MATTHEW 2:13-23
INTRODUCTION
I hope you all had a very merry Christmas. And I’m sure most if you did.
• But maybe some of you didn’t.
• Maybe the much-sung words of "have a Holly jolly Christmas" wouldn't describe this time of year for you.
• Maybe you wouldn’t describe this season as “merry” and “bright.”
• For the Carlson family, it was challenging to experience the joy of the season.
• My sister had back surgery and a couple scares with complications following the surgery.
• Our 5-year-old Olivia had pneumonia that had to be treated with round the clock nebulizer treatments.
• I caught bronchitis.
• Then my wife, Laura, was sick for almost two weeks—eating no more than a couple hundred calories a day, in excruciating pain. Though we never really figured out what she had contracted, whatever viral infection she had ended up turning to her gallbladder, so she ended up having that removed last week.
• And now the flu is making its way around our house.
• So much for a "Holly jolly" Christmas!
And I'd bet that what I experienced the past month is nothing compared what some of you are going through.
• Maybe your Christmas season has been one of loneliness—the time of year when you miss those loved ones you've lost.
• Maybe it’s been a season of stress in your family, or strife in your marriage.
• Maybe you're dealing with a severe illness that has you and your family exhausted and weary.
• Maybe you feel like you’re entering the new year overwhelmed—trying to balance the demands of family, work, and finances, but you just keep getting hit with one thing after the other after the other. And you just can't seem to catch a break.
The reality is that not everyone is having a "holly jolly" season.
• This probably isn’t what you thought you’d hear walking into church this morning.
• But did you know that the birth of Jesus wasn’t all “good news of great joy” for everyone?
• The fact is that the birth of Jesus involved both joy and sorrow.
• And Jesus came, not only to give us joy, but to give us peace and hope in the midst of our sorrows.
• To really appreciate and understand this peace and hope that came with the birth of Jesus, we need to look at one final character in the Christmas story.
TRANSITION
And, so, today we come to the last week of our Christmas series, “Witnesses of Wonder.”
• The past month, we’ve witnessed the birth of Christ through the eyes of Mary, through the experience of Joseph, through the life-changing encounter of the Shepherds, and through the journey of the wise men—all people who celebrated the birth of the Messiah.
• But today, we will witness the birth of King Jesus through the lens of another king—a jealous king; a murderer-king—A man known as Herod the Great.
• We were introduced to Herod last week as we looked at the beginning of Matthew chapter 2, where we saw just how threatened this savvy politician really was.
BACKGROUND
Listen as I read to you Matthew 2:1-12
Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the reign of King Herod. About that time some wise men from eastern lands arrived in Jerusalem, asking, 2 “Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We saw his star as it rose, and we have come to worship him.”
3 King Herod was deeply disturbed when he heard this, as was everyone in Jerusalem. 4 He called a meeting of the leading priests and teachers of religious law and asked, “Where is the Messiah supposed to be born?”
5 “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they said, “for this is what the prophet wrote:
6 ‘And you, O Bethlehem in the land of Judah,
are not least among the ruling cities of Judah,
for a ruler will come from you
who will be the shepherd for my people Israel.’”
7 Then Herod called for a private meeting with the wise men, and he learned from them the time when the star first appeared. 8 Then he told them, “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!”
9 After this interview the wise men went their way. And the star they had seen in the east guided them to Bethlehem. It went ahead of them and stopped over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw the star, they were filled with joy! 11 They entered the house and saw the child with his mother, Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasure chests and gave him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
12 When it was time to leave, they returned to their own country by another route, for God had warned them in a dream not to return to Herod.
So we’re told that King Herod was “deeply disturbed” when he comes across the group of wise men who enter Jerusalem asking about the birth of the “King of the Jews.” But why did this disturb him?
See, here’s what we need to remember about Herod:
• Herod’s father had done some favors for Rome. As payment, the Herod family was given the right to rule Judea, which was under Roman occupation.
• But in 43 BC his father was assassinated by a threatened family member, and Herod and his brother were captured. After being captured, the brother committed suicide, but Herod managed to escape and flee to Rome.
• Then in 37 BC the Roman Senate appointed him "King of the Jews." So, Herod returned to Palestine, raised up an army, and defeated his father's assassin in battle.
• So, Herod ruled as the so-called “King of the Jews” for 33 years until his death in 4 BC.
