Hello and welcome
to this message from Pastor Skip Heitzig
of Calvary Albuquerque. We pray that God uses this
time to strengthen your faith. If he does, we'd love
to hear about it. Email us at
mystory@calvaryabq.org. And if you'd like to support
this ministry financially, you can give online securely
at calvaryabq.org/give. Very few details from
Jesus's childhood are mentioned in the Bible. But as we continue this
series "Against All Odds," we learn about three events
from Jesus' youth that fulfill prophetic scripture. Now, please open your Bible
to Matthew chapter 2 as Skip begins the message
"Messiah on the Run." [MUSIC PLAYING] Father, you know the
end from the beginning. We have seen that. We've established that fact. You have shown yourself
time and time again, through the teaching
of your word, that you know what people think. You know what's going to happen. You call it before it
happens so that when it does, we can stop right there
and realize that we're dealing with the God of
eternity who can see the plan, establish the plan, and then
make us a part of your plan. Father, I pray that you
will comfort hearts. Lord, you know the end
from the beginning, so you know what's
going to happen to us this afternoon, tomorrow,
in a month, in a year, and we can just rest in that? Because not only do all things,
you care so deeply for us. And we commit this
time to you, Lord. We pray that we
would be instructed and that in what we
learn, we would rejoice and we would honor
you with our lives. In Jesus' name, Amen. I distinctly remember
being a little kid. And I got cut by grabbing
some rusty metal. And I was taken to the hospital. My mom told the doctor. The doctor said, he's going
to need a tetanus shot. And so what I remember
is how much I cried like a little baby, saying, no. And what I was saying
no to-- and I'd already been cut by metal-- but just
the thought of getting a needle stuck in me. That's how kids think. It's like too much. Their whole world
is coming to an end. I remember standing in the
hospital saying no, no, no. My mom saying, too late. My mom was a nurse. And she was very
handy with a needle. And in the midst
of my wailing, she had already injected the needle
in my arm, giving me the shot. It was done. And I didn't even know it. But how foolish is it to reject
a cure when that cure cant fix whatever condition you have? I was reading a blog this
week about a couple who had traveled to the Philippines. And there's one little
island in the Philippines that still treats leprosy,
the disease of leprosy. And they do it by a
multi-drug therapy. They give a pill. And they give medicine
over a period of time that eradicates the disease. So there is a clinic. And this couple noticed
patients were lined up inside this clinic to
receive their drug therapy. But they said what is unusual,
is that at the end of the line, they're given the medicine. And before they
walk out the door, there is a doctor
there who makes the patient open
his or her mouth to make sure they
swallowed the pill. Because they discovered,
a lot of patients will be given the medicine,
put it in their mouth, and as soon as they get out the
clinic door, they spit it out. And you would say, why
would they want to do that? Because they want to
remain with their disease. And the reason being
is because they are professional solicitors. They have gotten money. Locally and internationally,
pours into the post office money to help these families. And they know when the
disease ends, the money ends. So they would rather
have their disease and not be cured because
of the financial benefits. Reports have even come that they
will expose their children so that their children will
get the disease in order to make sure there is perpetuity
in that financial benefit. Can you imagine wanting
to hold onto a disease rather than be cured
of that disease? But that is what
happens all the time in a spiritual way when it
comes to the salvation of souls. Jesus Christ is the
cure for what ails you. But so many people
will reject him and rather stay in their
disease and hold on to their sinful lifestyle
rather than be cured. When Jesus came, the Bible
tells us, he came to his own. And his own received him not. They didn't want the cure. What's astonishing is how
early on this is manifest. From Jesus' childhood, he
begins to be rejected already. And that's what we're going to
look at in Matthew chapter 12. We're going to begin in
verse 13 and read down. But we're getting
here some insight into the early life of Jesus. Now, if you have read
the New Testament, you know that very little is
written about Jesus' early life as a child. Luke has like one or two verses
that tell us that he grew up. And he grew in
stature and wisdom. And then he tells
us the story how when Jesus was 12
years old, he's in Jerusalem for
his bar mitzvah, and Jesus' mother, Mary,
finds him sitting around the scholars who are
astonished at his wisdom and his understanding. But other than that,
nothing is written. And there's a reason for that. That is not the focus of
the New Testament writers because that is not really the
