The King Rejected
Notes
Transcript
13 Now when they had gone, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Get up! Take the Child and His mother and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is going to search for the Child to destroy Him.” 14 So Joseph got up and took the Child and His mother while it was still night, and left for Egypt. 15 He remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called My Son.”
16 Then when Herod saw that he had been tricked by the magi, he became very enraged, and sent and slew all the male children who were in Bethlehem and all its vicinity, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had determined from the magi. 17 Then what had been spoken through Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled: 18 “A voice was heard in Ramah, Weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children; And she refused to be comforted, Because they were no more.” 19 But when Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, and said, 20 “Get up, take the Child and His mother, and go into the land of Israel; for those who sought the Child’s life are dead.” 21 So Joseph got up, took the Child and His mother, and came into 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. Then after being warned by God in a dream, he left for the regions of Galilee, 23 and came and lived in a city called Nazareth. This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophets: “He shall be called a Nazarene.”
Introduction
There’s a question our culture is wrestling with at the moment; A question we’ve probably wrestled with at some point in our lives: “Are we failing if we are not accepted?” There’s something in the human condition that longs for acceptance particularly from the people closest to us.
I don’t know about some of you, but when I started getting into middle school a certain kind of survival instinct kicked in. An instinct to belong, to be accepted by my piers. At some point we leave behind the care free spirit of a child and start thinking about what other people think about us.
Do those closest to me like me?
Do the people in my class think I’m popular?
Am I acceptable?
For many what begins in middle school turns into an entire worldview.
What other people of think of me, what other people define as acceptable becomes the idol that all of life serves. People with either choose to adapt to what’s popular at the moment to be found acceptable or try to demand acceptance of those around them, shaming the standard set for them.
This morning I’d like us to recognize the worldliness of both. Neither are a way of living in which we’ll find real blessing.
This may seem at first an odd subject for palm Sunday, but I believe it’s a major theme lying in the background of Jesus’ triumphal entry. A theme that runs all the way back to this moment in Matthew 2 when Jesus was just a child.
Initially we look at the triumphal entry as this glorious moment in Jesus’ life and ministry. A moment when the masses find Jesus acceptable in their eyes.
9 The crowds going ahead of Him, and those who followed, were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David; Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest!”
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Some may be tempted to say, “Surely this is the height of Jesus’ success! What can be better than Jesus being welcomed with open arms as King into the great city of Jerusalem?”
I believe there’s a certain kind of worldly wisdom influencing such a conclusion. If being accepted by the masses, being popular is the goal then there may be a point to that conclusion, but that’s not the goal is it?
The ironic thing about this scene in Matthew 21, Jesus’ triumphal entry on Palm Sunday, is the title the people use to refer to Jesus in that last verse.
10 When He had entered Jerusalem, all the city was stirred, saying, “Who is this?” 11 And the crowds were saying, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth in Galilee.”
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In the life of Jesus and in the cultural understanding of the Jewish people: Nazareth is a place of rejection. Jesus ends up in Nazareth at the end of our passage because he was rejected by the King of Israel.
There’s a common understanding among the people of Israel:
46 Nathanael said to him, “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?”
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Nazareth is a place where the outcasts and the rejects come from. It is not a place full of popular acceptable people. If you want to take things further, look at how the gospel writers use the title. Throughout the the gospels and even the book of Acts the Title “Jesus of Nazareth” is often used in the context of his rejection.”
The closing note of Jesus’ triumphal entry in Matthew is really a foreshadowing of the week to come, a reminder of why Jesus ended up in Nazareth in the first place. This King, this Messiah will be rejected. The King has come to die! In the eyes of the world this king will utterly fail.
This morning I want to shift our focus from the eyes of the world to the eyes of God. What does God see when Christ is rejected? What does God see when we are rejected by the world? The perspective of this passage emphasizes what God sees and all that God has foreordained in His sovereignty.
In truth the cross of Christ, his ultimate rejection by the great and popular of the world was the foundation of His victory. An absurd and insane thought to the ordinary mind, but in God’s sovereign plan of redemption, Christ’s rejection by Herod, Christ’s rejection and crucifixion at the hand of the Romans is the foundation of an eternal and heavenly kingdom. A sacrifice pleasing and acceptable... to God!
