Sunday Sermon Matthew 2:13-23

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Introduction

Good morning and welcome to FCC where we worship God in Spirit and in Truth, one verse at a time, one book at a time.

For those of you visiting today we simply teach the Bible simply and we do this by going through books of the Bible.

As y’all know we are in between books right now, but will be starting Ephesians soon.

So please be praying that the eyes of our understanding would be opened and that we would become more like Jesus Christ!

We have come as far as verse 13 in Matthew 2. Let us therefore open our Bibles here:

Read Matthew 2:13-23

Prayer

Lord, thank you for this day, for this is the day you have made, we will rejoice and be glad in it. And Father you have given so much, more than we can think or imagine. So thank you Lord! Thank you for all the gifts, graces, and blessings that you have bestowed on us, not to store up, but so we can bless others. Lord as we open your Word today we ask for the Spirit to speak to us individually and collectively as we close out the story of your birth. May we leave here today refreshed and prepared for the week to come.

In Jesus Name, we love you amen!

Review

As we look back over the last three weeks about the birth of our Lord and Savior, i wanted to make three points of where we have come from:

It is impossible to please God without faith, and we see the magi or the wise men stepping out in faith to seek after the long awaited Messiah. They followed the star church and because they leaped out in faith they met the Messiah. They were persistent and they prayed and the Lord of the universe became a baby who would one day die for the sins of the world.

These wise men worshipped! They not only bent their knees to the Lamb of God who would take away the sins of the world, but they brought him gifts! This is a picture of us giving our resources to the Lord. When we talk of resources it is easy for us to get held up on money here because of tithes and offerings, but much more important is our time and talents church. I have found when we are serving, we are not swerving and that when one is down and struggling or depressed, that giving to others often brings healing and freedom from the affliction one is struggling with.

John 10:27 says that my sheep hear my voice and follow me! The more we know God’s Word, the easier we will be able to discern his voice. If we pump the world into us, we will drowned out the voice of the Lord church. Yes, we are not of this world, but we are in the world and the Lord has spoken:

Proverbs 4:23 NKJV

Keep your heart with all diligence, For out of it spring the issues of life.

We see here in the text that the wise men and Joseph and Mary heard the voice of God and followed heard after him.

They did not let anyone or anything get in their way church.

Although there was obstacles, they continued to press into Kingdom

Thy Kingdom come, our kingdoms go was their motto!

Hebrews 12:1–2 NKJV

Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Matthew 2:13 NKJV

It is interesting to me that in Matthew 1 and 2, God spoke through dreams 5 times. Once to the wise men and 4xs to Joseph

And by faith Joseph listened

It is also worth noting that the term Young Child is used 7 times in Matthew 2.

In Hebrew repetition church is used for two things:

For order

For Memory because they did not have Bibles on their shelves like us

Mathew was a Jew who wrote to a Jewish audience church, but I thing it is placed here in the Greek or English if you may, for emphasis. The focus being on the Child, the focus being on God speaking to Joseph church.

One last thing about the Young child being used 7xs in this text is that the number seven throughout the Bible means wholeness or completion.

The Son of man had fulfilled prophecy, he was here to save those who where lost.

So the Angel of Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said arise and flee to Egypt

I think it is important to share on the Angel of the Lord:

Who is the Angel of the Lord?

The precise identity of the “angel of the Lord” is not given in the Bible. However, there are many important “clues” to his identity.

There are Old and New Testament references to “angels of the Lord,” “an angel of the Lord,” and “the angel of the Lord.”

It seems when the definite article “the” is used, it is specifying a unique being, separate from the other angels.

The angel of the Lord speaks as God, identifies Himself with God, and exercises the responsibilities of God (Genesis 16:7-12; 21:17-18; 22:11-18; Exodus 3:2; Judges 2:1-4; 5:23; 6:11-24; 13:3-22; 2 Samuel 24:16; Zechariah 1:12; 3:1; 12:8).

In several of these appearances, those who saw the angel of the Lord feared for their lives because they had “seen the Lord.” Therefore, it is clear that in at least some instances, the angel of the Lord is a theophany, an appearance of God in physical form.

But what is interesting is that the appearances of the angel of the Lord ceases after this text

It is possible that appearances of the angel of the Lord were manifestations of Jesus before His incarnation.

Jesus declared Himself to be existent

John 8:58 NKJV

Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.”

As you know God spoke to many in dreams during Bible times and here we see him speaking and telling Joseph to flee to Egypt.

To be honest, this does not make any sense to me because Israel had been enslaved in Egypt for 400 years, but God’s ways are not our ways and Jesus here fulfills prophecy we will learn.

