This is God's holy word. 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 the Christ was to be born. They told him in Bethlehem of Judah, for so it is written by the prophet. And you, O Bethlehem in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah, for from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel. inherit some of the wise men secretly and ascertain 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 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. 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. Then opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, 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. Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, and said, Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you. For Herod is about to search for the child to destroy him. And he rose and took the child and his mother by night, and departed to Egypt, and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, out of Egypt I call my son. Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men. Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah. A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping in loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children. She refused to be comforted because they are no more. But when Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying, Rise, take the child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel. For those who sought the child's life were dead. And he rose and took the child and his mother, and went to the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea, in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. And being warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee. And he went and lived in a city called Nazareth, so that that was what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled, that he would be called a Nazarene. God's holy word. May he write it on all of our hearts. Amen. Let's pray. Father, we're so grateful for this day, the Lord's day. We're glad, we rejoice in it. You have made it. And Father, we thank you that we can come here and hear your word. Take it home to all of our waiting hearts in Jesus' name. Amen. Dear congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ, Matthew gives us a rather different perspective on the birth of Jesus from the other detail the other detail synoptic account in Luke. Luke speaks in some detail of the census, all the world to be taxed, the journey to Bethlehem, no room in the end, we're very familiar with this. We see in Luke angels heralding the birth to lowly shepherds who journey to Bethlehem to see this wonder. Matthew, here in the second chapter, speaks more of the Jewish political and religious aspects surrounding the birth of our Lord. And of the Eastern great men, we typically in our vernacular call them Magi, that's not the way you would pronounce it, but you know, I was brought up in a place where they said, let's go get some Italian food. So Magi, I suppose, is good enough. The great men, the wise men. They came to worship the child apparently a bit later than the Lucan account. This is a bit later, at least a year or so when the holy family, Joseph, Mary, and Jesus are no longer in a manger but in a house in Bethlehem as verse 11 indicates. Well, both of these accounts, the Matthian and the Lucan account, together fill out this picture. This child, who elicits the praise of angels, the wonder of shepherds, the worship of Eastern worthies, and the hatred of King Herod and the Jewish religious leaders, this child stands at the very center as was Israel as a nation. They were at the commercial and cultural crossroads of the world empires of the day. This child stands at the center of the world, at the center of history. All divine prophecies looking to him and flowing from him. Herod had this right. Herod had something right. It's either him or me. It's either him or me. And this is true for everyone who's ever lived, whether shepherd or king, it's true for each of you here. It's you and your life and your ways and all the things you want, or it's him. And you're bowing to him and worshiping him and adoring him. The person and work of Christ is decisive, we say. It is He who came not to condemn the world. This is wonderful good news. He came not to condemn the world, but to save it by His doing and dying. We see that also in Mark and John's gospel in a particular way. And that's decisive for us in what we do with that. Who are you with? Herod or the wise men? Who are you with? Because you're with one or the other. Everybody is. God offers his son to save us, as we saw in Matthew 121, to save his people from his sins. And we see two reactions to that. That'll be our first two points. The acrimony or the hatred of the world as it lies in sin, that's contrasted to the adoration of his own, of the righteous. So you have the hatred of the world and you have the adoration of the righteous ones. And what's encouraging here that we'll see in the third place is that what he did stands whether you or I receive him because we witness the affirmation lastly of God's revelation. Matthew's gospel is particularly about showing us how everything that was predicted about Jesus came to pass. How he is the Messiah. How he fits the bill. And that should be really encouraging to you, this affirmation of God's Word. Well, we begin with the acrimony. Why do I use that word? Well, it's an A, and of course, Dr. Menninger asked me to. The acrimony or hatred of the world finds a prime expression in Herod. Herod, history tells us, was a paranoid megalomaniac. He was a paranoid megalomaniac, focused on power. He was narcissistic, it was all about him. I know we've never seen anybody, we've never seen political figures since who have such problems. He not only slaughtered the innocents, but according to Green, we don't see this in the text, but we know