• When the baton passed to him, Herod tried to do everything he could to keep his favor with Rome, but also with the Jews too.
• The problem, though, was that Herod wasn’t actually a Jew.
• Remember, back in the Old Testament, Isaac and Rebekah had two sons: Jacob and Esau. Jacob became the father of the Israelites and Esau became the father of the Edomites.
• Well, Herod was from the lineage of Esau, so because of his ancestry, most Jews never accepted him as a legitimate Jewish King.
• This fact infuriated him!
On top of all this, Herod was an extremely jealous ruler and his paranoia was legendary.
• One of his ten wives had a brother who was the high priest. Herod felt threatened by this brother-in-law of his, so he murdered him.
• Then he killed his wife, too.
Herod was a ruthless man.
• At one point, he was afraid of a plot against him by two of his sons, so he murdered both of them.
• He was a brutal, merciless man.
So it's no wonder that Matthew tells us that Herod was “deeply disturbed” when he learned that a child had been born who was being called "King of the Jews."
• He was immediately threatened—even though Jesus was a baby and he was an old man.
BODY
So let's pick up the story in Matthew chapter 2, starting in verse 13:
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.”
• So, the magi escape safely, heeding God’s warning not to go back to Herod.
• Then an angel appears again to Joseph to warn him about Herod’s plot to murder the child.
• The angel instructs Joseph on how he is to care for Jesus and Mary, and Joseph is again immediately obedient, escaping to Egypt by night with them.
Then we read in verses 14 and 15:
14 And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt 15 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.”
Why would the angel instruct Joseph to take Jesus and Mary to Egypt? Why Egypt, which was at least an 80-mile trek from Bethlehem?
• For one, there was a large Jewish refugee community in Alexandria, Egypt. There were about 1 million Jews living in Alexandria.
• Another reason is because Egypt was outside the jurisdiction of Herod, so they would be immediately safe once they entered Egypt.
• But there’s another reason here—a much bigger reason—one that reaches back in time over 1,000 years prior to Jesus.
• Notice that Matthew is quoting an Old Testament prophecy here. In fact, in the passage we’re looking at today, Matthew quotes from the Old Testament three different times, and each time he says that the words of the prophets were fulfilled.
• In verse 15, Matthew is quoting from the prophet Hosea, and in that particular context Hosea is talking about God’s deliverance of His people from slavery in Egypt—what we call the Exodus.
• Remember the Exodus? That was when the Israelites were in slavery in Egypt for 400 years, and they were led by Moses and miraculously delivered from the hands of the Egyptians at the Red Sea.
• In light of this context, then, what Matthew wants us to know is that when Jesus and His family flee to Egypt and then later return from Egypt, this is a picture of Jesus inaugurating a new exodus.
That Joseph had to take his family and flee to Egypt was about much more than just running away from Herod—this was about fulfilling prophecy.
• Just as Israel was God’s son, brought out of Egypt, what Matthew wants us to see here is that Jesus is God’s Son, being brought out of Egypt.
• In the Old Testament, we see God saving His people by bringing miraculous deliverance from Egypt, but now we see God saving His people by bringing the Messianic Deliverer from Egypt.
• In the Old Testament, we see Moses leading the Israelites out from their bondage to Pharaoh, but now, this is a picture of Jesus leading all kinds of people out from their bondage to sin.
So what we learn here in verses 13-15 is that when faced with sin, Jesus offers us deliverance.
• Because we all have sinned and because we all fall so far short of God’s standard of righteousness, God took on flesh in the person of Jesus, stepped into our humanity, to live a life of perfection and die a death undeserved, all to deliver us from the guilt and grip of sin.
• So, maybe you haven’t yet surrendered to Jesus; maybe you’ve been thinking about it, maybe you’ve been listening to us preach through these Christmas sermons, but you just haven’t yet accepted Jesus’ offer of deliverance.
• If that is you, then my prayer is that you wouldn’t leave today without having made that commitment to Jesus.
• My prayer is that you’d realize that you are, in fact, in bondage to sin and that the one way—the only way—to be delivered is through Jesus.
• I like how J.I. Packer summarized the Christmas message. Here’s what he said: “The Christmas message is that there is hope for a ruined humanity—hope of pardon, hope of peace with God, hope of glory—because at the Father's will Jesus Christ became poor and was born in a stable so that thirty years later he might hang on a cross.”
