1 00:00:03,490 --> 00:00:06,740 OK. Good morning everyone. 2 00:00:07,910 --> 00:00:13,280 Areas I get settled, put this down there, we don't need it. 3 00:00:13,370 --> 00:00:15,420 Alright, well, another good morning. 4 00:00:15,430 --> 00:00:18,120 We're very happy to have you here this morning. 5 00:00:18,130 --> 00:00:22,020 For those of you who may not know me or I am a new face, my 6 00:00:22,030 --> 00:00:26,140 name is Lindsey. I get to be a slightly more than 7 00:00:26,150 --> 00:00:28,840 occasional teacher here. This is one of the ways that I 8 00:00:28,890 --> 00:00:31,680 serve my husband. Is he still behind me? 9 00:00:31,690 --> 00:00:35,760 There he is that guy. I'm married to him and I am. 10 00:00:35,770 --> 00:00:38,040 I'm always so excited whenever I get the chance and the 11 00:00:38,050 --> 00:00:41,620 opportunity to share as a church community or with you as a 12 00:00:41,630 --> 00:00:44,470 church community. And this morning we are in our 13 00:00:44,480 --> 00:00:48,050 4th week of Advent. So we already mentioned that 14 00:00:48,400 --> 00:00:52,190 that is the candle of love. And we are really getting to 15 00:00:52,200 --> 00:00:54,950 that place where we are preparing to move into Christmas 16 00:00:54,960 --> 00:00:57,870 Eve and Christmas Day. And we've been in Matthews 17 00:00:57,880 --> 00:01:01,390 Gospel for this Advent season. We've been using the writings 18 00:01:01,400 --> 00:01:05,170 from the Gospel of Matthew as we prepare ourselves to move 19 00:01:05,180 --> 00:01:08,570 towards the story and the celebration of Christ's birth. 20 00:01:08,580 --> 00:01:11,560 And as we've gone through this series, we have been looking 21 00:01:11,570 --> 00:01:14,780 about how the Christmas story, essentially how God's story 22 00:01:14,790 --> 00:01:19,020 through Christ intersects with humanity and then with our own 23 00:01:19,030 --> 00:01:21,160 stories. So in the first week, we talked 24 00:01:21,170 --> 00:01:24,720 about this, this idea of God interrupting the story, 25 00:01:24,730 --> 00:01:28,570 particularly the stories of of Joseph and Mary through the 26 00:01:28,580 --> 00:01:31,280 announcement of Jesus. But God is really interrupting 27 00:01:31,290 --> 00:01:33,680 the way things were in the world. 28 00:01:33,690 --> 00:01:37,520 And we asked the question, how might God be interrupting our 29 00:01:37,530 --> 00:01:40,720 stories? How are we opening ourselves up 30 00:01:41,380 --> 00:01:45,010 to the interruption God might be bringing to our life so that we 31 00:01:45,020 --> 00:01:48,900 can move closer to Christ? After that, we looked at this 32 00:01:48,910 --> 00:01:52,680 invitation to trust, to trust in what God is doing, to trust in 33 00:01:52,690 --> 00:01:56,280 the story that he is writing, even when the story he is 34 00:01:56,290 --> 00:01:59,080 writing might go against the plans that we have for 35 00:01:59,090 --> 00:02:01,970 ourselves, the plans that we want, the plans that of the 36 00:02:01,980 --> 00:02:04,600 things that we think we want to see happen. 37 00:02:04,990 --> 00:02:09,199 And we talked about how there is peace found in that place of, of 38 00:02:09,210 --> 00:02:12,260 moving towards trust, of trusting the story. 39 00:02:12,530 --> 00:02:15,840 And then last week by looking at the story of the Magi, we talked 40 00:02:15,850 --> 00:02:21,570 about taking steps of obedience towards Christ, moving towards 41 00:02:21,580 --> 00:02:26,480 Christ in obedience even when there is opposition and the joy 42 00:02:26,490 --> 00:02:29,490 that is found in that place of moving closer to him. 43 00:02:30,290 --> 00:02:34,640 And I want to be completely honest, I cannot promise that 44 00:02:34,650 --> 00:02:37,420 today is going to feel like a completely natural progression 45 00:02:37,430 --> 00:02:39,630 of where we have gone in previous weeks. 46 00:02:39,790 --> 00:02:43,680 Our passage today is very different and very challenging 47 00:02:43,690 --> 00:02:46,480 in some ways, even though it is the very next piece of the 48 00:02:46,490 --> 00:02:49,600 Christmas story as it is shared in Matthew. 49 00:02:49,810 --> 00:02:53,470 So I don't know that everything is going to feel like it is 50 00:02:53,480 --> 00:02:57,900 neatly wrapped up. Excuse the Christmas pun, but my 51 00:02:57,910 --> 00:03:01,090 hope today as we move through this passage is that we leave 52 00:03:01,100 --> 00:03:07,510 this place with confidence that God, the God who loves us, the 53 00:03:07,520 --> 00:03:12,570 God who is love is at work in the story that we're gonna tell 54 00:03:12,580 --> 00:03:16,710 today in in our own stories. So if you have your Bibles with 55 00:03:16,720 --> 00:03:20,250 you, we are in Matthew 2, verses 13 to 23. 56 00:03:20,360 --> 00:03:22,270 You're welcome to look that up on a phone. 57 00:03:22,280 --> 00:03:23,520 If you have a physical Bible, great. 58 00:03:23,530 --> 00:03:25,050 There are Bibles are at the back. 59 00:03:25,060 --> 00:03:27,810 If you prefer a physical Bible, please get up and grab one. 60 00:03:27,820 --> 00:03:29,930 Will not bother me. I'd love to see that happen. 