When we join with Christ in His suffering.. when we stay firm in the faith not swayed by the opinions of the world and are rejected because of it, we proclaim before God and all who will hear, “Christ is acceptable, Christ is the victor, and His kingdom will know no end.”
Though the wicked seek the destruction of Christ and His kingdom, none will overcome Him. The endurance of the kingdom and our final victory in Jesus has been ordained from the beginning!
Though the wicked seek the destruction of Christ and His kingdom, none will overcome Him. The endurance of the kingdom and our final victory in Jesus has been ordained from the beginning!
The proud seek destruction
The innocent are slaughtered
The evil will not prevail
1. The proud seek destruction
1. The proud seek destruction
If you were with us a couple weeks ago we left off with the humility of the wisemen. These true disciples from a far off land who put their faces in the dirt before the child Jesus to worship Him. In spite of all their means and prominence they’ve laid it all aside to posture themselves as servants before God.
These humble, worshipping servants leave with a warning from God not to return to Herod. We saw Herod’s facade and his posturing last time. He feigned piety before the magi:
8 And he sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the Child; and when you have found Him, report to me, so that I too may come and worship Him.”
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In truth it was all just a ploy to preserve his station as king - And here as the humble leave we see the true heart of Herod as revealed by God. A heart of pride seeking to destroy any who would challenge His station as king.
13 behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Get up! Take the Child and His mother and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is going to search for the Child to destroy Him.”
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Notice who acts first. It’s not until verse 16 that Herod realizes the wisemen have left...
God is acting first!
God knows what Herod is going to do even before he acts: “for Herod is going to search for the Child...” (future)
Herod has yet to even breath a word of evil intent and God is acting to preserve the boy Jesus and His family. Before Joseph and Mary even have any idea that anyone intends Jesus harm, God has given them warning.
In a passage like this it may be tempting to fixate on the evil of Herod and the wickedness he is about to bring about, but might we first see, as I believe Matthew intends, the power and glory of God.
There is no evil deed brought about by men that God did not first see in their hearts long before they put into action.
David speaks of himself in the Psalms very often, but it’s universally true:
1 O Lord, You have searched me and known me. 2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You understand my thought from afar. 3 You scrutinize my path and my lying down, And are intimately acquainted with all my ways. 4 Even before there is a word on my tongue, Behold, O Lord, You know it all.
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There is no facade or charade that can fool God. There is nothing concealed from His eyes!
13 And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.
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Friends, God is not surprised by the evil deeds of men. We might be. We may turn on the news and be shaken by what evil men do or what evil men say, but God is not shaken.
We may be tempted to ask, “What will we do?” when we see the evil deeds of men seeking to respond in some way to such deeds.
God does not respond to evil as we do.
I wonder if we don’t think of God as a sort of divine firefighter. We’re surprised by the kitchen fire that has sprung up certainly so we pray and call God for help, and God being God is an extraordinary firefighter: He puts out the fire in record time.
In some sense there’s nothing wrong with that analogy. We pray and God responds to our prayer: Amen! Praise God for answered prayer, but let’s not assume God is unaware of the fire or surprised when we call Him.
In truth God knows the crisis we’re about to enter before we do! God knows the plans of the enemy even before they put their evil plans into action. This goes one step further though.
We recognize the God is not acting in response to the evil deeds of Herod. He knows the evil heart of Herod before it’s revealed in word and deed, but God’s knowledge does stop at even the intentions of the heart.
14 So Joseph got up and took the Child and His mother while it was still night, and left for Egypt. 15 He remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called My Son.”
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Before Herod was even born God knew he would resist the coming King. He gave words to Hosea hundreds of years before that speak of this moment. God knew that Mary, Joseph, and Jesus would be driven to Egypt by His evil.
Matthew throughout this passage will return to this theme: This fulfills, This fulfills, this fulfills…
The emphasis here is on God and His sovereign plan of redemption… not Herod. Herod is but an instrument, a tool for God to use, in His greater plan and is no match for what God has determined to bring about in Christ.
