1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:08,400 Very good morning. It's a real pleasure to be with you, to worship together and to preach 2 00:00:08,400 --> 00:00:12,800 God's word with that. If you have a Bible with you, won't you turn to Matthew chapter 3 00:00:12,800 --> 00:00:19,920 2 verse 1. We're going to read through this text that follows the account of what's known 4 00:00:19,920 --> 00:00:27,920 as the infancy narrative as we consider and ask the question, where is the king? Where 5 00:00:27,920 --> 00:00:34,720 is the king? Matthew chapter 2 and verse 1. Oh God, would you be with us now as we 6 00:00:36,080 --> 00:00:42,800 sit under your word, read and preach, illuminate the eyes of our soul, that we will be conformed 7 00:00:42,800 --> 00:00:50,560 more and more into the likeness of your Son. Our Lord Jesus Christ, our man. Now after Jesus was 8 00:00:50,560 --> 00:00:57,440 born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold wise men from the east came to 9 00:00:57,440 --> 00:01:05,600 Jerusalem saying, where is he who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose 10 00:01:05,600 --> 00:01:11,680 and have come to worship him. When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled and all Jerusalem 11 00:01:11,680 --> 00:01:18,080 with him and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where 12 00:01:18,080 --> 00:01:26,160 the Christ was to be born. They told him in Bethlehem of Judea, for so it was written by the prophet 13 00:01:26,160 --> 00:01:33,920 and you, oh Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, up by no means least among the rulers of Judah, 14 00:01:34,720 --> 00:01:41,920 for from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel. Then Herod summoned the wise men 15 00:01:42,560 --> 00:01:49,040 secretly and ascertained from them what time the star had appeared. And he sent them to Bethlehem 16 00:01:49,040 --> 00:01:55,920 saying, go and search diligently for the child. And when you have found him, bring me word that I 17 00:01:55,920 --> 00:02:03,680 too may come and worship him. After listening to the king, they went on their way, behold the star 18 00:02:03,680 --> 00:02:10,080 that they had seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest over the place where the 19 00:02:10,080 --> 00:02:16,720 child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy and going into the 20 00:02:16,720 --> 00:02:24,640 house, they saw the child with Mary his mother. They fell down and worshiped him, then opening 21 00:02:24,640 --> 00:02:32,160 their treasures. They offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh being warned in a dream not 22 00:02:32,160 --> 00:02:40,160 to return to Herod. They departed to their own country by another way. Now when they had departed, 23 00:02:40,160 --> 00:02:46,400 behold an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, rise, take the child and his 24 00:02:46,400 --> 00:02:53,120 mother and flee to Egypt and remain there until I tell you for Herod is about to search for the child 25 00:02:53,120 --> 00:03:00,800 to destroy him. He rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt, 26 00:03:00,800 --> 00:03:07,680 remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the 27 00:03:07,680 --> 00:03:15,120 prophet out of Egypt. I called my son. Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise 28 00:03:15,120 --> 00:03:22,000 men became furious and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and all that region 29 00:03:22,000 --> 00:03:28,160 who were two years old or under according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men. 30 00:03:29,680 --> 00:03:35,120 Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah. A voice was heard in Rehmer, 31 00:03:35,680 --> 00:03:42,240 weeping and loud lamentation. Rachel weeping for her children. She refused to be comforted 32 00:03:43,280 --> 00:03:49,760 because they are no more. But when Herod died, behold