61 00:03:30,220 --> 00:03:33,410 I promise it will be on the screens behind me as well. 62 00:03:34,150 --> 00:03:37,380 So last week we left off with the story of the Magi, who are 63 00:03:37,390 --> 00:03:41,260 often referred to as wise men. And these are outsiders who come 64 00:03:41,270 --> 00:03:43,420 from another place. They come from a country with 65 00:03:43,430 --> 00:03:46,060 different gods and different traditions, and they come from 66 00:03:46,070 --> 00:03:52,500 afar to see Jesus the Christ, the Messiah, and they draw near 67 00:03:52,550 --> 00:03:55,960 to honor him. And they know that King Herod, 68 00:03:55,970 --> 00:03:58,980 they're warned in a dream that King Herod was king of Jerusalem 69 00:03:58,990 --> 00:04:03,520 at the time, that he has not good intentions towards Jesus. 70 00:04:03,570 --> 00:04:06,860 So they in a dream are warned not to go back to Herod, not to 71 00:04:06,870 --> 00:04:11,280 say where Jesus is located, and instead go home another way. 72 00:04:11,290 --> 00:04:14,080 And our story picks up literally right after that. 73 00:04:14,630 --> 00:04:19,519 So Matthew 2 verses 13 to 23, when they had gone, when the 74 00:04:19,529 --> 00:04:22,880 Magi had gone, an Angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a 75 00:04:22,890 --> 00:04:27,040 dream and said, get up, take the child and his mother and escape 76 00:04:27,050 --> 00:04:30,740 to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for 77 00:04:30,750 --> 00:04:34,100 Herod is going to search for the child and kill him. 78 00:04:34,190 --> 00:04:37,650 So he, Joseph, got up, took the child and his mother during the 79 00:04:37,660 --> 00:04:41,370 night, and left for Egypt, where they stayed until the death of 80 00:04:41,380 --> 00:04:43,660 Herod. And so was fulfilled what the 81 00:04:43,670 --> 00:04:46,830 Lord had said through the prophet out of Egypt I called my 82 00:04:46,840 --> 00:04:49,100 son. When Herod realized that he had 83 00:04:49,110 --> 00:04:52,790 been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders 84 00:04:52,800 --> 00:04:55,870 to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who 85 00:04:55,880 --> 00:04:59,910 were two years old and under, in accordance with the time that he 86 00:04:59,920 --> 00:05:03,520 had learned from the Magi. Then what was said through the 87 00:05:03,530 --> 00:05:07,050 prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled. A voice is heard in Rama 88 00:05:07,200 --> 00:05:09,500 weeping. And great morning, Rachel, 89 00:05:09,570 --> 00:05:13,250 weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted because 90 00:05:13,300 --> 00:05:16,590 they are no more. After Herod died, an Angel of 91 00:05:16,600 --> 00:05:19,230 the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, Get 92 00:05:19,240 --> 00:05:22,850 up, take the child and his mother, and go to the land of 93 00:05:22,860 --> 00:05:24,330 Israel. For those who were trying to 94 00:05:24,340 --> 00:05:28,670 take the child's life are dead. So he, Joseph, got up, took the 95 00:05:28,680 --> 00:05:31,430 child and his mother, and went to the land of Israel. 96 00:05:31,540 --> 00:05:34,430 But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in the 97 00:05:34,440 --> 00:05:37,330 place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. 98 00:05:37,380 --> 00:05:40,430 Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of 99 00:05:40,440 --> 00:05:44,150 Galilee, and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. 100 00:05:44,220 --> 00:05:47,450 So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets that He 101 00:05:47,500 --> 00:05:53,220 would be called a Nazarene. So like I said, this passage is 102 00:05:53,230 --> 00:05:58,180 a little bit harder to sit with to see as part of the hope and 103 00:05:58,190 --> 00:06:00,840 the joy and the peace of Christmas. 104 00:06:01,270 --> 00:06:05,720 And I just want to state that at the beginning when I was praying 105 00:06:05,730 --> 00:06:08,280 about this passage, when I was discerning where I should go, 106 00:06:08,290 --> 00:06:10,620 when I was trying to find the ways that God was speaking me 107 00:06:10,630 --> 00:06:14,040 through this so that I would know a direction of where to to 108 00:06:14,050 --> 00:06:16,400 share with you. This morning I had to stop 109 00:06:16,470 --> 00:06:19,560 several times and just sit with the writing. 110 00:06:20,050 --> 00:06:22,660 I am a problem solver, solver by nature. 111 00:06:22,760 --> 00:06:24,710 I immediately go to how do I analyze? 112 00:06:24,720 --> 00:06:27,690 How do I make this easy? How do I make this clean and 113 00:06:27,700 --> 00:06:29,670 simple? And how do I share this? 114 00:06:29,740 --> 00:06:33,120 And I had to resist that urge inside of me to try to figure 115 00:06:33,130 --> 00:06:37,070 out a way through this. I felt a sense that I had to sit 116 00:06:37,200 --> 00:06:39,890 with the difficulty and the uncomfortableness of this 117 00:06:39,900 --> 00:06:42,300 passage. And it is good when Scripture 118 00:06:42,310 --> 00:06:44,540 does that to us. It's certainly good when it does 119 00:06:44,550 --> 00:06:47,550 it to me. We start off with this passage, 120 00:06:47,560 --> 00:06:50,310 seeing the Angel bring another message in a dream. 121 00:06:50,320 --> 00:06:52,020 It's another moment of interruption. 