Micah McCormick: Turn to the Gospel of Matthew.
Micah McCormick: It's the first book of the New Testament, Matthew chapter 2.
Micah McCormick: A little sad to be saying turn to the Gospel of Matthew for the last time in two years now.
Micah McCormick: And we're not going to be limiting ourselves to Matthew 2, but I want to start by reading from Scripture.
Micah McCormick: Matthew 2, verses 1 through 11.
Micah McCormick: After Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of King Herod, wise men from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying, Where is he who has been born king of the Jews?
Micah McCormick: For we saw his star at its rising and have come to worship him.
Micah McCormick: When King Herod heard this, he was deeply disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him.
Micah McCormick: So he assembled all the chief priests and scribes of the people and asked them where the Messiah would be born.
Micah McCormick: In Bethlehem of Judea, they told him, Because this is what was written by the prophet, and you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah, because out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.
Micah McCormick: Then Herod secretly summoned the wise men and asked them the exact time the star appeared.
Micah McCormick: He said to Bethlehem and said, Go and search carefully for the child.
Micah McCormick: When you find him, report back to me so that I too can go and worship him.
Micah McCormick: After hearing the king, they went on their way, and there it was the star they had seen at its rising, it led them until it came and stopped above the place where the child was.
Micah McCormick: When they saw the star, they were overwhelmed with joy.
Micah McCormick: Entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and falling to their knees, they worshipped him.
Micah McCormick: Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts, gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
Micah McCormick: Let's see, God again.
Micah McCormick: What precious words you allow us to sing, Lord, that the King there in his beauty without a veil is seen.
Micah McCormick: And we pray that we would indeed desire the King in His beauty, that we desire to know our Lord Jesus personally, as fully as possible in this life, that our hearts would be craving Him and worshiping Him with everything that we have.
Micah McCormick: Make us ready, disciples, eager to listen to your word today, we pray.
Micah McCormick: In Jesus' name.
Micah McCormick: Amen.
Micah McCormick: This is probably one of the most challenging sermons I've had to preach.
Micah McCormick: The title is Remembering Matthew.
Micah McCormick: We've been going through this book for two years.
Micah McCormick: It's one thing to preach an overview message on a book of the Bible.
Micah McCormick: That's challenging.
Micah McCormick: We've been doing that on Sunday nights.
Micah McCormick: I'd encourage you if you haven't had a chance to come out on Sunday night, come out, listen as various men take one book of the Bible at a time and teach through it.
Micah McCormick: But in this occasion, it's not merely an overview message, it's a remembering message.
Micah McCormick: How do you look back over two plus years of sermons and pick out the choicest and best nuggets?
Micah McCormick: That's a very hard task.
Micah McCormick: No doubt some of you might come up to me afterwards and say, Micah, why didn't you mention this?
Micah McCormick: Or I can't believe you didn't say this.
Micah McCormick: And I'll probably have to say, you know what, guilty as charged.
Micah McCormick: You're right, I didn't.
Micah McCormick: But but do come to me afterwards.
Micah McCormick: Do tell me what you've learned and how you've enjoyed the gospel of Matthew so that I can rejoice with you in the Lord.
Micah McCormick: When Pastor Doug started off this study through Matthew, he gave the illustration of flying in a plane over an area versus walking along the ground.
Micah McCormick: Flying in a plane, you get the big highlights.
Micah McCormick: You see the contours and features from a bird's eye view.
Micah McCormick: And then you walk along the ground.
Micah McCormick: It takes a lot longer, but you see all the nooks and crannies.
Micah McCormick: And so going through a book at one shot is kind of like that overview flight.
Micah McCormick: Or if you want to think about it a different way, if you take an overview, we're gonna set up some big, important building blocks, some big themes that Matthew seeks to build what he's doing on.
Micah McCormick: And if you haven't been with us for the last two years, and I know some of you started coming within the last two years, that's okay.
Micah McCormick: If today is your very first Sunday with us, that's okay.
Micah McCormick: Listen in and enjoy what we've experienced as we go through this book together.
Micah McCormick: So, how do you summarize Matthew?
Micah McCormick: You're probably thinking, well, Jesus has got to be in there somewhere, right?
Micah McCormick: And you're exactly right.
Micah McCormick: The main character of the gospel of Matthew is Jesus Christ.
Micah McCormick: There are four gospels devoted to him.
Micah McCormick: Matthew is one of them specifically.
Micah McCormick: So, yes, Jesus is central.
Micah McCormick: And Matthew helps us to see that the promised king has come to save his people.
