“Faithful Living: In the Year of Our Lord”
Matthew 2:13-23
A few years ago Twila Paris recorded a sing entitled “God is in Control.” It was quite a testimony and many of us sang along with gusto and conviction! It stated musically what we believe theologically - that “No matter what, God is in control!” But do you believe that? In light of a King who killed innocent babies? In light of the Holocaust? In light of September 11, 2001? In light of a movie theatre in Colorado? In light of Newtown? In light of divorces and rapes and abuses and abortions? In light of kids killing kids? Do you really believe that God is in control?
Matthew the apostle did. This passage in his Gospel is neatly packaged with three Old Testament prophecies which teach us a valuable lesson: God has been at work for centuries, since before time as we know it began, to provide eternal salvation. In fact, says Matthew, THROUGH PROVIDENTIAL ACTS, GOD CONTROLS THE FLOW OF LIFE. In other words, God is sovereign. Let’s look more closely at Matthew to see just how God works.
First of all we discover that God works as HE ADVANCES SOCIETY. Everything about Jesus’ birth and early life had been going well – and around the age of two the Wise Men from the east came to visit and honor Jesus. But no sooner had they left than Joseph was told to run – to go live elsewhere. Jesus’ life was in danger. BUT GOD HAS A PLAN IN MIND – He had, in fact, already worked it out! God is in control – not Herod. Verses 13-15: “When they 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." So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, where 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."
"Out of Egypt I called my son." These words were quoted from the prophecy of Hosea. Hosea’s writings were not primarily about the Messiah but about God’s deliverance of Israel from Egypt during the Exodus. Matthew is telling us that Jesus is the embodiment of Israel. Even as Hosea proclaimed regarding God and Israel, so Matthew proclaimed regarding Jesus: God is faithful to His people. For as God was Israel’s refuge from Egypt so now JESUS IS OUR REFUGE! Whatever your fear, whatever it is that defeats you, whatever it is that is holding you back from living fully and freely and abundantly with God, whatever it is that is working against and threatening you – Come to Jesus. He is our refuge and strength.
So God’s people – you and I as individuals and the church – will always survive! God’s society will remain – not even the gates of hell will prevail against her. GOD IS IN CONTROL! The world lives under the providence of God. And what is the providence of God? According to the Heidelberg Catechism – Question and Answer # 27: “The almighty and ever-present power of God whereby he still upholds, as it were by his own hand, heaven and earth together with all creatures, and rules in such a way that leaves and grass, rain and drought, fruitful and unfruitful years, food and drink, health and sickness, riches and poverty, and everything else, come to us not by chance but by his fatherly hand.” Whatever happens, God is in control.
Consider Herod – He stands for the many individuals and nations which are threatened by Jesus and which take a stand against Him. Psalm 2 had posited the truth many centuries before – Kings and nations conspire against the Almighty, but (2:4) God laughed and scoffed at them (which is one of only 2 places where Bible says God laughed and the other (Ps. 37:13) says He laughs for the same reason!) God is in control! Osama Bin Laden, Sadam Hussein, Adolf Hitler…all fall! No Herod, no slaughter, no invasion, no weapon, can ever prevent it! “Despots may plan and armies may march, and the congresses of the nations may seem to think they are adjusting all the affairs of the world, but the mighty men of the earth are only the dust of the chariot wheels of God’s providence.” (T. Dewitt Talmadge). God is in control. He advances society.
So God moved Jesus to Egypt to preserve His life and the life of God’s people. But all that only served to enrage Herod. Verse 16: “When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi.” Through this evil deed, however, we discover that God controls the flow of life as HE ASSURES SAFETY. Herod’s deed simply illustrates what one opposed to, or threatened by, Christ will do to get rid of Christ. But they will not succeed, for God is in control and protects His own!
