Jesus Comes Down
SC21 • Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 14 viewsNotes
Transcript
Jesus Has Come
Jesus Has Come
Imagine this: 4 years of total silence from someone. Someone you were close to, someone you relied on. You haven’t heard anything from your mom or dad for 4 years: nothing. They promised you a trip or a vacation or a toy or a gift; something, you certainly by this point have forgotten about that promise in comparison to the fact you have heard nothing from them.
Now imagine with me that its been 40 years. You’ve heard nothing. You almost assuredly assume they are dead. 40 years ago was 1981. Jimmy Carter is President, Ronald Regan takes over as President in January. Walter Cronkite signs off the tv for the last time. Ronald Reagan is shot in the chest. The economy sinks into a recession with over 7% unemployment rate, Sandra Day O’Conner named to Supreme Court, MLB goes on strike, Donkey Kong and Mario both come out, Muhammad Ali fights for the last time, the Cold War is still going on.
You haven’t heard from this loved one this entire time. So much has happened and there is so much doubt if they are alive, if they care, if what they promised will come true.
Now imagine that its been 400 years. You have long been gone, you passed on these stories of this promise to your children and their children and their children. Generations have come and gone and you nothing more than a folk tale. Some promise that is a fun story to tell but you really don’t believe it, there as been nothing but silence!
That is where we pick up in our story today. It’s been 400 years since the “chosen people” have heard anything from God. Nothing but silence.
Matthew 1 begins right away in verse 1 telling us what this is all about. God’s chosen introduction back into the written word of God…this long break has occured and immediately we are hit with the purpose for this second part of the scriptures.
The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
The book, the story of Jesus Christ.
Jesus is the greek form of Joshua or “Yeshua”, which means “Yahweh saves” or “The Lord is my Salvation”
Remember Joshua the appointed leader by God to lead his people into the promised land. Now Jesus the leader appointed to lead sinful people into eternal life.
Christ means “Messiah” “Anointed One”. Throughout the Old Testament they promise again and again about the coming Messiah.
One was coming to deliver God’s people from their sins, that was the promise passed down from generation to generation. Judge to King to Prophet to total silence. Matthew, “Behold, the story of the Messiah.”
This morning I want to look at two main points
The Sign from God Isaiah 7, 9
The Fulfilled Promise Matthew 1-2
First the Sign from God
In Isaiah chapter 7 we are introduced to two main characters: King Ahaz of Judah and Isaiah.
Isaiah understood and had a sense of glory of Christ in his heart. He was not someone who suddenly didn’t sin and stood tall against all temptation, but he trusted in God. He was committed to the cause of Christ that he cried out, “Here am I, send me!”
R. Kent Hughes said, “Too often what passes for Christianity today is a life legislated by the good example of Jesus and frightened by the threat of divine punishment. But the person who is afraid of sinning because of hellfire isn’t really afraid of sinning: he is only afraid of burning. He has no love for salvation. He has stimulus for action except fear and pride. But truth faith is swallowed up with such a sense of the glory of Christ that the heart transcends choice in the pleasures of surrender.”
Isaiah wasn’t fearful of punishment he had loving adoration of God the father and Christ the king.
And so Isaiah is sent as prophet. Chapter 2-5 discuss the promises and judgement that is coming, but what happens when that doesn’t motivate us. Chapter 6 gives us a new sense of the glory of Jesus. Chapter 7 begins this same line of thought but using Judah and King Ahaz as an example. God will preserve a remnant of people who really know what it means to be saved by grace.
Roughly 740 BC King Uzziah dies and Ahaz ascends to the throne. Isaiah is dealing with a crisis. Isreal, God’s chosen people, are in shambles. The ten Israelite tribal groups in the north have broken off into their own state. The dynasty of David is left with only 2 tribes, just 1/6 of what they once were. To make matters worse what was left was under threat of attack by the Assyrian empire. Isreal wants to join forces with Syria to help add numbers to their army. Both sides want it but King Ahaz resists. He wants to devise his own plan. God has offered relief, victory, but he wants to do his own thing. His heart was hard.
And so this is the setting for this great crisis Isaiah is dealing with.
I’ll pause here and say this is where all of us will be at some point. In a moment of crisis where you ask the question, is this worth it? If I put my trust in God, will he save me? Will his promises really be true? The Israelites didn’t trust God the way they should—they went back and forth on this. They asked that question and didn’t have their trust in God.
