This week of the liturgical calendar, appropriately named, is the first Sunday after Christmas. And I think I speak for most of us when I say that it’s been a busy Christmas season, and a busy year, and we’re all a bit exhausted from it all.
A young pastor in a Facebook group I’m in for pastors recently asked if it was okay to preach a sermon that he’s preached before again at the same church. Most of the pastors in the group assured him that it was okay, as long as enough time had elapsed between the two, and as long as it was a timely message that the church could benefit from again.
One pastor in the group said that he has one sermon that he preaches every Christmas, another sermon that he preaches every Easter, and another sermon that he preaches every Mother’s Day, and no one in his church has even noticed yet that he’s constantly repreaching his sermons.
Another pastor in the group said, “If it’s good enough to preach once, it’s good enough to preach twice.”
So, since I was out of town with the youth several days this past week, I’m taking the advice of many wise preachers and preaching a message that I preached about 4 years ago.
For the last few weeks, we’ve been talking about the idea that we can find Jesus everywhere: in the darkness, shining the light, as a servant on the cross, and even as a child in the manger. And, of course, this is all in fulfillment of God’s promises, because God always fulfills His promises. Whenever God sets out to do something, He does it. When God makes a covenant, He keeps His word. And we saw in Ecclesiastes earlier this that whenever God creates a human heart, He puts eternity into our hearts, like a void that’s formless and empty, so that we would long for Him, and long to be filled with His goodness.
I love this hymn. Sing it with me.
There’s within my heart a melody
Jesus whispers sweet and low:
Fear not, I am with thee, peace, be still,
in all of life’s ebb and flow.Jesus, Jesus, Jesus,
sweetest name I know,
fills my every longing,
keeps me singing as I go.
Does Jesus fill your every longing? Or do you have some longings that are still unfulfilled? And do you wonder if they’ll ever be fulfilled?
I mean, I do.
I long for all of my kids to be perfectly holy, happy, and healthy. I long for my friends to have perfect marriages. I long for God’s people, us, to always be perfectly united in faith and love so that the whole world would see Jesus in us, believe the gospel, and be saved.
But as of yet, all of these longings are unfilled. My kids often do get sad and sick, I’ve yet to see a perfect marriage, and I’m reminded far too often just how divided God’s people, we, are. And the whole world is certainly not yet saved.
Given that reality, we could become depressed and hopeless. We could declare that life is pointless, and that there’s so much brokenness in the world that we just want to curse God and die. Or, we can become thankful that God is merciful and just, and that He promised that He would right all the wrongs, and that He would wipe away every tear. So if you’ve been overwhelmed with burdens, and longings, I hope that our Scripture today will remind you that God really does fill all of our longings in Jesus Christ.
To see that, we’re going to be looking at Matthew 2:12-23. Please turn there with me. And please stand with me for the reading of God’s word. Matthew 2:12-23.
Now when they 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, 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. 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 had 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. 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, so that what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled, that he would be called a Nazarene. (Matthew 2:13-23)
Father, help us to trust You. Help us to see that everything happens according to Your word, so that Your word would be fulfilled, and so that we would all be fully filled with Jesus. In Jesus’s name, Amen.
4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42
Do these numbers mean anything to you? Maybe to a few of you, but probably not to most of you. But if you watched the show Lost, you might remember that this series of numbers mysteriously popped up in the show over and over again. One man in the show won the lottery using these numbers, and then he came to believe that the numbers were cursed. Another man in the show entered these numbers into a computer over and over again for years in order to keep an electromagnetic bomb from imploding. And towards the end of the show, we learned that each of the numbers corresponded to a different person that crashed landed on the island, and a supernatural man providentially arranged for them to come to his island in order to select one of them to replace him in taking care of the island.
Now, if all of what I just said about that show makes absolutely no sense to you, that’s okay. Just know this: sometimes God arranges all kinds of seemingly insignificant details in our lives in order to do something amazing that only He can do.
The best and most obvious example of this is Jesus Himself. It’s crazy just how many seemingly insignificant things Jesus had to fulfill in the Hebrew Scriptures in order to show Himself to be the Messiah that the Jews were waiting for.
I’ve mentioned this children’s Bible before, called The Jesus Storybook Bible.
I recommend it not just for children, but for everyone because it’s just so incredibly beautiful. What I really like about this children’s Bible is that it points out plain as day how the Sunday School lessons that we learned growing up are fulfilled in Jesus.
