Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said,
Rise, take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt and remain there until I tell you,
for Herod is about to search for the child to destroy him.
And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt
and remained there until the death of Herod.
This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet,
Out of Egypt I called my son.
Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious,
and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem
and in all that region who were two years old or under,
according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men.
Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah.
A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud lamentation.
Rachel weeping for her children.
She refused to be comforted because they are no more.
But when Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying,
Rise, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel,
for those who sought the child's life are dead.
And he rose and took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel.
But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea in place of his father Herod,
he was afraid to go there.
And being warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee.
And he went and lived in a city called Nazareth,
so that what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled,
that he would be called a Nazarene.
This is God's holy and authoritative word.
You may be seated.
Inside the world's most authoritarian country,
North Korea pushes gross misinformation
and brainwashing propaganda on its citizens
to have absolute domineering control.
Really, with a propaganda strategy pushed on its citizens
from the cradle to the grave,
North Korean leaders have built this cult of personality
where they exaggerate and embellish the accomplishments
of its leaders,
really elevating them to this God-like status.
For instance, it's been reported that Kim Il-sung,
who is the country's founder,
they say that he never defecated and never urinated.
He never once went to the bathroom.
They say that his son, Kim Jong-il,
he was this God-like golfer.
In a sport where it's very hard for the average person
to score under 90,
and the best recognized score was just a score of 55,
they claim on his first go ever,
first time holding those clubs,
he scored a 38 with five hole-in-ones.
They claim that even his son, Kim Jong-un,
who is the leader of the country today,
he learned at the ripe old age of three years old
to drive a motor vehicle.
Just imagine our little Ina or our Zion
contributing their portion of the rent
because they're driving Uber.
These are ridiculous lies,
and they just scratch the surface
of what these people have been telling their citizens.
But I want to focus on one myth,
on the supernatural birth of the second son of Kim Jong-il.
And they claim that he was born at Mount Baekdu,
which is this legendary mountain,
according to folklore in North Korea,
has mythical qualities.
It's considered North Korea's ancestral homeland,
when in actuality,
he was just born in the Soviet Union.
And on top of that,
on his birthday,
the day he was born,
they say that winter magically turned into spring.
A double rainbow graced the sky,
and then a new star shone at night.
It's plagiarism, right?
This is just a bunch of laughable mumbo-jumbo, right?
It's quite frankly, though, evil lies.
The reality is that they have been many, many leaders
throughout the course of human history
that have lied like this.
They have set up these elaborate,
dramatized, supernatural birth narratives
to create this air,
this aura around them,
so that they have this destiny,
this calling to lead their people.
In this, they have taken facts,
and they've turned them into myths.
But as C.S. Lewis said,
our Jesus,
who was born of a virgin,
conceived by the Holy Spirit,
fully God and fully man,
his myth become fact.
We know this because,
unlike all these other fakers and liars,
who make up all the stuff,
all their lies after the fact,
Jesus Christ is the only man
who has been long expected,
long predicted,
long awaited.
By some estimates,
scholars have predicted
that Jesus has fulfilled
more than 200 prophecies
given by different Old Testament writers
written over many different centuries.
None like Jesus
are more anticipated and predicted.
And that's why theologian Lorian Bettner,
he says this,
in all the history of the world,
Jesus emerges as the only expected person.
No one was looking for such a person
as Julius Caesar or Napoleon
or Washington or Lincoln
to appear at the time that they did.
No other person has had his course foretold
and his work laid out for him
centuries before he was born.
But the coming of the Messiah
has been predicted for centuries.
So in our passage today,
when Jesus travels back and forth
from Israel and Egypt,
Matthew understands that
there's more to this story
than just Jesus' travel itinerary.
intimately familiar with the Old Testament,
Matthew sees in Jesus' birth narratives
how he is fulfilling
these century-old prophecies.
And how is he doing this?
He's reliving.
Jesus is reliving the story
and retracing the steps
of the nation of Israel.
He's taking upon himself
the role of Israel,
calling himself
the true and better Israel.
With this passage trio,
the trio of answered prophecies
that we see here,
Matthew is proving this main point,
that Jesus of Nazareth
is the foretold Messiah
and the true and better Israel.
