SNBS - The Book of Matthew part 2

All right, we are now in Matthew chapter 2. Let's get it. Let's read verses 1 through 11 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 for we saw his star when it rose and we have come to worship when

Herod the king heard this he was troubled in all Jerusalem with him and Assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people.

He inquired to them where the Christ will be born It told him in Bethlehem of Judea for it's written by the prophet and you of Bethlehem in the land of Judah are by no means least among the rules of Judah For from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people

Israel And Herod summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time the star had appeared

He sent to Bethlehem saying go and search diligently for the child and when you have found him bring me word that I may

May come I may to come and worship him. Excuse me first time After listening to the king they went their way and behold the start 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 exceeding with great joy and going to the house

They saw child the child with Mary's mother and they fell down and worshipped him Then opening the treasures they offered him gifts of gold frankincense and myrrh

And being warm than a dream not to turn the hair they parted to their own country by another way

All right, guys First off. I hope you're liking so far our study in the book of Matthew We're gonna go through the whole thing as long as it takes

We'll probably take through March, but then we'll have it recorded on here for all of us. Okay, so looking at the handout

I made guys a couple things here Let's see at what point

I talk about. Oh, yeah, we'll go over the misconceptions about the birth of Jesus in just a little bit.

Okay All right. So first off the Magi I'd like to point out

They're often called the wise men the Magi we'll read about who they are in a minute In fact now let's go ahead and do that now

When it says the Magi were from the east this probably refers to Persia, which is modern -day Iraq It would have absolutely been a long journey for them

They could have been Court officials they could have been pagan ritualistic sorcerers combining astrology with magic that makes the most sense

When it says they worshipped him This may be the first time in their life that they recognize who the true cream the true

God of Israel is we might be seeing in verse 11 them a Conversion or at least the first time they worship the true cream

Something drove them from their paganism To Jesus and of course we read about the star

But let's go back up here to verse 2 for a minute Herod the king he is the king of the

Jews. He's set up by the Roman Empire Here's that wise men are asking for the king of Jews where he's going to be born

Obviously Herod felt some type of way about the question because he was the king of the Jews So when they say where's the king of Jews gonna be born?

this implies That you're not him Now it says they were in Jerusalem and they were asking this implies they were going around Asking a bunch of people they were saying these things

Herod hears about it and then summons them, right? He when he hears that these these

Magi from the east by the way way more than just three of them would have been a lot of when he hears that they

Came and were in Jerusalem asking this he's troubled so he and all of Jerusalem's troubled with him

They asked Herod asked where The Christ was going to be born

He and all Jerusalem knew the Christ the Messiah was the real king of the Jews they all knew that they just wanted to reject

So the pastors of a day looked to the scriptures To ask where he would be born

Now they know where he's gonna be born because they know the Old Testament we talked last week

I believe it was the Sadducees, of course rejected all but the first five books of the Old Testament, but the

Pharisees Accepted it and they had read Micah and they understood the

Messiah would be born in Bethlehem. I Want to have a quick side note here.

I wrote it right here. Please recognize Since The scribes were able to tell

Herod that he would be born in Bethlehem because it's written Micah This means they had an accurate copy of the book of Micah because our copy of the book of Micah Chapter 5 verse 2 also says that Christ would be born in Bethlehem Which means when

Matthew wrote this in the first century They had an accurate copy of the book of Micah to be able to say

To be able to say that Jesus would be born in Bethlehem I hope you didn't just miss that.

In other words guys, the Bible was not compiled by the Catholic Church in 325 AD or whatever bullcrap you've been told.

It's a living act of Word of God that has been accurately transcribed and accurately transmitted Throughout history that evidence is seen in the

New Testament, which shows accurate transmission of the Old Testament itself a

Lack of faith and submission to the newborn King is evidenced by their not accompanying the Magi to the location of Christ's birth

Guys, if these people who were supposedly loved the Word of God loved the

Old Testament They knew it, but they didn't know it. They knew it in their head, but not their heart If they really were faithful and submissive to what

God had revealed they would have gone with the Magi to see the newborn King But they didn't Um So, yeah,

Herod summons the wise men and he wants to figure out how long they've been seeing this star This star appears to only be visible to the

Magi and it got them to Jerusalem Which is really close just five miles north of Bethlehem And apparently the stars disappeared because now they're trying to look and see where the king is

Now They I think it's best to see this star as a supernatural event not a supernatural phenomenon because in verse 9

They saw the star again, and it goes it rests directly over the place where Jesus and his parents are staying and And They are

Overwhelmed with joy in verse 10 when they see it because apparently had disappeared when they entered Jerusalem So it appears again in verse 10 and they're overwhelmed with joy.

It says They rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. What a phrase.

Well, I mean what a phrase right? Verse 10 when they see the star again, they know they're close to the king.

It says they rejoiced exceedingly With great joy

Haran with great joy with Megalane guys don't don't tune out now.

Someone told me well tune out whenever you go to the Greek side guys You can understand this to Megalane like mega with great with mega joy.

