Matthew 2:1-12: What to Do with God's King

[0:00] Matthew chapter 2, verses 1 through 12. This can be found on page 783 in the Bibles in front of you. Matthew 2, chapter 2, verses 1 through 12.

[0:16] Please stand for the reading of God's Word. Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, Where is he who has been born king of the Jews?

[0:36] For we saw his star when it rose, and have come to worship him. When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. And assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where this Christ was to be born.

[0:53] They told him in Bethlehem of Judea, for so it was written by the prophet, And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah.

[1:04] For from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel. Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time the star had appeared.

[1:15] And he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, Go and search diligently for the child, And when you have found him, bring me word that I too may come and worship him. After listening to the king, they went on their way, and behold, the star that they had seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was.

[1:36] When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. And going into the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshipped him.

[1:47] Then opening their treasures, they offered him gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh. And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way.

[1:59] This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. You may be seated. Merry Christmas to you.

[2:15] It's good to be here this afternoon, and I echo Dave's sentiments as far as being on a high from Friday night.

[2:26] Just thrilled to be a part of this congregation and to celebrate with you. I think that was my fourth Christmas on the town, and I think probably the best that I've been a part of.

[2:37] Praise God for that. Matthew chapter 2 on this afternoon, another one of those great Christmas passages. But I pray that we would be listening to the very heart of God through Scripture on today.

[2:54] Many of you, like ourselves, we've received some Christmas cards this year. Christmas cards that we give and receive during this season.

[3:07] They have eye-catching artistic renderings of what could be an all-star cast from the biblical narratives.

[3:18] And rightfully so, Jesus Christ, our Lord, is right at the center of those artistic renderings. The support cast that we see in these pictures includes the likes of his godly parents, Mary and Joseph, that we looked at on last week.

[3:40] Angelic messengers from the realms of glory are often included in Christmas card art, even as are shepherds keeping watch over their flocks by night or they're in attendance welcoming the Savior into this world at the manger.

[4:02] And what would be a Christmas card or Christmas card art without the wise men that we encounter in today's text? Though three are usually shown, there probably were more that came in this group from the East on that day.

[4:22] But have you noticed that not all of the people or groups that we see in the biblical birth narratives, all of them are not pictured in the Christmas card art?

[4:38] It is as if some of those were conveniently not invited to the Christmas card photo shoot. And our verses today include some of those persons who, though in the Christmas narrative, you don't find in the Christmas art.

[5:01] Today's text will help us to see why they're not there. We get our situational, geographical, and historical bearings when we look at chapter 2 and verse 1.

[5:14] It's after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea. And Matthew will go on to point out that Jesus' birth in Bethlehem of Judea was in fulfillment of Scripture.

[5:30] And according to Luke's Gospel, chapter 2, verses 1 through 6 particularly, it was during Joseph and Mary's visit to Bethlehem that they registered for the census.

[5:43] And it was at that time that Mary gave birth. Historically speaking, it was in the days of Herod the king.

[5:54] And what a historical figure Herod the king was. He was also known as Herod the Great. That's the person who's in view here. And he is the first of several rulers by the name of Herod.

[6:09] Though Herod practiced the Jewish religion, he was not Jewish by birth. He was Edomian, an Edomite descendant from Esau, who, of course, was Jacob's brother.

[6:22] And it was during the Maccabean period in 2nd century B.C. that the Jews had conquered Edomia and forced their religion upon them, including circumcision.

[6:37] In 40 B.C., Herod was nominated king of Judea by a Roman senate. And in 37 B.C., he triumphed over the opposing forces that were in Judea.

[6:49] And after that, the Roman emperor Augustus increased his territory to include all of Palestine and the regions that bartered Palestine.

[7:00] At the time of Jesus' birth, Herod was roughly 70 years old. But this man was very much still in charge.

[7:14] So it was during these days, the last days of Herod's life, so to speak, because he died, I believe, in his 70th year, visitors arrived from the east, wise men, and otherwise known as magi.

[7:30] These were an honorable priestly caste or group of learned men. They exercised certain kind of priestly functions in their particular countries, but they specialized in astrology and medicine and natural science as well as interpretation of dreams.

