King Jesus is God's Promised Son

[0:00] Well, we're going to turn now to our Bibles, and you'll see that we're reading once again in Matthew's Gospel. Phil Copeland last week took us through the first part of Matthew chapter 2, and we're looking especially today at that little paragraph from verses 13 to 15. But we're going to read from verse 13 down to the end of Matthew chapter 2. If you have one of our Blue Visitors Bibles, it's page 808. Otherwise, it is probably page 2 of the New Testament.

[0:38] Now, when the wise men had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, Rise, take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt.

[0:51] And remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child to destroy him. And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt and remained there until the death of Herod. And this was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet. Out of Egypt I called my son. Then Herod, when he saw that he'd been tricked by the wise men, became furious. And he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men. And then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah. A voice was heard in Ramah weeping and loud lamentation. Rachel weeping for her children. She refused to be comforted because they are no more. But when Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying, Rise, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel. For those who sought the child's life are dead. And he rose and took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea in place of his father, Herod, he was afraid to go there. And being warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee. And he went and lived in a city called Nazareth.

[2:31] That what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled. He shall be called a Nazarene. Amen. And may God bless to us his word.

[2:44] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

[3:22] Amen. Decades and decades ago, long before I was born, my great grandfather was walking from his house in Milton to Bishop Briggs. He was a great walker and he walked this route regularly.

[3:36] he was an elderly man at this point in his life and as he walked along this regular route he had an extremely bad fall it was so terrible that he couldn't pick himself up and you know many people came walking past my my grandfather and so he cried out to them for help but you know that not one of them stopped to help him they all kept walking by and my great-grandfather lay on the cold hard ground for a long long time eventually an ambulance picked him up but he died in hospital shortly after from a chest infection all because nobody wanted to get involved in his plight well friends when we read the gospel of matthew we see just how gloriously different the living god is the true god god doesn't look down upon this world of darkness and evil uh he doesn't look down upon us in our plight and say i'm not getting involved in that far from it matthew tells us the momentous news that some 2 000 years ago the creator of the universe came into this world to save people like you and me from our biggest problem you remember that matthew was one of the eyewitnesses to jesus's time on earth and he's written this a gospel account so that you will see the truth about jesus and so that you will see how beautiful jesus is and so that you will surrender to jesus and build your life upon his teaching and let me just recap for you so far very briefly what matthew has been teaching in this early section of his gospel matthew has declared to us that jesus is god's promised king his coming to earth hasn't happened in some sort of an isolated time vacuum but rather his coming to earth is the continuation and the climax of the old testament all of god's covenant promises that he made with the forefathers forefathers like david and abraham well they all find their yes and their amen in this king jesus and if you were here last week you'll remember that we we went through the text and we just highlighted that this repeated phrase that matthew uses throughout all of his gospel but especially so in these early chapters it comes up in verse 15 of our passage this morning matthew says all this that is this event that involved jesus all this took place to fulfill what the lord had spoken through the prophet in other words if you want to understand jesus matthew says you must understand the interpretive word of the scriptures matthew doesn't only give us the historical truth and the facts but he also gives us the interpretive word of god so that we understand the facts and so that we believe something about jesus identity he is god's promised king and in chapter one matthew also tells us that he is unlike any other king who's ever existed for jesus is a divine king he was born fully god and fully man in the one person conceived by the holy spirit in the womb of his virgin mother jesus is none other than the eternal son of god he left the gaze of angels he left the glory that he had with his father in heaven and he entered this dark world taking upon himself our human nature with all of its infirmities and all of its weaknesses and why would he ever do such a thing well because he came to be the disclosing king he came to reveal the truth about god to sinners like you and me that is those who by nature are spiritually blind and ignorant of the truth about god but more than this jesus was also born says matthew to be the delivering king to deliver us from sin we'll talk a bit more