focus of God's redemptive plan. Jesus' childhood,
though it's part of the plan, the
focus of the plan is the three years
of his adult ministry as he goes to the cross, dies,
is buried, and then raised. Because that is
where salvation is. That is where the power is. And so that is where
the emphasis lies. However, Matthew does
give us, not detail, but some general events. And these events are tied to
places where Jesus, as a child, lived and moved
and then settled. So he goes from Bethlehem
and then from Bethlehem, down to Egypt. Then from Egypt, he
goes up to Nazareth. And so we're going to look at
this because Matthew thinks that what he is establishing are
the credentials of the Messiah, the credentials that Jesus
is the long-awaited Messiah. So he begins by giving us his
genealogical record, showing us that he is of the seed of
Abraham, of the tribe of Judah, of the royal lineage
of King David. He then establishes the
fact that Isaiah predicted he be born of a virgin,
that Micah predicted he would be born in Bethlehem,
all fulfilling prophecy, all laying out his credential. But he continues here in
verse 13 of Matthew chapter 2 about other prophets and other
predictions that were given that he fulfilled as a child. Now, here's what I'd like you
to notice as we go through this. And I'll bring it up. There is an
undercurrent going on. There's something
going on that is the grand theme
of the flow of all of these prophetic scriptures. And that is the earthly
response to the heavenly plan. "For God so loved
the world that he gave his only begotten son"--
that's the heavenly plan. But we're already starting
to see the response of people on Earth to God's plan. And I've got to tell
you, it's not good. It's not a good response. You have people already
spitting out the medicine before Jesus can even
come of age to deliver it. So we begin with a
fugitive Messiah. Verse 13, "When
they had departed, behold an angel of the
Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream saying, arise. Take the child and his
mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until
I bring you word. For Herod will seek the
young child to destroy him. When he arose, he took the young
child and his mother by night and departed for Egypt. And was there until
the death of Herod that it might be
fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the
prophets saying, out of Egypt I have called my son." So we're dealing with the magi. The magi came, asked Herod
were the King of the Jews was going to be born. Herod didn't like that. He was troubled because of it. The wise men leave
Herod's presence, go to Bethlehem
a few miles away, find Jesus, go inside the
house, give him, literally, gifts fit for a King-- gold,
frankincense, and myrrh-- and they worship him. So right off the bat, as
soon as Jesus is born, we see Gentiles worshipping him
but his own nation rejecting him. Those very Jewish
scribes who knew the Messiah was going to be
born in Bethlehem according to Micah's prophecy,
they don't even go to Bethlehem to find
out, let alone worship him. These magi, these
Persian kingmakers, have traveled hundreds
of miles to not only find the King of the
Jews, but to worship him. So an angel brings word to them,
says you guys, get out of town. Get out of dodge,
go back home, flee. And then also you'll
notice the dream to Joseph in verse 13, "Arise. Take the the young child and
his mother and flee to Egypt." The word flee is the
word fugo in Greek. Fugo is where we get
our word fugitive. He's going to be a fugitive. Y'all are going to be
a fugitive in Egypt. You're going to run. You're going to flee. You're going to escape. Now, why are they
told to go to Egypt? I mean, Galilee is
closer up north. Why not go east to Edom? Or why not go follow
the Magi to where they're going to go because
they could be protected by them? For that matter,
why not go to Joppa? That's the beach, man. You can surf in Joppa. It's good weather in Joppa. Why go to Egypt? Egypt is 75 miles
away from Bethlehem. That's just the border of Egypt. It's another 100 miles to get to
any meaningful population base. Why Egypt? It's because they're
about to fulfill prophecy. Joseph doesn't know this. He just goes as the
angel directs him. But it's all to
fulfill prophecies spoken in the book of Hosea,
"Out of Egypt I called my son." Now, just a little
bit of background. Joseph and Mary and
Jesus would have found an enormous Jewish
population in Egypt at the time. About a million Jews were
already living there. And that is because there
had been several wars that created refugees. And between the Old
and the New Testament, that intertestamental period,
during the Maccabean revolts, which now you know about
because we've told you about the Maccabean revolt
against the Syrians, because of those wars, thousands
upon thousands upon thousands of people for year after year
after year, fled down to Egypt. So there is a refugee
population of over a million at this time-- Jewish people. We also know that
Alexander the Great, who once conquered the
world, established a city in Egypt named after himself-- because he was so