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As we approach Good Friday this week, as we remember the cross which Christ endured for us, let’s keep this truth in mind.
As Jesus was betrayed in the garden by Judas, God was not surprised.
As Jesus was brought before the high priests who had finally put into motion their plan of destruction, God was not surprised.
As Jesus was brought before a great crowd of His own people as they yelled, “Crucify Him.” God was not surprised.
There were many who were surprised at his death. Even as we follow through the narrative of Holy Week it’s hard to blame them. How did we go from, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord” to, “Crucify Him!” in under a week? What happened?!?! It’s shocking if we really consider it, and yet God was not surprised.
From before time began God ordained that Salvation and redemption would be accomplished, and in that work of salvation: Christ would be rejected.
Every last one of those who cried for His death and destruction were but instruments in God’s greater plan of redemption.
...
Today we get to see all that God did from the other side of Herod’s rejection of the Messiah. Today we get to see from the other side all that God accomplished through the rejection of Christ on Holy Week.
It’s easier to look back and see a sovereign God in retrospect, but that same gracious and sovereign God is working today. That same God who accomplished our salvation through the rejection of Christ is working for our good and our sanctification today. Have you ever stopped to think that God knows the trials and the resistance we’ll face before we get there?
There are Herod’s who will reject us for our faith, there are crosses we will face that may be unexpected, but God is not surprised!
We may not know how, we may not know why God allows certain trials to come along,
but we do know: He is good!
We do know: There is nothing hidden from Him.
We do know: He controls all things to the degree that he can use the crucifixion of His own Son for our eternal salvation.
And therefore, His plan of redemption is not foiled by trials in our lives. In fact it’s often through rejection and crosses that He advances His plan of redemption in us and through us.
Let’s not be surprised when the prideful in the world seek our destruction. Let’s be looking for what God will do through it!
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As much as I believe we ought to look for God’s hand in even the deepest of trials sometimes we can’t help but ask, “Why?”
We can see God working for the good of Joseph, Mary, and Jesus, that’s evident, but what about the rest of the boys in Bethlehem?
2. The innocent are slaughtered
2. The innocent are slaughtered
16 Then when Herod saw that he had been tricked by the magi, he became very enraged, and sent and slew all the male children who were in Bethlehem and all its vicinity, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had determined from the magi. 17 Then what had been spoken through Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled: 18 “A voice was heard in Ramah, Weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children; And she refused to be comforted, Because they were no more.”
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Even while God’s sovereign plan of redemption is coming to fruition, evil will do everything it can to resist. Evil men when will go to great lengths to crush the advancement of the kingdom of Christ.
Sometimes that resistance is so evil it’s hard to look at. It’s so costly and difficult to bear it leaves us asking “Why?” There are some costs and burdens that bear very clear fruit that give our souls some comfort, “Yes I can see what the Lord was doing there…” other times there seems no reason at all.
I want to take a moment to recognize that our faith helps us understand scenes like this, but there are some answers we simply don’t have in this life. I’d like to take a moment to address the answers we don’t have.
Maybe there are some of you here who have endured inexplicable suffering or loss. I cannot begin to understand what you’ve endured, but I can imagine that question may have come up a time or two. “God, why?” For some of you, by God’s grace you can look back at that suffering and hardship and see what God accomplished through it! Praise God for that. For many others those answers may never come in this life.
For many of the rest of us we have a second hand look at the brokenness and evil in the world. Even then we may find ourselves asking, “God, why?” At times the world may even ask us such questions in accusation, “What kind of God allows things like this to happen? Isn’t your God sovereign? Isn’t your God good?”
It’s in those moments when we don’t have all the answers that our faith is tested the most. I hope many of us here would recognize we have a reasoned faith. Our faith is not without truth and reason and logic. We have a lot of wonderful and glorious answers to life’s greatest questions given to us in Scripture. So many of the world’s longings and desires are found in Jesus Christ and how God has revealed Himself in Scripture. We ought to be deeply thankful for all that the Lord has revealed to us - the answers we do have, and yet as long as we are in this world our faith will not have all the answers. There are things we will not see fully, there are things we will not fully understand. There remains a degree of mystery to our faith.
