The Star of Bethlehem (Matthew Chapter 2 - Part 1)

So this evening we're going to continue with Matthew chapter 2. So go ahead and turn there

Matthew chapter 2. So this is the Christmas theme.

Last week we talked about the divinity of Christ. Two weeks ago the the kingship of Christ.

So this will be Matthew 2. This is the visit of the Magi or the wise men and we'll talk about that and get into what all that means.

So let's listen along to Matthew 2 1 through 12. 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.

Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the east and have come to worship him.

When Herod the king heard this he was troubled and all Jerusalem with him and when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together he inquired of them where the

Christ was to be born. In Bethlehem of Judea for thus it is written by the prophet but you

Bethlehem in the land of Judah are not the least among the rulers of Judah for out of you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people

Israel. Then Herod when he had secretly called the wise men determined from them what time the star appeared and he sent them to Bethlehem.

Go and search carefully for the young child and when you have found him bring back word to me that I may come and worship him also.

When they heard the king they departed and behold the star which they had seen in the east went before them till it came and stood over where the young child was.

When they saw the star they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy and when they had come into the house they saw the young child with Mary his mother and fell down and worshipped him and when they had opened their treasures they presented gifts to him gold frankincense and myrrh.

Then being divinely warned in a dream that they should not return to Herod they departed for their own country another way.

Now when they had departed behold an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream.

Arise take the young child and his mother flee to Egypt and stay there until I bring you word for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him.

When he arose he took the young child and his mother by night and departed for Egypt and was there until the death of Herod that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the

Lord through the Prophet. Out of Egypt I called my son. Then Herod when he saw that he was deceived by the wise men was exceedingly angry and he sent forth and put to death all the male children who were in Bethlehem and in all its districts from two years old and under according to the time which he had determined from the wise men.

Then was fulfilled what was spoken by Jeremiah the Prophet. A voice was heard in Ramah lamentation weeping and great mourning

Rachel weeping for her children refusing to be comforted because they are no more.

Now when Herod was dead behold an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt.

Arise take the young child and his mother and go to the land of Israel for those who sought the young child's life are dead.

Then he arose took the young child and his mother and came into the land of Israel but when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea instead of his father

Herod he was afraid to go there and being warned by God in a dream he turned aside into the region of Galilee and he came and dwelt in a city called

Nazareth that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets. He shall be called a

Nazarene. Now this idea this just occurred to me am

I dreaming this or which is like a year or two ago they were saying hey the star of Bethlehem is is gonna be visible from this day till this date.

Does anyone remember that? Yeah okay good I'm glad I got someone because I'm pretty sure

I didn't imagine that yeah I don't know how they figured that but something happens in the sky every so many years and they they labeled it the star of Bethlehem.

Whatever it was I didn't see anything too special up there so I'm pretty sure that wasn't the actual star of Bethlehem so okay so we talked about two weeks ago

Christ the King and then last week his deity and all of this should be it should cause us to see

Jesus for who he really is he is Lord and as Lord we recognize who we are we are his servants so Matthew chapter 2 verse 1 begins 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 so we have the birth of King Jesus and then we have this statement

Herod the king as you probably know you can't have two kings in the same area that just that doesn't work they come into conflict with one another so Jesus at this point in Matthew 2 he's already been born

Matthew says Jesus was born where in Bethlehem everyone knows that but he says what

Bethlehem of Judea so Bethlehem means house of bread but he's careful to point out that this is

Bethlehem of the south of Judea because there was another Bethlehem in the north about 200 kilometers north near the

Sea of Galilee so this is Bethlehem of Judea it's about six miles outside of the capital city

Jerusalem so that's where Herod is he's ruling and he's in Jerusalem six miles away in this smaller town of Bethlehem this is where Jesus is born okay so what's significant about Bethlehem of Judea when the

Jews heard of Bethlehem or thought of Bethlehem what would come to mind okay

David this is the birthplace or at least the hometown of David who was

Israel's greatest King also there was a prophecy that when the Christ would be born he would be born in Bethlehem and remember he's the son of David so there's those similarities next who are these mysterious visitors they are called what now depending on what translation of the

Bible you use they're going to be called something different so what do you have in your Bible wise man probably is what most translations say does anyone have anything different okay okay

Magi so the King James version of the Bible will call them Magi I'm not sure if there's any other translations that call them that but Magi wise men we'll talk about that more in a second it says that they came from the east so I always wonder how they determine this you see the the map in the back every map of the world is laid out the same way you have

China and Australia and you know that's East and in the West you have the

United States and then Hawaii and then it just goes to the other side of the map and in the middle you have