an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream 33 00:03:49,760 --> 00:03:56,560 to Joseph in Egypt saying, rise, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel. 34 00:03:57,280 --> 00:04:02,480 For those who sought the child's life are dead. And he rose and took the child and his mother and 35 00:04:02,480 --> 00:04:08,400 went to the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea in 36 00:04:09,120 --> 00:04:14,720 the place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Being warned in a dream, he withdrew to 37 00:04:14,720 --> 00:04:21,520 the district of Galilee. He went and lived in a city called Nazareth so that what was spoken by 38 00:04:21,520 --> 00:04:27,440 the prophets might be fulfilled that he would be a Nazarene. This is the word of the Lord. 39 00:04:30,560 --> 00:04:36,800 You know Christmas is such a remarkable time of year and yet how quickly it can fade into the 40 00:04:36,800 --> 00:04:43,040 background as we turn the page and move to the next stop in the calendar, New Year's Day. 41 00:04:43,040 --> 00:04:50,640 Matthew, the author of our text says not so fast. The celebration of Christ's birth, his advent 42 00:04:50,640 --> 00:04:57,040 into the world is not just another day, another holiday to be checked off before moving on to 43 00:04:57,040 --> 00:05:03,360 the next commercial event as we are so prone to do in America. Let's remember what has happened. 44 00:05:03,360 --> 00:05:12,560 Let's pause. Jesus is none other than Emmanuel, meaning God with us. He is the incarnate of 45 00:05:12,560 --> 00:05:22,960 the incarnate son of God, clothed with our humanity. God has written himself into the story 46 00:05:22,960 --> 00:05:30,720 of redemption. He has entered into his creation, now marred with Adam's sin to make all things new. 47 00:05:31,760 --> 00:05:37,440 In other words, God is going to remake this fallen world from within by becoming one of us, 48 00:05:37,440 --> 00:05:46,960 the infinite being clothed with a finite. God would become men. The word made flesh. 49 00:05:46,960 --> 00:05:57,440 My friends, this is mind boggling. This is the nature of the gospel. His birth was for our 50 00:05:57,440 --> 00:06:04,240 rebirth, a recreation that would extend not only to our personal hearts, minds and bodies, 51 00:06:04,240 --> 00:06:12,720 but a recreation that would extend to a restoration of the entire universe, which as Paul tells us 52 00:06:12,720 --> 00:06:20,720 is currently groaning together in the pains of childbirth until that day when Christ will make 53 00:06:20,720 --> 00:06:30,640 all things new again. In short, what God had first promised to Adam and to Eve in their sin, 54 00:06:30,640 --> 00:06:36,560 all the way back in Genesis chapter three, while they are still in the garden about to be cast out 55 00:06:36,560 --> 00:06:44,320 of the garden, that first announcement of the gospel where the seed of the woman would be born 56 00:06:44,320 --> 00:06:50,800 and would crush the head of the serpent in Christ is now beginning to be realized. 57 00:06:50,800 --> 00:07:00,720 Thousands of years have passed since God spoke that word of hope into a world of hopelessness. 58 00:07:00,720 --> 00:07:08,080 Light has entered the darkness. Bread and wine are an offer to the hungry and the thirsty. 59 00:07:08,080 --> 00:07:17,200 Liberty is at hand for the oppressed, for the captive, making way for reconciliation between us 60 00:07:17,200 --> 00:07:25,040 and God and us and one another, those who have been estranged and resurrection life for the dead. 61 00:07:26,800 --> 00:07:32,880 Matthew tells us that the events that follow the infancy narrative, what we find in 62 00:07:33,600 --> 00:07:42,240 chapter one are not unimportant. He doesn't simply jump from lying in a manger to Christ 63 00:07:42,240 --> 00:07:49,200 being baptized by John the Baptist at the age of 30 in the Jordan River for two full chapters. 