122 00:06:52,030 --> 00:06:54,890 And generally when an Angel brings a message in a dream or a 123 00:06:54,900 --> 00:06:58,490 brain Angel brings a message, it means something is about to 124 00:06:58,500 --> 00:07:02,390 shift in the story. And that's what we see here. 125 00:07:02,460 --> 00:07:06,690 This is a story, a passage that is full of dualities. 126 00:07:06,880 --> 00:07:09,790 On the one hand, you see the tangible action and the 127 00:07:09,800 --> 00:07:13,450 protection of God. We see him intervene to ensure 128 00:07:13,460 --> 00:07:16,630 that His plan and his purposes cannot be thwarted. 129 00:07:16,980 --> 00:07:20,000 We see the obedience of Joseph, of Mary. 130 00:07:20,010 --> 00:07:23,420 They're continuing to come into alignment with God's will, not 131 00:07:23,430 --> 00:07:26,800 being afraid to just get up and go into a new country. 132 00:07:26,870 --> 00:07:30,460 They take this immediate action to save their family and to 133 00:07:30,470 --> 00:07:33,740 become an even greater part of the work that God is doing. 134 00:07:34,070 --> 00:07:38,630 It's amazing in so many ways. And yet we also see this 135 00:07:38,640 --> 00:07:40,610 opposition. We talked about Herod last week 136 00:07:40,620 --> 00:07:42,970 as an oppositional force, but it's more than that this week, 137 00:07:42,980 --> 00:07:45,930 right? Like, this is pure evil. 138 00:07:46,300 --> 00:07:49,890 This is a king that is so paranoid and so desperate that 139 00:07:49,900 --> 00:07:52,190 he would do such an unspeakable thing. 140 00:07:52,480 --> 00:07:57,100 He would kill innocent children, all to protect position and 141 00:07:57,110 --> 00:07:58,800 authority. That was always going to be 142 00:07:58,810 --> 00:08:01,990 temporary because Herod is human and he is going to die. 143 00:08:02,000 --> 00:08:05,370 And at this point in our story, he's actually fairly advanced in 144 00:08:05,380 --> 00:08:08,720 years already. It's an evilness that's really, 145 00:08:08,730 --> 00:08:12,720 really hard to read about and and to juxtapose to all the good 146 00:08:12,730 --> 00:08:16,040 that we see. It's hard to think of this as 147 00:08:16,050 --> 00:08:20,630 part of the Christmas story. Stanley Howard Ross In his 148 00:08:20,640 --> 00:08:23,110 writing on this passage, he talks about how nothing 149 00:08:23,120 --> 00:08:25,970 challenges the sentimental depiction of Christmas more in 150 00:08:25,980 --> 00:08:28,750 the Gospels than this interjection right here. 151 00:08:29,420 --> 00:08:32,570 It is a stark reminder that Jesus is born into a world in 152 00:08:32,580 --> 00:08:36,510 which children are killed and continue to be killed to protect 153 00:08:36,520 --> 00:08:42,610 the power of tyrants. That is a heavy statement, and 154 00:08:42,620 --> 00:08:47,030 yet maybe the awful truth of this piece of Scripture. 155 00:08:47,080 --> 00:08:50,650 It's a profound reminder of just how deeply we need Jesus. 156 00:08:51,220 --> 00:08:54,850 Maybe this painful and challenging passage in this 157 00:08:54,860 --> 00:08:59,050 bigger story shows us how desperately the world needs and 158 00:08:59,060 --> 00:09:02,530 continues to need Jesus, a different king and a different 159 00:09:02,540 --> 00:09:06,570 Kingdom, and how immense the love of God is in sending Jesus 160 00:09:06,640 --> 00:09:11,140 to a world that could look like this, a world that's so 161 00:09:11,150 --> 00:09:14,080 desperately needs him. And that's really where I want 162 00:09:14,090 --> 00:09:16,190 to start this morning. And I'm gonna be clear this, 163 00:09:16,260 --> 00:09:19,090 this sermon has two main points. That's it. 164 00:09:19,100 --> 00:09:20,490 And I'm not even gonna make you wait. 165 00:09:20,500 --> 00:09:23,270 I'm gonna show you what they are right now. 166 00:09:23,460 --> 00:09:27,150 So if you leave with nothing else, I hope that this resonates 167 00:09:27,160 --> 00:09:31,940 deeply inside of you. The 1st is that God is present. 168 00:09:32,340 --> 00:09:37,110 That is the first truth. The second is that God is at 169 00:09:37,200 --> 00:09:39,750 work. Those are where I want to ground 170 00:09:39,760 --> 00:09:44,830 ourselves this morning. God is present and God is at 171 00:09:44,840 --> 00:09:47,480 work. One of the things that strikes 172 00:09:47,490 --> 00:09:50,720 me about this passage is that God does not wait for the danger 173 00:09:50,730 --> 00:09:53,070 to pass before sending his son into this world. 174 00:09:53,110 --> 00:09:55,590 He doesn't move his birth to a different place. 175 00:09:55,600 --> 00:09:59,560 He isn't afraid to use the signs and wonders like stars that the 176 00:09:59,570 --> 00:10:04,060 magic I would follow. God places Jesus in the shadow 177 00:10:04,110 --> 00:10:06,260 of Jerusalem. The literal shadow. 178 00:10:06,270 --> 00:10:08,400 There's only about 5 miles between them. 179 00:10:08,470 --> 00:10:12,140 He places Jesus in the shadow of Jerusalem, where a cruel king 180 00:10:12,190 --> 00:10:16,220 sits on a throne whose power is preserved through violence. 181 00:10:16,610 --> 00:10:19,370 The Christmas story does not avoid suffering. 