from the history, his wife, her mother, and his own sons. Not a nice man. All because of his lust for power and glory. Anybody that he thought imperiled that came under his axe. Well, such men can never have enough and are never secure. Herod's paranoia flaring out in verse 3. When Herod hears this, he was troubled. When he hears what? That there's one who is born King of the Jews. Wise men from the east came. You could imagine Herod saying to himself, what are they doing here? What are these other rulers from another place doing here? Are they coming to make war? You can imagine all the things going through his head. And when they said, where is he who is born King of the Jews? What do you think Herod's saying? Excuse me, I am, I'm the king. What are you talking about, born? I mean, you know, I've been around for a bit. Troubled, Herod is troubled, one born king of the Jews. But Herod was such, if there was such, he would have reasoned. You may, one may understand this trouble ruler feeling threatened. But here's the interesting part too, all Jerusalem with him. Notice that, verse 3. Herod was troubled, all Jerusalem with him. Boy, we could spend a long time on that. The chief priests and the scribes seemed too ready to cooperate with Herod. They know his hatred. They seemed threatened as well, aren't they? After all, the religious leaders, maybe they reasoned. What place will they have? You say, but weren't they waiting for Messiah to come? Well, were they? Good question. All of a sudden this is hitting, this reality is hitting, and maybe it's hitting them right now. I mean, after all, they deliver him up to Pilate for envy. Pilate could see that. And envy means it's us or him. What's this upstart, this newcomer, this one threatening our power position? Particularly, if you're not coming here to overthrow the Romans, you might as well not come. That's what we want. All this, save us from our sins. Well, we're not sinners, the Pharisees would have said. Thank you very much. We just need you to do your job and get rid of the Romans. Stop talking about our sin. So the religious leaders tell Herod where the Christ was to be born. They didn't lack religious knowledge. They lacked religious devotion. They should have rejoiced with the great Gentile Eastern rulers. They should have been rejoicing. And they should have accompanied them to Bethlehem. But John tells us, right, he came to his own and his own did not receive him. They did not receive him. They're troubled with the horrid Herod. This is the sad state of affairs among the covenant people, making it abundantly clear why Jesus needed to come. Now, you've heard me over the course of years, if you've been here for a while, it's been a long time since I've done this, but on the Christmas Eve service, read the genealogy of Jesus Christ, right? And if you go back into Matthew 1, the very first part of the chapter, and you read that genealogy, you'll see that Jesus has, in his own line, he has a lot of rascals. He has a lot of really not very savory people. That's a good argument for why he needed to come. And now we see two here. Jerusalem is trouble, boy does Jesus need to come and save us. We're a mess. Neither Herod nor the religious leaders want this one, who's just now an infant, to rule over them. Herod is so intent on this that he deceives the wise men. He tempts to, right? Feigning interest. Verses 7 and 8, you go, you figure it out, tell me and I'll come and worship him too. Oh, is that a knife? Yeah. And when he recognizes that the wise men were wise to him, which they were, God warned them. When he recognizes that in fury like Pharaoh, You recall this, right? He slaughters the innocents to get at Jesus. The wicked act outrage when justice and truth prevail. Isn't it? Yeah, that's always interesting. I mean, my wife and I always used to talk about this, and some of you, if you knew her well, she liked police procedurals, and I would watch them with her some. I've seen a lot of Law & Order. And how do people typically act? Like they're arresting a guy who's being charged with three murders. And this isn't out of character. I said to my kids once, would somebody who's being arrested for three murders say, I'm a good person? No, they wouldn't say that. Yes, they would. They do it all the time. I'm a good person. But we're arresting you for murders. You're really not. But people get outraged, like Herod, like he's got something to be upset about. The world hates God, it can't get at him. And it gets, Herod here gets at all these children. Notice how rational, or rather irrational, this is. Like everything. Like, I don't know, like school shootings. We just had another, right? In Wisconsin. And whatever people are purposing in these things, it never comes to anything. I mean, these kinds of actions never gain anything. They just hurt everybody. They never get you anywhere because it's irrational. Hatred of this sort is irrational. Man in his hatred of God strikes out at the one made in his image. That's what Herod does in the slaughter of these innocents that's both horrific and pointless. And we see that, how horrific that is in the young. It's an attack on one's own future to kill offspring. We've been doing that for more than 50 years in the abortion holocaust. I mean, we could say, you know, he's a really bad guy. Herod's a bad guy. Well, there's plenty of it to go around, isn't it, in our own society? Plenty of it to go around. This is not something we don't understand. The world hates the Christ and all that he stands for. The world hates Christ and all that he stands for. Well, standing in stark contrast to the acrimony of the world is the adoration of the righteous. The adoration of the righteous. The love of those who are his. It's noteworthy and sad that the righteous in this account are not chiefly of Israel, but are Gentiles from the east following yonder star. Now, of