Untitled Sermon (2)

Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come, Let this blest assurance control, That Christ hath regarded my helpless estate, And hath shed His own blood for my soul.

Suffering, Sorrow, and the Kingdom

Read: v.13-23

Intro: Examples of Suffering

Sermonic Thought: Suffering, Sorrow, and the Kingdom

Read:

Narrative Set Up

Wisemen depart/Angel of the Lord/Dream/Joseph - Second of a total of four dreams that Joseph is given. And what’s remarkable is his response. Because he has the same response to the Lord’s directive all four times. He obeys immediately. We see the godly character of Joseph shine in these early chapters of Matthew. And his response here is remarkable because it’s an unimaginably difficult command from the Lord like the last one.

Rise, take chid and his mother, and flee to Egypt- right now get up, while it’s dark and flee to Egypt. Herod knows he’s been duped, and he’s on hell bent to murder Jesus.

Remain there until I tell you/Herod is, about to search, destroy -

Rose/Cover of night/took child and mother/departed for Egypt -

Recap - Jesus was born in to a rank lineage full of failures/gross sinners. Then he’s born in such a way that his mother is suspected of adultery, then he’s born in a manger/cave because there’s no where else for him to be born, and now the true King of the Jews is being run out of his kingdom and to where of all places? Egypt. Egypt I far away. It wasn’t a hop skip and a jump. It would have been close to 300 miles. On donkey/foot. I think it’s great feet to drive 5hrs to my in laws with my 5 and 2yr old in an air conditioned car. All this humility, all this humiliation for a king. At least as man sees it. But why Egypt - there were very likely Jewish communities in Egypt in which they could have hid, but again, why Egypt? Egypt has a special place in Jewish history. Matthew references the Prophet Hosea to bring the memory of it to the forefront.

He says this circumstance happening in fulfills - “Out of Egypt I called my son” - what’s the connection?

Egypt for the Jew is synonymous with slavery/bondage/oppression - We talked about Abraham - a couple weeks ago - God called him out to the land of Canaan to inherit it as an everlasting possession. But to his son Isaac then to his son Jacob it hadn’t become his possession yet though they lived on the land. But in Jacob’s lifetime a great famine forces Jacob and his sons to move to Egypt and by providence Jacob and the his family are well provided for and have a warm relationship with the Pharaoh. But as time passes, the Jews grow great in number and a different Pharaoh doesn’t know about the previous relationship between Egypt and Israel, and so out of fear of losing power he oppresses the Hebrews, he’s harsh with them, and then he decrees that all the male babies be slaughtered. Sound familiar? So now God’s people are not in the land of rest that God promised, they’re enslaved under the Pharaoh in cruel oppression fro which they cannot free themselves. But God raises up Moses and Moses just as Egypt represents oppression and slavery, Moses is the great leader of God’s people who led them out of Egypt. Through Moses God unleashed harsh plagues on the Pharaoh on Egypt for their cruel mistreatment and unwillingness to release the people of God. But God did through Moses defeat the enemy of God’s people and led the people in triumphant procession up out of Egypt and back to the promise land - God used Moses to set the captives free. He made a covenant to be there God.

Typology - Typology (τύπος, typos). A literary hermeneutical device in which a person, event, or institution in the Old Testament is understood to correspond with a person, event, or institution in the New Testament. (Lexham Bible Dictionary). Type is something that finds its greatest meaning and fulfillment in something(person, place, event) that has yet to come to pass. The safest procedure is to limit them to those expressly mentioned in the Bible (Baker).

As great as the physical salvation was - God provided his people, a great savior/deliverer in Moses. And he provided hie people a very great respite in the land of Canaan again - Truly God set his people free But this freedom was a type of something far greater - And this is why Matthew says Hosea’s prophecy is now fulfilled.

As humiliating as it was to endure and as much humility as it took for Jesus, the son of God and true King to manifest - God sent him to Egypt so that he could once and for all come up out of Egypt as true deliverer and Savior of God’s people, not to just deliver them from physical oppression. He has come to be the greater Moses to rescue his people from the greater slavery of spiritual bondage and oppression of the taskmaster sin, the Enemy, Satan. Jesus has come up out of Egypt to set the captive, us, his beloved, free! And in to the true rest and freedom found in Him!

