The Only One Who Is Worthy Matthew 2:1-11

he would eliminate the problem. Throughout his time as king, he was above the law and able to get away with whatever he wanted.

But he would not do this immediately. Let's see what he first does in verses 4 -6. 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 Judea. 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.

So Herod must learn where he is going to be born before he can remove the threat.

And through the scribes who were the experts in the Old Testament, he learns that the

Messiah would be born in this small village called

Bethlehem. At the end of this chapter in verses 16 -18, Herod tried to eliminate the threat of this king by killing all the male children in Bethlehem two years and under.

Even though King Herod was a Jew, he probably didn't know the Bible. What Herod knew was how to get power.

That was his expertise. He was actually quite skilled, but he just used it for evil reasons.

Evil means. But what we have here is he asked these people who are experts, where is he going to be born?

And these people knew the Old Testament. And what they said was he's going to be born in Bethlehem.

And when we talk about corrupt leaders, this is not something that's just an ancient problem. It's a present problem.

Very much so. I mean, we don't have to look very hard to see this in our own country, in our communities.

All over the world. No one is above the law. But people for a time think that they are.

And so they do these wicked things. And the judgment awaits everyone. That's something we always have to keep in mind.

Nobody gets away with anything. There might be a ruler who's above the law for a time or thinks he's above the law.

But what he will find out one day is that God will judge him. Now, what the

Magi told Herod is that Micah 5 .2

The Magi and the experts of the law, what they told Herod is that Micah 5 .2 is the place that predicted where the

Messiah would be born. It's worth stopping to praise God for his precision in telling us how things would come to pass.

When the Bible makes a prophecy, it's telling history beforehand. It's telling this is what's going to happen at this specific time in history.

It's very detailed. Jesus was predicted that he would ride into Jerusalem on a donkey, on a colt of a donkey.

That's exactly what happened. Isaiah 53 vividly depicts the crucifixion of Christ.

That's exactly how it happened. And then we see here the town he's going to be born into.

Bethlehem. It's amazing the precision of Old Testament and New Testament prophecy.

Earlier in the Gospel of Matthew, the virgin birth was predicted and now we see the location of Christ's birth predicted.

And God providentially, there's that word again, providentially made this happen.

He's orchestrating all the events. Earlier we read the

Gospel of Luke that told us Joseph took Mary down to Bethlehem before the birth because of the census that was going to be taken.

The Lord made it that Joseph had to go to Bethlehem in order to fulfill the prophecy of Micah 5 .2,

the location where the Messiah was to be born. It truly is amazing to see the

Lord orchestrate these events. And now that Herod has this information as the birthplace of the

Messiah, he tries to get more information so that he knows how to proceed to eliminate the problem.

So this is what he says in verses 7 and 8. So Herod's presenting himself as I'm interested in this too.

I want to go worship him along with you. And Herod asks the

Magi when the star appeared. Why does he do this? He does this to find out the age of Jesus.

Herod believed that the time the star appeared would have been about the time when he was born. And when we look at the birth narratives of Matthew and Luke, we notice that two different groups came to visit

Jesus. We saw that last week in the children's play. The wise men and who's the other group?

The shepherds. It's helpful to understand these two different narratives because it helps us understand the chronology, the ordering of these events, the time in history when they happened.

The Gospel of Luke explains that shepherds visited Jesus. And what Luke 2 .16 tells us is that the shepherds in the field visited

Jesus shortly after his birth while he was still lying in a manger.

However, the appearance of the wise men from the east happened later. So Herod's questioning to figure out the date of the birth would have helped him determine the age.

And as I mentioned, Herod is going to order the slaughter of all the children in Bethlehem two years old and under.

So the wise men must have told Herod that the star appeared quite a while before.

But at this time they decided to take the journey to see him. There was a

New Testament scholar by the name of Harold Hohner who wrote a book on the chronology of the life of Christ.

According to his research, he believes that Jesus was born in, interestingly,

December or January. A lot of people say, well, he wasn't born around that time. This New Testament scholar actually says that that's when he was born.

And he says that the wise men visited Jesus when he was about a year old. By the way, there's different views on when he was born, and that's okay.

It's not a hill to die on, but it's just interesting to hear this guy's perspective. But this knowledge of the timing of everything helps us understand the setting.

All those decorations that have the magi at the manger scene are wrong. Their visit came about a year later.

Now, Harold is a very deceptive and manipulative man. He knows that these wise men are his only hope to find the child king.

And what he tells the wise men in verse 8 is to report to him when they find the child so that he too can go and worship him.

In verse 2, we read that the reason the wise men came on this journey is to worship

Jesus. And Harold heard this, so he tells them that he desires to go also and worship him.

But we know that Harold has no intention of worshiping the child

Jesus. He feels threatened by the child king. He wants to eliminate him, just like he has eliminated every threat in his life.

He desires to be honored as king alone and not have another receive that honor.

We see the tension in this text. The two choices are before us.

We see the choice of the wise men who choose to worship him. Then we see what

Harold is trying to do. He wants worship for himself. It's interesting that another

Harold later on in the New Testament desired worship and received it. There's the dynasty, the Harold dynasty.

Harold's that came after Harold the Great. And one of his sons, actually it was his grandson, desired to be worshiped.

And let's just say it didn't go too well for him. Harold Agrippa I, the grandson of Harold the

Great, here's this account. On an appointed day, Harold put on his royal robes, took his seat upon the throne, and delivered an oration to them.

And the people were shouting, the voice of a god and not of a man. Immediately an angel of the

Lord struck him down because he did not give God the glory. And he was eaten by worms and breathed his last.

