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Date: 2nd Sunday After Christmas Text: Matthew 2:13-23
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Welcome to the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church. Kungsvinger is a beacon for the gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of northwestern Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and Him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith alone.
And now here's a message from Pastor Chris Roseberg. The Holy Gospel.
According to Saint Matthew, the second chapter. Hang on a second here. There we go. When the wise men had departed, behold an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, Rise, take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt and remain there until I tell you for Herod is about to search for the child to destroy him.
And he rose and he took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, Out of Egypt I have called my son.
Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men.
Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah. A voice was heard in Ramah weeping in loud lamentation. Rachel weeping for her children. She refused to be comforted because they are no more.
But when Herod died, behold an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt saying, Rise, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel for those who sought the child's life are dead.
And then he rose and took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea in place of his father Herod he was afraid to go there. And being warned in a dream he withdrew to the district of Galilee and he went and lived in a city called Nazareth that was and that was spoken by the prophet might be fulfilled.
He shall be called a Nazarene. This is the word, this is the gospel of the Lord. In the name of Jesus. Amen. You guys remember the Terminator movies? You guys remember those? Now I may be aging myself.
Some of you may not have actually seen those movies. But I remember very distinctly. The first one was okay. I mean a Terminator, a robot sent from the future to kill a woman. Sarah Connor, right? But Terminator 2 creeped me out.
It absolutely just grabbed my attention and creeped me out. And the reason being is because no matter what happened that Terminator thing kept coming. Kept coming. Kept coming. And you couldn't get rid of that thing.
It was figuring out how to destroy it. Well that was all part of the plot. So have you ever stopped to think that the devil is a lot like that and what we see in the Terminator movies is a very good depiction of how the devil operates.
In our gospel text today we hear of just how wicked and evil Herod is. In fact, think of it this way. How wicked is he? He knows that the Messiah has been born and his first response is to see if he can get the magi, the wise men of the east to reveal to him where the Messiah is so that he can go and worship him, right?
And when that didn't turn out and the wise men kind of made a fool of Herod, in a rage he decides he's going to worship Jesus in his own way and that is he's going to have him murdered. Who does that?
I mean could you imagine the scandal today? President Biden orders all kids in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania two years old and under to be murdered, right? I think this would make the news. I think that people would be upset.
I think there would be opinion pieces written saying that that's a really, really evil wicked thing to do. And so you're going to note that Herod, he just casts this wide net. He doesn't send out agents to figure out who Jesus is and have him murdered.
He just casts this wide net. Everybody two years old and under, if you're a boy, you're dead. And it's absolutely wicked beyond all reason. But you're going to note then this is how evil operates and I would note that evil in operating in this way, in its tenacity, in its hatred towards the one true God is really, really delusional.
And I want you to think with me for a second here. Can the word of God be broken? No. If the word of God says something's going to happen, you know what's going to happen? The thing that the word of God said, right?
And so you'll note that in our Old Testament text, here we have God promising Israel. Jacob was his birth name. Israel is his given name by God, promising him that go ahead, go into Egypt. I'm going to bring you out.
I'm going to build you into a mighty nation there and I will victoriously bring you out. Did God bring the children of Israel out of Egypt? Yes, the whole book of Exodus is all about that. Does God ever make a promise and not follow through?
No. So in our Gospel text today you'll note these important words that after an angel appears to Joseph in a dream and sends him to Egypt, Joseph having dreams, Egypt. That sounds vaguely familiar and it should.
You hear these words in our text. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, out of Egypt I called my son. So if God prophesied through the prophets of the Old Testament that his son would spend a sojourn in Egypt and then come out of Egypt, was Herod going to be able to kill Jesus prior to that?
Nope. Not at all. Because God's word cannot be broken. And this is important for us. So as we consider then, how does evil operate? And believe me, this has implications for all of us. We'll note that evil is delusionally, well, wicked and tenacious, singly focused.
In fact, it's in the book of Exodus that we hear something akin to what we hear in our Gospel text in Exodus chapter 1. We read these words, the king of Egypt, Pharaoh, you know the guy with the snake hat?
Think about that for a second. A guy with a snake hat. Sounds like a stand-in for the serpent, right? The devil? Right. When the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, when you serve as a midwife to the Hebrew women and you see them on the birth stool, if it's a son, you shall kill him.
If it's a daughter, she shall live. Wow. All the way back in Egypt, the devil was trying to figure out how to murder the Messiah. Could you imagine? Had all the male children of the Hebrews been slaughtered, that would have put an end to the promise of the Messiah, the seed of the woman who would crush the head of the serpent, right?
Is Satan ever going to be able to succeed in his maniacal plans? No. No. In fact, I would like to kind of posit this idea, if you would, for a second, that when we read through Scripture, especially the book of Revelation and other places, it's as if the devil himself is Wile E. Coyote and the church is the roadrunner.