modest and humble-- called Alexandria, Egypt. And he apportioned
a part of that city for a Jewish population. So there were already a group
of people, an infrastructure, waiting for Joseph
and Mary and Jesus. So we don't know how long-- months, a couple of years-- Jesus started to
grow up in Egypt. Now, we don't know
anything about what happened during those years. Those are silent years. Although, there are
documents out there, there are spurious documents,
there are unreliable documents, that give you
all sorts of weird stories about Jesus growing up in Egypt. They're called gnostic
sources or gnostic gospels. The Gospel of Thomas
is one of them. And in that fictitious
document, there are stories of the
boy Jesus raising fish from the dead, resurrecting
fish so they come back alive and putting them
back in the water. Or Jesus making birds out of
clay and then breathing on them and they flew away. All sorts of weird stories. They're not true. They're made up. But people have recognized
these are silent years. So they're trying to
fill in the blanks. Now, you'll notice in verse
15 that he quotes the prophet. This is the prophet Hosea. "Out of Egypt I called my son." That's the original prophecy. If you were just reading
through the book of Hosea and you came to chapter 11
verse 1 where this is found, you would stop, having
read what we just read, and you would say,
well, that doesn't sound like it has anything
at all to do with Jesus. In fact, it sounds like
it has to do everything with Israel as a people. And you would be right. Listen to the prophecy. "When Israel was a
child, I loved him. And out of Egypt
I called my son." So what son is God
referring to in Hosea 11:1? Israel, not Jesus. And he's looking back. Hosea is looking
back to when they were under pharaoh's
bondage for 400 years before God delivered them
in the exodus out of Egypt and gave them the promised land. So what does that
have to do with Jesus? This is what we call
typical prophesy or typological prophecy--
typical predictive prophecy. When Matthew talks about
Jesus being born in Bethlehem, which we have already
covered, that's a direct verbal prophecy. This is something different. It is called typical
predictive prophecy. And that just means
that there are types of Jesus in the
Old Testament that are seen in the New. One of the most famous
examples is the Passover lamb. The Passover lamb-- every time
a Passover lamb was killed, it speaks of Jesus because we're
told that in the New Testament. Another type is the
serpent on the pole that Moses held up
in the wilderness. And we know that's a
type because Jesus said, as Moses lifted up the
serpent in the wilderness, so the Son of Man will
also be lifted up, speaking of his cross. So that is a type. That is typical
predictive prophecy. Now, the book of Hosea is
one of the most amazing well-loved stories
in all of the Bible. Hosea was a prophet who
married a girl named Gomer. Yeah, you know
you're going to have trouble when the guy marries
a girl and her name is Gomer, right? That's strike one. Well, it goes
downhill from there because Gomer turns
out to be a prostitute. Not only a prostitute,
but once they get married, she leaves him and goes
back to prostitution. She even has
illegitimate children. In fact, Hosea names one
of his kids "not my child." [LAUGHTER] She leaves the home, starts
sleeping around town. Hosea follows her and provides
for her food and money to keep her alive. Chasing that because
he loves her. Well, things go
from bad to worse until finally, she becomes a
slave sold on the open slave market. And Hosea, her husband, is there
to buy her back, take her home, and honor her as his wife. And all of that is a
picture of the love of God. Not only does Hosea preach
the love of God in his book, he lived it in his life. So just as Hosea redeemed
Gomer, God redeemed Israel. Just as Gomer was
unfaithful to Hosea, Israel was unfaithful to God. And just as Hosea bought
her back and restored her, God restored Israel. So the prophet Hosea
becomes a picture of God's heart-broken
love for his people. Now Matthew looks
at that and says, well, Jesus' return from Egypt
was pictured by Israel's exodus out of Egypt. And so he quotes it here. "Out of Egypt I
have called my son." The reason this is not
unusual for Matthew to do so-- and Matthew is
writing to Jewish people, that's his audience-- is because by Matthew's
time in the synagogue, the Jews already
equated the exodus out of Egypt with the Messiah. They took the scripture Exodus
chapter 4 verse 22 which says, "Israel is my son,
my firstborn," and they saw that as a type
of the Messiah who is to come. So already they were sort
of predisposed to that. So now we have a
fugitive Messiah. We have a Messiah on the
run by a jealous King named Herod the Great. It's as if hell is already
stirring up people on the Earth to reject Jesus Christ. He's already priming
them to spit out the seeds that would be
the cure, the pills that would be the cure. So he's a fugitive Messiah. Look at the next few verses. We go from a fugitive