• When faced with sin, Jesus offers us deliverance.
Matthew continues in verse 16:
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.
• Here we come across what is known as the slaughter of the innocents.
• When Herod realizes that the wise men disobeyed his command to them to report back, he becomes enraged.
• So, in his blind and foolish hatred, Herod commands his soldiers to kill all the little boys two and under in the area of Bethlehem.
• We don’t know for sure how many innocent boys were murdered, but we do know that this was an act of pure evil.
• Herod wouldn’t dare risk allowing one to grow up whom others are calling “King of the Jews.” This was the title he fought so ruthlessly for.
• And He certainly had no intention of fulfilling prophecy, yet Matthew tells us that is exactly what he did.
We read of this in verses 17 and 18:
Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah:
18 “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.”
This quotation occurs right after Herod kills all the infant boys in Bethlehem, and it’s taken from the prophet Jeremiah.
• In its context, in Jeremiah 31, the prophet is talking about the time when God’s people were taken into exile.
• The Babylonians came and attacked Jerusalem: They raided everyone’s homes, destroyed the entire city, and took all the people to a place called Ramah, an ancient city located just north of Jerusalem.
• At Ramah, during this exile that Jeremiah had prophesied about, people were put into caravans and scattered apart from one another.
• Rachel, who was the matriarch of Israel, here serves as a symbolic role for all Israel.
• So, the picture of Rachel weeping for her children represented all the Jewish mothers who wept over Israel’s great tragedy in the days of Jeremiah.
• This was a scene of deep sorrow.
• Imagine how you would react if you were taken to a place where you were separated from your family and your friends with the likelihood that you’d never see them again.
• Imagine the crying, the deep sorrow, that would take place in a scene like that as families were torn apart.
• Well, this is the kind of scene that Matthew refers to when he describes the weeping and crying over the children who had been murdered in Bethlehem.
• In Jeremiah chapter 31, Rachels’ tears—the tears of the exile—have reached their climax in the tears of the mothers of Bethlehem.
• So the point that Matthew is getting at here is that, with Jesus, the trail of tears is finally coming to an end.
• Matthew is saying that with the coming of Jesus, the time of the exile is coming to a close.
See, Matthew is quoting directly from Jeremiah 31:15.
• But listen to what the prophet Jeremiah says right after this, in verses 16 and 17: Thus says the LORD:
“Keep your voice from weeping,
and your eyes from tears,
for there is a reward for your work,
declares the LORD,
and they shall come back from the land of the enemy.
17 There is hope for your future,
declares the LORD,
and your children shall come back to their own country.
• Jeremiah is telling the people that God has not forgotten them.
• So when Matthew quotes from Jeremiah, it’s as if he’s saying amidst the awful tragedy in Bethlehem, “Yes, the pain is real—the sorrow is real—but there is peace available to you now, and there is hope for your future—and that peace, that hope, has come into the world in the Person of Jesus.”
• So, what does this mean for us? It means that when we’re faced with sorrow, Jesus relieves our despair.
When faced with sorrow, Jesus relieves our despair.
• The message of Christmas isn’t just about “good tidings of great joy.”
• The message of Christmas is just as much about experiencing hope in the midst of hurt.
• The message of Christmas is just as much about experiencing life in the midst of death.
• It’s about experiencing the relief that Jesus offers us, even though we find ourselves in a season of deep sorrow.
I saw on Facebook last week a post from one of our leaders here at Bayside, Fran Ward.
• Fran and her family have experienced a lot of sorrow this year—they've gone through some difficult seasons of grief.
• But, in the midst of that sorrow, they’ve come to a deeper appreciation of the hope that Christmas offers.
• Fran gave me permission to share some of what she wrote on Facebook:
• “...while the holidays are supposed to be times of joy, let’s be honest...there are many whose hearts are feeling anything but joy this year. Perhaps our hearts have been broken with grief. One less setting at the table, one less present to wrap... [perhaps] our hearts have been broken with disillusionment, an empty spot in the bed because of a broken marriage... Our ‘Merry Christmas’ picture in pieces. Perhaps our hearts have been broken with loneliness. We are surrounded by people, but on the inside we are so alone: No one really gets us, no one really knows us. Or maybe our hearts have been broken by regret, shame, or fear. We look back on the past year and wish we could go back and change what we did, what we said, how we lived. For many of us, the Christmas lights shine bright but they don’t reach the dark places in our hearts.”
