 Matthew chapter 2. We're going to look at verses 13 through 23 as we continue our series here in the Gospel of Matthew. And so I'll begin reading at verse 13. I'll read to verse 15 and we'll get into our study. Matthew chapter 2 beginning at verse 13, reading to verse 15. Now when they had departed behold an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream saying arise take the young child and his mother flee to Egypt and stay there until I bring you 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 for Egypt and was there until the death of Herod that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet saying out of Egypt I called my son. As we look at this passage here I'll begin by giving some basic background if you will and a few comments. It's interesting how that within the first two chapters of Matthew chapters 1 and 2 within the first two chapters there are five scriptural prophecies that are spoken of. You see these spoken of in chapter 1 verse 22 and chapter 2 verse 5, chapter 2 verse 15, 17 as well as chapter 2 verse 23. Five prophecies that are intended to communicate to us that God was doing a work that had spoken earlier concerning the work that was to be done. The Bible is the only book that has prophecy. You can look into other religious books as some of you have taken your comparative religions classes and all and you can look into other books that are purported to be religious or spiritual and you won't find prophecy and the reason you won't is because Satan cannot prophesy. Satan cannot predict the future but God can because God inhabits eternity and thus to him all things are now and he's able to say this is what will take place. And so you see five prophecies within two chapters. There's a book that has been written called What the Odds Are and it's simply a book that has a lot of information about the odds concerning a variety of things. For example, did you know that the odds of your being injured by a lightning strike on any given day are only one in 250 million or the odds that the average citizen in Washington D.C. will get stabbed, poisoned or bludgeoned to death in the course of the year is one in 1681. Well the number of years ago a fellow by the name of Peter W. Stoner and that's what they used to call me but my name wasn't Peter W. And Robert Newman wrote a book entitled Science Speaks and the book was based on the science of probability and was vouched for by the American scientific affiliation and it set out the odds of any one man in all history fulfilling even only eight of the major prophecies in the life that were fulfilled in the life of Jesus Christ. Only eight. We know that there were some 330 or so prophecies given. This is speaking concerning only eight of them and the probability of one man Jesus Christ will say actually fulfilling these eight prophecies the probability that Jesus of Nazareth could have fulfilled even eight such prophecies would be one to the 17th power or one with 17 zeros following and that would be just eight and they illustrated that for us by saying it would be equivalent to taking the state of Texas and filling the state of Texas with silver dollars that would rise to two feet in height to the entire state and then putting somebody in an airplane to fly over the state with a marked silver dollar and with that marked silver dollar to throw it out as you're flying and for it to land and then to blindfold a man and send him into the state of Texas to find that one silver dollar. That is the probability of one man fulfilling eight of those prophecies and yet Jesus Christ fulfilled 330 and so as we're looking right now in this particular chapter we cannot allow the prophetic implications to pass us by within two chapters. Matthew is telling us that eight rather five specific things said concerning Christ had been fulfilled in his life and that's what we're looking at today as we enter into a continuation of our study here in chapter two of the Gospel of Matthew. So let me lay a context for you and we'll develop that move into our study as soon as I'm through developing a couple of thoughts and then moving into its context and then leading into the study. We know that at this point as we're looking at this chapter the wise men from the east have come and they've come with a specific purpose and they stated it we have come to worship Jesus Christ. We've come to worship the one who was born king of the Jews. So they first as we know came to the city of Jerusalem and they went to the palace of Herod because they would have assumed that a king would be in a palace and so they were able to come and speak to Herod and they told him that they had come. They had come to worship the one who had been born king and as we saw Herod was greatly disturbed by the news and he began to seek information and he sought out the religious information from the religious leaders and thus he spoke to the scribes, the religious leaders of Israel and he wanted to know where this king, where the Messiah would be born and so they knew instantly and they were able to say to him is found in Micah chapter 5 verse 2 and they let him know that it would be in Bethlehem. So once he got that information he communicated that to these wise men and he said you go and you worship him and all but bring back word to me so that I may also go and also worship him. And so armed with the direction of scripture and divine leading they found Jesus in a house and according to verse 11 here in chapter 2 they fell before him immediately and they worshiped him. Now Jesus was not a newborn infant at that time. The word speaking of him is young