Matthew
The Son of God Revealed:
Matthew: 3: 13-17
by Mick
Hough
One
day, down by the River Jordan, a very unusual and wonderful thing happened!
All begins
with John – God had given him a special job to do – a message to give to the
people.
People
recognised that his message was from God, and they flocked out of Jerusalem in
their hundreds and thousands to the banks of the River Jordan to hear him.
Told
them to do 2 things:
Repent Turn back to
God. Stop living for yourselves, and start living for God. All sorts of people
came to hear John and be baptised – some real crooks and criminals, and others
who knew that they weren’t living as God wanted them to. Knew they hadn’t been
keeping God’s commandments. To all of them, John said ‘Turn back to God’.
Be
baptised. Baptism, stepping into the
river and letting John plunge you under the cold water of the Jordan River, was
the sign that you were serious about faith in God. It was as if their sins were
being washed away, and they rose up out of the water with a clean sheet. If you
were baptised it was a sign that you wanted to belong to the people of God and
do what was right.
‘John
The Baptist’ - Crowds of people came to hear John and to repent and be
baptised.
But
then, one day, whilst John was baptising people in the River Jordan, someone
very surprising came to be baptised. Listen to Matt.3:13-15:
13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan
to be baptized by John. 14 But John
tried to deter him, saying, "I need to be baptized by you, and do you come
to me?" 15 Jesus replied,
"Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all
righteousness." Then John consented.
Jesus
had been queuing up with all these people to be baptised.
Big
question! Why does Jesus want to be baptised? John wanted Jesus to
baptise him!
Why
should Jesus be baptised? – he doesn’t have any sins to be washed clean from.
He always did what God wanted him to
do. Always kept God’s laws.
But,
remember the other thing that baptism stood for? It meant that you wanted to be
part of the new people who were going to obey God. And Jesus showed, by being
baptised, that he was part of those people.
So even
though Jesus hadn’t got any sins to give up, he queued up with those who did:
tax collectors who stole money from people, soldiers who had bullied and
threatened people, and lots of others who knew that they hadn’t been living
God’s way.
Not
surprising that Jesus joins this queue of people, because as we read about
Jesus life and his mission, it was all about ordinary, sinful people
like them and us.
Throughout
his ministry, Jesus was criticised by his opponents for mixing with the wrong
type of people – so it’s not surprising that he begins his ministry by
queuing up with them – standing alongside them.
And by
joining the queue to be baptised with them, Jesus was saying ‘This is the right
way – John’s message is true. Turn away from sin, and turn to God and he will
accept you.’
I have
often heard people say ‘I’m too bad to become a Xn. I’m unworthy – I’ve done
too many bad things to approach God to ask for forgiveness.’ But the truth is that
it is God who approaches us through Jesus – God who stands alongside us and
says – it doesn’t matter what you’ve done, if you turn away from wrong and
accept that I can forgive you, you can belong to my people. I love you and want
you to belong to me.
We
don’t have to be good to come to God – we need to accept that in Jesus he
stands alongside us, he approaches us and offers us a fresh start if
only we turn to him. Jesus: One with us.
So John
baptised Jesus – in the cold water of the River Jordan. And listen now to what
happened when Jesus came up out of the water.
Read
Matt.3:16,17:
16 As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up
out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of
God descending like a dove and lighting on him. 17 And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, whom I love;
with him I am well pleased."
Not
only is Jesus one with us, he is one with God.
A voice
from heaven came and told him so, and God sent his Spirit on Jesus to equip him
for the work he was going to do.
Jesus’
baptism was the start of something v.important for Jesus. He is about to set
out on 3 years of public ministry – it’s the end of his quiet life in the
carpenters shop in Nazareth – from now on he will be travelling around and
doing the work that he believed God had sent him to do. Teaching, preaching,
healing and heading for the cross.
When we
start a new piece of work at Holy Trinity, we like to do it by having a special
service, or dedicating it to God somehow.