Jesus has come to set the captives free - v.13-15

But as obvious as it may seem, the Hebrews were saved out of Egypt that they would come in to the promised land. They were not saved just from, they were saved to. Saved from a specific bondage and to a specific kind of freedom. The great tragedy with the Hebrews is that though they were taken out of Egypt, Egypt was not taken out of them. God took them up out of the physical, not just that they could have freedom from physical suffering, but also to free them from the spiritual bondage. This is why he made them a nation after Abraham in the first place, to free them from oppression of sin, death, and Satan, as we’ve been discussing. Yet they did not want God’s exact kind of freedom, they wanted the best of both worlds. God’s blessings, but not God himself. Not his total rule and reign. And their constant disobedience to the Lord and disdain for his holy law made it glaringly obvious. Last week I challenged us to consider if we were living for out little kingdom over and above the Lord’s, but I press us this week to consider are we guilty of trying to live both—one foot in the kingdom of God and the other in the kingdom of man. This half hearted devotion, the Lord will not accept, and this somewhat free, somewhat enslaved life isn’t what God sent his Son Jesus to endure such humiliation and hostility. Jesus has come to set our whole selves free and so requires out total devotion to him and his kingdom—it’s very specific. And the attempt to straddle the line reveals a life and soul that remains still totally and completely under the control the enemy and this fallen world. For a partial freedom is not possible. . Church, I assure I’m not trying to be overly bombastic and exaggerated to make for a charismatic sermon. I’m only trying to help us see that Scriptures will not tolerate a partial devotion, for a partial devotion is a spitting upon heaven’s Christ who came, and sacrificed so much not to kind of free us, but completely lift the burden of spiritual oppression, to entirely satisfy the wrath of God against us, wholly lift us from the miry clay and put us firmly upon the rock, a spiritual rock the Apostle Paul says that is Jesus himself. . They were present with Lord, yet partial in their devotion, and God rejected that posture of living. Friend, you may outwardly have said Christ has taken you up out of Egypt, but in your heart and soul has Christ taken the Egypt out of you. And replaced it with his Spirit and kingdom. That’s specifically what he’s come to do that’s specifically the freedom he’s offering - /We will not truly be free, will not love God and love the ways of his kingdom until we have submitted to the Spirit of God working within us the person of Jesus Christ who has set us free by his victory on the cross over sin and resurrected life over the grave - the proof will be a swelling affection for Christ that leads us to be and remain totally devoted. Not pay lip service, not devoted sometimes, in some ways, but truly transformed from one degree of glory to another. Full devotion is the happy proof of truly freed life.

Illustration

Application

The great lie of the Bible Belt -

In your guts

This is what Jesus has come up out of Egypt for

Sermonic Thought: How does the kingdom address suffering and sorrow?

2. Jesus has come to comfort the brokenhearted

Read: v.16-18

Narrative Set Up

Herod - saw that he had been tricked by wisemen/furious - Herod feels that he’s been made a fool of, the greek word for tricked denotes great embarrassment. In response he becomes extremely furious. And he does something awful in retaliation. He commits infanticide. All the male children who were possibly similar in age to Jesus and under were massacred. And we read an ancient prophecy again quoted by Matthew from the prophet Jeremiah that finds its greater fulfillment in this beyond horrific event. In Jeremiah the reference is to the mothers of Israel, symbolized by Rachel who was the favorite wife of Jacob, mourning for Israel when it was sent in to Assyrian exile for its sins. - here, the mothers weep for their slain babies. And it pushes I think any decent person, Christian or not, to ask what is probably an irreverent question - If God is good, why would he have allowed this to happen? Because we have to come to terms with the fact that God not only allowed this infanticide to happen in the moment, but given the prophetic word from Jeremiah, God knew long ago this was going to happen and even if were going to say that God is sovereign as we talked about last week, he ordained it to happen. What are we suppose to do with that kind of God? Well, for the fourth time, I’m going to point us back to the garden.

