The junior church is dismissed and the choir comes down.
If you have a copy of scriptures, I would encourage you to open to the second chapter
of Matthew.
Music plays.
We're only going to be looking at three verses this morning,
but out of respect for the word of God,
would you stand as we look at these three verses.
Now when they, that is the Magi, the wise men 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 he 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.
Let's pray.
Father, would you help us this morning?
Lord, I pray that you would meet with us,
and Lord God, and just, Father, reveal to us
the glory and honor of your Son.
Lord, even in the quietness of this moment,
Lord, prepare our hearts.
Lord, there is nothing more important at this hour
than what is taking place right now as we hear from heaven.
Lord, speak to us through your word.
Father, may a rapt attention be given.
Lord, I pray that outside distractions,
Lord, things in our mind, Lord God,
that you by your Spirit would have us to focus, Lord,
and see Jesus from the pages of holy text.
God, reveal him to us.
Lord, let us see his glory.
Father, help us understand, Lord, this glorious message
of salvation that is centered and found in your Son.
Lord, I pray this, God, for your glory and learning.
Lord, I pray that you would not be alone.
Would you help me?
Lord, keep me back from saying anything, Father,
anything at all that would not be a help,
that would be a distraction.
Father, I beg of you for your Holy Spirit,
Lord, speak through me.
Father, I pray for his help, his aid, his power.
Lord, help us to tremble this morning
that we would say something countlessly or carelessly,
flippantly.
Lord, help us, Lord, to reverence you rightly this morning,
and for his glory alone, I pray.
Amen.
You may be seated.
In 2 Corinthians 1.20, the Apostle Paul writes this.
He says, for all, comprehensive,
for all the promises of God in him, that is Christ,
are yes, and in him, amen,
to the glory of God through us.
Now, that's an astounding verse.
The Apostle is saying that every promise that God made,
every promise that God made in the Old Testament,
whether it be to Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob,
who is later renamed Israel, to David, it doesn't matter.
Whatever promise finds ultimate fulfillment,
not near fulfillment,
finds ultimate fulfillment in Christ.
Paul said all the promises, all, in him,
that is Christ Jesus, are yes, and amen.
So in the Old Testament, we go back
and we see that God made a covenant with Israel,
and then that he gave great sweeping promises to them.
Now, this began with Abraham, who stands as a covenant head,
and he received incredible promises from the mouth of God.
Genesis 12, you'll start to see that.
But as we turn to the New Testament,
we see that the New Testament writers,
and they're all consistent here,
they all say that those promises that were made to Abraham
are actually completely fulfilled in Christ.
Christ is the seed, not a seed,
the seed through whom all the world would be blessed.
God made incredible promises to David.
And the promise there was that one of his descendants
would arise, who would sit on his throne,
and rule over God's people forever.
But as we turn to the New Testament,
we see the writers consistently saying
that promise was fulfilled in Christ.
Christ is the true and better son of David,
who forever rules over God's people.
On Sunday nights, we've been looking at the book of Hebrews,
and we find there the argue,
whether it be Paul or someone else,
arguing about the superiority of Christ
over everything the Old Covenant offered.
Jesus is better in any way.
He is better than the angels,
he is better than Moses,
he is better than Joshua,
he's better than Aaron, who stood as the priestly head,
he's better than, he offers a better covenant.
He gives a better sanctuary,
because this time the sanctuary is his own body.
He offers a better sacrifice, it's his own life.
The sacrifice has better results, it's eternal forgiveness.
And there are better things promised.
It's a kingdom that cannot be shaken.
Now in 1 Corinthians 5, chapter 7, the apostle Paul,
he says that Christ is our Passover.
So Paul is not just borrowing language
from the Old Testament,
he's actually writing the promises
and the events in the Old Testament.
And then he says, hey, these are all fulfilled in Christ.
In John chapter 2, the word Jesus, speaking of himself,
he said that his own body was the temple.
You see that in verses 19 through 21.
Jesus answered and said to them,
destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.
Then the Jews said, well it's taken 46 years
to build this temple,
and you're gonna raise it in three days?
But he was speaking of the temple of his body.
So Paul says he's the true Passover lamb.
Jesus said he's the true temple.
