Matthew 2:13-23 - Birth of Jesus

You won't find tell of a king killing innocent children,

of a community devastated,

of Jesus' family having to flee as refugees.

But we're being reminded here that from the very beginning

of the life of Jesus, there was a cost to him

in becoming Emmanuel, God with us.

We're reminded that Jesus left the glory of heaven

and he had this very humble birth in the stable.

And from his earliest days,

there was a sense of spiritual opposition and battle

wherever Jesus was.

Now, given that the gospel writers are really selective

about what they tell us about the early years of Jesus.

So you read Luke and you read Matthew,

you don't discover very much.

We need to ask ourselves,

why does Matthew record this particular story?

I think it helps us to see two themes

that we can trace through Matthew's gospel.

We see Jesus at the center of a spiritual battle

and we see that Jesus fulfills the purpose and the plan of God.

So we're going to see how these things work out in our text.

First of all, we're going to think about Jesus and spiritual battle.

Now, boys and girls, I don't know if you've ever realized

how many of our favorite stories are about a battle

between the good guys and the bad guys.

So we can think about that from stories like the three little pigs.

They're the good guys.

The big bad wolf, he's the bad guy.

We can think about a story like Star Wars,

where there's loads of good guys, loads of bad guys.

But we are all in our hearts.

What we really want when we read these stories

is we want good to win, don't we?

We want the good guys to win.

We want the bad guys to be defeated.

There is this story of good and evil that we enjoy

because we want to see good win.

And that's really important to the story of Jesus.

Jesus is God's good and true king

and he's come to defeat all that is bad and all that is evil.

And so we find when we've read the first two chapters of Matthew,

we discover that the Christmas story is full of the supernatural.

And we discover that God is at work

and that God sends angels and the angels bring messages.

We find that Jesus comes by the power of God's spirit

to become Emmanuel, God with us.

But we also discover in this passage that the devil is active,

that there is spiritual attack, there's spiritual battle going on.

In fact, one way to read the Bible

is to read the Bible as the history of spiritual warfare.

We can go all the way back to the beginning of the Bible

when everything was perfect.

There was Adam and Eve, but then the snake came,

that the devil came in the serpent.

He came as the destroyer.

He came as the deceiver to pull Adam and Eve away

from trusting the word of God

to believing that God was holding back something good from them.

So begins the fall into sin.

And so we begin to see this battle of good and evil

that then plays out throughout the Bible history

and throughout the history of the world.

We see the devil often working through anti-God figures

to fight against, to destroy God's purposes and God's people.

Here in our story, who's the anti-God figure?

It's King Herod.

Read with me again what the angels say in verse 13.

The angel comes to Joseph,

get up, 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.

Herod has heard that God's promised king has come

and he wants to get rid of this king.

Verse 16.

When Herod realized that he'd 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.

Here is a king who devastates a community

in order to hang on to power,

in order to try and get rid of God's king, Jesus.

Here is Herod killing, historians will tell us,

maybe between 20 and 30 innocent little baby boys

in order to hold on to power.

Actually, we discover this is quite in keeping

with Herod's character.

Herod, the king, killed three of his own sons

to make sure he could remain king,

killed 300 of his court officials

because he was worried about conspiracy.

Here is a man who will do anything to stay in power

so he wants to get rid of Jesus.

So when we read a passage like this,

we're reading a story of intense spiritual battle.

Herod is the human player,

but we discover that Jesus is in the devil's sights here.

If we can kill God's king, we can kill God's good purposes.

That is the way the devil seeks to operate.

So as we read the story,

we read with a sense of threat and urgency,

but we also saw that in this battle between good and evil,

God protects and saves his own son.

And he does it in a variety of different ways.

He uses the angels to deliver these messages

to keep Jesus safe.

He uses his own mother and father,

Joseph and Mary,

in order to keep Jesus safe.

But again, the question,

why does Matthew focus on these horrible events?

Why not move from his birth to his public ministry?

Well, it reminds us, doesn't it,

that from the very beginning,

the forces of darkness are lining up against Jesus.

And we see it as he begins his public ministry,

as Jesus is out in the wilderness.

He then is faced with the devil coming and tempting him.

We find as Jesus moves around in various communities,

engaged in his ministry,

that he's often confronted by evil spirits.

There is this sense of tension between good and evil.

And then we get to the cross, of course,

where we see the devil causing Judas to betray Jesus.

And we find the Jewish religious leaders

conspiring together to get rid of Jesus.

We find the Roman authorities agreeing to get rid of Jesus.