182 00:10:19,660 --> 00:10:21,870 It names it. It contains it. 183 00:10:22,710 --> 00:10:25,780 It is not separate from the weeping in the morning that this 184 00:10:25,790 --> 00:10:28,580 world goes through. Brokenness is part of the world, 185 00:10:28,590 --> 00:10:31,620 and brokenness is part of our Christmas story. 186 00:10:32,090 --> 00:10:35,220 This passage shows the full range of human experience. 187 00:10:35,230 --> 00:10:39,640 Fear and hope and grief and obedience and violence and trust 188 00:10:39,650 --> 00:10:43,660 in all of these things are woven into the birth of our Savior. 189 00:10:44,070 --> 00:10:48,280 And it is precisely this time and this place when God chooses 190 00:10:48,370 --> 00:10:50,940 to come near. This is the moment where God is 191 00:10:50,950 --> 00:10:55,080 not just close to His people as a feeling or as unknowing. 192 00:10:55,170 --> 00:11:00,020 He takes on human flesh. He steps down onto this earth. 193 00:11:00,030 --> 00:11:02,120 God is not just watching over the earth. 194 00:11:02,190 --> 00:11:05,060 God is on the earth. Throughout the scriptures there 195 00:11:05,070 --> 00:11:08,680 are moments where heaven and earth, where the divine and the 196 00:11:08,690 --> 00:11:11,620 earth intersect. Burning bushes, pillars of 197 00:11:11,630 --> 00:11:15,420 clouds and fire, dreams, visions, prophetic words, places 198 00:11:15,430 --> 00:11:18,040 where the divine and the human meat. 199 00:11:18,050 --> 00:11:20,960 But Jesus is something more than another intersection, point, 200 00:11:20,970 --> 00:11:23,160 event. He is the intersection. 201 00:11:23,390 --> 00:11:27,520 He is the embodiment, literally, of the human and the divine 202 00:11:27,570 --> 00:11:30,550 meeting. God does not remain apart from 203 00:11:30,560 --> 00:11:33,630 the world. He becomes part of it through 204 00:11:33,700 --> 00:11:36,570 Jesus. When we speak the name Emmanuel, 205 00:11:36,580 --> 00:11:40,810 it's introduced to us in Matthew 1, God with us. 206 00:11:41,320 --> 00:11:44,530 It is not a comforting slogan. It is not meant to be a 207 00:11:44,540 --> 00:11:47,770 sentimental phrase. It is meant to be a radical 208 00:11:47,840 --> 00:11:52,980 claim we are naming a reality that reshapes how we understand 209 00:11:52,990 --> 00:11:57,200 God's presence. God chose to live as a human 210 00:11:57,270 --> 00:12:00,640 within human vulnerability, to live within a place that is 211 00:12:00,650 --> 00:12:04,320 dangerous, to live with suffering, to live with fear and 212 00:12:04,330 --> 00:12:09,140 fragility, to live a life where there is some level of 213 00:12:09,150 --> 00:12:12,500 uncertainty. RT France writes about God's 214 00:12:12,510 --> 00:12:15,720 saving work, that it unfolds within history's beauty and 215 00:12:15,730 --> 00:12:18,480 violence, that God does not remove himself from the 216 00:12:18,490 --> 00:12:20,700 brokenness of the world in order to redeem it. 217 00:12:20,770 --> 00:12:23,940 Christmas does not announce that everything is fine. 218 00:12:24,560 --> 00:12:28,070 It announces that Jesus, the Christ God Incarnate, He has 219 00:12:28,080 --> 00:12:32,750 come anyways, that he is here, that he has entered this world. 220 00:12:33,630 --> 00:12:36,940 We do not worship a God that we cannot see or who rescues us 221 00:12:36,990 --> 00:12:40,040 from a distance. We worship a God who draws close 222 00:12:40,050 --> 00:12:44,930 enough to be affected, to be wounded, and ultimately to save. 223 00:12:45,240 --> 00:12:48,850 And the power of the incarnation does not end when Jesus leaves 224 00:12:48,860 --> 00:12:50,800 the the earth. The incarnation changes 225 00:12:50,810 --> 00:12:53,300 everything about how we understand God's relates to the 226 00:12:53,310 --> 00:12:55,880 world. God continues to meet with us in 227 00:12:55,890 --> 00:12:58,890 the realities of our everyday lives, our fear, our 228 00:12:58,900 --> 00:13:02,030 uncertainty, our joy, our suffering, our hope. 229 00:13:02,960 --> 00:13:06,670 The incarnation tells us that God's presence meets us exactly 230 00:13:06,740 --> 00:13:11,010 where we are at. That God is still moving towards 231 00:13:11,020 --> 00:13:13,750 his people. He's not moving away. 232 00:13:14,080 --> 00:13:16,690 God is not intimidated by our circumstances. 233 00:13:16,740 --> 00:13:19,910 He is not unsettled by what is going on in the world. 234 00:13:20,550 --> 00:13:23,200 The same God who took flesh. And Jesus is the God who is 235 00:13:23,210 --> 00:13:26,020 still present with us now through his Spirit. 236 00:13:26,850 --> 00:13:30,220 He's faithful, moving, compassionate and loving. 237 00:13:31,070 --> 00:13:35,400 God is present then and now Emmanuel. 238 00:13:35,470 --> 00:13:38,300 I love how that Advent devotional, if you're doing the 239 00:13:38,310 --> 00:13:41,110 the Daryl Johnson one that we've been doing as a church, he talks 240 00:13:41,120 --> 00:13:44,520 about how the word Emmanuel, which we often say is God with 241 00:13:44,530 --> 00:13:47,400 us, is more literally translated as the with us God. 242 00:13:48,570 --> 00:13:51,760 The God that is not only here in the soft picture perfect 243 00:13:51,770 --> 00:13:55,240 Christmas card moments. He is here with us through every 244 00:13:55,250 --> 00:14:02,440 moment God is present. God is also at work now. 245 00:14:02,450 --> 00:14:04,300 God is always been an active God. 246 00:14:04,310 --> 00:14:06,360 He is always creating and speaking and guiding and 247 00:14:06,370 --> 00:14:08,260 intervening this. The scriptures are full of 248 00:14:08,270 --> 00:14:11,500 stories that that do this or that show this. 249 00:14:11,690 --> 00:14:14,800 And yet we see God's divine plan in new ways. 250 00:14:14,810 --> 00:14:17,100 When we look at the Christmas story. 