And in turn,
we'll look how Jesus,
the true Israel,
he relives key moments
in the nation,
in the history of the nation of Israel,
how he relives the exodus,
relives the exile,
and then thereby setting up
a new expectation
for the Messiah King.
So we jump to the narrative
and we observe that
once the Magi,
they've defied King Herod
and they escape another way,
the sovereign, omniscient Lord,
he knows all the schemes of man
and he sends an angel to Joseph.
This is his second dream
in the birth narrative
in chapters one to two.
And he warns him
of Herod's evil plan
of infanticide.
Joseph receives this dream
in the wee hours of the morning
and really one can only imagine
what is going on
through his head.
Is it fear?
Is it anxiety?
What is going to happen
to my family?
What do I need to do
to maximize our chances
of survival?
Should I even go to Egypt?
Should I go somewhere safer?
Is he stressed or frustrated?
Are you serious, Lord?
You asked me to adopt this son
and now you're making me flee
from my life?
My life is already so hard enough
as a parent,
let alone the parent
of the Savior of the world.
Aren't you asking too much
of me, Lord?
Was he considering
delaying obedience?
You know, the trip
from here to Egypt
is over 150 miles long.
It's going to take over a week
with baby Jesus.
Shouldn't we just get
some extra sleep?
You know, what is that going to do
in the grand scheme of things?
If I just get another couple hours
of sleep and go in the morning,
after all, traveling by night
is so dangerous.
We don't know what emotions
Joseph might have wrestled with,
but we do know that
as the leader of the family,
Joseph did exactly
as he was told.
Matthew makes that clear
because his actions,
in verse 14,
they match exactly
to the command.
It's so much so that it sounds
like word-for-word repetition.
He doesn't drift back to sleep,
he doesn't dilly-dally,
but he wakes up his family
and they start their journey off
in the middle of the night.
Joseph lives out this simple hymn,
to trust and obey.
For there is no other way
but to be happy in Jesus,
but to trust and obey.
Jesus heads down to Egypt
fulfilling what the Lord
had spoken by the prophet Hosea.
When Israel was a child,
I loved him,
and out of Egypt,
I called my son.
If you have an ESV Bible,
you'll notice the footnote
in there that hyperlinks you
to the passage Hosea 11.1.
And so we flip back there
in our Old Testaments
and to read the quotation
in its original passage,
in its original context.
It's a habit that you should get into
if you are not in already.
And as you read it
in its original context,
you might be confused, frankly,
because the more you read
of Hosea 11,
the more you'll see
that this passage,
it's not like these clearly messianic,
suffering servant passages
in Isaiah,
passages that look forward,
but this seems to be a passage
that looks backward
to the exodus,
to the escape from Egyptian slavery.
So how can this be a text
that predicts the future Messiah
when it's looking backwards?
Is Matthew trying to fit
a square peg in a round hole here?
And it's worth hitting pause
doing a simple thought exercise here.
When you read Scripture,
what kind of book
do you compare it to?
What do you think Scripture
has to offer you?
Some of us read Scripture
like it's a book
of inspirational quotes,
believing that the greatest thing
that Scripture has to offer you
is positive emotion,
positive vibes.
We sit down in front of our Bibles
to go through our daily reading plan,
and if we're more chaotic,
then we'll play Bible roulette
and flip to any which passage.
And we scour the text
to be inspired,
to be encouraged,
to be motivated.
And we look through,
and if we get lucky,
we find a verse that we like.
I can do all things
through Him who strengthens me.
I like that.
So we'll rip that out of context,
and we'll apply that to our lives.
We'll remember that
and hold that throughout our days,
and we'll feel good.
We'll feel encouraged.
All that other stuff, though,
that's irrelevant.
We'll throw it out.
It's not important.
Others of us read Scripture
like a textbook,
believing that the greatest thing
that Scripture has to offer us
is knowledge.
Knowledge about God,
knowledge about theology,
knowledge about whatever hobby horse
you're into that day.
We read and extract
as much information.
It's just knowledge transfer.
That's what Scripture reading
is about to you.
Still others of us
treat Scripture
like a law book,
believing that the greatest thing
that Scripture has to offer you
is a moral code of ethics.
It's telling you,
do this.
Do that.
Don't do this.
Don't do that.