child which could go as long as or as old as two years. Though Jesus more than likely wasn't two years of age he was more than likely a few months old, six months or so. They came and they found this child, this little one and he was in this house. It's interesting in chapter 2 how the words young child in reference to Jesus are used nine times from verses 8 through 21. So as they worship him they offered him gifts and we noted those gifts last time, gold, frankincense and myrrh. Gold was significant because it's a gift to a king. Frankincense is significant because it's a gift to a priest. Myrrh is significant because it speaks concerning burial and thus would indicate that Jesus Christ who was a king and priest would also be savior. And so they gave these gifts. These gifts were very expensive and they were intended to be able to be used by Joseph and Mary to continue to survive. And so these impressive dignitaries gave voluntarily from a heart of worship to Jesus Christ. And I want to note that once again with you notice again they presented the gifts to Jesus and not to Joseph nor to Mary. I believe I mentioned this to you that's because when we worship God our offerings are always first given to him. What do we learn? What do we learn from their giving these gifts to Jesus? Well giving to God reflects the genuine work of God's grace in us. Again we give to him because he gave to us first. In Romans 11.35 Paul asks the question, or who has first given to him and it shall be repaid to him? Well God is the one who gave to us first. And John says that this way we love him because he first loved us. And so they came and they gave their gifts because faith filled giving is always an airmark of one who really believes. So in giving to Jesus his parents were enabled to escape to Egypt where they were going to survive. And the gifts that they gave to him enabled him to perform his work even as our gifts enabled him to perform his work to this day. There's an interesting portion of scripture that we're going to be looking at in the future. It's found in Matthew chapter 21 and so I expect that we'll get there in about 20 years. But in Matthew 21 it's an interesting scripture and I asked the services this morning. I asked the question and it's something to think about at least. Do you think that God needs anything? Do you think that God needs anything? When you start thinking about God obviously you're self-sustaining and in reality it would appear to me at least that there's nothing that God needs. And yet this is interesting. In Matthew chapter 21 there's an interesting story there. It relates to the Palm Sunday but is also referred to as triumphal entry of Christ into the city of Jerusalem. And Jesus commands in Matthew 21 two of his disciples to go and to get a donkey and her colt and he says secure them and bring them back to me. And as he speak into them he says this he instructs them that if they are questioned about it they are to give a simple reply. And this is the answer. He says in Matthew 21 3 if anyone says anything to you you shall say the Lord has need of them. And immediately he will send them. The Lord has need of them. I never really consider the fact that there may be things that I can do for the Lord that are necessary for him to be able to accomplish his work. And in this particular case here what we have is we have the Magi presenting gifts to Jesus that are going to enable him to survive so that his ministry actually will take off. Now that's one thing. A second thing I wanted to point out was in verse 12 when it speaks concerned in the Magi being divinely warned in a dream that they should not return to Herod so they departed for their own country. Another way here's the second thing for you. They were divinely warned in a dream. In chapters 1 and 2 God communicates five times using dreams. He does so in chapter 1 verse 20, chapter 2 verse 12, 13, 19 and verse 22. He uses dreams to communicate in the first two chapters five different times. When you begin to look at the Old Testament you're going to note something interesting I would think. God uses dreams quite often in the Old Testament. He used dreams when it came to a king, I'll call him a king, by the name of Abimelech. He used dreams to communicate to Pharaoh. He used dreams to communicate to Laban and to Joseph, to Solomon, Nebuchadnezzar, to Balshazzar. Various individuals in the Old Testament had things revealed to them by God in dreams. He communicated by dreams to his prophets. In numbers chapter 12 verse 6 it reads, he said, here now my words, if there's a prophet among you I the Lord make myself known to him in a vision, I speak to him in a dream. And so in the Old Testament we see that the Lord on occasion would communicate through the use of dreams. Now it is possible for people to take personal credit sometimes for spiritual insights and if they have a spiritual insight they may say, well of course I have the spiritual insight because I'm a very spiritual person. And God actually guards us against that kind of thing. In the New Testament in Matthew chapter 16 we're going to see this. How that Jesus is in a region in the north called Caesarea Philippi. And while he's there he's with his men and they're basically having some quiet time with him. And while he's there in Caesarea Philippi, Jesus speaking to his men asked them a question. He says, who do men say that I, the son of man, am? And immediately a response comes. Some say John the Baptist, some say Elijah, some say Jeremiah or one of the prophets. And then Jesus responds by saying, but who do you say that I am? You see, I know