course, you say, well, isn't this a kind of preview of what's going to happen? Yes. It's exactly that. That the gospel is going to go, it's not going to just stay there, but it's going to go to the whole world. This is, this is, you see it clearly here in the, in the coming here of these Eastern rulers following yonder star, looking for the king of the Jews to worship him. You might recall that Paul said that there is none righteous. He concluded all, Jews and Gentiles, Romans 3, as under sin. And indeed, there is not one righteous naturally as we've even talked about in this service and prayed about. We can only be such supernaturally, John 3 would say, by a new birth. And that's the import of the star in our text. Something supernatural happened to make these men seek him. Much speculation. Now, maybe somebody wants to talk to me about this afterwards, but much speculation, a lot of ink has been spilled about what this star is and how do we account for the star as a natural phenomenon. Let me answer that. It isn't a natural phenomenon. It isn't a natural phenomenon. But you could read about the confluence of planets. Saturn and Jupiter were together at this point. There were possibly novas or comets. I mean there's a lot that's been spilled on this to try to explain how this star was some natural phenomenon. Well, whatever it was, that it was kind of movable in the way that it was and came over the house, that should give you an idea. You're not talking about something natural. So just give that up. Give that up. I agree entirely with James Montgomery Boyce, who says that these wise men are brought by a supernatural phenomena outwardly that mirrors The inward work in them. In other words, they're brought by something supernatural outwardly. And we have to have, and all of us are brought ultimately by a supernatural work. Not a star. You say, well, I've never seen a star. But if you know Jesus Christ, if you have been born again, that's a supernatural work that has been done in you. And you didn't do it, you didn't make it happen any more than they made the star happen. God made it happen. And thanks be to God that he did. And that like he brought them there, he brought you to himself. Since no one is righteous, I quoted Paul, summarizing from a lot of the Old Testament there in Romans 3. Since no one is righteous and no one seeks after God. He not only says no one is righteous, no one seeks after God. Since that's the case, it was only God who made them righteous. When we talk about the adoration of the righteous, God made them righteous and He sought them seeking Him. That's the way we sing it in the hymn. He sought them. The star was a supernatural event and so is every conversion which must occur or we never come to Him. Unless the Lord works in us that new birth and that brings forth faith, trust in Christ alone and repentance, we never come to Him. We never come. when they found him for whom they were looking, verse 11, having already rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. Isn't that a wonderful expression? They come and how are we this morning? They came, we know him in a fullness that they had no idea about, but they came, these from the east came and they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy and they fell down and worshiped him. The adoration of the Christ child here, the adoration of these magi, involved costly oblations on their part, and they brought gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. The magoi, as it is in the Greek, were said to be three, Balthazar, Caspar, and Melchior. You may have heard those are traditional names. Where does that come from? It's tradition. It's not in the Bible, it's tradition. And you say, well, you were going to say we're a three, because we sing, I grew up singing, we three kings of Orient are, right? We sing those kinds of songs. They were just matching one king per gift, or one ruler per gift, or one wise man per gift, right? Gold, frankincense, and myrrh, right? But we don't know how many there were. They may have all had these gifts. Just a moment about the gifts, because the We Three Kings song talks about the gifts. Much does talk about the gifts. Gold, the gift of gold, is a gift of and for kings. So you could say this was a gift of recognizing that they were recognizing by giving Jesus gold, they were recognizing his kingship. This is an infant. This isn't somebody on the throne. This is faith at work. This is faith at work, right? He's not wearing a crown, so it's like, well, it's obvious he's the king, no. He would have been the king, had the kingship still been in Israel, but it wasn't. He's the king. Herod was right, as we've said, no two can be supreme. Notice this, Christ does not overthrow civil rule that takes its place under God, but he always threatens civil rule that seeks to act as God. He establishes civil rule and civil rule that will take its place under him and not seek to be in his place. He doesn't seek to overthrow that, but he is always a threat to all rulers who want to be as God over their people. He threatens all of us in our desire to be sovereign in our own lives. to be the sovereign. You say, well, it's never even occurred to me. Oh, you just haven't thought about it that way? Of course it has. Anytime you don't get your way and you don't like it, there it is. There it is. You're not the sovereign. I've experienced a lot of that in recent years. And it's something I have to keep coming back to. I was telling dear Gina, Rainey was asking me some questions about how I'm doing. And I said, well, that depends on when you ask me. But it's been really very difficult for the last two to three months. But the Lord in just recent times has just, again, been really refreshing me and reviving me. And I know that where my wife is, I know that's what's best for her. I've always known that. But it's sort of