So every story in Scripture
is just about that moral nugget of truth
that we apply to our lives
and that we have to conform to.
Every character in each story
is an example
either to emulate or to reject.
While these contain some semblance of truth,
all these miss the mark
because Scripture
is a book about a person.
And the greatest thing
that Scripture has to offer you
is not positive emotion,
it's not mere head knowledge,
it's not a moral code of ethics
or morality,
but it is Christ.
On the road to Emmaus,
Christ revealed himself
to his disciples
and opened their eyes
to see that he is the very center
of Scripture.
He is the interpretive key
that unlocks the greater meaning
behind every single passage.
He says in Luke 24,
beginning with Moses
and all the prophets,
he interpreted to them
and all the Scriptures
the things concerning himself.
Matthew understood
that every single line,
every single story
is written about Christ.
It is written to prove our need
for a Messiah King
and it's written to engender hope
and expectation for his coming.
So no matter where you are
in the distant lands
of the 66 books of Scripture,
there is always going to be
a paved road
that leads you right back
to the center of Scripture.
That's Christ.
And one of these common roads,
often connecting these
two seemingly distant lands
of Scripture,
the Old and then the New Testament,
is called typology.
Just the study of consistent
and repeated patterns
based on the conviction
that God's workings
is consistent
throughout Scripture.
Compared to how composers
of movies
or musical soundtracks,
they do this thing
where they set up
a musical theme.
It's proper term,
it's called a light motif.
In the beginning parts
of the show
to get our ears
accustomed to this
particular tune.
And then later on
as the story progresses,
you get to the climax
where the theme
is going to be expanded upon.
It's going to be richer
and fuller
and more beautiful,
but all with the same
recognizable tune
as before.
Plenty of movies do this.
Lots of famous movies
do this.
If you watch Star Wars,
The Avengers,
you can even hear
those tunes in your head
right now.
That's how powerful
that repetition is.
Typology is exactly
like this
with lots of different
musical themes
playing out
in the Old Testament,
but then they all
come together
in this beautiful,
expanded, rich melody
of all these different themes
that have gone on
in the Old Testament,
in the person
and in the work
of Jesus Christ.
So this connection
from our passage
to Hosea 11, 1,
even though it's
looking backwards,
it's rooted
in Christ-centered
typology.
As we said,
this quote
in Hosea 11,
it's about the Exodus
where God delivered
his son Israel
from Egyptian slavery.
That was the first time
that that musical theme
played out.
In our passage today,
Matthew is hearing
something familiar.
He hears this musical theme
of the Exodus
play out once again,
only now
in the new Exodus
of Jesus Christ,
his son.
God calls him
out of Egypt
in the same way
as Israel
was called out
of Egypt.
And actually,
we can see that
Jesus is connected
to different roles,
both roles
in the Exodus,
both the deliverer
and the delivered.
Where am I getting this?
First,
Jesus is connected
to the deliverer,
Moses.
At the beginning
of Exodus,
we see that
Moses flees
the infanticide
of Pharaoh
in Exodus 1.
But now,
Jesus is fleeing
the infanticide
of Herod.
Later in his life,
after he murdered
a man,
Moses escapes
from Egypt
to Midian.
But then God
calls him back
to do his role,
to do his work
of saving his nation.
And he calls him
back in this way,
go back to Egypt
for all the men
who are seeking
your life
are dead.
If you look down
in your passage,
those words
are very similar
to Matthew 20
or Matthew 2.20.
There's even more.
Later in Matthew,
Jesus' face
shone brilliantly
during his transfiguration,
just like Moses' face
shone when he interacted
with God,
so much so that
he had to put a veil
over his face.
Guess who's at
Jesus' transfiguration
too?
It's Moses.
So you guys see
those connections.
So weaving these
connections together,
Matthew sees
this child Jesus
as the new
and better Moses.
In the Exodus,
Moses was sent
to deliver his people
from Egyptian bondage.
In the new Exodus,
Jesus is now sent
to deliver his people
from their spiritual bondage
from sin and death.
All in Adam,
we were born
slaves to sin,
that when our sinful flesh
commanded us,
called us,
we couldn't do anything
but to listen.
And friend,
if you don't know
the power of your sin,
I'd argue it's because
you haven't tried
fighting your sin enough.
