Matthew 2:1-12

Truth in Love Network

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:01

Hello, good evening. This is Truth in Love. So glad you could join me. I appreciate you spending time with me as we do these videos together, spending time in God's Word.

00:12

I'm so thankful that God gives us these opportunities and this time together. I hope you guys can see me well because this light that I'm using is really bright and it's hard to look up because it's so bright, but it's recommended that you use good lighting so that the video quality is well or is good.

00:40

I want to do with what I have with excellence for the glory of God and so just trying to do the best

00:48

I can with what I got, but thank you for joining me. If I can pray for you, let me know that I can do that.

00:55

All you have to do is type me and I'll see that and I'll pray for you at the end.

01:01

If you would like to join in, if you would like to make a comment, have a question, you want to talk about any

01:08

Bible verse, any topic, you want to talk about the church, I'd love for you to chime in and let me know what you're thinking.

01:15

Let me know what questions you have. We can address those. The floor is always going to be yours and we'll go from there, but like I said, if you would like for me to pray for you, all you have to do is type me.

01:27

If you watch the video later, you can still type me. I'll see the notification and I'll pray for you and I'm sure that other brothers and sisters that watch the video that see you type me,

01:39

I'm certain that as a brother and sister in Christ, they will see that and pray for you as well.

01:47

Let's get down to it. This is truth and love and of course, as I've said before,

01:54

I get that from Ephesians chapter 4 verse 15 where Paul tells them to speak the truth in love so that we may grow up in all aspects into him who is the head even

02:06

Christ. So we want to grow up into Christ. We want to be like him.

02:11

We want to glorify him, look like him, and always submit to him. We want to share that information with other people because we love

02:24

Jesus and we love other people and when we do that, we want to do it. We want to speak that truth and we'll speak it in love.

02:30

So that's my goal is when I communicate is to do that in love.

02:36

We're continuing to go through Matthew. The reason that we're going through Matthew is because there's a thing that I like to say, a reminder that Jesus is

02:48

King. It's crazy that we as humans need to remind ourselves of the facts of reality.

02:56

Jesus is King. He's in control. They're counting votes as we speak in Georgia right now for a

03:05

Senate race, but Jesus is King. There's things going on with the presidential election.

03:20

For some, it's over. For others, it's not over, but Jesus is

03:25

King. And then whatever you're going through in your personal life,

03:33

Jesus is King. What a good reminder. What a good thing to ponder on for ourselves and for each other to remember that Jesus is

03:45

King, no matter what's going on out in the world or in our personal lives.

03:53

So I say Jesus is King. Go live in that victory. So we want to live not in our victory or not in our own ways, but we want to live in the fact that Jesus is

04:11

King and He has won the victory. We want to live in that fact, in light of that, in light of what

04:20

Jesus did, in light of who Jesus is. We want to live in that victory.

04:25

And so how do we do that? And I went to Matthew. I felt like we should go to Matthew.

04:32

Matthew is a great place to go because one of the goals of Matthew, one of the themes of Matthew is to show that Jesus is the long -awaited

04:45

King, the anointed one. And so we see where Matthew is proving, showing that Jesus is

04:52

King. And as we see Jesus King, Jesus being revealed by Matthew as King, we can learn how to live in the light and the fact that Jesus is

05:05

King. He's King of kings and Lord of lords. So where are we tonight?

05:12

We're in Matthew chapter 2. We're going to look at Matthew chapter 2 verses 1 through 12. And I'm going to read it, then we're just going to discuss a few things.

05:20

And there was something really cool, something interesting that I found as I was studying, excuse me, and looking through this passage that I can't wait to share with you.

05:33

And if you have any thoughts on it, I'd be glad to hear your thoughts on it. I'd love to to dive a little bit deeper into this point that we're going to talk about a little bit later.

05:45

But I find it very interesting. I'm excited for you to hear it and see what your thoughts are on it.

05:51

Let's read the passage. Matthew chapter 2 verses 1 through 12. Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the

06:01

King, behold, Magi. And it's interesting, my

06:06

Bible in the notes, it tells me to pronounce that word Magi. I'm not a

06:13

Hebrew scholar. I've not studied Hebrew. I have to rely on study notes and commentaries. But my study notes say to pronounce it

06:20

Magi. So I guess I will. We'll try that. Behold, days of Herod the

06:29

King, behold, Magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem saying, where is he who has been born

06:35

King of the Jews? For we saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.

