This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Matthew 2:13-23” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, January 7, 1996.

This morning we are reading from Matthew 2, and we are reading from verse 11. I’m sorry, that will be verse 13. Give your attention to the reading of God’s word. And when the wise men were departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word, for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him.

When he arose, he took the young child and his mother by night, and departed into Egypt, and was there until the death of Herod, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called my son. Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of a wise man, was exceeding wrath, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem and in all the cursts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men. Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet, saying, In Ramah there was a voice heard lamentation and weeping, and great Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted because they were not. But when Herod was dead, behold, an angel of the Lord appeareth in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and go into the land of Israel, for they are dead which sought the young child’s life. And he arose and took the young child and his mother, and came into the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus did reign in Judea in the room of his father Herod, he was afraid to go thither. Notwithstanding being warned of God in a dream, he turned aside into the parts of Galilee, and he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, he shall be called a Nazarene.

Our Father, you comfort us even as we consider our iniquities and transgressions, and you comfort us with the sure mercies that are opened up for us in the gospel. You are also a comforter to us in our mourning and in our loss. So Lord, we pray that as we go through these times of sorrow, we would live in the full benefit of your gospel, taking delight in the promises that we find there. Also, our Father, we pray that we may be helped that when the time comes for us to depart this life, we might depart well, having our confidence certain in the resurrection of Christ and in the life in the world to come. Father, you are also a comfort to those who go through any kind of distress and agony And we thank Lord of the present distress of the Maconian family. May it please you to grant them health, strength, full recovery. And Lord, we pray that they may continue to be useful in your kingdom. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen.

There are a couple of things that I would recommend to you when it comes to personal Bible reading. Now, I say these things not for the purpose of upstaging any method or approach that you personally have devised. not for the purpose of discouraging you in your own approach to reading your Bible, but in order to suggest to you some possibilities that I have found helpful and I trust may be helpful to you.

The first thing that I propose is that you have an alternative translation of the Bible close at hand. Now, I realize that you have your favorite version, but I would suggest that you have another translation close by, so that when you are having difficulties understanding what your favorite version is saying, you can make appeal to the alternate translation. Often a simple comparison of translations can clear up a problem. So, have for yourself at least one other translation of the Bible, and when you’re making a choice of Bibles, let me also raise this point in connection with this matter. Get for yourself a translation that has a good cross-reference system in it.

Now, more and more, Bibles are going to this kind of a format. It’s a relatively modern invention. I would say that of the Bibles that have cross-reference systems to them, that possibly the original American Standard Version of 1901 had the best. Now, the New American Standard worked off of that, and many translations and versions of the Bible have followed suit since.

But have a good cross-reference Bible at hand, and I would further recommend that you get one that has the cross-references in the margin. I know that there are some that have them in the center column. Those aren’t as useful, they’re not as helpful, they’re not as easily accessible. one that has the cross references in the margin.

The second thing that I would suggest to you for your personal Bible reading is that you keep a notebook close by. Jot down citations that you want to keep in front of you, or a thought that comes to your mind as you are reading through the scripture. These will help you sort out a passage as you reflect upon it. It will also have the advantage of setting these citations or these thoughts in your memories.

Thirdly, try as often as you can to read a biblical book through from beginning to end. We were just warming up there before. Now we’re getting into the more difficult part. Try as often as you can to read a biblical book through from beginning to end in one sitting. I’m serious.

Sometime when you’re well rested, Take up your Bible by design and say, read a gospel. Just read through a gospel, an entire gospel. Now, remember that the original manuscript for the Bible did not have chapter and verse divisions. You all know that, right? It was written not piecemeal, but as a whole. as a document to be appropriated as a whole.

Instead of a gospel, if a gospel is a bit too ambitious to start off with, take a shorter book of the Bible. But I encourage you to take one of those books that is more than a single chapter, something other than Jude or Philemon or Obadiah. I know the habit.

When we get inspired, occasionally we say, well, we’re going to start this new Bible reading program. And we say, well, we’ll start out with something simple. And we always start with those single-chapter books of the Bible, and then we sort of run out of steam. We never get on to the longer stuff.