And so we've got this union,

this conspiracy of evil.

But at the same time,

we're being reminded that God is in control.

Herod is full of threat,

but Herod's threat fails.

Herod wanted to kill Jesus,

but notice twice in verse 15,

then verse 19,

we're told very simply after Herod died,

when Herod died.

Herod died,

Jesus still alive.

God's purpose continues.

And actually,

Herod's schemes,

the devil's schemes,

serve to fulfill prophecy.

So as Mary and Joseph and Jesus flee to Egypt,

so was fulfilled,

verse 15,

what the Lord had said through the prophet,

out of Egypt I called my son.

God is in control.

God is in control.

Even in the political situation,

Joseph and Mary and Jesus come back.

They're worried about Archelaus,

verse 22.

They go and move to Nazareth instead of to Judea.

And again,

that's fulfilling prophecy.

So think about this for Matthew's first readers.

What is he trying to say to them?

He's saying to them,

have courage.

God is in control.

God's purposes are accomplished.

As they begin to face trouble,

they are living as a Christian community.

Take heart.

God is in control.

At every point in the story of Jesus,

there is victory.

So here,

when Herod tries to destroy him,

he's kept safe.

When the devil comes to tempt Jesus,

he remains faithful.

He resists temptation by the power of God's word.

The demons confront him,

and he drives the demons out.

And then on the cross,

when it looked like Jesus was facing defeat,

we're told that that's the point

where Jesus wins a decisive victory,

that he defeats and disarms

the power of Satan and sin and death.

The eternal plan of God is accomplished.

So again,

the message from Matthew is,

take courage.

If your faith is in Jesus,

you're on the winning side.

There will be battle.

There will be opposition.

But just as Jesus won,

so if your faith is in Jesus,

so you are on the winning side.

Some points of application for us.

When we look around the world,

we see that spiritual battle

still rages on.

Maybe you saw on the BBC or elsewhere,

the reports on raids taking place

on some of the house churches in China.

Again, we're seeing a crackdown

from the government.

We're seeing members and ministers

being arrested.

We need to remember to pray

for our persecuted brothers and sisters in Christ,

but also to remember that God continues

to build his church,

even while facing opposition.

But that spiritual battle

doesn't just rage on in the world,

it also rages in our own hearts.

I was reminded of a quote this week

from C.S. Lewis's Screwtape Letters,

fictional conversations

between a senior devil Screwtape

and a junior devil Wormwood.

And one of the things

that Screwtape says is this,

it's funny how mortals always picture us

putting things into their minds.

In reality, our best work is done

by keeping things out.

So part of the spiritual battle,

part of what the devil wants to do

is he wants to, for example,

distract us

so we don't think about eternal things.

So we think about the goodness of God

we're so busy thinking about here and now.

He wants to keep things out

so that we can even come to church

and have religion,

but have it without Christ

and without salvation

and without the joy of the gospel.

That the devil would try and keep things

like a sense of guilt

and conviction of sin

out of our hearts and our minds

so we never repent

and turn back to God.

So there's this battle that's going on,

not just out there,

but also in our own hearts and lives.

As one Bible commentator says,

if we are determined

to get our own way at all costs,

we will go to any length

to eliminate all trace of Jesus

and his claims on our lives.

I wonder if that's our internal battle

just now,

trying to get rid of the claims of Jesus,

trying to shut him out.

But you know,

the battle also goes on

in Christian hearts too.

That yes, Jesus has won a victory

and yes, we are redeemed,

but still that battle still goes on.

One example of this,

just to make it practical for us,

is think about our attitude

towards, let's say, Bible reading.

So Jesus said,

anyone who loves me

will obey my teaching.

John 14, 23.

So there's a connection

between love for Jesus

and the word of God.

To lose interest in the Bible, therefore,

is to lose interest in God.

Now, as we as Christians

reflect on our own

spiritual life and experience,

either now or in the past,

I imagine most of us,

maybe all of us,

have had times when

reading the Bible was hard,

where it was the last thing

that we wanted to do,

where we did it out of a sense of duty,

but not of a sense of joy,

because we would meet God then.

There is spiritual battle

in our hearts all the time

to fight against sin,

to fight to desire God above other things.

And it's important for us

to be realistic about that.

Some people have the idea

that when I come to Jesus,

when I become a Christian,

everything will become wonderful,

that life will become perfect.

But the Bible is full of the language

of battle and warfare,

and that's much more realistic

of what happens in our own hearts.

