There and Back Again

Transcript

This transcript was generated automatically from the audio and may contain small errors.

Good morning, South Burleson. It's good to be back with you guys. Man, it's been a year. I've been here five times today. This is my fifth time here. So thank you guys so much for having me. Drew, thank you so much for the opportunities. It really is a joy to worship with you guys. I do need to make a clarification from the last time I was here in October. I did let you guys know that I picked up a new hobby, a new affinity for barbecue. My wife got me a pellet grill over the summer, and I let you guys know that morning that I have enjoyed smoking meat.

But I guess I woke some of you up that day because you thought I said I was smoking weed. I just need you to know that's not what I said. That's not what I do. I've never done that and I just wanted to put that to bed in case you were wondering why did Drew invite the weed guy back. That is not the case. Hopefully that is all cleared up. But in all seriousness, I am excited to be here today to continue and to conclude the series that you've been in, The Coming King, as we look at Christmas in Matthew. And we're going to be in Matthew chapter 2, verses 12 through 23 today, if you'd like to go ahead and turn there. We're going to be looking at the sovereignty of God. And we're going to be looking at how God's sovereignty redeems our suffering. And just a quick overview, just where we're going, is we're looking at Joseph and Mary as they take Jesus from Bethlehem to Egypt

and back to Nazareth. That all happens in the span of these 10 verses. And so I have, I think, aptly called my sermon, there and back again. And for this journey that they went on, it happened very quickly. It happened overnight. They had to leave very suddenly. And so I think for Joseph and his family it was quite an unexpected journey. And if you're not catching on, I have been heavily influenced by The Hobbit. I enjoy that book, that movie. It is great to me. But I think there's a lot of parallels that's happening or there's some things that we can learn from what Bilbo Baggins, the Hobbit, goes through. Now if you're unfamiliar with the Hobbit, it is a fantastical story written by J. R. R. Tolkien that follows the story of Bilbo Baggins, who is a Hobbit. Hobbits are creatures who covet stillness and quiet and relaxation, and so you can imagine the story that

ensues when a, I'm sorry, and Bilbo is the epitome of that. He's not only resistant to excitement he's somewhat offended by it. And so you can imagine the story that ensues when this old gray wizard named Gandalf shows up and invites 13 unruly dirty dwarves into his home to take him on an unexpected journey on an adventure. Over the course of an evening Bilbo's life is turned upside down. Now here's the thing is that Bilbo would go on this journey and it would involve him escaping death more than once. He would take on goblins and elves and spiders and he would travel to a mountain that is housing a fire-breathing dragon and he'd be tasked with stealing a gem from that dragon in order to restore a king and to prevent a war. This little person in Bilbo Baggins would be tasked with all that and Gandalf knew that Bilbo was capable of taking on this journey whether Bilbo believed it or not.

But here's the thing, Gandalf didn't let Bilbo know all of the things that would be coming before him, all the risks that he would have to take on this journey. If he did, I'm pretty sure Bilbo would have said, absolutely not. Right? But he gives him enough of a hook, enough of a taste of adventure that Bilbo reluctantly agrees to go on this journey. And like I said, his life is forever changed. But I think that is how the Lord operates in our lives, isn't it? whenever he calls us to something or whenever he leads us through something, we might get a glimpse of what's to come, but we don't get the whole picture. Because if we did, we might not go through with it. Or if it's good things coming our way, we might try to circumvent the Lord's plans and get there faster than he's meaning for us to. We might take things into our own, matters into our own hands.

And for me, what comes up is in my life, where I experienced this is the passing of my dad. My dad passed away when I was 21. It was February of 2012, and so it's been almost 11 years now. And it was sudden, it was unexpected, and it was surreal. In fact, I think sometimes it is still surreal. See, my dad and I didn't have the closest of relationships back then, and so when he passed away in the coming weeks and months after that, Not much felt like it changed because I wasn't seeing him very regularly anyway, and so I'd have to remind myself that he was gone. And sometimes, like I said, I still do. But in those hard days and weeks and months following his passing, I was heartbroken, even though our relationship was distant. I still missed my dad. And what helped me get through that difficult time was standing on the fact that even though it was a surprise to me, it wasn't a surprise

to God, that God was aware that this was going to happen in my life and I trust God and so God is going to take care of me even though I don't know why this is happening. I stood on the sovereignty of God and I definitely learned some things through that event, through his passing and I'm still learning things especially now that I've entered into parenthood as a dad myself, but what I took away from it in whole was that through God's sovereignty he redeemed my suffering. But I mean obviously we would I think like to have a blueprint of God's plans for our lives, right? It would be nice if we could have a heads up when things are about to happen. If I would have been able to have a heads up with my dad's passing, I probably would have done things a little bit differently. I don't know how that would have changed things, but I would have tried. Or when we have, like I said, good things coming our way, we might try to circumvent

God's plans, we might try to take shortcuts and do things on our own and stop relying on God. And I honestly think if we were able to know God's plans ahead of time, that would probably be too much to bear. It would probably be too much to know all the difficult things that were coming our way. It would probably be crippling to know the things that we might not be able to avoid. And again, we might miss out on all the growth that God has for us if we try to circumvent and take shortcuts. So for me, I like to think that hindsight is 2020, or I like to rely on the fact that hindsight is 2020. Now we can look back at previous situations where we were having a difficult time and it felt like God was not present or God was distant.