But anyway, try something a little longer than a single chapter. single-chapter book of the Bible. It doesn’t have to be, then, the Gospels with their sixteen or twenty-one or twenty-four or twenty-eight chapters. Take something manageable like the book of Ruth, or the prophecy of Jonah, or the epistle to the Galatians, or Colossians. Just read it through in a single sitting.

Well, I have a suggestion for you when you do this, so I have a few suggestions for you when you do this. For one thing, keep your notebook by your side. Jot down patterns and parallels that you observe. This is a habit that will be greatly helpful to you.

Now, here, I don’t want you to become wild interpreters. that I have been charged with being a wild interpreter. I have people who have greeted me at the door with comments like, where in the world did you get that interpretation? But I ask you to think about what you’re reading in terms of patterns you observe, parallels you observe, and thoughts that are jolted or jogged in your mind. You’re reading through a passage, and something that is said there reminds you of something else that was said somewhere else. Make note of that connection. You might run into something in a gospel that reminds you of the Exodus, back in the Old Testament. Make note of those things.

Also, I would suggest that you write down your questions when you have questions. If you don’t, you’ll forget your question, or you’ll forget the way in which you posed the question. And that’s even more difficult for you, trying to reconstruct the question that you had, or the thoughts that went into that question when you had it. Write down your question so that you can remember.

Promise yourself that you will look for an answer to your question, and in this regard, Use the resources that God has given you in the church to find answers. Take advantage of your pastor. Bring your questions to me. Or, take advantage of others in the church who can be of help to you. We have a growing library in our church. Take advantage of the library that is here if you don’t happen to have the books available to yourself. Now, it may well be that I or others in the Church do not have a ready-made answer to your question, but we may be able to point you in a good and profitable direction.

One more thing in this regard, or another thing, let me suggest that when you read A book of the Bible from beginning to end, that is, at one sitting, that you read it out loud. That you read it out loud. Did you know that Augustine, and so the story goes, always read out loud? He believed that sight and sound reinforced one another to the advantage of our cognitive ability and to the advantage of our memories.

Now, I realize that you might feel a little self-conscious about this suggestion. If you can’t find a private little corner in your house to read aloud, Don’t be embarrassed about doing it right there in the living room. I’m sure the sound waves coming from you will be just as edifying as those coming from Seinfeld, ER, the NFL, Whitney Houston, and Nine Inch Nails. One other thing I want you to do when you read through a book at one sitting. Pay particular attention to the way the book begins and the way in which it ends. If you will take this advice, you will find that you have the prospect of understanding better the purpose, the intention of the book that you are reading.

Now, it goes without saying that pieces of literature have themes. At one time, our educational system with regard to language arts was built upon that supposition. And that’s why in junior high school and in high school, our teachers made us write themes. The development of a thought through an essay form from beginning to end, carrying that thought to its conclusion. Pieces of literature, therefore, have a certain message to communicate. But we need help sometimes, opening our eyes and our minds to the theme of a particular piece of writing. So it is with the books of the Bible. They have themes, they have intentions, and that, by design of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit is operative in that, of course.

Now, we must not allow ourselves to be too general, however, when it comes to the themes of a book in the Bible. For instance, in reading through a gospel, we must not content ourselves to say simply that the theme of this gospel is the ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We need to develop our sensitivities, we need to develop our abilities to perceive things much more deeply than that, to be much more specific.

In what light, from what angle, does this particular gospel wish us to see Jesus’ ministry, His death, and His resurrection? Let’s look at Matthew’s gospel in this regard. The special angle of vision which Matthew has been given by the Holy Spirit is suggested to us by the way he begins his gospel and by the way he concludes it. I’ve been over this ground with many of you before, but I will point it out once more. And what we find true with respect to Matthew, we find true generally with regard to all biblical literature. You will notice in the first chapter, that key text.

I point out Matthew 1.23, the quotation from Isaiah 7.14. Here Jesus, yet in the womb, is described under the name Immanuel, which as Matthew goes on to tell us, because he doesn’t want us to miss it, Being translated means God with us. He takes pain to point it out to us. This is the meaning of this word, Immanuel.