Micah McCormick: Matthew helps us see that the promised king has come to save his people.
Micah McCormick: And we're gonna seek to build that as we go through some different building blocks.
Micah McCormick: So let's start with first building block.
Micah McCormick: Jesus is king.
Micah McCormick: I read Matthew chapter 2, verses 1 to 11 at the outset.
Micah McCormick: Hopefully you're still there.
Micah McCormick: From Jesus' birth, from the very start of his life, he's associated with kings.
Micah McCormick: So Matthew points out Jesus was born in the days of King Herod.
Micah McCormick: King Herod is jealous and tries to kill Jesus.
Micah McCormick: The verse in verse two of chapter two, the wise men are asking, Where is this one who has been born?
Micah McCormick: King of the Jews.
Micah McCormick: They travel a long way.
Micah McCormick: Verse 4 speaks of Jesus as a great ruler who's going to come.
Micah McCormick: And then that's chapter 2.
Micah McCormick: But back in chapter 1, if you just turn back to chapter 1, as Matthew opens his gospel, he starts with connecting Jesus to David.
Micah McCormick: And let me say also while we're here, I'm going to be offering you a lot of verses from Matthew as we go.
Micah McCormick: Some of them I'll ask you to turn to specifically, some of them I won't ask you to turn to.
Micah McCormick: If you want to try to turn, you can.
Micah McCormick: If you want to just listen in and wait for me to ask you to turn there, that's fine too.
Micah McCormick: Whatever's helpful for you.
Micah McCormick: But in chapter one, when Matthew opens the gospel, he connects Jesus to David.
Micah McCormick: So an account of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David.
Micah McCormick: Then he gives this long genealogy and it's structured around 14 generations, 14 generations, also a reference to David as the fulcrum of that genealogy.
Micah McCormick: In verse 20, when the angel appears to Joseph, the angel refers to Joseph as a son of David.
Micah McCormick: Who is David?
Micah McCormick: David's a famous king.
Micah McCormick: Do you hear that link and connection again?
Micah McCormick: Now let's fast forward.
Micah McCormick: When we come all the way to Matthew 21, the triumphal entry.
Micah McCormick: Jesus is a grown man.
Micah McCormick: He comes into Jerusalem for one of his final appearances.
Micah McCormick: And the crowds are shouting out, Hosanna to the son of David, the son of the great king.
Micah McCormick: And then Matthew quotes a verse from Zachariah: See, your king is coming to you.
Micah McCormick: In Matthew 27, Jesus is on trial before Pilate.
Micah McCormick: And Pilate asks him if he's king of the Jews.
Micah McCormick: They put a placard above his head as he's crucified.
Micah McCormick: This was the king of the Jews.
Micah McCormick: One of the thieves cries out on the cross, He's the king of Israel.
Micah McCormick: Let him come down from the cross.
Micah McCormick: So at key points in Matthew's gospel, opening genealogy, birth of Christ, triumphal entry, crucifixion, at all of these points, the idea of Jesus as king is swirling around.
Micah McCormick: On top of that, Matthew speaks of the kingdom of heaven.
Micah McCormick: So part of what we covered was in Matthew chapter 5.
Micah McCormick: You may remember the Beatitude, that's going back a ways now, but we took time to slow down and go through each beatitude with one sermon at a time.
Micah McCormick: Well, in Matthew 5, those beatitudes, those blessings begin with a blessing for those who will have the kingdom of heaven.
Micah McCormick: And then at the end again, they will receive the kingdom of heaven.
Micah McCormick: In Matthew chapter 13, Jesus tells a number of parables explaining and illustrating the kingdom of heaven.
Micah McCormick: Now, track with me though, usually when you have a kingdom, there's also got to be a king.
Micah McCormick: Jesus is the king.
SPEAKER_00: But what kind of king is he?
Micah McCormick: How does Matthew reveal Jesus as the king?
Micah McCormick: When we think about a king, we often think of someone who rules, who has authority.
Micah McCormick: And that's true, Jesus does rule, he does have authority.
Micah McCormick: But that's not the full and complete picture of Jesus.
Micah McCormick: And this is where many people in Matthew's gospel, oh, they wanted a king.
Micah McCormick: But they wanted a king on their terms, not on his terms.
Micah McCormick: They wanted a king of their own devising for their own purposes rather than receiving Jesus as he revealed himself to be.
Micah McCormick: How else could you explain that the crowds could be shouting out one day, Hosanna to the Son of David?
