Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Good evening and welcome back.

Tonight if you do not mind, start turning in your Bibles to .

Again, tonight we are going to continue on our Journey Through Matthew, looking at the subject of Hiding in the Desert.

In just a few moments I will be reading , but I do want us to get the broad bigger picture here of .

We learned this morning about the prophecy of Jesus’ birth and learned about all the events that transpired right before his birth, leading up to the birth of Jesus.

Now in chapter two, we are going to be picking up sometime soon after Jesus’ birth, with the visit of the Magi.

Now, in contrast to all of the popular Christmas decorations and Christmas stories, the Magi, or Wise Men were not there when Jesus was born.

In fact, if you look at you will find this . . .

Matthew 2:1-

One of the key phrases here is after Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, meaning that it was not until after Jesus was born that they even began to ask questions about Jesus.

Also, we learn that they did not initially go to Bethlehem, but rather they came to Jerusalem and asked, where is the one who has been born the king of the Jews?

We say his star in the east and have come to worship him.

And by the time they had saw the star and inquired in Jerusalem and actually find Jesus as revealed in verse 9, Jesus could have been already a year old.

In fact, they were never in the manger at all.

The Bible tells us that . . .

Matthew 2:9-

Notice that they came to the house, to see Jesus and to present him with gifts.

But what we’ve done in our culture and society is try to mash all the different events about Jesus’ birth and early life together into one nice, pretty Christmas story.

And I am sure it is done innocently enough, but when we are not true to what the Scripture actually says we run into issues and problems that do more harm than good.

Many of our popular Christmas stories actually diminish and destroy the significance of Jesus’ early childhood and the amazing way in which God cared for Jesus and how God’s perfect plan that was prophesied about Jesus was carried out perfectly.

And I am not knocking Christmas stories, but I personally am not a fan of many Christmas stories and most Christmas music for that matter.

I cringe when I hear a lot of it because it is not true to what Christmas is all about.

It contains no connection to the true Gospel message of Jesus Christ whatsoever.

Christmas is about Jesus Christ and the miracles that God performed though Jesus.

It is also about the revelation of Jesus as the Christ, the Messiah, the the fulfillment of the prophecies concerning Jesus.

And tonight we are going to look at just a few more of them from Jesus’ early life.

So, if you have found in your Bible, stand with me if you are able as we read about some of Jesus’ early life.

Matthew writes . . .

Scripture Focus

Matthew 2:

Out of Africa

Now, you will notice that I picked up at the end of the chapter here concerning Jesus’ early years and the first thing I read was that after Herod died and angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt , telling him to Get up and take the child and mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child’s life are dead.

So, here we find Jesus’ still a toddler and people had already started trying to kill him.

How in the world did it get to this point?

Well, for that answer we have to back up to the Magi again.

All the way back in the beginning of the chapter we learned about the Magi coming to Jerusalem trying to find out where Jesus was so they could go and worship him.

However, remember they referred to him as the King of the Jews.

Going back to this we also see that . . .

Matthew 2:3

Herod was the king and he did not want anybody to replace him.

And even though Herod was a pagan, he had been around long enough to know the Jewish tradition.

And what he knew about the Jewish tradition was that they were looking for their Messiah, who they thought would be a military king, who would liberate them from their oppressors.

And Herod did not want a war, so he had made up his mind that he was going to take a proactive approach and take care of things ahead of times.

So, he calls together all of the Jewish chief priests and teachers of the law and asks them about this.

And they tell him in verse six about the prophet Micah who said . .

Which informed them that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem.

Which, by the way is the next prophesy to be revealed in Jesus Christ.

So, Herod had narrowed it down to Bethlehem, but when and where in Bethlehem?

To this, he turned back to the Magi . . .

Matthew 2:

So, we see that Herod’s plan was the get the Magi to find Jesus for him.

He lies to them and tells them that he wants to go and worship, but the reality is he wants to kill Jesus before he could grow up and become a problem.

Notice though that they keep referring to a star.

What is that all about?

It is the revelation of yet another prophesy.

This one even older than Micah or Isaiah.

And not only will the star lead them to Jesus but also . . .

I guess we could say that the stars were aligning.

So, the Magi go and they find Jesus.

They present him gifts and worship Jesus.

But look what happens next . . .

Maybe this same Angel of the Lord that visited Joseph earlier had now come to visit them, but whoever it was they warned them about Herod’s plan, which God thwarted.

But Satan was not done using Herod just yet.

Matthew 2:16-

But God was already a step ahead of Herod . . .

Matthew 2:13-

So, we see here the flight to Egypt being the fulfillment of yet another prophesy, this one from Hosea . .

Also, just FYI, Hosea also tells us something about the future to come as well.

Hosea

Also though, Jesus’ escape to Egypt was not the only prophesy fulfilled here.

Also was the horrible prophesy of Herod’s attempt to kill Jesus . . .

Matthew 2:17-

So, Jesus, Mary, and Joseph lived in Egypt as exiles until Jesus was around 3-4 years old but . . .

Matthew 2:1

Here we find the Angel of the Lord again appearing to Joseph in a dream, this time telling him it is safe to go home.

And remember Joseph was from Bethlehem and this is where Jesus was born.

But he did not return to Bethlehem . . .

Matthew 2:21-

Matthew 10:21

And because he did not feel safe going home . . .

In all of Galilee and all of Israel, Joseph just happened to choose Nazareth.

Coincidence?

I think not.

It was just one more prophesy of Jesus being fulfilled.

And the prophesy here are all the ones about Jesus being despised and rejected.

Psalm

Psalm

Isaiah

Isaiah

And on, and on, and on.

Altar Call

Here is the point of this message though.

God spoke and people listened.

God spoke through the Old Testament prophets and the Magi listened.

God spoke to the Magi and they listened.

God spoke to Joseph and Joseph listened.

And because they listened, God’s Word was fulfilled just as designed.

And I said it this morning and I will say it again tonight, God is speaking but are we listening?

What would have happened if the Magi would have ignored and dismissed God?