Fulfillment
Matthew: Kingdom Authority • Sermon • Submitted
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· 8 viewsA discussion of the forms of Fulfillment in Scripture
Notes
Transcript
Psalm of the Day: Psalm 95.
Psalm of the Day: Psalm 95.
Scripture Reading: Josh 23.14
Scripture Reading: Josh 23.14
“And now I am about to go the way of all the earth, and you know in your hearts and souls, all of you, that not one word has failed of all the good things that the Lord your God promised concerning you. All have come to pass for you; not one of them has failed.
Sermon:
Sermon:
GMC! I was glad when they said to me let us go and worship in the house of the Lord!
Well this morning we are doing something a little different, something I have actually been looking forward to since we started this series through Matthew. I know many f you might be a little nervous as you see that the passage before us is Matthew 1:18-2:23. and you might be thinking we've covered that, we've done these verse before. And we have!.
So before we dive into what we are going to do today, I guess i would just like to preface it by giving you a little “philosophy of ministry” i guess we can call it. There will be a thought, an idea that will tie each and every section of scripture together, we have already looked at these before, but we glazed over this, it was there, we noted it in some cases, but it deserves a full sermon I believe. Heres a little hint. I will read some verses and lets see if we can’t see the connection I am getting at.
All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:
They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet:
and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, “Out of Egypt I called my son.”
Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah:
And he went and lived in a city called Nazareth, so that what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled, that he would be called a Nazarene.
And as I prepared to preach these portions, these sections of Scripture, I knew that we would need to at some point take a step back and try and understand what is going on in Matthew and this thought of “fulfillment”. for we have seen it here, we saw it in the passages that we have already gone through one time. and spoiler alert to the rest of the book of Matthew we will see it again. even as we look forward to just chapter 3 we read this in Matthew 3:3
For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said,
“The voice of one crying in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord;
make his paths straight.’ ”
And so this thought of “fulfilling what was said by the prophets” will be prominent and important. and on one level we could with each and every individual one “what is Matthew doing here” and we will look at each one and ask: what does this mean, how does this impact my life” but there is a technical side of understanding prophecy that I wanted to get out of the way now, before we dive in deeper.
And here is the philosophy of ministry portion I was talking about. because often when we talk about “”Fulfilling prophecy” there is much confusion. and we don’t always have a full grasp, or as good a grasp on what is actually going on when scripture says that something is “fulfilled.” I mean there are books that say: jesus was the fulfillment of some crazy number like 800 biblical prophecies and we might hear that and wonder: I didn’t even know there were that many prophecies in total. and so we need to have a better grasp in general.
When Paul was writing to timothy. in 2 Timothy 2:15
Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.
and as i contemplate what it means to rightly handle the word of truth I feel a great burden. One of the things I feel called to do as your pastor first and foremost is preach the gospel. In season and out of season. proclaim the hope of new life and salvation we have in Jesus Chrsit. So that is my primary first and most important goal aim and calling. but then there is also this thought of having to teach. and when Paul tells Timothy to be a workman who rightly handles the word of truth there is this thought that you need to rightly handle Scripture, and we can then assume that it is possible to “wrongly” handle Scripture. SO some sermons, most times I get up here I get to kinda Preach in every fullness of the word and I love to preach, but other times I get to teach, to give you tools and ways that you can learn to rightly handle the word of truth. and this one falls much more into the teaching side of the world (though I can’t help my self, We will get to some preaching parts later. My hope together we will learn together how to rightly handle the word of truth and we will learn how to understand what Scripture is saying about our savior and king in these “fulfillment passages.
But before we dive into and see what Matthew is particularly dong in these five narratives these five fulfillments, lets begin with a word of prayer.
PRAY
So I already read the main portions of what we will be looking at, that there is a repeated theme of “fulfilling what The Lord had said by the prophet”And fulfilling what was spoken by the prophet over and over again in this section. and so we are not going to rad through this block of scripture together this morning, because we have done that already but what I would like us to say, and to see is that there clearly Matthew does not mean the same thing every time he says “this fulfills”. Let me explain that by way of example.