In fact, The Jesus Storybook Bible says it like this:
“Every story whispers His name.” -The Jesus Storybook Bible
Among other things, the Bible says that the Messiah had to be born in Bethlehem according to the prophecy in Micah 5:2, called out of Egypt according to the prophecy in Hosea 11:1, and yet called a Nazarene, which is probably a fulfillment of Isaiah 53:3, and we’ll talk about that in a minute. But think about that. From a human perspective, it was completely out of His control as to where He was from and what would happen in his earliest years, but in order to fulfill the prophecies about Him in just this one aspect, Jesus had to be from three different places!
Now, for some of us, that doesn’t seem like a huge deal. Maybe you moved several times as a child or young adult, so saying where you’re from is complicated. If you were ever part of a military family, for example, and someone asked you where you were from, you might not even know what state to tell them. And even though I really haven’t lived in too many places, depending on who asked and when, I’ve told different people that I’m from Nokomis, or Louisville, or St. Louis. And all of them are true.
But for Jesus, it wasn’t merely an inconsequential matter of bouncing around from place to place when he was growing up. If Jesus was going to fulfill what the Bible said about Him, He had to legitimately be from all three of these places: Bethlehem, Egypt, and Nazareth. And yet, our passage this morning explains it very clearly. He was born in Bethlehem, fled to Egypt, and was raised in Nazareth. And this is just one very small prophecy about Jesus.
It would be almost impossible to point out every single prophecy that Jesus fulfilled. There are thousands of books written about all the prophecies that Jesus fulfilled from the Old Testament, but I think there are millions more that could be written. In fact, I’ve come to believe that every single word in the Hebrew Scriptures prophesied and anticipated the coming of Jesus.
In fact, I would even say it like this: that every prophecy and longing in all of life is fulfilled in Jesus.
We see this several times in this passage, as evidenced by the word “fulfill.” Look at the first one in verses 13-15.
Now when they 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, 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. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, “Out of Egypt I called my son.” (Matthew 2:13-15)
So the situation was that there was a stirring, a longing, among the Jews that the Messiah would be born soon, and when Herod had heard about this, he asked the wise men who passed through where this Messiah would be born. Herod, who was the ruler of the region, didn’t like the idea of the Jews following a new leader, especially because the Jews expected their Messiah to lead them to have political freedom again. So Herod decided to kill all the baby boys born in that region so that the hopes and longings of the Jews would also be destroyed.
And yet, every prophecy and longing is fulfilled in Jesus.
Jesus was born in Bethlehem, but in order to avoid the massacre of Jewish boys, Joseph and Mary took Jesus to Egypt so that he wouldn’t be killed. This was to fulfill Hosea 11:1, which says:
When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. (Hosea 11:1)
And that’s interesting, because the context of this quote from the book of Hosea is clearly that God delivered His people Israel out of slavery in Egypt. It wasn’t about the Messiah, but about Israel. And yet, Matthew records that this was a prophecy fulfilled by Jesus.
You see, even if we don’t understand it at first, every prophecy and longing is fulfilled in Jesus. Another example of this from our passage this morning is in verses 16-18. It says:
Then Herod, when he saw that he had 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. 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.” (Matthew 2:16-18)
Once again, we have Scripture quoting Scripture, saying that it was fulfilled by Jesus. This time, the quotation comes straight out of the book of Jeremiah, word for word, and it was written to express the great sorrow that Israel had while they were being attacked and taken into captivity by the Assyrians. But once again, if you just read Jeremiah chapter 31 plainly, it doesn’t seem to be a prophecy about the circumstances of a coming Messiah. And yet, that’s exactly how Matthew records it.
The last time we read in our passage this morning that Jesus was the fulfillment of prophecy is in verses 19-23. It says:
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, so that what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled, that he would be called a Nazarene. (Matthew 2:19-23)
This reference to the coming Messiah being a Nazarene is even more problematic because no one quite knows what it’s talking about. There aren’t any Old Testament passages that directly or indirectly say this at all. The closest thing that commentaries on this verse often point to is Judges 13:5, which says:
for behold, you shall conceive and bear a son. No razor shall come upon his head, for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb, and he shall begin to save Israel from the hand of the Philistines.” (Judges 13:5)
And on first glance, that looks great. But when you start studying it, it’s actually talking about something completely different. The verse in the book of Judges is talking about Samson being a Nazirite, which meant that he was obligated to follow certain rules. But Jesus would be called a Nazarene, not a Nazirite, simply because he lived in the town of Nazareth. Nazirites and Nazarenes aren’t even close to the same thing, so I don’t think Matthew was alluding to Judges 13.