But now I want you to turn to the very last verse of Matthew’s Gospel. And I think that this is a verse that you know very well. And what do we find here in the last verse of Matthew’s Gospel, 28-20? We find the risen Christ, and here he is playing off the name read over him when he was yet a child in the womb.

I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” You see how he’s played off of the name Immanuel, at the beginning, at the conclusion. Matthew’s angle of vision on the ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus is that Jesus is none other than God, who not only came to us while he lived and suffered in this world, but continues with us while we live and suffer in this world. And just as Jesus’ glory, while hidden, radiated in his humility, so that glory radiates in our humility, because Jesus is God with us, Immanuel.

I might say that this is also the entrance into Matthew’s understanding of the covenant. The covenant is very prominent in Matthew’s gospel. For instance, if you back up to the very first verse of Matthew’s gospel, you find there The statement, the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham. Matthew here is calling our attention to the two great covenantal heads in the Old Testament, to David and to Abraham.

The fulfillment of the covenants to David and to Abraham is found specifically in the identity of Jesus as God with us. The blessing of the covenant is God with us, and now that has been realized. It has come. It shall yet be perfected, but it is also a present reality. a little fruit of my own notebook in hand, reading through Matthew at one sitting, kind of Bible study.

This fruit, hopefully to reinforce the observation that we have made here about Matthew’s theme. Now, in order to do this, I want you to take note of certain famous Matthew passages. That is, passages that appear only in Matthew. And because they appear only in Matthew, they will serve to reinforce the theme of his gospel, the angle of vision that he has as he writes under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

The first passage is Matthew 11, verses 28 through 30. Now, I know that As we go through these passages, they will be very familiar to you. I’ve already stated to you that they’re famous passages, and a number of you have already committed these passages to memory. But the passage that we’re looking at first is Matthew 11, verses 28 through 30. This is the famous Come Unto Me passage, a passage that most of our children have memorized in their memory workbook. But aren’t you struck here? By the way, this statement by Jesus in 1128 plays on the theme that we have already pinpointed for Matthew.

You see, Jesus speaks here as if it is always possible for the weak and the heavy laden to come unto him. It’s always possible. as if it is still possible to take his yoke upon ourselves and learn from him, as if it were possible always, as if he were always present to ensure his yoke is easy and his burden is light.

In other words, the power of the passage rises from the sense of Christ’s continuing presence A presence that persists beyond his death and because of his resurrection. A presence perfect in its service to us because it is the presence of God himself.

Amen. God with us. I’ll reinforce this a bit by backing up to that conclusion of Matthew’s gospel, you note that the final words of the gospel are of Christ’s continuing presence. There is no ascension recorded by Matthew. He doesn’t leave. He’s still here with us. And thus, we can still come to him. Now, I want you to turn to Matthew 16, verse 18, as the next passage.

This, again, is a chapter that is unique to Matthew. Only Matthew has these words. And in this famous passage, Jesus promises to build his Church, and to build it upon the foundation of Peter and his Confession. I say Peter and his Confession. Both elements are here, please. Peter and his Confession, since Peter in verse 18 and his Confession is a foundation stone, but Peter in verse 23, in his obstruction, is a stumbling stone. So, Peter and his confession, please, as you look at this text.

But at any rate, Jesus’ promise here in the 18th verse is to build his Church, and this statement building itself upon the certainty of his continuing presence. He says he’s going to build his Church. Is the Church continuing to be built today? It is Jesus who is present, who is doing that. He tells us the gates of hell, or actually the gates of Hades, or the gates of death, cannot prevail against the Church because the one who is present with the Church has conquered death in the resurrection. But I want you also to note something else here, because Jesus here specifically speaks about the Church as His Church.

He calls it My Church. And he does so because this church stands as specifically belonging to him. It is his property. He is claiming this right as none other than God himself, in the same way in which Jehovah claimed the right over the assembly of Israel in the Old Testament.