I just yesterday, by the grace and mercy of God made it through another class, this one one the Pauline epistles. And If I were to say to you: that class taught me about the structure and flow of the Pauline letters. you would understand that I meant that was what the class was about. But if I said to you that class taught me anew that I really really really need to repent of and work on my procrastinating you would understand that that was NOT a topic of the class but yet a lesson that the class taught me nonetheless.
Both of these are thoughts of what the class taught me, but the meaning of how, and the fundamental structure of what “taught” means, we understand the difference.
Well with fulfillment in prophecy it is helpful to understand that there are two main ways that we can see that taking place. and the reason that I decided to wit until after we preached through these once to go over this is that I hope we are a little more familiar with these passages and can better grasp the slight differences that make a big difference.
and so what we see is that one type of way that fulfillment works is by what we would call PRECISE FULFILLMENT. And to help you remember that here is your mnemonic device. Precise fulfillment show us that “this is that”
PRECISE FULFILLMENT show us “this is that”
PRECISE FULFILLMENT show us “this is that”
as we look at the five fulfillments that we have in front of us today, the first two, the virgin birth and the Messiah coming from Bethlehem, these are precise prophetic fulfillments.
Now when I say this is that, this is my goal to help us understand what precise fulfillment are. by this is that I mean: he looks to an event that is happening if we look back, that passage was teaching us specifically what we need to look for to see the Messiah. so THIS event that is happening is THAT specific forward looking prophecy about the Messiah. they are called precise fulfillments because they are very unique and narrow about how we can interpret them.
So our first, by way of example, is the virgin birth. Matthew 1:22-23
All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:
“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and they shall call his name Immanuel”
(which means, God with us).
we will be flipping a bit this morning, OR you can make some notes and we flip around later at home, and either way I would encourage you to look into this at home because if you can grasp this, and put time and effort into understanding these different ways prophecy works, you will be much better prepared to look at books like Revelation, Daniel, Ezekiel and all the fun and exciting passages that are really rally hard. But if you could flip with me to Isaiah 7, that is where this passage comes form.
The context, we just went through Isaiah, and this was a long time ago. but the context here is the “sign of Emmanuel”. Isaiah has come to king Ahaz, and there has been trouble and Ahaz does not trust God in the way that he should we saw all that, and so God gives to Ahaz a unique prophecy to know that god will be with him. and it is then Isaiah 7:13-14
And he said, “Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary men, that you weary my God also? Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
So he will be given a direct sign, what is that sign:
and this is a particular unique one event and say: you want a sign from the lord? Well your sign will be the virgin birth. and So Matthew looks to jesus, looks to the messiah and asks: what things MUST be true, what precise prophecies are there and one is clearly here, the virgin birth. and it works the messiah, how can we know he is the Messiah, well this event in his life is strange, the virgin birth and look this even is in THAT prophecy. Jesus is the Messiah!
The second precise fulfilment comes in the visit of the wisemen as they ask: where is this king of the Jews? And the chief priests and scribes have a keen and particular answer. Because there were precise prophecies given in the OT about where the ruler, where the Messiah will come from. and so they are able to look and say if the Messiah is here we know that he is in Bethlehem. Because THIS verse tells us THAT is true. Matthew 2:5-6
They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet:
“ ‘And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for from you shall come a ruler
who will shepherd my people Israel.’ ”
that comes from Micah, we are in the minor prophets here, Micah 5:2. In here, the prophet Micah is talking about the ruler that will come to the people. the people are under attack. it has been a time of oppression of exile, of God’s judgement. But there is a thought in Micah 5:1
Now muster your troops, O daughter of troops;
siege is laid against us;
with a rod they strike the judge of Israel
on the cheek.
BUT… so there will be oppression there will be things that are happening, but now we are going to look for the Messiah
But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah,
who are too little to be among the clans of Judah,
from you shall come forth for me
one who is to be ruler in Israel,
whose coming forth is from of old,
from ancient days.
that is the FULL context of that quote in Matthew. and so anyone who reads this says OK look there will be a ruler coming form of Old. SO this is going to be a great and powerful ruler, chosen by God and he will be born In Bethlehem. These are precise unique very narrow fulfillments.
