Matthew 2

--- We're continuing our study through the book of Matthew. We're on our third pass through the entire Bible as we've just begun it. And here in the second chapter, we deal with something that might sound a little chronologically out of place. You might be thinking, you know, why are you doing a Christmas passage here in the middle of January? By the way, doesn't it seem like Christmas was like six months ago? Isn't that weird how that happens? I mean, it's just like I was remarking to the kids as we were just driving around town, and I think I saw somebody that still had their Christmas lights up, and I was thinking, wow, how long are they going to leave them up? Then I realized it's only been like, you know, like three weeks, you know, and weird. Just seems like a lot longer since that was here. Matthew chapter 2,

Before we talk about this a little bit, can you keep your finger here and then slip on over to Luke chapter 2? I want to just kind of share a quick companion passage to this, at least companion from the perspective that I want to bring out this morning. Luke chapter 2. And this, of course, goes along with that very much that same period of time. And if you'll skip all the way down to verse 25,

Pray with me just for a moment. Father, God, open our hearts to the ministry of your word. Speak to us, Lord God, as our loving Father. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. The reason I had you go to this passage here in Luke is because of, really, the emphasis of what is given to us in verse 35. If you look there again at verse 35 in Luke 2, it says, at least in part, that Jesus, as Simeon is talking to Mary and obviously speaking prophetically, he says to her that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. Now, that's an interesting statement, isn't it? That Jesus is the kind of character, the kind of personality who reveals hearts. And have you ever noticed, you know, you can get into all kinds of conversations with people. By the way, turn back to Matthew 2. You can get into all kinds of conversations with people about religion, which I personally wouldn't recommend. I think getting in a conversation with someone about religion is like a sinkhole. And you really don't want to go there. What you really want to talk to people about, you want to try to lead the conversation toward, is the person of Jesus. Because when you talk to people about Jesus and when you find out what their thoughts are and their ideas are about Jesus, you're going to find out where they're at. You're going to find out their spiritual address. Seriously. I mean, it is, listen, people, it's not religion that makes people, that reveals where people are at. It's not even how much they've read the Bible or how much they go to church or even how much they pray. Those are the things, those are the benchmarks that we typically look at to try to define someone's spirituality. But what is really a defining element of someone's true understanding of the purposes of God and all that really God has given us the Bible toward, is when you begin a conversation about the person of Jesus Christ, then you find out where they're at. You find out what's really going on. And their heart will be revealed to you. So again, get your conversation off religion. And even I get the conversation off generic references to God. Because, you know, do you ever notice how people can very easily talk about God when there are generic references being made? And they'll even be happy to talk about God. But as soon as you bring up the person of Jesus Christ, something takes place that reveals where they're at and what they really believe about things. And, you know, we see this in our culture today, too. If you're going to pray in public, do you know that today praying in public really isn't totally frowned upon? It's when you end your prayer with, in Jesus' name, that they get upset. See? And if you're talking about heaven in our culture today, it's really not heaven that's a problem in conversation. It's when you start saying that the only way to get there is through Jesus. Now you've got a problem on your hands. Because people just don't like to narrow it down. And that's what Jesus does. He narrows the process down for us. And what Simeon said there in Luke chapter 2 is so amazingly true, and it continues to be true today, that he will reveal the hearts of many just by talking about Jesus. And it's amazing to me that when I'm talking to people about the Lord, and I'll ask them straight out, what is your view on Jesus? They come back and they say, well, you know, I believe in God. That's not what I asked. And that's not to say that Jesus is not God. He is God in human flesh. But what I am doing is I'm getting more focused on the conversation, and they want to keep pulling it back. Well, I believe in God. Hey, listen, don't bug me, man. I believe in God. But what I asked you was, where does the person of Jesus fit into your theology? Where does the person of Jesus fit into your understanding of God's redemption? program where does your understanding of Jesus fit into your very life how you live your life today you know how you treat other people how you see God seeing you and all you know because Jesus becomes the defining element of those things in a way that the generic God talk just can't reach because it's so easy for people to talk about God and keep him at arm's length but when you talk about Jesus you can't keep him at arm's length because of the things Jesus said about himself he said I am the way of the truth in the life I am NOT just a way I am NOT a truth I am NOT a life I am the way I am the truth I am the life and he said no man comes to the father except by me right he said I am the gate for the sheep I'm it I am NOT a gate I am the gate you know and and and so on and so forth Jesus went on to say that the way to destruction is a broad