Frederick Nolan, a believer in Christ, was fleeing from his enemies during a time of persecution in North Africa. Pursued by them over hill and valley with no place to hide, he fell exhausted into a wayside cave, fully expecting to be found soon. Anticipating his death, he soon noticed a spider weaving a web. Within minutes it had woven a beautiful web across the mouth of the cave. Shortly thereafter the enemy arrived and came to the cave to hunt for Nolan. But on seeing the unbroken web at the cave’s entrance, they figured it was impossible for him to have entered inside. So they went on their way. Having been miraculously preserved, Nolan exclaimed: “Where God is, a spider’s web is like a wall, Where God is not, a wall is like a spider’s web.”
Matthew continues by claiming that JESUS WILL LEAD US OUT OF BONDAGE (17-18): “Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled: "A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more."” This quotation comes from Jeremiah 31, where the tears are for those Israelites who are being carried into exile. Yet Jeremiah 31 was a passage of hope – the prophet promised that those who survived the Babylonian exile would experience God’s favor, that God loved them with an everlasting love, that He would build Israel back up again. Jeremiah pointed to a future of vineyards, flocks, herds, and dancing and a return of God’s people to their own land. So when Matthew mentioned Rachel weeping for her children it was to encourage people to stop weeping and not to look backward in sorrow but forward in hope – for Jesus also was carried into exile, and He will lead His people out of exile into the new Promised Land! What is your bondage today? What binds you, holds you back, paralyzes you, keeps you from fully following and serving Jesus? Never forget: whatever it is, Jesus will lead you out!
But the bondage experience will not be wasted. God makes sure that NOTHING IN OUR LIVES IS UNUSED FOR HIS PURPOSE! Your sorrow, your grief, your unemployment, your rebellion, your tragedy, your broken heart, your illness, your disability – God will use it for His purpose. Again, the Heidelberg Catechism, in Question and Answer 26, state it so succinctly: “…the eternal Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who out of nothing created heaven and earth with all that is in them, who also upholds and governs them by his eternal counsel and providence, is for the sake of Christ his Son my God and my Father. I trust in him so completely that I have no doubt that he will provide me with all things necessary for body and soul. Moreover, whatever adversity he sends upon me in this troubled life he will turn to my good, for he is able to do it, being almighty God, and is determined to do it, being a faithful Father.” Through Jesus, death becomes life, bereavement becomes a pathway to blessing, disappointments become God’s appointments, broken hearts become ministering spirits, and disabilities become pulpits from which to preach God’s faithfulness and love. God is in control as He assures our safety.
As Matthew continues we realize that God does even more than assure our safety: HE also ARRANGES SECURITY for us. Look at verses 19-24: “After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, "Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child’s life are dead. So he got up, took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee, and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets: "He will be called a Nazarene." This is a different type of reference – there is no specific, direct quotation. Rather it is a general one. While never directly stated in the Old Testament it is a summary of several statements – and from the Matthew finds a fulfillment in Nazareth. The prophets had predicted that the Messiah would be despised. Nazareth was a despised place – the town everyone talked about and mocked and no on wanted to be from. JESUS WAS DESPISED! He was not known as ‘Jesus of Bethlehem’ but ‘Jesus of Nazareth.’ In John 1:46 we read that Peter told Nathaniel that some of them had met “Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph,” and Nathaniel replied, “Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” And underneath all of this was Isaiah 53:3 – “He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.” All of our security finds its anchor in Jesus who is the despised, yet promised one of God! He is the only One who can affirm our lives. Your past does not matter. Your status is not important. What others think of you is of little consequence. So you’ve been despised, rejected, have experienced suffering … Jesus understands. He was despised and rejected. He suffered. And your security is in Him – and He is in control.
