Tuesday, December 28, 2010

December 26/27, 2010 sermon on Matthew 2:13-23 by Pastor Paul G. Eckert

December 26/27, 2010 - Christmas 1 Sermon by Pastor Paul G. Eckert
Text - Matthew 2:13-23
13 When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. "Get up," he said, "take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him." 14 So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, 15 where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: "Out of Egypt I called my son." 16 When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. 17 Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled: 18 "A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more." 19 After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt 20 and said, "Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child’s life are dead." 21 So he got up, took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. 22 But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee, 23 and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets: "He will be called a Nazarene."
AFTER THE BIRTH OF THE SAVIOR, THEN WHAT?
I THERE WAS AND IS DANGER
II THERE WAS AND IS GOD’S GUIDING CARE
III THERE WAS, IS AND WILL BE FULFILLMENT
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After celebrating the birth of our Savior, then what? I suppose today, with this service coming right after Christmas Eve and Day, some of the "what" could be what we refer to as "preaching to the choir." The "choir" would refer to the people who today are present in the church service and thus are the ones who are doing the singing. So if I would rant and rave today about the many who attended our special Christmas services but then do not show up for our regular services, resulting in a lower church attendance, I would be ranting and raving to you who are present, but not to those who are not here. I could also give the wrong impression about people who are not here, as though nobody has a valid reason for not being here. So, instead of "preaching to the choir," I’ll just ask you to keep on encouraging fellow family and church members to be faithful in their worship lives, to be a regular part of those who sing in our worship services, who hear God’s Word in church and come to His Supper here.
But now let’s get to our sermon text and go back to the time after the birth of the Savior. It wasn’t the day after, but a small amount of time had passed. The Magi, Wise Men, were now on their way back home. Mary and Joseph and Jesus were no longer in a stable but in a house, and were no longer using a manger as a crib for baby Jesus. So those inconveniences were behind them. But quite a bit was ahead for them, even as the new year of 2011 lies ahead for us. So we ask:
AFTER THE BIRTH OF THE SAVIOR, THEN WHAT?
I THERE WAS AND IS DANGER (13,16)
1. Danger confronted Jesus (13)
When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. "Get up," he said, "take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him." a) with a special star God had alerted the Magi that His promised
King had been born; so they had headed to Israel’s capital city,
Jerusalem, where they assumed that this King would be found
b) their intention was to worship Him and bring Him offerings;
but unwittingly they in fact put Him into danger because King
Herod saw only a threat to his government throne when he
heard about another potential king - if you recall, Pontius Pilate
33 years later mocked Jesus as a king, but Herod at this time
tried to use the Magi to get rid of this new king
2. Danger confronted the children of Bethlehem (16)
When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi.
a) the Magi did not report back to Herod; so, knowing only the
location, he determined to kill all the baby boys in an age range
he felt sure would include Jesus
b) the number may have been small, but the killing was murder
3. Danger is also present today
a) we may not have a Herod, but we have a government that
has made it legal to murder countless number of babies in the
womb; we have loud voices that demand the right to choose
to get rid of babies by what actually is murder
b) the devil still is behind that as he still is as anxious to get rid of
Jesus as Herod was, as he also is after each and every one of us
with his temptations to turn us away from God’s truth, to turn
us away from Jesus, our promised Savior and King
4. So our walk after Christmas is a walk in danger
a) 2011 will not be without danger, as little as 2010 has been
b) daily we’ll need to continue to pray "Deliver us from evil"
and trustingly also to pray "Your will be done"
c) because we know the reality that there was and still is danger
II THERE WAS AND IS GOD’S GUIDING CARE (13-14,19-22)
1. The need for this may seem strange
a) our Jesus is the Word made flesh, the one of whom Scripture
says, "Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made."
b) why did He through whom all things were made need guiding
care? it is because He had humbled Himself for us, taken on
Himself our flesh and blood and weaknesses so that He could
take on Himself our sins and die for our sins as our Substitute
2. God’s guiding and protecting care was evident (13-14,19-22)
a) He warned of the danger from Herod
When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in
a dream. "Get up," he said, "take the child and his mother and
escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to
search for the child to kill him." So he got up, took the child and
his mother during the night and left for Egypt, ---. b) He directed the path for Him to travel
After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, "Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child’s life are dead." So he got up, took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee ---.
3. That guiding care is also with us
a) we may not always understand how God guides us - in our
past lives have we always understood why God permitted some
things to happen? will we always know in the coming year what
God has in mind if something comes that we would choose not
to have happen? maybe Mary and Joseph didn’t understand
right away either why with a new child they had to do the
traveling they had to do
b) but when we don’t understand, be encouraged by what God
said through the prophet Isaiah: "My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD. "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."
4. Be confident of that guiding care
a) we cannot say we’ll walk without danger after Christmas
b) we cannot say we’ll have a perfect year 2011, no problems
c) but we can say we walk in God’s guiding care all of the way,
confident in the assurance of Scripture: "He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all - how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?"
III THERE WAS, IS AND WILL BE FULFILLMENT (15,17-18,23)
1. Old Testament promises were fulfilled (15b,17-18,23)
a) in our text we have just three of many OT references
- Jeremiah 31:15 - Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled: "A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to
be comforted, because they are no more."
- Hosea 11:1 - And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said
through the prophet: "Out of Egypt I called my son."
b) in the third reference our text says - And he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets: "He will be called a Nazarene." - Scripture had also
foretold that Jesus would be mocked, seen as a nobody who
came from a small place like Nazareth instead of from an
important city like Jerusalem, and that too happened
2. So also the promise of salvation was fulfilled
a) the prophecies mentioned weren’t the only ones fulfilled; think
also of the promise of a virgin birth, of Bethlehem as the
birthplace, about being pierced for our transgressions and
crushed for our iniquities which were all placed on God’s Son,
about the punishment He endured to bring us peace
b) saving was promised and fulfilled - not saving from all physical
dangers, but from sin and its deserved eternal consequences
3. And life is what also will be fulfilled
a) God has promised to be with us in this life, but not that we will
continue forever in this life - who would want that in this vale
of tears?
b) what Jesus has promised is that we will not perish but have
eternal life, that there are mansions above and that He will
come back and take us to be with Him where He is in His glory
- in other words, that heaven is our home, a promise that will
be fulfilled as surely as the prophecies in our text were fulfilled,
as surely as Jesus after His crucifixion arose from the dead to
be our Resurrection and our Life
4. For God will fulfill what He has promised us
a) how sad if all we knew was that we were heading into another
year of time with a totally unknown future
b) how sad if we knew that all we could anticipate was danger
and problems and aging and dying and death and hell
c) because of Christmas and everything it really means, because
of the truth of God’s love and of His promises, we know
more: we head into another year knowing there will be dangers,
but also confident that we have God’s guiding care, and that
our Savior God will fulfill His promises to us of glory to come
A Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year Indeed!

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