64 00:07:50,000 --> 00:07:55,200 Matthew sketches an account of Jesus beginning with a detailed genealogy of Jesus, 65 00:07:56,160 --> 00:08:02,880 the events surrounding his birth and then as we find in out text today, the whereabouts of the king. 66 00:08:04,640 --> 00:08:12,000 The first years of Jesus' life both in Egypt as he flees from Herod's tyrannical and imperial 67 00:08:12,000 --> 00:08:19,600 ways all the way up to Nazareth in Galilee up north away from the gaze of Herod's son, 68 00:08:19,600 --> 00:08:24,000 Archelaus, who would rule over Judea in the southern part of Israel. 69 00:08:25,280 --> 00:08:31,360 None of this is insignificant. None of us is merely a kind of historical documentation, 70 00:08:31,360 --> 00:08:34,240 nice for us to know but really doesn't move the soul. 71 00:08:34,240 --> 00:08:40,880 Because Jesus' story is the culmination of what God began under Moses. 72 00:08:42,480 --> 00:08:50,400 Moses was the servant in God's house who pointed forward to the Son in God's house being Christ. 73 00:08:51,440 --> 00:08:59,760 Moses liberated God's people from the captivity under Pharaoh in the first Exodus from this 74 00:08:59,760 --> 00:09:07,120 oppressive enslaving rule of Pharaoh, a story that would point forward to a second and greater 75 00:09:07,120 --> 00:09:12,160 Exodus under Christ and Matthew doesn't want you and I to miss this. 76 00:09:13,680 --> 00:09:19,440 This morning as we find in our text we are going to go along a journey together, 77 00:09:20,320 --> 00:09:27,920 a kind of road trip of sorts post Christmas from Jerusalem to Bethlehem down to Egypt 78 00:09:27,920 --> 00:09:32,720 and up to Nazareth asking the question, where is the king? 79 00:09:34,320 --> 00:09:40,320 And so as our text begins we find ourselves in Jerusalem and this follows the previous 80 00:09:40,320 --> 00:09:45,760 chapter, chapter one in Matthew where we find details of Christ's birth in Bethlehem are 81 00:09:45,760 --> 00:09:51,520 outlined for us and very quickly we find that all is not well in Bethlehem. 82 00:09:51,520 --> 00:09:59,520 Jesus' parents Joseph and Mary have traveled about 90 miles south, there was no Uber back then, 83 00:09:59,520 --> 00:10:07,360 there was no car, this is a woman who is almost nine months pregnant traveling 90 miles south from 84 00:10:08,080 --> 00:10:15,200 Nazareth to Bethlehem because of a decree by Caesar Augustus the first Roman emperor who had 85 00:10:15,200 --> 00:10:20,720 issued this decree that everyone was to register for a census in their ancestral towns. 86 00:10:20,720 --> 00:10:27,440 This is what is happening when we find ourselves in Bethlehem the city of David and so with no 87 00:10:27,440 --> 00:10:34,000 room available in the inn or the guest quarters what we find is that Mary lays Jesus down to 88 00:10:34,000 --> 00:10:39,680 sleep in a manger which sounds like a very nice kind of nativity story only when you realize 89 00:10:39,680 --> 00:10:46,400 that a manger is nothing other than a feeding trough for animals where this grain and hay are 90 00:10:46,400 --> 00:10:56,000 stored this is where the Christ child was laid to sleep but sometime later Jesus' humble entrance 91 00:10:56,000 --> 00:11:04,080 into the world doesn't go unnoticed wise men from the east likely from Persia follow a star in the 92 00:11:04,080 --> 00:11:12,880 night sky that would lead them towards this newborn king they themselves are not kings they are magi 93 00:11:12,880 --> 00:11:21,280 wise at interpreting stars it's not uncommon for the time that these kinds of wise men would find a 94 00:11:21,280 --> 00:11:28,800 correlation or connection between stars and political events or to see how the stars in fact 95 00:11:28,800 --> 00:11:36,640 signal the birth of a figure that is destined for greatness these are the magi we don't know much 96 00:11:36,640 --> 00:11:43,280 more about them apart from what we find in chapter 2 except that they saw his star when it arose and 97 00:11:43,280 --> 00:11:50,800 they followed it for the purpose of worshiping this great new king