 chosen for me and the very last sermon that I preached here in 2018 was about circumcision. 00:01:59.600 --> 00:02:06.600 And the first regular Sunday I returned in 2021 the text is chosen for me and it's the 00:02:06.600 --> 00:02:10.200 story of the massacre of the innocents. 00:02:10.200 --> 00:02:18.080 And so something's up, something's going on with this and we'll have to talk to whoever 00:02:18.080 --> 00:02:20.000 issues the text every week about it. 00:02:20.000 --> 00:02:24.719 And now this passage is actually really rich. 00:02:24.719 --> 00:02:27.879 There's so much actually that we can't see today. 00:02:27.879 --> 00:02:31.719 We don't have time to see about the wealth of this passage. 00:02:31.719 --> 00:02:37.000 Really the whole story of the Bible is right here in this battle, this war between Herod 00:02:37.000 --> 00:02:39.639 and Jesus in this Christmas story. 00:02:39.639 --> 00:02:45.280 And it's really a story actually about slavery and about freedom. 00:02:45.280 --> 00:02:51.520 And so let's see this morning first the liberator, the one who gives freedom, secondly why we 00:02:51.520 --> 00:02:57.680 need liberation and thirdly the nature of true freedom, of true liberation. 00:02:57.680 --> 00:02:59.280 So first the liberator. 00:02:59.280 --> 00:03:04.520 We read two passages, Exodus 1 first from the Old Testament and the Christian church 00:03:04.520 --> 00:03:10.159 for centuries since the beginning has always recognized ever since the Bible was written 00:03:10.159 --> 00:03:16.800 that especially in the Gospels the writers go out of their way to write about how Jesus 00:03:16.800 --> 00:03:21.120 relives the story of the Old Testament. 00:03:21.120 --> 00:03:27.079 And even the Christian church has seen over the generations that the Old Testament relives 00:03:27.079 --> 00:03:29.879 the story of the Old Testament over and over again. 00:03:29.879 --> 00:03:35.359 And we call this pattern that runs through the Bible of these stories that keep reappearing 00:03:35.359 --> 00:03:39.240 over and over again, typology, biblical typology. 00:03:39.240 --> 00:03:42.960 And it's right here in the text we looked at the text we're looking at this morning. 00:03:42.960 --> 00:03:49.680 The commentators will say about Exodus 1, one commentator in particular calls Pharaoh 00:03:49.680 --> 00:03:53.360 the serpent king when he talks about Pharaoh in Exodus chapter 1. 00:03:53.360 --> 00:04:00.560 And he says, just listen to this, that the serpent king goes to the women of Israel. 00:04:00.560 --> 00:04:04.800 And he says to them, you're being too fruitful and you're multiplying too fast. 00:04:04.800 --> 00:04:09.320 And so he tempts them to destroy God's people. 00:04:09.320 --> 00:04:12.840 And if you've read through the Bible much in your life, if you've been a Christian for 00:04:12.840 --> 00:04:19.400 a while, you'll pick up that actually that story is a redoing of Genesis chapter 3 when 00:04:19.400 --> 00:04:25.120 the original serpent king, the tempter came and said to Eve, I don't want you to be fruitful 00:04:25.120 --> 00:04:26.120 and multiply. 00:04:26.120 --> 00:04:27.560 I don't want God's people to flourish. 00:04:27.560 --> 00:04:30.800 And he tempted her to sin against God. 00:04:30.800 --> 00:04:35.800 And here it's happening all over again at the beginning of Exodus 1. 00:04:35.800 --> 00:04:42.720 And even the women, I should say, these new eaves, they don't do it. 00:04:42.720 --> 00:04:46.800 They push back these new eaves, say no to the serpent king to Pharaoh. 00:04:46.800 --> 00:04:48.720 And this teaches us a couple of things. 00:04:48.720 --> 00:04:56.319 First, there is in the Bible a sacred history where God works through patterns over and 00:04:56.319 --> 00:04:57.319 over again. 00:04:57.319 --> 00:04:59.319 And we see them throughout all of the narratives. 00:04:59.319 --> 00:05:06.480 And secondly, part of this sacred history is that there are types of tempters and types 00:05:06.480 --> 00:05:11.319 of messiahs that appear throughout the story over and over again. 00:05:11.319 --> 00:05:14.159 And in Exodus chapter 1, that tempter is Pharaoh. 00:05:14.159 --> 00:05:19.759 We move from the serpent of Genesis 3 to the Pharaoh of Exodus 1. 00:05:19.759 --> 00:05:25.319 And then when these women, these new eaves, say no, they say, we will not destroy this 00:05:25.319 --> 00:05:28.439 new Garden of Eden all over again. 00:05:28.439 --> 00:05:30.399 One little boy is born. 00:05:30.399 --> 00:05:36.879 In Exodus chapter 2, verse 1, Moses is born and he experiences his own Exodus story because 00:05:36.879 --> 00:05:42.199 at the very beginning of his life, this messianic figure, the one offspring of the women that 00:05:42.199 --> 00:05:44.519 would not kill the children. 00:05:44.519 --> 00:05:52.360 When he's born, he's saved from Pharaoh by being put in an ark made of pitch just like 00:05:52.360 --> 00:05:56.240 Noah and sent down the waters of Egypt deeper into Egypt. 