Micah McCormick: And then shortly after that, seemingly many of those same people are shouting out, crucify him.
Micah McCormick: He didn't meet the kind of kingly expectations that they were looking for.
Micah McCormick: The Jewish people in particular were looking for a knight to kind of ride in in shining armor and overthrow the Roman rulers.
Micah McCormick: And Jesus does come again on a horse.
Micah McCormick: He does come again in regal splendor, but his first coming was different in many ways.
Micah McCormick: He's going to be a conquering king, but Matthew reveals him first as a suffering king.
Micah McCormick: So what do we make of Jesus?
Micah McCormick: Are we willing to accept him as he reveals himself to be, as the suffering king?
Micah McCormick: Yes, the Almighty, all-ruling one.
Micah McCormick: He wasn't impotent in that sense or weak in any way, but he allowed himself to be killed.
Micah McCormick: And even in that demonstration, it was a demonstration of laying down his life voluntarily.
Micah McCormick: What strength, and yet at the same time, what gentleness.
Micah McCormick: And doesn't that speak to our own lives today?
Micah McCormick: We want a king who is not weak, or a king who is not brash, or a king who is not deceptive, or a king who doesn't run over people, or Jesus again was courageous.
Micah McCormick: He was determined.
Micah McCormick: And yet he didn't break a bruised reed or quench a smoking flax till he put out judgment to victory.
Micah McCormick: He's gentle and lowly in heart, and he invites people to come and find rest for their souls, first and foremost.
Micah McCormick: So we'll come to that mission of Christ a little bit later on in the sermon.
Micah McCormick: But before we do that, first building block, Jesus is king.
Micah McCormick: He's the king.
Micah McCormick: Next building block, Jesus is the promised king.
Micah McCormick: Over and over in Matthew's gospel, we've seen this idea of fulfillment, that Jesus comes as the long-awaited fulfillment of all that was promised in the Old Testament scriptures.
Micah McCormick: He doesn't pop onto the scene suddenly out of the blue like E.T.
Micah McCormick: He's he's there, he's been slated to come all along, and he comes in fulfillment of all that the prophets spoke about.
Micah McCormick: I reference that passage in Matthew 21, where Matthew says, Your king is coming to you.
Micah McCormick: He says that because he's quoting Zachariah and says it was necessary for the scripture to be fulfilled.
Micah McCormick: Jesus rides in on a donkey, your king is coming to you, gentle and lowly in heart.
Micah McCormick: If you're not still there, turn to Matthew 2, turn back to Matthew 2.
Micah McCormick: I started there because again, with those that have ears to hear, they shouldn't have misunderstood the kind of king they needed.
Micah McCormick: If they really had ears to hear, if they were grabbing hold of the Old Testament scriptures, they would have known better what kind of a king to look for.
Micah McCormick: And I mentioned Matthew chapter 2 because three different times in Matthew 2, it speaks of Christ fulfilling, fulfilling.
Micah McCormick: Verse 15.
Micah McCormick: He stayed there until Herod's death, so that what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet might be fulfilled.
Micah McCormick: Out of Egypt I called my son.
Micah McCormick: Verse 17 That what was spoken through Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled.
Micah McCormick: A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping in great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and she refused to be consoled because they are no more.
Micah McCormick: And then verse 23, then he went and settled into a town called Nazareth to fulfill what was spoken through the prophets, that he would be called a Nazarene.
Micah McCormick: So early on in the gospel, it's like Matthew, it's like he has this megaphone out and he's announcing, He's here, the king is here, the king who's been promised, the king who comes in fulfillment of all that's been said.
Micah McCormick: It's fulfilled, it's fulfilled, it's filled, it's fulfilled, he's here, he's here, he's here.
Micah McCormick: When we think of fulfillment, we often think of direct verbal prediction.
Micah McCormick: And we do have that in scripture.
Micah McCormick: You can see verse 5 of chapter 2.
Micah McCormick: Look back at that.
Micah McCormick: I read that earlier.
Micah McCormick: In Bethlehem of Judea, they told him, Because this is what was written by the prophet.
Micah McCormick: And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah, because out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.
Micah McCormick: So the Old Testament said, a ruler's coming from Bethlehem.
Micah McCormick: Here's Jesus, he's from Bethlehem, boom, there it is.
Micah McCormick: Direct verbal prediction, and Jesus fulfills that.
Micah McCormick: But what we've seen in Matthew as we've gone through is that there's another kind of fulfillment, and this fulfillment arguably happens even more often than direct verbal prediction.