Indeed, Jesus is God with us. And as such, continues as God with us, gathering and establishing his assembly, even constructing us into a holy temple of living stones, a thought upon which Peter later reflects in his first letter of the second chapter. Another text famous and unique to Matthew is chapter 18, verse 20. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst.” Only Matthew records that.

As to what Jesus is specifically talking about here, there has been some dispute. Some have thought that this refers to any kind of meeting that is taking place where people invoke the name of Jesus. But the context has to do with a specific kind of church gathering. a church gathering that is specifically a courtroom type of gathering, a gathering in which there is the deciding of cases and the execution of discipline. I believe that that approach to the text is appropriate. But regardless of which direction we go, it powerfully confirms what I have been saying to you.

The living Christ continues to superintend the affairs of his church. As God with us, he presides in this Church and over this Church, and according to the latter interpretation that I’ve shared with you this morning, he presides specifically over the courts of the Church. He is present, monitoring the affairs of his Church’s activities. The final passage, again a passage unique to Matthew and confirming of his angle of vision on Christ and his work, is found in Matthew 25, and the parable there of the sheep and the goats. Only Matthew has this text.

Here I want you to take note of verses 40 and 45. These two verses form the famous double conclusion to this memorable parable. To the sheep, in verse 40, Jesus will say, “‘Truly, I say to you, to the extent that you gave food and drink, shelter and clothing, comfort and encouragement to one of these brothers of mine, even the least of them, you gave it to me.'” Well, you can see it, can’t you? “‘You gave it to me.'” In verse 45, he’ll reverse the statement. He’ll make it a negative in speaking about the goats. to the extent that you did not extend these blessings or these comforts to these brethren of mine, you did not do it unto me,” says Jesus. Verse 45. Now, there is a debate as to whom Jesus is specifically speaking of here. There is a debate as to who is in view when Jesus says, these brothers of mine, even the least of them.

There are those who suggest to us that Jesus’ statement here is indiscriminate. It has in mind the mass of humanity. Some others have suggested, yes, it’s the Church generally conceived. There are others who say, no, the focus of the text is specifically upon those who are identified as servants of the Word of God. who suffer privation because they are proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ. I happen to agree with that latter interpretation of the text, for a number of reasons, but we won’t go into that this morning.

At any rate, the force of the statement which Jesus makes, or the force of the statements which he makes, is that Christ continues with his servants. And specifically, according to the interpretation that I favor, he continues with his servants, who so minister the word, so that those who care for these servants of Christ in their need are actually offering care to Christ himself.

Christ is present with them. Jesus, as God with us, continues with, abides with his church, bringing glory to his Church in its humility, in its persecution, in its suffering, in its state short of the Second Coming. Thus the Church need not despair, but rather rejoice in its difficulties, confident that he who lived, died, and rose again is glory though hidden always shining is with them in their life, death, and resurrection. His glory, though hidden, always shining in them. Indeed, you are the light of the world.”

Matthew 5.14, another text which only Matthew records.

Now, with this exercise this morning in Bible reading, You will note that we haven’t gotten into our text. We will save our thoughts on that text for the future, but you have some idea as to how I’m going to approach that text, don’t you? While we anticipate our dealing with it, we can busy ourselves with God’s word. and our proficiency with it. I trust, maybe it isn’t all that apparent, but I trust that you realize that the general principles that I have suggested for you this morning for Bible reading and Bible study are useful to readers of any age, even from a young age. Even our children can read their Bibles keeping in mind the things that I’ve said this morning.

May we, young and old, be in the Word that we might truly be a people of the Word of God. Father, we pray for your blessing upon us as we are gathered together to hear your word, and we ask also that you will bless us as we read and meditate upon your word personally. Lord, help us that we might be those who are in your word, meditating upon that word, Help us also, O God, that we would be obedient, even showing our love for you by our attitude toward the word and our use of it. We pray this in the name of Jesus, who is full of your word and is described as being the Word made flesh. Truly, your communication to us of who we are, of what we are to be. We pray these things through him and his mediation. Amen.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.