what's interesting is that 98 00:11:50,800 --> 00:11:56,800 they don't end up in Bethlehem which is where Christ is born they end up in Jerusalem about 99 00:11:56,800 --> 00:12:04,080 seven miles north of where Jesus was laid to rest and sleep in that manger what seems to have happened 100 00:12:04,080 --> 00:12:09,680 is that the magi kind of started out following the star only to end up following their intuitions 101 00:12:10,400 --> 00:12:16,480 since they arrive in Jerusalem and not Bethlehem which certainly seems to be an obvious place to 102 00:12:16,480 --> 00:12:24,880 look for Jewish royalty or so their thoughts remember Jerusalem is the city of God but they 103 00:12:24,880 --> 00:12:32,640 couldn't find the newborn king there and so they began to ask around where is the one born king of 104 00:12:32,640 --> 00:12:43,040 the Jews well word spreads quickly and soon Herod catches wing a wind of the news most likely he 105 00:12:43,040 --> 00:12:48,080 heard about it through an informant informants were employed by the Roman Empire at the day 106 00:12:48,080 --> 00:12:56,320 to squish dissent among the people that they oppressed Herod's reaction we see is very different to 107 00:12:56,320 --> 00:13:06,720 the magi Herod's disturbed he is feeling threatened so he begins to scheme why we might ask well 108 00:13:07,760 --> 00:13:14,560 Herod the great is also called Herod the king and he has been clad with the royal regal title 109 00:13:14,560 --> 00:13:20,320 king of the Jews a title that was granted to him by the Roman Senate a title that he wore with a 110 00:13:20,320 --> 00:13:29,040 kind of iron grip you see despite his lofty position as king of the Jews Herod was not Roman 111 00:13:29,600 --> 00:13:36,240 he was an Edomites he was a descendant of Esau who is the estranged twin of Jacob you might 112 00:13:36,240 --> 00:13:43,520 remember the story but Jacob or but Herod is a stranger to the Jewish faith to its history 113 00:13:43,520 --> 00:13:50,960 even despite that he was nonetheless appointed by Rome to be a client king which is a kind of puppet 114 00:13:50,960 --> 00:13:59,200 monarch whose strings are pulled by the imperial power up high that reigned over him and over Judea 115 00:14:00,240 --> 00:14:08,880 and so for three decades Herod rules the region of Judah Judah with an iron fist and he balances 116 00:14:08,880 --> 00:14:18,000 the Roman interests with his own aspirations for political power and what we find is that Herod's 117 00:14:18,000 --> 00:14:23,600 reign is actually something of a paradox on the one hand it's the reign of ruthless pragmatism 118 00:14:23,600 --> 00:14:29,760 marked by political shrewdness as he eliminates any kind of threat without hesitation even 119 00:14:29,760 --> 00:14:37,680 his own wife who he has executed on the other hand he is celebrated he's a celebrated king 120 00:14:38,960 --> 00:14:45,360 his as a visionary builder he is a patron of grand architectural promises projects in the land 121 00:14:45,360 --> 00:14:52,720 and that leave an indelible mark in the region most notably his ambitious achievement was the 122 00:14:52,720 --> 00:14:59,840 renovation of the second temple in Jerusalem transforming this humble temple into the most 123 00:14:59,840 --> 00:15:07,360 magnificent or one of the most magnificent structures in all of the ancient world that was 124 00:15:07,360 --> 00:15:13,680 the temple that was originally built rebuilt undeserobbable five centuries before as the 125 00:15:13,680 --> 00:15:22,480 people of god come out of Babylonial exile but belief this facade of monumental achievement 126 00:15:23,440 --> 00:15:30,000 Herod's legacy is tainted by cruelty by selfish ambition and an insatiable thirst for power 127 00:15:31,280 --> 00:15:39,760 Herod is troubled by the news of one born within Judea within his region that has been given the 128 00:15:39,760 --> 00:15:49,840 same title that he owes king of the Jews was not bestowed upon Jesus by Roman senate but by 129 