So the
first thing we do during HolClub week is to have a special service to pray for
the week, pray for the leaders and the children – we offer the week to God and
ask that he will be with us.
Or when
someone leaves HT to go into missionary work or Xn ministry, we gather round
them and pray for them.
It’s a
special act to begin the ministry.
This is
what happened to Jesus at his baptism – it was Jesus coming to God and saying
Here I am – I’ve come to do your will – please prepare me for the work that I
believe you’ve called me to do.
And God
answered Jesus in a very powerful way – voice from heaven saying Yes ‘This is
my Son, the One I love, I am well pleased with him.’
Jesus
is right about the work that God has called him to do – God the Father is
entirely behind all that Jesus says and does.
So when
Jesus teaches us about right and wrong ways of living, God says ‘This is my Son, with whom I am
pleased.’ Jesus teaches us with the full authority of God.
When
Jesus calls us to lay down our own lives and follow him – God says, ‘This is my
Son, whom I love. With him I am well pleased.’He calls us with the full
authority of God
When we
see Jesus hanging on the cross, and rising again from the tomb God says ‘This
is my Son whom I love, with him I am well pleased.’
God
accepts us because of the work of Jesus.
We
shouldn’t have any doubt that Jesus’ mission and ministry began on that day in
the Jordan River with God’s full authority. It was God’s work.
Jesus one
with us, whoever we are – points us to how it is we can belong to the people of
God.
Jesus, one with God – he comes on God’s mission to save mankind.
Jesus walks on
water: Matthew
14.22-33
It was enough to send a shiver down
your spine. It was night. It was dark. The wind was howling. The boat was being
tossed to and fro, buffeted by the wind. And then a terrible apparition
appeared, frightening enough to make a grown man cry out in fear. A mysterious
figure walking, yes walking, on the water
26 When the disciples saw him walking on the
lake, they were terrified. "It's a ghost," they said, and cried out
in fear
Then Jesus speaks
"Take
courage! It is I. Don't be afraid."
(Verse 28)
Its me, don’t be afraid, says
Jesus, put out of your mind all thoughts of ghosts and strange apparitions.
You’re watching something more wonderful, more strange, more important anything
you have ever seen before.
Jesus walking on the water is a wonder, something to gaze at with
awe, something to ponder and think about. It’s something designed to make you
answer the question ‘Who is this person?’
It’s a revelation, its an insight
into who Jesus is. We know no one can walk on water except for the one who made it. We know that the only one who
really rules the waves is the one who brought them into being. Listen to Bishop
Ryle:
‘Those angry waves which tossed the
ship of his disciples to and fro, obey the Son of God, and become a solid floor
under his feet...To our poor weak minds the whole event is utterly
incomprehensible.... (It is) Enough for us to remember that to him who created
the seas at the beginning, it must have been perfectly easy to walk on the
waves when he pleased.’ - J C Ryle
Picture it now. Jesus walking
calmly across the water in the dead of night. What does it say to you ? Surely it says to us that Jesus
is in perfect control of his world. He made all things, he owns all things, he
works all things out according to his purposes. When Jesus walks on the water
he says in effect to us: this is my world
it belongs to me, fear not everything is under control
‘Take courage’ says Jesus to each
one of us ‘It is I. Do not be afraid’
The word that enables
But then Peter speaks and says something
very remarkable indeed
28 "Lord, if it's you," Peter
replied, "tell me to come to you on the water."
‘Tell me to come to you’ What an
amazing thing to say!
Peter knows enough about Jesus and
how things work when Jesus is around to know that all will be necessary for
him, Peter, to walk on the water will be for Jesus to tell him to do it.
Usually, just telling someone to do
something doesn’t enable them to do it except that is, if it is Jesus who is
doing the telling. What Peter believes is that if Jesus tells him to do it, he
will be able to do it. Peter, you see, has been watching Jesus. When Jesus
wants to heal someone how does he do it? He says the word. When Jesus want to
forgive someone what does he do? He says the word. When Jesus wants to calm the
storm or feed 5000 people with a few loaves and fish, what does he do? He says
the word.