that you are being influenced by what is being said concerning me because even to this day you and I, we as believers, we are influenced by the things that are spoken of concerning Christ. And so he asks his men, who do men say that I am? And they have an answer, an instant answer. Herod had been saying that others had been saying what they're repeating to him and just disclosing to him John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah, one of the prophets. Well, who do you say that I am? And then immediately we have Simon, Simon Peter say, you are the Christ, the son of the living God. And then Jesus responding to Simon says this, he said, Simon by Jonah, flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my father in heaven. You did come up with this on your own. This spiritual insight isn't something that originated in your carnal nature. See, God has a way of keeping us from taking credit for the things he reveals to us. You see, it's possible for us to take credit for insights that are actually given to us by God. In the book of Job, in Job chapter 33 verses 14 through 17, one of those who came to supposedly bring comfort to Job, a man by the name of Elehu said to Job, but God speaks again and again, though people do not recognize it. He speaks in dreams, in visions of the night when deep sleep falls on people as they lie in bed. He whispers in their ear and terrifies them with his warning. He causes them to change their minds. He keeps them from pride. God's warnings are intended to keep us from being proudful about the things that we say he spoke to our hearts. And so in the Old Testament and even into the new, you see that God communicated through dreams. So somebody asks, does he still use dreams to communicate with people? And the answer would be on occasion. In the book of Acts chapter 2 verse 17, in the last days God says, I will pour out my spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your young men will see visions. Your old men will dream dreams. I've been dreaming a lot lately. But like any other work of God, people can claim that he had given them a dream and do so wrongly. People can claim that they have a God inspired dream and simply be wrong about it. It may be that you just ate too much salsa last night. And you woke up just saying, yeah, you know, and that may not be the Lord at all. You know, sometimes people will have dreams. Entire ministries have been built on claims to have dreams and insights. And the reality is that they will point people in the wrong direction. Jeremiah 2332 says, behold, I am against those who prophesy false dreams as the Lord and tell them and cause my people to err by their lies and by their recklessness. Yet I did not send them or command them. Therefore they shall not profit this people at all, says the Lord. Dreams, even when inspired by the Lord, will not replace the word of God. Even if you have a sense that God has spoken to your heart through your dream, that something happened as you were sleeping, you were dreaming certain things and you have to look at the word of God and compare what you are sensing with what God's word has revealed. I was sharing in an earlier service today how that the Lord, on many occasions through my walk with the Lord and through my ministry, has communicated things to me through dreams. I don't stand up here as one who's trying to present myself as some dream minister or anything, but I do believe that God does, still to this day Acts 2.17 indicates that he does, that God will communicate and does communicate in such a way. That's not the normal rule of how he works, the normal way of how he works is through his word. But there have been times in my life when I've awakened and I've said, I know the Lord is speaking something to my heart. One of those occasions was when this church first began. I had been an assistant in another church and the senior pastor and I had fallen out. We parted in a way that wasn't really glorifying to the Lord. There was an anger between the two of us that had been unresolved and I came here, began this work and he continued where he was and yet the Holy Spirit had been grieved by this and was convicting me and I was seeking the Lord saying, what do you want me to do? And I still remember on a morning, waking up one morning and turning to my wife Marie and saying to her, the Lord has spoken to my heart, I need to go and speak to the pastor today. And she said, are you sure? And I said, yes. The Holy Spirit is saying I need to go and speak to the pastor today. So I got up and I went to the phone and I called the office, the church office. I was off that day and I called the church office and I spoke to the pastor there and I said, I need to come and see you. We need to talk. And so he made time for me to come. I went that day, sat down in his office. We had a heart to heart. We confronted each other about the issues we dealt with. We worked on them together in that office, prayed together. I still remember standing up, walking up to him and he to me and we hugged each other, embraced each other as brothers and I left that place forgiving him and being forgiven by him and God does things like that. God sometimes in your dream will awaken you to some things that are just so deeply personal. Just the other day, three weeks, two weeks ago, I awakened and actually this is what happened. I shared this Wednesday night how I was having a dream and in my dream I was walking up some steps and I was on my knees and before you know it I was before the Lord and I was weeping and I was crying and I was sobbing in my dream and I was telling