06:40

And when Herod the King heard it, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. And gathering together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he began to inquire of them where the

06:52

Christ was to be born. And they said to him in Bethlehem of Judea, for so it has been written by the prophet, and you

07:00

Bethlehem, land of Judah, are by no means the least among the leaders of Judah.

07:06

For out of you shall come forth a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.

07:12

Then Herod secretly called the Magi and ascertained from them the time the star appeared.

07:20

And he sent them to Bethlehem and said, go and make careful search for the child. And when you have found him, report to me that I too may come and worship him.

07:30

And having heard the king, they went their way. And lo, the star which they had seen in the east went on before them, until it came and stood over where the child was.

07:40

And when they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. And they came into the house and saw the child with Mary his mother.

07:49

And they fell down and worshiped him. And opening their treasures, they presented to him gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh.

07:57

And having been warned by God in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed for their own country by another way.

08:05

All right, that was Matthew chapter 2 verses 1 through 12. What we want to do is read it in context.

08:13

We want to hear what God has to say. We want to hear what Matthew was telling us.

08:18

And we know that the theme, one of the themes in Matthew is to learn that for him showing us that Jesus is

08:26

King, proving that Jesus is King. And he's going to be doing that through all these passages in Matthew.

08:36

Showing, proving that Jesus is King. Let's start at the beginning and look at several points here and there.

08:44

So, after we read the genealogy of Jesus going through Joseph, and then we see where an angel came to Joseph, said, don't put

08:56

Mary away, take her as your wife. And then Joseph did that, and he didn't touch her until she gave birth.

09:05

And then she gave birth there to her son, and they called his name

09:11

Emmanuel, called his name Jesus. And so, now we are at the account of the wise men here in Matthew.

09:19

And it says Jesus, after he was born in Bethlehem in Judea, and he says at the time of King Herod, this will be

09:28

Herod the Great, some Magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem.

09:35

So, these next few sentences, you kind of have to put them together to kind of get a sense of what's going on.

09:44

So, they arrived from the east in Jerusalem. So, why didn't they just go?

09:52

There's a lot of questions here too, and there's so many of these questions that we really can't answer.

10:01

I come up with a few that I tried to answer, and we'll look at those in just a second.

10:07

But as we look at this account and some of the details, of course, if Matthew felt like it was relevant to the story, he would have given us those details.

10:19

And I don't like to, when I'm reading scripture, studying and interpreting, I don't like to fill in the gaps, if you will, too much, because we just don't know.

10:32

And I don't want to say, this is what happened in the gap, or this is the reason for that when scripture is not plain.

10:40

I don't like to guess too much when it comes to God's Word. But we can take the information that we have and look at what's going on.

10:50

So, they arrived from the east in Jerusalem. So, we know that they didn't go directly to where Jesus was.

10:59

They arrived in Jerusalem. And so, when they arrived at Jerusalem, they began to ask this question, where is he who has been born

11:08

King of the Jews? So, they had come to Jerusalem, they were on this trip for a purpose.

11:17

They were looking for a child who had been born, specially born as King of the

11:27

Jews. So, they had some information that put them on this journey.

11:34

And so, we can ascertain that, we can pull that out of the text, that they had some information that led them on this journey, and they had some help on this journey.

11:47

They saw a star when they were in the east. They saw this star. And so, why did they go to Jerusalem?

11:56

Well, the information that they had spoke to them, saying, and of course, let me say this, what was the information that they had?

12:05

Where were they getting this information? What was the prophecies that God had given through the

12:12

Old Testament? So, it wasn't mystical, it wasn't sorcery.

12:19

They were getting this information from the Old Testament and from the prophecies of the Old Testament. So, the wise men had this information.

12:29

And so, they saw this star, and they knew it had a meaning.

12:36

And I'm trying not to fill in too many gaps where Matthew doesn't speak.

12:48

But you just have all these questions about how did they know to be looking for a star at that time?

12:57

Maybe you've had that question before, and maybe you have some other questions. If you would, leave me a comment.

13:04

Let me know what some of the questions that you have had as you have read, well, specifically this passage.

13:11

What are some of the questions that you've had? You know, we know that they had information, the information that came from the

13:17

Old Testament, the prophecies there. So, how did they know when to look for this star?

13:26

Obviously, the information that was given to them from the prophecy from the Old Testament was that there would be a star indicating the the arrival of the birth of this king.