Africa and so when we talk about Israel Jordan Iran Iraq those countries what do we call it today we call it the

Middle East and if you look at a map and the Jews thought many of the Jews thought that Israel was the center of the world it's not exactly the center but it's pretty close if you look at a map so when it says that the wise men came from the east it's talking about the east from the perspective of Judea so east of that they probably came from where what do you think where do they come from did you have any notes or ideas in your mind what have you heard in the past where do they come from China okay what do we talk about the east today that's what you would think of but remember it's not necessarily that far east it doesn't tell us where they came from so I guess in theory they could have come from China any anyone else

Joyce okay Mesopotamia so okay so that's ancient

Babylon and the other the other theory is the land of Persia so if you think of today where Iraq is that's

Mesopotamia Iraq and Syria that's where the Babylonian Empire was and then east of that was

Persia or today we call it Iran so Iraq Iran Persia Babylon it's probably in that area that they they come from here's why that's important we can't say for certain but they they seem to know something about this star and the significance of it

God does tell that communicates to them in a dream so did

God tell them ahead of time we don't we don't know it doesn't really tell us here's the the best theory it's really an educated guess but you remember

Daniel the prophet remember we talked about this in chapter 1 how Daniel gave that prophecy of the 70 weeks and he gave the timeline of when the

Christ would be born well Daniel was taken captive to where Babylon right and he gave that prophecy in Babylon and Daniel was the king or not the king he was the the prince he was in charge of a certain group of men that were considered wise men so the theory is that when

Daniel was in Babylon he gave these prophecies and it was kind of passed down from generation to generation and the people who had that information you know

Babylon was conquered by the Medes and the Persians so all the way down to these men the song says three kings they weren't kings they were they were basically astrologers so they saw something in the sky perhaps

God told them but the theory is that they had this information that originated with Daniel the prophet that's that's our best guess so these men are most likely astrologers when you think of astrology what do you think of probably not not

Christian men who are seeking out Jesus Christ astrology today has different connotations but what is astrology today fortune -telling study of the stars yeah typically these would be people who read their horoscopes and find out what each star or constellation means and they kind of live their life not based on the scripture or based on the leading of the

Holy Spirit they they sort of set their life based on what the stars are saying of course are the stars really saying anything

I think it's people that are saying that but anyways that's not what the wise men were they weren't astrologers in that sense but they did they were very knowledgeable about about the stars okay so what about this other term

Magi what's what does that bring to mind magic right so a magician and that's again the

King James Version it calls them Magi so the Greek word

Magos basically wise men is a translation Magi is a transliteration where you take the the

Greek word and just bring it straight into the English language so Magos becomes

Magi so basically we're seeing that they're astrologers magicians and again this just doesn't sound right to us like these are not people who would be seeking

Christ another definition for the term Magos or Magi would be a sorcerer or a false prophet so again there could be a lot of confusion surrounding these terms so no pun intended

I think we need to get based on the story based on what we do know I think we need to give these these men we need to give them the benefit of of the doubt so what do you think they were wise men

Magi they were educated men who knew yeah scholars educated men who who knew that something major had happened okay so I think it's wise no pun intended to give the

Magi the benefit of of the doubt Genesis 1 verse 14 says then

God said let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night and let them be for signs and seasons and for days and years so you at least you have this verse of scripture saying that God at times will use the stars for a sign and the word for sign can also be translated miracle

I say all of that to say this I think the star of Bethlehem was a miraculous event

I don't think it was the constellations aligning just perfectly although I guess that's possible

I think this is a miraculous event so those men may have been watching they knew the general time period based on Daniel's prophecy so when they see the star they know okay now is the time we've been hearing about this all our all of our lives we're gonna go and we're gonna see what's happening dad yeah but they were also had very expensive gifts to give to the game right and traveling the way they did they were susceptible to bandits any kind of people that would take advantage

I gotta think that whoever they thought Jesus was they thought he was very important a very important King right right and if you do go back to Daniel's prophecy and Daniel chapter 9 he talks about the king the prophecy talks about the most holy and he will usher in everlasting righteousness so it's my personal opinion that they understood something about the

Christ child in his deity I guess I can't prove that but I think they had to have known this is more than just another king being born

I think we can agree on that all right so verse 2 it says they get to town they arrive and they ask the question where is he who has been born king of the

Jews so you get the idea they come into town and they start asking everyone they come across people walk by them they get to an inn whatever and they're just asking people hey we're where is this child where is the the newborn king and I wonder what their response was

I think I think the people are like what are you talking about what newborn king so they're there we're here to worship them where can we find your king and based on everything we read from Matthew's gospel and Luke's gospel it seems as though the people the

