ANNOUNCEMENTS / FULFILLMENTS

SEPTEMBER 21-27, 2009 MONDAY-SUNDAY SCRIPTURE MATTHEW 2

TEXT http://www.biblica.com/bible/verse/index.php?q=matthew2&niv=yes

PARAPHRASE

“Messianic Star”

Wise men from the east, come to Jerusalem after Jesus is born in Bethlehem during the reign of King Herod. Having seen the star signifying his birth in the east, they follow it so they can come to worship him. However, when Herod hears about this, it troubles him, as well as the rest of Jerusalem when the news spreads of why the Wise Men have traveled so far and what has guided them. Herod asks the religious leaders where the Messiah is prophesied to be born and is told the Prophet Micah’s words about Bethlehem, “…for out of you will come a ruler who will be a shepherd of my people Israel”, clearly indicates where the Messiah will be born. Under false pretense, Herod holds a private meeting with the Wise Men to find out when they had first seen the star announcing the Messiah’s birth before sending them on their way to Bethlehem to find the child, telling them to report back to him as soon as they find him so he too can go and worship him. Leaving for Bethlehem, the Wise Men continue following the star from the east until it leads them to where they find the child with his mother, Mary – which fills them with joy and leads them to bow down in worship and offer their treasures of gold, incense and myrrh. Then, having been warned in a dream not to report back to Herod as instructed to, they return to their country by a different route that bypasses Jerusalem.

“Exodus & Exile”

After the Wise Men leave, an angel appears in Joseph’s dream telling him he needs to take his family to Egypt to keep Jesus safe from Herod who is coming to kill him. Joseph leaves for Egypt with his family immediately during the night and stays there until Herod dies. Thus, Hosea’s prophesy, “Out of Egypt I called my son.”, about the nation of Israel as God’s son, being called out of Egypt in the Exodus, is now being fulfilled as God prepares to call His Son (as the son of Abraham and the son of David, a descendent of Israel) out of Egypt as the Messiah.

Enraged when he discovers he has been outsmarted by the Wise Men who have returned to their country by a different route, Herod orders the murder of every boy two years old and younger in and around Bethlehem based on the time he learned the Wise Men had first seen the star announcing the Messiah’s birth. Herod’s slaughter of these boys fulfills Jeremiah’s prophesy:

“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.”,

in that the tears that began during the Exile during Jeremiah’s day have climaxed and ended with the tears of the mother’s in Bethlehem because the heir to David’s throne, the Messiah, the Son of God has come and with this, the Exile is now finally over.

“Despicable”

When Herod dies, an angel appears in another of Joseph’s dreams while still in Egypt, telling him it is now safe to return to Israel with his family because those who were trying to kill Jesus are now dead. Traveling back to Israel with his family, Joseph, hearing Herod’s son is now the king reigning in Judea is afraid to return there, but after being warned in yet another dream goes to the district of Galilee instead settling in the town he and Mary were from - Nazareth. This fulfills several Old Testament prophesies that foretell how the Messiah will be despised in that a “Nazarene” is someone “from Nazareth” - a place considered despicable even to other Galileans.

PRINCIPLES

Matthew tells his first century readers (as he does us today) that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God.

How does Matthew tell his first century readers (and us today) that Jesus is the
Messiah, the Son of God?

-through a star in the east announcing the Messiah’s birth

-through fulfillment of Micah’s prophecy that the Messiah will be born in Bethlehem

-through fulfillment of Hosea’s prophecy by God calling of His Son, the Messiah out of Egypt

-through fulfillment of Jeremiah’s prophecy that the tears that began with the Exile will end in Bethlehem with Herod’s slaughter of baby boys with the coming of the Messiah, the Son of God

-through fulfillment of many prophecies that the Messiah will be despised

PRAYER

Our Father, We praise You for how You announced Your Son’s birth to the world – by a cosmic event that guided Wise Men from the east to Bethlehem to bow down, worship Him and present Him with their treasures even as a baby. We thank You that Your Holy Spirit is our eternal connection to Your Son and we pray that Your Holy Spirit as Our Counselor will be our guide as well and help us to stay in Your Will and walk in Your Ways so that we worship You with all of our being and in all that we do. We ask that Your Holy Spirit use us as guides to point others to Your Son. We ask that the lives that we live will be lives of light rather than darkness in this world and in this way reflect the light Your Son brought into this world onto others so that they will come to know Him as their Messiah.

Our Father, We thank You for all the prophecies that were fulfilled by the birth and life of Your Son and how the fulfillment of these prophecies provides assurance of who He is and from Whom He came. We thank You for calling Your Son out of Egypt, the place You Liberated Your people, to be our Messiah, to be our Liberator, to be our Savior. We thank You for liberating Your people from the oppression of their slavery in Egypt and we thank You for Liberating us in this world and eternally from the oppression of our Sin. We thank You for providing us the Messiah, the Liberator, the Savior who has made it possible to come back from Exile from You, who has made it possible to be reconciled to You, to have our relationship with You restored, to be redeemed from our Sin which caused us to be in Exile in the first place.

Our Father, We praise You for the Liberation we have through faith in Your Son who died and was resurrected giving us life and victory over a Sinful nature we are otherwise unable to do anything about. But we acknowledge we also need Your forgiveness each day for the sinful acts that we continue to commit because of the contaminating effects our Sinful nature has left in us. We ask You to help us grow in Your righteousness through Your Word, prayer, communion with others, through compassionate works, and through not pretending in this life but by being real in our relationships with others so that we do not sin by putting up false fronts or by trying to protect ourselves by doing things we don’t need to do because of past distortions in how we think and feel about ourselves. Help us to see ourselves clearly through Your Son, not through the lens of the past and not through the lens of this world.

Our Father, We thank You for Your Son taking upon Him our Sin. We thank Your Son for suffering in all the ways He did including accepting being despised by the world in the way He did. Help us to understand and accept that we too as disciples of Your Son will also suffer at times for our faith and be despised at times by others. We ask Your Holy Spirit to give us the power and strength we need to stand firm during these times. We ask that the way we respond to suffering and persecution be a witness to You Son and the Good News that He has come, the tears of Exile have ended, that the time for Liberation is now.

We pray all of this in the Name of Your Son, Jesus the Messiah, Amen.

PRAISE Listening to 'God with Us - The Magi' by Todd Agnew @imeem http://x.imeem.com/kutK2Bt8q-