way it's an easy way and it's a it's it's you know no problem for people to go down the road to destruction but the road to life Jesus and all that's that's a narrow thing people you know sometimes will criticize Christians for our beliefs related to these things you people are so narrow you know I understand what they're saying they don't mean it to be you know a kind thing at all but it's frankly a true thing not necessarily that we're narrow-minded I hope we're not narrow-minded but we are narrow in our theology because Jesus presented a narrowness to understanding heaven he said that the way to life is narrow and hard you know but the the generic God sort of or laced with kind of God talk concept of heaven oh that's kind of anything goes sort of a mentality you see yeah and people say well you know there's a lot of ways you know to reach to reach God don't you know that's what we would say in Minnesota but you know there's all kinds of ways there's all kinds of ways to get to heaven you know there's all kinds of ways to know God Jesus came back and said if you know me you know the Father I mean he kept bringing it down he kept narrowing it down to him and you know as we're starting the third pass through the Bible I am impressed each time we go through the scriptures of the absolute and total focus of the Word of God on the person of Jesus Christ and how he is the focal point of everything and I mean everything it's all about him it's all about Jesus what we have in Matthew chapter 2 are really three responses to Jesus that's what is really given to us in this chapter we have the response of the Magi we have the response of King Herod and we have the response of the religious leaders who are also pulled into the discussion by Herod so that he can kind of get a little more information about this whole thing going on so you know first of all there's the Magi and they were kind of the modern-day astronomer slash astrologers in in in that day there was no difference between those two approaches to the stars that's why they were called Magi it was a word that where we get our word magic or magician and they were kind of considered to be conjurers and yet these men were seeking the birth of Christ who they knew to be a king did you notice that when they came to Jerusalem and by the way it's apparent that they they left their country wherever that was and they began to follow this star because they were stargazers and you see as astronomers slash astrologers they believed that the stars were kind of a way of figuring out what God was up to and so they were following the stars because they believed that the stars would guide them but they had a better revelation than just kind of a vague blueprint here they came to Jerusalem and they said where is this one born king of the Jews we've been following his star and we've come to worship him now that's a lot of information how did they know he was going to be a king how did they know that star represented a king why not a queen why not a series of kings why not a whole family of royalty why did they focus in just on a king why did they come saying that and by the way why did they come to Jerusalem you know it's interesting about the story is that apparently the star they were following they lost at some point because if you read through this passage carefully you find out that they came to Jerusalem and they started asking around where is he well the reason they were asking is because they lost the star and so but this was in God's direction is you continue reading Matthew 2 and I don't know if you've ever noticed it says that once they spoke with Herod and left to go up begin to search again it says they saw the star and they were overjoyed when they saw the star again so they they got it again so God supernaturally allowed him to lose it so they could come into town now where would you expect to find a king and it was very natural they would go to Jerusalem that's where the kings were that's where the that's where the temple was that's where the the king lived you know so it's like many guys man we lost the star bomber let's just go to Jerusalem that's where the Kings all are so they go to Jerusalem and say where's this king and and all the people it says that the whole the whole town was just in a in a lather about this thing and it says that that Herod himself was also disturbed which by the way was a good good description for that man emotionally and psychologically he was disturbed I mean flat-out the man was crazy but but but the Magi are the ones that kind of impressed me because they're not Jews we don't know how much information they'd gotten from the Hebrew Scriptures and yet they came looking for a king and they obviously had some inside information about this person being more than just your average run-of-the-mill earthly King because did you notice what they said when they came into Jerusalem they said we have come to worship him see that's that's that's more than just hey we're looking to come and honor this King you know Solomon had people come to find him in Jerusalem when he was king and they came to find him too because they heard amazing things about him they didn't come to worship him but these guys are there to worship him it's interesting we have some traditions about the Magi which are untrue but are things that we we believe their traditions and one of the things that we assume is that there were just three of them how many of you saying we three can't you don't have to raise your hand but we three kings of orient are we made up all kinds of different words that were very awful when I was a kid but but you know we that song had probably and and just the the assumption of there were three of them is based upon the fact that they brought gold frankincense and myrrh they brought three gifts and so the assumption is that there were three there was probably far