Going to Any Lengths

Overview

Going to Any Lengths

Matthew 2 sets before us several people willing to go to extraordinary lengths—but for very different reasons. The Magi, Gentile astrologers whose practices stood in direct opposition to the holiness God required of Israel (see Deuteronomy 18:10-12), traveled hundreds of miles in pursuit of knowledge and wonder. Despite having no covenantal claim on Israel's promised King, they fell on their knees and worshiped the Christ child—a striking sign that this baby came for all the nations. Joseph, by contrast, went to great lengths out of obedience. Three times an angel appears to him in a dream, and each time he responds without delay—taking Mary as his wife, fleeing by night to Egypt, and returning to settle in Nazareth. He acted faithfully without ever seeing the whole of God's plan.

Then there is Herod. Paranoid and cruel, he goes to monstrous lengths to secure his throne, ordering the slaughter of the boys of Bethlehem two years old and under Matthew 2:16-18. This passage is hard to read at Christmas, but it refuses to let us leave Jesus comfortably in the manger. It puts us face to face with sin—not only Herod's, but Satan's willingness to use any darkness to try to snuff out the Light. And it puts us face to face with ourselves. As Paul reminds us, we are "by nature children of wrath" Ephesians 2:3. In our own strength, we cannot escape that darkness.

But the darkness has not overcome the Light. The One who truly goes to any length is God Himself. He took on flesh, was born under the law, was hunted as an infant, and grew to walk the road from the manger to the cross. Christmas joy is always tied to Good Friday and Easter morning: the baby in the manger is the Man who rises from the tomb. There is no length God will not go to in order to save you—proven by His birth, His ministry, His death, and His resurrection.

This is why baptism is such a comfort. In the waters of baptism, the assurance and promise won by Christ are placed upon us and sealed to us. Whether or not we remember the day itself, the promise remains as true today as it was then. Amid the sin we see in Scripture and the sin we see in ourselves, the Light shines forth—not because of anything we have earned, but out of the sheer mercy and goodness of God. Hear this good news and rejoice.

Transcript

I'd like to invite you to open up your Bibles to the Gospel of Matthew the second chapter. 0s

All right. 7s

What would you do for a... 8s

Condeck Bar? Yes. Okay. 11s

We all know that. What would you do for a Condeck Bar? 12s

Some of the answers of what people would do for a Condeck Bar. 15s

Take 8 a.m. classes or meetings every single day. 19s

Huh? Okay. How about living a house made of Plato? 23s

Hugg a cactus? 30s

What about wearing a chicken suit for a week straight? 32s

These are some of the things that supposedly people will do for a Condeck Bar. 36s

What a marketing genius from the 1980s. 43s

Not only did this ice cream bar become a household name, 48s

but that slogan, what would you do for a Condeck Bar? 52s

It's lived on. It has become a slogan of pop culture phenomenon. 56s

We all know it and we all know the basic premise of that question. 62s

What would you do for a Condeck Bar is really asking the question 68s

to what lengths or what extremes would you go for this ice cream treat? 72s

In our text today, it's a very, very difficult narrative that we're going to be looking through. 82s

And we're going to see how different people in the different circumstances, 90s

but centered around that same story, how they will go to any and great lengths. 96s

Not for an ice cream treat, but for knowledge or for power or for security. 102s

We're going to begin with the magis. 112s

So we're going to back up a little bit before our textual reading. 114s

We're going to start with the beginning of chapter two in Matthew with verse one. 117s

In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, 123s

Weir is the child who has been born King of the Jews. 131s

For we observed his star at its rising and we have come to pay him homage. 136s

So tradition holds that there were three wise men. 142s

But Scripture doesn't actually give us a quantity of how many wise men there were, 146s

how many magi had come. 151s

We, we base that or that idea is based most likely around the three gifts they brought, 153s

which you see in verse 11. 160s

They brought the gold, the frankincense, and the mure. 161s

But Scripture does not actually tell us how many wise men there were. 164s

Scripture also doesn't tell us exactly how far they traveled. 170s

We know they came from the east, but the east could be referring to a variety of places. 174s

There are different theories amongst scholars that the east could be anywhere from 400 to 700 miles away from Bethlehem. 182s

In any case, it is far off. 195s

And these wise men traveled a long way to find this child, this newborn king of the Jews. 198s

They went to great lengths to find this child. 207s

And it's really, really incredible that they would do this because the wise men were not Jewish. 212s

They were Gentiles. 221s

They were Gentiles whose wisdom was in direct opposition to God's holiness and rule. 222s

In Deuteronomy the 18th chapter, 232s

it reads no one shall be found among you that is the Jewish people who makes a son or daughter pass through fire, 234s

or who practices divination or is a sud-sayer or an auger or a sorcerer, 242s

or one who casts spells or who consult ghosts or spirits or who seeks oracles from the dead. 247s

These wise men, their wisdom was found in dream interpretation, in astrology, 255s

and in magic. 262s

They, by no means, should have been searching for this Jewish king. 266s

But they were so amazed and recognized that there was an astronomical phenomenon happening at the rise of this eastern star. 271s