There is this: the effects of the fall are far more penetrating than we often realize. What sin Adam and Eve committed in the garden have ravaged the heart of mankind through out the centuries and is so doing still today. Its arm is long reaching and its grip suffocating. It is in our careless moments we forget sin's devastation of mankind and the surrounding world, and foolishly we like to believe all is well in the day to day routine. Yet we forget all is broken here. Because of sin, creation as a whole is warped and mankind so bent out of shape in such an evil and perverse manner, that when truly observed, we could guess at the potential magnitude of suffering and pain that humanity is capable of unleashing. To be surprised by the darkness, sorrows, and hurt of this world is to be ignorant of the sin-sick condition of the human heart. We are vile in the uttermost. This is not God's fault. God did not cause Adam and Eve to sin, though he certainly did allow and even ordain their fall, he is not the culprit. Man chose to sin, to disobey, and so long and hard was his fall. Suffering and sorrow are a monster of our creation. But we must believe if God is sovereign, in control, over the genesis of sin, he must be so over its effects and life cycle, able even to use it to his benefit in the working of his universe. If God is sovereign over the times and seasons of every man's life, even Adam's as he fell into sin, then we must believe that God is mysteriously and divinely working through all good and adversity for his glory. And his glory will always be the joy and desire of his people. God was wise enough to allow man to fall into sin and he is wise, sovereign, and good enough to work in and through all evil and wickedness to bring about healing, peace, and life as only he can to his own people. It's a real stretch of faith to be glad for the valleys and tumults of our times, believing they are God's chosen instruments to preserve his people and receive glory for himself. . God is using the suffering we endure to strengthen our faith and prepare us for glory. True virtue never appears so lovely, as when it is most oppressed: and the divine excellency of real Christianity is never exhibited with such advantage, as when under the greatest trials. Then it is that true faith appears much more precious than gold; and upon this account, is found to praise, and honour, and glory. - Johnathan Edwards.

At the same time we must conclude that God certainly does not enjoy the suffering and sorrows of mankind and is not so heartless to turn a blind eye. It could be perceived unwittingly that God is plowing through time and space, oblivious or numb to the hurts of others. Not so. Just as God is sovereign over sorrow and suffering so he as well identifies in the greatest way possible with the sin-sick plight of humanity. He became human. Christ has the full experience of living in a world plagued by the tyranny of sin. The Father knows the horror of sending his beloved son into the world, not as an observer, but as a very real participant. And more than one simply engaged in such a world, God the Son will taste the bitter cup of suffering and sorrow, fully and wholly, even himself becoming the curse for us, that we may become the righteousness of God. . Christ identifies fully with our sorrows and suffering. He alone identifies with our hurt and has himself overcome it. So he alone is our priest who knows how to care for us and intercedes on our behalf before the Father. The evils of the ages, sorrow and suffering of God’s people were poured out on Christ and paid for and covered over with his blood on the cross. Here the loving Father sent the beloved Son to have more than observed or participated in the suffering and sorrow, but own the full burden and weight of it. What’s plain then is the love and compassion of a God who always had a very perfect and particular plan to deal with sin and all its dreadful, deadly effects.

This God cannot be explained and we would be silly to attempt an explanation. But he is good. And only imparted faith will move us to call him good in the midst of confusing and baffling heartache as is so often prevalent in day to day life for the Christian. At Christ's second coming all things will be new and all pain and suffering will be as a long forgotten nightmare. Until then, may God's Spirit keep us ever believing and trusting in his goodness and sovereignty as we gaze upon the accomplished work of Christ on his cross. At the foot of Calvary is our surety that God has fully known and dealt with all sin sorrow, and suffering for his own glory. This is a good and sovereign God. Let us say together as his church - Come, Lord Jesus!

Illustration

Horatio Spafford/ Great Chicago Fire of 1871/It is well

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,

When sorrows like sea billows roll;

Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,

It is well, it is well with my soul.

Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,

Let this blest assurance control,

That Christ hath regarded my helpless estate,

And hath shed His own blood for my soul.

Application

Believe God is good even when it especially when it seems he is notGod cares as no one els can. God identifies as no one else can. Our affliction and the comfort we receive from the Lord enables us to comfort others in their affliction - witness to God’s love and compassion

Sermonic Thought: How does the kingdom address sorrow and suffering ?

Read: v.19-23

Jesus has come to deliver us from suffering and sorrow by bearing it all upon himself - v.19-23

Insult to Injury

Point 3