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The Incarnation: Redemptive Prophecy and Promises Fulfilled

December 20, 2015 Preacher: Series: The Gospel of Matthew: Advent 2015

Scripture: Matthew 2:13–23

Key Truth: God uses interesting detours, costly circumstances, and lowly and humble sources from unexpected places to redeem and draw us to Him.

 

Introduction:

 

Q: Where do you place your hope given our current cultural and political circumstances?

“The incarnation is the supreme example of fulfilled prophecy, the supreme example of God’s faithfulness to his promises. And this is surely most comforting, especially as we consider it in the setting of the world in which we find ourselves.”

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, My Soul Magnifies the Lord: Meditations on the Meaning of Christmas

 

Out of Egypt:

Matthew 2:13-15

“This wonderful method of preserving the Son of God under the cross teaches us, that they act improperly who prescribe to God a fixed plan of action. Let us permit him to advance our salvation by a diversity of methods; and let us not refuse to be humbled, that he may more abundantly display his glory. Above all, let us never avoid the cross, by which the Son of God himself was trained from his earliest infancy. This flight is a part of the foolishness of the cross, but it surpasses all the wisdom of the world. That he may appear at his own time as the Savior of Judea, he is compelled to flee from it, and is nourished by Egypt, from which nothing but what was destructive to the Church of God had ever proceeded. Who would not have regarded with amazement such an unexpected work of God?”

John Calvin, Commentary on Matthew

Q: Has the Lord ever taken you back to a place that you thought you had moved on from and would never return to again? What was the result?

 

 

Rachel’s Lament:

Matthew 2:16-18

“The theological lesson is this: Those who begin by hating the Child end by hurting children. Hating revelation leads to hurting people. If people will be ungodly they will be inhumane. Herod is the Gospel’s earliest evidence of this.”

Frederick Dale Bruner, Matthew: A Commentary, Volume 1: The Christbook, Matthew 1-12

Q: Is redemption truly free or is there a cost?

 

 

What Good Can Come From Nazareth?

Matthew 2:19-23

“Though he was the born king of Israel, heir to David’s throne, worthy of the worship from all the nations, and ‘God with us’, Jesus indeed a Nazarene, for our sake. He came among us in lowliness and humility, to lead us in a new exodus, out of our bondage to sin and death, into the glorious liberty of the children of God, wiping every tear from our eyes.”

Mark E. Ross, Let’s Study Matthew

Q: Have you ever been blessed from an unexpected source? How has this affected how you see and relate to the lowly and humble?

 

 

Application:

 

Matthew 2:13-23 teaches us that:

-God takes us on some interesting detours in our justification and sanctification

-There is a cost to redemption that we should not forget

-God uses lowly and humble sources from unexpected places to bring us to Him

 

More in The Gospel of Matthew: Advent 2015

December 13, 2015

O Come, All Ye Faithful

December 6, 2015

A New Creation Birth and the Gift of God Being with Us

November 29, 2015

A Genealogy of God’s Faithful Promises