So this morning I challenge you to LOOK FOR THE BRIGHT SIDE; GOD’S PROVIDENCE BRINGS HOPE. God knows we will fall away; we will misuse our time and treasures; we will fail to follow some of God’s calls to us. We will be despised. But God provides hope. As Question and Answer 28 of the Catechism summarize it: “What advantage comes from acknowledging God’s … providence? We learn that we are to be patient in adversity, grateful in the midst of blessing, and to trust our faithful God and Father for the future, assured that no creature shall separate us from his love, since all creatures are so completely in his hand that without his will they cannot even move.” Time and again God reaches down and grasps us and pulls us back up and uses us. A self-willed Jacob was not disowned for his repeated wanderings but instead was given the covenant. A selfish David was not dropped from the family but was turned into a greater servant of God. A reckless, impetuous, impulsive Peter was not banished after his denial of Christ, but became the head of the Church of Christ. Saul the persecutor was not run out of town but brought into the fold and was the main man for Christ in the early church. God’s Kingdom on earth cannot be prevented - by Herod, by rulers, by sin, by war, by evil purposes. We are secure.
We can believe it because GOD’S FAITHFULNESS AND SOVEREIGNTY ARE THE FOUNDATION OF OUR FAITH! Rejection,
opposition, and persecution are inevitable but will never, in the providence of God, be allowed to quench the purposes of God! As one of our great hymn-writers penned it: “I cannot tell how He will win the nations, How He will claim His earthly heritage, Or satisfy the needs and aspirations Of east and west, of sinner and of sage. But this I know, all flesh shall see His glory, And He shall reap the harvest He has sown, And some glad day His sun will shine in splendor When He the Savior, Savior of the world, is known. I cannot tell how all the lands shall worship When at His bidding every storm is stilled, Or who can say how great the jubilation When all the hearts of men with love are filled. But this I know, the skies will thrill with rapture, And countless voices then will join to sing. And earth to heaven, and heaven to earth will answer: ‘At last the Savior, Savior of the world, is King!’”
Darkness will never quench the light of God! That’s the symbolism of our Christmas Eve Candle-lighting: we light the Christ candle to remind us of Jesus, who is the Light of the World – and then we take the light from the candle back into the world to dispel the darkness of evil. We should probably have a Christ candle lit for every service of worship as a reminder. Always remember: in the darkest of nights, the light of Christ shines it’s brightest. What, this morning, is your darkness? What mystery of life keeps you struggling to believe? What temptation keeps tugging at your soul, blinding you to the brightness of Christ? What tragedy or what sorrow or what struggle clouds and dims your vision of Christ? What person, or persons, treatment of – or abuse against – you has blinded your view of the Savior? Remember God’s faithfulness and sovereignty. God is in control. Rejection, suffering, death, mystery are never the final word for the people of God!
Just ask those undergoing persecution today, and they will tell you. Just ask author Frank Peretti – he will tell you. Because of a physical disfigurement acquired at birth Frank was the victim of mockery and abuse. And all the attempts to correct his condition came up short – even the family’s prayers to God (and his father was a pastor!). But listen to Frank: “Were the prayers doing any good? Without a doubt! God has a knack for performing miracles that remain unseen only because of our shortsightedness. My folks knew that. Sure, it was painful and frustrating at the time, and the whole rotten mess could make them feel so helpless, but my folks knew that God heard their prayers, and applied every one of them to His divine purpose for Frank Peretti. Of course God heard the many prayers on my behalf…and He answered them in His time, and in His way. The resulting healing process is still at work in my life to this day.” God is working steadily in our lives; look for Him! You can either fight against Him and experience defeat or join with Him and experience victory. God is in control!
2012 is gone – all the decorations with the angels, shepherds, sheep, kings are gone! But God remains in control. As we begin 2013, remember this is 2013 AD – anno domine – the year of our Lord. It is His year, not ours. He is in control, not us. He rules, not governments. He is in charge – not evil. Herod’s days are numbered; THIS IS THE DAY OF JESUS CHRIST. The future, and the present, belongs to Him. Psalm 2:10-12: “Now then, you kings, act wisely! Be warned, you rulers of the earth! Serve the LORD with reverent fear, and rejoice with trembling. Submit to God’s royal son, or he will become angry, and you will be destroyed in the midst of your pursuits--for his anger can flare up in an instant. But what joy for all who find protection in him!” For God is in control! Submit gratefully to Him.