251 00:14:17,550 --> 00:14:20,980 If we return to the text and pay attention to how the story 252 00:14:20,990 --> 00:14:23,450 unfolds, we notice something really important. 253 00:14:23,690 --> 00:14:27,820 Joseph is warned in a dream of what here it is going to do 254 00:14:27,830 --> 00:14:29,840 before that threat is actually ever realized. 255 00:14:29,850 --> 00:14:31,970 Hair doesn't even know where Jesus is at this point, and 256 00:14:31,980 --> 00:14:35,730 Joseph is warned before Herod can even think to act. 257 00:14:35,780 --> 00:14:40,250 God has already acted first. God provides a way to protect 258 00:14:40,320 --> 00:14:45,440 Mary and Joseph in Jesus before the threat is ever realized. 259 00:14:46,250 --> 00:14:49,420 God warns. He guides forward. 260 00:14:49,430 --> 00:14:53,640 He shows the next step in the journey this little family has 261 00:14:53,650 --> 00:14:57,570 to make. He protects not by removing the 262 00:14:57,580 --> 00:15:01,670 danger, but by providing a way through it. 263 00:15:01,980 --> 00:15:06,830 At the very place where human power seeks to destroy, God was 264 00:15:06,840 --> 00:15:11,220 already working to save. The NIV translation we read 265 00:15:11,230 --> 00:15:15,260 earlier, it says in verse verse 13 that Herod wants to kill 266 00:15:15,330 --> 00:15:16,800 Jesus. But the word here is actually 267 00:15:16,810 --> 00:15:19,400 better translated as the word destroy. 268 00:15:19,570 --> 00:15:22,330 Yes, the word can mean kill, but it carries with it more weight 269 00:15:22,340 --> 00:15:25,720 than that. It points to the total ruin, to 270 00:15:25,730 --> 00:15:29,380 the complete loss of life and purpose. 271 00:15:29,690 --> 00:15:34,100 Herod doesn't just want Jesus gone, he wants what Jesus 272 00:15:34,110 --> 00:15:38,790 represents gone. He wants what Jesus represents A 273 00:15:38,800 --> 00:15:43,190 raced from the world when the Magi, when the Magi come to see 274 00:15:43,260 --> 00:15:47,090 a Messiah, A savior. Herod wants that very idea, the 275 00:15:47,100 --> 00:15:51,710 idea of deliverance or saving to be not even a possibility of 276 00:15:51,720 --> 00:15:56,620 what could happen. And his opposition leads is 277 00:15:56,630 --> 00:16:00,160 violent and it's furious and it's loud and you can almost 278 00:16:00,170 --> 00:16:02,540 feel the tantrum like force of hair. 279 00:16:02,550 --> 00:16:07,230 It's paranoia spilling over into complete cruelty. 280 00:16:08,620 --> 00:16:13,020 And yet in these moments, God is already at work, and God is at 281 00:16:13,030 --> 00:16:15,990 work in really cool ways. I think sometimes we forget when 282 00:16:16,000 --> 00:16:21,160 we read the Bible how often God is relying on us to do things, 283 00:16:21,430 --> 00:16:25,940 to be part of this work. He puts his trust in Joseph. 284 00:16:26,190 --> 00:16:30,990 For Joseph to be obedient. God could have waved his hand 285 00:16:31,000 --> 00:16:33,430 and made the danger disappear. He doesn't. 286 00:16:33,540 --> 00:16:35,710 The evil remains real. The threat remains real. 287 00:16:35,720 --> 00:16:38,270 And yet God speaks and Joseph listens. 288 00:16:38,280 --> 00:16:42,390 And once again, Mary and Joseph are called into this act of 289 00:16:42,400 --> 00:16:45,590 obedience. They are asked to leave their 290 00:16:45,600 --> 00:16:51,390 homeland, to become refugees in a foreign place, to live among 291 00:16:51,400 --> 00:16:53,790 strangers. They are removed from the 292 00:16:53,800 --> 00:16:56,630 familiarity of extended family and from stability. 293 00:16:56,640 --> 00:16:58,360 And they are called to a life. I mean his. 294 00:16:58,370 --> 00:17:01,900 Their life right now very much is a life on the move, and they 295 00:17:01,910 --> 00:17:06,050 just go again. We see the same pattern running 296 00:17:06,060 --> 00:17:08,359 through the Christmas story that we've seen in other weeks. 297 00:17:08,450 --> 00:17:12,040 The leap of faith, the willingness to trust the 298 00:17:12,109 --> 00:17:16,430 opening, to put their lives in God's hands and to be part of 299 00:17:16,440 --> 00:17:20,300 this strange and costly work that is unfolding around them. 300 00:17:20,310 --> 00:17:23,660 And yet God's blessing goes with them as they do this. 301 00:17:24,530 --> 00:17:27,550 I think so often I will only speak for me, but I'm gonna say 302 00:17:27,560 --> 00:17:29,600 it's probably pretty true of everyone. 303 00:17:29,690 --> 00:17:33,840 We so often imagine that God's protection looks like safety and 304 00:17:33,850 --> 00:17:39,140 comfort and certainty and ease. The Christmas story tells us 305 00:17:39,150 --> 00:17:41,880 otherwise. Jesus is saved through flight, 306 00:17:42,300 --> 00:17:44,980 through displacement, through obscurity. 