him how great he is and how much I appreciate his love for me and his forgiveness and his grace and he was so overwhelming in my dream that I actually was sobbing and I woke myself up crying and Marie reached over and shook me and she said shut up man. No she didn't. She reached over and she shook me. She said what's wrong? What's wrong? And I said nothing. Nothing's wrong and I said I was dreaming that I was in the presence of the Lord and God's Holy Spirit was working so deeply that my heart just was overwhelmed with gratitude for the goodness of God. I believe that the Lord works within the framework of his word primarily but there are times when he may give to us a little bit of a glimpse in a way that he did in the old times, in the times of the Old Testament as well as the new. He communicates sometimes in that way but he makes sure that we are not going to follow just dreams. We need to follow him, his spirit and his word. And so Joseph had been instructed through a dream, verse 12, the wise men follow the directions that are given to them also. And now we get into verse 13 through 15 and it says when they had departed behold an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream saying arise take the young child and his mother flee to Egypt and stay there until I bring you 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 for Egypt and was there until the death of Herod that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet saying out of Egypt I called my son. Well no doubt at this point Joseph and Mary have been so totally blessed by the events that have been transpiring in their lives so much has been going on in their lives at that time and they have to be in a state of amazement. You see angels had appeared to both Joseph and Mary and had spoken marvelous things blessings that God was going to bring into their life. No doubt Zacharias and Elizabeth had spoken to them about John and they're in awe at what God is going to do in them. Shepherds have come to see Jesus at his birth and they began to share concerning what God had said. Simeon had prophesied over the infant Jesus and his mother Mary an aged widow by the name of Anna had ministered to them. There was so much going on in such a short time in the life of these two young people. They're in awe but their rejoicing is going to be short lived. You see in verse 13 it says when they departed behold an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream saying arise take the young child and his mother flee to Egypt stay there until I bring you word for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him. Flee when he says to flee that word flee there is a Greek word it's the word that we get the word fugitive from it's a word that speaks of escape from danger. You are to escape from danger by going to Egypt and you are to stay there until you are told to return. So immediately they go on this trip to Alexandria. It was around 75 or so miles to the border and then another 100 miles or so to Alexandria Egypt and that's it would seem that they were going to that particular place. Alexandria during that day was a sanctuary city. It was established by Alexander and it had around 100 rather around a million Jews and so they're going to survive there by using the gifts of the Magi until they're called home. What's interesting about this is you see a scripture in verse 15 that's being quoted and this scripture is out of the book of Hosea. Hosea was written around 755 years before Christ and in verse 15 it simply says and was there until the death of Herod that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet saying out of Egypt I called my son. If you haven't read the book of Hosea I'd assume that most of us have but perhaps you haven't. If you've never read the book of Hosea it is one of the most touching powerful Old Testament books that you're going to read. Hosea was a prophet called by God and he was given a command. He was to take a woman out of harlotry a woman who was a prostitute and he was to marry her and as he was to do so it was going to be a picture of God's relationship with Israel and this is a woman who was an unfaithful wife and as she was unfaithful Hosea goes and he gets her and brings her back and God is using all of this as a picture to the nation of how unfaithful the nation of Israel has been to her God and in the book of Hosea Hosea points out a number of things Hosea points out how much God loves them he says God has taught you God has healed you God has fed you God has even carried you as a child could be carried by a father he said Israel you have been an unfaithful wife to God yet God has remained faithful to you as a nation and at a certain point in the book of Hosea in chapter 11 God cannot contain himself as he is speaking to the nation of Israel because he is going to bring judgment and as he is speaking to the nation you can hear the passion in the heart of Hosea as Hosea brings the message to the nation of Israel an unfaithful nation a nation that goes after false gods in idolatry marrying herself to idols and God is speaking to this nation it's one of the most powerful portions of Hosea in chapter 11 verses 8 and 9 when God speaks and he says oh how can I give you up Israel how can I let you go how can I destroy you like Adman Zebuim my heart is torn within me and my compassion overflows no I will not punish you as much as my burning anger tells me to I will not completely destroy Israel for I am God and not a mere mortal I am the holy one living among you and I will not come to destroy you how can I give you up what love the first time I ever heard