00:05:56.240 --> 00:05:58.000 And that's his salvation. 00:05:58.000 --> 00:06:03.319 And he will then lead the Israelite people through the waters like an ark all over again 00:06:03.319 --> 00:06:05.600 at the end of his life, the great deliverer. 00:06:05.600 --> 00:06:09.560 And you see these patterns are weaving all over the place throughout Scripture. 00:06:09.560 --> 00:06:15.240 And you come back to Matthew 2, to Matthew 2, 13 to 23, the text we read this morning. 00:06:15.240 --> 00:06:20.879 And the thread of that very story, that sacred history comes to its greatest stitch, its 00:06:20.879 --> 00:06:24.879 final weave, its climax. 00:06:24.879 --> 00:06:32.319 There were jokes this last week about me quoting C.S. Lewis maybe too often in sermons. 00:06:32.319 --> 00:06:36.199 And so I decided this week I was going to try so hard not to quote C.S. Lewis. 00:06:36.199 --> 00:06:39.879 And I really don't quote C.S. Lewis as often as I think the jokes made out. 00:06:39.879 --> 00:06:43.680 But when it came to this point, so be it. 00:06:43.680 --> 00:06:48.519 Lewis says in the second chapter of mere Christianity that actually the point we're 00:06:48.519 --> 00:06:52.519 making right now is one of the great evidences, one of the great arguments for Christianity, 00:06:52.519 --> 00:06:55.639 for the existence of the Christian God. 00:06:55.639 --> 00:07:00.919 And what he says is that when you read the Gospels, they don't have the nature of a 00:07:00.919 --> 00:07:03.519 conjured mythology. 00:07:03.519 --> 00:07:06.759 Nobody could make this up. 00:07:06.759 --> 00:07:10.079 For one, Jesus is such an atypical hero. 00:07:10.079 --> 00:07:14.199 He's got this messianic character that's unlike anything we see in world history. 00:07:14.199 --> 00:07:16.719 The mythologies just don't tell stories like this. 00:07:16.720 --> 00:07:22.920 He wouldn't write about a Messiah that displays himself so weakly as Christ that dies at the 00:07:22.920 --> 00:07:25.040 hand of his enemy like Christ does. 00:07:25.040 --> 00:07:29.000 But even more than that, and Lewis doesn't get into this as much. 00:07:29.000 --> 00:07:33.400 But when you look across the Bible at the multiplicity of authors and when they wrote 00:07:33.400 --> 00:07:39.160 and the languages they spoke and the different cultures they were a part of, what we find 00:07:39.160 --> 00:07:44.320 is this great pattern appearing throughout all of sacred history, biblical history, that 00:07:44.319 --> 00:07:51.480 no individual could weave together at different times and different places the repeat language, 00:07:51.480 --> 00:07:57.680 the stories, the figures, the characters, except unless God were actually the author. 00:07:57.680 --> 00:08:02.680 And so this great pattern is immediately recognizable when you come to Matthew chapter 00:08:02.680 --> 00:08:03.680 two. 00:08:03.680 --> 00:08:06.399 The pattern is really clear and this is the point. 00:08:06.399 --> 00:08:13.199 Jesus Christ came, the Christmas baby, and he is reliving in Matthew two, the Exodus 00:08:13.199 --> 00:08:14.959 story. 00:08:14.959 --> 00:08:18.920 And Matthew goes out of his way to make that really clear for us. 00:08:18.920 --> 00:08:28.639 In verse 13, Herod declares war to destroy Jesus, this child, and a dream comes to Joseph. 00:08:28.639 --> 00:08:34.720 And Joseph's dream from the angel is not just go down to Egypt to preserve Jesus. 00:08:34.720 --> 00:08:39.679 Yes, it's that, but it's about much more than it's about prophecy fulfillment. 00:08:39.679 --> 00:08:45.000 And Matthew makes that clear because he quotes from Hosea 111 and he says, this is about 00:08:45.000 --> 00:08:50.120 the fact that God has already said, out of Egypt I called my son. 00:08:50.120 --> 00:08:55.519 And Hosea 111 written centuries before Jesus would come into the world. 00:08:55.519 --> 00:08:59.239 Matthew is saying is about both looking backward and looking forward. 00:08:59.239 --> 00:09:04.399 Hosea 111 was written to look back at Israel being called out of Egypt, but also looking 00:09:04.399 --> 00:09:10.199 forward to the son who would be called out of Egypt in the future. 00:09:10.199 --> 00:09:13.199 And so there's two things here to note about this. 00:09:13.199 --> 00:09:21.559 Jesus Christ in this story was saved from the new pharaoh Herod, just like Moses was 00:09:21.559 --> 00:09:24.679 saved in the massacre of the innocents. 00:09:24.679 --> 00:09:26.840 This is a repetition. 00:09:26.840 --> 00:09:31.279 Jesus is going through the exact same narrative that Moses went through at the beginning of 00:09:31.279 --> 00:09:32.279 his life. 00:09:32.279 --> 00:09:34.439 Jesus Christ is the new Moses. 00:09:34.439 --> 00:09:37.360 That's what Matthew wants us to see. 00:09:37.360 --> 00:09:42.000 But it doesn't stop there because Jesus Christ also was called back up out of Egypt back 00:09:42.000 --> 00:09:44.000 into Israel. 