like, well, how is this best for me? But it is. Yes. Do you have to say that? Yes. The Lord is doing what he wants in my life. He's doing the same in everyone's of your lives. Yeah, but I didn't sign off on it. You're not sovereign. You're not asked to sign off on what God is doing. You're asked to bow to it. You're asked to bow to it. Frankincense. One is tempted to say frankincense, you know, I don't know, like I think there's a cereal or something. Frankincense, this reflects worship. So gold, his kingship, frankincense was burned in the temple. I mean, if you look at the mixture of what they burned in the oil of the temple, frankincense is part of it. That means the Magi saw Jesus not only as a king, as Lord, but as God himself. So here is one who's worthy of worship, not just... I mean, lots of earthly kings may think they're worthy of worship, but they want people to worship them. They want religious worship. Even there, it's interesting because our confession uses the word, you ought to give only God religious worship. And I always ask my students, why does it say that? Why does it just say worship? Well, worship means giving one their due or worth. You can actually use that even properly with each other. You can talk about Worshiping. I mean in the in the old Anglican service the man says to the woman in the marriage service, with my body I thee worship. And what he means is I give you your due. I give you that. But it's not religious worship. That's given only to God. Religious worship is given only to God. And frankincense means that. And then myrrh, something different here. You see, here's a signal that this one who is king, that this one who is God, Messiah, he is not just like everybody may have thought that he's going to come in glory and victory and put down the Romans or make everything great for us, give us great lives. sort of be, you know, what we'll have like in the time of Solomon. Every man flourishing, prospering in the Pax Hebraica, the peace of the Hebrews under his own vine. No, he comes and the mer recognizes that all the royal and divine recognition in the gifts are qualified by suffering. That's what mer stands for. This king's way will be that of a cross. He comes the first time in humiliation. And again, that is something that the people, the religious leaders especially, could not take. Because they wanted a victorious Messiah. They wanted the Roman rule ended. What does this all mean? He comes in this way. They don't like it. The King's way is that of a cross, of a life that is a perpetual Gethsemane. He says, foxes have holes, birds have nests. I have nowhere to lay my head. All because He came to save us. And to do so, He must yield. He must yield active obedience, keeping the whole law. He must go to the cross. Why must He do this? Because He loves us and He intends to save us. And this is the only way justice can be satisfied. And He's not going to throw aside justice because if He did, He wouldn't be the God that He is. He can't deny Himself, His essential character. No. Myrrh is mixed in with golden frankincense. Christ is decisive. Do you join the wise men? Have you seen your need? Have you seen that He is the only answer and do you bow the knee to Him? Or do you, like Herod, refuse to love this man, to have this man to rule over you? You must die. You must yield. That's the issue here. You must die. Jesus says that. That is, give up and give in. You must yield or else you join Herod in lashing out. Either you die or you seek to kill him. That's always the case. Either you die or you join those seeking to kill him. Well, this last point I'll try not to linger too long here, we have the table. The hatred, the acrimony of the rebel, the adoration of the righteous, we've already said, which is it? Are you with the rebels? Are you with this world and their hatred? Or with the righteous who adore Him? Regardless of the path that people take, we see, lastly here, the affirmation of God's revelation. You see, what we see here in Matthew 2, as I've said we see throughout Matthew, time and again, is that all these things come to pass as prophesied. God's Word stands firm. It's a great day when you realize that. I'll never forget it, I can see myself sitting in my parents' home in my bedroom, I was 17, and just really coming to realize that God's word, God's revelation is true whether I or anyone ever believed it. I remember I said out loud, if nobody ever believed this, it's still God's word. My believing it doesn't make it God's word, but if I don't believe it, it will do me no good. But it's still God's Word. And we see that in Matthew. Matthew, throughout the Gospel, and here in Matthew 2, labors to make this evident. All that is coming to pass, all of this that's coming to pass here, Matthew is saying, has been prophesied. Just a few things quickly on that. The star out of the east, verse 1, was predicted by another magi, Balaam. back in numbers. Bethlehem, the little, as Micah said, is now great because of the divine birth, verse 6. As Psalm 72 and Isaiah 60 predicted, kings of the earth bring gifts to Messiah as we see here in verse 11. The true Israel, Jesus Christ, is the true Israel. Like Israel of old, this true Israel goes down to Egypt and after Herod's death comes forth from Egypt. Think of this kind of parallel. As Joseph went down to Egypt, The old Joseph in Genesis, right, went down to Egypt and Moses led them out. So Joseph, this Joseph, goes down to Egypt and the new and greater than Moses leads them out. They go back. So all these parallels, all these things are happening to show that this is the Christ! To show this is predicted. This is not something out of the blue. It's just what God has said would happen, and it's all coming to pass. Herod, in response, causes the weeping of which Jeremiah, verses 16 to 18, spoke. And though not a direct prophecy, but fulfilling those that Messiah