this passage read to me was by a very old pastor in his late 80s at the time and he put his hands on his face and he pressed his face into the Bible and he read those words with such passion that my heart was broken to hear the voice of God how can I give you up you've gone after false gods you've been unfaithful to me Hosea you know the pain that I feel for the woman you love has been unfaithful producing children to to other men they are not yours even as Israel has been unfaithful to me and when I should give you up when I should turn my back when I should destroy you when I should bring my righteous judgment upon you all you see in the heart of God is a question how can I do that how can I give you up Israel how can I let you go I was sharing with one of my sons the other day he was speaking to me and he asked me a question and I said when I was younger was I trouble to you I said yeah yes you were I said there were times that I just had such a difficulty with how you were being yes there were times and seasons that it has been very difficult and he shook his head and he said I am so sorry I said you don't have to be it's done it's over you don't have to be listen many years ago many years ago now I was teaching about David and his son Absalom and at that time I had two little boys one of them was probably about four and the other one was about one or so and right in that area they were small and there's a point where Absalom Absalom the son of David had rebelled against his father and stolen the hearts of the people of Israel and was attempting to take the kingdom by force and David's heart as a father remained so firm committed to this man who was trying to destroy him and steal the work that God had given to him and news comes to David that Absalom had been killed and they bring to him the news and nobody wants to tell David but they finally find a way to say it to him may all your enemies be even as that young man is what they say and David knows what that means may they all be dead even the way Absalom is and David knows what that means and as I was reading this to our church many years ago now when David said oh Absalom Absalom my son my son what to God that I would have died and not you I did exactly what I'm doing right now I wept because I have boys what to God I would die and not you that's God's heart for you do you know that that's God's heart for you how can I give you up how can I destroy you I will not God loves you may we understand that today but may we not be like Hosea's wife unfaithful producing offspring of idolatry in our lives God chooses to use Hosea as an example quoted here in the New Testament out of Egypt I have called my son he's quoting Hosea chapter 11 verse 1 out of Egypt God is saying I delivered I brought Israel to be with me and though they suffered my judgment they will receive my mercy Jesus is being called out of Egypt it's a picture of how Israel is also capable of being brought out of bondage through Jesus Israel could once again be called to God and through Christ they can also by application escape from that bondage in verse 16 Herod when he saw that he was deceived by the wise men was exceedingly angry he sent forth and put to death all the male children who were in Bethlehem and in all its districts from two years old and under according to the time which he had determined from the wise men then was fulfilled what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet saying a voice was heard in Rama lamentation weeping and great mourning Rachel weeping for her children refusing to be comforted because they were no more Herod murders the babies to make sure that he gets every one of these male children he makes sure that they are two years old and under he wanted to maintain his power it's interesting how it says in verse 16 when he saw he was deceived by the wise men the word deceived there is a word that literally speaks of being mocked it gives the idea of disrespect and so what happens here is he thinks that they have by not giving him information shown him disrespect he's already angry and thus he tries to kill all the children now I mentioned to you when we began and in doing so to kill Messiah I mentioned to you when we began that you see actually three different kinds of responses to the birth of Christ you see the Magi who came in order to worship him and so they had a heart of worship you see the indifference of the religious leaders who were able to quote the scriptures but really didn't care about their fulfillment and then you see Herod's hostility those are the three basic ways by the way that people normally respond to the gospel message there are those who are indifferent they could care less there are those who are hostile they'll argue with you all day long about how wrong you are and how stupid you are and then there are the other ones who come to worship him those are the three basic things that you see in man and they're revealed here in scripture so the response to Jesus is heartbreaking he slaughters the little boys living in the town to try and kill Messiah finally 19 when Herod was dead behold an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt saying arise take the young child and his mother go to the land of Israel for those who sought the young child's life are dead then he arose, took the young child and his mother and came into the land of Israel but when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea instead of his father Herod he was afraid to go there being warned by God in a dream he turned aside into the region of Galilee 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 