307 00:17:45,050 --> 00:17:49,320 The very things the world often despises, God uses for his 308 00:17:49,330 --> 00:17:52,320 purposes. And there's even this kind of 309 00:17:52,330 --> 00:17:54,640 quiet reversal happening in this story. 310 00:17:54,650 --> 00:17:57,620 We talked last week about how the Magi, these outsiders, they 311 00:17:57,630 --> 00:18:01,960 moved towards Jesus. And now we see Jesus is moving 312 00:18:02,030 --> 00:18:06,400 outward. He's moving more into the 313 00:18:06,410 --> 00:18:09,200 margins. He is moving into exile. 314 00:18:09,490 --> 00:18:12,500 From the very beginning, God's saving work is not confined to 315 00:18:12,510 --> 00:18:17,000 what is easy or what is familiar or what is comfortable or what 316 00:18:17,010 --> 00:18:21,710 is even expected. And I want us to ask ourselves 317 00:18:21,720 --> 00:18:25,790 this question this morning. Where are we being invited to 318 00:18:25,800 --> 00:18:28,240 partner with the work that God is already doing? 319 00:18:29,120 --> 00:18:34,440 Where are we invited into being or into having lives that are on 320 00:18:34,450 --> 00:18:36,970 the move? Lives don't that don't cling too 321 00:18:36,980 --> 00:18:40,690 closely to certainty and familiarity, but lives that are 322 00:18:40,700 --> 00:18:43,690 willing to go into new places and new spaces. 323 00:18:43,700 --> 00:18:45,910 I'm talking about brand new countries though. 324 00:18:45,920 --> 00:18:48,950 Maybe for some that is your calling, but where? 325 00:18:48,960 --> 00:18:52,370 Is there a new place or a space that you could move into to be 326 00:18:52,380 --> 00:18:53,980 part of the work that God is doing? 327 00:18:54,720 --> 00:18:57,650 Where is God calling us into obedience that feels 328 00:18:57,660 --> 00:19:01,930 inconvenient and unsettling, and yet might be the exact place 329 00:19:02,240 --> 00:19:08,430 that we need to be. The Christmas story reminds us 330 00:19:08,440 --> 00:19:13,430 that God is still at work, often quietly, often unexpectedly, 331 00:19:13,480 --> 00:19:16,740 often happening in ways that we will not see and do not 332 00:19:16,750 --> 00:19:18,670 understand. And it is inviting ordinary 333 00:19:18,680 --> 00:19:23,030 people to to take a step forward into obedience, to be part of 334 00:19:23,040 --> 00:19:27,510 something bigger than we could have ever imagined. 335 00:19:29,070 --> 00:19:32,570 God is present and God is at work. 336 00:19:33,190 --> 00:19:34,550 There's one more way in this passage. 337 00:19:34,560 --> 00:19:36,990 I wanna show how these two ideas come together. 338 00:19:37,000 --> 00:19:39,410 And I really think that Matthew wants us to see it, which is why 339 00:19:39,420 --> 00:19:43,010 I couldn't let it remain unsaid. From the very beginning of his 340 00:19:43,020 --> 00:19:45,550 gospel, starting in verses or starting, starting in chapters 341 00:19:45,560 --> 00:19:48,650 both 1 and 2, Matthew is trying to tell us that Jesus is not 342 00:19:48,660 --> 00:19:51,590 just another figure in Israel's story. 343 00:19:51,940 --> 00:19:55,970 He has the he is the one that God's people have been waiting 344 00:19:55,980 --> 00:19:57,830 for. And you see this in the use of 345 00:19:57,840 --> 00:19:59,590 scriptures. Now this might be a podcast 346 00:19:59,600 --> 00:20:02,290 topic or for a later date, but I will admit. 347 00:20:02,360 --> 00:20:04,980 Matthew loses uses his scriptures a little fast and 348 00:20:04,990 --> 00:20:06,480 loose. He does that. 349 00:20:06,710 --> 00:20:09,220 But he is doing this to tell a bigger story. 350 00:20:09,230 --> 00:20:13,920 He is showing that God has always been at work in history 351 00:20:14,170 --> 00:20:18,040 and that he has brought his people to this very moment where 352 00:20:18,050 --> 00:20:20,340 Jesus has intersected with this world. 353 00:20:21,130 --> 00:20:23,330 More specifically, in the passage that we're reading, 354 00:20:23,370 --> 00:20:27,420 Matthew is shaping this story so that his audience, both ancient 355 00:20:27,490 --> 00:20:32,320 and present, will see that Jesus acts as a new and a greater 356 00:20:32,370 --> 00:20:37,900 Moses, one who is chosen to save his people and deliver them. 357 00:20:37,910 --> 00:20:41,140 The parallels are intentional. Pharaoh orders the death of the 358 00:20:41,150 --> 00:20:43,360 Hebrew children and Moses is spared. 359 00:20:43,850 --> 00:20:46,940 Herod orders the death of the children in Bethlehem, and Jesus 360 00:20:46,950 --> 00:20:50,180 is spared. Israel goes to Egypt for refuge 361 00:20:50,190 --> 00:20:52,780 and then comes out of Egypt for deliverance. 362 00:20:52,930 --> 00:20:56,760 Jesus goes into Egypt and is going to come out of Egypt. 363 00:20:56,810 --> 00:20:59,820 Matthew is narrating a new exodus. 364 00:21:00,190 --> 00:21:04,140 He is showing us that God has been bringing His people to this 365 00:21:04,190 --> 00:21:07,650 moment, a new and ultimate deliverance. 366 00:21:08,320 --> 00:21:11,700 Just as God once delivered his people through a from oppression 367 00:21:11,710 --> 00:21:14,680 through Moses, God is now bringing a deeper and greater 368 00:21:14,690 --> 00:21:16,750 deliverance through the person of Jesus Christ. 