But when you look back, when we're out of it, and we can see more clearly where God was and how he was operating in that time, and that he was there with us. And that gives us context for the next difficult time that we enter into, that we can think back and remember of how he was there back then. That means he is with us now, even if we can't feel him, that he's not absent, but he is active in our lives, that he plays the role of a good father when we need him. It plays the role of a good friend in Jesus when we need that, the role of a wonderful counselor in the Holy Spirit when we need that. So the next time that we face a death or a loss of a relationship or maybe an addiction is overwhelming or whatever next hardship we face because life is just hard. We can remember that God is active. He is working. And even though evil has been unleashed on this world through sin, God's sovereignty

is redeeming our suffering. So as I mentioned today, we are going to be in Matthew chapter two verses thirteen through twenty-three. And just a little bit of context, because it kind of starts off rocking and rolling. I feel like we need a little buy-in to get there. So if you remember the first half of chapter two, Jesus has already been born. In the Magi, the wise men, they have received revelation from the Lord that this is happening, they want to go and lavish him with gifts. Unfortunately, they make a pit stop by Herod's palace on the way to see if he knows where Jesus is at. Herod gives him a direction, but a seed of fear is planted in Herod's heart. And so this fear causes him to kind of come up with a devious plan because if there's this new king coming, then what does that mean for me as king and my line that's after me who's supposed to be king, I

need to get rid of this king of the Jews that's coming. And so he tells the wise men, hey I want to worship him too so why don't you go find him he's somewhere around Bethlehem you come back and tell me where he's at and I'll go pay my respects as well, wink wink. And so when the madre go and they display their gifts and thankfully the Lord reveals to them that Herod has evil intent and to not go back to him and so they don't and that's where we pick up here in chapter I'm sorry in verse 13 so let's read that together 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. What I want us to point out right here real quick is that God is acting ahead of time. He is making moves before Herod ever does anything. We pick up back in verse 14. So he got up, took

the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt where they stayed until the death of Herod. This was a very quick journey. They had to leave overnight. They had to leave everything behind. It would take days or weeks, They were drawing my foot, it was far away, they had a long way to go so they had to get moving. And so they escaped to Egypt, in verse 16, where he stand to the death of Herod, and so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet, out of Egypt I called my son. And we'll see in this passage how Matthew is making a lot of parallels to Old Testament happenings. I think he's doing this because as we turn the page in history, as Jesus arrives on the scene and history is getting a new page started. Matthew wants to look back and see how the people of God had hardships to go through, but Jesus is here making things new even though things might be, it might feel like

history is repeating itself. So in verse 16, when Herod realized that he'd been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious. Remember, the seed of fear was planted in Herod's heart, and the enemy took that fear and he twisted it and it turned it into anger. And I don't know about you, but when my fear is irrationalized and turned into anger, I do irrational things. I don't think clearly. I act out. That's exactly what Herod did here. It says, he was furious and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem in its vicinity who were two years old and under in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. Then what was said to the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled, a voice is heard in Rama weeping and great mourning Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted because they are no more." That is a reference to the Jewish people being sent into exile to Babylon. For Matthew

He's showing us the same gravity there. But in any case, this is a difficult passage. We can look at it and ask, it's great that, we can look at it and see that Mary and Joseph and Jesus got out, but we have to ask, what about the other children who didn't, who were subject to the evil that Herod committed? Where was God? And that is a question for the ages. I don't know if we'll ever know why evil is permitted. I do know this, that the enemy is granted some semblance of legal right to express and exercise evil in this world. First John 519 says, we know that we are the children of God and the whole world is under the control of the evil one. So he has the ability to express and exercise evil and he definitely takes advantage of that privilege. However, church, I want to tell you that his authority is false. His title is temporary, and his power is conditional.