In the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, son of Uzziah, king of Judah, Rezin the king of Syria and Pekah the son of Remaliah the king of Israel came up to Jerusalem to wage war against it, but could not yet mount an attack against it. When the house of David was told, “Syria is in league with Ephraim,” the heart of Ahaz and the heart of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake before the wind.
The nations are preparing to attack and the people are scared. Their hearts are shaking.
And the Lord said to Isaiah, “Go out to meet Ahaz, you and Shear-jashub your son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool on the highway to the Washer’s Field. And say to him, ‘Be careful, be quiet, do not fear, and do not let your heart be faint because of these two smoldering stumps of firebrands, at the fierce anger of Rezin and Syria and the son of Remaliah. Because Syria, with Ephraim and the son of Remaliah, has devised evil against you, saying,
The Lord directs Isaiah to go to Ahaz and give him up. These enemies are like smoldering stumps of firebrands, burnt cigarette butts—dont worry about them, trust in me. Ahaz wants to go his own way, he rejects God. God even offers to send him a sign, ask for a sign and I will prove to you that I will deliver you.
Ahaz says no, and the language changes from “your god” to “My God”. Isaiah is making a statement, my god is not on your side any longer.
God doesn’t need Ahaz and so he offers a sign anyway. He could have used some great staute or storm of event but no. What would be that sign.
Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
The Lord gave a sign that hope was still coming, it was not all lost. We face an alliance far greater than Syria & Ephriam, we face the alliance of Sin & Death, and its undefeated, claiming all in its path.
Sin has had its effect on all of us, total depravity leading to death.
She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”
We see what was foretold and promised in Isaiah came to be in Matthew.
God’s power is so great that all these great kingdoms and rulers have risen up and God defeated them all with a mere child, a baby.
For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
God’s answer: a child!
R. Kent Hughes “Look at Jesus. As the Wonderful Counselor, he has the best ideas and strategies. Let’s follow him. As the Mighty God, he defeats his enemies easily. Let’s hide behind him. As the Everlasting Father, he loves us endlessly. Let’s enjoy him. As the Prince of Peace, he reconciles us while we are still his enemies. Let’e welcome his dominion. “
There was a sign given, a coming child that will be called Immanuel.
Charles Spurgeon, “This is a sweet name immanuel. Others in ancient times called their children by names that had meaning in them. They did not give them the names of eminent persons whom they would likely grow up and hate and wish they had never heard of. They had names full of meaning that recorded some circumstances on their birth. There are many similar instances in those days, and perhaps this custom was a good one among the Hebrews—though the peculiar formation of our language will not allow us to do the same except in a limited way. We see, therefore, that Jesus bore the name, “Immanuel” because that name means “God with us”. This is the name of him who is born today. This is his name, “God with Us”—that is God with us by his incarnation, for the hallowed Creator of the world did walk on this globe. He who made ten thousands orbs, each of them more mighty and more vast than this earth became the inhabitant of this tiny planet. He who was from everlasting to everlasting came to this world of time and stood on the narrow neck of land between two massive seas. “God with us” He has not lost that name—Jesus had that name on earth, and he has it now in heaven. He is now “God with us.”
On top of that, the verse has another glorious truth in it.
For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
For to us a child is born, to us a son is given
This isn’t redundant or accidental, this is on purpose. A child is born—Jesus was fully man. He would come as a baby and grow into a man, he would be tired and hungry and thirsty. He was fully man.
A son is given—Jesus was fully God. The son of the living, holy God had come down to earth. He didn’t cease to be God while on earth, that is why he could not sin.
That leads me into the second thing I want to look at this morning which is the Fulfilled Promise.
The fulfilled promise was that Jesus would come. The prophesies of old had come to pass. We are going to look a number of them this morning. Immanuel is God with us, he really did come. That in and of itself is amazing.
The kingdom was a present reality. “The great announcement of the book of Matthew is that the King is here! jesus Christ has broken into a dark and hurting world, bringing healing and forgiveness. He binds up the brokenhearted. He gives rest to the weary. He gives sight to the blind, and He gives life to the dead.” David Platt
So lets consider some Old Testament prophesies that we see fulfilled in just Matthew 1-2.
Born of a virgin
Jesus would be born of a virgin. We saw this already in Isaiah 7:14
“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).
2. Bethlehem would be the birthplace
But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.
So small, not even large enough to be among the clans of Judah, that would be the site of the coming King. How fitting that Jesus would enter the world via a city not even big enough to be counted among the rest.
“ ‘And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.’ ”
Jesus, the coming King, was born in Bethlehem—they had something to hang their hat on after all
3. Herod’s Response
Thus says the Lord: “A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more.”