I mean, he's always coming up with these plans to destroy the church and they always end up blowing up in his face. But that never seems to stop him. So going back to Exodus 1 here, So the king of Egypt called the midwives and said to them, Why have you done this?
And let the male children live. And I love this. These women lie through their teeth to Pharaoh. And the midwife said to Pharaoh, Well, because Hebrew women, they're not like the Egyptian women. Apparently the Egyptian women were pampered and rich and spoiled and weak.
Those slave women of the Hebrews, they were vigorous. And they said this, The Hebrew women, they're vigorous. They give birth before the midwife comes to them. They just pop them babies right out and we have no opportunity to murder those poor little male children lying through their teeth.
And so the people multiplied and grew very strong. And because the midwives fear God, God, he gave them families. And Pharaoh commanded all his people, Every son that is born to the Hebrews, you shall cast into the Nile, but you shall let every daughter live.
You'll note similar themes to our gospel text. But what is behind this? What is behind this is the devil himself. And it's here where we should pay attention to what Paul is saying. Not Paul, sorry. Peter is saying in our epistle text telling us how we as Christians are going to participate in the sufferings of Christ.
If you haven't started participating in those yet, see me in about five minutes after the service. Things will start to heat up shortly after that. It's just generally how this goes. Remember, the devil's like Wile E. Coyote.
But here's how we think about this. In Revelation chapter 12, we have this picture here of what the devil has been up to the entire time and what he's currently doing now. Revelation chapter 12 verse 1 says this.
A great sign appeared in heaven. A woman clothed with the sun, the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. Now I know that Rome thinks this is the Virgin Mary. It ain't. You can tell because later this woman flees into the wilderness and God protects her and stuff like that.
This is a picture, if you would, the moon, the sun, the twelve stars. That sounds a lot like one of those Joseph dreams from the book of Exodus. That's the point. Here in Revelation chapter 12, we get a picture of the church of the Old Testament.
Not specifically the Virgin Mary, but the bride of Christ in the Old Testament. In the New, same kind of imagery kind of bleeds over, but you get the idea here. It's in the woman, the believers of the Old Testament, that Christ comes out of.
She was pregnant, crying out in birth pains and agony of giving birth. Another sign appeared in heaven. Behold, a great red dragon, seven heads, ten horns on his head, seven diadems. Now I would note that not even on my worst day would I like to go toe to toe with a seven-headed red dragon.
It sounds like that would be the end of my life. The picture and imagery itself invokes, well, certain death. This is a weird theme to have to be preaching around Christmastime because it sounds like something I should be preaching at Halloween.
You know, this scary imagery. But here's the thing. You'll note that in our gospel text that, well, all the shepherds have gone. The star has disappeared. The magi have gone back to where they've come from.
Mary and Joseph haven't even had a moment to unpack and unload the gifts that they had received from the magi when they get word from an angel that they need to skedaddle and wander off into Egypt. And they left that very night.
You'll note that the Christmas themes themselves do not have us sitting there constantly looking at Jesus lying in a manger. Jesus is picked up and handled like a football and sent off to Egypt in order to protect his life.
We walk in danger all the way, the hymn says. And so you'll note this obsessed wily coyote red dragon with seven heads, ten horns on his head. This is the one who had swept down a third of the stars of heaven.
Talking about the angels of heaven. Cast them to the earth and the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth so that when she bore her child he might devour it. She gave birth to a male child, one who was to rule all the nations with a rod of iron but her child was caught up to God and to his throne and then the woman fled into the wilderness where she has a place prepared by God in which she is to be nourished for 1260 days.
You know, a time, time, half a time. That 1260 days is the time from Christ's ascension until the time of his return. You get the idea. And so, how did that work out for Satan? I'm going to devour the child?
Well, that didn't work out. Christ Jesus, not only was he born, he grew, he laid down his life, he was crucified for your sins and mine, rose victorious from the grave, ascended to the right hand of the Father.
There he reigns and rules to this day. Well, that didn't work out for the dragon. And we hear now what happens in the aftermath of Christ's victorious death, burial, resurrection, and ascension. And that is that the devil was, well, he had to change careers a little bit.
The next part of Revelation shows us what the devil had been up to, up to the point of Christ's burial and resurrection and death for our sins. And that is that apparently he was the worst attorney ever.
Very litigious. So, think of the devil before Christ's death for our sins. He was up in heaven accusing the saints, filing lawsuit after lawsuit after lawsuit. And Jesus' death on the cross silences him.
Here's what it says. Now, war arose in heaven. Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. The dragon and his angels, they fought back, but he was defeated. There was no longer any place for them in heaven.
And the great dragon then was thrown down, that ancient serpent who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world. He was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.