It's because the king who is coming, the king is coming to reclaim, the king is coming to restore, and the king is coming to redeem. He's coming to take what the enemy twisted and broke, and he's coming to make it right. And that's for creation, and that's for you and me. And I want to tell you that today that the King who is coming, his authority is true. His title is eternal, and his power is limitless. The enemy doesn't stand a chance. It's not going to last. So again, we don't know why evil is permitted. But when we are facing it, when we are experiencing it, we can stand on the fact that God's sovereignty is always in control and God's sovereignty is working to redeem us from our suffering. So you might be asking me how how is God's sovereignty redeeming our suffering? Well I want to give you three truths that we can remember on how God's sovereignty is working to redeem our suffering. So truth

number one God's sovereignty is strategic. See there are many ways that the enemy expresses his foe authority, his false authority. It's an illusion of control. And if we lose sight of how God is working and what God is doing in our lives, we can believe that he is in control. We can get lost in that. We can lose hope. But God is like a chess grandmaster. He is always 10 steps ahead of the enemy. He is working before he does. He knows what his moves are and he gets ahead of him. And we see that here in this passage. Like I told you, the Lord was revealing to Joseph what was going to be happening before Herod ever decided to have any decree that any children should die. And so he got them out of town. And it had to happen fast, but he got them out. He also sent the Magi, the wise men, and I think we like to often poke fun at the gifts that they brought, right? Gold, frankincense and myrrh, like those aren't on any baby

registries that I know. Maybe gold, I think you'd be okay if you brought me gold, but the other two things, there are other things that are higher on the priority list, right? But God, being the chess grandmaster that he is, Joseph and Mary, they had to leave very quickly overnight. They had to leave all their possessions behind. They were only able to take with them what they could carry, and And guess what gold, frankincense, and myrrh are? They're small and portable. And they'd be going to Egypt, which again, this is a part of God's strategic plan. He could have sent them anywhere, but he sent them to Egypt, where there is a Jewish presence at this time. And so they're able to go and have some community around them. And thankfully it's outside of Israel's jurisdiction. So Herod's reach doesn't extend to Egypt. And so they're able to be safe there, even though they are refugees and fugitives.

But they get there without any money, without any possessions, and so now they have these small portable gifts that are highly valuable for trade. Maybe it wasn't so funny after all that they got these gifts. They were able to set up in Egypt and have some semblance of a life there while they were waiting to return. So it was not an easy time for this young family, for Mary and Joseph and Jesus. But God's sovereignty was redeeming them from their suffering. And God's sovereignty is redeeming us from ours. And it might involve, as we follow His lead, as we follow His word, as we go along with His plan, it might cause some discomfort. It might involve loss, but we need to remember, we must remember that God is in control. So that's truth number one, that God's sovereignty is strategic. Truth number two, God's sovereignty is sufficient. So it's great that Joseph and Mary and Jesus were able to get out of Egypt before Herod's

decree. But what about those children? What about their families? What about the tragedy that they experienced? Where was God for them? And I don't know if you resonate with that at all. If you've ever been in a situation where you felt like, why am I over here suffering when others are doing well? It's hard to feel like you are barely surviving when it looks like others are thriving. And we can think that God has forgotten about us. That we are on our own. But I think what Matthew is doing here, why he's telling us about this horrible event in history is he's juxtaposing it with the life of Jesus. in this turning of the page in history, and he's showing us that in the midst of our suffering, the king is coming. And thinking about this truth, I was brought to Isaiah chapter 25, verses eight through nine, which says this, he will swallow up death forever. The sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces.

He will remove his people's disgrace from all the earth. The Lord has spoken. In that day they will say, surely this is our God. We trusted in Him and He saved us. This is the Lord. We trusted in Him. Let us rejoice and be glad in His salvation. What I wanna point out here is that their hope and the salvation that is coming, the tears that are wiped away, the death that has swallowed up, the disgrace that is removed, that is future tense.

It hasn't happened yet. But they know that it will and they are assured in that. They have hope in that. And now one day they will stand before God and they will have their tears wiped away. They will have joy in their salvation. And it's all because of this coming King. And the coming King shows that God's sovereignty is sufficient. We may not experience immediate relief from our suffering or even eventual, we might have to endure things until we are standing before the Lord. But it's His sovereignty and the redeeming our suffering and being sufficient that we are able to endure, that we are able to have joy despite our circumstances. And people look at us like we're crazy, but that's the power of Jesus. Jesus is enough. His sovereignty is enough. And church, but I wanna tell you, God sees you in your suffering. He hasn't forgotten about you. He feels your pain.

He knows your grief. He sees you and he cares about you. And he is working to redeem you always. All right, truth number three. God's sovereignty is steadfast. So to get to this truth, we need to go back to Matthew chapter two and finish the chapter. So we're gonna be 19 through 23 here. which says, After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, Get up, take the child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel. For those who are trying to take the child's life are dead. So he got up, took the child and his mother, and went to the land of Israel. But when he heard that, Arcalus 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 and went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets that he would be called a Nazarene. Again, it's easy here to go

back to truth number one and see that God's sovereignty is strategic. Again, and he's going before things have happened and he's letting Joseph know where to go and where to avoid so that they stay as safe as possible, so they avoid danger. But what I want us to focus on here, what I want us to pick up on, is that God did not forget about Joseph and Mary. And you might be saying, duh, they're the parents of the Son of God. God's not gonna forget about his son about the people he put in charge of him, but put yourself in Joseph and Mary's shoes. Here in Scripture, we don't see any word from the Lord between when they are told to go and when they are told to return. Their time in Egypt is sort of radio silence, and they were there for about three years. And that might not seem like a long time, and for us when we read Scripture, it happens within a sentence.