And I would say for most of us when we hear and think about fulfillment of Prophecy, these are what we think of. That when we have a prophecy it is a narrow very precise thing that is being said and so we can look to hand say: here is a precise prophecy and here then it its precise fulfillment. and many of them are, and many of the ones we think of are this way BUT, there is a whole other branch of fulfillment that tells us less about the prophecy and more about the one prophesied about. and those instead of precise fulfillment are what we would call PATTERNED FULFILLMENT.
PATTERNED FULFILLMENT show us “this is this”
PATTERNED FULFILLMENT show us “this is this”
instead of telling us that THIS messiah is THAT fulfillment of unique prophecy. Patterned fulfillments tell us that THIS is THIS. that THIS person that we are looking at is the fulfillment of THIS pattern this thought this idea that we see in the OLD testament. and so instead of seeing that THIS is what THAT was speaking of directly we see patterns. we see thoughts and Ideas. so we see THIS messiah is THIS picture, is THIS person, this is this. and honestly these are in some ways more beautiful because they are in some sense more full and they end up telling us more about our savior.
The next three, and well, the prophecy about the voice heard in Ramah, its extra difficult, if it interests you we would love to see you on Thursday, trust me that is a pattern, but we need to know more about Rachel, about all the external issues to fully grasp that one, but these last three seen most clearly in the third and fifth “fulfillment” passages.
and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, “Out of Egypt I called my son.”
and at first that might sound l to us” out of Egypt I called my son” that might sound precise, but lets wait, lets look to Hosea, again a minor prophets, if we are being honest my favorite minor prophet, the FIRST minor prophet to help you find the book. but Hosea chapter 11. to get the context here. Hosea is all about God calling his people god redeeming his people. If we went to the very beginning of Hosea Hosea is going to have some kids. and he names his kids such positive and popular names as “not my people” and “no mercy”. And God goes in and he called those NAMED “not my people” his people and he shows mercy to people called “no mercy” and so God reaches in, he restores his people. and particularly he is looking at his people the nation of Isreal.
and so lets read Matthew again. Matthew 2:15
and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, “Out of Egypt I called my son.”
but now lets get all of the quote of Hosea 11:1
When Israel was a child, I loved him,
and out of Egypt I called my son.
if you were reading through Hosea and got to this verse, you do not think that this is looking forward to the future. Instead you think: OH, Hosea is looking back.. he is looking back to the time of Moses. God has been saying I will redeem my people, I will redeem my people, I will redeem my people. and here in chapter 11 he says: you know i will redeem you because when you were lost, when you were in slavery in Egypt, I saved you, i heard your cry, i sent Moses, I drew you out, I gave you my law. I called you out of Egypt, i made you a nation, you are my people ISRAEL IS GOD’S SON.
but Matthew looks to Hosea and he says wait a second. What is really being seen here is a pattern, that God will call his son at first it was the nation Israel, but now we see God’s only begotten son, our messiah and Lord and the same pattern is true. and SO Jesus fulfills not just the specific pictures, not just the precise fulfillments, but he will also be the fulfillment of all the patterns and all the things that we begin to see in pictures in thoughts and in themes. Christ is even the fulfillment of those.
This is most clearly seen in the fifth one. as Matthew 2:23
And he went and lived in a city called Nazareth, so that what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled, that he would be called a Nazarene.
I cant have you flip to any OT passage. because none exist that say this. there exists no OT passage that is quoted here. instead we have to realize that Matthew is looking at… and this is a huge pattern of OT thought. and what makes patterned difficult in some sense is that we have to be familiar with the OT. what makes this one uniquely different is that Matthew is doing some sort of Pun. this is what most people agree on, that this is a pun, the debate is what exactly is the play on words.
Most of us are familiar with Samson he took the nazirite vow. it was a vow that he would be set aside, set apart, that he would be different. (and we could note a vow he failed at miserably…) and so it could be that Matthew is looking at the Nazarite vow and looking at the title of one who hails from Nazareth and thinks, these are very similar. and so just like the nazirite was to be set apart and remain holy and different, so to Jesus holy set apart and different that is possibly one pun OR as we talked about last week and the branch and the thought I follow that the pun here is on the Hebrew word “nesser” the root of Nazareth that Jesus is the branch from the stump of Jesse.