would be of obscure origins, Jesus' family returned to and lived in Nazareth, verses 22 and 23. To be called a Nazarene then wasn't something terribly distinguished. It wasn't some distinguished pedigree. Oh, I'm a Nazarene. And people would say like, well, I'm sorry. How's the rest of the family? Not a happy thing. Notice also here, notice this, that in a living, dynamic, ongoing revelatory work, not only the fulfillment of prophecy, but speaking to the righteous in dreams. So there's not only all the Old Testament prophecy that was fulfilled, but they were having stuff happening right there. In dreams, that's a direct revelation of God. Verse 12, the wise men are warned not to return to Herod. Verse 13, Joseph is told to go to Egypt. Again, this isn't a dream. God tells him. Verse 19, Joseph is told to leave Egypt. Verse 22, Joseph is called to take his family to Nazareth. God not only gives His Word historically, He guides His people. He guides us no longer with dreams, but better, by His Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit who gave this Word and who brings about its fulfillment also now after Pentecost is the Spirit of Christ. He is now referred to, and properly so, as the Spirit of Christ who leads us into all truth. He is active among us in the means of grace. You see, as you read the Word in your own family, Personally, especially, you hear it preached. The Holy Spirit takes this means of grace and draws you to Christ. It's how you come to Christ. He says, come unto me. How do you do that? In the preaching of the Word, you say, I give myself to you. You trust Him. You open yourself to Him. You open yourself to what you're hearing, and you say, yes, and amen. That's coming to Christ. If when you hear the preaching of the true Word, you're like... That's not. If you hear the word preaching, you're like, yes, yes, that's coming to Christ. That's what it means. Coming to Christ at the table. I'm sure Dr. Menninger will have more to say about that. This is all by the power of the Holy Spirit. The implications of all this for us are astounding. We should be students of this Word, attending carefully upon it, knowing that it's every declaration is true, waiting upon God in His Word by His Spirit to see marvelous things. Make this a special commitment. Yes, I am going to say this in the coming year. Right? We're at the end of a year almost. And you're like, oh, boy, I didn't do too well. OK, gird up your loins and get ready for the coming year. You say, well, what sort of reading plan? I don't even have to tell you. There's so many. I mean, you can talk to me if you don't know. But all you got to do is go on your favorite search engine and say yearly Bible reading plan. You'll be given all kinds. This is not a mystery. That part is not a mystery. What's a mystery is why we don't do it. while we're not more attentive on these things. Secretly and privately. Secretly means in your own heart, in your own, just you reading God's Word. Privately means in your family. Read God's Word, leaning on Him, particularly in its preaching and teaching to guide you into all truth. You see, Matthew 2 teaches us that all of God's Word shall come to pass and no man may stay his hand. You could look at Revelation 12, 1 to 5, and that refers to this. Satan, represented by Herod there in Revelation, tries to kill the child, right? But the child prevails. Our God reigns. Though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the ruler yet. Don't forget that during the coming year. Though the wrong, maybe in your own family, in your own heart sometimes, in your neighborhood, at your job, in the surrounding areas, in the nation, in the world. God is the ruler. Even if Herods do their worst, God is in charge. You know, Herods, I'm going to kill this infant. Couldn't do it. Couldn't do it. God will bring about all that He's promised. Matthew is at pains. The book of Matthew is great for this. It's at pains to point out that what God of all promised was all being fulfilled. Neither a Xi of China nor any other ruler will be able... Xi of China has a program right now that he's had in place for the last eight years called Reduce to Zero. What? What, is that a diet program? No. It means eliminate all Christians. Reduce to zero. Chairman Mao had something similar. Chairman Mao has been reduced to dust. And Christianity has continued to grow in China. The world can't do it. The world would love to kill every one of us if it could, but it can't. because of God's provision and protection. And even if they did kill every Christian, they would gain no victory whatsoever. I've had people say to me, well, cancer conquered. No, it didn't. It didn't conquer anything. My wife is with Jesus, reigning above, and so are all your loved ones. Nothing conquers Him. When are we going to get that through our heads? You say, well, how do you know we don't? Because we get so nervous and upset about what's going on in the world. I talk to lots of Christians, real Christians. Hey, well, how's it going? Well, things aren't going too well. What do you mean? Well, look at the world. Really? Go look in the mirror. Start there. They're not going that great there, really. But God reigns. God is in charge. Are we Calvinists or is that just a theory? Do we believe that? God's Word is more sure than anything else. We may suffer under faithless rulers of all sorts who support abortion, gay marriage, gender fluidity, But this Word shall not fail in any of its purposes. Christ, the living Word, is the fulfillment of all the written Word and the guarantor that all of it shall come true. This is why He is the center and meaning of all existence. God's people need to learn to make much of the Word and to come as those made wise by it and adore Christ the King. Amen. Our Father, we thank you for this word. Take it home to all of our waiting hearts now. In Jesus' name, amen.