Messiah to a hunted Messiah. "Then Herod"-- verse 16-- "when he saw that he was
deceived by the wise men, was exceedingly angry. And he set forth
and put to death all the male children who
were in Bethlehem and in all its districts, from two
years old and under, according to the
time which he had determined from the wise men. Then was fulfilled what
was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet saying, a
voice was heard in Rama, lamentation, weeping, and
great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children,
refusing to be comforted because they are no more." Can we all agree,
in the very least, that Herod was a paranoid ruler? I mean, he slaughters
every child in an area just to keep one of them from
growing up and possibly taking his throne, all in
attempt to kill Christ. He doesn't know who he is,
doesn't know where he's gone. But just in case,
we'll kill them all. Now, in all fairness to
the ancient population, because Bethlehem at that
time would have been so small, this probably represents,
most scholars agree, no more than 20 children. I mean, one's too many, but
about 20 children at the time. And this is important to
know because this is probably the reason why
Josephus the historian and other writers do not include
this in their history books. Because Herod killed so many
people on so many occasions, including some of his
own wives and children, that you'd just be writing
that headline every single day. So some of that is included
by ancient historians and some of it, including
this one, is not. But there was unimaginable
horror in that area, as men would travel through
the environs of Bethlehem and thrust their swords
through the bodies of these little babies
or cut off their heads. You can just imagine the
weeping, the wailing, the scrambling of mothers to
hide their little children, all fulfilling, according
to Matthew, a prophecy. Jeremiah wrote about this in
Jeremiah chapter 31 verse 15. Now, the last thing Herod wanted
to do was fulfilled prophecy. If anything, he'd want to
stop it from happening. You remember, Herod said to the
scribes and the Jewish leaders, where's the Messiah
going to be born? They said, in Bethlehem. And they quote Micah 5:2. So he didn't want
to fulfill prophecy. He wants to keep prophecy
from being fulfilled. And in the process, he
fulfills even more prophecy. Jeremiah 31, from where
this text is taken, is a messianic
section of scripture. You Bible students
know that there is a portion of
about four chapters around that area, Jeremiah
31, that are highly messianic. It speaks about a new
covenant that is coming, a kingdom that is
coming, and one who is going to bring
that new covenant and bring that kingdom. At the same time, the
prophet looks forward from his vantage
point, looks forward to a time when the nation of
Israel or Judea, the south, will be taken captive
by the Babylonians. They'll be brought back. They'll be restored. But they're going to
go off to captivity. And when they do,
the mothers are going to be weeping and wailing
because their husbands are dead or are being
captured, their children have been killed. "And so there will be weeping,
a voice heard in Rama, lamentation"-- verse 18--
"weeping, great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children,
refusing to be comforted because they are no more." Now, what does this
refer to exactly? Well, there is a village north
of Jerusalem called Rama. I know it because I have a
friend who lives in Rama. And Rama just means a higher
place or an elevated place. It's usually on a hill. And there are more
than one, by the way. So Rama was a place where twice
in the history of the Jews, the Jews were taken. It was a staging area to
deport them or cart them off to a foreign country. It happened once when
the northern kingdom went into captivity-- 722 BC. It happened a second time when
Judea, the southern kingdom, taken into captivity-- 586 BC. So twice there was
weeping and wailing and mourning because of
death and destruction and deportation. So Rama represents the
weeping when the nation was taken captive for their sins. Why Rachel? What does Rachel
have to do with it? By the time Jeremiah
wrote that Rachel is weeping for her children,
Rachel was long dead. Well, Rachel-- it's a metaphor. It's a person who lived
in the Old Testament. But she was seen as
the mother of Israel. Remember, Rachel was one
of the wives of Jacob. And you may remember the day
she turned to her husband-- her sister was already
having a lot of kids. And she had no kids. And she turned to
her husband Jacob and said, give me
children or I'll die, not knowing that the
children that she would have, the progeny, eventually
would be killed so that Israel would be weeping
because of those children. Well, she had a
couple of children. One was named Joseph. Joseph had two children,
Ephraim and Manasseh. And if you are a
Bible student, you know that the name
Ephraim is sometimes used representing the
entire northern kingdom, the northern 10
tribes, all summed up by one single name, one
tribal name Ephraim-- the northern kingdom. She had another