Boys and girls,

I don't know if you went

ice skating this Christmas.

I don't know if you went down

to the skating rink

at St. Andrew's Square.

I went down to watch,

not to skate,

because that would have gone badly for me.

But one thing that I noticed,

I was there for just like

two or three minutes,

you notice two types of skaters.

You see the ones

who are obviously very accomplished,

and they kind of glide along.

You get the odd spin here and there.

It looks really simple.

You'd watch them and think,

wow, it looks so straightforward.

But then,

you'd see the other people,

and they'd be gripping on to the side,

and the skates would be slipping

all the time,

and you felt like there was just moments

before they were going to hit the deck.

When it comes to the Christian life,

do we expect that it's about gliding along,

or do we expect it to be a battle

to get ourselves to the finish?

It's important for us to be realistic.

It's a battle to trust God.

It's a battle to obey,

but it's a battle that's well worth fighting.

And there's good news for us.

There's good news for us

because we remember that the victory

has been won by our King,

by King Jesus,

on the cross and through His resurrection.

And so to give us an image

from Pilgrim's Progress,

maybe you've read Pilgrim's Progress.

One of the images there for Christian

as he's on this pilgrimage

is that while our enemies are real,

and that battle is real,

they're like lions that are chained.

So there is fear,

and there is attack,

but we need to remember

that those enemies are chained,

that the battle has been won by Jesus.

So that's something of Jesus

and spiritual battle.

Let's now think together

about Jesus and the purposes of God.

One of the things that we discover

in Matthew's Gospel

is so many times we find

reference to the Old Testament.

Jesus as fulfillment

of Old Testament prophecies.

So three times we're told

in our passage here,

so was fulfilled

what the Lord had said

through His prophet.

So let's think about those

three things that we discover.

What do they say

about God's purposes?

So verse 15,

just to remind ourselves,

so was fulfilled

what the Lord had said

through the prophet,

out of Egypt

I called my son.

Okay, first thing to realize,

Jesus comes as God's Savior.

Now again, boys and girls,

I don't know if you've noticed this.

Adults, I don't know

if you've noticed this either.

How similar

some of the early stories

of Moses and Jesus are.

Remember the story of Moses

when he was born?

There was a king, wasn't there?

He was called Pharaoh,

and he wanted to get rid of

all the baby boys

who were born to the Israelites.

And so what had to happen?

Moses had to be put in a basket

to be kept safe

from a king

who wanted to get rid of him.

Now that's just like Jesus,

isn't it?

Just as Moses would grow up

to be God's chosen deliverer,

so Jesus would grow up

to be God's chosen deliverer.

And then we know the story

of what happened

when Moses grew up.

God said to him,

go to Pharaoh

and say,

let my people go.

And it was Moses

who was chosen

to lead Israel

out of slavery

into freedom

to become the people of God.

And again,

that's just like Jesus.

Jesus comes to set us free

from a slavery far worse

than being worked to death

in Egypt,

slavery to sin,

where we can't know God,

where we're far from God,

where we're under the guilt of God,

Jesus sets us free

because he breaks the power of sin

and he enables us then

to become the children of God.

So we discover the connection there

between the story of Moses

and the story of Jesus.

The great saving event

in the Old Testament,

the Exodus,

prepares the way

for the salvation

that Jesus comes to bring.

Now, if you notice

in your footnote,

this is a quotation

from Hosea,

Hosea chapter 11,

Hosea 11:1

verse 1.

That prophecy from Hosea,

that quotation,

it sees Israel being rebuked

for being an unfaithful son.

It says,

out of Egypt,

I called my son,

but the more I called,

the further they went,

trusting in false gods,

guilty of injustice

and walking away from God.

We discover that they

were not

living

with faith

and obedience

towards God

who would be

their father.

And what we understand

is that their failure

is our failure too.

When we look

at our own hearts,

we discover

that not one of us

can say that we have been

perfectly faithful,

that we've perfectly

followed God,

that we've perfectly

loved God.

All of us have

gone astray.

So then the Bible

would say all of us

by nature are slaves

to sin

and we cannot break free

from that slavery.

But Jesus comes,

thinking about the story

of Moses,

Jesus comes to be

our rescuer.

Jesus comes to be

our Passover lamb.

He is killed

so that the judgment

that should fall on us

falls on Jesus

so that we can be set free.

Jesus is our

perfect representative,

perfectly obedient for us,

goes ahead of us.

We follow after him

and through his

perfect sacrifice

we have our way

to forgiveness

and our way

to freedom.

