TITLE - Jesus: The Fulfillment of Israel for Us
SERIES - Matthew’s Portrait of Jesus As The Fulfillment of God’s Promises (Sermon # 4)
TEXT - Matthew 2:13–15
DATE PREACHED - February 15, 2009
COPYRIGHT © JOE LA RUE, 2009
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
*************************************************************************
INTRODUCTION
A. Have you heard the one about the little boy who came home from church and was asked by his mom, “What did you learn about today in Sunday school?” And the little boy answered, “We learned about how God brought the people of Israel out of Egypt and got them across the Red Sea.” The mother wanted to test her son’s knowledge of the story, so she said, “Tell me what happened.” And the boy replied:
“Well, God brought them out of Egypt and they came to this big sea that was too deep for them to cross, and Pharaoh brought his army after them, and they thought they were all going to die! But then, out of nowhere, Apache attack helicopters came to the rescue and blew up the Egyptians!”
The mother was mortified that they would have taught her son that in church. She called the teacher to complain, but the teacher told her that she had taught what the Bible says. God had told Moses to stretch out his walking stick over the water, and God caused the Red Sea to split apart. Then people walked through the water on dry ground, and when the Egyptians tried to follow them, God allowed the water to rush back together and they were drowned.
Somewhat mystified, the mom hung up the phone and went to her son’s bedroom, where she found him playing on the floor with his army men. “Honey,” she said, “I need you to tell mommy the truth. Did your teacher really say that attack helicopters blew up the Egyptians?”
The little boy looked ashamed and said, “Well, no, not really.” But then he quickly added, “But if I told you what she really said, you would never believe it!”
B. We are continuing this week with our study of the Gospel of Matthew’s portrayal of Jesus as the fulfillment of God’s promises, and today we are going to consider how Jesus is the fulfillment of the promise of the nation of Israel. We don’t often speak about Israel being a promise. But, they were. And Jesus was its fulfillment: That is, He is the end to which the nation of Israel pointed. If you have your Bibles with you, open to Matthew’s gospel, chapter 2. Last week, we read about how Jesus and his family returned from staying for awhile in the land of Egypt. We actually took that passage out of order. Today, we are going to read about how Jesus and his family went to Egypt. Look at Matt 2:13–15 with me. The Bible says,
"13When [the wise men] had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.” 14So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, 15where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.” (Matt 2:13-15, New International Version).
C. The Old Testament prophet that Matthew is quoting here is Hosea. His ministry took place in the final years of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, shortly before God allowed them to be conquered by Assyria because of their sin and unfaithfulness. And it was in that context that Hosea spoke the words from God recorded in the eleventh chapter of his prophecy, and quoted by Matthew. Here’s the quote as it appears in Hosea: God said, “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.” (Hos 11:1, NIV). And Matthew says that Jesus is the true fulfillment: Jesus is the one who was called out of Egypt, with all that entails.
D. So what does it entail? What does it mean when Matthew says that Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s statement in Hosea about Israel? Well, in order to answer that question, we must first consider why God called the people of Israel in the first place.
I. ISRAEL: CHOSEN BECAUSE OF A PROMISE, AND CALLED FOR SPECIAL SERVICE.
A. Have you ever wondered about that? Why God chose Israel? I mean, it seems sort of odd, doesn’t it? The Bible says that God is a loving, fair God who does not show favoritism. (See Acts 10:34; Rom 2:11; Eph 6:9; Col 3:25; 1 Pet 1:17). And yet, it sure seems like he was playing favorites, doesn’t it? He chose Israel. “Out of Egypt I called My Son,” Hosea writes.
1. And, indeed, that’s what we find. If we look back at the Exodus story, we find God saying to the Israelite people things like, “If you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession.” (Exo 19:5 (NIV)). In another passage God said something very similar: “The Lord rescued you from . . . Egypt in order to make you his very own people and his special possession.” (Deut 4:20 (NLT)).
2. So, what are we to make of this? The God who shows no partiality, and who says He doesn’t play favorites, chose a particular people to be His special possession. This doesn’t make sense, does it?