[7:52] So they were sort of a well-rounded kind of group of men. They hailed from the east, from Persia, from Babylon, what today would be known as Iran and Iraq.

[8:08] And it is likely that their kind, they were among those that were in Nebuchadnezzar's court in the time of Daniel. And Daniel was among them, though different because of his belief in the living God, but he was among those who were advisors to the king.

[8:27] Huh? They have been various attempts to explain the appearance of the star that was there as lining up of stars or lining up of planets, some other kind of heavenly phenomena like a comet or a meteor that they were following.

[8:45] And though we may leave verse 2 with some questions and look at there, as we look at verse 2, it says that we, where is the king, where is he who has been born king of Jews?

[8:58] For we saw his star when it rose and we have come to worship him. We leave that verse with a few questions on our mind, but one thing is for certain, the reason that they came to Jerusalem, they came to worship and to pay their respects to a newborn king.

[9:21] And that newborn king was not the nearly 70-year-old King Herod. Huh? The Lord was working in and through certain natural phenomena and he was working in these men's specialty and it was through that they had been brought to the right place.

[9:43] You might even say through a phenomena of natural revelation, stargazing, if you will. And verse 3, given who Herod was, it is understandable why it was that he responded in the way that he did.

[10:01] What about this man in history that is known as Herod the Great? Now there were some positive things about him. We'll talk a little bit about them, but then we'll get to the rest of the story of what really distinguishes him in history.

[10:18] But positively speaking, he was a great builder. His building projects were all over Palestine and they included, at least it was in process during this particular time, a rebuilt temple, refurbished kind of temple that was the building with which was going on even then.

[10:37] It wasn't completed in his lifetime. On the other hand, Runrider rightfully included the words crafty and cruel to describe him.

[10:49] If there was ever a soap opera kind of life, it was Herod's life. His life includes the stuff of which movies are made, married multiple times.

[11:02] One particular source says that he had ten wives. He had no less than twelve children. To have been a direct relative or in-law of Herod, it was absolutely dangerous to be in Herod's family.

[11:17] He loved power more than anything else and he was very suspicious of both his sons and his wives. He had his favorite wife killed as well as several of his sons murdered.

[11:32] He wouldn't want to be in this guy's family. So given this kind of history, it's understandable why it is that we read in verse three when Herod the king heard this, that it was these men that come from the east and they were looking for a newborn king.

[11:52] Uh-oh. It's what comes to mind. And he was troubled. He was roiled. He was stirred. And you might think of all the people they were stirred along with him because they didn't know whose head or whose body was going to roll next.

[12:09] So what we see of him in Matthew as we look on in chapter two, it is quite true to form of who this man was. No wonder he was troubled.

[12:21] The king of the Jews, that was his title. And woe to anyone who was dubbed that by another. Herod is the first person that we see in the text that didn't get invited to the Christmas card photo shoot.

[12:42] Their self-serving ruler in that case would be in fact out of place. He ultimately saw Jesus as a rival to be eliminated.

[12:56] and his resistance and opposition is inconsistent with the response of everybody else who gets an opportunity to be on a Christmas card. Rather than giving Jesus what he deserved, this self-consumed ruler treated Jesus as one who would get in his way.

[13:18] He was a rival to him and he would never willingly surrender his power or his life or his kingdom to nobody else.

[13:33] Jesus as a rival. Is that the way you feel about him? Not willing to surrender your life or your all or your stuff or whatever it is.

[13:49] Not willing to surrender to him. But Herod is not the only person in the biblical narrative that doesn't get an invite to this Christmas card photo op.

[13:59] The religious leaders, the chief priests and scribes didn't get invited either. Look at verse 4. In assembling all the chief priests and the scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born and they told him in Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written for so it is written by the prophet.

[14:27] According to verse 4, Herod consulted the Jewish religious leaders of the day. These were the chief priests. These were either active or inactive, high-ranking priests.

[14:40] And then the scribes, these experts in Old Testament interpretation. And he calls them together, friends, and he asks them a Bible question. It would be like Mayor Daley going to the Divinity School of U of C or Moody Bible Institute or Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and asking them about biblical or theological matters.

[15:07] Of course, they would make their way to Lewis University too, Claire. Huh? The question, where would Messiah, the Christ, the promised deliverer from the Davidic line, where would he be born?