Secular history actually records that he died by worms. So very interesting.

He wanted worship. And look what happened to him. Harold the

Great's grandson wanted worship and honor and praise. And God struck him dead. The praise that Harold was receiving only belongs to one

God. And what we see in our text is that his grandfather

Harold the Great was no different. It's an old saying. The apple doesn't fall too far from the tree.

Harold the Great was corrupt. His sons were corrupt. His grandsons were corrupt. His in -laws...

One after another, they were all the same. In our world, world leaders love to be worshiped.

We have seen this throughout history and many world leaders down through the ages have called for worship when worship is meant for God alone.

For example, Daniel got thrown into the lion's den because he would not bow the knee to the

Persian king placed over him. This still happens in the present day. Think about Christians in North Korea who are faced with the choice of showing allegiance to God or Kim Jong -un.

If there was one world leader who maybe most resembles Harold, it might be this North Korean leader.

He has put people to death for lack of loyalty or whom he sees as a threat and he's able to get away with it because he holds the highest position in the land.

He is the dictator. In a similar fashion, Harold the Great was able to get away with his crimes because he was the king of the

Jews. Not even the Romans, who had authority over him, touched him.

Now the wise men did not bow their knee to Harold. The text mentions no such thing, but they did bow their knee to the rightful king.

Let's now look at the encounter between the wise men and Jesus in verses 9 through 11. So what we see is that the wise men see the star again and the star leads them to the precise location of the child in Bethlehem and they are filled with joy that they are going to see the child king that was foretold in the

Old Testament. Once they go into the house, they see Mary and the child and you will notice that they are in a house which would suggest that Jesus is not a baby, as I mentioned, but entering the toddler stage and what verse 11 says is that when they saw

Jesus, they fell down and they worshipped him. And the way that they showed honor to him was they gave him gifts.

We give gifts, right? Christmas season? These wise men gave gifts to Jesus. Frankincense and gold and myrrh.

These wise men came from pagan nations, but what they did here was exactly right.

They didn't honor Harold as king or give him the greatest honor that belongs only to God, but they did honor the little boy

Jesus because of who he is. And we don't know what happened concerning the wise men.

We don't know if they'll be in heaven one day. But what we can conclude is that what they did in this story, and Matthew wants us to see this, what they did in this story should be followed.

They gave Jesus, this child, the honor that he is due.

And we know the story of Christmas. It's not just that he came to the earth as a child. Christmas means nothing without what comes after his birth.

He lives a perfect life, 30 plus years on the earth, and then he goes to the cross and he dies a sacrificial death on the cross where he bears the sins of anybody who will believe in him.

That's what Christmas is about. Christmas isn't just about his birth, his coming to the earth.

Christmas is about who Jesus is and what he has done. We talk about this is an

Advent season. Advent means coming. Jesus came the first time 2 ,000 years ago, and he is going to come again, and we don't know when that is.

It could be very soon. The crazier we see the world get, it tells us that it may be very soon.

That's what we call the second Advent. So think about that. As we think about Christmas, we're not just looking back.

We're actually looking ahead to the time when he is going to come again, and he's not going to come as a child, born of a virgin.

He is going to come in power. His first coming was his humiliation.

He suffered for sinners. He came on a rescue mission to save sinners. His second coming, he's going to come in power.

He's going to come from the heavens. He's going to go to the Mount of Olives, as Zacharias says.

His feet are going to hit the Mount of Olives. And from that point forward, the only king that there truly is is going to reign forever and ever and ever.

That's what Christmas is about. And that's what we just sang this morning. Joy to the world. Joy to the world is looking ahead to that day when he comes and when he reigns.

So as we look at this text, so much of Scripture, what it shows is that there's really two paths.

I mean, life can be pretty complicated, right? This is not complicated. There's two paths in life.

There's one path that leads to destruction. There's one path that leads to life. John 3 .36

says, Whoever believes in the Son has life, but whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.

There's really two paths. There's two ways to live. There's the

Herod way, and there's what the wise men did, which is they worshipped the

One who is worthy. So I invite anybody, if you've never put your trust in Jesus Christ, do that today.

Understand that if you trust in Him, if you understand your sin, if you believe in the

Savior who is also the King of the world, you will have eternal life forever and ever.

You will reign with Him in the future. And that's what this holiday is all about.

It's not about Santa Claus, right? It's not about all these wonderful traditions, even though some of them are good.

But they can also be distractions. This day is about Jesus, who

He is, what He has done, and we must pay

Him allegiance because He truly is worthy. He truly is worthy.

And my prayer is that everyone here would see that and truly worship the

Lord Jesus Christ. At this time, let's pray. Father, that's what this day is all about.

We can slow down our lives. And there's so many things that are so wonderful about this season, but right at the top, the most important thing is understanding who

Jesus is and what He has done. Understanding why He came to the earth. To understand

Jesus is to understand the meaning of life. So my prayer, Lord, is that everyone in this room would understand that.

And that we would be encouraged of this reality, knowing that truly

Jesus came as the angels told the shepherds. He came, and this is good news of great joy.

Because we are all in slavery in our sins. That's how we come into the world.

And my prayer is that everyone in this room would leave this world, not in their sins, but with the blood of Christ covering their sins.

And so that's my prayer this morning. And every believer here today, Lord, and there's many in this room, that they would be reminded of the wonder of what happened 2 ,000 years ago in a fresh way.

And may we worship You with the honor that You are due.

You, Father, Your Son, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. And it's in Your Son's name we pray.