more than three because the whole city of Jerusalem was a buzz when they and their their retinue came into the the town all their their party their people and and and so forth so you know there were probably a lot of them most people also assume that the the Magi found Jesus right at the time of the nativity at the time of the the the birth of Christ and that is that's a tradition is kind of carried on by our little nativity scenes that we put up on the mantle or in our yard that show the wise men coming to the the manger and bowing down chances are when the wise men got to Jesus he was somewhere between one and two years old and if you actually noticed here in Matthew 2 it says that when they got to Jerusalem they found him in his house not in a barn he wasn't there anymore so the you know we love these nativity things but we don't get our theology from them do we I remember you know my wife still puts one up and I like them they're cool you know but you can't look at those things just like you can't watch a movie and get your theology from that either my kids would play with the nativity scenes Alyssa was the cutest when she was a little girl she's the one who was leading worship this morning but Alyssa she would pull the whole nativity scene down and just play with the figures when she was like three and and she referred to it as the man and the man and the sheep and the sheep because there was a lot of men and there was a lot of sheep and she would just play with the characters and so that's what we started calling them isn't that weird how you do that your kids call things things and then you that's what they are forever and ever I come home one day and I go say to sue oh I see you got the man and the man and the sheep and the sheep out and got him on display yeah it's a nativity scene Paul oh yeah that's right I forget but so you know they they they actually found him later one of the other traditions is that these men were kings there's nothing to say that they were kings they were Magi they were those who were kept by kings they were used by kings but they were not kings themselves what's interesting about the story of these once again is that they have come to worship Jesus. And you see that's a response to Jesus. That in fact is the response to Jesus. Now what is Herod's response? Herod's is he wants to rid the world of Jesus. In fact he goes and gives orders to kill all of the boys in Bethlehem two years old or younger because he wants to get rid of Jesus. That was Herod's MO. Herod was a madman. Herod had such a reputation for executing people he thought were a threat that the Emperor of Rome himself was heard to say about Herod, it is safer to be his pig than his son. And that is because Herod, who was not a Jew by the way, he was Idumean, which means he was descended of the Edomites. Herod did not eat pork because he wanted to impress the Jews. But he actually murdered his wife, he murdered his mother-in-law, and he murdered his son. He would murder anyone who got in the way. Anyone who he thought was a threat to his throne. And so that's why the Emperor said it's safer to be his pig than a family member in Herod's household. He was a man of blood. And so we see the response of Herod is to just get rid of Jesus, get rid of this thing. Just to rid the world of all that he is, all that he might potentially stand for. Because the world is always going to be threatened by Jesus Christ and what he has come to provide for us. Always. And when you and I see things today in our culture where, you know, we just went through Christmas and people are trying desperately to get Jesus out of Christmas. It's the same spirit. When people are trying to eliminate the name of Jesus from prayer, you can pray but you may not end your prayer by saying in Jesus' name. That's too exclusive and you're going to offend people. You know, Jesus said, he said that he came as the stumbling block. Did you know that? You know, he is the rock of offense. Here we are living in this world, you know, where we've literally got this religion going on of, of, of not offending people. You know, we call it tolerance, but it's its own religion. You know, and Jesus would have had no part of it. You never noticed that Jesus went around offending people. I mean, you know, he wasn't purposely trying to be boorish and rude, but he would simply do so by saying, um, by the way, there is no other way to get to heaven except me. Just saying. You know, sort of a thing. And people, of course, they're always gonna pull it back. What in the world? Who do you think you are? And at one point they said to Jesus, you know, are you greater than our father Abraham? You know, Jesus came back and he said, listen, here's the fact of the matter. Before Abraham was even born, I am. And by that he used the divine name. I am that I am. And, of course, they picked up stones to stone him because they believed he was guilty of blasphemy. But Jesus is saying, I am. I am the way. I am the truth. I am, you know, I am the way to know God, to know the Father. I am the only way to heaven. That's very exclusive. That makes people crazy who are into tolerance. And so, you know, that's just the way things are. People will always want to get rid of Jesus Christ. And we're actually told why in the book of John. Let me put just a single passage up on the screen here for you. It says, this is the verdict. Light has come into the world, but it says that men loved darkness instead of light. Why? Because their deeds were evil. And everyone who does evil hates the light. It's not just that they're kind of bugged by it. They hate it. And they will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. So, this hatred of the light, this hatred of all things that are good and pure and true. I mean, this is, we see it in Herod, his actions toward Jesus. And we see it today in our culture. It's all around