Peter has been with Jesus long
enough to know that this man’s word has power.
It enables things to happen, that
couldn’t otherwise happen. So, says Peter, Lord you tell me to come, and I’ll
be able to do it. You tell me to and I’ll be able to get out of this boat and
start walking on the water. So Jesus says ‘come’ and he does it.
What about you? Perhaps, you think
God may be calling you to do something and you think to yourself ‘ I can’t do it’. But if God is calling,
you will be able to do it. For when God calls, he enables. The very word that
calls us, gives us the power to do what he calls us to do.
Jesus never calls us do
something that is impossible. He doesn’t just leave us to get on with it, he
equips us and enables us
That sinking feeling
But of course, that’s not the end
of the story, when Peter starts to walk on the water all goes well until, well,
until his starts to sink. Why does he start to sink? because he takes his eyes
off Jesus and starts looking at the storm.
Peter looks at the wind. He
focusses on his situation and he starts to sink. We can do the same. We look at
circumstances too much. We think about our problems too much. Then our worries
and anxieties and doubts overwhelm us. We take our eyes off the Lord Jesus and
we start to sink
One of the great values of worship
together in church is that it refocusses our eyes afresh on our saviour. We
look at Jesus, we listen again to his word, and our faith is strengthened. We
pay less attention to our circumstances and more to our Lord
When Peter starts to sink, Jesus
catches him and holds him and saves him. It’s a bit like two people climbing a
mountain together - the beginner with the climbing instructor. The beginners
misses his footing but in an instant the older climber has grabbed hold of him.
Peter’s hold on the Lord slips for a minute but the Lord’s hold on Peter’s life
is secure
My Jesus My
Saviour is a great song, and one of my favourites. One line we sing
to Jesus goes ‘forever I’ll love you, forever I’ll stand’ but there’s a better,
more biblical version, that goes ‘forever you’ll love me, forever I’ll stand’
Yes, like Peter our faith is too
small but our God is great. Like Peter we suffer doubts of all kinds, but the
Lord is constant and faithful
The climax of the story happens
back in the boat:
32 And when they climbed into the boat, the
wind died down. 33 Then those who were
in the boat worshipped him, saying, "Truly you are the Son of God."
The disciples, amazed by what they
have seen, worship Jesus as the Son of God. They still didn’t fully understand
who Jesus was, they still had a lot to learn, but they taken a big step forward
in their understanding of Jesus and they worshipped him
The Greatest Commandment: Mark 12.28-34
Two groups of walkers set out on a
15 mile walk for charity. It was over rough Moorland and dense woodland
and they had to reach a rendezvous
point by 4pm in the afternoon where they were going to get picked up. They were
all well-equipped with maps, a compass and suitable clothing.
By the pick up time the first group
had arrived, had time to relax and have a cup of tea and were ready to be taken
back to the base. But there was no sign of the other group. So they waited and
waited, until the organisers started to get worried. With the weather worsening
and darkness starting to fall, things began to get serious and a full scale
search had to be instituted
Eventually the wet bedraggled
walking party were found, nearly 5 miles from the rendezvous point - they had
walked for miles and miles - but, unfortunately in the wrong direction. Someone
had lost the group’s only compass. So they kept walking in what they thought
was the right direction. But in actual fact they had veered off from the
direction they were supposed to be heading, and the further they walked, the
further they were from where they were meant to be and the more lost they were
The first group however had a
compass, they had a map., they were able to keep on the right path and they
made the rendezvous point with time to spare
What a difference a compass makes
if you are going on a long journey. Without it you can veer off completely and
get completely lost. As you can in life - without a spiritual compass. So many
people get their lives in a terrible mess. So many people cause so much
unhappiness to themselves and to others because they do not have any kind of
compass. They don’t have any means of finding their way through life. They are
as lost and confused as our poor party of walkers who mislaid their compass out
walking.