What was the temple for?
It was a meeting place between God and man.
In John 15, verse 21, or verse one,
Jesus said, I'm the true vine.
My father is the vine dresser.
Well now you might be thinking,
well that's just an agricultural metaphor
that Jesus used.
No, when Jesus said he's the true vine,
every Jew that would have been present listening to him
would have immediately understood what he was saying.
Why?
Because in the Old Testament,
the nation Israel is repeatedly referred to
as the vine of God.
I'll give you two examples,
and there are a multitude of examples.
Isaiah and Jeremiah.
In Isaiah 51, verse seven,
for the vineyard of the Lord of hosts
is the house of Israel.
Jeremiah 22, God speaking to the nation,
I had planted you a noble vine,
seed of highest qualities.
And here's what's gone wrong.
How then have you turned before me
into the degenerate plant of an alien vine?
So there was a vine, the nation Israel,
highest quality seed, and yet it produced a bad fruit.
But the Lord Jesus declares, I'm the true vine of God.
In other words, I'm the true Israel of God.
In Exodus, we see that the nation is actually called,
the nation of Israel is actually called God's son.
Exodus four, verse 22.
Then you shall say to Pharaoh, God speaking to Moses,
says, go say this to Pharaoh.
Thus says the Lord, Israel is my son, my firstborn.
But when you come to the pages of the New Testament,
they repeatedly say Christ is the true son.
Thus the true Israel.
Now today in our text, and this is what I wanna focus on,
you're gonna see another reference to Jesus
being the true Israel of God.
Now I think this has blessed me perhaps more
than a recent study has.
Just seeing the glory of Christ in this.
Matthew opens this letter, this gospel,
and he's showing the ancestry of our Lord
from Abraham and David.
He then proceeds to write of the miraculous
virgin conception and birth of the child.
Last week we saw these outsiders, these wise men,
these Magi, Eastern Magi, they come to worship Christ.
So it's foreshadowing outsiders
are gonna receive this child,
but those on the inside, the nation,
are gonna reject him.
So now the Magi arrive at the home of Mary and Joseph
in Bethlehem, and they're bearing these
incredibly expensive extravagant gifts,
and they give them to the family
as a sign of their worship to God.
And then immediately following this, these Magi,
and remember they're from a priestly aristocratic,
but also astrologers, they were warned in a dream
of Harold's evil, King Herod's, excuse me,
evil intention concerning the child.
They were told don't go back and talk to Herod,
because remember Herod said,
hey, when you find the child, bring word back to me,
and I'll come and worship him as well.
Well, God supernaturally warned them, no, that is a lie.
So then they take off, they head home back to the East
in another direction that they would not have to come
in contact with Herod.
So now when they departed, verse 13,
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.
Herod wants to kill him.
So the danger for the child is not over.
In fact, it's just ramping up.
The very life of this child born to Mary is in danger,
because you have a wicked king full of paranoia and rage.
From the very beginning of our Lord's life,
we see opposition, even satanic opposition,
seen through this murderous King Herod.
So evil is seeking to kill this child prematurely,
but God's plan cannot be thwarted.
So God sends an angel of the Lord,
he appears to Joseph in a dream,
and he's warning Joseph again of Herod's murderous plot.
Now this is the second time
that the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph.
Remember the first time, the angel of the Lord
appeared to him in a dream saying, Joseph,
don't be afraid to marry Mary.
Don't be afraid to take her as your wife,
for she's actually telling you the truth about this child.
She's not been with a man.
She's not been unfaithful.
She slept with no one.
In fact, this is a virgin conception.
But now this time, the angel comes again,
and he says, this child that has been born,
his life is in danger.
Gather the family and immediately flee to Egypt for safety.
Now Egypt may seem like an unlikely place
as a haven for any fleeing Jew,
but at that time, in the time of Christ,
Alexander the Great had given the Jews a refugee,
a sanctuary city in Alexandria, Egypt.
It was estimated by Philo, the historian,
that there were probably about a million Jews
living in Alexandria at this time,
so when Joseph and Mary and the child arrived there,
there would be a community to greet them.
