Matthew: The Beginning

INTRODUCTION

Today, we are kicking off a new series where we will study the Gospel of Matthew. Our goal is over the course of time to study the entirety of the book. However, in true Elevate fashion, we aren’t starting at the beginning; we won’t go in sequential order and will take breaks throughout the process. The first section we will study will center around Jesus' ministry in the region of Galilee, which you saw in the bumper video.

I promise I won’t overwhelm you today with too many nerdy facts. I just spent a semester on this topic, and I know many of you don’t nerd out on this kind of stuff the way that I do. So I won’t bore you with too many details, but we will cover the truth behind what some of history proves about our God in heaven. However, if you would like to know the details, you can follow the QR code to your right or left; not only will you notice today’s sermon notes, but there is also a place where we can connect over some coffee or food.

Transition -

BIBLE

So, as we get started into Matthew, we need to recognize Matthew’s dual purpose in writing this book. This will give us the primary codex through which we translate words from his retelling of Jesus’ time on earth.

Matthew seeks to accomplish two things: First, Christianity is the true continuation of the Old Testament and Judaism. This was one of the main points of tension in the first-century church. How did the Jewish heritage and religion fit with now following Jesus? This was a question that Matthew, Paul, and others would try to explain. Matthew does so from the very beginning of this book. We will see throughout our study that Matthew very much sees this as a continuation through his common quotes of the OT and his references of historical Judaism.

Second, the Kingdom of Heaven has drawn near in the person of Jesus. Matthew references this phrase 32 times throughout his Gospel. As we get into the book, you will notice this theme, and we will break down more about what it means as we journey through it.

So as we study today, we will have a dual purpose like Matthew. Main Point: We need a savior, and God’s timing is perfect. If you’re here, neither of these things surprise you. However, If the people looking for someone like Jesus missed him, how can we be sure that we don’t miss something? If God’s timing is perfect why are things still going wrong in my life? Maybe most importantly, you’ve probably heard how Jesus fulfills the prophesies, but do you know which ones and where? All of these things we will cover today. Lets begin at the beginning of Chapter 2:

Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, Matthew 2:1 ESV

I want to focus on one selection of words that is going to highlight exactly what I am talking about. Note, in the days of Herod the King. These seven words summarize years of mounting frustration for God’s people, the Jews. This frustration goes all the way back to the end of King David’s rule when the nation of Israel split in two. I am talking about David, who slayed the giant and ruled for almost forty years. His kingdom split because of his children, and from that point forward, Israel would never be united in the same way again. Their division allowed different kings and empires to invade and control the entire nation. Babylon, Persia, Alexander the Great, and eventually Rome would all take control of the region. The Jews would have gone from mainly being centralized in this region to dispersing throughout the region because of the different controlling empires that took over the area.

If you thought the Israelites were frustrated after being enslaved in Egypt for four hundred years, imagine the morale of the Jews here. They haven’t experienced the glory days for nearly a thousand years. The only people who could possibly identify with the Jews have to be Kentucky basketball fans. We treat every year without a national championship like a year of famine. I remember back in 2008 when we hadn’t come close in almost ten years. You could hear the groans around the state. Kind of like now it's been more than ten years and we are starting to get unsettled again. Maybe the only ones worse are the Louisville fans who twenty years after winning a championship, finally became relevant again, only to see all their accolades stripped away.

I’m totally kidding, God does not care about our petty sports ball games; we're a soccer school now anyway. However, God allowed this slow erosion of his people’s political system to help them understand the truth we first spoke about, the clear need for a savior. I have often wondered why did God choose to do things this way? If mankind needed a savior, why not send it soon after we messed up? It was because humans did not yet recognize the need. It took thousands of years of us trying to do it our way, with God slowly steering us in the right direction.

It started with Abraham, where God’s people tried to be righteous. That system did not work, so God sent the law with the priests as those who would execute and keep God’s people accountable to it. It was unsuccessful, so the Israelites wanted an earthly King to lead them. That system also failed and let them through thousands of years of division to this point.

It wasn’t just the political system that had to fall apart; we see the same with the religious hierarchy. The most prestigious position in all of Israel was the high priest. They were the person who was allowed to be in the presence of God. However, in the couple hundred years leading up to this moment, the position lost all its prestige because what was once a holy position became one of political intrigue. The men who had the birthright to become the next high priest made strategic alliances so that when the right men came into power, they would be appointed the new high priest. But you couldn’t just kick out the old high priest; the new alliances would include the murder of whoever the current high priest was. So scandal had now taken over the one position that had the respect of its people.

This is why God’s timing was perfect in sending his son the Messiah. The people were scattered and they had lost all faith in not only the political leaders of their time but also the religious ones as well. So God’s people had finally reached the perfect time where their savior could be sent. Even those who did not follow God like the magi here were astronomers noticed that something major had taken place.

2 Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, 2 saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” Matt. 2:1-2 ESV

There are some cool details about how the Magi would have noticed this star that is included in your notes that you can watch later. It is just a TikTok video, and it is just a theory, but from what we could research, it can be pretty accurate. This is the perfect time to send a savior; even foreigners can see it. However, there is still a villain in the story we have today. Sometime after Jesus' birth, the current leader, Herod the Great, finds out that a great leader will rise up from these magi:

3 When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him; 4 and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. Matt. 2:3-4 ESV

After everything I just told you, did you catch what is happening here? Herod, who is not a Jew, calls together the Jewish elite. They come and answer his questions because the current high priest has pledged loyalty to him. Of course, he is seeking these answers because he does not want to lose the power that the Roman government has given him. So he uses the religious leaders and the magi to find out where Jesus will be so that he can make his move. However, God’s timing continues to be perfect, and this is the culmination of his master plan; he gives a dream to both the magi and Mary and Joseph. The magi see in a dream that they should not return to Herod after worshipping Jesus. Here is what we find out about Mary and Joseph’s dream:

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.” 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.” Matt. 2:13-15 ESV

TENSION

We will talk more about that last part in a bit. The problem was: Herod heard the story and wanted to keep his power. This had to be a moment where many of us would have probably lost faith. Mary and Joseph had already had a difficult time just having this baby. Now they needed to leave home because the region's current leader wanted to kill their child.