Micah McCormick: And that's the fulfillment of historical patterns.
Micah McCormick: There are events and people and places from the Old Testament, and often there's repeating events and repeating kinds of people and repeated references to places.
Micah McCormick: And those historical objects, people, events form a pattern that creates an expectation for something greater to fulfill the final installment of that pattern.
Micah McCormick: And Jesus, in so many ways, fulfills those patterns.
Micah McCormick: Let me give you one example of that just in general.
Micah McCormick: This is a little easier to track.
Micah McCormick: In the Old Testament, they slaughtered animals all the time.
Micah McCormick: Animal sacrifice after animal sacrifice after animal sacrifice, lamb killed after lamb killed after lamb killed.
Micah McCormick: It's like that kept happening.
Micah McCormick: There was a pattern there because there's a greater lamb who is coming.
Micah McCormick: So John the Baptist can say, Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
Micah McCormick: But that wouldn't really make sense what John said without that repeated pattern.
Micah McCormick: If you just had John saying that, how would you know why is Jesus a lamb and what what's the but the pattern helps set up for Jesus to fulfill that?
Micah McCormick: So there's patterns like that.
Micah McCormick: There's one here in Matthew 2, more than one, but look again at verse 15.
Micah McCormick: The the technical word for that sort of what I'm calling pattern prophecy is typology.
Micah McCormick: Now it's kind of a fancy word.
Micah McCormick: If that word makes you think of Times New Roman and Ariel, then forget about it.
Micah McCormick: Don't worry about it.
Micah McCormick: But if you're reading other places, they might use the word typology, but just pattern prophecy or picture prophecy.
Micah McCormick: Look at verse 15.
Micah McCormick: This is a little more complicated example, and we'll just we'll just sketch it here.
Micah McCormick: But it's an example of this kind of pattern fulfillment.
Micah McCormick: He stayed there until Herod's death, so that what was spoken by the Lord through the prophets might be fulfilled.
Micah McCormick: There's our key word fulfilled.
Micah McCormick: Out of Egypt I called my son.
Micah McCormick: What's going on in Matthew 2?
Micah McCormick: Again, Joseph and Mary flee with baby Jesus into Egypt in order to escape from Herod, who's trying to have Jesus killed.
Micah McCormick: So you think, okay, well, I get it.
Micah McCormick: Out of Egypt, I called my son.
Micah McCormick: They go to Egypt, baby Jesus is with them.
Micah McCormick: At some point they got to come back from Egypt.
Micah McCormick: So he's gonna kind of fulfill that.
Micah McCormick: It kind of makes sense.
Micah McCormick: Except, when you go back to Hosea chapter 11, and Matthew here is quoting from Hosea chapter 11.
Micah McCormick: You go back and read where he quotes from Hosea chapter 11, it doesn't sound like a prediction.
Micah McCormick: Hosea 11 doesn't say, Oh you of Egypt, out of you will come the Messiah one day in the last days.
Micah McCormick: When you read Hosea 11, it sounds like the Lord is describing a past historical event through the prophet Hosea.
Micah McCormick: Israel is referred to as God's son.
Micah McCormick: The nation is called God's son.
Micah McCormick: And it seems like in Hosea 11, the prophet is saying, Remember, Israel, out of Egypt I called my son.
Micah McCormick: Remember when you were in Egypt and you were enslaved to the Egyptians, and I brought you out?
Micah McCormick: So he's just saying what happened.
Micah McCormick: So how is baby Jesus in Egypt, how is that a fulfillment of an event that took place in the past?
Micah McCormick: Because it's an example of this kind of pattern fulfillment.
Micah McCormick: God's son Israel was in Egypt and God brought them out.
Micah McCormick: But there's a greater son coming, a greater Israel coming, and God's gonna bring him out of Egypt.
Micah McCormick: He fulfills the pattern of what happened in Israel's history.
Micah McCormick: The book of Matthew presents Jesus as the true fulfillment of the nation of Israel.
Micah McCormick: Their very existence and the things that happened to them were a kind of anticipation of Or expectation or promise looking forward that Matthew says, King Jesus is here.
Micah McCormick: He's the promised one who fulfills these things.
Micah McCormick: So Israel comes out of Egypt and then they go through the waters and they go into the wilderness and they're tempted by God and they fail.
Micah McCormick: Jesus comes out of Egypt.
Micah McCormick: Then Matthew moves to his baptism scene where he passes through the waters.
Micah McCormick: Then Matthew brings us to Jesus in the wilderness being tempted, tested by the Lord.