Jews really have no inkling of what's going on so their reaction has to be one of confusion why are you here did have you ever read this and got that sense because you don't see any real anticipation from the people there's no response yeah we've been waiting for him he's born in Bethlehem now even when

Herod finds out he has to call the scholars together of Israel and they have to tell him so nobody has any idea of what's happening but these men do and you know that's kind of a sad commentary on the the

Jewish nation that they really didn't know what was happening they had to be told by men from Babylon or from Persia and again based on Daniel's prophecy they they would have had at least the general time that this would have happened but if the religious leaders of Israel had been aware of do you think they were aware of Daniel's prophecy yeah they were but they obviously didn't hold it and too high of a regard they obviously weren't teaching it so how do we know that because the majority of people had no no clue you know

I think that's true today the Bible has so much to say and there's so much to say even about Christ in his second coming but the average person is pretty much oblivious to it even a lot of people in churches really don't know a whole lot about Christ and his second advent so I think it's the same thing then and and today the average believer how how much do they really get about Bible prophecy see it's easy for us to kind of look back and with 20 20 vision we see what has happened why why didn't they know why didn't they expect it yeah but most

Christians today probably in every Christian today has a Bible right and most Christians today are not familiar with Daniel's prophecy so how much less familiar were the

Jews who didn't have personal Bibles so somewhat speculation but that seems to be what's happening so the

Jews were like anyone else today you know we all have our own lives we have our own issues to deal with we get caught up in the business of life how much time do we really devote to the study of Bible prophecy and the expectation of what

God is going to happen at any given point how much time does the average believer spend in that not much and if they're not hearing it preached in church they're probably not getting it hardly at all so the

Jews if they weren't getting it from the leaders of their synagogue they would have been completely in in the dark you know

Jesus says it's going to be that kind of a situation before he returns at his second coming and Matthew 24 38 and 39

Jesus says when he returns it'll be like the days of Noah says for as in the days before the flood they were eating and drinking marrying and given giving in marriage until the day that Noah entered the ark and they did not know until the flood came and took them all away so also will the coming of the

Son of Man be so people are just going to be living their lives everything will seem normal just like 2 ,000 years ago the

Jews that are just living their life just another day and then Jesus shows up and that changes everything so it's going to happen like that again any questions or comments so far so we don't want to be clueless like they were ok but I think most people are so the wise men show up and start asking around where is this

King who has been born and they say for we have seen his star in the east and we have come to do what to worship him that is a passage that supports the deity of Jesus why because only

God is worthy of worship so they come and when they do see him they do bow and they do worship him and Mary and Joseph Emily they they seem to receive this this worship on the other hand in those days kings were worshipped as gods so that doesn't necessarily prove that they understood the

Christ child was divine but again in my opinion I think they knew something about the deity of Jesus whatever the case they're asking people about the birth of King Jesus into the average

Jew the only King they knew was this other guy six miles away actually the wise men come to Jerusalem so that's where it is the only thing they know is is here it now is

Harrod a Jew was here let me put it this way was

Harrod king of the Jews Harrod was a descendant of Esau not

Jacob so Harrod himself wasn't even Jewish so he was not someone who would have been looking forward to the birth of the

Messiah Harrod was a very wicked man even secular scholars acknowledge some of the great things that Harrod did but he was known for his cruelty

I think he even had some of his close family members killed he's one of these tyrants that's paranoid that thinks his children or someone's gonna take the throne from him so he just eliminates all his rivals so when

Jesus is born of course we know the story what does he do he wants to kill

Jesus so he hears about he hears these rumors that men have come and they're looking for the king of the

Jews so what does he do look at verse 3 when Harrod the king heard this he was troubled and that doesn't surprise us but it says in all

Jerusalem was troubled with him so the bottom line is

Harrod sees Jesus as a rival so we understand why he's troubled about it but why would the inhabitants of Jerusalem be troubled shouldn't they be excited shouldn't they be thrilled when they hear that the king of the

Jews has been born I mean isn't this what they have been waiting for yeah right yeah

I mean that's true but you know he has to start somewhere yeah I mean to me you would assume that they would be excited about the news so why weren't there why weren't they excited does anyone have any any theories right that that's what it is

I think they all knew Harrod in the way he was so Harrod is going to eliminate his rival so they know he's going to react harshly also if a new king has been born whenever there's a transfer of one government to another that always me that always means warfare bloodshed and then if a war broke out in Jerusalem amongst the

Jews and Harrod that means the Romans could come in and crack down so the people in Jerusalem they're troubled because now everything is very uncertain people don't like uncertainty people even if they perceive they think the government is bad and it's not working for them that they're gonna pick what they know over something they don't know so anything could happen war could break out