us. And it's just another response. It's been going on for a long, long time. And then you've got the religious leaders. Now, did you notice that the religious leaders kind of get called into this thing? Because Herod hears about what's going on with this group of magi who've come into Jerusalem. And before he even interviews these guys, it says he calls in these religious leaders, chief priests, teachers of the law. And he says, tell me what the Scripture has to say about the birth of Messiah. And so they said, oh yeah, not a problem at all. And they begin to quote a passage from Micah, chapter 5, that speaks about the fact that the Messiah will come out of Bethlehem. Now, and so, so Herod was given kind of an inside track as to, you know, what this thing was all about. But what's interesting about these guys is that even though the religious leaders gave Herod an accurate response concerning the coming of Messiah, and which means what? They knew the Bible. They knew the Word, right? They knew what the Scripture had to say about Messiah when he asked. They didn't have to go, gee, that's a toughie. Let me go look that one up. Got to go pull out my concordance and see what we can figure out on that one. No, they're just like, oh yeah, it's, you know, Micah. Of course, they didn't have chapters back then, but they just, they started to quote the passage. But you, Bethlehem, you know, are by no means least among the cities of Judah. You know, out of you will come for me, you know, one who is to be ruler over Israel, whose, you know, comings and goings are of old, from days of eternity, and they just rattle this thing off. So they know the Word of God. They also know that the whole city is abuzz about Messiah, and they know that these wise men, these magi from some eastern country that, once again, he's not given to us by name, are here to find the Christ. Now, stop and think about this for a minute, people. These are the guys, this is their business. They are the religious leaders of Israel. They are the chief priests. They are the teachers of the law. These are the guys who are sitting down and going through the Word of God and sharing it with the people. They're talking about the scriptures, the Hebrew prophecies, and they know them. And this should have been some of the most exciting stuff in their lives. The king invited us into his presence to ask us about the coming of Messiah. Wow! There are magi in the city right now asking, where is he? Where is he? We're looking for him. And there's obviously a star that can be seen from somewhere. And the whole town is abuzz. Just, you know, everybody's talking, boy, you know, Messiah, this and that, and everything. And these are the guys who should stand up and lead the way and say, yeah, this is what the Word of God has to say about the coming of Messiah. And look at all these things that are going on. And, you know, if they really were studying the Word of God, they could have also seen the timing of the coming of Messiah that was given to them in the prophecies of Daniel. Because do you know that there's literally chronological timing that is prophesied in the Old Testament book of Daniel as to the coming of Messiah? They could have counted that out, sat down, and thought it through, and taken the time and effort and energy that it would take to figure those things out. The fact of the matter is, they did nothing. They responded to this whole thing with complete indifference. They did not go search out the child. They did not get people excited about it or begin...they frankly weren't moved in their hearts at all about this whole situation, even though they are the keepers of the Word of God. I mean, that should have, like I said before, that should have buzzed them so much they couldn't sleep at night. But this is another example of a response that people can have toward the person of Jesus Christ. Remember what Simeon said to Mary? He will reveal hearts. And there's going to be different responses that are going to be given to the news, the subject of Jesus Christ. That's why I said when you're talking to people about things like the Bible and stuff like that, if you really want to know what they're thinking, bring it down, boil it down to the person of Jesus Christ, who He is. What he came to do, what happened on the cross, what happened three days after he died on the cross. Keep the discussion right there, and you will find the words of Simeon coming true once again. When you get it down to that element, and you're going to find a response that's either going to be one like the religious leaders of indifference. By the way, how many times have you heard me say, don't ever be impressed by somebody who knows the word. Be impressed rather by someone who obeys the word, who lives the word. Don't be impressed if somebody can rattle off scripture after scripture. That's not impressive. God's not impressed by that. Be impressed by the man who applies it to his life. That's, you see, what the religious leaders and the teachers of the law failed to do. They knew the word of God, but their response was not application. It didn't move their hearts. It was just all here, all head knowledge, big hairy deal. What did it do for them? Nothing. Well, actually, you know what, let me just come back on that and say, it placed them, here's what it did do for them. It placed them in a position of greater responsibility. It did that because when you know, you have greater responsibility to respond to that knowledge, but it didn't move their hearts. And so you're going to either see that sort of a response where people are going to hear about Jesus, and then they're going to kind of go, yeah, cool. What's for lunch? You know, I mean, just whatever. It's going to be sort of a, oh, that was an interesting topic, you know. Paul ran into the same sort of an attitude when he went to Greece and began to debate