And I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, Now the salvation, the power, and the kingdom of our God and of the authority of his Christ have come. For the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God.
And they have conquered him by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony. For they love not their lives, even unto death. Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them. But woe to you on the earth!
The devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short. So think of it this way. Christ's death on the cross for your sins. He was pierced for your transgressions, bruised for your iniquities, and mine.
This then takes away the accusing power of the devil and Michael and the angels give him a new job, if you would. He's no longer an attorney. And you'll note that usually when things go poorly for something that you've planned, this is a time for self-reflection and to consider your life choices.
But did the devil consider his life choices and decide maybe I should give up this fight against God because it's not going to go my way? No. Not at all. And we now, being forgiven by Christ, the devil cannot accuse us of anything.
In fact, Paul says in Colossians 2 that the record of death that stood against us has been cancelled and has been nailed to the cross. There's nothing that the devil can accuse you with. You are covered by the blood of Christ.
You are clothed in his righteousness. But here's the thing. Having then been thrown out of heaven and to earth, the scriptures say that he's come down in great wrath because he knows that his time is short.
Yippee for us. But watch what happens next. This is exactly like a Roadrunner cartoon. The dragon then saw that he had been thrown down to the earth and so he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child.
But the woman was given the two wings of the great eagle so that she might fly from the serpent into the wilderness to the place where she is to be nourished for a time, time, and half a time. And the serpent poured out water like a river out of his mouth and after the woman to sweep her away with a flood.
But the earth came to the help of the woman and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed the river so that the dragon had poured from his mouth. Every attempt by the dragon to destroy the church, God miraculously steps in and saves the church.
And well, does this give the devil pause? No. He keeps at it. So then the dragon became furious with the woman, went off to make war on the rest of her offspring, that's us, on those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus.
So as we hear in our gospel text how Herod wanted to murder Christ and in so doing ended up murdering a whole lot of innocent children, and we hear about what, well, happened in Egypt. All those male children who were put to death because, again, the schemes and the evil of the devil to somehow put an end to the promises of God.
Again, I ask you, can God's word be broken? No, it cannot. So it's in that regard then we should consider what Peter writes to us. Because the fight is here. It's now. And the devil is like the Terminator, that second one that morphs into things and deceives and all that kind of stuff.
And he ain't gonna stop. He ain't gonna stop coming after you, coming after me, coming after the church, coming after those who bear the testimony and confess Jesus Christ as their Savior for the forgiveness of their sins.
He ain't gonna stop. Which means what? Suffering and persecution are the order of the day. And listen to what Peter says. Beloved, do not be surprised. I had no idea that Christianity was all about suffering.
Who knew? I had no idea that I was going to be persecuted for saying the truth. I thought that people were going to give me the key to the city. No! Don't be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you as though something strange were happening to you.
Have you ever stopped to think just that sentence alone, verse 12 of chapter 4 of 1 Peter, would probably and should give people pause at Lakewood, who believe that they're having their best life now.
You know what I'm saying here? Because they're going to be completely caught off guard. Suffering? Persecution? I didn't sign up for that. I signed up to be a millionaire in the name of Jesus. Well, that ain't gonna happen, right?
But here's what Peter says. Rejoice insofar as you share in Christ's sufferings. How is that possible? Because God's word cannot be broken. Just like Herod was not going to be able to kill Jesus, it was never going to happen because God's word cannot be broken, have you stopped to consider that when you are made to suffer and a fiery trial comes upon you as a Christian, that God's word said that that was exactly the thing that was coming.
So you should sit there and go, wow! That word of God is amazing! I saw this coming! I'm not surprised by the fiery trial. I know that it's here, and so you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to rejoice that God keeps His word.
Y 'all don't seem like it. You're sitting there going, I don't know about that. I mean, should we take suffering so lightly that we rejoice about it? Well, it says it right there. Well, that's my iPad, but it's in your Bible if you're reading along.
You get the idea. So rejoice insofar as what? You share in the sufferings of Christ. And every time we are made to suffer as Christians, when people lie about us, slander us, come at us, make us suffer, take away our jobs, because of our confession in Christ, or even take away our lives.
And I'll say this here. This is a little bit of a sobering fact. There's a vicar of a Lutheran denomination down in Australia whom I'm friends with, and last week I had a conversation with him. I knew that he had gone dark on social media, hadn't really seen him for a bit, so I checked in, did one of my friendship things, checking in, seeing how you're doing, vicar, how's it going?
And he got back with me, and we set up a Zoom call, and we talked for a little bit. But part of the reason why he went dark and why he was really kind of down is that at the time, remember when Kabul fell last year?
Well, he had been working with some Christian churches that were in Afghanistan. And he was on a Zoom call with some of the people in one of the churches in Kabul when the Taliban knocked on the door of the church.
