Sermon Tone Analysis

Out of Egypt

Matthew 2:13-23   |   Shaun LePage   |   January 8, 2006

 

I.

Introduction

A.   Everything had been beautiful and wonderful: The Magi’s visit in Matthew 2:1-12 must have been so exciting.

These strangers believed the same things Joseph and Mary believed about this boy—that He was the king of the Jews.

B.    But things can change in a heartbeat.

Peace was replaced by fear.

New life was replaced with death.

Worship was replaced with scorn.

C.   Matthew—in explaining to the reader who Jesus really is—lists four prophecies in chapter two that were fulfilled in Jesus.

In fact, the end of chapter 1 ends with the “Immanuel” prophecy from Isaiah 7:14, so what we have is a list of five prophecies that were “fulfilled” in relation to the infancy of Christ (not to mention the genealogy of chapter 1).

You’ll notice that the final three are not pleasant.

They involved difficulty, danger, scorn for those involved—even death for some:

1.     Born of a virgin

2.     Born in Bethlehem

3.     Called out of Egypt—The peace in Bethlehem was replaced by danger.

4.     Weeping in Ramah—The new life in Bethlehem was replaced by death.

5.     Called a Nazarene—The worship in Bethlehem was replaced by scorn.

II.

Body—Read Matthew 2:13-23

*A.   **13-15**     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.”*

1.     “*Dream*”

a)    This was at least the third time Joseph had received revelation from God in a dream.

b)    Does God still speak to us in our dreams?

(i)   It’s very possible—certainly God can and did use dreams many times in Scripture to communicate to His servants.

(ii)  And if you think about it, dreams are not radically different from other ways the Holy Spirit leads us—feelings, circumstances, counsel of a brother or sister in Christ, a strong conviction in our hearts.

These are all subjective—we can’t prove they are from the Holy Spirit.

(iii)    But the real question is, “Is God still speaking?”

The answer is, “Absolutely!”

He speaks to us primarily through Scripture, but also through creation and through the Holy Spirit in our hearts and minds as we seek Him through Scripture and prayer.

But he used a donkey to speak to Balaam, surely He can use dreams to speak to us.

(iv)    But, let’s approach this subject with caution.

The first caution I want to make is, God’s leading—whether through dreams or feelings or counsel—will never contradict His Word.

We need to be sure we understand the clear commands of Scripture, but also the underlying principles of truth contained in God’s Word.

(a)  God “cannot lie” says Titus 1:2, and Peter tells us in chapter one of his first epistle that the Word of God is “imperishable and enduring” which means God will never change His mind.

If the message you’re getting contradicts the “imperishable” Word God has spoken, then the message isn’t from Him.

(b) Example: If you have a dream about killing someone, that contradicts God’s Word—don’t act on that dream.

If an angel in a dream tells you to divorce your husband, that contradicts God’s Word—don’t act on that dream.

(v) Caution 2: You should be very, very careful that you are walking in the Spirit.

(a)  If you are not in close fellowship with God, you are not going to be sensitive to the leadership of the Holy Spirit.

(b)  What does it mean to “walk in the Spirit”?

We’ll go into this in more detail some other time and look at some specific Scripture passages that teach all this, but here’s an overview:

1.     Pray regularly.

Starting each day by asking God to fill you with His Spirit; to lead you and guide you.

2.     Read the Bible regularly.

Starting each day by asking God to fill you with His wisdom; transforming your mind so that you have the “mind of Christ.”

3.     Don’t grieve the Holy Spirit.

To grieve the Holy Spirit is to sin; willing disobedience—rebellion against what you know is God’s will for you.

All of us sin and if we say we have no sin, we’re lying.

But that is different than practicing sin on a regular basis with no intention of submitting to God’s will.

4.     Don’t quench the Holy Spirit.

Sometimes the Holy Spirit leads us in a very clear, direct way.

That may be through a clearly stated command in Scripture or the counsel of a godly person in your life or a strong pull in your conscience that you need to do something specific or all of the above.

When we reject that and ignore it and refuse to follow that guidance, we are quenching the Holy Spirit.

5.     All of this is what it means to walk in the Spirit and if that does not describe your life, you should almost certainly not make any significant changes or decisions based on your dreams.

The only exception I can think of would be if you were grieving the Spirit with your sin and you had a dream that scared you into getting right with God.

6.     Personal example: Several years ago, I started a youth ministry in Texas.

For the first few years, I did everything myself.

I had adults wanting to get involved and I let them come and hang out, but for the most part, I did everything myself.

One night I had a dream.

I was a waiter in a large restaurant and every table in the restaurant was packed.

I was running around trying to take care of every table in that restaurant by myself—I was the only waiter.

Most of the people in the restaurant were yelling and complaining that I wasn’t taking good care of them, but a few of the people were asking me if they could help.

I kept telling them, “No thanks, I can handle it.”

But I was not handling it.

I was not taking care of the people in that restaurant.

I woke up exhausted.

At first, I thought, “What a weird dream.”

But as I thought about it, I decided it could have been the work of the Holy Spirit telling me what I already knew from the Bible but was not obeying. 1 Peter tells us that every member of a church is a minister and Ephesians 4 tell us the leaders of the church are supposed to equip the members of the body to do the work of the ministry.

I thought I was doing a good job in that youth ministry, but really I was failing.

I was not equipping anyone to do the ministry and I was not able to meet all the needs myself.

Over the next few years, I worked hard at equipping a team of adults who would share that youth ministry with me.

While I was trying to do it myself, we never grew.

The group was never more than about 15-20 kids.

By the time I left, we were regularly seeing over 70 kids and the team God gave me was so well equipped by the time I left there that the ministry has actually grown.

Was that restaurant dream from God?

I can’t prove it to you, but I believe it was.

It gave me a picture of what I was doing wrong and helped me to see my need to do things more in accordance with the Word of God.

(vi)     Does God speak to us in our dreams?

Certainly He can.

Probably He does.

But we must first be very careful to compare any such revelations with the Word of God—just as we should with our feelings and the counsel of someone we respect—and we must make sure we are walking in the Spirit.

2.     “*Egypt*”.

Why did Jesus need to go to Egypt?

Couldn’t God have protected Him in Bethlehem?

Certainly, but Matthew is telling us that this trip to Egypt “fulfilled” prophecy.

3.     “*Fulfill*”

a)    In Matthew 2:15, we have a quote from Hosea 11:1: *“Out of **Egypt** I called My Son.*”

But if we look at the context of Hosea 11, that passage doesn’t seem to have anything to do with the Messiah or this trip to Egypt.

Hosea was speaking of the Exodus—when God brought His “son”—the nation of Israel—out of Egyptian slavery.

How can Matthew say that Joseph’s trip to Egypt with the boy Jesus fulfills this?

b)    God was making a point here.

(i)   Could God have protected Jesus in Bethlehem?

Absolutely, but He was showing that Israel is a “type” of the Christ.

In other words, Matthew does not always use the word “fulfilled” in the sense we might normally think.

On at least six occasions, Matthew uses the word to show a connection between the event of which he is speaking and an Old Testament passage.