There is one other possibility, and that’s Isaiah 11:1, which says:
There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. (Isaiah 11:1)
The word “branch” is translated from the Hebrew word ??? which some commentaries say sounds like the word for Nazarene. But once again, just because two words sound alike, it doesn’t mean they’re related.
Instead, some commentaries agree that Matthew wasn’t quoting a prophecy from the Scriptures at all, but was writing down the rumors that were being passed around. Now, I’m speculating here, but I imagine it happened something like this. When people asked some of the less learned rabbis where the Messiah would be found, they would say, “Probably the most unlikely place!” And the people would respond, “Well, what is the most unlikely place?” And the prophets would respond, “Nazareth, because really, can anything good come out of Nazareth?”
You see, Nazareth was just a humble little town. There wasn’t anything special about it. In fact, it’s never even mentioned in the Old Testament or in any other ancient writings. So it would be completely unexpected for the Messiah to have his home there.
Furthermore, the people of Nazareth were not considered respectable, just as Isaiah says the Suffering Servant would be “despised and rejected.” Isaiah 53:3.
He was despised and rejected by men, a man of suffering who knew what sickness was. He was like someone people turned away from; he was despised, and we didn’t value him. (Isaiah 53:3)
So Nathaniel quoted the common saying, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth,” not referring to a specific prophecy, but rather to the idea that the Messiah should have been honored, not despised. But Jesus was not honored, but was despised and rejected, and so fulfilled not only explicit prophecies, but also implied ones.
So when we take these three prophecies together, about Bethlehem, Egypt, and a humble town like Nazareth, a lot of people accuse the writers of the New Testament of fabricating connections from the Hebrew Scriptures with Jesus that aren’t clear from the context, or even simply making stuff up in order to make it seem like Jesus came in fulfillment of prophecy. Like, in order to see that Jesus fulfilled these things, we have to squint our eyes and tilt our heads just right in order to make it all line up. But here’s what Paul said about that mentality. After naming several stories from the Old Testament and showing how they’re ultimately fulfilled in Jesus, he wrote this:
Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come. (1 Corinthians 10:11)
You see, what Paul is saying is that if we look at history and only think about those things historically, we’re missing the point. Ultimately, everything is fulfilled in Christ. And every tiny, random, insignificant detail in the Old Testament is written to instruct us who are living in light of the reality of Christ’s coming. And even words said in ignorance are ultimately fulfilled in Christ.
So that’s why I’ve become convinced that every word of the Scriptures is a testimony to Him, and that every prophecy and longing is fulfilled in Jesus.
That means that when Israel was in slavery in Egypt, the point wasn’t merely for them to long to get out of Egypt, but for us to long to be set free from our sin through Christ. And when Israel was taken into captivity by Assyria, the point wasn’t merely for them to be sorrowful, but for us to be sorrowful when we realize that we’ve been captive to our sin. And even when Jesus was called a Nazarene, the point isn’t merely that we would know where Jesus was raised, but that we would be in awe of the God who arranges all these seemingly insignificant details so that we would come to know Jesus and long to be completely satisfied in Him.
And I think the same thing is true for the longings that we have in this life. My longing for my kids to be holy, happy, and healthy is really a longing that they would be happy in Jesus. My longing for my friends to have perfect marriages is a longing for them to be overjoyed in being the Bride of Christ. My longing for all of us to be united in faith is a longing for all the world to see Christ in us and be saved.
You see, I think God allows us to have unfulfilled longings for now so that we can practice hoping and trusting in Him, so that we would see His faithfulness in filling all our longings.
And even if we don’t understand how He does, we can know that He does. Because when Jesus came and lived and died on the cross, He said, “It is finished.” And I don’t think that He was just talking about His life, or His work in accomplishing our salvation. I think Jesus was talking about “it.” All of it. All of the prophecies. All of our longings. All of our hopes. All of history is fulfilled in Jesus.
At Christmas time, we sing to Jesus, “the hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.” Maybe you still have some fears, some longings for the future, but because Jesus came, it is finished. Because of Jesus, in the end, there will be no more mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore.
Of course, we don’t understand how all of this plays out. God is outside of time, and operates in time according to His wisdom, but we can trust that in His time, it’s all finished, and all our longings have been satisfied in Jesus. And because we know that, even today, He keeps us singing as we go.
Originally preached December 29, 2019 at Grace Baptist Church