But I want us to put ourselves in that context. In fact, let's think about what was happening for us three years ago. This little thing called COVID came about. We entered into a pandemic. And the beginning of that time, the first few weeks were kind of, you know, things were kind of new. We were all being creative from home. And most of the country was kind of rallying together and trying to get through this together. But then think about summer and fall of 2020. I know we don't like to think about that time. That was a horrible time. The world was on fire. The country was at each other's throats. It was not a good time. Now imagine, now thankfully we are on the other side of this. Now COVID is still around and it's causing a lot of inconveniences and it's still here. But we are returning to a semblance of what life was like before COVID. But imagine if life was still like the summer

and fall of 2020 right now, three years later. would we still have the same level of faith and trust in God that God is sovereign in doing what, He's on our side and working for us? I think a lot of us would say yes, but I wonder if we were in a place of despair for three years, or not necessarily despair, but if we were in uncomfortable positions for three years, would we still have the same level of trust in God? And I have to imagine that Joseph and Mary were wondering about this. A year in, a year and a half, two years in, what were they thinking? Would they ever go back? They're not hearing anything. And all of a sudden, the voice of God comes back and tells them it's time to go. Showing that he did not forget about him, even though that maybe they didn't hear from him or they weren't feeling him. He was there, he was thinking about him. His sovereignty is steadfast.

His sovereignty is unwavering, and it's not dependent upon whether or not we believe in it or agree with it, but God is working for us to redeem our suffering always. And thankfully we have scripture. Scripture is a good reminder that we can lean on it. We can look at stories like Mary and Joseph and others like it and see that God doesn't forget about his people. And as readers of their story, we are afforded the same redemption from our suffering. For Mary and Joseph, in those in their lifetime, they were waiting on a coming king to flip the social order on its head to change the world. And he came and he did, not in the way they were expecting necessarily, but he did. And we, in our day, we are waiting on the Lord Jesus, the coming king, who will arrive triumphant over the enemy and over evil in this world once and for all. He will wipe away every tear.

Our suffering will end and we will stand before Him whole and redeemed. And it's all because the God of the universe. Our good, good Father sent His Son to be one of us, to live a perfect life and die in our place so that we might have a relationship with Him, and it's all a part of God's strategic, sufficient, and steadfast sovereignty to redeem our suffering. And this is why we celebrate Christmas. This is what next week is all about, this coming King who will come to redeem us all through his sovereignty. And as I close today I want to think back again to Bilbo.

Bilbo Baggins from the Hobbit. I don't think he would have gone on the journey that he went on had he known the full picture, but we see the growth that he had over time. that he again that what we get to see in him what Gandalf saw in him before he sent him on the journey and one of the most perilous moments on his adventure when he is facing death he's lost from his party there's a enemy after him he says this go back he thought no good at all go sideways impossible go forward It's the only thing to do. On we go. See, our suffering can be immense. It can be overwhelming. It can be crippling. Pushing forward may seem impossible, but with the assurance of God's sovereignty, the assurance of the coming King, we can push forward. We can have joy because his sovereignty is redeeming our suffering. in church if you don't know Jesus today. If you are unsure of why His sovereignty

is such a good and hopeful and joyful thing, and I want to encourage you to have a conversation with a trusted one before you leave here today. Drew will be up here at the front, I will be up here, but if you have a next step that you want to take, you need to take, whether in the church or in your faith, I want to challenge you not to leave here today before you take that next step. South Burleson, thank you so much for having me this year. It really has been a joy. I feel like I just, you're almost a second family by now. It's been great. Let me pray for you guys and we will continue with worship as we close. Lord, thank you so much for your sovereignty. you for being in control that when all seems bleak, when all seems lost, that we can stand on the assurance that you are coming. You came once as a baby and you lived a perfect life and you died on a cross for our sins and you rose again

three days later to defeat death and stand next to your father so that when we stand before you, that he doesn't look on us with judgment but he sees you standing in our place, that we can enter in unashamed. So Lord we eagerly await your next arrival. That when you reclaim and restore and redeem this world back to Eden, it will be a glorious glorious day. But in the meantime Lord help us to remember that when things aren't going our way, when we feel like we want to control everything going on in our lives that we need to let go and lean on you and know that you are in control, that your sovereignty is strategic and sufficient and steadfast. Thank you Jesus for coming and being born and doing what you did for us.