It’s moments like these where many of us begin to doubt. We follow what God has told us to do and listen to the spirit, but when adversity hits, we instantly question why God would choose to do things this way. Placing our faith in God should be easy, but even though we believe in his perfect timing, we do not want it to affect how we live our daily lives. We want to follow Jesus but don’t want it to affect our job. We want to follow Jesus but don’t want that to affect our friends. We certainly don’t want following Jesus to uproot our family. We don’t want to wrestle with death or disappointment. We want following God to fit into our plan and our process.

What man sees as a hurdle, God intends to build faith. I think Mary and Joseph had witnessed the majesty of God, and he had clearly taken care of them up to this point, so why should they stop now? Why should they doubt when they are doing exactly what God had shown them to do? They had faith because they knew God’s promises were the same thousands of years ago, and they manifested even further into their own lives. The same things happen in our lives, but we want to turn away.

It's honestly like those moments we all had growing up. I know that every one of us, at some point or another, would be told what to do by our mommas or our daddies. Instead of jumping when they said jump,, we asked a simple but complicated question, “why?” We were all then met with the same response almost every single time, which is?

God has told us and promised us the same thing. When he calls you to a particular point, but when it does not go exactly as we think, we ask why I am doing this. God says, “Because I said so…” These moments will happen repeatedly in our lives. Yet, we treat God with the same disdain as our parents. We want to know why, and for some reason, “because I said so,” isn’t good enough. It was good enough for the stars when he placed them where he wanted them. It was good enough for the earth when it started spinning on the perfect axis and at the perfect speed. It was good enough land and seas when he put them in just the right places. It was good enough for Abraham when it told him to move to the land he made for them. Joshua when he was told to lead his people back into the promised land. It was good enough for Mary and Joseph when they were a savior would be born to them. Why is it because God said so, not good enough for us?

Application/truth

He had been leading to this moment for all of history. He knew where they were headed, but it had to happen this way over thousands of years because we weren’t ready. The mouthpieces of God had been preparing his people all along. His people needed a savior, and they had to be prepared for his perfect timing. Some of the things he told them are mentioned here. Like at the end of the passage we just read:

his was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, “Out of Egypt I called my son.” Matt. 2:15 ESV

Matthew mentions this so that the Jewish people reading would see that Jesus going to Egypt was for the fulfillment of Hosea 11:1:

When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. Hos. 11:1 ESV

This is just one of many places where God’s truths and plans that had been recorded through scripture are revealed. We will see more and more as we read through Matthew because he points many of them out. He readily helps the Jewish people see that Jesus is the one they have been waiting for. He is the one who has come to set the systems that were failing him right. I think this is why we see what happened in the series we just finished. Jesus supposed the religious leaders because they had dishonored a system that his heavenly father had set in place for the good of humanity. Jesus was sent because we needed a savior who had to be sent at the perfect time. Look at what happens next:

Herod Kills the Children

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. 17 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.”

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.” 21 And he rose and took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. 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. 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. Matt. 2:16-23 ESV

God send Mary and Joseph away at just the right moment; why? Because God’s timing is… Yes, and Matthew gives two more examples of how Jesus came to fulfill everything. First, he quotes Jeremiah, which is isolated in the scriptures. But the end is a little different. There is not a direct link to Jesus becoming a Nazarene. You might be able to see a footnote about the Jeremiah quotation, but there is not one for the end. Of vs. 23? Why? I believe it is because Matthew wants to repaint the picture of what they think the Messiah looks like. They are picturing a warrior king who will come in, set everything straight and rule over all their enemies. This looks a lot like Samson or David from the old testament. However, neither of them could do what Jesus was about to do. Even though this passage resembles the birth of Samson in Judges 13:5 & 7:

5 for behold, you shall conceive and bear a son. No razor shall come upon his head, for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb, and he shall begin to save Israel from the hand of the Philistines.”

7 but he said to me, ‘Behold, you shall conceive and bear a son. So then drink no wine or strong drink, and eat nothing unclean, for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb to the day of his death.’”

Matthew places this at the beginning of his narrative to repaint the picture of the Messiah. He tells a story of Jesus’ birth labeling him a Nazarene, which would have made any Jew think of Samson. The rest of his Gospel shows them why they didn’t need someone like Samson. They needed Jesus, they needed a savior, and it was the perfect time for that savior to come into the world.

This is only the beginning; there is so much to explore within the gospel of Matthew. While it was a story that every Jew needed to hear, it is still one that every human needs to hear. Jesus was the plan, he has always been the plan, and he will always be the plan for the salvation of all humanity. The old testament prepared us for his arrival, and now the church will bring more and more people to him. We just need to continue to trust in him.

CONCLUSION

We need a savior, and his timing is perfect. You may be at a point in your life where you are looking for something different. You have tried to live through your plan, and it hasn’t worked much like it didn’t work for the Israelites. You need a savior; maybe it is time to submit to him. Or maybe you have felt God moving you to do something uncomfortable, and you need to follow through because God is faithful. Or maybe you are following him, but times have become difficult. Do not give up; if God has brought you to this point, there is a reason, even if you do not see it yet. God is not wrong and his timing will always be perfect.