00:09:44.000 --> 00:09:48.279 And that means not only does Jesus look like the new Moses, the deliverer himself at the 00:09:48.279 --> 00:09:53.879 beginning of his life, but he comes up out of Egypt looking like Israel coming out of 00:09:53.879 --> 00:09:55.679 Egypt in Exodus chapter 14. 00:09:55.679 --> 00:09:59.120 Now let me close this point, the liberator. 00:09:59.120 --> 00:10:00.559 Jesus, what is he? 00:10:00.559 --> 00:10:01.559 Who is he? 00:10:01.559 --> 00:10:03.839 I'll close this point by saying this. 00:10:03.839 --> 00:10:08.359 If you're a Christian today and you've been in the church for any amount of time, it makes 00:10:08.359 --> 00:10:13.639 total sense probably to say, Matthew, I see why you would say Jesus Christ is the new 00:10:13.639 --> 00:10:15.199 Moses. 00:10:15.199 --> 00:10:16.799 He is the great deliverer. 00:10:16.799 --> 00:10:20.159 He has come to bring me through the waters of judgment. 00:10:20.159 --> 00:10:25.519 He's come to remove and deliver me from the world, the flesh and from the sin. 00:10:25.519 --> 00:10:26.519 He's come to forgive me. 00:10:26.519 --> 00:10:27.519 I see why he's the deliverer. 00:10:27.519 --> 00:10:33.679 But in this story, it is not only that Jesus is the deliverer, the new Moses, but also 00:10:33.679 --> 00:10:41.000 that Jesus is the new Israel who actually is being symbolized as the one being delivered. 00:10:41.000 --> 00:10:44.159 When he comes up out of Egypt, he's being delivered. 00:10:44.159 --> 00:10:52.360 You see Numbers chapter 12 says, who is there in the Old Testament like Moses who could 00:10:52.360 --> 00:10:53.639 see God face to face? 00:10:53.639 --> 00:10:54.639 There's nobody. 00:10:54.639 --> 00:10:57.720 Moses was the great one of the Old Testament. 00:10:57.720 --> 00:11:03.919 And then you come to Hebrews 2 and Hebrews 2 says, but while Moses was great, he is not 00:11:03.919 --> 00:11:04.919 the Son. 00:11:04.919 --> 00:11:07.879 He was a faithful servant, but Jesus Christ is the Son. 00:11:07.879 --> 00:11:14.559 Hebrews is saying, the preacher in Hebrews is saying, let me show you how Jesus is greater 00:11:14.559 --> 00:11:15.559 than Moses. 00:11:15.559 --> 00:11:16.559 He's the new Moses. 00:11:16.559 --> 00:11:19.519 But what does it mean to say? 00:11:19.519 --> 00:11:25.480 Why is it that Jesus were being taught had to come up out of Egypt like Israel had to 00:11:25.480 --> 00:11:28.240 come up out of Egypt delivered? 00:11:28.240 --> 00:11:29.679 Israel had to be saved. 00:11:29.679 --> 00:11:32.559 Israel had to be saved from their imprisonment. 00:11:32.559 --> 00:11:36.519 And so does Jesus symbolically at the beginning of his life. 00:11:36.519 --> 00:11:40.639 Now why not the answer to that question comes in our second point and that's the answer 00:11:40.639 --> 00:11:45.319 to the question why we need liberation. 00:11:45.320 --> 00:11:49.879 I mentioned them just a moment ago, but the Bible says that there are three great enemies 00:11:49.879 --> 00:11:56.000 of humanity and that's the world, the flesh and the devil. 00:11:56.000 --> 00:12:02.240 And the world is the Bible's term for everything that is wrong outside of us. 00:12:02.240 --> 00:12:07.640 And the flesh is the Bible's term for everything that's wrong inside of me, my sinful desires. 00:12:07.640 --> 00:12:11.920 And the devil is the one who wants everything to go wrong both outside of you and inside 00:12:11.920 --> 00:12:14.520 of you all the time. 00:12:14.519 --> 00:12:19.079 And there is liberation being metaphorically talked about in this passage through this 00:12:19.079 --> 00:12:25.559 new Moses in all of it, world flesh and devil, but particularly actually the focus of this 00:12:25.559 --> 00:12:31.199 passage and it's a little bit subtle is on liberation from Satan, from the devil. 00:12:31.199 --> 00:12:33.720 That's actually the focus. 00:12:33.720 --> 00:12:38.919 And let me show you that because of course this is a passage about Herod and Jesus, but 00:12:38.919 --> 00:12:47.240 in Revelation chapter 12 verse four, the writer John, the apostle, he picks up on this passage, 00:12:47.240 --> 00:12:54.799 this story of Herod and Jesus, this Christmas war and uses Herod as the great symbol of 00:12:54.799 --> 00:12:57.639 what we know as the beast in Revelation. 00:12:57.639 --> 00:12:58.639 Let me read it to you. 00:12:58.639 --> 00:13:05.679 This is what he says, the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth. 00:13:05.679 --> 00:13:11.919 It's Mary so that when she gave birth, he might devour the child. 00:13:11.919 --> 00:13:16.879 And she gave birth to a son, the male child who is to rule all the nations with a rod 00:13:16.879 --> 00:13:17.879 of iron. 00:13:17.879 --> 00:13:23.359 And you see in Revelation 12, John is saying actually Matthew two and the antithesis between 00:13:23.359 --> 00:13:29.919 Herod and Jesus is the great story, the symbol of all dragon like actions of human history. 