The Messiah Who Understands
Text: Matt. 2:1-23
Introduction
1. Illustration: A man put up a sign in his yard that read: "Puppies for Sale." Among those who came to inquire was a young boy. "Please, Mister," he said, "I’d like to buy one of your puppies if they don’t cost too much." "Well, son, they’re $25." The boy looked crushed. "I’ve only got two dollars and five cents. Could I see them anyway?" "Of course. Maybe we can work something out," said the man. The lad’s eyes danced at the sight of those five little balls of fur. "I heard that one has a bad leg," he said. "Yes, I’m afraid she’ll be crippled for life." "Well, that’s the puppy I want. Could I pay for her a little at a time?" The man responded, "But she’ll always have a limp." Smiling bravely, the boy pulled up one pant leg, revealing a brace. "I don’t walk good either." Then, looking at the puppy sympathetically, he continued, "I guess she’ll need a lot of love and help. I sure did. It’s not so easy being crippled." "Here, take her," said the man. "I know you’ll give her a good home. And just forget the money."
2. Often we ask the question, "Does anyone understand what I am going through?"
a. Does anyone understand my hurt?
b. Does anyone understand my rejection?
c. Does anyone understand my temptations?
3. Today we are beginning a new series on the Gospel of Matthew.
a. Matthew was writing to a Jewish audience, and his purpose was to show Jesus as the long awaited Messiah of Israel.
b. However, we also learn from the portrait that Matthew gives us of Jesus that he is able to relate to our difficulties because he has been there before us.
c. Hebrews 4:15 (NLT)
This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin.
4. Jesus understands when:
a. Life isn’t fair
b. Life slaps you in the face
c. Life throws you a curve
5. Read Matt. 2:1-23
Proposition: In Jesus, you have a Messiah who understands what you’re going through.
Transition: One thing that Jesus understands that...
I. Sometimes Life Isn’t Fair (1-12)
A. Herod Was Deeply Disturbed
1. Matthew tells us that "Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the reign of King Herod."
a. Herod the Great ruled from 37-4 BC, and is know as "The Great" because of the great building campaigns he initiated. The most important of these was the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem.
b. However, he was also known for being paranoid and ruthless toward anyone he saw as a threat.
c. The list of those he had executed included his own wife and children.
2. At the same time, "some wise men from eastern lands arrived in Jerusalem, asking, “Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We saw his star as it rose, and we have come to worship him.”
a. The term "wise men," more appropriately, "Magi" (magos, "magician") originally referred to a priestly caste in ancient Persia.
b. Magi were usually leading figures in the religious court life of their country of origin, employing a variety of scientific (astrology), diplomatic (wisdom), and religious (magical incantations) elements in their work (Wilkins, NIV Application Commentary, New Testament: Matthew, 93).
c. They made the assumption that the new born King of the Jews would have been born in the palace, a logical conclusion.
d. As you can imagine this was not seen as good news to the paranoid King Herod.
3. We can see this in v. 3, "King Herod was deeply disturbed when he heard this, as was everyone in Jerusalem."
a. News of a new born king, one that he knew nothing about, made Herod nervous.
b. Anything that made Herod nervous made everyone else nervous, because if the King wasn’t happy, nobody was happy.
4. Herod "called a meeting of the leading priests and teachers of religious law and asked, “Where is the Messiah supposed to be born?”
a. Another reason that this news made Herod nervous was the fact that he would be from the line of David, and the Jews never really accepted him as king because he was not Jewish.
b. If he could figure our where he was to be born, he could find him and take care of his problem.
c. After finding out that the Messiah was born he called the magi back to find out when he was born.
d. You can see him narrowing down the possiblities.
5. He tells the magi, “Go to Bethlehem and search carefully for the child. And when you find him, come back and tell me so that I can go and worship him, too!”
a. His plan was not to worship Jesus, but to kill him.
b. So he tried to trick the magi into giving him inside information so he knew where to find Jesus.
6. However, God had other plans. Instead of coming back to Herod, "they returned to their own country by another route, for God had warned them in a dream not to return to Herod."
a. Just as they found out about Jesus from divine revelation, they now learn about Herod’s plans by divine revelation.
b. Herod had plans to destroy Jesus, but God had plans for Jesus to save us.
B. Bad Things Happen to Good People
1. Illustration: Some years ago, the cartoonist pictured Charlie Brown bringing out Snoopy’s dinner on Thanksgiving Day, but it was just his usual dog food in a bowl. So, Snoopy took one look at the dog food and said, “This isn’t fair. The rest of the world today is eating turkey with all the trimmings and all I get is dog food. Why? Because I’m a dog all I get is dog food?” He stood there and stared at his dog food for a moment and said, “I guess it could be worse. I could be a turkey.” Folks, whenever we begin to think that life is unfair we need to think again.
2. Jesus early life teaches us that life isn’t fair.
a. He hadn’t done anything against Herod
b. He had no intention of taking Herod’s kingdom
c. Yet Herod was making plans to kill him
d. That isn’t fair.
3. Jesus early life teaches us that he understands life isn’t fair.
a. He knows what it’s like to get things you don’t deserve.
b. He knows what it’s like to have people against you for no reason.
c. He knows what it’s like to when people treat you unfairly.
4. Jesus early life teaches us that he can relate to us.
a. We have a Messiah who understands our pain.
b. We have a Messiah who understands rejection.
c. We have a Messiah who understands how difficult life can be.
Transition: Jesus also knows that...
II. Sometimes Life Slaps You In the Face (13-18)
A. Search For the Child
1. I don’t know if you ever imagined what it would be like to bring your first child into the world, but bet you didn’t envision what happened to Mary and Joseph.