You and I are no different -
without a spiritual compass we are, quite literally, LOST. How can we know the
right way to live, the right way to live our lives, the direction, to go, in
the compass to walk by ?
Surely that it what God’s
commandments are all about. They are there to teach us how to live, they are there
to show us the way. The psalms are certainly full of that of that conviction:
Show me
your ways, O LORD, teach me your paths; (Psa 25:4 NIV)
Teach me
your way, O LORD, and I will walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart,
that I may fear your name. (Psa 86:11 NIV)
Teach me to
do your will, for you are my God; may your good Spirit lead me on level ground. (Psa
143:10 NIV)
That’s why God’s commandments,
God’s guidance for living is so vital
But which of them is the most
important ? That was the question Jesus was asked:
28 One of the teachers of the law came and
heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked
him, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?"
And Jesus answered:
29 "The most important one is this: 'Hear,
O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul
and with all your mind and with all your strength.'
31 The second is this: 'Love your neighbour as
yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these."
The most important commandment is
to Love the Lord your God with all your
heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your
strength.'
The most important commandment is
about putting God first about
putting him at the centre. It is about loving God, not just an emotional
feeling, but loving God with your whole life, your whole self. When we do that,
it is like going on a walk with a compass. We are heading in the right basic
direction, we travelling along the right road, we are heading for the right
destination
But when we stop loving God fully
and wholeheartedly, we tend to veer off. As time goes on we get further and
further away from where we should be
Let us each ask ourselves: how is
our love for God? Are we loving him with all our heart, our soul, our mind our
strength? Its quite a challenge isn’t it? Anything less of course gives him far
less than his due
And what about the other
commandment, the one that Jesus says is the next most important after loving
God?: 'Love your neighbour as yourself.'
That’s the other key part. That’s
the one that sums up so many of the other commandments. That’s the one that
looks out into the world. It’s no good loving God, but hating his world. Loving
God must overflow into love for the people next door, the people down the
street, the poor, the widow and the orphan on the other side of the world.
They’re all our neighbours and we must love them, too
Sadly we are, if anything, becoming
a more selfish world. Our focus is on self but Jesus teaching is different. The
heart of life is not loving yourself, it’s loving God. And then its other
people. That’s a very different way of
living, but its God’s way, its the right way and the best way to live.
If you live in this way, you have God’s compass to guide you through your life.
No wonder the man who asked Jesus
said this
32 "Well said, teacher," the man
replied. "You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other
but him. 33 To love him with all your
heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your
neighbour as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and
sacrifices."
And no wonder Jesus said to him:
34 When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely,
he said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God." And from
then on no one dared ask him any more questions.
You’re on the right lines, he is
saying in effect, you are heading in the right direction.
Let us reflect on him in his
majesty and power and love and let us do the same
We are God’s Family…Forgiven and Forgiving: Matthew 18.21-35
The
Californian State Legislature has passed a 3-strike law. Any person who is convicted
of 3 or more criminal offences receives a life sentence. Whatever your third
crime may be, whatever your previous crimes were, this time you go straight to
jail - for life.
Some of the
Rabbis, religious teachers in Jesus time had a similar rule. According to their
teaching believers has a general duty to forgive their brothers but only up to
a maximum of three offences. Your neighbour sins against you, you forgive him.
He repeats the offence, you forgive him. He does it a third time, you forgive him
once more, but then when he does it a
fourth time, this time you don’t forgive him. Enough is enough.
It’s
fortunate God doesn’t follow that rule with us, isn’t?
You can see the background to
Peter’s question to Jesus:
21
Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, "Lord, how many times shall I
forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?"
I suppose Peter’s reasoning went a
bit like this ‘Jesus seems to be quite keen on this forgiveness business, but
even he wouldn’t go as far as forgiving someone seven times.