Scripture speaks of looking in mirrors dimly lit. That foggy mirror that doesn’t show us everything.
The nature of faith is described as hoping, not seeing.
1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
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We may not see the fullness of God’s glory and goodness in the world, but that doesn’t mean he’s not absolutely glorious and good! Just because we can’t see everything doesn’t mean we can’t be assured that God will make all things right in the end.
It’s precisely because of our faith that we can look at the atrocities committed in this world and admit: “I don’t know all the reasons, why?” Our faith frees us to entrust such things to God and His goodness because He is good! Our faith is not rooted in our ability to have all the answers. Our faith is rooted in the truths and answers which God has given us. And what He has revealed to us is enough for us to still find hope! We are a people who do mourn in this broken world, but we do not mourn as those without hope.
With that being said, what answers to do we have for evils like this?
Firstly,
9 “The heart is more deceitful than all else
And is desperately sick;
Who can understand it?
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There’s an answer there and a mystery. To the question, “Why?” we must absolutely recognize that the human heart is capable of extraordinary evil. Pride enabled by power and ambition will commit atrocities that are hard to understand.
We’ve seen this narrative before haven’t we? We can go back to Exodus and see Pharaoh a man of pride, power, and ambition committing atrocities against the people of God. As the reader it may be tempted to conclude, Israel had a Pharaoh problem.
Here in Matthew Israel has a Herod problem.
What the narrative of Exodus and the narrative of Matthew both show us.. is that Israel had a heart problem.
As you remember what Jesus went through during Holy week this week, I hope we would see the same truth. Israel didn’t have a Herod problem or a Rome problem, they had a heart problem!
By the end of Matthew’s gospel the masses of Israel are crying out for the slaughter of innocence!
22 Pilate said to them, “Then what shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?” They all said, “Crucify Him!” 23 And he said, “Why, what evil has He done?” But they kept shouting all the more, saying, “Crucify Him!”
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Paul’s letter to the Romans tells us that before we were reconciled to Christ through His death we were his enemies! We all had a heart problem. We all bore the curse of that deceitful and desperately wicked heart. We were all not unlike Herod: an enemy of God and the coming Christ.
We were all not unlike that crowd who shouted, “Crucify Him!”
I always appreciated these lyrics by Stuart Townend. I believe we’ll sing them next week.
“Behold the man upon a cross,
My sin upon His shoulders;
Ashamed, I hear my mocking voice
Call out among the scoffers.
It was my sin that held Him there
Until it was accomplished;
His dying breath has brought me life –
I know that it is finished.”
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In a story like this in Matthew 2 we may appropriately ask that question, “Why?” , but if we realize that Herod’s heart was once ours, that the rejection and death of Christ was our doing in our sin, I find the real question to be, “Why are any of us still here?” At any moment Jesus could of called down legions of angels and exacted perfect justice. At any moment God could have righteously condemned us while were yet in our sins, and yet by His grace he waited. He bore with us. He endured our rebellion that at the proper time His sovereign work of salvation would transfer us from the kingdom of darkness and rebellion to the kingdom of His beloved son!
Here I believe we find an additional answer to that question, “Why?” Why does such evil appear in the world?
We realize there are answers in the life we will never have, but
can say without a doubt that the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked.
and finally, that God may show himself merciful!
How many of those who were first baptized into the church in Acts were guilty before Peter’s accusation?
36 “Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ—this Jesus whom you crucified.”
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If it were not for the mercy of Christ and his willingness to endure their pursuit of the slaughter of innocence, the slaughter of Christ, if not for His mercy none would have come to repentance.
If not for His mercy none of us here would know His salvation through repentance and faith.
My prayer for us this week would be that as we approach Good Friday we might be in awe of His mercy.
That mercy that was willing to endure our rebellion.
That mercy that would send Jesus Christ, the beloved Son of God to die for the likes of us, enemies of God.
That mercy which grants everlasting life to the undeserving.
Might we revel in His mercy this week!