And he watched video stream, live, as the Taliban demanded that these Christians renounce Christ. In his accounting of it, there were several very brave souls who very firmly said, we will never renounce Christ.
And they were gunned down as he watched. The religion of peace strikes again. But here's the thing. In my conversation with him, he actually was able to rejoice because he knew they were with Christ. You see, we Christians have nothing to fear when it comes to death.
One of the things my church father says, we Christians are the masters of death. And why is that? Because we've already died. The Scriptures say that when you are buried with Christ in the waters of baptism, you are raised with him.
You've got death already off your bucket list, so you're already dead. We are the masters of death. And what does the Word of God say? And the Word of God cannot be broken. Christ is giving you the new heavens and the new earth.
They belong to you. He's coming back just like he said. Just like Satan couldn't kill him, just like Satan can't really destroy you, when you are made to suffer, rejoice that you are participating in, sharing in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.
Therefore, if you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed. Do you believe these words? God's Word cannot be broken. You are blessed because the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler.
If you're suffering because of that, well then that's not suffering in the truest sense. That's called punishment. You're being punished for your sins. Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name.
For it is time for judgment to begin with us. What will be the outcome of those who do not obey the gospel of God? And if the righteous is scarcely saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?
Therefore, let those who suffer according to God's will entrust their souls to a faithful creator while doing good.". Again, we hear in our gospel text, this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet.
This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet. Hear then what the prophet says about us. A little bit of a picture. So when we are made to suffer, and we will be, when the fiery trial arrives, and it will, if it hasn't already, and if you've just finished one, don't worry, another one's coming.
The Word of God cannot be broken. Here's what the prophet says. In Isaiah chapter 60, we begin to get a picture of the world that is to come. And there's a specific prophecy about those who are troubling us.
And they would do wise to pay attention to it and maybe turn away from their sin and repent. But in Isaiah 60, we have this wonderful passage where in looking at the eschaton, you get a picture of something that relates to Christ, and then it bleeds over and has implications for us.
Here's what it says starting at verse 1. Arise and shine, your light has come. The glory of Yahweh has risen upon you. Behold, darkness shall cover the earth, thick darkness the peoples. But Yahweh will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you.
And nations shall come to your light, and the kings to the brightness of your rising. So lift up your eyes all around and see that they all together, they come to you. Your sons shall come from afar, your daughters shall be carried on the hip.
This is talking about Christ. Note that there is a day coming when all the nations, those who have been brought to faith in Christ from every tribe, nation, language, people, they will come streaming into the new Jerusalem.
And they will even be bringing their children with them. One of the things I think is really important here is that despite the horror that the women of Bethlehem went through who lost their children that day, they were in Christ.
And Christ will give them back to them. Their daughters, their children will be carried on the hip as they journey and sojourn now to the new Jerusalem to see their Lord and Savior and worship at his feet in his presence.
Then you shall be radiant, and your heart will thrill and exult because of the abundance of the sea. It will be turned to you, the wealth of the nations. It will come to you. A multitude of camels shall cover you, young camels of Midian and Ephah.
Those from Sheba shall come. They shall bring gold and frankincense and bring good news, the praises of Yahweh. All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered to you. The rams of Nebaioth shall minister to you.
They shall come up with the acceptance on my altar, and I will beautify my beautiful house. Who are these that fly like a cloud and like doves to their windows? For the coastlands shall hope for me, the ships of Tarshish first, to bring your children from afar, their silver, their gold with them.
For the name of Yahweh your God and for the Holy One of Israel, because he has made you beautiful. Foreigners shall build up your walls, and their kings will minister to you. For in my wrath I struck you, but in my favor I have had mercy on you.
Your gates shall be opened continually, day and night they shall not be shut, so that people may bring to you the wealth of the nations and their kings led in procession. For the nation and the kingdom that will not serve you, it will perish, and the nations shall utterly be laid waste.
The glory of Lebanon shall come to you, the cypress, the plain, the pine, to beautify the place of my sanctuary, and I will make the place of my feet glorious. The sons of those who afflicted you, listen to verse 14, the sons of those who afflicted you shall come bending low to you, and all who despised you shall bow down at your feet.
They shall call you the city of Yahweh, the Zion of the Holy One of Israel. So note then, even those who trouble us now as Christians, who persecute us and make us suffer because of our confession of Christ, the word of God cannot be broken.
The prophet has made it clear. Speaking the words given to him by the Holy Spirit, Isaiah makes it clear that even those who afflict us will come and bend low before Christ, and other passages of scripture make it clear that they will be made to confess that the Lord loved us.
So can the word of God be broken? No. When you think of that comical seven-headed red dragon, it was the original wily coyote. He still is to this day. Christ has defeated him, and he cannot defeat you because you are in Christ.
In the name of Jesus, amen.
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