They knew that it was linked somehow to this old testament prophecy, 282s

and they had to come and see this Jewish king. 287s

These Gentile wise men who had no explainable reason for going to Israel or going to see this Jewish child, 292s

they found themselves in Bethlehem. 304s

And when they saw Mary and the child, they fell to their knees and worshipped this Jewish baby. 306s

This baby, who truly came for all the nations. 316s

And this is where we pick up in our text today, looking at verse 13. 321s

Now after they had left, that is the magic had left, 327s

an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, 330s

get up, take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt, 334s

and remain there until I tell you, for her it is about to search for the child, 338s

to destroy him. 343s

Then Joseph got up, took the child, and his mother by night, and went to Egypt, 345s

and remained there until the death of Herod. 350s

This was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet. 353s

Out of Egypt, I have called my son. 357s

Joseph was listening to the angel of the Lord. 361s

He obeyed immediately, and he took the child and Mary and fled. 364s

In the middle of the night, immediate obedience to the angel of the Lord, 369s

and brought that child to safety. 376s

We're going to move away from this for just a moment. 378s

We will come back to the Holy Family and what Joseph is doing here. 382s

But I would like to instead, right now, look at another player, 388s

another actor in this narrative, who is going to great lengths. 393s

And that is King Herod. 398s

So remember that the wise men, when they were traveling, 402s

they first went to Jerusalem. 405s

They found King Herod, and they were inquiring about this new king who was born. 407s

And in verse 3, it tells us that King Herod was frightened. 414s

He was frightened. 419s

He did not want to give up his throne under the guise of also wanting to pay homage to him. 422s

He invited the wise men to come back and tell him where this new baby is that he may also go and pay homage. 429s

But the wise men were warned in a dream, not to return to Herod, 440s

and instead to go a different way home. 444s

And this is where we continue in verse 16. 447s

When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, he was infuriated. 450s

And he sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem, 456s

who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had learned from the wise men. 461s

Then was fulfilled. 468s

What had been spoken through the prophet Jeremiah. 469s

A voice was heard in Rheema, wailing and loud lamentation, 472s

Rachel weeping for her children. 477s

She refused to be consoled because they are no more. 480s

We should point out here that it was not all children. 485s

It was boys who were two years and younger, slaughtered because it would be a boy that would be the new born king. 489s

So Herod had all the young boys in Bethlehem and around murdered to protect his throne. 499s

These insane or this insane and brutal murder of these babies who are referred to as the holy 507s

innocence in modern church speech. 514s

That's not a very far-fetched thing for Herod to do. 519s

It's not a far reach for him. 523s

Herod really lived in a realm of paranoia. 525s

And insecurity always thinking people are vying for his throne. 530s

This paranoia and insecurity led to the murder of his wife and some of his sons. 535s

He was absolutely known for his cruelty and he would do anything necessary to protect his power. 542s

Any length necessary, he would go to to protect his throne. 553s

The barbaric act that we read here, it is not easy to read. 560s

It doesn't seem to fit in the picture of the Christmas season because Christmas is supposed to give us warm and fuzzy feelings. 565s

I mean we're celebrating the birth of a baby that's joyful. 575s

Joy is it's all good stuff and yet here we have the murdering of all these little babies. 579s

How does the slaughter of these young children fit into the picture of Christmas? 588s

Well we want to keep Jesus in the manger. 598s

We want to keep the Christ child, a Christ child. 602s

We can never celebrate the Christ child without keeping the very purpose of his birth in mind. 608s

The story of these unknowing martyrs puts us face to face with the reality of sin. 618s

It puts us face to face with the reality of Satan's willingness to go to any length in order to oppose God or try to snuff out the light. 626s

Satan through herred sought to destroy God, but he would not succeed. 642s

Let's turn back to verse 13, where Joseph had a visit in a dream from an angel of the Lord who told him and prompted him to take the child and his mother to Egypt, 651s

to flee to safety, to avoid the destruction that Herid was seeking. 663s

And so Joseph did, he fled to Egypt. 670s

Let's move down to verse 19. 673s

When Herid died, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, 676s

Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel. 683s

For those who were seeking the child's life are dead. 688s

Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother, and went to the land of Israel. 691s

But when he heard that Archileus was ruling over Judea in place of his father Herid, he was afraid to go there. 698s

And after being warned in a dream, he went away to the district of Galilee. 705s

There he made his home in a town called Nazareth, so that what had been spoken through the prophets might be fulfilled. 710s

He will be called a Nazarian. 718s

Herid was set to protect his throne, to protect his power at any cost. 722s

But God had guided Joseph through his angels in the way of protecting Jesus. 731s

Three times an angel appears to Joseph in a dream. 739s

And the first being when Joseph was ready to dismiss Mary quietly and privately when she was found to be pregnant and they were engaged. 742s