Now to go from Bethlehem to the border of Egypt
of 75 miles, to go to Alexandria,
it's probably another 100 miles,
but Joseph and Mary are a poor family.
How do we know that?
Remember when they present Jesus at the temple,
they have to bring two turtle doves.
That's because they were such a poor family.
So how is a family like this gonna finance a trip so long?
Most believe, now we're not told,
but most believe those valuable gifts
that the Magi gave them,
they were used to finance this trip.
So the family arrives in Egypt,
and they stay there until the death of Herod.
Now we're not told how long,
but we know that Herod didn't live long
after Jesus was born,
so some believe this is probably just a couple months,
but even if not, just a short period of time.
Could have been a year, could have been two years,
but most conservatives say they were probably only in Egypt
for a few months at this time.
Now just as before, Joseph is warned in a dream,
and immediately without hesitation,
he obeys the angel's command,
he packs up the family,
and notice they head to Egypt that night.
Verse 14.
When he arose, he took the young child,
and his mother by night and departed for Egypt.
He gets up, and there's no word of any fight.
My wife would be saying,
hey, we're not heading out right now.
Mary's not putting up a fight.
She's stressing Joseph implicitly here.
But I was thinking about this.
Why did they have to flee to Egypt for safety?
I mean, God could have easily, supernaturally protected
Jesus and the family right there in Bethlehem.
I mean, he could have changed Herod's heart
and evil intention,
because the king's heart is in the hand of the Lord,
and as rivers of water, he turns it whether so ever he will.
He could have destroyed Herod and his soldiers.
Remember the story of Pharaoh?
Didn't end well for his army.
He could have actually hidden the child and his family
in plain sight, making them unable to find the child.
I mean, there's many ways,
countless ways that God could have supernaturally
protected Joseph, Mary, and this child, Jesus,
but he doesn't.
Instead, he sends them to Egypt for refuge.
Why?
Why did he do this?
This is what I wanna focus on.
This is actually not a mystery.
We are told, look at verse 15.
And he was there until the death of Herod.
Now notice the phrase, that it might be fulfilled,
which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet saying,
out of Egypt, I called my son.
Now remember, who is Matthew primarily writing to?
A Jewish audience.
Gentiles are welcome to read,
but this is primarily for Jewish readers,
and he's once again proving the credentials
of Jesus being their Messiah.
He is going to show that Christ,
this child born to Mary, in fact is the true Israel of God.
Now in verse 15, he quotes the prophet,
Hosea chapter 11, verse one.
Now listen to Hosea 11.1.
You see it there on the wall behind me.
When Israel was a child, I loved him,
and Hosea's writing here,
and out of Egypt, I called my son.
Okay, Hosea is a prophet, eighth century BC.
This is probably 750 years before the birth of Christ,
and it takes place in a very dark time in Israel's history.
You know Hosea, he had to marry Gomer, the harlot wife.
So there's idolatry, there's apostasy in the land.
God had showered his love and blessing
upon his chosen people, Israel,
but instead of loving him and obeying him
as a choice vine ought to, they were a degenerate vine.
They were going after foreign gods.
They were worshiping foreign gods,
and God sent a message to the nation
through this prophet Hosea.
And in it, God is reminding them of his goodness, how.
Hey, y'all remember when you were slaves there in Egypt,
and I delivered you from the hand of Pharaoh?
God had rescued the nation through the Exodus.
He brought them out of Egypt as a nation
and into the promised land.
If God had not intervened,
the people still would have been foreign slaves in Egypt.
So Hosea's prophecy, and I want you to understand this,
was given to the nation, Israel,
at a specific point in time in their history,
and it was given to them.
So Hosea is not writing, understanding,
he's actually prophesying about something
that's gonna happen 800 years later.
He's writing to the nation,
but as we come to the New Testament,
there was a deeper and more ultimate fulfillment
that even Hosea himself did not know of nor understand.
Now, admittedly, if you look at Hosea 11.1,
it seems at first glance that Matthew is playing fast
and loose with this Old Testament text.
I mean, is he not just cherry picking?
Is he going back and reading certain verses,
and without warrant,
just applying them to Christ, whimsically?
Well, that's what it looks like,
but he's not doing that at all.