Micah McCormick: But now we see the contrast.
Micah McCormick: Unlike Israel, who complained and griped and had to be there 40 years because of all their moaning and groaning, Jesus, tempted by Satan himself, perfectly passes the test.
Micah McCormick: God says that he was displeased with Israel in the wilderness.
Micah McCormick: He says of Jesus, this is my beloved son with whom I'm well pleased.
Micah McCormick: Pattern fulfillment.
Micah McCormick: He's the promised king.
Micah McCormick: Jesus' first great rule, uh, not Jesus, sorry, Israel's first great ruler was Moses.
Micah McCormick: Matthew shows many ways that Jesus fulfills the pattern of a Moses-like ruler.
Micah McCormick: So Moses is a great prophet who teaches the people.
Micah McCormick: A lot of what we've seen in Matthew is Jesus teaching as a prophet of God.
Micah McCormick: And this may be a stretch, but there's five big blocks of teaching in Matthew.
Micah McCormick: Moses wrote five books.
Micah McCormick: Some people said, that's kind of interesting.
Micah McCormick: But there's other ways that are even more clear.
Micah McCormick: For example, in Matthew 5 through 7, Jesus gives what we sometimes refer to as the Sermon on the Mount.
Micah McCormick: Why do we call it that?
Micah McCormick: Well, it's because Scripture tells us Jesus went up on the mountain and began to teach.
Micah McCormick: Okay.
Micah McCormick: That exact phrase went up on the mountain.
Micah McCormick: In the Greek translation of the Old Testament, it's only used three times.
Micah McCormick: It's always used of when Moses went up on the mountain of Sinai and received God's law and gave it to the people.
Micah McCormick: And now Jesus goes up in fulfillment of that pattern and gives God's teaching to the people, but he does it in a way that has even more authority than Moses.
Micah McCormick: Moses receives the law, the hands of angels and the Lord.
Micah McCormick: Jesus is himself, the Lord of glory, God himself giving his law.
Micah McCormick: Jesus is not only a king, he's the promised king.
Micah McCormick: We've already talked about how he's presented as David's son, David's son, fulfillment, fulfillment.
Micah McCormick: David's own son, Solomon.
Micah McCormick: Well, wasn't Solomon even greater than David?
Micah McCormick: Yes.
Micah McCormick: And in Matthew chapter 12, verse 42, Jesus says that the queen of the south came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, but something greater than Solomon is here.
Micah McCormick: Those earthly kings and rulers, whether Moses or even later David, who's greater, or Solomon's even greater, Jesus is even greater than them.
Micah McCormick: And when we see what Matthew's doing with all of these pattern fulfillments, it should just massively affect the way that we read Scripture.
Micah McCormick: So I hope and we pray that this series in Matthew has helped us together not only to hear God's word as it's taught, but even in our own reading, to read scripture carefully with a view to finding Jesus Christ.
Micah McCormick: So it sounds great.
Micah McCormick: We want to look for Christ in all of Scripture.
Micah McCormick: If I were to ask you, where do you find Christ in the Old Testament?
Micah McCormick: How would you answer?
Micah McCormick: Well, Isaiah 53, he was pierced for our transgressions, he was wounded for our iniquities.
Micah McCormick: That is great.
Micah McCormick: Amen.
Micah McCormick: Wonderful.
Micah McCormick: Where else?
Micah McCormick: Uh there's a virgin will conceive in Barasan, not sure where that is.
Micah McCormick: That's somewhere there, too.
Micah McCormick: Amen.
Micah McCormick: Yes.
Micah McCormick: What Matthew is showing us, there's not just a verse here or a verse there, but there's whole sweeps of historical events and people and places that bring us to Christ.
Micah McCormick: And it's not because we have a great imagination, it's because we're reading carefully and we're looking for these patterns, these God-intended patterns, as one commentator calls them pattern-shaped promises.
Micah McCormick: Another thing about this understanding of Jesus as the promised king, when we read the Bible the way that Matthew, under inspiration from God, so we can't fault him in any way, the way he read his Bible, the details of our own individual lives become less significant.
Micah McCormick: And it's actually a good thing.
Micah McCormick: It's not a bad thing.
Micah McCormick: Sometimes when people talk about, you know, making Jesus the center of their lives, it can sound a little bit like this.
Micah McCormick: You know, I was really just distressed.
Micah McCormick: I didn't know if I should get the granite countertops or the or the walnut countertops.
Micah McCormick: And I was walking through my neighborhood, and then I saw this stone.