Here's C.S. Lewis
comment on this.
No man knows
how bad he is
until he has tried
very hard to be good.
A silly idea
is current
that good people
do not know
what temptation means.
This is an obvious lie.
Only those
who try to resist temptation
know how strong it is.
After all,
you find out
the strength
of the German army
by fighting it,
not by giving in.
That is why
bad people
in one sense
know very little
about badness.
They have lived
a sheltered life
by always giving in.
We never find out
the strength
of the evil
impulse inside us
until we try
to fight it.
If you know
how bad you are,
if you've tried
very hard
to be good
like I have,
praise be
to God
with me.
Praise God
with me
that our old self
was crucified
with Christ
so that the body
ruled by sin
might no longer
have any power.
It's rendered
completely powerless
that we might
no longer
be enslaved
to our sin.
Through Christ's
death and resurrection,
Jesus has released
us from the power
of sin
so that all those
who are united
to Christ
by faith,
not by our works,
but by faith
can hear sin's call
and we can finally
learn to say,
no,
I'm not going
to obey.
so may we
never,
ever say
that we can't
defeat our temptations
and our sins.
No matter how many
times that you fell
in your addictions,
in your sin patterns,
there is always
a way of escape
with every temptation
that comes your way.
No matter how many
times sinful flesh
tempts you to lust,
to be sinfully anxious,
to be greedy,
to be proud,
to be selfish,
you can always
say no to temptation.
It is a lie
from Satan
when you believe
that you can't
overcome those things.
There have been
moments in my life
where I've excused
my sin,
where,
of course I sinned,
you know,
that person was
so mean to me,
that person backstabbed me,
of course I'm going
to be selfish,
no one else
is looking out for me.
What sins
are you still
justifying
because you think
that your circumstances
are stronger
than Jesus'
work on the cross?
Do you still think
that you are just
simply swept
in the current
of your circumstances?
That is a lie
from Satan
because you are
never a powerless
victim to your
circumstances.
You can always
say no
because of the
spirit that lives
within you.
And friends,
this is so much
more than just
psychologizing yourself,
trying to,
you know,
hack your brain
with positive thoughts,
trying to get
the moral outcome
or the behavior
modification
that you're
trying to seek.
This is a humble
dependence
upon the gospel
of Jesus Christ,
which is the power
of God
for salvation
to everyone
and anyone
who believes.
Not only that,
but Jesus is connected
to the delivered,
the delivered Israel
as well.
In the Exodus,
God releases
his child Israel
from his bondage
so that he can now
worship God
exclusively
and now serve
both as a recipient
and a conduit,
a channel of blessing
onto the entire nations.
But as Hosea says
in the very next verse,
after Hosea 11.1
and 11.2,
he says,
the more they were called,
the more they went away.
They kept sacrificing
to the Baals
and burning offerings
to idols.
And despite God's kindness
and grace to them,
he didn't have to release
them from Egypt,
from their slavery,
but Israel
is an adulterous,
faithless people
repeatedly whoring
after other idols
and gods.
But now,
the true
and better Israel,
the better
and true
Son of God
has come
in Jesus.
Just like
God called
Israel
when he was a child
out of Egypt
during the Exodus,
Jesus,
now he's called
out of Egypt
when he is a child
in Matthew 2.
And once he's
summoned back
to Israel,
he's called
to fulfill
what his role
is as the Messiah
of Israel.
And he demonstrates
that he fulfills
everything
that Israel
was supposed
to be.
We read later
in Matthew
how he is the better
Israel in this way.
For example,
when God provided
the miraculous
manna
and water
for 40 years
in the wilderness,
Israel grumbled,
they complained,
but true
and better Israel.
He fasts
for 40 days
without food,
without a drop
of water
and he never
grumbles
or complains.
He never puts
God to the test.
He never serves
Satan,
all those things
which Israel
had done
for 40 years
in the wilderness.
How about that?
Israel fails
to dispel
and cast out
all of the Canaanites
in the promised land
but instead
intermingles,
intermarries
with them
and that leads
them to their
idolatry,
their fornication.
But Jesus,
he keeps his mind
on the mission.
The true Israel
goes into the promised land
and defeats
all of God's enemies,
namely Satan
and his demons.