Do any of those hit home for you?
• Has this been a season filled with grief?
• Have you experienced deep loneliness or sorrow?
• Maybe you found yourself rocked by severe depression or anxiety.
• Whatever this season—this year—has looked like for you, whatever your situation, no matter how difficult or how sorrowful—the good news of Christmas is that when faced with sorrow, Jesus relieves our despair.
• Are you getting this?
• Christmas is a gift for those who live broken by the darkness.
• Christmas is a song for the songless; it’s a promise for those burned by broken promises; it’s a dream for those who have resigned to never dream again.
• Christmas is God’s testimony that darkness has been broken and hope has come.
• It’s the message that a new King is born—the King is born—the King who will conquer death; the King who will heal our hurts, deliver us from our sin, and relieve our despair.
• The tears shed by the mothers in Bethlehem 2,000 years ago inaugurated the reign of the One who will shed tears of blood for the forgiveness of our sins and who will eventually wipe away all sickness, all pain, all sorrow, all death, and every single one of our tears.
• When faced with sin, Jesus offers us deliverance.
• When faced with sorrow, Jesus relieves our despair.
Then Matthew continues, in verses 19 and 20:
19 But when Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, 20 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.”
• An angel reappears to Joseph in a dream, and the wording of the command here begins exactly as it did before, only this time Joseph and his family are told to leave Egypt and return home to Israel.
• The immediate danger has passed with Herod’s death.
• The so-called “King of the Jews” Herod lived a life of hostility toward others and toward God and his story ends in death and hopelessness.
• None of the fortresses or palaces he built for himself were able to keep him from dying—and this high and lofty king lost control to the lowly humble king born in a manger.
• And now that Herod’s dead, Joseph is commanded to return back to Israel.
• And as we’ve seen time and again, Joseph is quick to obey.
Verse 21:
21 And he rose and took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel.
• Joseph doesn’t hesitate. Though he doesn’t even fully understand what’s going on, he simply accepts God’s direction for him and his family and obeys.
Verse 22:
22 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.
• When they discover that Herod’s son, Archelaus, is ruling over the region of Judea in his father’s place, Joseph is warned again in another dream not to return to Bethlehem.
• So, the family takes a detour to Nazareth, in the region of Galilee, as verse 23 tells us.
23 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.
• Now, here is the third time in today’s passage that Matthew quotes from the prophets. The only thing is that there is no one particular reference that Matthew is pointing us back to.
• There is no specific reference in the Old Testament that mentions the Messiah will be called a Nazarene.
• So, what’s going on here?
• Well, scholars suggest that the answer to this riddle lies in the name itself.
• The word “Nazareth” comes from the Hebrew word netzer, a word meaning “shoot” or “branch.”
• The netzer is the shoot that grows from the root of the olive tree, and it can eventually become another trunk of the tree jutting out from the base.
• The word netzer was used by the Old Testament prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Zechariah to refer to the Messiah.
• Jeremiah spoke of the time when God would “raise up for David a righteous Branch; and He will reign as king and act wisely and do justice and righteousness in the land” (Jeremiah 23:5).
• And through the prophet Zechariah, God announced, “I am going to bring in My servant the Branch” (Zechariah 3:8).
• Isaiah wrote, “Then a shoot [netzer] will spring from the stem of Jesse, and a branch from his roots will bear fruit” (Isaiah 11:1).
• In fact, the town of Nazareth was likely named after this passage in Isaiah, because it was originally settled by a remnant of Israel who returned from the exile and were from David’s line. So, these Jews consciously gave their new settlement a messianic name.
Yet, in spite of all this, Nazareth was not a major town.
• It didn’t sit alongside a busy road.
• It hadn’t played any significant role in the nation’s history.
• It wasn’t a very well-respected place.
• It was at the bottom of the socio-economic scale.
• And Nazarenes were scorned and generally despised by others.
• This is why when Nathanael initially heard about Jesus of Nazareth, his immediate response was, “Can anything good come from Nazareth?”
• It certainly wasn’t where one expected to find the Messiah.
So, why Nazareth? Why did Jesus grow up in this little insignificant village?
• For one, this was Mary’s hometown; so, the family was familiar with it.
• Another reason I think is due to the fact that the village was secluded.