369 00:21:16,800 --> 00:21:20,410 And this is not simply the rescue from one tyrant or one 370 00:21:20,420 --> 00:21:24,230 empire that that God's Kingdom is being made real in this world 371 00:21:24,240 --> 00:21:26,730 through Jesus Christ. He is the deliverer, the 372 00:21:26,740 --> 00:21:30,540 ultimate Messiah. He is the one who will save. 373 00:21:31,590 --> 00:21:35,790 God's salvific work takes flesh. God. 374 00:21:35,860 --> 00:21:40,130 God's promises to his people are fulfilled in the birth of a 375 00:21:40,140 --> 00:21:45,150 child, God's Son, God Incarnate. What was once hoped for and 376 00:21:45,160 --> 00:21:49,810 anticipated and longed for is now embodied in Jesus. 377 00:21:49,820 --> 00:21:53,350 God is not inventing a new story out of thin air. 378 00:21:53,400 --> 00:21:58,510 He is bringing this story to fulfillment right here, right 379 00:21:58,520 --> 00:22:01,340 now, in the midst of the world as it is. 380 00:22:03,150 --> 00:22:06,600 At the end of this passage, we are told that Herod dies. 381 00:22:06,710 --> 00:22:10,430 Very simply, history will say that Herod died a very painful 382 00:22:10,440 --> 00:22:13,580 death of a mystery illness. They don't really know what it 383 00:22:13,590 --> 00:22:16,280 was at the time. And Joseph and Mary are told 384 00:22:16,290 --> 00:22:20,540 once again by an Angel to move, to return home. 385 00:22:21,000 --> 00:22:23,550 And we could linger here once again on, oh, there's an Angel 386 00:22:23,560 --> 00:22:25,720 and there's an interruption. And Mary and Joseph are obedient 387 00:22:25,730 --> 00:22:27,760 and they go home. And it's, it's lovely. 388 00:22:27,770 --> 00:22:29,940 But I think that we've nailed this point home in the last few 389 00:22:29,950 --> 00:22:31,440 weeks. So I want us to draw our 390 00:22:31,450 --> 00:22:34,930 attention to another thing, and I want us to notice the 391 00:22:34,940 --> 00:22:39,810 complete, nonchalant way that Herod's story simply just ends 392 00:22:39,820 --> 00:22:41,480 here. Herod. 393 00:22:41,490 --> 00:22:44,740 Despite all his paranoia and his wealth and his cruelty and his 394 00:22:44,750 --> 00:22:48,620 security, he doesn't last. He does not endure. 395 00:22:48,630 --> 00:22:51,970 He, like every mortal and finite thing, he dies. 396 00:22:53,070 --> 00:22:56,220 And for all the awful things that Herod was, Herod, through 397 00:22:56,230 --> 00:22:59,390 history, is remembered as a great builder, an innovator of 398 00:22:59,400 --> 00:23:01,720 his time. He built cities, he engineered 399 00:23:01,730 --> 00:23:05,260 mountains where none existed. He used waterways and systems 400 00:23:05,270 --> 00:23:08,180 and pipes to move water between places that it had never 401 00:23:08,190 --> 00:23:10,520 reached. He surrounded himself with 402 00:23:10,610 --> 00:23:15,440 education and beauty and power and excess, and yet his Kingdom 403 00:23:15,890 --> 00:23:19,390 did not last. And many people don't know 404 00:23:19,400 --> 00:23:23,080 Herod's legacy outside of his just complete and utter cruelty. 405 00:23:24,170 --> 00:23:26,940 This is a quiet reminder at the end of our story that the 406 00:23:26,950 --> 00:23:30,900 kingdoms of this world, no matter how impressive, no matter 407 00:23:30,910 --> 00:23:35,080 how powerful, no matter how they try to cling to power, they will 408 00:23:35,090 --> 00:23:39,220 not endure. Matthew's gospel from the very 409 00:23:39,230 --> 00:23:43,340 beginning places 2 kingdoms and he puts them side by side. 410 00:23:43,350 --> 00:23:47,040 One is the Kingdom of a very rich and powerful man, one of 411 00:23:47,050 --> 00:23:50,920 empire, one that is clothed in splendor and security, and the 412 00:23:50,930 --> 00:23:54,270 other one. The other Kingdom is ruled by 413 00:23:54,280 --> 00:23:58,390 the king of Kings, who was born poor to a family that no one 414 00:23:58,400 --> 00:24:00,910 would make room for in a tiny town. 415 00:24:01,340 --> 00:24:03,470 He was born in a place that's meant for animals. 416 00:24:03,480 --> 00:24:07,010 His arrival is attended and announced by shepherds, and the 417 00:24:07,020 --> 00:24:10,230 opposition to His Kingdom and His kingship start right from 418 00:24:10,240 --> 00:24:13,440 the beginning. As we saw today, He comes into 419 00:24:13,450 --> 00:24:17,250 the world's in danger, and when that immediate danger is passed, 420 00:24:17,260 --> 00:24:21,150 He is raised in a small rural community, Nazareth. 421 00:24:21,310 --> 00:24:22,830 We see this at the end of our text. 422 00:24:23,630 --> 00:24:28,020 It is a tale of two kingdoms. One Kingdom is built on power 423 00:24:28,110 --> 00:24:33,100 and control and fear, and it is the Kingdom of this world, and 424 00:24:33,110 --> 00:24:38,090 the other is the Kingdom of God. It is marked by Shalom, by 425 00:24:38,100 --> 00:24:43,030 wholeness, by peace and hope and love, and it is built on and 426 00:24:43,040 --> 00:24:46,250 realized in the person of Jesus Christ. 427 00:24:46,580 --> 00:24:50,660 We have spent this whole year looking at the Gospel of 428 00:24:50,670 --> 00:24:52,200 Matthew. Sorry for those who thought you 429 00:24:52,210 --> 00:24:53,910 were gonna get a Luke reference. Sorry, Not Matthew. 