B. Actually, this makes perfect sense, and here’s how. God explains in the Bible why He chose the people of Israel. This wasn’t a case of Him playing favorites, or making some random choice. Rather, God chose Israel for two reasons, both of which are very important for understanding how Jesus is Israel’s fulfillment. First,
1. God chose Israel because of His promise to Abraham. God was keeping a promise.
a. In the twelfth chapter of Genesis, God asked Abraham to put his faith completely in God. He told Abraham to leave his country and go to a land that God would show him. And He promised Abraham that if he would do that—if he would completely trust and obey God—then God would make his descendants into a great nation. And then God said, “All peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” (Gen 12:1–3 (NIV)).
(1) So God promised to make Abraham’s descendants into a great nation, and God promised that all the earth would be blessed as a result.
(2) And God reiterated that promise throughout Genesis, first repeating it several times to Abraham, and then to Abraham’s son, Isaac, and then to his grandson, Jacob. Because Abraham had believed God, God was going to make his descendants into a great nation, through whom all the world would be blessed.
(3) God even told Abraham that his descendants would be enslaved in the land of Egypt. But God promised that after 400 years of slavery, God Himself would rescue Abraham’s descendants and fulfill the promise He had made to Abraham. (Gen 15:13–14).
(a) And that’s exactly what happened. Abraham’s grandson, Jacob, took his family and went to the land of Egypt during a severe famine (Gen 46:5–27. See also Exo 1:1–7). At first, the Egyptians were very friendly towards them. But after awhile, a new dynasty came to power in Egypt, and they decided to make the Israelite people slaves (Exo 1:8–11)
i) Historians tell us that these new rulers were most likely the Hyksos kings who ruled over Egypt from about 1750 B.C. until about 1570 B.C. They were actually not native Egyptians, but they had settled in Egypt in large numbers and slowly gained control of the land. (Wilbur Fields, Old Testament History at 146 (Joplin: College Press, Rev. Ed. 1998)).
ii) After the Egyptians drove the Hyksos out, native Egyptians once again ruled Egypt. But, they continued the oppression of the Israelites, who by then were fully integrated as slaves in the Egyptian society. (Fields, Old Testament History at 146).
(b) As the years drug by, the Israelites cried out to God for deliverance. And the Bible says that “God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant [or, promise] with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob.” (Exo 2:24 (NIV)). And so God called Moses, and sent him to Pharaoh with a message to let the Israelites go. (Exo 3) And when Pharaoh refused, God brought the plagues on Egypt—horrible things, like locusts that covered the land, and frogs that filled their houses. But God kept these things from happening where the Israelites lived—they only happened to the Egyptians.
(c) And when Pharaoh still wouldn’t let the Israelites go, God sent the final, horrible plague: All the firstborn in the land of Egypt died in a single night. And this time, Pharaoh relented and let the people go. (Exo 12:29–30).
b. So God chose the people of Israel and brought them out of Egypt, to fulfill His promise to Abraham. The Bible tells us that very thing in the seventh chapter of Deuteronomy, in verses 7 and 8, where God said to the Israelites,
“The LORD did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. 8 But it was because the LORD loved you and kept the oath he swore to your forefathers that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt.” (Deut 7:7–8 (NIV)).
c. So, that’s the first reason that God chose Israel: He chose them because of His promise to Abraham. The second reason is this:
2. God chose Israel for special service.
a. In the passage from Exodus chapter nineteen that we read earlier, where God told the Israelites that they would be His “treasured possession,” God also gave them an assignment. He said, “You will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’” (Exo 19:6 (NIV)). Now, there are two factors involved in this assignment.
(1) First, they were to be a kingdom of priests. This implies that they were to be people of worship, who worshiped and served God. It also implies that they were to be people of outreach, who helped others come to know God and worship Him. That’s what priests do. They serve God and lead in worship, and they share the knowledge of God with others so that they may worship and serve Him, too. And the entire nation was to be a nation of priests, worshiping God and drawing others to Him. That was what Israel was supposed to do and be.
(2) And the second part of their assignment was to help them with the first: They were to be a holy nation. That means that they were to be set apart to God, and were to follow Him alone. They were to keep His law, and show the world how to live lives that were pleasing to God.
b. So, that was the assignment: Be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. And in doing that they would lead the world to faith in God. And that, my friends, would have been the complete fulfillment of the promise that God made to Abraham in Genesis chapter twelve, when God asked Abraham to trust Him completely and leave his country and go to a strange land. Remember, God said that if Abraham did that, “I will make you into a great nation . . . . and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” (Gen 12:2–3 (NIV)).