From pheugō (to flee) we get our word fugitive, one who escapes from something or someone.

The word is here in the present imperative, indicating the beginning of action that is to be continued.

Joseph and his family were immediately to begin fleeing, and were not to stop until they were safely within Egypt and beyond the reach of Herod.

The distance from Bethlehem to the border of Egypt was about 75 miles, and another 100 miles or so would have been required to get to a place of safety in that country. Traveling with Jesus made the trip both slower and more difficult.

We know by now the Joseph and Mary were avid hikers...

Egypt in the Bible is symbolic of the world

DO YOU REMEMBER WHAT JESUS SAID ABOUT THE WORLD?

Jesus is about to betrayed and he is praying for unity and:

John 17:14–17 NKJV

I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.

1 John 2:16–17 NKJV

For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.

Proverbs 4:23 NKJV

Keep your heart with all diligence, For out of it spring the issues of life.

Matthew 2:13–15 NKJV

Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, “Arise, take the young Child and His mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I bring you word; for Herod will seek the young Child to destroy Him.” When he arose, he took the young Child and His mother by night and departed for Egypt, and was there until the death of Herod, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying, “Out of Egypt I called My Son.”

Church, there were many Jews there, and the treasures received from the magi would more than pay the expenses for traveling and living there.

But there was also another prophecy to fulfill, Hosea 11:1: “I called My Son out of Egypt.”

I find it interesting that God sends his only begotten Son to Egypt to fulfill this prophecy.

But that Moses brought Israel out of Egypt as well.

A person is identified not only by his friends, but also by his enemies. Herod pretended that he wanted to worship the newborn King (Matt. 2:8), when in reality he wanted to destroy Him.

Matthew 2:16 NKJV

Then Herod, when he saw that he was deceived by the wise men, was exceedingly angry; and he sent forth and put to death all the male children who were in Bethlehem and in all its districts, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had determined from the wise men.

There are a couple of nuggets I would like to pull out of this text.

The first is that Herod was deceived and some of your versions say mocked or tricked:

Deceived-empaizo-to be fooled v. — to be or become embarrassingly deceived; especially making one liable to laughter and ridicule.

Church, Herod is not the only one that has been deceived, we all have been.

And we must beware because:

2 Corinthians 11:14 NKJV

And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light.

Satan is the accuser of the brethren and the father of lies. It means that that he seeks to steal, kill, and destroy through deception.

Now we know that the wise men did not deceive Herod, but rather flee form him because he was not only going to put the Young Child to death, but probably kill them as well.

Herod would kill anyone that got in the way of his power and his throne.

He was full of pride and remember church that pride goes before destruction!

Herod was exceedingly angry the text says!

This is anger that is out of control, he was so angry that his anger lead him to murder children. This was rage>>> He was in the limbic system of the brain....

We see violence all around us church, young men, teenage men taking the lives of other men why? It is because of anger church!

Jesus had righteous anger when he cleared the tables of the money changers in the temple, therefore, his anger was controlled.

When we walk in the Spirit church, we will fulfill the lust of the flesh thereof.

When we walk in the Spirit we have self-control, therefore our emotions do not control us, but rather we control our emotions.

The prison house is full of angry men and women

Ephesians 4:26 NKJV

“Be angry, and do not sin”: do not let the sun go down on your wrath,

God never said we would not get angry, he said for us to have self control.

Do you manage your emotions? Or do they manage you?

Here we see that Herod does the unthinkable. How could these babies cause any threat to Herod’s rule at their age, for Herod was at least 70 years of age and in failing health (he dies not very long after this very point).

However, he was obsessed to destroy any threat to his kingdom, whether it come even from his very own family, or even from God Himself

From this verse, since Herod slew all the male children two years old and under, many have said that this shows that Jesus must have been up to two years in age when the Magi came to worship Him

It could be however that Herod was just being obsessive in making sure that every single child that could have qualified to have been born in the time frame when the baby Jesus was born was murdered

Herod should have realized that the Magi were not tricking or mocking Him (as some translations put it), but rather it was God working, the One who traps the wicked in their own deceptions.

This seems unfair, why would a loving God allow this to happen?

There are many of us sitting here today that have suffered loss, abandonment, abuse, rejection, betrayal and we thought how could God allow this?

The wages of sin is death!

God uses all things for the good church!!!

Prayer

2 Corinthians 13:11 NKJV

Finally, brethren, farewell. Become complete. Be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you.

THE LORD BLESS YOU!

YOUR MISSION STARTS NOW!

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