Weekly Sermons

Protecting Life’s Potential - Matthew 2:13-23

Any nation who comes to view children as an unwanted burden rather than a blessing will face significant problems.

China’s fertility rate has now dropped to 1.09, drastically below the 2.1 birthrate needed to maintain population year after year. And its freefall continues.

“Wishing you sweet love and marriage at an appropriate age – let’s extend the Chinese bloodline.” - Chinese Communist Party automated greeting to youth

Last year there were only 3.6 million births in the U.S... That’s a fertility rate of 1.7, below the replacement rate of 2.1. And in 2020 there were 620,327 abortions. We must return to God’s design for marriage and family.

Matthew 2:13-23 (ESV). 
(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.” (16) When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. (17) Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled:
(18)
“A voice is heard in Ramah,
    weeping and great mourning,
Rachel weeping for her children
    and refusing to be comforted,
    because they are no more.”
(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, that he would be called a Nazarene.

The preservation of the "new" Moses through human action - V. 13-15

We also see Matthew’s gospel laid out in a way that emphasizes how Jesus is like Israel’s great leader Moses, yet far greater. As Matthew faithfully records the life of Christ on Earth, we see numerous parallels with the life of Moses.

The wise men practiced civil disobedience and refused to help Herod kill Jesus. They remind me of the wise women in Moses' day – the midwives who protected life’s potential by sparing Hebrew babies, defying Pharaoh’s order to kill them. Wise men and women still act to protect life’s potential today.

Hebrews 13:1 tells me that the times I have been hospitable to strangers, I may have very well been talking with an angel. Hebrews 1:14 also says that angels are ministering spirits sent to serve and protect those who will be saved.

God providentially uses angelic and human activity to protect life’s potential; trust God that angels are doing their part, and you do yours like Joseph & Mary!

Remember that another Joseph had been responsible for bringing the children of Israel to safety in Egypt! And as Moses had brought them out, Jesus would lead an even greater exodus from sin for all who believe!

The attempts to destroy life through evil human activity - V. 16-18

A thief comes to kill, steal, and destroy; but I have come that they might have life, and have it more abundantly. - John 10:10

It makes me admire all the more the Hebrew midwives, Shiphrah and Puah, who acted to let the babies live in their days, despite what Pharoah might do to them. They chose to protect life, whereas Herod’s soldiers chose death.

From her grave, Rachel (one of Israel’s “mothers”) had “witnessed” and “wept” as Jewish refugees were marched 400 miles to Babylonian captivity (Jer. 31:15). Now she “wept” as murderers walked over her grave with blood on their hands.

The continued protection of life’s potential - V. 19-23

So common sense led Joseph to be appropriately afraid for Jesus and want to protect him. And because he was a man of God, God continued to lead him as he did his job as Jesus’ earthly father.

Isaiah 9:1 had prophesied that Galilee would experience the Messiah. And Jesus grew up personally identifying with the obscure and overlooked city of Nazareth. He will identify with you as well, no matter how overlooked you feel.