(1) There it is! That’s what God desired! That’s why He called Israel! It is not that He was playing favorites. Far from it! Rather, God wanted the entire world to know about Him and worship Him and experience the peace and joy that only He can give. But, the world was filled with lots of pagan religions that brought pain, not joy. And so He chose the descendants of one man, Abraham, to make them into a great nation, to lead the world to faith in Him.
(2) That’s what Israel was suppose to do. They were suppose to be a holy nation, a kingdom of priests, serving God and sharing His love with others. And instead, their history became one of rebellion after rebellion against God.
(a) Instead of serving Him alone, they followed false gods and practiced idolatry. (2 Kings 17:16).
(b) Instead of being holy, they engaged in the grossest immorality. (2 Kings 17:17 (child sacrifice); Isa 1:23 (perverting justice); Jer 5:7–8 (sexual immorality)).
(c) And instead of sharing His love with the world, they became insular and looked down on all the people who were not Jewish. (John 4:9; Acts 10:28).
(d) They became everything God didn’t want, and failed to become the one thing that He had called them to be.
C. And so it was that God, rather than allowing His promise to be broken, transferred His calling to service from the people of Israel to the Messiah who He would send into the world.
1. For instance, God was speaking of the Messiah when He said through the prophet Isaiah,
“Look at my servant, whom I strengthen. He is my chosen one, who pleases me. I have put my Spirit upon him. He will bring justice to the nations. . . . He will not falter or lose heart until justice prevails throughout the earth. Even distant lands beyond the sea will wait for his instruction.” (Isa 42:1–4 (NLT)).
a. Did you catch that? Messiah is God’s chosen one to bring God’s justice to the whole earth. Before, it was Israel who was chosen to evangelize the world. But they failed to do what God called them to do.
2. And so God said, ‘I will not break my promise to Abraham!’ And He called the Messiah to do what Israel had refused to do. And so He continued in this prophecy by promising that the Messiah would be a “covenant to the people” of Israel and a “light to the nations” beyond Israel. (Isa 42:6 (NIV)). And so God could say, in Isaiah 46, “I have sworn by my own name; I have spoken the truth, and I will never go back on my word: Every knee will bend to me, and every tongue will confess allegiance to me.” (Isa 46:23 (NLT)). Israel refused to accomplish this, but the Messiah would not fail. God’s promise would not be broken.
II. JESUS: SENT BECAUSE OF A PROMISE, AND CALLED FOR SPECIAL SERVICE.
A. And so it was that when Matthew wrote his Gospel, his history of the life of Jesus, he saw special significance in the fact that Jesus had come out of Egypt. It was almost as if Matthew said, ‘Hey! Wait a minute! This is familiar! God brought Israel out of Egypt, and now God brought the Messiah out of Egypt. I get it! The Messiah is the fulfillment of Israel! He’s the one who would do what Israel was supposed to do! He is the one to whom Israel had pointed!’ And so Matthew took this verse from Hosea where God said, “Out of Egypt have I called my son,” and he saw its fulfillment in the person of Jesus.
B. And not only that, Matthew helps us see in other ways as well that Jesus is the fulfillment of Israel.
1. For instance, Matthew tells us the story about the time when, right after Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist, he went into the wilderness for forty days to fast and pray to God. (Matt 4:1–11). And during those forty days, the Devil came to Jesus and tempted Him, testing Him as to whether He would remain faithful to God’s mission. Jesus was baptized—He went through water—and then was tested in a wilderness for forty days. That is sort of like how Israel went through water—they passed through the Red Sea (Exo 14:21–22; 1 Cor 10:2), and then was in a wilderness being tested for forty years. Only they failed their test (1 Cor 10:1–10), whereas Jesus passed His (Matt 4:1–11). They were unfaithful to God, but Jesus’s faith could not be shaken.
2. Matthew also points to Jesus as the fulfillment of Israel when he records what we call The Sermon on the Mount (Matt 5–7). Matthew tells us that Jesus went up on the mountain and proceeded to teach the people, instructing them in the true meaning of their Old Testament Law (Matt 5:1). Similarly, when the people of Israel had just come out of Egypt, Moses went up on a mountain and received the Law of God that Jesus now interpreted (Exo 19:18 – 23:33).
C. So Matthew sees in Jesus the Messiah the fulfillment of everything God had said in the Old Testament about Israel. He became the true Israel, just as God said the Messiah would.
1. Jesus was the one who was completely faithful to God—He never wavered. The Bible tells us that even though He was tempted just like us, He never sinned (Heb 4:15). Not even once.
