Matthew 2:13-23
So what happened next? If someone asked you to summarize the Christmas story you could probably get most of the major parts. There were angels, announcements, a census, a virgin birth, a manger, shepherds and wise men. Those are the most famous parts of the Christmas story from the Bible. We see them pictured in Advent Calendars, Christmas displays and Christmas cards. But could you answer the question what actually happened to Joseph, Mary and Jesus after the wise men left?
It would be possible for the story to jump ahead about 30 years with no problem. The wise men worship the Christ child. The next thing we know, we’ve fast forwarded to John the Baptist announcing the coming of the Promised One. But Matthew wrote to a specific people that asked or faced questions about Jesus. One was where did Jesus get the power to perform all these signs? Few disputed that Jesus actually did do the miracles. But how did He do them and by what power. The 1st century rabbis believed that nine tenths of the magic in the world came from Egypt. Apparently Jesus had spent time in Egypt. So did he learn the magic arts from the Egyptian magicians? It was also well known that Jesus came from Nazareth. But the Messiah had to come from Bethlehem. So why didn’t Jesus grow up in Bethlehem? Through the next paragraphs in Matthew’s gospel, Matthew will answer these questions. But he will do much more. He will use this opportunity to demonstrate the arrival of something the Jews anticipated for centuries.
So as we travel through this passage, I want you to see 3 profound truths about Jesus that Matthew unveils for us. In each of them, we will see how God works on behalf of His people and continues to work this way in our lives today. We will then discover what arrived that the people longed after for centuries. And finally we will consider how we can live today in that which arrived with the coming of Jesus.