Matthew, who's writing under divine inspiration,
he's being led along by the Holy Spirit of God,
he tells us that Hosea's prophecy
was not ultimately fulfilled in that Exodus back in Egypt
when the Israelites escaped Pharaoh,
but it is ultimately fulfilled when this child,
who is also Israel, who is born to this virgin,
flees to Egypt,
and subsequently is called out of Egypt
back into the promised land of Israel.
Just as God had called his son,
remember Exodus 4, Israel is the son,
to the nation Israel,
God had called them out of Egypt into the promised land.
So now, God was calling his only begotten son,
the Lord Jesus, out of Egypt,
back into the promised land.
Now, why would Matthew choose to quote that passage
from Hosea right here?
He knows exactly what he's doing.
He is identifying Jesus with Israel.
Matthew is writing to prove that this child,
born to Mary, in fact,
and this is what we're gonna spend our time,
is the true Israel of God and the true son of God.
Now, here's what I want you to see.
If you look closely,
the entire life of Jesus is a recapitulation
of the life of Israel.
Now, let me explain that.
Just as the nation Israel had an Exodus out of Egypt,
so also Jesus has an Exodus out of Egypt,
Matthew 2.15.
But if you turn to chapter three of Matthew,
and this is where it gets really good, I think,
you see that Jesus is baptized.
When he leaves Israel, when he comes back into Israel,
he's being baptized.
As Israel, what happened after their Exodus?
They passed through the waters, right?
They passed through the waters of the Red Sea,
so Christ is also passing through the waters
of the Jordan River.
He's passing through the waters here.
After Israel passed through the waters, what happened?
They were tested.
Where?
In the wilderness, the desert.
For how long?
40 years.
Jesus is baptized in Matthew 3, and in chapter four,
do you know what happens?
Immediately, the spirit takes Jesus into the wilderness
to do what?
Test him, tempt him.
For how long?
40 days.
Why?
So you have an Exodus, you have a baptism,
and you have a temptation.
The nation had that, the life of Jesus has that.
What is Matthew doing here?
He is trying to show Jesus is the true son,
he's the true Israel who won't fail.
Remember what had happened to that nation?
Jeremiah 2, their degenerate plant.
The nation Israel has God's son failed them,
yet this Israel, God's true son, whose name is Jesus,
will not fail, but will succeed
in completely obeying the Father.
The nation as a son broke the covenantal relationship
through unbelief.
They did not believe.
That's why their carcasses
and their skeletons were scattered all over the desert.
But Christ, the true Israel, he succeeds as a son
by completely trusting his Father
in and through all circumstances.
But we're not done.
In Matthew 10, the Lord Jesus, the true Israel,
he chose 12 disciples.
Why?
Why 12?
Because he's a recapitulation of the nation.
The nation had 12 tribes based upon 12 sons.
Christ would choose 12 apostles.
We read in Paul's writings, there is a foundation change.
No longer is the foundation built upon
the 12 tribes of Israel, but the 12 apostles
will now serve as a foundation for the people of God.
You read that in Paul.
So what is this all saying?
We have a realignment of God's people.
No longer are the people of God
relegated to a land in the Middle East.
From now, the people of God
will come from all nations of the world.
They're no longer merely biological descendants of Abraham.
That's what made you a Jew.
These are spiritual descendants of Abraham.
Sons, yes, but spiritual sons.
The sons of Abraham, this is what Paul argued,
this is what Peter argued, I think this is what Matthew's
getting at here, are those who put their faith in Christ,
whether they be Jew or Gentile.
That's what makes you a son of Abraham.
So now, God's people are those who follow
in the steps of Abraham by putting their faith
in the promises of God, and where are the promises
of God fulfilled?
Remember what we started the verse, or this message with.
They're all fulfilled in Christ.
Every promise of God is yes and amen in him.
So Galatians three, for you are all sons of God
through faith in Christ Jesus.
That's how you're a son.
For as many of you as were baptized into Christ
have put on Christ, there is neither Jew nor Greek.
No, we take that for granted.
That's radical then.
There's neither slave nor free, male or female.
You're all one in Christ Jesus.
And if you are Christ, now notice this last verse.
I'm not making it up, Paul said it.
If you are Christ, and how are you Christ?