son named Benjamin. And Benjamin becomes
a tribe associated with the southern
kingdom of Judah. There were two tribes down
south, Judah and Benjamin. So twice would Rachel be
weeping for her children, once when the northern kingdom
went captive and once when the southern
kingdom went captive. Now, what we have
here in this prophecy is yet another kind of prophecy. First is a direct
verbal prophecy. That's the Micah "be born
in Bethlehem" prophecy. The second we just covered is
a typical predictive prophecy where one becomes
a type of another. This is a third kind. It is a dual
fulfillment prophecy or a near-far fulfillment
where it's partially fulfilled in the
near term, but it will be eventually fulfilled
also in a greater manner further on down the road. Now, if you know
prophecy, you know that this is one of the most
common kinds of prophecy in the Bible, where a prophet
makes a prediction, it happens. But it's going to happen again
in a bigger stage in a bigger way in the future. There's a lot of that
in the Old Testament. One of the biggest
examples is called the abomination of desolation. Daniel the prophet predicted
an abomination of desolation or a defilement of the Jewish
sanctuary, which happened by Antiochus Epiphanes. Don't need to
rehash that history. Just know it was a
done deal by the time the New Testament rolls around. And yet, even though it
was done and fulfilled. Jesus said, when you see the
abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel
the prophet, run. So he spoke of something
that was already fulfilled in the past
as something that will be fulfilled in the
future in a greater manner. That's dual
fulfillment prophecy. So here, it has been
fulfilled already, the weeping, the wailing,
the mourning, when Israel was taken into captivity. But the second dual
part of the fulfillment, the far-reaching part, takes
us to the birth of Jesus Christ at Bethlehem, at Rama. Now, I said that there are
many places called Rama. If you go to Bethlehem
today, and you may want to just-- if you ever
take a taxicab there or ask a tour guide or anybody
in the local area, I say, where is Rachel's tomb? And they'll point to a place
next to Bethlehem called Rama. It's not like the one up north
where there was a staging going on for captivity. This is down in Bethlehem. It's an elevated place,
a rama, facing Bethlehem. And that is where
Rachel was buried. So even today, you have a
Rachel in Bethlehem overlooking the town of Bethlehem,
so to speak, weeping over her children. How amazing is that? Once again, we have this
undercurrent of rejection. Babies being killed
because King Herod wants to kill the baby Jesus
or the little child Jesus. As I was preparing this study,
I kept thinking of that text in Revelation chapter 12. You know, John, in the
Book of Revelation, frames the cosmic battle
between heaven and hell. And he says, "The dragon
stood before the woman who was ready to give birth to
devour her child as soon as it was born." He was the Messiah on
the run from the get-go. Satan wanted to destroy the
child because it was prophesied this child will be born,
grow up, and rule the world and ruin Satan's kingdom. So he's a fugitive Messiah. He's a hunted Messiah. But he's also a
despised Messiah. Verse 19-- "But when
Herod was dead"-- boy it's great to read
those words, isn't it? Sort of like [SINGING]
"ding-dong the witch is dead." "Behold, an angel of the
Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt"-- this
boy gets a lot of dreams-- "saying, arise. Take the young
child and his mother and go to the land of Israel. For those who sought the
young child's life are dead. Then he arose, took the
child and his mother and came into the
land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus
was reigning over Judea instead of his father Herod"-- he
was one of Herod's sons who took the throne-- "he was afraid to go there. And being warned
by God in a dream, he turned aside into
the region of Galilee. And he came and he dwelled
in a city called Nazareth that it might be fulfilled which
was spoken by the prophets, he shall be called a Nazarene." So Jesus, Mary, and
Joseph, they're in Egypt. After a while, Herod dies. And it was pretty
famous the way he died. Josephus the
historian writes this. "He died of ulcerated entrails,
putrefied and maggot-filled organs, constant
convulsions, foul breath, that neither physicians
nor warm baths could heal." I don't know, seems
like a fitting death. Because, do you know that
the last week before he died and while he was on his death
bed-- and he died in Jericho-- he knew he had a few
days left to live. And so he also knew that when
he died there would be a party. Everybody's going to sing
ding-dong the witch is dead. Everybody hated him. Everybody's going to be so
happy because he's dead. So he gave an order that
all of the noble citizens, the notable citizenry of
Judea, be arrested and kept in prison so that when he
died, they will be executed. And here's his thinking. I want to make sure there
are tears shed when I die. And if they won't be for me,