13:38

How did they know when to look? I mean, did they have someone on watch? I mean, could that be possible?

13:46

Sure. We would be inserting things into the story we don't know, but I mean, could it be possible that they had men?

13:57

You know, some people see these wise men, these magi, as astrologers, and so could they have had someone on watch every night looking for this star?

14:12

Possible. It's possible. I think there's one thing that is more possible than that, and it's the fact that God does give a timeline, and I've spoken of this in several videos, and I'm not going to go over it right now, but if you want to go back and look at Daniel chapter 9 and the 70 weeks of years, and you can look back at the discussions we've had on that, and you're going to hear, if you look it up on YouTube, you speak to your pastor, you speak to, you look at commentaries, if you go to different places, you're going to hear and read different interpretations of Daniel and the 70 weeks of years and the timeline of things, but God does give that prophecy there through Daniel a timeline of when this

15:12

Messiah would come. Hey Tim, hope you're doing well. I think they knew the timing from the coming because of the prophecy in the book of Daniel.

15:24

I think we're on the same page. I think we are on the same page. I'm trying to remember.

15:39

There's a lady that's having, I'm not going to give her name, but there's a lady who's having cancer treatment in the morning, and we want to pray for her.

15:51

She watches the show. Her husband watches the show, and we have mutual friends with each other.

15:59

I don't know the couple personally, but I'd like to meet them one day, but I know that she's having a cancer treatment in the morning, and Tim, you made me think of her because I can't remember her husband's name, and brother, if you're watching,

16:13

I apologize. I just can't remember. I don't know you guys that well, but if you will, remember this lady who's going to be having a cancer treatment in the morning, if you will, and if you guys are watching, you can let us know if that's something that you want to do.

16:33

You don't have to, but I'm with you, Tim. I think they knew the timing.

16:39

I think they knew when to look for this star because of the prophecy in Daniel and the timeline that God gave, so they were in the east.

16:52

They saw the star because they were looking at the timeline, had an idea of when to look, and so why did they come to Jerusalem?

17:04

I think they come to Jerusalem at that time. It doesn't say that the star showed them exactly where to go.

17:18

It just says that they were in the east and they saw the star in the east while they were in the east, so they had to go somewhere to see the birth of this king, so they went to Jerusalem.

17:31

Why? Because it was the birth of a child who was king of the

17:38

Jews, so there you would obviously go to the place of the

17:45

Jews. You would go to the place of the temple, the mountain of God, the capital city of Israel, the

17:52

Jewish people. To me, that's just an obvious place to go would be

17:57

Jerusalem, and so of course we read that that's where they went. They went to Jerusalem, and they begin to ask the question, and see if you see this.

18:10

Again, we don't want to add too much into the text, but it's interesting that wise men who were in the east, they weren't

18:19

Pharisees, Sadducees, scribes who were in Jerusalem. They were wise men who were in the east outside of Jerusalem who were following the timeline, who saw the star, who traveled to come see the birth of the king of the

18:35

Jews, come to see this child, and they say to worship him, but they asked a question.

18:43

When they come into town, when they arrived in Jerusalem, they begin to ask a question. Where? Where is he?

18:53

To me, that's an assumption. We know that the star at that time wasn't pointing exactly to where Jesus was, so they came to the obvious place,

19:06

Jerusalem, and to me, the question where makes me want to assume that the other folks, the wise men, were assuming that the folks who were in Jerusalem, the

19:24

Jews who have been awaiting this king to come, would have been aware, just as they were, of this timeline, of this prophecy, of the star, that a child was to be born who would be king of the

19:41

Jews. And so by asking, by coming into town where the Jews are in their capital city, asking where is where is where is he who was born king of the

19:54

Jews, and it's obvious that the the

20:01

Magi may have been the only ones taking a look at this timeline and really anticipating this birth of a child, birth of the king.

20:19

It just seems that way, and I don't want to insert too much, and we don't want to do that, but I'm just reading the

20:28

Bible, reading Matthew, and asking questions to myself, but it seems like they're asking because they felt like they should have known this is their king, this is their prophecy, and this is the place where he would be born.

20:51

So we get to Herod next, and I want to camp out here just for a second because this is, as I was reading and studying,

21:00

I found something interesting that, and it helped answer some of my questions, and I hope

21:06

I'm drawing the correct conclusions, and if anybody's out there that wants to correct me or add to what

21:14

I'm talking about, that's fine, but it seemed to answer some of the questions that I had in this next section, and it's really interesting when you look at it.