with the deep thinkers there, you know, at the Areopagus. And he began to speak to them of, they loved, by the way, talking about God. They loved doing the generic God talk. He started talking about Jesus. He started talking about the resurrection, the death of Christ and the resurrection. And that's when they all kind of went nuts, you know. So there was just a few people who came up to Paul afterwards and said, you know, that's interesting. We'd like to hear more about that. But the vast majority of them had the response, basically, the same response as the religious leaders and the teachers of the law. They heard about it. They knew about it. It was a matter of indifference. And then, of course, you got Herod. And this is going to be where Jesus reveals the black heart in the individual who not only doesn't want to talk about it, who's uncomfortable talking about the person of Jesus Christ, but wants to stamp it out. You know, we would just be better off if every Bible in the world was burned in a fire. Or we would be better off if this whole Jesus talk stuff would just stop. And they are willing to even take pains to move toward that end. And then you have these simple stargazers. These simple men who were not Jews. And this is the interesting thing about these guys. This king of the Jews that they came looking for, you know, that wasn't going to be their king. They weren't Jews. They weren't of Israel, but they saw something that was greater. And, you know, the question comes to mind, and I think it's an important question. Where did they get all their information? I mean, how did they know? Well, you know, I believe that when an individual, when a person has it in their heart to respond just with the attitude that they had about, I want to know more. What is this? I want to learn more about this. I don't know enough, so I'm going to look into this. I'm going to try to find out what this is all about. Here's what I believe with all of my heart. I believe that when that happens, God is going to meet that person with information and revelation and insight about who Jesus is. Here's the point of this. You know, you hear, I get this question sometimes, you know, I get this question sometimes, particularly among the young people, like in our refuge group, but the question will come up quite often, you know, what is God going to do with people who have never heard the gospel, you know? How is God going to judge the people who have never heard the gospel? And that's always an important question for people because they want to feel good about God's judgment. They don't want to think that God's unfair, you know, because then they might, you know, feel weird about worshiping him, you know, and believing in him because it's like, well, he needs to kind of be fair. And there's a couple of things that I always say about this, and that is, first of all, you know, God has given a revelation of himself in nature. We read that in Romans chapter one, that the heavens declare the glory of God, and there is a revelation of the person of God in nature if someone is willing to see it. But it doesn't stop there, although it does say in Romans chapter one, so that men are without excuse. But I believe that if someone simply begins to question, if someone is open in their heart to know about Jesus Christ, I believe with everything that I am, as sure as I'm standing here, that God will meet that person. God will break down, you know, the barriers between heaven and earth to meet that person, that they might know the truth about Jesus Christ. You know, the Bible says that God is willing that none be lost, but that all come to repentance. And so his willingness to do whatever, you know, we've seen this happen over and over again. I've had people come and talk to me about how, you know, nobody came in witness to him. They just started asking questions and thinking, you know, there's got to be something. And they just started reading the Bible and started searching, and I don't know even where to start. And they usually treat the Bible like a novel, you know, it's like, well, you start at the beginning and go to the end, you know, and stuff. But anyway, but they just start reading through the Bible and God meets them. God meets him at that place of wonder and awe. And do you see, brothers and sisters in Christ, that that is essentially what the Magi had? They had that in abundance, wonder and awe. And because they simply said, I want to know more. I want to look into these things. God met them so that when they got to Jerusalem, they were looking for the King of Israel who was worthy of their worship. They had it dialed in, and that's amazing. But it's not too amazing for God. So my final question for you this morning is, where's your heart? It's helpful, isn't it, when you're talking to other people, witnessing to other people, you have people in your family, maybe you're even praying for. It's important and helpful to know that people have these various heart responses to the person of Jesus Christ. Maybe this will be helpful in your prayer, but even in your own personal life, even now that you're a Christian, we can apply these same principles. Now that you're a believer in Jesus, do you know that it's possible to get saved and then stop growing? Because you've kind of put the brakes on and you've stopped wondering, and you've stopped seeking and searching to know more, to have more, and you're just kind of content to just hang out, and the rest of God's Word can be either a matter of indifference or something like that. We as Christians need to be the ones who are always pressing in, always pressing in to know Him better, to know what He's like, what His heart is like. Like those wise men, the willingness to come with a heart of awe, a heart of respect, and to worship, and to lay down our gifts at His feet. Amen? Let's stand together. Amen. ---