Micah McCormick: And then I was remembering, Jesus says, You gotta build on the rock.
Micah McCormick: And I I knew Jesus was calling me to get the granite countertops.
Micah McCormick: I'm just, if if he wasn't the center of my life, I don't know what I would do.
Micah McCormick: Couple of things.
Micah McCormick: First, I hate to break it to you.
Micah McCormick: No one cares what kind of countertops you get.
Micah McCormick: Just pick some.
Micah McCormick: That was kind of me, but uh I'm sure people love home decor.
Micah McCormick: If you love that, that's great, and we'll I'll celebrate with you and you get your your countertops.
Micah McCormick: But and this is this is the more important thing, then.
Micah McCormick: This is the more important thing.
Micah McCormick: We we trust that, and I pray this is not the case.
Micah McCormick: It it when we talk that way, it doesn't sound like Jesus is the center of our lives.
Micah McCormick: It sounds like the home that home decor is the center of our lives.
Micah McCormick: Making Jesus center of our lives is not just we've got him like our dear Abbey columnist.
Micah McCormick: He can always give us some good advice for our events and the people that we know and the objects that we love.
Micah McCormick: We've got a scripture that brings us and shows us how all of history is orchestrated by God to point to the Savior.
Micah McCormick: And the events of the past, the events of people's lives when we weren't even existing, were designed by God to highlight the beauty of this king and the glory of his redemption.
Micah McCormick: There's eternal significance there.
Micah McCormick: And if we belong to King Jesus, then that's that's meaningful.
Micah McCormick: That's that's something that's really important.
Micah McCormick: That that brings an eternal reality to our lives that's far more grand and glorious than those little details that sometimes occupy us so much.
Micah McCormick: One final building block for this morning.
Micah McCormick: I didn't say the sermon was almost over, I just said one final building block.
Micah McCormick: Jesus is king, he's the promised king.
Micah McCormick: He's the promised king who's come to save his people.
Micah McCormick: Turn back to Matthew chapter one.
Micah McCormick: We already heard this read this morning, but look again at verse 21.
Micah McCormick: She will give birth to a son, and you are to name him Jesus because he will save his people from their sins.
Micah McCormick: That's the fundamental problem with humanity.
Micah McCormick: That's the fundamental reason why Jesus came.
Micah McCormick: According to verse 23, he's also called Emmanuel, God with us.
Micah McCormick: We as humans were made to know and enjoy God.
Micah McCormick: But that communion's broken.
Micah McCormick: God can't rightly in his righteousness dwell and live with people who are rebels, who are sinners, and that's all of us.
Micah McCormick: So that problem has to be resolved.
Micah McCormick: And that's what Jesus came to do to save his people from their sins, so that we might again receive Emmanuel, God, with us and know him in that fellowship and personal communion.
Micah McCormick: Jesus didn't come first and foremost to be a political advisor in the earthly sphere.
Micah McCormick: He didn't come first and foremost to give wise advice to people.
Micah McCormick: He didn't come first and foremost to be a doctor that could that could help people get their health together.
Micah McCormick: Yes, the Bible speaks to all of those areas, and Jesus will affect all of those things.
Micah McCormick: But without that foundation of forgiveness of sins, those those good things can never take place.
Micah McCormick: So we have to keep that central purpose in mind.
Micah McCormick: If we don't, we're going to be in danger of treating Jesus like the Jewish people did, or even like the Rome people did, as a mere human who can help them in the here and now.
Micah McCormick: But but what about God?
Micah McCormick: What about eternity?
Micah McCormick: What about all those things?
Micah McCormick: The fact that the Lord of the Ages took on a human nature and allowed himself to be slaughtered, that wasn't a failure.
Micah McCormick: Matthew shows us that was a radical success.
Micah McCormick: Because that's what was needed.
Micah McCormick: And this same king invites us to receive him.
Micah McCormick: That we who should have been sacrificed and slaughtered, like Herod wanted to do with those babies, we who should have experienced not just human judgment, but actually God's judgment for our rebellion, we can come to Christ and find life.
Micah McCormick: And Jesus extends with all of his kingly authority that warm welcome.
Micah McCormick: Come to me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest.
Micah McCormick: You won't find it anywhere else, but you'll find it in Christ.
Micah McCormick: When we're truly saved, so Jesus came as the promised king to save his people.
Micah McCormick: When we truly find that salvation from God, our sins are forgiven, when we become disciples of Jesus Christ, he's saved us, not just so that we can have kind of a ticket in our pocket that when we get to heaven after we die, we can, oh, where's this ticket?