21:23

So I want to know about the star first. I want to know about two things.

21:28

First, I want to know about the star. Where did the wise men get this concept of a star?

21:37

They called it his star, that this star would be part of the prophecy of this king that was going to be born.

21:47

Where did they get this star? How did they know to look for a star? Why wasn't it just an oddity in the sky to them?

21:58

But in fact, it was a sign to them, an answer to a prophecy for them.

22:04

Where did they get this prophecy? I wanted to find that out, and the second question that I had comes from Herod, and let me add this real quick.

22:17

Thank you guys for watching. If I can pray for you at the end, all you have to do is just type me.

22:23

You don't have to say what's going on. Just type me, and I'd be glad to pray for you at the end.

22:29

If anybody wants to insert anything in the comments, ask a question, talk about anything, you're more than welcome to do that.

22:36

The floor is always yours, and I really appreciate you guys spending time with me and watching, and I appreciate your participation.

22:45

If anything, I'd love to know that you're watching, so tell me hello, say hi.

22:54

The second question that I had was about Herod. It says, and when

23:01

Herod the king heard it, so obviously this caused a ruckus in town where these wise men came, and obviously it wasn't just a casual stroll through town.

23:17

In fact, I was reading, we don't know, and we even guess, it's tradition that there were three wise men, and I think that tradition comes from the fact that there were three gifts mentioned, but we don't know that there were, oh thank you

23:35

Tim, I appreciate you spending time with me. This is, I mean, this is an amazing opportunity that God gives us to spend time together and spend time in His Word, and I glorify

23:47

Him, and I appreciate Him blessing us, and I appreciate you guys, but you know, it wasn't just a casual stroll through town.

23:59

You know, have you heard anything about a child being born around here? We don't know how many there were, and I even read that it could have been because they, because of where they were in society, the place that they held as a society, they could have had a caravan with them, even military personnel with them, so it could have been this larger group of people.

24:27

It could have been up to 12 wise men with this caravan. We don't know, but that's a possibility that you had this big caravan, even military personnel with with multiple wise men that came, and so however it happened, however it happened, it caused enough ruckus in town that that word got back to King Herod, because at this time they didn't go directly to King Herod.

24:56

Word had got back to him, and when he heard it, it says, he was troubled and all

25:03

Jerusalem with him. Now part of the commentary, part of the study of that, you know, we want to know what it meant when he, when

25:13

Matthew says all of Jerusalem with him. A lot of that, of course, is speculation.

25:20

I do know, especially in John, but in the Gospels, when, when the term the

25:26

Jews is used, it's usually referring not to the the whole of the Jewish people, but mainly when it says the

25:34

Jews, it's referring to the Pharisees, the leaders, and so all of Jerusalem, of course, of course not every single person had heard of this, so all of Jerusalem could have been the the the leaders were troubled, the the leadership in Jerusalem, as it says in other places, the

25:55

Jews. So I'm gonna leave that to the side.

26:01

I'm not gonna speak too much of that, just just made a little brief comment on that, but but what stood out to me was, it says that Herod, when he heard this, that I guess that there were there were these

26:12

Magi, these wise men, and whoever else was with them, whether they were alone or with a caravan, they were asking about a king who was born.

26:21

Where has this king been born? And they, and think about this, they weren't,

26:29

I mean, they packed up, moved out, took a trip, and and were asking the question, where is he who has been born king of the

26:39

Jews? Where is he? As if this has legitimately happened. There's no second guessing.

26:47

I mean, this is a sure thing. We follow the timeline, we've seen the star, this event has happened, so where is he?

26:57

And so as it comes to Herod, it's communicating, communicated to him as these folks are are for real.

27:08

They're looking for the king of the Jews. Tim says, I have wondered if the military caravan was what stirred

27:16

Herod up. He knew it was serious. Absolutely, absolutely.

27:22

You and I are on the same page tonight. Well, we know because of the question that they were asking, they were looking for a king.

27:36

Well, who was king? Herod was king, right? And so he was king of Judea.

27:42

He was king of the Jews, if you want to put it like that. Herod was king of the Jews. So obviously, that's one of the simpler questions to ask, is why was

27:55

Herod troubled? Well, he was king of the Jews, and you have these folks from the east traveling all this way, looking for the king of the

28:09

Jews who was born. And if they did have a military caravan like Tim and I are talking about, that would have been a super heavy threat to Herod as king, because you have these folks who are traveling with this military caravan, who are looking for a king to worship him.