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. Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah: “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.”
Herod was furious about this coming “messiah” and wanted to do anything it took to kill him, including wiping out all the babies.
4. Egypts Role
When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.
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.”
Jesus was taken to Egypt to flee from Herod. Fulfilling what Hosea prophecy about hundreds of years earlier.
5. Would be a Nazarene
There are two possible ways this was fulfilled and I would say probably both
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.
Nazareth—the root word netzer which meant branch
There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.
“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.
The second way this was fulfilled was that he came out of Nazareth, John tells us how people felt about Nazareth
Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.”
Can anything good even come from there? It’s like asking does anything good even come from Michigan? Or Pittsburgh?
Well how did they predict Christ would come?
He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by mankind and despised by the people.
He was to be rejected, despised. Looked down upon just because of who he was. Nothing good even comes from there; that can’t be the messiah. He’s a Nazarene.
It’s helpful to add a side note here, the very fact they prophesied about this Jesus was amazing. See, no other religion can claim this. Answers in Genesis has a great quote on this:
“There are no prophecies foretelling details about the birth of other religious leaders. No prophecies alerted the world to the coming of Muhammad (Islam), Joseph Smith (Mormonism), David Koresh (Branch Davidians), Charles Taze Russell (Jehovah’s Witnesses), Siddhartha Gautama (Buddhism), or any other founder of the world’s religions. Yet the Old Testament pinpointed numerous details about the life of the Son of God and Savior of the world.”
“So what do these prophecies tell us about Jesus? In just the first two chapters of Matthew, we see that God foretold the virginal conception of the Messiah, who would be born in Bethlehem, yet in some way would come out of Egypt and be called a Nazarene. We also see that bitter agony would grip the mothers in that area.
6. Heir to the Throne of David
Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.
He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”
7. Genealogy
From the line of Abraham
I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
Isaac
I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and will give to your offspring all these lands. And in your offspring all the nations of the earth shall be blessed,
Jacob
Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed.
Judah
Jesse
There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.
David
Isaiah 9:7 (ESV)
on the throne of David and over his kingdom,
We see in Matthew 1
Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram, and Ram the father of Amminadab, and Amminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon, and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of David the king. And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah, and Solomon the father of Rehoboam, and Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asaph, and Asaph the father of Jehoshaphat, and Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, and Joram the father of Uzziah, and Uzziah the father of Jotham, and Jotham the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah, and Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, and Manasseh the father of Amos, and Amos the father of Josiah, and Josiah the father of Jechoniah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon. And after the deportation to Babylon: Jechoniah was the father of Shealtiel, and Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel, and Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, and Abiud the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim the father of Azor, and Azor the father of Zadok, and Zadok the father of Achim, and Achim the father of Eliud, and Eliud the father of Eleazar, and Eleazar the father of Matthan, and Matthan the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ. So all the generations from Abraham to David were fourteen generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ fourteen generations.
A couple observations about this list:
a) God saves only by His sovereign grace. He used a list full of evil kinds, sinful men and women from Abraham to David all are part of the story of redemption, all leading to the coming king.
b) Jesus came for (and through) the morally outcast. Tamar (incest), Rahab (prostitute), Ruth (Moabitie—people known for sexually immorality), Uriah’s wife (Bathsehba) (adultery). Also on this list, Mary, who was surrounded by rumors of sexual scandal. This is the list of women used to introduce the Savior of the world.
Praise be to God that He delights in saving sinful, immoral outcasts! This theme of sovereign grace even applies to Matthew, the author of the Gospel. He was a tax collector, his job was to cheat his fellow Jews out of their money.
c) Jesus came for (and through) the ethnically diverse. Gentile women, Hittite, Israelite: God saves ultimately for his global purpose. He came not just to save the Jews but also the Gentiles: all can come to Christ.
As we close out this morning I want to go back to Isaiah chapter 9. We will develop this more in the coming lessons but I couldn’t not mention it here. If we go back to Isaiah 9 we see another prophecy that is coming.
Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.
The child is the King of Kings. He has come to save us from ruin and misery. He is our crucified, risen, reigning and coming Savior.
Hughes “He will return with a massive correction of all systemic evil forever. That is the best part, “Of the increase of his government of peace there will be no end.” The empire of grace will forever expand. If we will live by faith in him now, accepting his weakness as our strength and his folly as our wisdom, we will be there to enjoy its triumph, forever ascending, forever enlarging, forever accelerating, forever intensifying.”