And the angel of the Lord said, No, no, no, no. 753s

Mary Mary and named the child Jesus. 756s

And then we find him again, approached by an angel of the Lord in a dream, to warn him to flee to Egypt, to protect this child and mother. 759s

And here we have the angel again prompting Joseph to get Jesus and Mary returned to Israel. 770s

Joseph was absolutely key in keeping Jesus safe in keeping Jesus protected until the appointed time. 779s

Joseph went to great lengths in order to keep Jesus safe without having God's plan fully laid out for him. 791s

Joseph was obedient to God's will and did everything he could to protect the Christ child and to provide for this baby. 803s

In our text today, we have a lot of moving parts, a lot of moving people, people going to extreme lengths or great lengths in order or for different reasons. 816s

The magic who went to great lengths to find this Jewish king, though they were not Jewish themselves. 831s

They wanted to understand what they saw in the star. 838s

Harid, the cruel king who ordered the massacre of children in and around Bethlehem, anything, any cost, any length to protect his power and to secure his place as king of Israel. 842s

Then we have Joseph who was obedient to the Lord, moving his family from Israel to Egypt in the middle of the night. 860s

And then from Egypt back to Israel in obedience to the Lord, these great lengths taken so that this child would be saved from the murderous rampage that Harid had set loose in Bethlehem. 870s

In this difficult text, we see face to face sin. 887s

We see up close and personal, the sinful nature that's ingrained in Harid. 898s

When we're reading Scripture, God is constantly revealing to us both the law and the gospel. 907s

He is always showing us our sin and He is always showing us the Savior that has come to save us from that sin. 916s

Harid, in all his greed and thirst for power and control, fell to his sinful flesh. 927s

We see this laid out. 941s

We come face to face with this. 944s

We see Satan attempting to use the darkness of sin to snuff out the light that had just been born into the world. 946s

The sin is not hard to find in this text. 954s

You open it up, you begin to read and it hits you in the face. 960s

But when we look at ourselves, examine our own thoughts and words, the things we do and say and maybe leave unsaid or undone. 968s

When we look at our own lives, sin hits us in the face. 983s

And we see the Paul in Ephesians when he writes that we are by nature, children of wrath. 992s

We can see that in ourselves just as we see that in the story of Harid. 1000s

And it feels like the darkness is closing in and there is no way that we can escape it. 1007s

There is no way that we can emerge from this darkness. 1016s

And that is true. 1022s

In our own efforts, in our own abilities, we cannot emerge from the darkness. 1024s

But the darkness will never overcome the light. 1032s

Amit's the sin in this story, amidst the sin in our own lives, the light of the gospel will always shine forth. 1037s

Ultimately, in this text, in all of Scripture, the one going to any length and any cost is God himself. 1048s

God, knowing fully, the darkness that lies within our own flesh entered into this world, taking flesh upon himself, 1060s

being born under the law, being born man with all the temptations, all the threats, all the dangers that lie in this world for us. 1071s

And he took that vulnerability upon himself. 1085s

The great joy of Christmas morning is always to be held in connection with good Friday. 1091s

Though we want to keep Jesus in the manger during this time, we want to keep Jesus's sweet baby. 1101s

We also have to keep in mind the purpose of his birth, which leads us directly to good Friday and the cross. 1110s

We rejoice during the Christmas season because we know that Jesus' birth is the assurance of our eternal lives. 1122s

It's the assurance that's found only in the cross. 1132s

The baby that we find in the manger is the very man who will rise from the tomb. 1136s

Jesus was saved in our text today from herred and he will grow in strength and wisdom, but he will grow to journey to the cross. 1145s

And from that cross, he will be taken and placed in a tomb. 1159s

But then on Easter morning, that tomb will be empty because by the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus will have been raised from the dead. 1166s

So we rejoice on Christmas morning, knowing that this baby has been born to bring light into this world, to bring salvation to you and to I for our sins. 1178s

The sins that we cannot save ourselves from, but the promise that we have eternal life and salvation through this baby born. 1195s

There are no length that God would not go to in order to save you. 1208s

It's proven by his very birth. 1217s

It's proven by his ministry. 1220s

It's proven by his death. 1223s

And it's glorified by his rising. 1227s

Landon was baptized today and we got to witness the security, the assurance and the promise that we receive from the baby Jesus Christ. 1233s

We get to see that placed upon Landon. 1249s

We get to see him sealed in that assurance. 1253s

And as we witness that assurance that promise delivered, we are all reminded of our baptisms, even if we cannot remember our baptisms, that promise remains true for you today as true as it was when you were baptized. 1257s

Difficult, difficult text that we have today. 1283s

But truly, it's a text that we can rejoice in because even in the deepest, darkest, grossest face of humanity in sin, we see that light shine forth. 1288s

And we know that God will do anything for you, Jesus, in his mercy and love went to the greatest lengths for you, not because of what you've earned, not because of what you've done, not because of anything you will ever do, but out of the sheer mercy and goodness of God. 1305s

The light has come into this world. 1329s

Here, this good news and rejoice. Amen. 1334s

Thank you. 1358s