Here are some questions based on last Sunday’s sermon text (Matthew 2:13-23), in case they’re helpful to you for personal growth or group discussion…

• Matthew is writing his Gospel to show how Jesus is the fulfillment of Hebrew Scripture (Old Testament) prophecies about the Savior of the world. Here in v. 15 he quotes Hosea 11:1 , which speaks of God bringing his people, Israel, out of slavery in Egypt. God speaks of his people corporately here as “my son,” and so we understand Jesus—the unique Son of God—to represent the people of God, the one on behalf of the many. Jesus is the True Israel, retelling the story of God’s people in the story of his life. In particular here, Israel were refugees needing God’s deliverance, and in Jesus Christ God himself became a refugee needing God’s deliverance. Can you believe that God the Son, the Savior of the world, became so vulnerable and weak as to need saving himself? How does this affect the way you think about God and his power and love? How does this affect the way you think about other refugees who are vulnerable and weak and in need of help?

• What are some other ways you understand Jesus to fulfill the Old Testament? Where would you go in the Scriptures to demonstrate this? Why would it matter if Jesus fulfilled some ideas found in some ancient near-eastern writings?

• Herod represents those who grasp for power apart from Jesus, over and against Jesus. Herod has “arrived”—he was able to achieve worldly power, and he is able to maintain his position through violent power. This is exactly how power works in the world apart from Christ, and this kind of power is still on display in the world for all to see. Jesus was “powerless” before Herod, in terms of worldly power. But Jesus wielded a greater power, the power of love, by which he laid down his life for his people, to deliver us from our sins and from a life of separation from God. Which power do you think is greater, practically speaking: Herod’s power, or Jesus’ power? Does accepting Jesus as Lord mean you will be able to escape the “Herods” of this world? What is the inevitable fate of the “Herods” of this world? What is the fate of Jesus, and those who belong to him? Can you exercise the same kind of power Jesus exercises? If so, why and how?

• FOR THE CHILDREN: Do you know any people who need help like Jesus needed help when he was a baby? Where might you have seen these people? Have you had the chance to be kind to them?