take the young child and you can return he doesn't want to go into the south he doesn't want to go into Jerusalem because Archelaus is now reigning there and Archelaus was also very brutal like his father Herod it hadn't been that long before that Archelaus actually slaughtered some 3,000 pilgrims who had come into Jerusalem to celebrate Passover and so Joseph didn't want to have anything to do with Archelaus and therefore God sent him to go north to the area that's the region of Galilee when you look at the map of Israel and if you divide it into look at it as if it was the map of California you have north central and south north would be the Galilee central would be Samaria and south would be Judah and so Jerusalem is in the northernmost southern part so it's in the south but north in that south what Joseph does is he goes from the region that was in Jerusalem which would be about 55 miles up to Nazareth and he goes into the region called the Galilee and while he's up there Jesus Christ is going to be raised in the city of Nazareth which is where Joseph and Mary had been living it was their home interesting and we'll close with a couple thoughts about that and that is Nazareth wasn't looked at as being a real respected city it was known for a couple things it was known for violence and it was known for the crudeness of the people who lived there so it wasn't a sophisticated place Nazareth was in the north and during the time of Christ the sophisticates came from the south they were people who lived in Jerusalem or its surrounding precincts and so the further away from Jerusalem the less class you had the less you were respected so in the small villages and towns in the north Nazareth was one of those that was regarded least they didn't like it because of the way that it was known its reputation was very poor and so we see something interesting in the Gospel of John in chapter 1 verse 45 and 46 where it says Philip found Nathaniel and told him we have found the one Moses wrote about in the law and about whom the prophets also wrote Jesus of Nazareth the son of Joseph Nazareth can anything good come from there Nathaniel asked come and see said Philip Nazareth can anything good come from there every city has a reputation every city in the United States major cities have reputations we used to call Detroit the motor city because that's where so many the automobile industry was in Detroit and they still call it the motor city New York is the big apple so there are different cities they have reputations you just need to mention San Francisco they have reputations Chino flies flies can anything good come out of Chino got good flies a lot of cows every city has a reputation they all do I mean you can go through that and you can think about the major cities Seattle every city has a different kind of reputation Hollywood has its reputation the word Hollywood has such a reputation that you can speak about somebody in Indiana who went Hollywood and they know what you're talking about because the cities have reputations and Nazareth had a reputation can anything good come out of Nazareth no in his mind and he wasn't even being a bigot he was just going by the stereotypes and the reality of his day every city has a reputation there was a man by the name of Augustine Augustine well known early church father in early history of the church and he was a man who was known before he came to faith in Christ he was known as a man who lived a life of they used to refer to it as a debauched life he lived a life of license he drank he caroused he did it all and his mother was a believer and his mother was praying for him constantly and one day Augustine approaches his mom and says I'm going to Rome any place but Rome mama said any place but Rome Rome was a sin capital of the world if my evil son ends up in Rome I will lose him forever he's going to die that is a place where he will get the most messed up father in Jesus name she would pray anything but Rome but Augustine was set and he went to Rome and mama was on her face asking God please please anything but that's where he got saved can anything good come out of Nazareth come and see you may have a reputation in your family maybe your family amongst the family has a reputation of being the rowdiest and the weirdest or whatever I had a reputation in my family in my neighborhood I had that you are crazy you are troubled you are drunk you are needy that was my reputation that was my reputation the neighbors all knew it they knew I was crazy that's true don't need to go into weird details but it's true they knew I was crazy my neighbors knew it I grew up in the same house from the time I was one and I was crazy from the time I was 15 they were aware of what I was like I was a drunk I was an alcoholic I was promiscuous I was all of that and they knew it my neighbors knew it and our house could have been can anything good come out of David's house look at him look at the way that house is look at but yes when Jesus Christ gets into your life yes a good thing can come out of your home a good thing can come out of your city a good thing can come out of your state a good thing can come out of your state because God got hold of you and when they ask that question can anything good come out of come out of Nazareth the answer is come and see come and see Jesus Christ absolutely so he went up and he lived in Nazareth and from there he got his training and as we'll see from there he began his mission Nazareth and he was raised there and eventually ministered there and we'll be looking at that more closely as we go through the Gospel of Matthew