00:15:49,840 --> 00:15:57,520 God himself and attested to by all kinds of divine signposts of miracles and wonders in the sky 130 00:15:58,880 --> 00:16:04,960 not only is Herod troubled by the news but what we see in the text Matthew tells us is that all 131 00:16:04,960 --> 00:16:14,160 of Jerusalem is likewise troubled which seems odd since this is none other than the long expected 132 00:16:15,040 --> 00:16:22,560 Jesus as we sang earlier the consolation of Israel this is the deliverer leader who god had 133 00:16:22,560 --> 00:16:30,560 promised this is the seed of the woman whom god had promised to adam and eve whom Israel had longed 134 00:16:30,560 --> 00:16:38,480 for all those years and when they should have rejoiced instead they're disturbed they frightened 135 00:16:39,440 --> 00:16:45,360 like king Herod who goes on the rampage which is really nothing other than a mentality quite 136 00:16:45,360 --> 00:16:52,080 typical of the roman empire whenever they were threatened and so here's how the events played 137 00:16:52,080 --> 00:17:01,040 out in Jerusalem when Herod is first informed by this news of another one called the king of the 138 00:17:01,040 --> 00:17:09,600 Jews he consults his magi the magi in the city not the wise men from the east but the his magi being 139 00:17:09,600 --> 00:17:16,560 the chief priests and the scribes of Israel the scribes and of of Israel and the chief priests 140 00:17:16,560 --> 00:17:22,000 they don't have stars to look at but what they do have is they've got the scriptures which 141 00:17:22,000 --> 00:17:29,280 detail the place of the coming christ where he would be born which is found in mica chapter five 142 00:17:29,280 --> 00:17:37,120 and verse two and it's this that matthew cites where he says but oh you oh Bethlehem in the land 143 00:17:37,120 --> 00:17:45,120 of Judah or by no means least among the rulers of Judah for from you shall come a ruler who will 144 00:17:45,120 --> 00:17:52,480 shepherd my people Israel and so armed with these words of Micah's prophecy and beginning to see 145 00:17:52,480 --> 00:18:01,280 the store once again the magi heads south to our next destination to Bethlehem from from Jerusalem 146 00:18:03,120 --> 00:18:09,200 after worshiping him in Jerusalem we find them falling down before the christ offering him their 147 00:18:09,200 --> 00:18:19,760 gifts out of their treasures frankincense and myrrh and others what's interesting is that 148 00:18:20,960 --> 00:18:27,680 we find in verse 12 there's a kind of a turning point within the narrative the magi are warned in 149 00:18:27,680 --> 00:18:34,160 a dream not to go back to Herod they are warned in a dream to go to their country by another way 150 00:18:34,160 --> 00:18:43,200 and here at this turning point there's an escalation of tension in verse 13 where Jesus and his family 151 00:18:43,200 --> 00:18:52,320 are warned by God to flee south to Egypt to leave Bethlehem and to flee south to Egypt as refugees 152 00:18:52,320 --> 00:18:57,760 remember friends let's take the tinsel and the christmas lights off the narrative story this is a 153 00:18:57,760 --> 00:19:04,160 poor young olive skin family on the margins of society have been displaced by a government 154 00:19:04,160 --> 00:19:11,840 census away from their home and they are likely carrying no more than a bag or two of their possessions 155 00:19:14,160 --> 00:19:22,480 but God's watching over them he has not forgotten them no matter the bdi of Herod who is plotting 156 00:19:22,480 --> 00:19:31,600 who is plotting and scheming a way to kill the christ you see in the night god speaks to joseph in a 157 00:19:31,600 --> 00:19:39,360 dream where an angel of the lord appears to him and exhorts him as we find in verse 13 to rise 158 00:19:40,400 --> 00:19:45,920 take the child and his mother and to flee to Egypt and to remain there until i tell you 159 00:19:45,920 --> 00:19:58,000 for Herod is about to search for the child to destroy him once again who