Through faith.
Then you are Abraham's seed, and you are heirs
according to that promise.
That Abrahamic promise, that's for you.
If you're Christ, I love what Alan Strubeck said.
He said, you and I, we like the first Israel,
go to that next slide, are prone to wonder
from our father and to worship idols.
But Jesus, the perfectly righteous one,
the better and true Israel, died to bear our sins
so that we might come and cast ourselves upon his mercy.
We have been gathered into his great company,
into the framework of the true kingdom of Israel,
not because of who we are or what we've done,
but because of who he is and what he has done.
Matthew is wanting his readers to know
that the Israel of God, the true Israel,
is this child that was born to this lady, this virgin.
It is Jesus Christ, and everyone who's gonna be united
to him by faith make up the people of God, the true Israel.
So who is God's true son?
Who is the true Israel?
It's not a nation, it is the Lord Jesus.
As Jesus is the true son, you and I are sons
by faith in him.
It's only as we're related to him.
As Jesus is the true Israel, you and I are part
of this true Israel only as we're related to him.
Everything depends upon him.
You and I are those who by the spirit
have been circumcised in heart,
and we've come to believe in the promises of God,
I pray you have, just as Abraham did.
But I think there's one more compelling truth,
and this is what I want you to see.
I've been asking you to pay attention, I always say that,
but I really want you to pay attention now.
That's a teacher in me.
I really pay attention to this.
We're gonna turn to the prophet Isaiah.
Isaiah, if you read through Isaiah,
you know that Isaiah prophesied much about the Messiah,
much about Christ.
Most Christological prophet of all of them would be Isaiah.
But starting in really chapters 42,
all the way through 53 or 54,
you have this motif of the suffering servant of Isaiah.
They're called the servant songs.
Now, Isaiah, he's writing about the nation,
and he's writing about how this nation will be restored
because the nation's gone astray
through a suffering servant.
Now, well, I wanna show this,
so you have to prove this to you.
So this is like a geometric,
remember in geometry I do all those proofs?
That's what I'm doing right here.
Isaiah 41, but you Israel, my servant,
Jacob, whom I have chosen,
the descendants of Abraham, my friend,
you whom I have taken from the ends of the earth
and called from its farthest regions and said to you,
you are my servant, I have chosen you,
and have not cast you away.
There's hope for Israel.
Israel, now there's no doubt, look at verse nine.
You are my servant, I have chosen you.
Who's he talking to?
Verse eight, Israel.
Israel's a servant, right?
Now we're going to turn to chapter 42, verse one.
Behold my servant whom I uphold,
my elect one in whom my soul delights,
I have put my spirit upon him.
He will bring forth justice to the Gentiles.
He will not cry out nor raise his voice,
nor cause his voice to be heard in the street.
A bruised reed he will not break
in the smoking flax he will not quench.
He will bring justice for truth.
He will not fail nor be discouraged
till he has established justice in the earth
and the coastlands shall wait for his law.
Now look down at verse six.
I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness
and will hold your hand.
I will keep you and give you as a covenant to the people,
as a light to the Gentiles.
What's he gonna do?
Verse seven, open blind eyes
to bring out prisoners from the prison
and those who sit in darkness from the prison house.
Okay, stop.
This servant, Israel, because we know from 41,
is the elect one, the chosen one.
It is gonna bring justice and truth and light to Gentiles.
His mission is found in six and seven there.
A light to Gentiles, open blind eyes,
and release prisoners who are sitting in darkness.
Now we keep reading from 42 all the way to 53,
and I'm giving you just choice verses.
Chapter 44, verse one, just in case you need to hear it again.
Yet here now, oh Jacob, my servant,
and Israel, whom I've chosen.
There's no doubt who we're talking about.
Chapter 49, verse three, this is where it gets good.
And he said to me, you are my servant,
oh Israel, in whom I will be glorified.
Now right now, every time you've heard Israel,
you're thinking the nation, right?
That's what I would be thinking.
Same chapter, 49, three, look down two verses later.
And now says the Lord, and now the Lord says,
who formed me from the womb to be his servant.
So he's still talking to the servant.
What is this servant who earlier was identified as Israel,
what's he gonna do?