[7:36] about this later on in the sermon but jesus has come to deal with the punishment that we deserve for the terrible way that we've treated our maker so that we can have peace with our maker be reconciled to him forever and ever and as we heard last sunday at the start of chapter two matthew tells us that jesus was also born to be the shepherd king those whom jesus came to save he also came to shepherd those he came to rescue he also came to rule and matthew assures us that if you trust in this shepherd king he will rule over your life perfectly for all eternity you will live in peace and perfection with him with the father and with all the rest of his people in the new heavens and the new earth it's the it's the life that you want it's available only under the shepherd king well this week in our passage from verse 13 to 15 we're going to carry on listening to what matthew's teaching us about king jesus let's look at this under two points firstly let's notice the certainty of god's salvation the certainty of god's salvation throughout this chapter in our section and in the other sections we are told of four dreams where the lord speaks to someone in a dream and moves that person into action in order to protect his christ from the deadly threats upon his life and you know the way that the lord acts here it should give us as his people today great certainty that he really will save us certainty that god will triumph through his christ let's just run through the text then and see these four dreams back in verse eight just run your eye over that verse when the magi were about to leave the royal palace to go to try and find the christ who'd been born in bethlehem herod the the roman puppet king of judea said to the magi oh go and search diligently for the child please do that and when you find him come back to me and bring word to me of his location that i too may worship him and of course friends that was a total lie what a lie that was herod wanted to know the location of the child so that he could destroy the child remember we know from the history books that herod was a murderous psychopath who would do anything to hold on to his seat of power if herod even got the slightest inclination that you were a threat to his throne he would have you taken out completely and not for dinner he would kill you that's the real reason that he wanted the magi to return to him well in verses 9 to 11 as we saw last week the magi leave herod they find the child jesus god's shepherd king and they worship him as lord they bow down to him and just look at verse 12 being warned in a dream they departed to their own country another way so there is dream number one the lord sovereignly acts to protect his christ he warns the magi to go home on a different route away from herod and they obey but again i'm sorry again the lord is sovereignly protecting his christ but it's not long before the threat upon jesus life rises up again in verse 16 once herod realized that the magi weren't coming back to tell him the whereabouts of god's king he is furious and so he launches this sickening sickening mass murder of all of the wee baby boys aged zero to two years old who were living in the bethlehem region all in a desperate attempt to wipe out this christ but again the lord is sovereign and he protects his christ back in verse 13 before herod launches this

[11:37] murderous scheme an angel of the lord comes to joseph jesus's father by adoption and he says look get up now immediately flee go to egypt for herod is about to search for the child to kill him go to egypt and remain there until i tell you and so they flee they go and they find safety in egypt far away from herod's jurisdiction the next dream comes in in verse 20 where after the death of herod the lord directs jesus family out of egypt back up into israel and you think to yourself oh phew oh disaster's been avoided but again it's not long until a new threat rises up against christ's life in verse 22 we're told that after herod had died he was replaced by a new evil crackpot tyrant called archelaus his son another crazed power hungry thug and again the lord speaks to joseph in a dream so that the family do not settle near archelaus in judea instead they go up way up north into galilee and they settle safely in nazareth come back next week and we'll think more about the significance of that but again the lord is sovereignly protecting his christ and and let's be really clear on this god is not just protecting his christ from the attack of crazed human tyrants of flesh and blood no the lord god is also protecting his christ from the enemy capital e the evil one the one who stands behind herod and archelaus in fact the one who stands and has stood behind every crackpot tyrant throughout human history friends what we're seeing in these verses is really a manifestation of the age-long conflict that's been raging on from the kingdom of darkness against the kingdom of light just read through the old testament and you will see that this conflict has been raging on ever since genesis 3 satan time and time and time again has tried to derail god's plan of salvation he's tried time and again to wipe out the seed of abraham time and again he's tried to stop the promised savior of genesis 3 15 from entering the world remember that promise the lord said one day i will send the seed of of the woman who turns out to be a seed of the of abraham i will send him into this world to crush the head of satan but if you were to read through the old testament scriptures you will also see that time and time and time again the lord sovereignly triumphs over all of the attacks of the evil one in fact there's no competition at all god and satan aren't equals yes the bible doesn't teach dualism god is the all-powerful lord creator and satan is just one of his rebellious creatures no match for the almighty and so when we look at matthew 2 when we see the lord protecting his christ we're really seeing the lord being true to form god is doing what he's always done and what he will always continue to do until the end of history triumphing over all of those who oppose him to bring about his salvation plans and purposes satan tries as hard as he can and he fails miserably because nothing will stand in the lord's way and if you're a christian here this morning well this should really fill us with great assurance and great hope and certainty for it tells us that we trust in a god and we belong to a god who is utterly trustworthy for he is a god who is able to deliver on his promises no matter what the kingdom of darkness throws up against him no matter how things might appear