00:13:29.919 --> 00:13:36.039 It's the great symbol of evil incarnate of evil in itself and he uses this story, the 00:13:36.039 --> 00:13:40.039 story of Herod to say that Herod is like the great beast. 00:13:40.039 --> 00:13:45.319 And we've already seen that you have Satan and Genesis three, come as the great tempter 00:13:45.319 --> 00:13:48.639 and then Pharaoh as a type of the great tempter. 00:13:48.639 --> 00:13:56.439 And now Herod and the dragon itself and Revelation chapter 12, these are all woven together into 00:13:56.439 --> 00:13:58.319 one fabric. 00:13:58.320 --> 00:14:06.120 In other words, Herod's role in the gospel stories was to stop the prophecy of Genesis 00:14:06.120 --> 00:14:07.680 three, 15. 00:14:07.680 --> 00:14:12.560 You remember in the middle of the garden, Genesis three, 15 says one day, the one offspring 00:14:12.560 --> 00:14:15.560 of Eve will crush the serpent. 00:14:15.560 --> 00:14:19.240 And at the beginning of Jesus life, Herod comes to stop it. 00:14:19.240 --> 00:14:24.680 He's the dragon who will crush the child before the child can crush the serpent. 00:14:24.679 --> 00:14:28.319 And this is exactly what Herod was doing his entire life. 00:14:28.319 --> 00:14:34.839 Josephus is a Jewish historian from the first century and we have all sorts of texts about 00:14:34.839 --> 00:14:35.839 Herod from Josephus. 00:14:35.839 --> 00:14:40.919 And let me just tell you a couple of the things that Herod was known for. 00:14:40.919 --> 00:14:46.439 Herod murdered half of the Sanhedrin, the religious Jewish council at one time in his 00:14:46.439 --> 00:14:47.639 life. 00:14:47.639 --> 00:14:55.759 And then later Herod would murder 300 of his own nobility that he suspected to be potentially 00:14:55.759 --> 00:14:58.600 trying to overthrow him in a rivalry. 00:14:58.600 --> 00:15:03.879 And later Herod at the end of his life murdered three of his own sons who he suspected were 00:15:03.879 --> 00:15:05.340 trying to kill him. 00:15:05.340 --> 00:15:09.879 And then at the end of his life, Herod murdered his own wife. 00:15:09.879 --> 00:15:12.360 Herod was beastly. 00:15:12.360 --> 00:15:13.840 From the beginning of his life to the end of his life. 00:15:13.840 --> 00:15:17.720 And he stood as the great antithesis to Jesus Christ here. 00:15:17.720 --> 00:15:22.320 He's the great symbol that John picks up on in Revelation 12 of what it looks like to 00:15:22.320 --> 00:15:25.000 be evil, to be beastly. 00:15:25.000 --> 00:15:30.759 In other words, Herod was successful in stopping all of his rivals. 00:15:30.759 --> 00:15:36.200 You see that the original Jewish writer and reader knows that Herod, nobody could stop 00:15:36.200 --> 00:15:37.200 Herod. 00:15:37.200 --> 00:15:41.440 Herod was successful, but Herod could not stop the Christmas child. 00:15:41.440 --> 00:15:43.160 He went after him and he couldn't catch him. 00:15:43.159 --> 00:15:48.120 He went after him and he couldn't kill him because he is the one prophesied in Genesis 00:15:48.120 --> 00:15:50.120 3.15 from the very beginning. 00:15:50.120 --> 00:15:54.839 And this is why I think Matthew quotes from Jeremiah 31. 00:15:54.839 --> 00:16:00.360 You know, in the middle of this passage, there's this very sad quote from Jeremiah 31 about 00:16:00.360 --> 00:16:04.319 Rachel, one of the great mothers of Israel. 00:16:04.319 --> 00:16:08.639 And it says that Rachel sees the massacre of the innocents. 00:16:08.639 --> 00:16:10.159 Herod murdered these children. 00:16:10.159 --> 00:16:14.480 And she weeps because the children of Israel have died. 00:16:14.480 --> 00:16:21.639 Now originally, when Jeremiah used that phrase, he was using Rachel as a metaphor for a different 00:16:21.639 --> 00:16:22.759 tragedy. 00:16:22.759 --> 00:16:28.679 And that's when Nebuchadnezzar, the king, came from Babylon to Jerusalem to murder 00:16:28.679 --> 00:16:31.480 so many, to take Israel into captivity. 00:16:31.480 --> 00:16:38.279 And Rachel and Jeremiah is weeping for the children that were murdered in Jerusalem by 00:16:38.279 --> 00:16:40.439 Nebuchadnezzar. 00:16:40.439 --> 00:16:47.639 Now another reason that Matthew uses that text is not only because of its reality of Rachel's 00:16:47.639 --> 00:16:54.199 tears shed throughout history for the children of Israel, but because that is the only sad 00:16:54.199 --> 00:16:57.480 verse in the entirety of Jeremiah 31. 00:16:57.480 --> 00:17:02.360 You know, when you read the Jeremiah 31, it is nothing but verse after verse of great 00:17:02.360 --> 00:17:05.680 hope and then that one sad moment. 00:17:05.680 --> 00:17:12.080 And God responds to Rachel and Jeremiah 31 and says, all of a sudden, weep no more, for 00:17:12.080 --> 00:17:13.519 I will not leave you. 00:17:13.519 --> 00:17:14.600 I will come for you. 00:17:14.600 --> 00:17:16.120 I will comfort you, Israel. 