2. Matthew tells us "After the wise men were gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up! Flee to Egypt with the child and his mother,” the angel said. “Stay there until I tell you to return, because Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”
a. Chances are an angel didn’t appear to you and tell you to high tail it to Egypt because the king was trying to kill your son.
b. Here is Jesus, the Messiah, born into the world to save us from our sins, and at about two years old people are trying to kill him.
c. However, we see another thing coming into play here. Satan was doing all in his power to see that Jesus didn’t fulfill his mission, but God worked so that Jesus did fulfill his mission.
3. Sending the family to Egypt made a lot of sense.
a. There was a large Jewish community there.
b. It was also out of Herod’s jurisdiction.
c. The family would not only be comfortable there, but they would also be safe.
4. Notice something else, Joseph obeys immediately. "That night Joseph left for Egypt with the child and Mary, his mother..."
a. He didn’t think about it.
b. He didn’t wait until morning.
c. He got up and left immediately.
d. If we want God’s protection we need to be willing to obey him.
5. His obedience saved Jesus young life. When Herod found out that the magi had outwitted him, "He sent soldiers to kill all the boys in and around Bethlehem who were two years old and under, based on the wise men’s report of the star’s first appearance."
a. If he had waited, Jesus might have been killed.
b. If he had waited, our salvation would have been jeopardized.
c. However, because he was obedient God protected them.
B. Life Can Be Harsh
1. Illustration: One night while conducting an evangelistic meeting in the Salvation Army Citadel in Chicago, Booth Tucker preached on the sympathy of Jesus. After his message a man approached him and said, "If your wife had just died, like mine has, and your babies were crying for their mother, who would never come back, you wouldn’t be saying what you’re saying." Tragically, a few days later, Tucker’s wife was killed in a train wreck. Her body was brought to Chicago and carried to the same Citadel for the funeral. After the service the bereaved preacher looked down into the silent face of his wife and then turned to those attending. "The other day a man told me I wouldn’t speak of the sympathy of Jesus if my wife had just died. If that man is here, I want to tell him that Christ is sufficient. My heart is broken, but it has a song put there by Jesus. I want that man to know that Jesus Christ speaks comfort to me today."
2. Jesus understands that life can be harsh.
a. He spent the first couple years of his life on the run like a criminal.
b. He spent much of his adulthood avoiding the religious leaders who should have applauded his arrival.
c. He died on a cross that he didn’t deserve, and was laid in an unmarked grave.
3. Jesus understands what it feels like when it seems the whold world is against you.
a. When it seems like your back is against the wall, Jesus understands.
b. When you feel like you have nowhere to turn, Jesus understands.
c. 2 Corinthians 1:3-5 (NLT)
All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort. He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us. For the more we suffer for Christ, the more God will shower us with his comfort through Christ.
Transition: Another thing that Jesus understands is...
III. Sometimes Life Throws You A Curve (19-23)
A. A Town Called Nazareth
1. While Jesus was in Egypt, Herod dies a very gruesome death.
a. The bible tells us that we reap what we sow, and in Herod’s case, this is true.
b. He’s brutal treatment of others comes to a head and he dies a very painful death.
2. After his death, "When Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt. “Get up!” the angel said. “Take the child and his mother back to the land of Israel, because those who were trying to kill the child are dead.”
a. Just as an angel told Joseph to go to Egypt, now he is telling him it is safe to return.
b. Herod is dead and the danger is over.
3. One might think that Joseph would return to Bethlehem, which was his home town. However, "when he learned that the new ruler of Judea was Herod’s son Archelaus, he was afraid to go there. Then, after being warned in a dream, he left for the region of Galilee."
a. When Joseph learned that Herod’s son was ruling Judea in his father’s place, he decided to move the family to Gallilee.
b. Herod’s son was almost as ruthless and brutal as his father (Turner, Cornerstone Biblical Commentary, 52).
c. So Joseph came up with a plan B and the family moved to Nazareth.
4. Sometimes plan B’s are a good thing.
a. In this case, it caused prophecy to be fulfilled.
b. Matthew 2:23 (NLT)
So the family went and lived in a town called Nazareth. This fulfilled what the prophets had said: “He will be called a Nazarene.”
c. Archaeological evidence in the region of Nazareth indicates that many people had moved there from Judea, from the area near Bethlehem. Joseph may have had friends or relatives in Nazareth (The IVP Bible Background Commentary – New Testament).
d. Sometimes life throws us a curve and we need to be able to adjust.
B. Change of Plans
1. Illustration: During WWII General McArthur asked an engineer how long it would take to build a bridge across a certain river. "About three days." The engineer was told to go ahead and draw up the plans. Three days later McArthur asked for the plans. The engineer seemed surprised. "Oh, the bridge is ready. You can cross it now. If you wants plans, you’ll have to wait a little longer, we haven’t finished those yet."
2. Sometimes the difficulties of life cause us to have a change of plans.
a. However, God can cause this to work out for our good.
b. Romans 8:28 (NLT)
And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.
c. The question isn’t will difficulties come our way, but what will we do with them when they do?
3. Our plans are not always God’s plans.
a. Jeremiah 29:11 (NLT)
For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.
b. Jesus understands what it is like to be forced to change plans
c. Jesus understands that this is not always a bad thing.
d. God’s plans are not our plans, and God’s plans are always better.
Conclusion
1. If you’ve ever asked the question, "does anyone understand what I am going through?" The answer is "yes, Jesus does."
2. If you’ve ever asked the question, "does anyone understand my pain?" The answer is "yes, Jesus does."
3. Hebrews 4:15 (NLT)
This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin.