• As such, it provided a safe, protected place where Jesus could grow in wisdom and stature and favor with God, away from the prying eyes and political plotting of those in power, like Herod, who were threatened by any potential rival.
• But I think there’s another reason here. I think what Matthew wants us to know is that nothing is insignificant if it's part of God’s plan, no matter how shameful or despised.
• I think the one final piece of Christmas hope that Matthew is giving to us is the truth that when we’re faced with shame, Jesus gives us dignity.
When faced with shame, Jesus gives us dignity.
• Perhaps you walked into church this morning with the post-Christmas blues: feeling empty, shallow, and insignificant.
• Or maybe this year, for you, has simply been one let down after another.
• Maybe you feel worthless or unloved.
• If this hits home, realize that God delights in using the seemingly insignificant things of this world to display His greatness—including you and me!
• In the face of shame and insignificance—regardless of the mistakes you’ve made and the wrongs you’ve committed—the moment you decide to follow Jesus, He comes to indwell you in the Person of the Holy Spirit, and He gives you a new identity, new worth, and absolute dignity.
• So no matter how insignificant you might feel, no matter how unimportant your life might seem, no matter your struggles and limitations, realize that Jesus gives you dignity and calls you His own.
• It doesn’t matter where you’re from or what you’ve done, what matters, and what gives you significance, is who God says you are and where His plans take you.
• Just as He decided to use the little shameful and insignificant town of Nazareth to reveal His own Son, God takes our flaws and failures and can use them for His glory to reveal His greatness.
When faced with sin, Jesus offers us deliverance.
• When faced with sorrow, He relieves our despair.
• And when faced with shame, Jesus gives us dignity.
Here’s the bottom of line of today’s passage:
When Jesus was born, hope entered our world.
• This is great news!
• It means that no matter what we’ve gone through this year, or what our Christmas season has been like, we can still have hope!
• We can have hope because a Savior was born who would live His life in perfect obedience to the Father.
• We can have hope because of this Jesus who would die a death that belonged to you and me, all to call us into an intimate and loving relationship with Himself.
• We have hope because we know that death was unable to keep Jesus in the grave, and it’s unable to keep His followers in the grave.
• We have hope because we know that God works all things together for our good if we are His followers.
• And we have hope because we know how the story ends: That a day is coming where there will be no more sorrow, no more sin, no more pain, no more death, and no more tears!
• And until that day comes, we know we have a God who loves us, who has called us to Himself, and who is sovereign over every detail of our lives.
• When Jesus was born, hope entered our world!
CONCLUSION
I want to end with telling you a story about a man named William Cowper.
• William Cowper was a Christian man who lived in the 1700s and struggled through many types of suffering.
• There was a time when he experienced great depression, and one night he decided that was it.
• He was going to commit suicide by drowning himself in the Thames (Tems) River in London. So he walked out his front door, called a cab, and told the driver to take him to the river.
• However, out of nowhere, a storm came through and a fog came down upon the city that was so thick that the driver could not see at all where he was going.
• Regardless, Cowper insisted that he get taken to the river, so the driver kept on driving.
• Finally, after driving around lost for a while, the cabby finally stopped and said, “I’ve got to let you out. I can’t see where I’m going.”
• So he let Cowper out and to Cowper’s surprise, he found himself exactly in front of his own doorstep, and he looked back and the cab was gone.
• See, God had sent the blackest storm and fog to keep him from killing himself. As a result, William Cowper saw that even in his darkest moments, God was with him and in control.
• Cowper went into his house and wrote a hymn known as Light Shining out of Darkness:
God moves in a mysterious way / His wonders to perform; / He plants His footsteps in the sea, / And rides upon the storm.
Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take; / The clouds ye so much dread, / Are big with mercy and shall break / In blessings on your head.
Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, / But trust Him for His grace; / Behind a frowning providence / He hides a smiling face.
His purposes will ripen fast, / Unfolding ev'ry hour; / The bud may have a bitter taste, / But sweet will be the flow'r.
No matter what you are going through or what you might go through; no matter what your 2018 looked like, or what the year 2019 will look like, take heart in the fact that you can meet any all challenges and obstacles with the hope that Jesus makes available to you!
When Jesus was born, hope entered our world!
PRAYER
Will you respond in hostility as Herod did?
Will you respond as Mary did? As Joseph did? As the shepherds did? As the wise men? With worship and awe.