Harrod's gonna react in a bad way so I think that explains why all of Jerusalem was was trouble they simply don't know what's gonna happen next verse 4 says and when he that is

King Harrod had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together he inquired of them where the

Christ was to be born so he hears the news and he wants to know exactly who is this kid where can

I find him so he inquires of who the chief priests and scribes of all the people and then they make reference to two verses of scripture this is the prophecy from Micah chapter 5 verse 2 which we looked at last week but it's it's almost like a combination between Micah 5 2 and 2

Samuel 5 2 2 Samuel 5 verse 2 says you shall shepherd my people

Israel and be ruler over Israel so that's the Lord speaking to David and David's from Bethlehem Micah chapter 5 verse 2 says but you

Bethlehem Ephrathah or a fraud however you pronounce it though you are little among the thousands of Judah yet out of you shall come forth to me the one to be ruler in Israel whose goings forth are from old from everlasting so there's two statements that kind of get mushed together and they tell him either way that the

Christ will be born in Bethlehem again we already asked what's significant about Bethlehem most people would recognize that as the hometown of King David David is what we would call a type of Christ and we went through Exodus and numbers we looked at the different men who are types of Christ to help you understand what that means think of a prototype what's a prototype you develop something what is it an example right but the real thing which comes later on is way better right so David think of him as like a prototype of the

Messiah so David set a high bar he's Israel's greatest king so his son the

Christ would be similar to David a prototype is similar to the final product but the

Christ is going to be much much greater so when the anointed one took the throne all the

Jews had this in their mind that when the Christ comes and yes Janet's right they did expect him to come they probably never thought about ok he's born as a baby and then how long do we have to wait 20 years 30 years they probably didn't think of it that way they're expecting him to show up and take the throne but this is the idea they had he would drive out their enemies drive out the foreigners restore the glory to Israel under David and then some so this is the common idea of what the

Messiah would do and as I explained last week it's accurate in terms of Jesus in his second he will defeat

Israel's enemies he will establish the kingdom glorious kingdom even greater than David so that is true and that's what the

Jews expected but if all the Jews knew that that means Herod had to have some idea that that is what they expected of the

Christ so when Herod thinks about this I mean he's just planning and plotting and he's he's ready to eliminate

Jesus straight from the beginning so Herod Herod is what a religious leader a

Bible scholar now he's a political ruler you know how it is political rulers typically are not all that informed when it comes to what the

Bible says when they don't want to be too harsh but because that's not their job but sometimes when they quote the

Bible or try to say something they they get it really wrong and take things out of context so when

Herod wants to know about the Christ he has to defer to the experts so verse 4 says he gathered the chief priests and the scribes so these are the religious authorities in Israel so who are the chief priests what do you know about the chief priests they were typically of one party and what party was that okay remember there's two parties right

Pharisees are one and the other is the Sadducees so the chief priests they were the big shots they were the temple hierarchy they were typically

Sadducees the Sadducees to help you understand who they were they were sort of like the liberals of their day they denied the supernatural they were rationalists they were also political opportunists they had no problem compromising to get what they wanted the scribes on the other hand were of the other party and what's that the

Pharisees so the the chief priests were Sadducees the scribes were typically

Pharisees and the Pharisees they had their own problems typically their beliefs were correct to a large degree however they allowed tradition to overshadow the truth so the scribes and the

Pharisees were what we would call legalists they thought the salvation came through the law of Moses but they didn't really understand the law of Moses because it was all clouded through their tradition so they are professional scholars who spent their days studying the

Jewish law here's the thing about the Pharisees and the Sadducees while they didn't like each other some 30 years later they did find common cause they came together to oppose

Jesus in his ministry and here straight from Christ's birth what are they doing they're informing

King Herod about where Jesus was born now I'm not saying they had sinister motives here

I mean I guess they don't really know what Herod is planning so I'm not saying they're intentionally giving him the location so he can go kill

Jesus but on the other hand they weren't completely ignorant of the way

Herod was so it kind of makes you wonder alright so verse 5 they said to him that is

Herod in Bethlehem of Judea that's where the Christ is to be born for thus it is written by the prophet that's

Micah but you Bethlehem in the land of Judah are not least among the rulers of Judah for out of you shall come a ruler who shall shepherd my people

Israel then Herod when he had secretly called the wise men he determined from them what time the star appeared so they show up in town they're asking all these questions word gets back to Herod and he calls for the wise men to come to his his palace so Herod consults the religious authorities now he meets with the the

Magi and notice the detail that he did this in secret right it says when verse 7 when he had secretly called the wise men so when people have secret meetings