at least there will be tears. That's how vicious he was. Now, Joseph probably wanted
to go back to Bethlehem. He had been there. And I think, even though
he was from Nazareth, I don't think he wanted to
go back to Nazareth, do you? Mary got pregnant. She was from Nazareth. Joseph was from Nazareth. Tongues were wagging about
an illegitimate child. He wanted a fresh
start in Bethlehem. He was probably going
to go back there. But the angels said, no. You will go back to Nazareth. And the reason,
it says, "that it might be fulfilled which was
spoken of by the prophets. He shall be called a Nazarene." Now, you know what's
wrong with that? You can't find that verse
anywhere in the Old Testament. It says the prophets spoke it,
he'll be called a Nazarene. But I challenge you, find it
in the Old Testament anywhere. You won't be able to. It's not there. So what are we to do with this? How are we to understand this? Well, some see this
as a play on words. Because the word
Nazareth, the consonants of the word-- and Hebrews always
write with consonants only. That's how they spell-- no
vowels, just consonants. The consonants of Nazareth
are the same consonants as in natsar-- natsar. Sounds like Nazareth. Natsar means a branch. And Isaiah 11:1 says,
"A branch will come out of the steam or
the root of Jesse." And that has always been seen
as a messianic prophecy, that Jesse, who is the
father of David, David became the King,
that out of his lineage would arise this
branch, this natsar. And so they say that is the
fulfillment of this prophecy. Some think that's a little
bit sketchy an interpretation. Another possibility is that
what he is referring to was a commonly-known,
but unrecorded, prophecy. That the prophet-- and notice,
he didn't say prophet singular, but prophets plural,
like there were a lot of prophets that said this. A lot of prophets
recorded this because it's put in the plural not singular. So it could be that it was
commonly known, but not written down. Now, that is a possibility
because it does happen. Sometimes you find a
scripture that isn't written in the Old Testament. Example, in the book of Jude-- not "Hey, Jude"
the Beatles song, the book of Jude in the
Bible, next Revelation, that little book. Jude quotes Enoch in
the Old Testament. The problem is you can't find
that in the book of Genesis where Enoch said that. But it was common
knowledge that he said it. So Jude refers to it. Here's another example. Paul quotes Jesus in Acts 20. He said, "as our
own Lord Jesus said, it is more blessed to give
than it is to receive." Remember that? He said that's what Jesus said. Problem is, you can't find
that in any of the Gospels. He said it. They just didn't write it down. And even John, at the
end of his book, said, Jesus said and did a
lot of things which are not written in this book. So it's possible that
it was common knowledge but it was an
unrecorded prophecy. But then there's a
third way to look at it. And I lean in this direction. It is a prediction of rejection. Did you know that
Nazareth had long been a term of scorn and
derision and mockery? You know, every place, every
state, has its town or towns. And I'm not going to mention
any here in this state. But I know as I say
this, certain towns are coming to your mind. And I'll just let that
come to your mind. And it's the towns
like yeah, that's just the little, old,
crazy, backwards town. Nothing really great
comes out of that town. That's podunk central. Nazareth was podunk central. When Phillip came to
Nathaniel and said we have found the Messiah,
Jesus of Nazareth. Nathaniel said, can anything
good come out of Nazareth? And what's
interesting about that is Jesus said of
Nathaniel, "here's a man in whom
there is no guile." So he wasn't given to
mockery or put down. He was a good guy. So for the good guy to
say can anything good come out of Nazareth, must
mean everybody is saying can anything good
come out of Nazareth? When Jesus hung on the cross,
that's the ultimate rejection. Pilot put a sign
over Jesus, this is Jesus of Nazareth,
King of the Jews. And he was killed. Many prophets, many
prophets, predicted Jesus would be scorned,
despised, and rejected. Here's a sampling. Isaiah 53, "There is no beauty
that we should desire him. He is despised and
rejected by men." Psalm 22, "I am a worm and
no man, a reproach of men and despised by the people. All those who see
me ridicule me. They shoot out the lip
and they shake the head." Even Moses in
Deuteronomy 18 said, "The Lord will raise
up a prophet like me from your midst." Do you remember that
Moses was rejected the first time he approached
the children of Israel to be their deliverer? It wasn't until the second
time that he was accepted. Psalm 69 describes the Messiah
with the words reproach, shame, dishonor. Zechariah the
prophet says, "They will look upon me whom
they have pierced"-- why did they pierce him? Why did they kill him? Why did they crucify him? Because they rejected him. So when it says it was
spoken of by the prophets he will be called
a Nazarene, that's a way of saying he
will be rejected. And all the prophets said that. By the way, quotation marks