[15:38] from our perspective god is always sovereignly at work to advance his salvation plans nothing will stand in his way if it could be that you're here this morning and you're not yet a christian that is you've not yet surrendered your life to god through his king jesus well if that's you then you're very welcome it's great to have you with us and we hope that you feel at home here but please know that this is what our god is like and if you've been brought here by a christian friend this morning then this is one of the many reasons why your friend loves the god of the bible the true god through his son jesus for he is utterly dependable he will always deliver on what he has promised we live in a world where it is very hard to trust people it's even hard to trust those who are closest to us and i bet if we were all being totally honest i'm sure all of us could put up our hands and say do you know what in all honesty there have been plenty of times in our lives when we have shown that we aren't all that trustworthy either times when we have failed to deliver on what we have promised well the god of the bible is so different gloriously different in him you find one who's completely trustworthy he has promised to triumphantly save all of those who've surrendered to his king and live for his king and given up everything for his king and he will deliver nothing will stand in his way that is what we get a little picture of here in matthew 2 that's the first point this morning the certainty of god's salvation the certainty of god's salvation here's the second thing we see in this passage this morning the identity of god's son the identity of god's son and really this is matthew's big main teaching point in verse 13 to 15 matthew wants us to see that jesus is god's true son that is his true israel and he has come to earth in order to live the perfect human life of holiness obedience and righteousness on our behalf as our champion and our representative that is really what this flight down to egypt is hinting at when you read it in light of the rest of matthew's gospel and in light of the rest of the scriptures please look at verse 14 and he that's joseph rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to egypt and remained there until the death of herod this was to fulfill what the lord had spoken by the prophet out of egypt i called my son matthew says that this nighttime flight to egypt was the fulfillment of hosea chapter 11 verse 1 now hosea it's like micah that we read last week was a prophet of god who wrote some 800 years before these events recorded in matthew 2 but as you read those verses in hosea you you think to yourself hang on a minute hosea doesn't seem to be talking about the future there at all and if you're thinking about that way then you're right hosea isn't making a promise about the future if you look at those verses in context hosea is actually looking backwards in time back to the exodus back to god's great act of redemption in the old testament when he saved his people israel out of bondage to slavery to the egyptians and that by the way is whom hosea is referring to as god's son sometimes in the bible a term can mean many different things we have this in our language today i remember talking to some young people down in england and harpington and they described an event as being sick and i thought to myself what do you mean was the people vomiting everywhere but apparently the word sick doesn't necessarily just mean vomit it can also mean really really good and to the generations below me but there you go so if someone comes up to you says oh that's sick then it's not necessarily a