[15:23] Huh? Interesting question. So amongst these religious scholars and the populace, it was understood from Scripture that Messiah, this long-awaited, this God-promised, God-appointed deliverer who would serve God's purposes and lead God's people, it was a known fact.

[15:44] He would come from Bethlehem, the city of David. And check this out, friends, that the religious leaders were able to point to the very place where it was written in Scripture according to the prophecy of Micah seven centuries beforehand and then Matthew, he adds a little bit of biblical narrative, 2 Samuel chapter 5, verse 2 at the end speaking about David being a shepherd, but they would see this, it was from the humble, insignificant town of Bethlehem that this mighty ruler of God would emerge and he would come for from there.

[16:33] What we see here is absolutely, painfully, ironic. What would you have done if someone came to town talking about an event that was spoken about in your Bible?

[16:47] Would you have been motivated to go with them or to them or accompany them personally? Or maybe even lead the way to where they wanted to go? While they were devoted students and scholars, their devotion was deficient.

[17:04] They were good scholars, but they were terrible practitioners. Was it not worth a five to six mile trip to Bethlehem to see if this might be the Christ? Foreigners, only with revelation written on the canvas of the skies, come from afar to worship him.

[17:23] And those who were up close and personal didn't make this trip to Jerusalem to see if this could be the promised one from above. Herod's problem was hostile resistance.

[17:39] The problem of the religious leaders was casual indifference. Indifferent people don't go far enough. Their understanding may be accurate, but their actions don't measure up to their understanding.

[17:54] There's no room for urgency. There's little room for action. And we are reminded here of the danger, friends. the dangers of indifference.

[18:07] Blinded by self-sufficiency, content with knowledge but no action, no response. The men who had come from afar on the basis of special revelation by God in the sky outdistanced those who had had scripture.

[18:24] God's word for years. And that's sad, huh? With the combination of Herod and the religious leaders, here we have in this chapter the face of the religious leadership in the nation of Israel.

[18:41] In Herod, you have a power-hungry person, self-serving king who occupied the state house and would deal with any competing rival.

[18:52] In the religious leaders, you had indifferent, self-sufficient leaders who presided over God's house. But in contrast to these leaders, scripture promised one who would be born in Bethlehem, a leader from the city of David who would tend to God's people.

[19:12] You see that there? They told him, verse 5, in Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet in you, Bethlehem in the land of Judah or by no means least among the rulers of Judah.

[19:25] For from you shall come a ruler who shall shepherd my people Israel. The people of God were unattended to.

[19:35] And this is clearly seen as you fast forward in the ministry of Jesus as an adult. Matthew described the people of Galilee as helpless and like sheep without a shepherd.

[19:50] So Jesus filled that leadership void in his day. And while there was great physical needs to take care of, the shepherd leader from Galilee would more importantly serve and function and be the Lamb of God who would tend to the ultimate spiritual needs of his people.

[20:11] he puts it this way in John chapter 10. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He was a hired hand and not a shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees and the wolf snatches them and flees away.

[20:34] what a day. Jesus born in that kind of context what we see here is actually very, very sobering and absolutely gripping.

[20:52] Look at the verses that follow. Following the meeting with the religious leaders, Herod met with the visitors from the east and inquired what time the star had appeared and then he sends to Bethlehem to search for the child.

[21:11] You see that in verses 7 and following. Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time the star had appeared. And he sent them to Bethlehem saying, Go and search diligently for the child and when you have found him, bring me word that I may come and worship him.

[21:29] I too may come and worship him. And after listening to the king, they went on their way and behold the star that they had seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was.

[21:43] When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. Once again, the star that had guided them reappeared and it assisted them once again.

[21:59] It had brought them to Jerusalem. Scripture would lead them from Jerusalem and the star would lead them from Jerusalem to Bethlehem and then would guide them to a specific place where they found the Christ child.

[22:16] The object of worship in verse 11 is one who was born a king. Look at verse 11. And going into the house, they saw the child with Mary, his mother, and they fell down and worshipped him.

[22:29] Then opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. And we've heard a lot about those gifts, huh? But the child, notice in verse 11, not the mother, is the object of worship.