He doesn't intermingle
with them.
See,
whenever Israel
was tested,
they failed.
Whenever
Jesus
was tested,
he passed
with flying colors.
Is that not
the same
with us,
brothers and sisters?
The law
demands
absolute
perfection
to be saved
because God
is absolutely
perfect.
By that standard,
no one
is righteous,
not a single
one of us here.
God has called
us to worship
him alone,
but we have
pursued idols
like power,
money,
and sex.
God has called
us not to use
his name in vain,
but we have
sinned with our
lips,
haven't we?
Sins of lip service,
of unfulfilled
oaths,
of informality,
when he is God.
God has called
us to honor
our parents
and our elders,
but we've
thought better,
haven't we?
God has called
us not to
kill,
commit adultery,
steal,
lie,
covet,
but we have
done all of
those things,
either in our
bodies or in
our hearts.
In every place
we have failed,
Jesus has
passed.
Christ has
passed every
single test of
his,
every single
one.
But instead
of writing
his name
on the exam
alone,
he has written
the name of
every believer
on the exam,
giving us,
crediting us
with his
perfect grades.
Why do we
deserve this?
We do not
deserve this.
Therefore,
because of our
name on those
exams,
because of our
perfect grades
in Christ,
there is now
no condemnation
for those who
are in Christ
Jesus.
As we're
united to him,
the better
and true
Israel.
Praise be to
God.
I am a
sinner.
I've
sinned
countless
times without
measure.
God,
he shows me
unbelievable
mercy time
and time
again.
This is an
unbelievable
mercy we
can't lose.
We can't let
gospel amnesia
set in.
Thank you,
God.
Move on in
our passage
that Jesus
not only lives
out the new
exodus,
but he lives
out the new
exile as well.
Verses 16
to 18.
The wise men
bought the
holy family
some time,
but in the
end,
they only pour
fuel onto
Herod's fiery
obsession with
power,
trying to keep
it and
control it.
Ironically,
Herod is
tricked by the
very wise
men that he
tried to
trick himself
earlier in
chapter 2.
That should
have been his
first clue that
he is way in
over his head
and trying to
outdo or
outsmart the
sovereign Lord of
the universe.
Yet,
in his
blind
ignorance
and unduly
pride,
enraged
Herod,
he starts
to do some
careful thinking,
careful studying
about when
that star
appeared,
so that he
could determine
what age
Jesus,
the future
king,
might be.
He decides
then to
massacre
all of
these male
children,
younger than
two years
of age,
in Jesus'
birth town
and region
of Bethlehem.
I imagine
my own
son,
my precious
newborn son,
as one of
these.
It's a
horrid
evil.
There are
some who
question whether
Matthew made
up this
story,
because there
aren't any
extra-biblical,
any outside
historic
sources that
record this
event,
but this
event is
entirely
historically
plausible,
because
number one,
the reality
is when we
read this
passage,
it sounds
like thousands
or maybe
tens of
thousands of
children that
are murdered,
but the
total population
in the region
of Bethlehem
was likely
no more
than a
thousand,
so that
likely meant
only less
than 20
children that
were murdered.
Not to
minimize this
evil,
but just to
understand what
the scale
is.
And given
evil's
Herod reputation
that Sean
talked about,
this is really
not beyond
him.
Yet despite
Herod's
carefully planned,
soundproof scheme,
he is no match
for the sovereign
Lord.
Not only is the
Lord able to
save Jesus,
but this
terrible tragedy
is actually
incorporated
into his
story to
build Jesus'
birth narrative,
to build his
resume that
he is the
Messiah, that
he is fulfilling
yet another
Old Testament
prophecy.
See, Herod
tries to hurt
Jesus, but in
actuality he
helps Jesus
establish his
Messiahship.
Therefore, the
Holy Family and
Jesus can say,
along with
Joseph at the
end of Israel
to his
betraying
brothers, you
meant it for
evil, but God
meant it for
good.
Yet one point
should be made
clear, our
good God, he
is never, ever
responsible for
evil sin.
Throughout the
book, Matthew
introduces quote
after quote from
the Old Testament,
and he introduces
them all except in
just two places,
all of them uses
the more purposeful
word, so that, in
order to, that's the
Greek word.