[19:43] bad thing but you get the principle one word can mean many different things depending upon the context and so it is in the bible the word title son of god can mean different things it doesn't always mean the second person of the trinity in job one for example angels are described as sons of god and look chapter three adam the first man is called son of god in sam two the davidic king the king in the line of david is called son of god and listen to exodus 4 listen to what the lord says about israel thus says the lord israel is my firstborn son let my son go that he may serve me and it is this son that hosea is speaking about in his prophecy out of egypt i called my son i called israel out of egypt and you might be thinking well if israel is looking back in time to the exodus from egypt how can matthew possibly say that jesus is the fulfillment of these verses well it's because matthew wants us to see that jesus didn't come just to fulfill individual old testament promises jesus came to fulfill old testament patterns in matthew 2 when we see jesus geographical movements going down to egypt and being called up out of egypt he is recapitulating historical events from the nation of israel and that is what you read at the end of the book of genesis remember israel had to flee to egypt for safety only to be called out of egypt later at the exodus by god and they were set apart to be his son and matthew is telling us that this parallel between israel and jesus in these movements is not an accident it's not happened by chance jesus has come to be the true israel the true son just look at all of the israel type stuff that he does if you were to read through the gospel which i recommend you should do you will find all sorts of parallels like this they come up again and again and again let me just give you some israel were told was baptized through the red sea that was their baptism in matthew 3 jesus is baptized too israel was tempted in the wilderness for 40 years in matthew 4 jesus was tempted in the wilderness for 40 days and jesus by the way faced exactly the same sorts of temptations that israel faced back in their day israel was called to be a light to the nations in matthew 4 jesus is described as being a great light to the nations israel was given the commandments of god on a mount and jesus expounds the commandments of god on a mount in chapters 5 to 7 of matthew's gospel there are many more parallels we don't have time to go into them all but they're there and so here in chapter 2 verse 15 matthew is introducing us to a great theme that runs through the whole of his entire gospel account jesus is the true son the true israel and you know as you read through the gospel account and see this son in action your heart is full of all sorts of joy because you see that this son succeeds where the old son israel failed failed miserably it is as hosea 11 goes on to say that son that israel failed they refused to be the son that they were called to be and they rejected the lord they didn't love him and obey him they shunned his grace they nullified his law and on account of their behavior the lord's name was not proclaimed amongst the nations the lord's name was actually blasphemed amongst the nations they weren't a people of light they sadly turned into a people of darkness and where did they end up they ended up in exile which is under the ultimate covenant curse

[23:49] because they were full of such unbelief they were an unfaithful people that son that israel failed big time on the whole but here in matthew 2 is god's true son god's true israel he is the one who will at last perfectly love god the father with all his heart soul mind and strength and love his neighbor as himself here at last is the one who will live the perfect human life of holiness that god desires he will live this way to the point of death even death on a cross now you might be sitting there thinking well that's all very interesting but so what what difference does that make to my life today has it got anything to do with my life today and the answer to your question is yes it does this has got everything to do with your life today and it's got everything to do with my life today because jesus was born to live the perfect human life always loving and always obeying god for us for you and me on our behalf he came to achieve the human obedience holiness and righteousness on our behalf as our covenant representative this son is the federal head that we desperately need he's our champion who wins the day on our behalf wins the victory that we never could just think back to 2012 please i think back to the london olympics i was watching this on telly absolutely delighted when i saw andy murray winning gold at the 2012 olympics now he won that victory for himself but he also won it for the entire nation of great britain on their behalf andy murray was our champion he won the medal and the victory himself but both his medal and his victory they were credited to us his people those whom he was representing and so it is with this son and you know all those who are united to him by faith in the holy spirit his victory his life is credited to us he is our champion his performance his victory the human perfection that he achieved it's credited to us the second we put our trust in him and also the second we put our trust in him he comes to live in us by his spirit and starts to make us holy that is his life of holiness starts to flow into us and change us and transform us bit by bit by bit by bit all the way through life until his second coming where would we be if we didn't have this heaven's champion representing us well the answer is we would be hopeless and helpless we would be just like unbelieving israel the son who failed on our own left to our own devices we could never achieve the human holiness and obedience that god desires why is that well the bible says it's because all have sinned and we're in bondage to sin what is sin again maybe you're not a christian and maybe you've never heard that word before well sin is another name for that hideous rebellion that god defiance that wretched opposition to our maker that crouches at the door of every human fallen heart sin is both a condition that we've inherited from the first man adam and it's also an action that manifests itself in word and thought and deed and when it is full blown it gives birth to death the simplest definition of sin in the bible is that sin is lawlessness god made a command god makes other commandments and we break them or we violate them either deliberately or ignorantly we've committed sin but of course sin goes much deeper than just missing the mark and breaking commandments sin is also described as idolatry worshiping false gods whether these false deities are