[22:45] The baby not the mother is the person who is adored. He is the object of worship. He's not just simply a subject to be studied, but he's a person to be worshipped.

[23:02] The degree to which they understood this fully, who it was, who they were honoring, we don't know. That is, did they know that this baby was God in the flesh?

[23:15] Probably not. Possibly not. The Word made flesh, God with man, perhaps, but they were honoring on the basis of what they had and what they knew.

[23:28] But honor him, they did. They acted on the revelation that they had. They acted on it. They acted on the revelation furthermore of Scripture and in doing so, they were brought to the Christ.

[23:44] They arrive, see the child, fall down, and they worship. The reigning king was hostile and would seek to destroy him.

[23:57] The ruling leaders were indifferent and ultimately they ignored him. The wise men were humble and obedient. And they worshipped him.

[24:09] They saw him as king, the Christ to be experienced, one sought out by them and revered by them. So you say, well, Pastor Jay, what all of these things have to do with Christmas in Chicago 2009?

[24:27] Probably more than meets the eye. The Holy Spirit, through Matthew, brings the following message to us in this particular text.

[24:39] And here's the deal. Jesus is the rightful and worthy king who shepherds his people. He is the rightful and worthy king who shepherds his people.

[24:52] And doing this, we come to see that Jesus is worshipped and recognized and worshipped as the God appointed king of all people. The God appointed king of all people, even those that may come from afar and we may deem that they have no connection with the God of Israel, the God of our faith.

[25:14] He is the God of all people. We see this early in Matthew and then we see Jesus sending his disciples to the nations at the end of the book, don't we? And then we come to see there are three reminders here for us that are very appropriate for us today.

[25:34] God is still sovereign. The text helps us to see beyond the political and the religious power brokers of this world to God's king, the Lord Jesus Christ.

[25:48] Rulers who occupy the seats of this power on earth are not ultimately in charge and how good it is to know that.

[25:59] God is still sovereign in the midst of a crumbling economy, in this world where injustice wears a thousand faces, in the midst of seeming powerlessness and hopelessness.

[26:12] Here God in Matthew, that God is still sovereign and all things are under his sovereign control. We see that in the text even in first century or late B.C., first century A.D.

[26:25] because God is still in charge in Christmas time, 2009, hope is still alive, but not only is God still sovereign, Scripture is still sufficient.

[26:39] The sufficiency of Scripture comes into view here. Natural revelation took the wise men just so far. They responded to the light that was given them, but this led them to those who could share the light of Scripture.

[26:57] Scripture is still sufficient and you and I can trust God's written Word. And what an appropriate and needed reminder. This passage at this season is a reminder of the sufficiency of Scripture.

[27:13] God's Word is trustworthy. The same Scripture that predicted his first coming, God's our lives and predicts his return.

[27:25] Unto them who look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation. Scripture is still sufficient.

[27:37] And then Christ finally is still King. The text identifies the real King, the ultimate King, God's appointed King. While we recognize and honor earthly rulers, we know that God's King, the Lord Jesus Christ, is the King of Kings, and he is the Lord of Lords.

[28:00] This reality then should control and should govern our response to him. None should rival his devotion in our lives and in our affections.

[28:12] The question that each of us must ask is, is God's King King, your King? Is God's King, the King of Kings in your life?

[28:24] If he's not, he should be. If he's not, he can be. As King, he's God's King, he's God's sovereign King, he's God's unstoppable King, he's worthy of all devotion, and may the foster of our hearts always be one of homage and honor and worship.

[28:50] Oh, King Jesus, so what do you do with God's King? You don't compete with him, you don't ignore him, you seek him diligently and worship him humbly with your all, with your best, and may Christmas 2009 find us doing absolutely nothing less than that.

[29:20] Shall we pray? Lord, we do give thanks to you on this day, this afternoon.

[29:32] Pray, Lord, that we would see you as scripture presents you and your son in the same thing.

[29:44] Lord, we praise you, Lord, that we have observed his birth and then shortly after his birth and the responses to him. May we find ourselves likewise seeking you, finding you, adoring you, humbly giving ourselves to you, the very best that we have, all that we have to offer, for the glory of your name.

[30:17] Amen. Let's stand.