28:37

And so automatically at his birth, you know, he's just recently,

28:46

I mean, he's a child, and yet he's going to have this military backing behind him to overthrow

28:54

King Herod. I mean, you can just imagine, and if my history is correct, I want to think that I heard read that Herod was paranoid.

29:06

Anyway, he was a paranoid person, and he had people killed because he was paranoid.

29:13

But yeah, what a threat to have these folks looking for a king to worship, and with him was a military caravan.

29:23

Obviously, it would have been a threat, and one of the simpler questions to answer. But as I found out, the answer goes a little bit deeper than that.

29:35

So we want to know about the star, right? We want to know about the star, and we want to know about Herod being troubled.

29:46

So he pulls in, he gathers together the chief priest scribes, and he's asking them and inquires of them, where is this

29:58

Christ to be born? Because is it in Jerusalem?

30:04

Where is it at? Why are they here looking for him? And so they come to him, and they give him

30:11

Old Testament prophecy, and it comes from Micah 5, 2, and you

30:17

Bethlehem. So the prophecy was that the king of the

30:23

Jews was to be born in Bethlehem from Micah chapter 5, I think verse 2.

30:31

So we're gonna come back to that later. That's not the Old Testament prophecy that I want to look at.

30:37

But just keep in mind, when they quoted Scripture, and when

30:45

Jesus quoted Scripture on the cross, when he quoted the psalm, or other places where they would quote

30:52

Scripture, in the Jewish mind, they were giving the reference to the

30:59

Scripture. So where we would say Matthew chapter 2, verse 1 through 6, they would quote the verse as a reference.

31:10

And in the Jewish mind, when they heard that reference, they would remember the context of the whole section there, not just the chapter and verse, but they would know what was going on and probably be able to quote that whole section.

31:29

And so when Jesus references a passage, he's really wanting them to understand that the whole of the context is speaking about that issue, that he is the reason why he's quoting the that verse.

31:47

But we want to know about the star, and we want to know a little bit more about why it troubled

31:53

Herod. So they quoted him, Micah chapter 5, and it tells them that he was to be born in Bethlehem.

32:03

And then verse 7, then Herod secretly called the Magi and ascertained from them the time the star appeared.

32:15

So he's asking about the star and when it appeared. First he wanted to know about where the child was to be born, and then he goes back to this star.

32:28

Why does he go back to this star? Because the same reason that the

32:35

Magi were interested in the star, because it was part of an

32:41

Old Testament prophecy. I love the way you...

32:47

Oh, thank you, Nancy. Thank you for watching. Thank you for spending time with me. I miss you guys. I hope y 'all are doing okay.

32:55

I hope y 'all are doing well and your family. So yeah, he wanted to know about this star, and the reason was just like the place of birth, there was a prophecy about the star, and that's how the wise men knew about the star.

33:17

So where does that come from? Let's answer that first question. Where does the prophecy of the star come from that the

33:26

Magi knew about, or Magi, and that Herod seems to know about? You have to go all the way back to the beginning of the

33:34

Bible, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, and then you get to Numbers. Numbers chapter 24, and remember you can't just read one verse.

33:46

There's a whole context, but we're going to start at the beginning, and then make the connection as we read on to get a whole context of the verse.

33:59

So Numbers chapter 24, verse 17, this is a prophecy from a man named

34:05

Balaam, and it says, I see him, but not now.

34:12

I behold him, but not near. So he's coming later.

34:19

He's far off, he's not near, and it's not now, it's later. And here's the verse, a star shall come forth from Jacob.

34:30

There's the genealogy, a star shall come forth from Jacob, and a scepter shall rise.

34:38

The scepter, the staff, that represents kingship and authority.

34:44

A scepter shall rise from Israel. So we're going to stop right there, because that answers our first question.

34:50

How did the wise men, how did the Magi know about a star? How do they know to look for a star? And then how did, why did

34:57

Herod want to inquire more about this star? He was having a meeting, he consulted with the chief priests and the scribes, and they would have known the scriptures, and the issue with the star, and so they may, and I'm trying not to insert too much here about conversations that we don't know about, but I'm sure as king he would have wanted to know as much information as possible about this king that these wise men from the

35:36

East are looking for. And you find out the place of birth, and he wants to know more about this star, when it appeared, because it maybe it came up in conversation with the chief priests and scribes.