[27:53] material or immaterial external objects or ideologies that we hold to internally in our minds and in our hearts sin can also be spiritual it's also considered as being spiritual adultery when we whore and that's really strong language but it's what the bible uses when we whore after things other than god sin is also described as a pervasive pollution that has marred all of our humanity every part of it and when we look at the very first sin that was committed by the very first man and woman in the very beginning we see that at its root sin is a disregard to disbelieve and to reject the word of god sin in its essence is pride it is to think that we know better than god and that we know how to be like god on our own terms the bible also teaches us that sin is the pursuit of illicit pleasure with a blatant disregard for the negative consequences of our disobedience and at the root of all sin is the desire to define yourself apart from god and apart from his word the heidelberg catechism puts it rather bluntly it says this we have all the natural tendency to hate god and hate our neighbor my friends that is sin and as a friend of mine once said if you're an honest person who's completely honest with yourself then you will know that that is true of your heart that's true of my heart if you're an honest person you will know that you're not what you should be you don't even meet your own standards i don't even meet my own standards and the standards i set for myself i was supposed to lose a lot of weight this year and you can tell how that's gone but it's true we don't even meet our own standards well how much less must we meet god's standards and his expectations he's a holy and righteous and good and morally perfect lord we all have a natural tendency to hate god and to hate our neighbor that is what we're all like on our own left to our own devices well we're in serious trouble aren't we what we so desperately need more than anything else in this world as a savior a rescuer who will save us from sin's penalty and from sin's power a human savior who can live the life of sinless perfection on our behalf and that is precisely who jesus is he is the one who can clothe you in his human holiness and righteousness so that if you're a christian here today when god looks at you he doesn't see you as you really are in your sinful mess he sees someone who's been fully clothed and the perfection and the beauty of his true son listen to this quote from one of the early church fathers a theologian called irenaeus he says this jesus came to save all through his own human person all that is who through him are reborn to god infants children young and old men and women and therefore jesus passed through every stage of human life for us he was made an infant for infants sanctifying that's made holy making holy infancy a child among children sanctifying childhood a young man among young men sanctifying them to the lord so also he was a grown man among older men sanctifying them to the lord or as another commentator puts it all that christ possessed as a result of his own self-sanctification that's his holy life he possessed not for his own sake but to enrich the spiritually poor and needy people that belong to him he possessed holiness not for his own sake but to enrich his

[32:01] spiritually poor and needy people friends by nature we are all spiritually bankrupt we're spiritually poor and so needy and so matthew pleads with us all this morning come to jesus doesn't matter what stage and age of life you are at if you come to him and if you trust in him as your lord god savior and king well he will happily gladly joyfully stand as your representative before the throne of the father above and he will clothe you in his righteousness and in his holiness he will make you into the person that you should be he will make you fit for an eternity in his kingdom and more than that we're told that all those who trust in this son they will also be adopted into the family of god through the son just listen to the words of the apostle paul in galatians he says this but when the fullness of time had come god sent forth his son born of women it's truly human born under the law so that he would fulfill the law on our behalf so that we might receive adoption as sons that's what's on offer here you can become a true child of god a true son who will inherit all of these blessings of salvation in this son the true son without this true son we would never ever be part of god's family instead we would be strangers and aliens to his kingdom and we would stand guilty and condemned before god facing a bleak eternity a bleak eternity of unimaginable sorrow but with this son well we can be forgiven clothed in righteousness made holy and adopted so that we can call the lord god our own father forever and ever so friends matthew is asking us all this morning do you love and trust in the true son if not then please surrender your life to him build your life upon what he says and if you do that you will find that you will be so blessed you can never imagine the goodness that will come to you why would you ever reject such a son as this well let's be quiet for a moment close our eyes and bow our heads and why don't we take a moment to respond to the word of god in our own hearts and then i'll pray for us gracious god and loving heavenly father we praise and thank you for jesus christ your true son we praise you that in him you really have blessed your people with every spiritual blessing we praise you that right now he is working and all of us who trust in him sanctifying us making us holy conforming us more and more into his likeness making us more and more into the people that we should be and we praise you that on the last day when he returns in glory all of your people will be transformed once and for all the glory of the sons of god will be revealed and all praise glory thanks and honor will go to you our god most high father we pray that this christmas many who do not know your son will come to trust in him and may many come to be clothed in his perfect righteousness and holiness to the praise of your great name we pray this in the name of your true son

[36:03] jesus christ our lord amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen amen