To bring Jacob back to him,
so that Israel is gathered to him.
For I shall be glorious in the eyes of the Lord,
and my God shall be my strength.
This servant is Israel.
I've shown that to you, chapter 41, chapter 44.
The servant is Israel, verse three,
and yet we're told in verse five,
he's going to bring Jacob or Israel back to God.
This servant who is the elect one, who is Israel,
is going to redeem and save and restore Israel.
I know you're confused, you should be.
There is a servant, Israel,
who will save the people, Israel.
Isaiah 52.
I haven't proved it yet.
Behold, my servant shall deal prudently.
He shall be exalted and extolled and be very high.
Just as many were astonished at you,
so his visage was marred more than any man,
and his form more than the sons of men.
So shall he sprinkle many nations.
King shall shut their mouths at him.
For what had not been told them, they shall see,
and what they had not heard, they shall consider.
Now, Isaiah 52 goes immediately into 53.
Remember, there are no chapter and verse divisions.
This is one big long scroll, if you will.
So the suffering servant of 52, whose visage was marred
and king shut their mouth at him,
immediately continues to 53, where the servant,
this same servant, is going to be crushed.
Why?
Like it's really good.
Who has believed our report?
To whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
For he, this servant, shall grow up before him
as a tender plant and as a root out of dry ground.
He has no form nor comeliness.
He's not good looking.
And when we see him, there's no beauty
that we should desire him.
He's despised, rejected by men,
a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
And we hid as it were our faces from him,
and he was despised.
Oh, we did not esteem him.
Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows,
yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God afflicted.
But he was wounded for what?
Our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities,
the chastisement for our peace,
and he's identifying with Isaiah here, was upon him,
and by his stripes, whoever the servant is,
were healed by them.
All we, like sheep, have gone astray.
We've turned everyone to his own way,
and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
Isaiah, the people of Israel.
He's oppressed, he was afflicted,
but he didn't open his mouth.
He was led as a lamb to the slaughter
and as a sheep before it shears the silent,
so he opened not his mouth.
Verse eight, and this is where I wanna focus on.
He was taken from prison and from judgment,
and who will declare his generation?
For he, the servant,
was cut off, killed from the land of the living.
Why?
For the transgressions of my people, he was stricken.
You have a servant here,
who somehow is killed, cut off from the land of the living,
for the transgressions of God's people.
This servant, going back to 42, 43, 44, is Israel.
You've been thinking the nation the whole time.
Israel, the servant, was killed for Israel, the people.
The true Israel, also known as the true people of God,
are the ones who are united to this servant,
the true Israel in faith.
They're the ones who unite to Christ Jesus.
Now you might say, but Ryan, you're really just reading
into Old Testament text when he wants to read it.
When he wants him to see.
No, I'm not.
I'm not, because New Testament writers,
who are writing under the influence of the Holy Spirit,
under divine inspiration, they take these passages
and they apply them to Christ,
and I'm just gonna give you a few examples and we'll close.
Let's go to the gospel we're preaching from, Matthew.
In Matthew 12, then the Pharisees went out
and plotted against him, that is Jesus,
how they might destroy him.
Of course they did.
But when Jesus knew it, he withdrew from there,
and great multitudes followed him, and he healed them all.
Yet he warned them not to make him known.
Verse 17, why did he heal them all?
That it might be fulfilled, which is spoken
by Isaiah the prophet, saying, now notice the text here.
I love this, it's so good here.
Behold my servant, whom I have chosen,
my beloved, and whom my soul has well pleased.
I will put my spirit upon him.
He will declare justice to the Gentiles.
He's not gonna quarrel or cry out,
nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets.
A bruised reed he will not break,
a smoking flax he will not quench,
until he sends justice, fourth justice to victory.
And in his name, Gentiles will trust.
Do you know what Matthew is quoting here?
Do you know what Matthew 12 is quoting?
Isaiah 42, that's where we started.
Matthew is telling us that the servant of Isaiah 42
is Christ Jesus.
Matthew chapter eight.
When evening had come, they brought to him
many who were demon possessed.
He cast out the spirits with the word,
he healed all who were sick.
Why?