00:17:16.120 --> 00:17:17.120 I will come for you. 00:17:17.120 --> 00:17:19.320 And you see the great antithesis? 00:17:19.320 --> 00:17:25.200 In the midst of Jeremiah 31, there is an evil one, a king, a serpent king who comes and causes 00:17:25.200 --> 00:17:28.480 God's people to weep over the massacre of the innocents. 00:17:28.480 --> 00:17:32.400 But surrounded by that is the fact of the Christmas child. 00:17:32.400 --> 00:17:33.400 It's the promise. 00:17:33.400 --> 00:17:35.000 Jeremiah 31, what's it famous for? 00:17:35.000 --> 00:17:39.839 The new covenant promise that one day there will come a child that one day there would 00:17:39.839 --> 00:17:41.880 come a son. 00:17:41.880 --> 00:17:47.920 He quotes Jeremiah 31 because this Christmas story is Jeremiah 31. 00:17:47.920 --> 00:17:49.839 It's the coming of the new covenant. 00:17:49.839 --> 00:17:54.960 Herod is all that is wrong with the world and Jesus Christ is all that can be put back 00:17:54.960 --> 00:17:56.680 to right with the world. 00:17:56.680 --> 00:18:01.200 Now this brings us back as we close this second point and move to the final point. 00:18:01.200 --> 00:18:05.440 This brings us back to the question that I asked to lead into point two. 00:18:05.440 --> 00:18:12.360 And that's why does Jesus, why does Jesus Christ relive the Exodus story as the one 00:18:12.360 --> 00:18:14.680 being delivered in this passage? 00:18:14.680 --> 00:18:19.160 It makes sense to me that he's the new Moses, that he would be called the deliverer. 00:18:19.160 --> 00:18:25.200 But why is he coming up out of Egypt, fulfilling the prophecy of Israel itself as the one being 00:18:25.200 --> 00:18:26.200 delivered? 00:18:26.200 --> 00:18:27.200 Why is that? 00:18:27.200 --> 00:18:28.200 And this is our answer. 00:18:28.200 --> 00:18:30.759 We've gotten it in this antithesis. 00:18:30.759 --> 00:18:31.759 Why was he delivered? 00:18:31.759 --> 00:18:33.960 Why was he baptized? 00:18:33.960 --> 00:18:36.359 Why was a person who had no sin baptized? 00:18:36.359 --> 00:18:40.160 Why did he go under the waters of judgment symbolically? 00:18:40.160 --> 00:18:41.240 And it's because of this. 00:18:41.240 --> 00:18:46.440 For the Christian today, if you're a believer today, and this is the promise, and this is 00:18:46.440 --> 00:18:52.839 what's on offer in Christianity, because on day one, Jesus Christ, the Christmas child, 00:18:52.839 --> 00:18:55.359 came to take my place. 00:18:55.359 --> 00:18:58.160 And he came to take your place. 00:18:58.160 --> 00:19:01.880 And Gregory of Nazianza is one of the great early church fathers. 00:19:01.880 --> 00:19:10.120 He says it like this, that which is not assumed, taken on, cannot be healed. 00:19:10.120 --> 00:19:15.120 And from the very beginning of Christ's life, he assumed me, and he assumed you. 00:19:15.120 --> 00:19:23.320 He took on everything that you are, even your Herodian qualities, the beastliness in our 00:19:23.320 --> 00:19:24.320 hearts. 00:19:24.319 --> 00:19:29.879 The heinous deeds and the misdeeds dark Christ took them on from the very beginning of his 00:19:29.879 --> 00:19:30.879 life. 00:19:30.879 --> 00:19:35.039 Why is it that Christ must go through the waters of judgment like the Red Sea, like the Exodus 00:19:35.039 --> 00:19:36.039 story, like Israel? 00:19:36.039 --> 00:19:39.839 Why must he symbolically relive the Israelite story? 00:19:39.839 --> 00:19:43.960 And it's because he came to take the place of humanity. 00:19:43.960 --> 00:19:46.319 And Israel had to be taken up out of bondage. 00:19:46.319 --> 00:19:48.960 Israel had to be delivered from slavery. 00:19:48.960 --> 00:19:53.559 And so Jesus Christ came himself to be delivered from slavery. 00:19:53.559 --> 00:20:00.679 Now it's so important as we wrap up this point to say this, that in Luke chapter 9, at the 00:20:00.679 --> 00:20:05.200 mount of transfiguration, Jesus turns to the disciples that were there. 00:20:05.200 --> 00:20:10.759 And he says to them, it says, Luke says that after he was transfigured, he told them about 00:20:10.759 --> 00:20:14.079 his Exodus. 00:20:14.079 --> 00:20:19.359 Jesus uses the word Exodus in Luke chapter 9 to describe what was going to happen to 00:20:19.359 --> 00:20:20.599 him. 00:20:20.599 --> 00:20:22.799 And what is Jesus Christ's Exodus? 00:20:22.799 --> 00:20:25.319 Exodus is his Exodus story. 00:20:25.319 --> 00:20:26.399 And you know what he's talking about? 00:20:26.399 --> 00:20:29.919 It's the same word that John uses for the hour, the same meaning. 00:20:29.919 --> 00:20:32.319 It's the cross. 00:20:32.319 --> 00:20:36.599 In other words, Jesus is saying, I've got to go through the waters of judgment. 00:20:36.599 --> 00:20:38.480 I've got to go through the Red Sea. 00:20:38.480 --> 00:20:41.039 I've got to live the Exodus. 00:20:41.039 --> 00:20:44.440 And why does he come up out of Egypt? 