December 30, 2007 Matthew 2:13-15, 19-23

¹³ When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. "Get up," he said, "take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him."

¹⁴ So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, ¹⁵ where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: "Out of Egypt I called my son."

¹⁹ After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt ²⁰ and said, "Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child's life are dead."

²¹ So he got up, took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. ²² But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee, ²³ and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets: "He will be called a Nazarene."

When young people have their first child they are usually very well prepared to make sure everything is set. They will purchase the crib, the mattress, the clothing, the diapers and have the room set just to the right specifications in preparation for the child. Even with all of these preparations they still have no idea what they are getting into. Sleepless nights, dirty diapers, shots, teething, it all is a new experience. There=s no way you can prepare for it all.

Imagine how true this was in preparing for the birth of Christ. There=s no way Joseph and Mary could have prepared for all they were about to face. If they had known what this all entailed - who=s to say that they would have done all they could to politely refuse - especially Joseph. Imagine how much more difficult it would be for a step dad to meet his responsibilities when he knows in the back of his mind that this child is not genetically his. Yet throughout the second chapter of Matthew we see how Joseph is the one getting the vision and directions in regards to the Christ Child. He was to be the primary protector of Jesus. The words of the angel were plain.

Take Care of the Child

I. He is central to the story

This story could be used in a number of different ways. It could be used to talk about the responsibilities of fathers on a Father=s Day. It could be used to talk about the importance of angels or even about the sinfulness of abortion. Yet the primary focus of the story is clear. It is neither on the father, the evil King Herod, nor the angel. It is on the child. Notice how Mary=s name is not even mentioned. Every time Joseph is addressed, it is for him to take care of the child who is put in the primary position. Listen again.

"Get up," he said, "take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt.

¹⁴ So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night.

¹⁹ After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt ²⁰ and said, "Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel

Throughout the story the primary concern is the child. It reminds me of stories in the Old Testament where the kings were told not to enter battle because the whole morale of the army laid in the life and leadership of the king.

This is why they child is so important - for what He was going to grow up to be - the Savior of the world - it all relied on Jesus. Although Mary would play a primary part in the nurturing of the Christ child - she was still expendable. It was the Christ that was all important. If he were to die before His time, salvation would die with Him - and hell and Satan would win. According to the Christmas story Jesus would have been no older than two years old. At this young age he was dependant on the protection of His step-father. If Joseph had failed to be a step-father - to fulfill his vocation to raise the Christ and protect Him, he would not only be failing himself and his Lord - he would also be failing us and the world. It was a primary role for Joseph to make sure that Jesus stayed safe.

Here we see how a common and every day vocation had eternal consequences for the world. The scope is not as broad and wide but the application is similar to you and your family. Christ is the essential key to the life of your family. Fathers are called on to be the Christ-like and God given fathers and husbands within their households. When as a father you do not take the time or effort to attend worship with your wife or your children, you are letting go of the responsibility God has given you. When you show yourself to be an angry and impatient and vulgar person; when you take more interest in your hobbies or your job than you do your family - the family reads you as saying that theyy aren=t that important to you. So the Christ that they see in you is not one who loves them and forgives them and takes care of them - but one who has better things to do. Mothers also are to be supportive to their husbands in their role as spiritual leaders. Yet how many of them do not do more encouraging in this aspect? And how many children make it difficult by complaining about coming to Sunday School or Midweek School?

God has put Christ in your household and wants him to be your centerpiece. Husbands, the most important calling you have within your household is to protect the Christ and keep Him as the primary focus. The salvation of your family needs your spiritual leadership. Dropping your role as the protector and provider of Christ could be equal to Joseph having left Jesus behind in Bethlehem for Herod to slaughter. Dropping your role could lead you and your household to hell. It is the most important thing you can do - much more important than providing even food and clothing and shelter to them. Keep Christ alive and well in your household. Wives, assist in this in whatever way possible. Christ needs to be seen as the primary focus and calling in your life - as husband, wife, parent or child.

II. People want Him dead

The reason for this emphasis is clear. The child=s life is in danger. It=s not that people just want Jesus to be put in the background or even that they want him kept in church and behind the four walls of your house. There are people that won=t be satisfied until He is dead and buried. Just recently the writer of the Golden Compass is said to have written and designed his movie to have our children identifying and cheering for the characters who eventually end up killing what is identified as AGod@ at the end of the book. It=s not enough for the science books to scientifically identify the peculiarities of species and their genes. They also have to try and push their theories and speculations on us which are anything but scientific - which indeed misuse data to push evolution on our children so that they will throw away their God given faith in creation. On the social front nobody raises an eyebrow when some Aholiday celebration@ like Kwanzaa or Chanukah is celebrated. But mention Christmas and Christ and you=ve committed a cardinal sin in our society. There are still people that want Jesus to die in our hearts and minds.