Verse 17, that it might be fulfilled,
which is spoken by Isaiah the prophet saying,
now notice where he's quoting.
He himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses.
Matthew 8, 17 is quoting Isaiah 53, four.
What Matthew is telling us, this servant who is killed
in Isaiah 53 is Jesus.
And one more in Acts eight, the Ethiopian eunuch,
do you remember him in Acts eight?
He's reading from a scroll, a portion of Isaiah.
God sends Philip to him.
And Philip, excuse me, the Ethiopian eunuch
is reading about this suffering servant
and he's very confused.
He doesn't know who Isaiah is writing of.
Acts eight, 32.
The place in the scripture which he read was this.
He was led as a sheep to the slaughter
and as a lamb before it shears a silence.
So he opened his mouth.
In his humiliation, his justice was taken away
and who will declare his generation for his life
is taken from the earth.
The eunuch answered Philip and said,
I ask you of whom does the prophet say this?
Of himself or some other man?
I mean, I don't understand what I'm reading here.
Look at verse 35.
Philip opened his mouth and beginning at this scripture
right here, Isaiah 53, verse seven and eight,
he preached Jesus to him.
That's so good.
The eunuch is reading Isaiah 53, verse seven and eight.
Philip is sent to him and he said,
I'll tell you exactly who Isaiah is referring to
in this prophecy and he starts to preach Jesus.
According to the New Testament,
the word Jesus is that servant of Isaiah.
He is the suffering servant from Isaiah 42 to 53.
But the servant in those passages is called what?
Israel.
Why?
The word Jesus is the true Israel of God.
He is the true suffering servant of God
and he is the true son of God.
So you may be thinking, okay, so now what?
What do you wanna do?
What will you do with Jesus?
You're either, there's two choices
and there really are only two.
You either fall down and worship him,
you're gonna reject him to your own peril.
To have faith in this Christ
is to be part of the true people of God.
Friends, God has spoken from heaven.
There is no other way to be saved from God's wrath
except through this child that was born.
There is one savior, there is one mediator,
there is one true son and his name is the Lord Jesus Christ.
All the promises of God in him are yes and amen.
He is the covenant fulfillment of all the old covenant.
And I talk to Christians.
You have faith in this one
and the Bible clearly says in Galatians three,
you are Abraham's offspring.
You are blessed.
Why?
You are blessed because of faith.
By faith you are united to him
and he alone was that seed who inherited all those blessings.
And this is the message before we go to the table
to worship him.
Christ is the true son.
You are sons in him.
Christ is the true Israel.
You are part of the true Israel,
that is the true people of God by faith in him.
Christ is the blessed one.
You are blessed in him.
Christ is the elect one, the chosen one.
You are elect, chosen in him.
Friend, do you see it?
Is your heart exploding?
All the promises of God,
all the promises that God made
are yes and amen in this child.
And you are blessed if you see that.
You are blessed if you have trusted in him.
The father has revealed his son to you.
Praise him, friends.
But you know what this means?
He has given to us his son.
He has spoken from heaven and he is Lord.
And as Lord, you and I obey.
He is king and we are subjects.
He is God and we are servants.
For friends, Lord, give him your life.
And today, if you have never bowed your knee
in repentance and faith before him,
there is a savior, the true elect one, sent from heaven
to redeem those who are sinful.
And today, if you see yourself as a sinner
and you see Christ as savior,
confess him, he will save you.
Put your faith in him.
You must come to him today.
And friends, if you do believe and you've been baptized
and you have the sign of the covenant upon you,
rejoice today.
Exalt today as we take the communion
for this one given to heaven.
What a blessed people we are.
Let's pray.
Father, thank you, Lord, for your word.
Lord, I am so amazed.
Lord, the intricacy and Lord, just the,
Lord, the absolute astounding ways
that you have weaved together this perfect plan
and have revealed it in your word.
Oh, what a wonderful God.
How intelligent, how wise you are.
And yet you revealed it to babes and infants
and unworthy ones like ourselves.
Oh, Lord, help us Lord now by your spirit
as we come to the table and we celebrate
and remember the Lord's death.
Until he returns once more, we pray this in his name.
Amen.
I'm Wester Deakins, if you would come.