Jesus is and what Jesus 160 00:19:58,000 --> 00:20:04,240 has come to do are brought into sharp focus within just a very brief paragraph within verses 161 00:20:05,200 --> 00:20:15,760 13 through 15 matthew gives us a window into the exodus story which itself points us forward to a 162 00:20:15,760 --> 00:20:25,200 new and second exodus where Jesus is the true and greater moses who will bring about a final exodus 163 00:20:25,200 --> 00:20:33,760 as god's son and so from the get-go in matthew's text there is a parallel between the first days of 164 00:20:34,560 --> 00:20:41,840 moses' life and the first days of jesus' life so a little bit of history as we go back into the 165 00:20:41,840 --> 00:20:47,120 old testament we see in exodus chapter one we are told that a new king has arisen in 166 00:20:47,680 --> 00:20:54,320 egypt one who did not know about joseph and his brothers and the way in which god had favored 167 00:20:54,320 --> 00:21:02,000 joseph and egypt during the time of the famine and so this new king that arose not only did not 168 00:21:02,000 --> 00:21:10,320 know joseph but was not favorably disposed any longer to israel and much like how Herod feared 169 00:21:10,320 --> 00:21:19,520 jesus the egyptians lived in dread of the israelites fearing that they might grow too strong for them 170 00:21:20,320 --> 00:21:29,120 and thus escape egypt and so it's into this context of fear that the pharaoh gives the following 171 00:21:29,120 --> 00:21:35,280 commandment that we find in exodus chapter one every son that is born to the hebrus shall be cast into 172 00:21:35,280 --> 00:21:45,040 the nile but every daughter shall live can you imagine this takes place around the birth of 173 00:21:45,840 --> 00:21:52,640 moses his mother fearing for his life the life of her son hides him for the first three months 174 00:21:54,000 --> 00:22:00,400 and after concealing him and feeling like she can't conceal him any longer she makes a basket 175 00:22:00,400 --> 00:22:07,280 a basket of bull russell bull rushes with some bichman and pitch and she places his in the reeds 176 00:22:07,280 --> 00:22:14,960 right by the river bank what's fascinating is that the basket the hebrou word is a loan word 177 00:22:15,920 --> 00:22:23,840 meaning coffin or chest it's only used twice in the entire old testament one here the story of 178 00:22:23,840 --> 00:22:32,320 moses and the other was a reference to noah's ark you see just as moses was placed in a vessel that 179 00:22:32,960 --> 00:22:41,440 was to be saved through the waters noah's ark as god's ordained vessel ushered in new creation 180 00:22:41,440 --> 00:22:49,680 realities saved through the flood waters and we find this echoed in second peter chapter three where 181 00:22:49,680 --> 00:22:57,680 where peter tells us that the world that then existed the pre-flood world was deluge with water 182 00:22:57,680 --> 00:23:06,240 and perished it's as if that world no longer existed and noah steps out of that then existing 183 00:23:06,240 --> 00:23:15,680 world into a new world cleansed by the waters of judgment in other words when we look at 184 00:23:15,680 --> 00:23:24,640 moses's watery trial at his birth where he emerges from an arc like basket is a picture of god's 185 00:23:24,640 --> 00:23:32,640 deliverance from death to life from pharaoh's condemning judgment and the death that awaits him 186 00:23:32,640 --> 00:23:40,640 in denial moses is saved from these very waters by pharaoh's own daughter and it's actually an event 187 00:23:40,640 --> 00:23:48,640 that foreshadows the exodus to come when god's people are liberated through moses's leadership 188 00:23:48,640 --> 00:23:56,640 from their oppressive captivity in egypt they led through the red sea on dry ground a baptism 189 00:23:56,640 --> 00:24:04,640 as paul tells us while pharaoh's armies pursue them only to drown in the judgment borders of the sea 190 00:24:04,640 --> 00:24:14,640 one commentator notes and he he says of moses that moses's role