00:20:44.440 --> 00:20:48.240 Because at the very beginning of his life as a little baby, God was showing us what 00:20:48.240 --> 00:20:51.440 the very end of his life was going to be like. 00:20:51.440 --> 00:20:54.880 He had to be delivered through the judgment waters just like Israel. 00:20:54.880 --> 00:21:00.759 He had to come out of slavery just like Israel, or we would never be able to come out of slavery 00:21:00.759 --> 00:21:01.759 like Israel. 00:21:01.759 --> 00:21:04.080 The beginning of his life was the sign of the end of his life. 00:21:04.080 --> 00:21:07.259 But let me just mark one difference for you. 00:21:07.259 --> 00:21:12.279 One difference, and that's this, that you remember how the Israelites came out of Egypt. 00:21:12.279 --> 00:21:18.120 You know, they were grumbling the whole way, shaking their fists at God, hating God saying, 00:21:18.119 --> 00:21:24.799 I wish I was still back there in slavery, and yet the waters parted for them and they 00:21:24.799 --> 00:21:28.319 stayed dry. 00:21:28.319 --> 00:21:34.159 And when Jesus underwent his exodus, he drowned. 00:21:34.159 --> 00:21:37.679 The waters of judgment did not part for him. 00:21:37.679 --> 00:21:41.759 And as the great song says, he did it without mumbling a word. 00:21:41.759 --> 00:21:43.639 He did not grumble. 00:21:43.639 --> 00:21:44.639 He did not comply. 00:21:44.639 --> 00:21:46.399 He did not sin at any point. 00:21:46.400 --> 00:21:48.440 But he was drowned. 00:21:48.440 --> 00:21:53.759 He was more like the Egyptians who were completely covered under the waters of judgment. 00:21:53.759 --> 00:21:58.040 And yet by his power, he came up again because he deserved it. 00:21:58.040 --> 00:22:01.640 How is it, this is the great weave of the Bible. 00:22:01.640 --> 00:22:05.759 How is it that Israel could be delivered from the waters of judgment so many thousands of 00:22:05.759 --> 00:22:10.960 years ago because Jesus Christ would undergo his exodus? 00:22:10.960 --> 00:22:16.120 And how is it that you today can be delivered from the world and the flesh and the devil 00:22:16.119 --> 00:22:21.479 because Jesus Christ underwent his exodus, the Christmas child in the beginning of history, 00:22:21.479 --> 00:22:26.159 and this story about Herod and Jesus is just the first sign of it. 00:22:26.159 --> 00:22:29.799 This is the power of the Christmas deliverer. 00:22:29.799 --> 00:22:33.079 You know, it is not, you know what that means? 00:22:33.079 --> 00:22:34.079 It means this. 00:22:34.079 --> 00:22:38.959 It is not the quality of your faith today that saves you. 00:22:38.959 --> 00:22:41.879 That brings you through the waters of judgment. 00:22:41.879 --> 00:22:44.599 Your faith may be all over the place. 00:22:44.599 --> 00:22:48.959 And today, Sunday, it may be better today than it's going to be on Monday morning. 00:22:48.959 --> 00:22:50.759 It's not the quality of your faith that gets you through. 00:22:50.759 --> 00:22:54.119 The Israelites came through the waters of judgment and they were shaking their fists 00:22:54.119 --> 00:22:56.240 at God the whole way. 00:22:56.240 --> 00:22:58.599 It is the object of your faith. 00:22:58.599 --> 00:23:03.159 And the object of your faith is the power of the one who went through the exodus waters 00:23:03.159 --> 00:23:06.039 and they could not hold him down. 00:23:06.039 --> 00:23:07.119 And that's the gospel. 00:23:07.119 --> 00:23:08.119 That's the Christmas story. 00:23:08.119 --> 00:23:15.639 I'm going to close briefly by asking them, what does it mean to have true freedom finally? 00:23:15.639 --> 00:23:22.639 And you know, we could stop right there because we've gotten to the gospel and we've talked 00:23:22.639 --> 00:23:26.839 about the deliverer and we've seen how God's written this amazing story throughout 00:23:26.839 --> 00:23:30.679 Redemptive History and that's enough. 00:23:30.679 --> 00:23:32.639 The gospel has been seen. 00:23:32.639 --> 00:23:36.199 But I think it's important actually to say one more thing and that's the nature of true 00:23:36.200 --> 00:23:43.480 freedom because today, freedom and liberation is such an important concept. 00:23:43.480 --> 00:23:51.319 And the Bible offers a robust idea and concept of what freedom means that is in antithesis 00:23:51.319 --> 00:23:54.120 to modern ideas of freedom. 00:23:54.120 --> 00:24:00.000 You know, Christ's freedom is to the modern world like it is to Herod. 00:24:00.000 --> 00:24:01.799 They're at war with one another. 00:24:01.799 --> 00:24:07.519 So let me just briefly say something about how we actually need liberation from the world's 00:24:07.519 --> 00:24:10.720 definition of liberation today. 00:24:10.720 --> 00:24:13.639 And this is what it is. 00:24:13.639 --> 00:24:18.759 Freedom today, we hear about it all the time even in language like rights and liberty and 00:24:18.759 --> 00:24:22.079 freedom which always need to be defined very well. 00:24:22.079 --> 00:24:27.639 We need to always ask, will freedom from what and freedom to do what? 00:24:27.639 --> 00:24:29.000 That's the question to answer. 