35:54

And so what did I say just a second ago? We don't want to read just one verse or one little section.

36:02

When the Jews gave a reference, they would have understood the whole section goes with it.

36:13

So let's look at the rest of the section, and maybe we can begin to understand why

36:20

Herod was troubled the way he was, because his intensity grows as this conversation goes on.

36:34

At first, it troubles him, right? It troubles him, and all of Jerusalem with him, and then by the end here, what does

36:44

Herod want to do? He wants to go and worship him. That's what he says, but what does he want to do?

36:50

He wants to kill him. He wants to get rid of him. Why the intensity?

36:58

Why does it escalate? Let's continue to look at Numbers chapter 24, starting verse 17 again.

37:10

I see him, but not now. I behold him, but not near. A star shall come forth from Jacob, and a scepter shall rise from Israel.

37:21

And listen to what it does. The scepter, the king, and shall crush through the forehead of Moab, and tear down all the sons of Sheth.

37:38

And Edom shall be a possession, and Seir, its enemies, also shall be a possession, while Israel performs valiantly.

37:49

One from Jacob shall have dominion, and shall destroy the remnant of the city.

37:56

And he looked at Emelech, and took up his discourse, and said,

38:02

Emelech was the first of the nations, but his end shall be destruction.

38:08

And he looked at the Kenite, and took up his discourse, and said, Your dwelling place is enduring, and your nest is set in the cliff.

38:20

Nevertheless, Cain shall be consumed. How long shall Asher keep you captive?

38:26

And he took up his discourse, and said, Alas, who can live except God has ordained it?

38:34

Who can live except God has ordained it?

38:39

Amen to that. So we've looked a little bit deeper into the context of that scripture of where the star comes from, the star that the wise men saw when they were in the east, and that led them eventually to the king of the

38:56

Jews, Jesus and Mary. And what is that section saying?

39:02

Well, the prophecy of Balaam is telling us that Israel is going to perform valiantly, and this one that is now king, that represented by the scepter, is going to take out this nation, and this nation, and this nation, and this nation, and this nation, and it says even the city, and shall destroy the remnant from the city.

39:31

And so this king is a threat to all these different nations.

39:38

So what does that have to do with Herod? What does that have to do with King Herod? If you do a little bit of study on King Herod, do you know who his people were?

39:54

Herod was an Edomite. Verse 18, an

40:01

Edom shall be a possession. And then the next sentence says,

40:07

Seir, its enemies, also shall be a possession. Seir was the place where the

40:17

Edomites lived, and the Edomites are named here in this section, whom the king that would come from Jacob, come from Israel, would take out.

40:32

And so why was this king, king of the Jews, who was represented by this star, who had his own star?

40:39

If you go back to the passage, the reference from the Prophets of the Old Testament, where the star is, it goes on to say that the one whom the star represents is going to come from Jacob, is going to come from Israel, and he's going to have the scepter, he's going to be the king, and he's going to take out all the nations.

41:00

And one of those nations is from Seir, the Edomites, of whom

41:05

King Herod is from. And when King Herod was given kingship over Judea, he even brought in some of his

41:15

Edomite family to even be some of the priests there. And so it's no wonder that all of Jerusalem, or the leadership, were just as troubled, because this king that was prophesied by the representation of this star was going to be the one that was going to take out the

41:32

Edomites, who Herod was. Isn't that amazing? That's so amazing.

41:40

And I'm not gonna go an hour and 20 minutes tonight, so I'm gonna I'm gonna try to make make my points here, points of application, because we want to remember that Jesus is king and how to live in that victory.

41:53

So we see Matthew teaching us that Jesus is king. He fulfills this prophecy. That's who the wise men were looking for.

42:01

That's why Herod was threatened. And so in the in the title that I that I gave prior to the video,

42:12

I said that Jesus is either king or he's a threat.

42:20

Jesus is either a king or he is a threat. For the wise men, they followed the

42:28

Word of God. They followed the prophecies that came from God and took them as a sure thing, packed up, left, and asked the question as if it was true, because they had not seen the child, but they were asking the question as if God's Word was true.

42:51

They believed in God's Word that it was true, and they wanted to come find him so that they could worship him, submit to him, serve him, and they offered him gifts.