encompasses every conceivable 191 00:24:14,640 --> 00:24:24,640 office of redemption moses is a savior figure he is a forerunner of israel's deliverance he mediates 192 00:24:24,640 --> 00:24:34,640 god's covenants on behalf of god and israel between the two he acts as an intercessor on behalf of israel 193 00:24:34,640 --> 00:24:42,640 unto god each of these function as a precursor as a pointer not to himself but one to come 194 00:24:42,640 --> 00:24:48,640 to the seed of the woman to christ the consummate savior mediator and high priest 195 00:24:48,640 --> 00:24:58,640 the inverse 15 matthew signals not only the next destination in our text that being a journey north 196 00:24:58,640 --> 00:25:04,640 up to nazareth but more importantly what matthew does in verse 15 is he highlights the role 197 00:25:04,640 --> 00:25:12,640 of christ in redemption and what he does with an emphasis on jewish history is he points and uses 198 00:25:12,640 --> 00:25:21,360 another prophecy this time a prophecy from joseph and he says out of egypt i called my son 199 00:25:23,680 --> 00:25:32,320 israel friends was known as the firstborn son of god as a nation as a people israel's exodus from 200 00:25:32,320 --> 00:25:42,720 egypt as god's son foreshadows jesus's return from egypt as god's eternal son and in other words if 201 00:25:42,720 --> 00:25:51,280 you and i are in the sun as the people of god the exodus story is our story and testimony 202 00:25:51,280 --> 00:26:02,880 as pharaoh sought to end the life of moses who was the servant in the house of god herod 203 00:26:02,880 --> 00:26:12,800 seeks to kill the son in god's house christ but herod's murderous intentions and actions 204 00:26:12,800 --> 00:26:19,840 in fact they foreshadow a day when pilots would sentence jesus to death on a cross 205 00:26:22,240 --> 00:26:28,800 the place of the second exodus of god's people not through the waters of the red sea but this time 206 00:26:29,600 --> 00:26:37,760 through the waters of the side of christ that signifies death and make way for new life 207 00:26:37,760 --> 00:26:44,400 you see what's what's remarkable about this is the same jerusalem that was so troubled by the news of 208 00:26:44,400 --> 00:26:51,600 the king of the jews born in bethlehem is the very same city over which jesus would later weep 209 00:26:53,200 --> 00:26:58,400 as he rides into jerusalem on a donkey just days before they would reject him 210 00:26:58,400 --> 00:27:12,000 the people of jerusalem became so agitated in a disdain for christ that they lift up their voice in 211 00:27:12,000 --> 00:27:21,200 rage to do exactly what king herod had wanted to do all those years before this time it's not herod 212 00:27:21,200 --> 00:27:28,320 but the jerusalem describes and the chief priests doing the scheming petitioning pilots and the roman 213 00:27:28,320 --> 00:27:35,360 empire crying out over and over again as they shout crucify him 214 00:27:39,840 --> 00:27:45,600 now matthew records a little detail that is certainly not a throwaway detail towards the end 215 00:27:45,600 --> 00:27:56,400 of his account of the gospel as he tells us about a sign a notice of sort that is placed over jesus' 216 00:27:56,400 --> 00:28:04,400 head as he hangs on the cross it's the charge against jesus and it reads as follows this 217 00:28:04,400 --> 00:28:18,240 this is jesus king of the jews the second temple in jerusalem majestically and magnificently beautified 218 00:28:18,240 --> 00:28:27,120 by herod the king counted for very little in the end destroyed a few years later in 80 70 and 219 00:28:27,120 --> 00:28:40,560 has never since been rebuilt because what really mattered was the body of christ the temple of god 220 00:28:40,560 --> 00:28:50,640 as christ referred to himself where is the king we might ask when we've seen from bethlehem to 221 00:28:50,640 --> 00:28:58,320 egypt's out of egypt's up north to nazareth later on to golgotha and then into the tomb 222 00:28:58,880 --> 00:29:10,000 where