00:24:29.000 --> 00:24:31.759 What kind of freedom are we talking about? 00:24:31.759 --> 00:24:37.519 Freedom today is like what Alexander Solzhenitsyn said about Soviet communism. 00:24:37.519 --> 00:24:42.559 Men have forgotten God and that's why all of this has happened. 00:24:42.559 --> 00:24:47.119 And Carl Truman in his recent, very good book, The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self, he 00:24:47.119 --> 00:24:53.099 talks about a crisis enveloping the Western world and he says all the ways in which humans 00:24:53.099 --> 00:24:57.400 have forgotten God have produced the current cultural order that we live in. 00:24:57.400 --> 00:25:02.840 And one of those ways is that we now conceive of freedom as the expression, the ability 00:25:02.840 --> 00:25:07.080 to express our personal desires at any time. 00:25:07.080 --> 00:25:13.360 And that's called expressive individualism, the freedom to express the self, to define 00:25:13.360 --> 00:25:19.160 the self by way of our own desires and to express that self, that desire from within 00:25:19.160 --> 00:25:20.160 to without. 00:25:20.160 --> 00:25:22.320 That's the modern idea of freedom. 00:25:22.319 --> 00:25:29.200 And what it means is that we're free actually from the moral order, God's authority, historical 00:25:29.200 --> 00:25:36.679 authorities, history, and it we're free to the proliferation of choice, the facade of 00:25:36.679 --> 00:25:41.679 an unlimited identity, the expression, the fulfillment of any desire to be whatever 00:25:41.679 --> 00:25:43.480 we want to be. 00:25:43.480 --> 00:25:49.839 And Truman says that for today, my inward life, my inward life is decisive for who I 00:25:49.839 --> 00:25:53.159 am, what I want to be, and how I want to live. 00:25:53.159 --> 00:25:55.480 That's the concept of freedom today. 00:25:55.480 --> 00:26:00.759 Richard Lovelace in his great book in the middle of the 20th century, The Dynamics of Spiritual 00:26:00.759 --> 00:26:07.759 Renewal says that even as us Christians, even if you're a Christian today, we can be inculturated 00:26:07.759 --> 00:26:09.919 to this idea of freedom. 00:26:09.919 --> 00:26:15.240 And we need disinculturation to be disinculturated from the world's definition of freedom. 00:26:15.240 --> 00:26:20.079 And so let me just close by offering you three, and I'm just going to rattle these off, three 00:26:20.079 --> 00:26:25.359 Christmas freedoms that Jesus Christ gives that are so different from the world's definition 00:26:25.359 --> 00:26:27.440 of freedom. 00:26:27.440 --> 00:26:29.000 And these are really what humanity needs. 00:26:29.000 --> 00:26:35.120 And the first one is this, Jesus Christ offers you freedom from Egypt, from bondage. 00:26:35.120 --> 00:26:41.319 And all of us have bondage in our lives to little gods, little masters, little creatures 00:26:41.319 --> 00:26:45.679 that we come back to and worship more than we love God. 00:26:45.679 --> 00:26:51.919 But let me just say this, even as a Christian, you may struggle with little gods in your 00:26:51.919 --> 00:26:54.439 life, all throughout your life. 00:26:54.439 --> 00:26:59.919 But what the Christmas Child means is that if you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you 00:26:59.919 --> 00:27:07.159 are definitively and finally freed from all false masters forever. 00:27:07.160 --> 00:27:11.880 The Christmas Child says, I have brought you by the power of the object of your faith, 00:27:11.880 --> 00:27:15.519 he has brought you across the waters of judgment. 00:27:15.519 --> 00:27:19.480 And justification means that you are definitively sanctified. 00:27:19.480 --> 00:27:21.000 The bondage to sin is broken. 00:27:21.000 --> 00:27:25.120 You are freed from the power of the world, the flesh and the devil. 00:27:25.120 --> 00:27:28.279 That's what the kind of freedom that Christianity offers today. 00:27:28.279 --> 00:27:32.320 Now secondly, that leads them to the second Christmas freedom. 00:27:32.320 --> 00:27:36.640 And that's that Jesus Christ does not only offer you freedom from the bondage of Egypt, 00:27:36.640 --> 00:27:40.600 slavery, but freedom also secondly to go to the mountain. 00:27:40.600 --> 00:27:46.400 Freedom from and freedom to, you see, remember Israel, they went through the waters and then 00:27:46.400 --> 00:27:50.360 they came to Sinai to hear the law of God. 00:27:50.360 --> 00:27:51.880 And that order is so important. 00:27:51.880 --> 00:27:57.640 And in this passage, Joseph hears the command, get up and go, get out of Egypt. 00:27:57.640 --> 00:28:00.680 And he gets up and he goes out of Egypt. 00:28:00.680 --> 00:28:04.360 And that means if you believe in Jesus Christ today and you've been definitively, the power 00:28:04.359 --> 00:28:09.519 of sin has been broken in your life, you now for the first time have the freedom to go to 00:28:09.519 --> 00:28:13.039 the mountain, to go to Sinai, to go to the sermon on the mount. 