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As we come to our final point, you might say we’ve already made the point. The evil will not prevail. For many of us here we can recognize that by God’s mercy and grace given to us in Jesus Christ, the evil in us did not prevail! Praise God for that, but there remains those who do not respond to the undeserved mercy of God and go on in rebellion. There will be enemies opposed to Christ and His kingdom until the final day and we can say even here, that those enemies, that evil will not prevail!
3. The evil will not prevail
3. The evil will not prevail
19 But when Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, and said, 20 “Get up, take the Child and His mother, and go into the land of Israel; for those who sought the Child’s life are dead.” 21 So Joseph got up, took the Child and His mother, and came into the land of Israel.
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All of Herod’s evil plans and ambitions to destroy the Christ and preserve His throne boils down to three verses… and then he dies.
12 “For whoever has, to him more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him.
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Whatever Herod thought he had in a kingship was actually nothing. He sought to preserve it with all he had, but it was never his in the first place. And even that was taken from him in death. There’s a picture here of all of the enemies of the kingdom of God.
Sin, death, the devil, the world. Whatever you want to consider there’s a certain degree of power and influence which God has permitted for a time, but it is not absolute. It’s a power and influence that doesn’t ultimately belong to them! It’s a power and influence that has no ultimate power over what God has established in His son.
Sin may tempt us but it were are not slaves to sin. Sin may cause us to stumble, but it cannot overcome us!
Death may come for us all eventually, but it cannot hold us!
The devil may try to preserve his dominion in this world through temptation and destruction, but he has no hold on the kingdom of Christ. He may try to lay claim to pieces of the world, but it does not ultimately belong to Him!
This world may try to control us and bend us to their will, but we do not ultimately belong to this world. There are rulers and powers even today who would seek to bend the church to their will, but we do not ultimately answer to any earthly king.
Depending on who you are I would venture to guess that one of these has been on your mind lately. Maybe more than one. If I may ask, do the enemies of Christ and His kingdom have a proper place in our mind? Very often and rightly so we talk about making sure the enemies of the kingdom are not thought of too lightly.
Sin is not something to be dealt with lightly. Sin is to be put to death with a vigour.
Similarly, we are not to think too lightly of the devil, the roaring lion prowling around seeking whom he may devour.
Let’s not think too flippantly of the enemies of God, but at the same time let’s not given them greater credence then they’re due.
Recently I picked up a beautiful copy of Little Pilgrim’s Progress for my boys. It’s essentially John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, but abbreviated for kids and told from the perspective of a little rabbit named Christian who goes on a journey to the Celestial City. Just the other night Caleb and I read the scene where pilgrim is approaching House Beautiful, but on the path are two wolves. Christian has just met Mistrust and Timorous (two foxes in the Little Pilgrim version). Mistrust and Timorous for fear of the wolves on the trail have already turned back for their homes considering their homes better than being eaten alive. Pilgrim though is determined to make progress and hears from the step of House Beautiful the wolves are chained. As long as he stays on the narrow path he will not be harmed!
Bunyan had a gift that few have today. I find it a wonderful picture of all the enemies of God even the Herods. There are not to be trifled with. In fact the enemies of God are a crucial reason we are stay on that narrow way, but if we give them more credence than they’re due, we fail to make progress in the faith. We end up like Mistrust and Timorous thinking the comforts and security of home are better than enduring the dangers of the road to the Celestial City.
The truth is God has all his enemies on a chain and they go no further than he permits them! Even Herod here. A mere man was still bound by death. Not even he and all his authority could spare himself from death, much less remove himself from what God’s authority had permitted.
We see the same principle playing out as Jesus goes to the cross:
Remember Jesus’ words to Pilate?
10 So Pilate said to Him, “You do not speak to me? Do You not know that I have authority to release You, and I have authority to crucify You?” 11 Jesus answered, “You would have no authority over Me, unless it had been given you from above; for this reason he who delivered Me to you has the greater sin.”
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Pilate’s authority was on a leash the whole time. Herod and Pilate both were mere men before almighty God and amidst all their efforts to preserve their positions of power and quiet the Messiah.. they would not prevail!