But,
that wasn’t the way Jesus saw things: not seven times Peter, but seventy-seven
times (of seventy times seven). In other words there is no limit, as he goes on
to illustrate this with the parable of the unmerciful servant.
Bible scholar Don Carson has
estimated the modern monetary equivalent of the servant’s debt in the story.
The modern day equivalent of ten thousand talents is something like £2 billion.
The point is that this man’s debt is so enormous, so vast, that he has no hope
whatsoever of paying it back. His position is hopeless and as a such his
response to his own plight is completely unrealistic. He falls to his knees and
says
'Be patient with me,' he begged, 'and I will pay back everything.'
He is a bit like the
ever-optismistic, but ever-in-debt, Mr Micawber who constantly hoped something
would turn up, or Billy Bunter, the schoolboy from Greyfriars School, who
constantly expected a postal order in the next post.
But in reality there is no chance
of him ever being able to pay back such an enormous debt. No amount of time, no
amount of patience on the part of the Bank Manager will help. What this man
needs is not an extension to overdraft - he needs mercy.
This has
recently been illustrated on the world stage in the case of third world debt.
Christians and others have campaigned for the cancellation of third world debt
for exactly the same reason, because many of these poorer countries of the
world have such vast debts there is no possibility of them ever being
able to pay them back. They don’t need a bit more time to pay. They need the
opportunity of a completely fresh start. They need an act of compassion and
mercy on the part of their debtors in the developed world.
And what is true at the
international level is true on the personal level in our relationships with
God. The Bible often compares our sins to debts and like the servant in the
parable we underestimate the seriousness of our debt or sin before God.
In reality, there is no way we can
pay ourselves out of debt. We have as much chance of dealing with our sin as
that servant had of paying off a £2 billion debt. We are helpless because of
the scale of the problem. Our only hope is mercy and forgiveness from God.
In the parable the master takes
pity on his servant and the debt is cancelled. There is no question of him
attempting to pay back the debt: instead the slate is wiped clean and he is
forgiven all his debt.
It’s lovely picture of what being a
Christian is all about. But in this parable there is a sting in the tale
because the forgiven servant is not half as forgiving as his merciful master:
28
"But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow
servants who owed him a hundred denarii. He grabbed him and began to choke him.
'Pay back what you owe me!' he demanded. 29
"His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, 'Be patient
with me, and I will pay you back.'
30
"But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison
until he could pay the debt. Matthew
18.28-30
And the response from his master is
severe:
31
When the other servants saw what had happened, they were greatly
distressed and went and told their master everything that had happened.
32
"Then the master called the servant in. 'You wicked servant,' he
said, 'I cancelled all that debt of yours because you begged me to.33 Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow
servant just as I had on you?' 34 In
anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should
pay back all he owed. Matthew
18.31-34
And the warning from Jesus is
stark:
35
"This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you
forgive your brother from your heart."
Unforgiveness is dangerous to the soul.
How can anyone expect to be forgiven by God, if he is not prepared to forgive
his brother? It’s like saying ‘Lord,
please forgive me but don’t expect me to forgive him’
Of course, forgiveness is hard, forgiveness is costly. It involves letting go of a hurt, of a resentment, of a feeling of hurt pride or injustice, but forgiveness is not an option for Christians, it is commanded by Jesus. And it is the prayer on our lips every time we say the Lord’s Prayer: ‘forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us’
In the history of the world there
have been some truly inspirational forgivers. Nelson Mandela is one. It would
have been easy, understandable even, if he led his people in taking revenge for
all the injustice and abuse they suffered. Instead, he led the way in
advocating forgiveness and reconciliation.
Archbishop Thomas Cranmer was
another. He had such a gentle forgiving
spirit that it was said of him that if you did him an injury, he would be your
friend for life
Another great forgiver was the
black American woman recently featured on television who adopted into her
family, the young man who had murdered her son . This amazing Christian lady
calmly explained to the camera that as God her forgiven her and it was her duty
to forgive this young man.