2. And, Jesus carried out God’s plan to bring salvation to the world. He taught us the truth about God. (See, e.g., John 1:18; 3:34; 8:38). And, He died on the cross so we could be forgiven and come to God and be saved (John 3:16; Rom 3:21–26). As the apostle Peter said, when He preached to some of the Jewish people who had condemned Jesus to death, “So let everyone in Israel know for certain that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, to be both Lord and Messiah!” (Acts 2:36 (NLT)).
D. And that’s what Jesus is. He is the fulfillment of Israel for us, who has done for us what Israel failed to do. And He has allowed God to keep His promise to Abraham. God said, ‘In you, Abraham—in your descendants—all nations of the earth will be blessed’ (Gen 12:3). And Jesus—who Matthew reminds us, in the very first verse of his Gospel, was descendant of Abraham (Matt 1:1)—has become that blessing. By dying on the cross, He has opened the door so that all nations can come to God. He has become the true Israel. He is the fulfillment of Israel. He is the one to whom Israel pointed. Out of Egypt I have called my son.
CONCLUSION
A. Now, I want to be plain about something with you. These past thirty minutes or so has been nothing more than a theological lecture if what we have discussed does not make a difference in your life. You may have found it interesting. Or, perhaps you found it boring. Either way, unless what we have talked about impacts you in some way, you have not benefitted from your time here this morning as much as God would like you to, and hopes you will.
B. You see, you can know intellectually that Jesus the Messiah is the fulfillment of Israel. You can understand that He has opened the door to God for you. But if you do not act on that knowledge, then the knowledge really does you no good.
C. Now, it seems to me that there are three ways to respond in a positive manner to a message like this.
1. First, for those who are already committed Christians, your response should be one of rejoicing. God has saved us through Jesus! God has refused to break His promise! Look at the great lengths God went to, in order to keep His promise to Abraham to save the world through his descendant. The fact that God refuses to break promises means that I can trust Him when He tells me I am forgiven, and that I will live for eternity with Him and those who are faithful to Him. I can trust Him, and so can you. We who are committed Christians should respond with thanksgiving. This is the time for hallelujahs. God sent Jesus to be the true Israel in order to save us. Rejoice!
2. But not everyone here feels like rejoicing this morning. This brings me to the second group who has a positive response that they can make to this message. This group is comprised of those who are Christians, but who do not feel very committed right now. Perhaps you have gotten sidetracked in your walk with God. Perhaps you have gotten bogged down in a behavior or attitude that you know is not right, but you have not been willing to shake. Perhaps you feel that your faith has become stagnant, and you want it to be growing again. The positive response that you should make is not one of rejoicing, but rather of rededication. It’s what King David talked about when he prayed to God in Psalm 51, “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me” (Psalm 51:10 (NIV)). Sometimes we need to rededicate ourselves that way. Maybe you want to do that today.
3. There may well be a third group here this morning. This group is comprised of people who have not yet accepted Jesus as their savior. Perhaps they have never trusted Him to take away their sins. Or, maybe they have never turned their life over to God and committed themselves to try to live for Him. Or, maybe they have never been baptized. But one or more of these things that the Bible says we are suppose to do, they have not yet done. If you are in this group, you have a positive response too that you can make to this sermon. Your response is not rejoicing, nor is it rededication. No, you need to take that initial step: You need to return to God.
a. You see, God created you. God loves you. But you have gone your own way, instead of walking with God. Now, in fairness, let me say that you haven’t done anything that the rest of us haven’t done. The Bible says that we all have gone astray (Psalm 14:3; Rom 3:12). But when we recognize that fact, we are suppose to return. That’s why the apostle Peter said in Acts chapter 3, “Repent therefore and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord.” (Acts 3:19 (NASB)).
b. Now, how do you do that? How do you return? Well, the Bible says that we return to God by (1) trusting Jesus for our salvation, (2) repenting of our sins, and (3) being baptized. And, when we do those three things, God promises to (4) forgive our sins, (5) place His Holy Spirit inside us, to help us and guide us, and (6) give us heaven.
D. Do you need to return today? Or, do you need to rededicate today? If you have a decision to make for God, come forward as we sing this invitation hymn in just a moment. I will meet with you very quietly down front here, and we will figure out what decision you need to make for God. And you can leave here today rejoicing, because God sent Jesus to be the true Israel for you.