Right after the Wise Men depart, the Scriptures say -

an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. "Get up," he said, "take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him."

With a message of urgency the angel prompted Joseph to get up in the middle of the night and get out of Bethlehem - going all the way down to Egypt - over 160 miles. Why? Because Herod wanted Jesus dead. He didn=t just want to imprison him or exile him to an island. He wanted Jesus dead.

So we ask ourselves, Awhy@? What is so offensive about putting a nativity scene in front of a building? What is so scary about saying a Savior has been born to you? Herod hated Jesus for the threat he posed on his authority. Doesn=t Jesus pose the same threat to people today - because we call Him Savior? That phrase poses a threat to those who don=t want to admit they are sinful - who are trying to prove to the world that they don=t need anyone=s forgiveness and salvation. That title poses a threat to those who feel guilty for the greedy and filthy lifestyles they are leading and don=t want to admit it to anyone. For they hear Jesus grow up and tell them to stop lusting, stop hating, stop looking out only for themselves - to repent of their sins and be baptized for forgiveness. They know that Jesus is also said to have died for the sins of the world, risen from the dead and ascended into heaven - that He is coming to judge those who do not believe in Him and send them to hell. Such a message scares them because they feel it leads to judgmental hatred and murder on the part of Christians. Such a message angers them - because they don=t want to be told they are sinners or what they need to do. They want to live their own lives - free from talk of guilt, forgiveness and Savior. They - like Herod - want to maintain their own kingship. So they realize that they need to silence this Jesus talk. They need Jesus dead.

Yet the motivation goes deeper. This is not a morally neutral world. It is an evil world of darkness. 1 John 5:19 says, Athe whole world is under the control of the evil one.@ (Also see Ephesians 2:3) This sounds paranoid to many. They say to themselves, Acome on, now. The world is not that bad. There are a lot of good people in it.@ Yet look at the picture of Herod and how can you say he is not evil - that there is not something deeper and darker working through him and behind him? As king he had forty‑five of his "competition" executed, along with all of the Sanhedrin except one man. Over time Herod had his own son in law ‑ Aristobulus the high priest ‑ drowned. He also had his brother in law Joseph, his wife, her two sons, and his mother in law executed as well. Five days before his own death Herod was able to execute his nephew Antipater as well for plotting to kill him. In other words, he had a filthy history of murder to keep his throne. It even led Augustus to say, "I would rather be Herod's pig than his child." His evil life was lived with one purpose ‑ to be and remain the ONLY "king of the Jews." How else can you describe someone who would then go on to order the butcher of male boys two years old and younger - but evil and Satanic? Yet this was the man the Romans glorified as AHerod the Great@ because he was able to keep the Jews from rebelling?!?

So let=s look at the big picture. It=s not just Herod that was evil. Jesus was born into a world that Satan has gained control of - this is what the Scriptures say. Even though God has control of the wind and the waves and life and death, Satan still has a powerful and ruling influence over the people that God creates. If you believe in the authority of the Scriptures - there=s no way you can get around this. Is there any reason to think that Satan has changed over time? Revelation 12 says, Athe accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down. . . . Therefore rejoice, you heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you! He is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short.@ There is no middle ground in life. Satan wants Jesus dead still today. When Christ is preached to be what He said He was, impenitent sinners will not respond with indifference. They will want him dead. They will want Him taken from the crib and dashed to the ground - kept in the basement - chased out of the scene. So in order to take care of the Child in you and your family=s heart, get ready for a fight for your life. There is no other way. As Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 2:15‑16, AFor we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life. And who is equal to such a task?@

III. By listening to the angel

Joseph had no idea as to what was happening - to the evil that was lurking on the horizon. There was no way he could know that the murderous henchmen of Herod were following on the heels of the Wise Men to murder the Christ. He was not equal to such a task as taking care of the Christ. In many ways it shows how ignorant we are to the forces of evil beyond us. There=s no way we could fight against a devil whom we can=t see or hear or touch. Were it not for the intervention of God - we would all be lost to hell.

Yet God doesn=t want us to lose. He didn=t want us to be in hell. He wanted His Son to live so He could die on a cross. When we look at the story, how would He deal with this threat? Would He endow Joseph with superhuman Samson like strength and allow him to kill a thousand soldiers with the jawbone of a donkey? Would He perhaps send an earthquake to swallow them up like He did with the followers of Korah in their rebellion against Moses? Or would He send a pillar of fire to separate them from Bethlehem? Would he send an angel to slaughter the horses on the way there as he nearly did with Balaam=s donkey? None of the above.

Instead of using power or deception or death the LORD used the simple power of revelation - the simple word of the Lord - to save the Christ from being slaughtered.

an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. "Get up," he said, "take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him."

Notice how the angel left so many things unexplained. He didn=t tell Joseph how long to stay in Egypt. He didn=t tell him where to stay in Egypt. All he said was to go to Egypt now, and wait for his Word.