Micah McCormick: Yeah, I can get in.
Micah McCormick: The salvation of Jesus leads to us being his followers.
Micah McCormick: I mean, how could we not follow someone who has sacrificed himself?
Micah McCormick: He's really brought us a restoration with God.
Micah McCormick: I want to follow that person.
Micah McCormick: I want to lay down my life.
Micah McCormick: I want, I want to pick up my cross.
Micah McCormick: So we don't live that life of a disciple in order to earn God's favor, but out of thankfulness for what Christ has accomplished.
Micah McCormick: And we see the call to Matthew throughout as a call to discipleship.
Micah McCormick: Lest someone be confused and think, once again, I'll take Jesus on my terms.
Micah McCormick: I'll take some forgiveness and then I'll live how I want.
Micah McCormick: That shows you probably don't really know and understand who Jesus is.
Micah McCormick: You haven't actually really seen your sin for the horrible thing that it is.
Micah McCormick: The call to be a saved disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ is a radical call.
Micah McCormick: It doesn't mean you have to go live on a commune in Oklahoma somewhere.
Micah McCormick: But when I say radical, I mean it's total.
Micah McCormick: It affects, it should affect every dimension of our lives.
Micah McCormick: How we talk, how we think, how we act, how we work, how we play, how we worship.
Micah McCormick: It's it's total.
SPEAKER_00: Turn to Matthew 16.
SPEAKER_00: Turn over to Matthew 16.
Micah McCormick: There's a lot of places we can go when we speak to this salvation that Jesus brought for those who know, for those who've turned from their sins and embraced his substitutionary sacrifice and trust in him alone.
Micah McCormick: We could go in a lot of places, but let me get how do you go to Matthew 16?
Micah McCormick: Those who have been saved by King Jesus, they confess Jesus as Messiah and Lord.
Micah McCormick: And we find this in chapter 16.
Micah McCormick: Look at verse 16.
Micah McCormick: Simon Peter answered, You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.
Micah McCormick: There's the confession.
Micah McCormick: So we don't we don't work and work and work and hope.
Micah McCormick: We confess, we trust, but then there's the fruit of following him with our lives.
Micah McCormick: Now look down to verse 18.
Micah McCormick: And I also say to you that this is Christ still speaking, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.
Micah McCormick: The very first institution that Jesus our King mentions after this central confession from Peter is the church.
Micah McCormick: So at this critical point of Matthew's gospel, Jesus shows us that his true confessors, his true disciples who have been saved, they're going to assemble together.
Micah McCormick: It's the Lord's doing, he builds his church, but that institution is going to be a foundational piece of the kind of life God calls his saved disciples to live.
Micah McCormick: Might have told the story before, but I was with a group of youth workers one day, good folks who are trying to love teens, especially.
Micah McCormick: And someone had mentioned, you know, surveys suggest that young people they they want to follow Jesus, they just don't want to be part of the church.
Micah McCormick: You know what that reveals?
Micah McCormick: If that's true, it reveals young people have misunderstood what it means to follow Jesus.
Micah McCormick: Now it might reveal more than that.
Micah McCormick: Certainly, sadly, there are churches that don't well exhibit the glory and beauty of Christ.
Micah McCormick: We we acknowledge that.
Micah McCormick: But Jesus said he's going to build his church and he loves the church.
Micah McCormick: That's his body, that's his bride.
Micah McCormick: So if you're really saved and you're following Jesus, you you would want to love his body and bride.
Micah McCormick: And it's such an incredible thing that Jesus has saved us as individuals.
Micah McCormick: Yes, we don't become a disciple simply because our parents are, or simply because we were born in a certain country, anything like that.
Micah McCormick: He saves us as individuals, but he doesn't save us to be by ourselves.
Micah McCormick: He saves us to be part of assemblies that gather together for worship and prayer, that go out and speak and share and work and labor and give.
Micah McCormick: This is the life God has called us to.
Micah McCormick: This is what we get to do as a follower of Jesus Christ.
Micah McCormick: Last passage for this morning, Matthew 28.
Micah McCormick: Turn over there.
Micah McCormick: Pastor Doug was just here last week.
Micah McCormick: There's a attention in Matthew, as all of the gospels, that Christ has accomplished salvation.
Micah McCormick: He's brought in his kingdom, he's the king who reigns.
Micah McCormick: And yet we see people that haven't bowed the knee to him.
Micah McCormick: We experience death and suffering.