43:04

So their lives were to follow, obey, look, and listen to God's Word, worship

43:12

King Jesus, submit, and serve to King Jesus. So to them, he was king, and they followed him and served him and worshipped him.

43:24

But for Herod, this king of the Jews, this new king that was being prophesied was a threat.

43:36

Jesus was a threat to the kingship, to the authority that Herod had.

43:43

And so to Herod, Jesus was a threat. And so in a similar way, if we want to spiritualize it and kind of make some application for our lives,

43:58

Jesus is king. It was a fact then, it was a fact now.

44:04

I mean, let's look at Micah real quick, and I'm glad I turned right to it.

44:10

Micah chapter 5 verse 2. This is where the reference comes from, and if we read a little bit longer, we're gonna learn a little bit more about Jesus.

44:19

Verse 2 says, But as for you, Bethel Ephrathah, too little to be among the clans of Judah.

44:28

From you one will go forth from me to be a ruler in Israel. Now in Matthew, that's where it stops.

44:42

Among the leaders of Judah, for out of you shall come forth a ruler. And then it says, who will shepherd my people

44:48

Israel. That's where it stops, but let's keep reading. His going forth, his goings forth are from long ago.

44:59

Now this is before Jesus was born, and he's saying that this ruler that's gonna come, his going forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity.

45:12

We're learning about our King, we're learning about our God, who He is. Jesus, His going forth were from long ago, from the days of eternity.

45:21

Therefore He will give them up until the time when she who is in labor has born a child.

45:27

Then the remainder of His brethren will return to the sons of Israel, and He will arise and shepherd

45:35

His flock. There's the rest of it in Matthew. In the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the

45:41

Lord His God, and they will remain because at that time He will be great.

45:48

How far? To the ends of the earth, and this one will be our peace.

45:57

Jesus' kingship stretches all over the whole earth.

46:03

There is no rock you can hide under, no cave that you can go in where you can hide from the kingship of Jesus, and He is from the days of eternity.

46:17

Jesus always was and always will be, and He is great, and His kingship covers the whole earth.

46:25

That's who our Jesus is, and that's who the wise men were coming to see, coming to worship, coming to serve, and bear gifts.

46:39

And so in our lives, the same is true.

46:46

The one whose days are from eternity, He is still on His throne,

46:56

King, having authority stretching over the whole earth, and we read in the

47:03

Old Testament and the New Testament, Jesus even says it Himself, I have authority in heaven and on earth.

47:10

And so we want to submit to the kingship of Jesus Christ, whether we're in a cave, or we're on a podium, or we're in the

47:26

White House, or we're reading the Constitution, or we are in our homes, or we're at our job.

47:35

We want to submit to the kingship of Jesus Christ, because Jesus is over our homes.

47:44

Jesus is over our churches. Jesus is over our state, and our governor, and our country, and our president, and our

47:53

Constitution. Jesus is Lord. He is King. That's why these wise men came to search for Him, because His rule stretches all over the earth, and we must submit to Him.

48:11

That's the charge. That's the charge. There is a

48:16

King, and He commands all men everywhere. This is a command from the

48:23

King, repent and believe the gospel. A command from the

48:30

King, repent and believe the gospel. Now just like Herod, if Jesus, let me rephrase that, because I was gonna say if Jesus is not

48:43

King, but Jesus is King whether we honor Him as King or not.

48:51

If we do not honor Him as King, then He will be a threat.

48:56

Why? He will be a threat to our kingship. If Jesus, if we are not honoring

49:05

Jesus as King, we have ourselves on the throne, and we have to be careful, because even as Christians, sometimes we're slack to seek out the

49:25

Lord, even in the little things in our homes. As a husband,

49:33

King Jesus, how do you want me to be a husband? King Jesus, how do you want me to be a wife?

49:40

And He speaks to us. He speaks to that in His Word. He gives us

49:47

His command from His Word, how to be a husband, how to be a wife, how to be a father, how to be a mother, how to be a child, how to be a good boss, a good employee, a good ruler over the government, one in authority.

50:12

Jesus speaks to all those positions, and sometimes we are slack, even as Christians, at seeking.

50:20

We still want to chart a path in our responsibilities as husbands, as wives, as children, as employees, as employers, as elected officials.