This happened in
order to fulfill
scripture.
But in two odd
times, this being
one of them, he
uses the more
passive word, then.
Herod's infanticide
then fulfills
scripture.
God does not
kill these
infants in order
to fulfill
scripture.
Do you guys
understand the
difference there?
Yes, God is
sovereign over
his creation, and
he can use man's
evil sin as part of
his good plan, but
yet scripture never
attributes, never
ever attributes
sin to him.
God with us.
And this passage
adds another level
of depth to
Jesus' title of
Emmanuel, God
with us.
Part and parcel
of living in this
broken land is to
experience injustice,
hurt, pain, sin.
So if Jesus came
and he established
his own utopia,
his own perfect land,
living in the
richest of palaces,
in the safest of
lands, what good
would it be that
Jesus has this
title, Emmanuel?
More than even,
in what real sense
would God really be
with us?
But no, as Tim
Keller, pastor, has
observed, even when
God is sovereign
over suffering, in
teaching that is
unique to the
Christian faith among
the major religions,
God also made
himself vulnerable
and subject to
suffering.
So if this Christmas
season has been
hard, it's been
lonely, it's been
full of grief, if
this entire year has
just been hard, know
that Christmas that
comes in three days
has more to offer you
than just gifts or
superficial fun.
This Christmas, you
can remember that
though he be eternal
God, he came in the
flesh and subjected
himself to suffering.
Here in his birth, but
that much more at the
cross, at the end of
his life, in how he
died.
Jesus came to experience
to the greatest degree
of pain so that he can
empathize, not just
sympathize, he can
empathize with your
pain.
He too wept.
He too has lost loved
ones.
He too was backstabbed
and betrayed.
He too was lonely.
So turn to Jesus, your
greatest friend and
comforter, the one who
can bear the weight of
all your pain this
Christmas season.
He is Emmanuel, God
with us, God with you.
And he does this
ultimately by experiencing
the new exile,
fulfilling the quoted
Jeremiah 31, 15,
that passage in verse 18
in ours.
Like before, this verse
is not clearly messianic,
but the key, again, is
to hear the music.
Hear the music of
typology.
Because again, this is a
verse that looks
backwards.
Jeremiah 31, 15 is
about Rachel, the wife
of Jacob and one of the
mothers of the twelve
tribes of Israel.
And she is figuratively
weeping over her
murdered and exiled
children.
When Assyria came
along, when Babylon
came along, with
terrible sieges, with
vicious battles, conquered
Israel and Judah.
Now, Matthew is hearing
that music again.
In the exile.
In Jesus' birth
narrative, this time
Rachel, she weeps over
the murdered children at
the hands of Herod and
the exiled child
Jesus as he is sent
out of the promised
land.
And this hits a
particular nerve for
the Jews of Matthew's
time, of Jesus' time.
Because while they may be
back in the promised
land of Israel, they
still see themselves in
exile.
Yes, by the
providence of God, by
the faithfulness of God,
a remnant of Israel has
physically returned to the
land.
But Israel never gets
back to its height of
power and independence as
she experienced like when
King David ruled.
Instead, different nations
rule over Israel and kings
like Herod can do this to
them.
How evil and how wrong.
You even get a sentiment of
this, or you even get a
hint of this sentiment and
the opening genealogy of the
book.
You read of the historical
marker, key historical
marker that they departed
to Babylon, the
deportation of Babylon, but
we never read that they've
returned.
So they continue to wonder
who will be the one to
stop our mother Rachel's
tears.
years.
But they misunderstood two
big things about their
exile.
The why and the when of
their exile.
The why they were exiled out
of the promised land, not
because of a lack of political
power, not because a lack of a
political Messiah, but because
of their sin.
And then the when, the reality
is their exile has started
long, long ago.
In fact, even when Adam and
Eve were around, because
their exile started when they
were cast out of the Garden
of Eden because of their sin.
This is the capital E exile that
Jesus has come to deliver us
from, sinners like you and me.
We've all been exiled out of
the presence of a holy God.
How did he do this for us?
Galatians 3.13, Paul writes,
Christ redeemed us from the
curse of the law by becoming a
curse for us.
For it is written, cursed is
everyone who is hanged on a
tree.
The idea of being cursed, he's
quoting Deuteronomy here.