430 00:24:53,920 --> 00:24:55,930 We've look at Luke. I said the wrong word, book. 431 00:24:55,940 --> 00:24:57,620 We've been looking at Luke. Sorry for anyone who thought we 432 00:24:57,630 --> 00:24:59,240 were gonna break from Luke. You're not. 433 00:24:59,330 --> 00:25:02,890 Here it is. We have spent our whole church 434 00:25:02,900 --> 00:25:06,570 year looking at the Gospel of Luke, and we have been looking 435 00:25:06,580 --> 00:25:10,640 at what the Kingdom of God looks like. 436 00:25:11,330 --> 00:25:14,640 It does not avoid the messiness. It moves into it. 437 00:25:14,950 --> 00:25:16,740 It meets people where they're at. 438 00:25:16,970 --> 00:25:20,060 It rejects the values of this world and shows us a new way to 439 00:25:20,070 --> 00:25:22,880 live. It is a Kingdom that invades and 440 00:25:22,890 --> 00:25:26,540 persists. It welcomes and it loves, but 441 00:25:26,550 --> 00:25:31,530 more than anything it endures, and not because it is protected 442 00:25:31,600 --> 00:25:35,790 by force, but because it is rooted in God's love and is 443 00:25:35,800 --> 00:25:40,430 enduring faithfulness. Heritage Kingdom ends with 444 00:25:40,440 --> 00:25:43,840 death, but the Kingdom of God does not. 445 00:25:44,070 --> 00:25:49,660 In fact, death cannot stop it. Death could not hold Christ. 446 00:25:49,710 --> 00:25:53,760 His death does not end this Kingdom, it unleashes it. 447 00:25:54,310 --> 00:25:58,340 The Kingdom of God endures, it does not rise and fall with the 448 00:25:58,350 --> 00:26:01,080 tides of this world. Two kingdoms. 449 00:26:01,350 --> 00:26:05,420 The story of two kingdoms, but only one, is marked by the 450 00:26:05,430 --> 00:26:10,340 presence and the work of God. The words that we use during 451 00:26:10,350 --> 00:26:16,930 Advent Love, joy, hope, peace. They aren't abstract concepts or 452 00:26:16,940 --> 00:26:21,550 seasonal decorations. They are embodied in the person 453 00:26:21,620 --> 00:26:26,550 of Jesus Christ who entered a messy, messy world and continues 454 00:26:26,560 --> 00:26:29,870 to enter the messy world and our messy stories. 455 00:26:30,160 --> 00:26:34,230 He continues to work and be present in those circumstances. 456 00:26:34,280 --> 00:26:38,260 So wherever you are coming from today, whether this year held 457 00:26:38,270 --> 00:26:42,550 the highest of highs for you or the lowest of lows or something 458 00:26:42,560 --> 00:26:46,510 in between, whether or not you are joyful and full of peace and 459 00:26:46,520 --> 00:26:51,590 gratitude, or whether you're just not and this season looks a 460 00:26:51,600 --> 00:26:55,430 little bit different for you, I pray that you hold on to this 461 00:26:55,440 --> 00:27:00,390 truth. God is present and God is at 462 00:27:00,480 --> 00:27:03,960 work. We rejoice in the love and the 463 00:27:03,970 --> 00:27:07,550 peace and the hope of God, not because all is well. 464 00:27:08,340 --> 00:27:12,460 We rejoice because we know that God is here and we know that He 465 00:27:12,470 --> 00:27:16,870 is doing something even when we cannot see the outcome. 466 00:27:18,090 --> 00:27:22,720 God's love born in Jesus Christ is still alive and well, and it 467 00:27:22,730 --> 00:27:27,570 goes with us and calls us into live call, sorry, calls us into 468 00:27:27,580 --> 00:27:31,520 living as God's people. And my prayer for you, for me, 469 00:27:31,530 --> 00:27:34,940 for my family, for your family, for the greater world out there, 470 00:27:35,030 --> 00:27:39,430 is that this presence and this love will be our confidence and 471 00:27:39,440 --> 00:27:42,280 our comfort and our hope this season. 472 00:27:43,000 --> 00:27:44,410 Will you bow your heads in prayer with me? 473 00:27:47,760 --> 00:27:51,930 God, we thank you that you are not, you are not a distant God, 474 00:27:52,440 --> 00:27:55,710 that you are a God that is working and active and has come 475 00:27:55,720 --> 00:27:57,670 close. And let us see you through the 476 00:27:57,680 --> 00:28:01,560 person of Jesus. God, we live in a world that 477 00:28:01,570 --> 00:28:04,340 often feels very heavy and very uncertain. 478 00:28:04,350 --> 00:28:09,120 And will you remind us this morning, deep in our souls, that 479 00:28:09,130 --> 00:28:14,540 you are here with us, that you are working and moving even when 480 00:28:14,550 --> 00:28:18,440 it doesn't make sense, even when we can't see it or understand 481 00:28:18,450 --> 00:28:20,560 God? Would you meet us in the middle 482 00:28:20,570 --> 00:28:24,620 of our very real lives, in the middle of our our questions and 483 00:28:24,630 --> 00:28:27,190 our worries and our joys and our grief? 484 00:28:28,130 --> 00:28:32,860 Would you help us give us the courage to trust that you are at 485 00:28:32,870 --> 00:28:35,840 work? And as we leave this place and 486 00:28:35,850 --> 00:28:38,960 we go into this week, as we celebrate Christmas, in just a 487 00:28:38,970 --> 00:28:42,820 few short days, God, would you shape us into people who reflect 488 00:28:42,830 --> 00:28:48,480 your love, who can live lives of peace and hope and joy in the 489 00:28:48,490 --> 00:28:51,740 places that you put us and where we need to step into new places? 490 00:28:51,750 --> 00:28:54,500 God, that you would give us the calling and the courage to do 491 00:28:54,510 --> 00:28:57,380 that. We pray all these things in your 492 00:28:57,390 --> 00:28:58,800 Son's name, Amen.