00:28:13.039 --> 00:28:15.759 In other words, to be holy. 00:28:15.759 --> 00:28:20.639 You see, freedom, real freedom is not just the freedom to do whatever you want. 00:28:20.639 --> 00:28:25.399 Real freedom, the Bible says is actually to be holy, to be conformed to the law of God, 00:28:25.399 --> 00:28:28.519 to walk in the order of creation as God made things. 00:28:28.519 --> 00:28:30.199 That's real freedom, the Bible says. 00:28:30.199 --> 00:28:32.679 And it's so different from the modern world. 00:28:32.680 --> 00:28:37.360 It's actually freedom from the slavery of personal desire. 00:28:37.360 --> 00:28:41.880 Because if you live life completely according to your desires and you determine your own 00:28:41.880 --> 00:28:46.200 identity all the time by the way you feel, then if you're honest with yourself, we all 00:28:46.200 --> 00:28:49.480 know that our wants don't add up. 00:28:49.480 --> 00:28:51.400 We want and then we don't want. 00:28:51.400 --> 00:28:54.240 And we're a mess inside and we change all the time. 00:28:54.240 --> 00:28:55.680 And that's not real freedom. 00:28:55.680 --> 00:28:57.120 That's bondage. 00:28:57.120 --> 00:29:01.200 But being defined by the true master unto holiness, that's true freedom. 00:29:01.200 --> 00:29:07.319 And finally, lastly, the Christmas child frees us to go to the promised land. 00:29:07.319 --> 00:29:09.160 And we don't have any time to spend on this. 00:29:09.160 --> 00:29:15.799 But at the very end of the passage, Jesus moves from Egypt back to the promised land. 00:29:15.799 --> 00:29:19.519 And actually when he gets to the promised land, Israel, he goes to the south and then 00:29:19.519 --> 00:29:21.840 the north and becomes a Nazarene. 00:29:21.840 --> 00:29:25.279 And then if you read through the gospels carefully, you see that he moves back south 00:29:25.279 --> 00:29:30.000 again until he dies in Jerusalem. 00:29:30.000 --> 00:29:33.079 And we lost power, but I'm going to finish. 00:29:33.079 --> 00:29:40.400 That's actually the narrative of conquest in Joshua, that they go into the south of 00:29:40.400 --> 00:29:43.759 the promised land, they move north and then they move back south again. 00:29:43.759 --> 00:29:47.440 And Jesus Christ we're learning is the new Joshua too, not only the new Moses and the 00:29:47.440 --> 00:29:49.240 better Israel, but the new Joshua. 00:29:49.240 --> 00:29:52.839 His name's saying Yeshua, he saves. 00:29:52.839 --> 00:29:57.200 What this means is that Jesus Christ has come not only to deliver you, but to take you all 00:29:57.200 --> 00:29:59.839 the way home. 00:29:59.839 --> 00:30:03.599 To the place where you belong, to the place without the world of flesh and the devil, 00:30:03.599 --> 00:30:06.480 to the place without disease, disaster and death. 00:30:06.480 --> 00:30:11.599 And if I could say this last thing, at Christmas time, it's always a season where all of us 00:30:11.599 --> 00:30:20.039 can remember those moments in our lives where it was Christmas day and we were right where 00:30:20.039 --> 00:30:21.319 we needed to be. 00:30:21.319 --> 00:30:26.679 We were home and we were well loved and well taken care of. 00:30:26.680 --> 00:30:30.799 And your favorite moment of that is probably from when you were a child and you got everything 00:30:30.799 --> 00:30:34.640 you asked for and all those things. 00:30:34.640 --> 00:30:38.279 That's not kitsch, that's not cheesy. 00:30:38.279 --> 00:30:41.200 Christmas day is a sign of true home. 00:30:41.200 --> 00:30:44.279 And Jesus Christ has come to free you to true home. 00:30:44.279 --> 00:30:50.120 Your heart will never be satisfied until you rest in him because we were made for him. 00:30:50.120 --> 00:30:53.240 And so here's the real freedom that the world cannot offer. 00:30:53.240 --> 00:30:58.680 If you have home with Jesus Christ, the true liberator today, then no matter what tsunami 00:30:58.680 --> 00:31:03.240 hits your life this week and no matter what wave crashes into you in the coming year in 00:31:03.240 --> 00:31:10.000 2022, you can be okay because you have real freedom. 00:31:10.000 --> 00:31:11.000 Let's pray together. 00:31:11.000 --> 00:31:18.039 Father, we ask now that you would wake us up and shake us up to the freedom that Jesus 00:31:18.039 --> 00:31:20.839 Christ offers that the world can never give. 00:31:20.839 --> 00:31:28.319 And so break through the bondage of our idolatry, break through the scales that are on our eyes 00:31:28.319 --> 00:31:29.799 of our heart, Lord. 00:31:29.799 --> 00:31:35.119 But for Christians and people who are exploring the claims of faith today and give us new hearts 00:31:35.119 --> 00:31:37.879 today as we go forth into the world, we ask in Christ's name. 00:31:37.880 --> 00:31:52.880 Amen.