The angel was training Joseph to rely on the Word of the LORD. The Word of the LORD was not exactly easy to follow. It involved traveling over a hundred miles on either foot or donkey or camel to a land they had never lived in before - with a wife and a young toddler - all the while taking almost no time to pack hardly anything. In many ways this word of the LORD seems weak and powerless. It doesn=t create anything new. It simply uses that which is already created, a father and mother with legs and a sense of direction. It doesn=t rescue the infants left behind in Bethlehem. It has the real King of the Universe and of the Jews fleeing from the temporary and evil King of the Jews.

Yet in a seemingly powerless way - through all of the traveling and the sore muscles and the cold of the night - this simple and weak revelation of the LORD still got the job done. It revealed to Joseph something he never would have known - that Herod was coming to slaughter the Christ. It gave him time - short as it was - to escape. It also then fulfilled the Scriptures which predicted that just as the Israelites would be called out of Egypt as God=s Son, so also His One and Only Son would be called out of Egypt as well. The return home provides the same phenomenon - as an angel of the LORD tells Joseph to settle in Nazareth in order to keep him from coming under the dangerous rule of a successor to Herod the Great - a man by the name of Archelaus - fulfilling more seeming oral prophecies which said that Jesus would be called a Nazarene. Like it or not - weak and seemingly powerless as they were - as Joseph went where the LORD directed him to when he directed him to everything worked according to plan - and the Savior was saved - all according to God=s design.

And so it happens today, that God puts salvation in the simple revelations of the Word. He tells parents and Christians to run to a baptismal font - and use this water and Word to chase Satan and his henchmen back into hell. He puts the Christ in our heart and soul at baptism and tells us then to cling to Him with all of our might. He puts Himself under the bread and wine and tells us to take of Him often - assuring us of the forgiveness of sins. He promises us that Satan will run from us when we resist him through repentance and faith. What an awesome responsibility this is!

It seems so simple and even powerless - just listening to the Word and promises of God. Eating some bread and wine, pouring some water on a child, simply coming to worship and listening to the Word. Oh how the devil, the world, and our own sinful flesh make these simple things more difficult than we would imagine. It would seem so easy to get up hours later on a Sunday morning to come to worship instead of work. It would seem so easy to just sit through a Bible study and worship and do nothing but listen and sing. But how our flesh convinces this is so difficult to do! How our flesh convinces us that we just won=t get anything out of worship because we don=t like the melody of one song. It tells us that we would be much better off with some rest, because we have just worked so hard during the week and we have so much to do! It is too difficult to drive through a little bit of snow and ice in the morning, but it won=t be so bad in the afternoon to go shopping. Sure, you could make it to work in such weather, but you don=t need to risk it for church, do you? This is what the flesh says - making every trip to keep Christ safe in our hearts seem like a trip to Egypt and back. So many times we lose these battles and act as if God was calling us to just do to much.

Yet when we go where He tells us to go, we hear him call to us from the crib. He says, AI was God - but I became man and was placed in this filthy manger - so I could obey the Law and also die for you!@ Hear him cry to you from the cross. He cries to you, Asee me suffer for your sins here. Trust that in this sacrifice all that I demanded of you has been paid.@ Those cries of the infant, those tears from the cross - they show you a God who loves you and died for you. Listen to those promises which God connects to baptism. Here him personally assure you of salvation in Christ. Those words forgive you. They strengthen you. They assure you that in spite of your weakness, God has forgiven you. They keep Christ strong in you and your family=s heart - assuring you of His love and salvation. Do but listen to them. Do but take the time to hear His voice. It may seem weak. It may seem powerless. But these words of revelation will save your soul from death and hell. They will strengthen you to make great journeys of time and sacrifice - possibly quitting jobs or breaking off relationships or entering treatment - all in keeping with repentance to keep Christ safe within.

Joseph never volunteered to be the step-father of the Christ. It wasn=t as if he was qualified for such a task. There=s no way that anyone could possibly prepare for such a task. Yet God placed the baby in his arms anyway. Difficult as it was, it was still an honor and a privilege for Joseph to be able to have God Himself live under His household. Thankfully - unqualified as he was - he took care of the Child and did what the angel told him to - saving the Child from Herod - so that the Child could save him from hell.

Isn=t it a great thing that we have such a privilege as well? We didn=t qualify or meet a certain standard to have Christ put in our hearts or our minds or our households. We didn=t even have to apply. In a simple act of grace God poured Christ in our hearts and made us His through the simple act of baptism. Now - with this child in our arms He tells us where to go to keep Christ there. Go to Baptism. Go to the Lord=s Supper. Go to the Word. Go to worship. Be ready for a battle. Do whatever it takes to keep Him in your heart. Do not allow anything or anyone to draw Christ away from you. Take care of Him at all costs. He is the most precious possession you have. Amen.