The idea of being cursed is
synonymous to being exiled,
spit out from the land.
And so Paul is seeing that on
the cross tree, Jesus experiences
the greatest curse of being
exiled from his holy father.
The relationship that he enjoyed
for eternity's past, before the
foundation of the world, he was
exiled.
Because he took on all of our
sin, all of our heinous sin was
imputed upon Christ.
Christ became this curse.
He voluntarily walked into his
exile, this capital E exile,
because he knew that this was the
only way for sinners to ever come
back into the presence of God.
But Christ, and we sang about this
earlier, in his perfection and
glory, could not remain exiled,
could not stay dead.
But he would defeat the curse of
the exile.
In his resurrection, he sets an
example for us, our future hope of
our resurrection, of our returning
from exile, our full restoration in
heaven, where we will be God's
people and he will be our God.
And there we will dwell with him as
we should, as we were intended for
10,000 years and for 10,000 more.
Therefore, Christmas, it's marking the
beginning of the end.
The beginning of the end of our
exile.
We're making it back to the garden
through this little infant child, this
tiny little baby.
So you guys know, I just had a kid
and I spent this entire Advent season
just marveling how Jesus looked like
my son, Theodore.
The most unexpected leader.
He expects, or he sets up new
expectations for us.
So we come to the third and final
passage, or section of our passage,
where Jesus returns from Egypt, now
officially fulfilling the earlier stated
prophecy, Hosea 11.1.
He's finally out of Egypt, back into
Israel.
And he does this by fulfilling his
promise by appearing to Joseph at the
promised time when Herod died.
Throughout scripture, God has never once
reneged on his promises.
Not once.
From Adam to Abraham, from Joshua to
Joseph, from Eve to Ezra, God has always
been true to his word.
So why would he fail Joseph now?
He's precisely at the right timing.
So when Herod dies, he calls him through
this angel, through another dream.
Because Herod has died.
Witness the great reversal.
The powerful, reigning King Herod has
died.
The weak, small King Jesus has lived.
Once again, Joseph follows the angels'
commands to a T.
Again, because Matthew has that repetition,
that exact repetition.
And naturally, upon his arrival, upon his
return, Joseph likely considered going
first to Bethlehem, the place where
Jesus was born.
But there's only one problem with that.
And his name is Archelaus, the son of
Herod.
Even with Herod gone, the enemies of
Jesus still linger.
And we're going to see that throughout
his story.
Once Herod died, parts of his kingdom
were split up between his three sons.
And Archelaus took over Judea and Samaria.
And history records show that the Jews
were no fans of this king.
Ancient Jewish historian Josephus records
that when he began his reign, Archelaus
massacred some 3,000 Jews at Passover,
one of the most revered events for the Jew.
He was even too cruel for Rome.
So he kicked them off.
Rome kicked them off his throne in 6 AD,
citing his tyranny, citing his evil.
And they replaced him with one prefect,
a Pontius Pilate.
Not only did Joseph's fatherly instincts
lead him away from Judea, but he was directed
in another dream to withdraw to Galilee.
So Jesus directs his family to the town
Nazareth, a town that's 70 miles north
of his birthplace, Bethlehem.
And why Israel, or why Nazareth?
According to Luke, this is really where
Joseph and Mary were when they were betrothed
before they had baby Jesus.
So they should be well familiar with this town
as well.
These changes in plan were all to fulfill
our third and final prophecy.
And this one is unlike the others.
It's unique because in Matthew,
there's not a single passage where he doesn't,
or all the passages he quotes directly
from one particular verse in the Old Testament.
But here he's not directly quoting a passage
in the Old Testament.
The word Nazarene, the word Nazareth,
it never comes up once in the Old Testament.
It's fascinating.
Instead, it seems like Matthew is collaging together
multiple prophecies.
You'll see that literary clue in verse 23
when Matthew uses the plural prophets
instead of the singular prophet
like he does in all the other times.
What then are these prophecies
that Matthew is collaging?
Some think that Matthew is having,
or making a play on words.
They see the Greek word Nazareth or Nazarene
connected to the Hebrew word Natsar,
which means branch or root.
And so then you can hear,
if you're familiar with the Old Testament,
the fulfillment of prophecies like Isaiah 11,
which reads,
there shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse,
and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit,
and the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him.