Micah McCormick: So the king has arrived, he's inaugurated his kingdom, but the final installment isn't here yet.
Micah McCormick: That's in glory.
Micah McCormick: But in the meantime, he's given us the power of worship, and he's given us a mission to share that the promised king has come to save his people.
Micah McCormick: To share with those that we know and love, the promised king has come to save his people, to share lovingly, thoughtfully, in wisdom, but to speak the promised king has come to save his people.
Micah McCormick: And in Matthew 28, that's the call that Jesus leaves to his followers.
Micah McCormick: That's the call that Matthew leaves us with.
Micah McCormick: And you might, this question might even be in your minds.
SPEAKER_00: Who are his people?
Micah McCormick: It's all those who repent of their sins and trust in Jesus Christ alone.
Micah McCormick: That includes people from all places.
Micah McCormick: It's not just Jewish people, it's not just women or men or rich or poor.
Micah McCormick: It's all kinds of people from all places.
Micah McCormick: That's who Christ is calling to Himself.
Micah McCormick: He's building his church, he's establishing churches that proclaim the gospel in all kinds of places among all kinds of people.
Micah McCormick: So go and make disciples.
Micah McCormick: That's the glorious call.
Micah McCormick: The message is an exclusive message in the sense that it centers on Christ and you can find salvation only in Christ.
Micah McCormick: That's how great and glorious He is.
Micah McCormick: But it's not an exclusive message in who it goes out to.
Micah McCormick: You don't have to be a certain age.
Micah McCormick: You don't have to have a certain family status.
Micah McCormick: You don't have to have a certain ethnic identity.
Micah McCormick: No, you come as an image bearer of God and you receive Christ and you find salvation.
Micah McCormick: And that's what brings us together first and foremost to celebrate our Lord is because we found together the Savior.
Micah McCormick: This was God's plan all along.
Micah McCormick: It's not a new idea.
Micah McCormick: So at the beginning of Matthew's gospel, wise men from the east come to worship the Savior.
Micah McCormick: In Matthew 4, he goes to Galilee of the Gentiles.
Micah McCormick: In Matthew 8, he heals a centurion's son.
Micah McCormick: In Matthew 15, he receives a Canaanite woman.
Micah McCormick: And then here in Matthew 28, it's a fitting conclusion to all of Matthew's gospel.
Micah McCormick: Jesus tells his disciples, Go and multiply.
Micah McCormick: Make more.
Micah McCormick: That commission from the very beginning of multiplying now has been renewed and even heightened.
Micah McCormick: Go and make spiritual.
Micah McCormick: Spiritual disciples pray that God would give new birth.
Micah McCormick: Go armed with this message.
Micah McCormick: And friends, go and let us leave Matthew remembering as we heard last week, the promise of Christ.
Micah McCormick: He's with us.
Micah McCormick: With us always is our Savior.
Micah McCormick: Without us, never is our Savior.
Micah McCormick: Let's pray.
Micah McCormick: Lord God, how we celebrate what a beautiful Savior Christ is.
Micah McCormick: Lord, there are so many things about the ministry of our Lord.
Micah McCormick: We thank you for the miraculous signs that He did that accompanied all of His teaching.
Micah McCormick: How He showed authority over evil spirits and demons.
Micah McCormick: How he's bringing about a new creation.
Micah McCormick: And this is our King.
Micah McCormick: This is the one that we're loyal to.
Micah McCormick: This is the one that demands and has the loyalty of our bodies and our hearts.
Micah McCormick: So help us love him more.
Micah McCormick: As we think over the gospel of Matthew, help us to be submitting with renewed gladness and joy, that we would be bowing our knees and our hearts before the King to see the whole sweep of the plan of your history of redemption, how these things we've talked about and many, many more, point us to our Savior, draw our affections to Him, the Lord of glory.
Micah McCormick: We thank you that He's come to accomplish salvation, and He's certainly accomplished it.
Micah McCormick: Thank you that the Spirit of God is applying that saving work to our lives.
Micah McCormick: Give us an urgency to love one another.
Micah McCormick: Give us an urgency to encourage one another while it's called today.
Micah McCormick: Give us an urgency to go and share, to go to the ends of the earth, to go wherever we can, to go prayerfully, thoughtfully, to go with the humble and yet glorious message of King Jesus on our lips.
Micah McCormick: These are two great uh things for us to accomplish, but you are with us always.
Micah McCormick: So be with us this day and all of this week, we ask, in the name of Christ our King.
Micah McCormick: Amen.