are not in the original. They are put in the English
translation that way. He will be called a Nazarene. Here's the point. Take your pick of any and
all kinds of prophecy, they all point to Jesus Christ. And what the
prophecies also show you is that this child
was rejected by the world immediately. He was on the run. He was hunted. He came from a nowhere podunk
town that nobody cared about. And so he lived a
life of rejection. But he was rejected so
you could be accepted. He was forsaken so
that you would never have to be forsaken. You want to know something? Nazareth is never mentioned
in the Old Testament. Nobody would have known of it. Nobody would care about it
unless Jesus grew up there. Never mentioned once. It's never mentioned
in the apocrypha. It's never mentioned
by Flavius Josephus. It's never mentioned
in the Jewish Talmud. I'm sure that all the kids
that grew up in Nazareth were bored stiff. I'm sure they thought,
get me out of this town. I want to go to Jerusalem
and have some action. It's boring here. And yet, the risen Christ
spoke of Nazareth from heaven. Did you know that? Paul the Apostle says when he
was converted, he saw a light and heard a voice. And he said, who are you, Lord? And the voice said, I
am Jesus of Nazareth whom you are persecuting. You see, what was scorned by men
on Earth, was taken to heaven and glorified by Jesus Christ. I want to close
with this thought. There is a principle I called
the Nazareth principle. The Nazareth
principle is were God, by design, takes
out-of-sorts people from out of the way
places, and does something awesome with them. This is where we sit up
straight and go, oh really? That could be me. And that's what I thought. My life verse, 1
Corinthians chapter 1, "For God has chosen the
foolish things of this world to confound the wise, the
weak things of this world that confound the things
that are mighty." I want to share that with you
in the New Living Translation. I'm going to put
it up on the screen so you can follow along
with it as I read it. "Remember, dear brothers"--
Paul writes-- "and sisters, that few of you were wise in
the world's eyes, or powerful, or wealthy when God called you. Instead, God
deliberately chose things the world considers
foolish in order to shame those who
think they are wise. And he chose those who
are powerless to shame those who are powerful. God chose things despised
by the world, things counted as nothing at all, and used
them to bring to nothing what the world considers important,
so that no one can ever boast in the presence of God." Doesn't matter
where you're from. Does not matter where you live. It matters to who you are
once Jesus gets a hold of you. That's the Nazareth principal. And Nathaniel says,
"Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" Just salvation. Just eternal life. Just the best thing ever
can come out of Nazareth. And I would just say, God
keeps doing that today by using you and me. You know, if you put a
surgeon in a modern operating suite and the surgeon could
pull off an operation, well, you probably wouldn't
think much about it. You know, your insurance
pays for that kind of stuff. And you expect
nothing but the best. That's what doctors Do But take that same
doctor, take him to some far out of the
way place like Africa or the jungles of South America
where there's no operating room, no electricity,
no modern tools, and give that doctor
a Swiss army knife. If that doctor can
perform an operation under those conditions,
you would say, that's quite a doctor. And you see that
is the point here. The point is, the
skill of the worker is more noticeable when
confined to inferior tools. And so God has chosen the
foolish things of this world to confound the wise. That's the Nazareth principal. Lord, we are so grateful
that you chose us in Christ before the
foundations of the world. We have read and
we have considered the fulfillment of prophecy. But there's been
this undercurrent that when the cure
is given, people keep spitting out the pills,
spitting out the pills, spitting out the medicine,
not wanting the cure, refusing the cure. But out of Nazareth, out of
Egypt, through the wailing and weeping in
Rama, a child came who grew up to die for sin,
to be raised to new life. And in that power,
you choose weak things like us to shine your strength
and your glory through. Do it again, Lord. Use us for your purpose
so that if anyone says can anything good come
out of Albuquerque or Santa Fe or Espanola or Las Cruces
or Cedar Crest, we can go, oh yeah. God so many people he
has chosen to do his work and perform his will. In Jesus' name, Amen. Let's all stand. The predictions about
Jesus's his childhood and their subsequent
fulfillment paint a grim picture at the world's
response to God's son. Did the truths that you
learned in this teaching strengthen your
resolve to follow Him? We'd love to know. Email mystory@calvaryabq.org. And just a reminder, you can
give financially to this work at calvaryabq.org/give. Thank you for listening
to this message from Skip Heitzig of
Calvary Albuquerque.