the angel tells us why do you seek the living among the dead he is not here but has risen 223 00:29:12,000 --> 00:29:18,560 see friends this is the storyline of the bible of how god is remaking the world again 224 00:29:18,560 --> 00:29:28,800 marred in sin see if you are in christ you have come out of egypt out of the world and you have 225 00:29:28,800 --> 00:29:34,560 been brought into the wilderness period this period between christ's first coming and his 226 00:29:34,560 --> 00:29:40,480 second coming a place of trials a place of testing that's the world in which you and i live in we 227 00:29:40,480 --> 00:29:50,480 have not yet fully entered into that promised land though we have come out of egypt the promised 228 00:29:50,480 --> 00:29:57,280 land is where we are headed that promised land of consummate Sabbath rest where we will behold 229 00:29:57,280 --> 00:30:07,040 god face to face in the new heavens and the new earth for all eternity this is what the king of 230 00:30:07,040 --> 00:30:15,360 the jews came to do to make way for people from all nations to be restored to god and to dwell 231 00:30:15,360 --> 00:30:27,280 with him free from sin friends what is egypt all the roman empire have in comparison nothing 232 00:30:28,560 --> 00:30:36,480 nothing at all and yet you and i are so often tempted by wilderness like by empire like thought 233 00:30:36,480 --> 00:30:43,680 structures by the appetites of the immediate at the cost of what's to come i mean this is 234 00:30:43,680 --> 00:30:49,360 certainly what the Israelites endured and faced and how they lived many of them scoffing at the 235 00:30:49,360 --> 00:30:57,040 manner that god had provided in the wilderness in that land of testing hankering after as we read 236 00:30:57,040 --> 00:31:08,800 for what cucumbers melons leaks onions and garlic back where in Egypt and in the end they died in 237 00:31:08,800 --> 00:31:20,400 the wilderness in unbelief may i say to each one of us rather be marginalized with chasers 238 00:31:20,400 --> 00:31:30,720 than seek to dine in the courts of Pharaoh rather identify with the sufferings of christ 239 00:31:31,440 --> 00:31:41,920 and take up your cross daily all your life let his pattern of life be your pattern of life 240 00:31:41,920 --> 00:31:49,920 let his manner of love be your manner of love where we love god with our all and our neighbor 241 00:31:49,920 --> 00:31:55,120 as ourselves since we know the love of god in christ in the very depths of our soul 242 00:31:58,640 --> 00:32:07,760 this community the community of saints are to be quite like any other community on the planet 243 00:32:08,640 --> 00:32:16,560 we are to love like none other because we have been loved extravagantly and yet our testimony 244 00:32:16,560 --> 00:32:31,760 at times betrays that let the overarching story of redemption be your story a story much grander 245 00:32:31,760 --> 00:32:39,120 and all encompassing than any other narrative that exists a narrative that exists only for today 246 00:32:39,120 --> 00:32:48,720 you see the pattern of sin is very simple sin separates it segregates it corrupts it oppresses 247 00:32:48,720 --> 00:33:00,240 it enslaves and it is marked with suffering sorrow and death but in christ let's rather 248 00:33:00,800 --> 00:33:07,680 do all things as we go into the new year unto the glory of god and for the common good of all 249 00:33:07,680 --> 00:33:20,880 from now until the day the lord takes you home and until that day as we ask the question where is 250 00:33:20,880 --> 00:33:30,240 the king let us remember he is making intercession for his own having begun a work in his first coming 251 00:33:30,240 --> 00:33:39,840 only to bring it about to a completion in his second a new and second exodus as we are brought 252 00:33:39,840 --> 00:33:48,720 out of the world into a renewed world made new by christ and through christ this is what god is 253 00:33:48,720 --> 00:34:04,640 doing today let us live in the light of it let's pray