Practically speaking there will come a day when we come face to face with the enemies of Christ. Whether that be the sin in our hearts, the devil’s devices, the curse of death, or the resistance of the world. Whatever it may be let’s not be counted among those like Timorous and Mistrust who tried to preserve their earthly lives in fear rather than pursue the kingdom in the confidence that the enemy will not prevail!
There are days when we may despair at the sight of our sin.
There are days when we may tremble at the thought of death.
There are days when we may be ready to give in to the world’s oppression and keep silent.
Let’s not subject ourselves to a bondage when they are the ones in chains. We are the free ones. We are the ones with the hope and confidence that one day that the enemies of Christ will be made a footstool for his feet. Their days are counted just like Herod’s. Let’s not allow the threats of enemies keep us from doing the kingdom work we’ve been called to.
The story doesn’t end there though....
22 But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Then after being warned by God in a dream, he left for the regions of Galilee, 23 and came and lived in a city called Nazareth. This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophets: “He shall be called a Nazarene.”
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Put yourselves in Joseph’s shoes here for just a moment. You’ve been hiding out in Egypt for some time now because Herod wants to kill the Messiah Jesus. You get some good news from an angel that Herod is dead and it’s time to return to Israel. I don’t know about you, but I’d be tempted to think that life is about to get back to normal. Finally, we can go back to friends and family, but just as they’re getting back into Israel they realize Herod’s son is ruling over Judea. As they’re returning to their homeland they still need to be thinking about enemies. Joseph is afraid, and God recognizes the fear, God knows the threat that’s before them and gives them warning. So comes to fulfillment the words of the prophets: Here is the Messiah, the one who will be rejected.
3 He was despised and forsaken of men, A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; And like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.
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Maybe you’ve had a moment like this. It’s that moment when you think that the rough days are behind you, things are about to go back to normal. Those wolves on the path are behind you now, and now we get to look forward to some smooth sailing....
Then the enemy comes at you from a whole different angle. Just when we think, maybe the world will accept us now, maybe that temptation is done away with, maybe this broken world will stop being such a burden… Just then the enemy rears his ugly head again.
It’s that persistent resistance that can wear on our souls if we’re not careful. It’s the persistent resistance that may tempt us to think that somethings wrong. Maybe this narrow path isn’t getting me anywhere after all. I’d like us to rest assured that persistent resistance is the definition of the path to the Celestial City. It is the path of Christ our Lord. There’s nothing wrong, and God is with us in every step. At no point in this journey was Joseph and his family forsaken. God was guiding, directing, and providing for His own every step of the way. Now, God’s provision doesn’t always look like triumphal entries into Jerusalem, but God’s provision does come with an overwhelming victory.
As Holy Week is finally approaching the cross we come to Christ in the garden and at that point every enemy of the kingdom appears to assault the king and His kingdom. Enemies within as Judas betrays Jesus, enemies from the outside as wicked men take Jesus to be crucified, enemies of doubt and sin as Peter denies knowing Christ.
When we’re assaulted on all sides for the hundredth or thousandth time, where do we find our hope that the enemy will not prevail? Jesus’ own disciples despaired, they ran, they hid... What they did not yet understand was that the victory was already assured them. The resurrection of Christ had already been determined and if they had found their hope in that astounding victory foretold there would have been no need to despair.
Friends if you have put your faith in the blood of Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and the resurrection of Christ for life everlasting, that astounding victory is your hope today! Not only that, we too have the promise that Christ will return in all His glorious might to declare victory over his enemies once and for all.
It’s precisely because Jesus of Nazareth was rejected and died for us that we need not fear the persistent assault of the enemy.
Sin has no power where Christ has atoned for sin.
The devil has no power over those freed of the kingdom of darkness.
The world has no means to cripple the kingdom of heaven.
Death itself is defeated in the resurrection of Christ!
The enemy will not prevail because in the resurrection of Christ the victory is won, and that victory is ours!
For many here Holy Week may be a reminder of ordinary life: Enemies surrounding and persistent. Rest assured the enemy will not prevail. We have the hope of the resurrection! We are not forsaken. We may wander in humble places like Nazareth not our home, but one day Christ will return to bring us home.
Let’s Pray.
Linda Orr
Using her time in ways that honor the Lord. The salvation of her children.