So Matthew wants us

to remember

that the story

of Jesus

is the story

of God's Savior

coming.

Now the second

prophecy

is in verse 17.

Then what was said

through the prophet

Jeremiah this time

was fulfilled.

A voice is heard

in Ramah

weeping

and great mourning,

Rachel weeping

for her children

and refusing

to be comforted

for they are no more.

This comes from

Jeremiah chapter 31

Jeremiah 31:15

verse 15.

The sorrow,

the mourning

in this context

is that God

is saying

families are going

to be taken

into exile.

But Jeremiah 31

as a whole

is a reminder

that there is hope

beyond sorrow.

There is a hope

beyond sorrow

for Israel.

There is a hope

beyond sorrow

for us

because of Jesus.

In Jeremiah chapter 31

Jeremiah 31 · chapter mention

although they are told

that there will be

exile,

families will be

taken away,

there will also be

restoration.

That God will again

show everlasting love

to his people.

That he will enter

into a new covenant

with his people.

He will write his law

on their hearts.

So why does Matthew

as he reads his Old Testament,

why does he apply

this text

to the situation

that we've just read about?

Babies being killed

in Bethlehem.

Well there's sorrow

isn't there?

There's slaughter

of innocent children

which is an evil

wicked thing

which brings sorrow.

But how do we see hope

beyond the sorrow?

Because Jesus

the Savior King

is kept safe.

And just as

is promised

in Jeremiah 31

it's through Jesus

that relationships

are restored.

It's through Jesus

that we can be

reconciled to God.

That we can be

in the family of God.

As we look at the life

and the death

of Jesus

we find that evidence

of God's

everlasting love.

Of his

loving commitment

to save

his own people.

And just as Jesus said

that it's in his body

and his blood

it's through his death

on the cross

that the new covenant

is secured

for his people.

That we can belong

to God

because Jesus

gave his life

as a ransom

for many.

So we're reminded

that there is sorrow

but there is hope

beyond sorrow

because Jesus

is kept safe.

And then in verse 23

we find our final

reference to prophecy.

He went and lived

in a town called Nazareth.

So was fulfilled

what was said

through the prophets.

He will be called

a Nazarene.

Now this is different

because there's no

single text here

that's being referred to

but rather

Matthew is drawing

certain facts together

to make the point

that Jesus comes

as God's

humble

saviour.

So there are lots

of prophecies

in the Old Testament

that speak of a Messiah

who will be

humble.

He will be born

and live

in a humble

unimportant

place.

And at the time

of Jesus

Nazareth

was just that

kind of place.

It was a

backwater town

not a place

of great note

or significance.

So Nathaniel

one of Jesus'

disciples

when Philip

came and said

I think I found

the Messiah

it's Jesus

of Nazareth

Nathaniel said

can anything good

come out of Nazareth?

So it was one

of those times

you didn't really

expect anybody

great or good

to come from

but it's all

in keeping

with God's

good purpose

that his saviour

would come

in humility

that Jesus'

life would be

a humble

life.

And this

reminds us

Christianity

is not a

religion of

power.

It's not a

religion of

status.

It's not a

religion that's

all about

performance.

Rather it

speaks

grace

and kindness

and mercy

from God

to the

humble

and to the

weak

and to the

needy.

And we see

that all

through the

story of

Jesus.

Jesus the

one who's

born in

a stable.

Jesus the

one who lives

as a refugee.

Jesus the

one who makes

this home

in a

despised

town.

Jesus who

associates

with the

tax collectors,

the sinners,

the outsiders,

the despised

ones.

Jesus who

dies that

awful death

on the

cross.

The hidden

part, this

hidden part of

the Christmas

story, is

saying really

important things

to us.

It's reminding

us of

Jesus, our

humble

saviour.

It's reminding

us that he

came into

this earth in

order to

enter into

spiritual battle

on behalf of

his people.

To give us

freedom instead

of slavery.

To give us

hope instead

of sorrow.

Jesus has

come for us.

He has fought

for us.

He has died

for us,

securing the

victory for us.

Now he rules

and reigns

for us

in the glory

of heaven.

And one day

he'll come back

again to take

his people

to be

with him.

So as we

think about

King Jesus,

as we think

about the

purposes of

God this

Christmas,

the basic

question we need

to ask

ourselves is,

are we on

his side?

Is he my

king?

Am I willing

to submit

to his good

and loving

rule?

That way heningar

can begin

as we

learn

as strangely

with his

Jen

on

inher

to

an

man

when

he

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