So to bring us back to the title of
this sermon – we are God’s Family – forgiven and forgiving. Forgiven yes, what
a privilege, but are we forgiving?
Let me ask you: do you have a problem
of forgiveness in your life? Someone in this church you find hard to forgive,
or perhaps someone in your family or at work ? It may be a great hurt has been
done to you, it may be no apology has been received or is likely to be offered.
But not
to forgive, is to be like the unmerciful servant who though forgiven much,
could not bring himself to forgive others and is to run the risk of finding
your master will not forgive you.
Let me urge you, to pray for God’s
help to forgive. Speak to someone, seek
help, if you need to, but do something now to start the process of forgiveness
in motion.
Do it out of obedience to God. Do
it our of thanksgiving for your own forgiveness by God. Do it because it will
do you good. Letting go of bitterness and resentment, and replacing it with the
gentle forgiving forbearing love of Jesus will be good for you, good for the
person who has offended you, and good for God’s church.
Let us pray.
The Son of God:
Rescued: Matthew
2.13-23
In the long history of the world,
power-crazed, bloodthirsty tyrants have been only too common. Human life has
been cheap to them. They have thought nothing of using the authority of the
state, the power of deception and lies and sheer brute force to snuff out
opposition
Herod was one such ruler. Early in
his reign he had been a successful
leader, clever, efficient, and
politically astute, but, like many powerful men, Herod was deeply insecure,
and later his mental state deteriorated
badly. He became paranoid, fearful of rivals, and subject to terrible fits of
jealousy.
By the time of Jesus
birth, historians report that Herod had executed several of his closest
associates, his wife Mariamne and at least two of his sons. He was not about to
let an infant upstart from Bethlehem get in his way, and if a few innocent
lives had to be wiped out in the process, then so be it
From the moment Herod knew he had a
rival in Bethlehem’s new born king, that child’s life was in imminent danger,
and the Holy Family had to flee for their lives
They joined the ranks of the
millions throughout history who have had to seek asylum in a strange land,
forced into desperate measures by a tyrannical ruler
It is hard for most of us
to imagine the terror and the horror of having to flee for your life because it
is so far from our own experience. We can only guess what it is like to leave
your home, your possessions, your work, and your loved ones behind, possibly
never to see them again. We can only guess what it must be like to be on the run, never knowing whether your
persecutor will catch up on you, never quite sure whether arrest, torture or
even death is waiting for you and your family just round the corner, never
knowing what the future will hold at all
I find it hard to imagine what that
must be like and you may too. Jesus family didn’t have to imagine it –
they knew the reality of it their own
experience. That brings us to our first point
Some
people think the incarnation is a bit like one of those items on Blue Peter
where for a day one of the presenters tries out someone else’s job. I am,
revealing my age when I say it was in my day John Noaakes, Valerie Singleton, and
Peter Purvis who would take turns to do this part of the programme. One week
John discovered what it was like to be the man who job it was to clean the
pigeon droppings off Nelson’s column, whilst the next week Val found out
what it was like to be a student at the Royal Academy of Dance
I was always particularly enjoyed
that part of the programme. It was fun to see how they got on in a completely
different role doing unfamiliar tasks. Of course no was fooled into thinking it
was the real thing. They may have dressed up for the part but it was still just
John or Val performing a role, a role that come the end of the day they could
give up and revert to their normal lives.