I mean that tells you something they don't want people knowing what's what's going on and if they don't want people knowing what's going on they're probably planning something bad something it yeah there's it has a sinister feel to it and of course we knowing the story we know that's exactly what's happening so evil people they plot their evil deeds in the shadows tyrants almost never come out and announce to the people hey this is what

I'm about to do because if the people know and the people hear that they might rise up so tyrants are evil the but they're not stupid so he calls this secret meeting you did and he doesn't want one word spreading around that the

Messiah had been born I mean words kind of out already but if this spread throughout the nation the the people could use this as an excuse to revolt because Herod's not popular people don't like Herod so if they hear the king of the

Jews has been born you know Herod's just not leaving them any room to do anything so he tells the wise men that actually

I'm really excited about this hey tell me where the Christ child is so what what did he tell him that I may go and worship him another thing tyrants do they have no problem lying so Herod's plan is this and here's here's the thing

Herod's plan to kill Jesus is the same exact plan that these men the chief priests and the scribes it's the same plan that they have 30 years later to lay hold of the king of the

Jews and to put him to death so Herod and and his ilk

I mean him and the the chief priests and the scribes you know they're a match made in well not heaven but they have a lot in common yeah

Larry I was just thinking about so what what happened before Christ began what's that period of time called 400 silent years yeah so there have been no word from God for 400 years so just as in the days of Noah you know they were doing what they wanted to do because nobody was telling them that they were wrong that they were sinning and I have a cross -reference from verse 4 the but the chief priests to 2nd

Chronicles 36 14 okay moreover all the leaders of the priests and the people transgressed more and more according to all the abominations of the nations and defiled the house of the

Lord which he had consecrated in Jerusalem okay so they were doing their own thing yeah after 400 years they start to wonder yeah

God's not speaking anymore nothing's really happened we've heard about the Messiah who is to come but you know my parents generation hasn't seen it my grandparents

I haven't seen it you know yeah after a certain amount of time people go in that direction of unbelief and just kind of forget about it

Daniel again you had Daniel's prophecy Daniel was in Babylon remember we broke the prophets into three groups before the exile in exile and then after the exile

Daniel was in the exile and he he gave the time period 483 years once the wall gets rebuilt 483 years until Messiah comes so they have that information and then after the exile who's the last prophet last book of the

Old Testament Malachi so Malachi gives the last prophecy about you know

Elijah shall come who was that was fulfilled to some degree in John the

Baptist but yeah 400 years of silence people forget forget all about it and now we've had what 1900 year 2 ,000 years of silence so if they forgot after 400 years how much more people forgot after 2 ,000 years yeah yeah well

I wasn't gonna point out you know all the parallels but I figured you yeah nothing new under the

Sun as I always say so Herod's plan is to kill the baby

Jesus and the chief priests and the scribes 30 years later that's what they do and they're successful so to lay hold of the king of the

Jews to put him to death what was the reason it's the same reason for both

Herod wanted to hold on to his position of power and authority the scribes and the chief priests what did they want they wanted to hold on to their position of power and authority so thinking of that what's the takeaway

I think you see two attitudes reflected in this passage

King Jesus is born some people are excited about it the Magi they're excited and they come to worship him the others though are troubled so that's the same thing today when you hear about Christ and his second coming there are some people who are excited about it and are looking forward to it there's other people that well either don't believe it or if they hear about it they're very troubled by it but with these two groups you know the wise men were humble

Herod he's proud Herod cares about himself scribes chief priests they care about themselves the proud are always looking out for themselves they refuse to submit to the kingship in the

Lordship of Jesus why because they want to be in control they want to be in control they don't want

Jesus to have his rightful place where he is king and he is Lord overall so what then is we have to ask what is our attitude towards the

Lord and his word are we humble are we willing to accept it when we hear about these things do we say amen and I I want to see this or are we proud and and we just want to oppose it because we're trying to hold on to what we got

I've you know I've heard crit and I I think there's some well -meaning people who say this but sometimes people say well

I don't want Jesus to come because I want to see this happen and I want to retire and I want to do this and now

I don't want Jesus to come because I have my own plans well if you've ever said anything like that you need to read rethink that attitude but you could just ask somebody is

Jesus the Lord of your life is he sitting on the throne are you willing to worship him the

Magi they were willing to travel from whatever Persia Babylon risk their lives make that journey to worship

Jesus compare them with King Herod who's sitting on his throne and he's just gonna oppose this no matter what so is

Jesus the Lord of your life is he sitting on the throne or are you trying to stay on the throne and control things

I'll close by reading verses 9 through 12 which is where we will