50:40

Chart our own path in our own wisdom, but it would make so much difference is if we would step back, and as I said at the very beginning of the video, remind ourselves daily,

50:59

I'm walking out here, meeting my wife, Jesus is

51:06

King. I'm walking out here, I'm meeting my husband, Jesus is

51:12

King. I'm walking out here as an employee, Jesus is

51:18

King, and He has spoken on how He wants me, how

51:24

He wants me to represent Him in this area. May we not be slack anymore in remembering the kingship of Christ in all aspects of our lives, because apart from Christ, His kingship threatens our rule, just as it did with Herod, and if we're following our own rule, we can look at Galatians, Galatians chapter 5, where we found the fruits of the

52:01

Spirit, but right before the fruits of the Spirit, we see another list of deeds of the flesh, but I say to you, walk by the

52:15

Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh, for the flesh sets its desire against the

52:21

Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please.

52:31

Did you catch that? So that you may not do the things that you please.

52:39

We do the things that we please because we are playing as king, and it's in opposition to the

52:49

Spirit, but if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

52:55

Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are immorality, this is where our kingship leads us, immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, outburst of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which

53:23

I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, listen to this, forewarned you that those who practice such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

53:37

Now the promise goes beyond the prophecy from Balaam, that this king that will come from Israel will take out this nation, and this nation, and this nation, and then his rule will cover all the earth.

53:57

Now we're in the spiritual realm, that if you practice such things, you will not inherit the kingdom of God, and Scripture speaks of a hell that is eternal, a place of torment, a place of punishment.

54:16

The wrath of God will continue to abide on us if we remain as kings of our own selves, and we don't submit to the kingship of Christ, and that command is to repent of your sins, and trust in Him, believe in Him, have your faith in Him, His work,

54:44

His death, and bury on resurrection, His ascension to the Ancient of Days, to the

54:50

Heavenly Father, where He sits at His right hand, interceding for us, if you will just call out to Him, turning from your sins and believing in Him.

54:59

He said He will cause us to go from death to life, He will cause us to be born again, we'll be

55:08

His children, we'll be part of His kingdom, and Scripture says that better is one day in your house than a thousand elsewhere, and the only way that you can experience that is if you are in Him, if you've repented of your sins, but you trust in Jesus Christ.

55:26

So if you've not done that, I encourage you to do that today, and I hope this was encouraging to you.

55:32

Thank you for spending time with me. If I can pray for you, let me know.

55:38

We do want to remember the lady that's gonna be having cancer treatment in the morning. If y 'all will remember her with me, and again, if I can pray for you, just let me know.

55:48

Let's pray together as we end tonight's study. Father, we thank You for the time that You've given us tonight.

55:55

Thank You for us, for teaching us through Matthew, and showing us the fulfillment of prophecy, and the kingship of Your Son, and how

56:10

You've worked all these things out. Father, will You work in us a knee that bows in submission to Christ in all areas of our life?

56:24

Help us to not hold on. Father, I'm reminded of Your word that says, he that puts his hand to the plow and yet looks back is not worthy.

56:38

Let us not look back. Let us not hold on to any part of ruling our own lives, but fully submit to the kingship of Jesus.

56:55

I thank You for the time that You've given us. Thank You for Your Word. Thank You for Jesus, and Father, we want to pray for our friend that has cancer treatment in the morning.

57:05

We ask that You would allow it to be successful, that You will strengthen her, and encourage her, and bless her and her family, and help them, especially the

57:19

COVID multiplying the aggravation of it all, not being able to spend time with your family who was in the hospital.

57:33

So Father, we pray that You would strengthen that family. Thank You for all our emergency workers that give of their time to protect us, to rescue us, to watch out for us, our military, our veterans.

57:51

We thank You for them, and Father, as we were coming to an end of an election year, and as this election is wrapping up tonight in Georgia, we ask that You would be glorified, and we will trust in Your will.

58:13

We know that You are sovereign and in control, and we trust that Your ways are righteous, and Your ways are good.

58:26

And so Father, may we serve You despite the direction the leadership goes in our country, but we want to lift them up to You, and pray for them, and ask that You would change their hearts, give them eyes that desire to see

58:46

You. Father, will You give them knees that desire to submit to Your kingship?

58:55

And we ask these things in Jesus' name, amen. All right, thank you guys for watching. I really appreciate it.

59:02

Thank you, Tim. Thank you for communicating to me and letting me know that.

59:10

I really appreciate you spending time with with me as well, and everyone else that's watching along.

59:16

I hope you have a good evening. Remember that Jesus is King. Let's go out there and live in that victory, and let's continue to go out there together and proclaim the gospel.