He is the fulfillment of the promise for the davidic messiah. but in all these what we see is NOT a precise THIS IS THAT but what we see a pattern of THIS is how God worked then and then THIS is how that continued and so even now THIS is how God is working through the Messiah and we are left with a THIS IS THIS way to understand these prophecies. And as we go through Matthew, it would be helpful for you to keep in mind that these are sort of the two branches he tow ways to understand prophecy. is this a precise fulfillment is this a patterned fulfillment and some of them are a little of both (looking at you Rachel crying in the wilderness…) but our goal should be to ask: which one is this and how does that help me to understand what Matthew is saying. Is this Matthew saying “look this is why we know he is the savior” or is Matthew saying “look, because he fits this pattern this is what we know about how God and our savior work” both are beautiful, both are fulfillment, both are vital. But which is he doing a this moment?
SO that’s our lesson, that's our thought, that's how you can best understand prophecy, but I said my ultimate goal my calling is to preach, and so I can’t leave us just there. Because ultimately no matter what TYPE of prophecy we have in front of us, we can’t miss the key thing that BOTH OF THESE. it doesn’t matter if Matthew is saying THIS IS THAT or THIS IS THIS, either way he is trying to show us something critically important. he is trying to show us OUR SAVIOR!
But they both show us OUR SAVIOR
But they both show us OUR SAVIOR
If you flip with me very quickly FORWARD this time in your bible to Luke 24, Jesus is walking with some disciple on the road to Emmaus. this is after the death of Jesus and after the resurrection. but yet the news of the resurrection has not spread everywhere yet. and so these disciples are walking on the road, we are told it is a seven mile long road. from Jerusalem to Emmaus. and these guys are distraught. they were once disciples of Jesus but now in their minds he is dead and gone and now we wonder, what do we do? and resurrected Jesus walks up to them and asks hey guys, what is up, you all look concerned, worried, like you've had a rough few days… what is the problem?
and they answered him like: are you the only person in the whole world that does not understand and know that Jesus just died? and then Jesus begins to speak to them. and he asks them like, wait a second are you not familiar with the scriptures, what we would call the Old Testament. and Jesus begins to show them precise and patterned fulfillments. and this is my main pint, this is what I want us to see here. Luke 24:27
And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.
the only way that that verse can be even remotely true is if both of these thoughts of fulfillment point us directly to Jesus Chrsit our messiah. the only way that we can begin with moses and then go through all the books of the prophecy and have them all point to jesus is to understand that he is both the precise and patterned fulfillment of everything that scripture says. therefore our savior our Messiah jesus Christ our lord is: (as we noted last week) the new moses. he is the new Abraham, the new Elijah, the new Melchizedek the greater High Priest the fulfillment of all the sacrificial laws, the fulfillment of all the law, everything thing in the OT points us to one person it is Jesus Chrsit our Lord and savior.
so what gives us the assurance and the boldness to stand on the truth that Jesus is Lord and Jesus is King? it is because all of Scripture testifies to this fact. It is because as we look back upon the OT it is not that here are just one or two precise prophecies fulfilled in Jesus Chrsit, no there are many. many many precise fulfillments. that we look to and say: as God spoke hundreds thousands of years before Jesus would come he told us what to look for and it was there. precisely and perfectly there. but then on top of that we have this entire layer of patterned fulfillment, such that Moses, as the people are wandering in the desert and they need to find life giving, life sustaining water in the desert and so Moses goes to a rock and he strike that rock and water flows. and so now we look to the New testament and we look to Jesus OUR rock and we see that as he was struck what flowed from him was also life giving and life sustaining. that is patterned fulfillment.
and when we look to all of these times in the OT and we see patterns and hints about who God is and how he works and then we look to our savior these things become clear. Jesus then is the ultimate of this is that and he is the ultimate fulfilment of this is this he is our Lord and our savior! as we understand fulfillments as we see them and we will see them over and over again in Matthew. we can ask is this a precise is this a patterned fulfillment that is a good question to ask: but more importantly we should ask how does this show me my savior?
Lets pray!