But Jesus when he became human did
it for real . He wasn’t just human a
day, but for life. He wasn’t pretending – just skilfully playing a role
He became one of us - a real flesh
and blood human being, born of woman, and exposed to all the trials and tribulations of life on
earth, a man of sorrows and familiar with grief
Jesus was made of the same stuff as
you and me. He had to go to the toilet. His feet ached. He got thirsty. He was
tired. God knows what it is like to be human not because he’s observed it from
afar about it but because he has done it
When Buckingham Palace was bombed
during the war, the Queen’s comment was that ‘now we can look the East End in
the eye’ - meaning that now the people would know that the Royal family knew at
least something of what the people were going through
In the same way the millions of
people down to the present day who have been the victim of oppressive rule,
those who have lived under Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, Sadaam Hussein, the
refugees and asylum seekers of the world know that God’s Son knows something of
what they are going through
Jesus experienced growing up as a
refugee in a strange land. As a child he would have picked up the fear, the
sense of dislocation. He knew the upheaval of moving from one country to
another and back again. Incarnation included all that, Jesus was not exempt from
it - he lived in the real world
When we say God
understands suffering we don’t mean he understands it because he has read a
book about it - or because is brain is
so enormous brain that understands everything from nuclear Physics to
Renaissance Art, no we mean God understands it because he has experienced
it. Graham Kendrick’s song puts it so well
he stood where I stand
he felt what I feel
he understands
We have a God who understands suffering,
who experienced it himself and who gave his life to save us. You may be going
through a dark time now in your life, be encouraged Jesus knows and he
understands, you can come to him and find strength in him.
That’s the first thing we see in
this episode. The second is this:
It was a terrifying experience. It
involved a horrific act of multiple child murder. It left Jesus and his family
in hiding in a strange land. The devil was having a field day. But Matthew
wants us to know that even so events weren’t running out of control. God’s hand
was still firmly on the tiller
In no sense at all of course was
God the author of the terrible things that Herod was about to do, but in
no sense either was Herod going to be able to stand in the way of God’s plans
for the salvation of the world through his Son
The Sovereign Lord had all things
in his hands, still working things out according to his purpose and Mathew
shows us that God is in charge by the simple device of telling us three times –
in verses 15, 18, 23 – that what was happening was fulfilling what the prophets
had said
In an astonishing kind of way Herod was not thwarting God’s plan, he was actually fulfilling it. God was in charge even using wicked events to bring his purposes to fruition..
God is never surprised by events in
the way we are. September 11th 2001 is a date we shall never forget.
Who could have predicted, who in their wildest dreams, their worst nightmare
could have envisaged those scenes we all saw on our TVs?
The world’s most powerful nation
was caught completely unawares and thrown into chaos. God however is never
caught on the hop
It was looking dodgy for Jesus when
Herod started plotting, but God was one step ahead with a plan to rescue his
Son that he had formulated centuries before as evidenced by the prophecy ‘Out
of Egypt I called my son’ (verse 15)
Moreover
at each point in the unfolding drama Matthew makes it clear that God is
directing events. God speaks in a series of dreams, revealing the next step
forward: first, to the wise men warning them not to return to Herod,
next to Joseph telling his to go to Egypt, next telling Joseph when it was safe
to return to Israel, and finally warning him for reasons of security to settle
in Nazareth rather than in Judea
Step by step, God shows the way
forward. At each point he is one step ahead of evil. At each point the devil is
outmanoeuvred. The message is: don’t fear, God is in charge
Whatever may happen in our lives,
and whatever may happen in this world – and we all know only too well the
threats of terrorist attacks and the climate of fear that that they creates,
the Bible assures us of this
28
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love
him, who have been called according to his purpose. Romans 8.28
God is in charge working out his
purposes for good. The devil working through Herod was defeated when he tried
to do away with the new born king by slaughtering the baby boys of Bethlehem.
Instead God rescued his Son.
The devil working through Pilate
and the religious leaders of the day was defeated when he tried to eradicate
Jesus the king of the Jews by means of death on the cross. Instead God rescued
his Son by raising him from the dead.
And for us who belong to Jesus we
can be sure that God’s purposes for us will never be defeated because we are
secure eternally in Christ
28
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love
him, who have been called according to his purpose. Romans 8.28