This is entirely a plausible interpretation,
and it might not be mutually exclusive either,
but I tend to agree more with those
who see that Matthew is not seeing
the fulfillment of this prophecy
necessarily in the specific name
or in the place of Nazareth,
but rather what Nazareth represents.
Calling Nazareth a city in verse 23
is likely not the best translation
because when we hear of the word city,
we think of bustling metropolitan areas
and gatherings of people
pushing the bounds of culture and advancement.
But no, by those standards,
Nazareth was no city.
It was a small rural village
with less than 500 people.
Moreover, Nazareth was in the region of Galilee,
not in the region of Judea.
And back then,
Judeans looked down upon the Galileans.
Judeans were much more politically correct today,
for better, for worse,
for better.
But it's much like how the Civil War era,
right, during the Union South,
or the Union North, rather,
looked down upon the Confederate South.
They compared them to savage wilderness,
a second-class citizenry,
and an outdated culture.
Like this, the Judeans had their noses in the air,
and they scoffed at the idea of their Messiah King
coming from a place like Galilee.
On top of that,
it also seems like Nazareth has a particular reputation
within the region of Galilee itself.
One of Jesus' disciples, Nathaniel,
upon hearing that Jesus is from Nazareth,
and mind you, Nathaniel, he's from Cana,
he's a Galilean too.
But then when he hears that Jesus is from Nazareth,
he says,
can anything good come out of Nazareth?
If Nathaniel, a Galilean himself,
reacted this way to Jesus the Nazarene,
imagine what Judeans,
imagine what the Pharisees thought,
that their savior king,
their future king,
came from this dirty, lowly Nazareth.
So then the words,
he shall be called a Nazarene,
it relates more to prophecies
revolving Jesus' rejection,
his obscurity.
Prophecies like Isaiah 53,
which predicts that the suffering servant
will be without form or majesty,
that we should look at him,
that he will be despised and rejected by men.
Now all this shows that God does not need
to play the games of man
to make sure that Jesus is well-respected,
well-liked, popular.
Why would God need to fear the opinions of man?
He doesn't abide by the rules
of our man-made beauty contests
to make sure that Jesus can save us from our sin.
No, God deliberately sends Jesus to Nazareth
to be raised there of all places
to overturn all of man's expectations.
And see, this world never really stopped
looking down on Jesus, have they?
The arrogance and the smugness
of the Judeans and the Pharisees
has just continued right along
throughout church history.
And in our world today,
there are plenty of those
who think that they're just a little too sophisticated,
just a little too educated
to believe,
to think and accept
that Jesus is their Lord and Savior.
It's just too beneath them.
Now,
as I close,
I ask,
does that attitude rub off on you?
Do you pause?
Do your hands get a little clammy
whenever the topic of religion
comes up with your coworkers?
Do you feel embarrassed?
Are you ashamed of this Christ,
this Nazarene?
I confess I've struggled with this.
But we have to remember
that as Paul wrote,
God chose what is foolish in this world
to despise or to shame the wise.
God chose what is weak in the world
to shame the strong.
God chose what is low
and despised in the world,
even things that are not,
to bring to nothing things that are,
so that no human being
might boast in the presence of God.
God,
no other name
by which we must be saved
but the name of Jesus.
Only his name
that has been given to men
we can be saved from and by.
Christian,
no matter how much
they slander his name,
no matter how much
the world's smugness discourages you
or tempts you to belittle
or be embarrassed,
never be ashamed
to stand by
and to confess this name.
It's our highest
and greatest honor
to stand by Jesus.
Only this Nazarene
is the foretold Messiah,
fulfilling hundreds
of centuries-old prophecy.
Only this Nazarene
has come to release us
from the bondage
of our sin and death
and to bring us back
from exile.
Only this Nazarene
is the true
and better Israel
who has come
to fix all the stuff
that we have gotten wrong.
Praise be to God.
Pray with me.
Lord,
we look to you,
Lord Jesus,
again,
depending upon your strength.
My words are weak.
My words are insufficient,
but you are strong.
You are able.
You are strong, God.
So we look to you
in humble dependence.
Help us to remember you
and make much of you
in our lives.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.