They're rejoicing exceedingly rejoicing exceedingly with mega joy

Isn't that amazing? Mega joy now What happens is as we just read

Excuse me, what happens is The Magi are warned in a dream not to return the

Herod So they don't they go by another way since we know this is way more than just three of them But a bunch of them they go a whole nother way to go back home to their own country

They gave they saw Mary and Jesus. It doesn't say Joseph was there at this point when they got there They worshiped the baby

Jesus because they recognized he's really the king and they give him gold frankincense and more gifts fit for the king now when

G Joseph is warned in a dream to flee and go to Egypt They stay there probably for just a few weeks and then

Herod kills all the male children Two years and under in and around the town of Bethlehem this fulfills a prophecy in Jeremiah 31

Herod kills all male children two and under by the way When the Magi get there this kind of because Herod figured out from them how long they'd seen the star

Jesus wasn't a little infant baby. He was already a toddler Okay, so Jesus the toddler and Joseph and Mary then go to Egypt Mary didn't receive this dream.

Only Joseph did this little side note. Mary is trusting in Joseph's leaderships here

We see this type of near and far fulfillment of prophecy fulfilled all throughout

Matthew in Jeremiah 31 They're talking about the deportation of Babylon But Matthew uses that as the near prophecy

Matthew use that to say well There was a dual prophecy here because there was a near fulfillment with the deportation of Babylon and a future fulfillment in Jesus This happens a lot

We can't be overly zealous and looking at all prophecy this way We must use scripture to interpret scripture the

New Testament writers indicate for us when this type of fulfillment is used. Okay When Jesus comes out of Egypt and Mary and Joseph Matthew quotes

Hosea 11, which says out of Egypt. I'll call my son now Hosea 11 was talking about when

Jesus calls the Israelites out of Egypt Okay, parting the Red Sea and all that stuff.

So why is Matthew setting up this typology this pictorial? Fulfillment of prophecy with Jesus we will get into that when we get to chapter 3 and 4

So remember in Hosea 11 1 Hosea was talking about how Israel is called out of Egypt by God goes to the

Red Sea and goes to wilderness, but Matthew says there's also a Messianic prophecy in there as well out of Egypt.

Jesus was called after he was sent there probably for a few weeks while Herod was killing the children then out of Egypt Joseph and Mary come and They go all the way north

To Nazareth when they come back All right. Let's go over some common misconceptions and assumptions about the birth of Jesus Nowhere in the

Bible does it say there are three wise men. That's just assumed because that's the number of gifts given This one's a big one.

Y 'all listen to me Some people are gonna get mad at me, but I don't care just teaching the Bible. The manger scene is unbiblical

The whole major scene where the wise men are there at the same time the shepherds are with little baby Jesus in a manger is unbiblical.

That's not true We read in Luke the shepherds arrived shortly after Jesus is born maybe even on the same day

That's what Luke says the Magi took much longer getting there as indicated by verse 16

Herod went and killed all chill all male children two years and under Two years and under Because that's how long started up here.

So the shepherds and the wise men were never there at the same time Additionally, we don't know that Jesus was born in a stable or cave that is tradition and speculation

All we know according to Luke is when he was born. There was no room in the end So he had to sleep in a manger, which is an animal feeding trough

By the time the Magi arrived a couple years later. This family are in there in a house verse 11 says they went into the house

So they didn't stay there forever That's where he was born. Yes, I understand that but by the time the

Magi the wise men get there and he's two years old They are living in a house. That's what verse 11 chapter 2 says

No one in the manger was white black Hispanic or a Native American whatever color you want them to be

Would have been Semitic would have been Jewish that would have been Hebrew So if you have a manger scene with white people, you know it that's not a biblical manger scene

Again, the shepherds and the wise men were not there at the same time And when the Magi the wise men were there

Jesus would have been a toddler It probably would have already been walking they weren't in a manger or a stable by the time the wise men got there

All right Let's go over a few Herod's of the Bible because there's a lot of okay

There was a lot of There are six Herod's in the Bible there's

Herod the great This is the Herod of the Christmas story one who massacred the male infants

There's Herod Arkelos, I don't know how to say that one This is when they leave

Egypt When they leave Egypt When they leave

Egypt this Herod the greatest died and This Herod who if I'm not mistaken, let's read that.

Yeah, this was a Herod the great son This Herod had taken over of that small region around Jerusalem and Bethlehem so Joseph returns to Nazareth Okay, then we have

Herod Antipas. He's the main Herod in the Gospels. He's one that killed John the Baptist and Was there for the trials of Jesus Okay Then we have

Philip Herod Philip the Tetrarch Tetrarch meanings for he ruled one -fourth of the kingdom of Israel Herod this is

Philip the Tetrarch. He's only mentioned in Mark 6 17 He ruled north and east of Galilee.

Okay, we have a grip of the first This is the one that killed the Apostle James and prison Peter and God killed him by making eat worms in Acts chapter 12

He appears in Acts then we have Herod a grip of the second This is the one who tried

Paul and Caesarea in Acts 25 and 26 Hopefully that helps you a little bit.

I Know that took me a long time to write had to do a lot of reading there to make sure I have that right so many

Herod's and That was a dysfunctional family a lot of incest happening there a lot of ungodliness

That's why John the Baptist called out Herod Antipas because he was claiming to be a

Jew but not obeying God's Word So that is Matthew chapter 2.

Okay You know what? Let's see. How do we want to do this?

Let's do Let's do

John the Baptist the forerunner next week. So we'll do chapter 3 next week. That's chapter 2

We'll call that good for now. Okay Guys as always

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