Ruler Of The Nations

Scripture Reading: Psalm 2

Old Testament reading will be Psalm 2. Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed, saying, let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.

He who sits in heaven laughs, the Lord holds him in derision. Then he will speak to them in his wrath and terrify them in his fury, saying, as for me, I have set my king on Zion, my holy hill. I will tell of the decree.

The Lord said to me, you are my son. Today I have begotten you. Ask of me and I will make the nations your inheritance and the ends of the earth your possessions. You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.

Now therefore, O kings, be wise, be warned, O rulers of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the son, lest he be angry and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled.

Blessed are all those who take refuge in him.

Scripture Reading: Matthew 1:18-25

New Testament reading this morning is in the book of Matthew, chapter one, verses 18 through 25. And in your few Bibles, that's page 807, if you'd like to read along. Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way.

When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly.

But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream saying, Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.

She will bear a son and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which means God with us.

When Joseph woke from his sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him. He took his wife but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.

I know you're disappointed that Andrew's not up here, but Sarah's grandma had died this week and they were involved in all that and the funeral and so forth, and so I volunteered to take his place. It doesn't matter who's preaching the word of God, though.

It's the word of God that has to have our attention, not the speaker. I'm gonna ask you to take your Bibles and turn to Matthew chapter two today. Matthew chapter two. Before we look into the word of God, let's pray.

Oh God, our Father, we thank you again for your word. Help us to understand it clearly today. It is life to us. The truth of these narratives is something, Lord, that you have deemed was necessary for us in order to understand you and your son and our place in the world.

Help us now to understand this aright for your glory and our good. And we will thank you. In Jesus' name, amen. If you were gonna Cologne, Germany today, you could go to the great cathedral there and within that cathedral is a golden shrine.

Within that shrine are three skulls. They are supposed to be the actual remains of the wise men who visited Jesus. Over the centuries, legends have grown up around those three. In fact, some have even given them names.

There are three names that are associated with these three guys and those three skulls for that matter. They eventually became venerated as saints. But as we look at the scriptures, there's very little information about them.

They suddenly appear out of the mists of their land and they step upon the stage for only one short scene and then they disappear forever. However, their part in the drama is not unimportant. And the scene as we find it in Matthew chapter two is full of meaning.

The Magi from the East and Jesus' Universal Kingship

So if you would, take your scriptures and let's look together at Matthew chapter two. 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 have come to worship him. When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled and all Jerusalem with him. And assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born.

They told him in Bethlehem of Judea for it is written by the prophet and you will 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.

Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time the star had appeared and he sent them to Bethlehem saying, go and search diligently for the child and when you found him, bring me word that I too may come and worship him.

After listening to the king, they went on their way and behold the star that they had seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy and going into the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother and they fell down and worshiped him.

Then opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh and being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way. Now here we come to this chapter in Matthew's history of the Messiah, his gospel concerning Jesus Christ.

Now Matthew is no dispassionate observer of all that's going on here because Matthew was a tax collector and his life was radically changed after he met this person who was born here. And Matthew has a purpose in mind as he records these facts concerning Jesus.

He wants to show that Jesus is the promised Messiah who has fulfilled the scriptures and that he's not merely a Jewish Messiah but he's come to establish his reign over all the nations. This sounds a whole lot like the person we've been hearing about in Psalm 2 over the last several weeks.

And the book actually ends with Jesus claiming universal authority and then commanding his disciples to preach the gospel in all the nations. He has come to fulfill the scriptures. For Matthew, Jesus' person and ministry fulfills the entire Old Testament, that the entire Old Testament was pointing forward to him, that all of it prefigures him in some way.

And so now, even at his birth, we find evidence of his universal kingship in fulfillment of the scriptures. And in this chapter, you also find the hostility and the apathy that comes in light of the claims of his rule.

The story opens with Magi arriving in Jerusalem from the east. Now, the term Magi, by the way, from which we get the term magic, the term Magi loosely covered a whole variety of men interested in dreams and astrology, magic, and books thought to contain mysterious references to the future.

And they were not kings. I'm always amazed at how we learn more theology from our songs than we do from the scriptures. They were not kings. They were not kings at all. They were wise men of that time, the one who people thought possessed a great deal of wisdom and knowledge.

But what's the connection between these eastern wise men and this Jewish Messiah? What's the connection? How'd they get there? Well, evidently, they were involved in astrological speculations because they saw this supernatural heavenly phenomenon called a star here, and they associated that with this Messiah.

And the possibility exists that they came from Babylon where there was a huge influential Jewish community. Now, you always gotta remember this, all right, that like today, most Jews don't live in Israel.

Most Jews live around the world. And even in the time of Jesus, most Jews did not live there. They lived all over the world. And you remember that during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon, that he conquered Judah and deported all those people there, and that a few of them trickled back under the rule of the Persian king that followed.

And so they were living in a land where there probably were a lot of Jews and a lot of influence, and no doubt they'd been exposed in the Jewish synagogues to the scriptures, the writings that contain reference to the future coming Jewish king of magnificent reign.

And of course, they came to Jerusalem looking for a king because it was the royal city. It was a city that David had set apart for the king to live in, for it was the royal city and all the Jewish kings that followed after David ruled in that city.

And they had come to worship, that is to pay homage to this new king. And coming to Jerusalem and inquiring about a king certainly caused a stir since a king already reigns, and he hears about their mission.

Herod the Great and His Opposition to Christ's Rule

His name is Herod. He is known in history as Herod the Great. There are three Herods mentioned in the New Testament. After this point, any other Herod is not this one. There's the one Herod that chopped off John the Baptist's head, and then there's a third Herod that died of worms.

Remember in Acts chapter 12, all right? This is Herod the Great, the most famous of them all. Although he ruled over the Jews, Herod was not a Jew. He was an Edomite, that is he came from the land of Edom.

When he was 33, the Roman Senate made him king of Judea. Now the Romans, do you know what a client king is? When there are empires that have conquered other nations, they would often use their kings as client kings.

That is, why do we want to spend all our money? Let this guy take care of all the law and order business there and so forth. And so they established him as their client king, and it took him about three years with the help of some Roman forces to establish his rule over the Jews.

And as you can imagine, the Jews absolutely hated him. And yet, he ruled over this people who hated him for 34 years. And that says something about his abilities. He was a gifted administrator. He was a gifted administrator.

His famine relief projects were rather successful. He was a brilliant general and a ruthless fighter. He was subtle and intelligent. He had extraordinary charm. And the last thing he did in order to rule was he built this glorious temple for the Jews in Jerusalem.

You remember in Matthew 24 how absolutely devastated the disciples are when Jesus says, not one stone in that building is gonna be, every stone is gonna be destroyed. They were unbelievably surprised by that because this temple was the most marvelous temple that had ever been built in Jerusalem.

And Herod had built it. But Herod had a particular quality that defined him. It was this, he loved power. He absolutely loved power, and he used all his great abilities to hold onto it. He went so far as to kill his own wife and two of his sons in order to keep the throne.

He had even made arrangements to have hundreds of Jewish leaders killed on the day that he died. That's the kind of man he was. And his cruelty is obvious. And historically, everyone knew about his cruelty, but here even in the scriptures, you see it because at the end of this chapter, what do we find?

We find Herod decreeing that all the children in Bethlehem from two years and younger should be killed. Here we find him in the last year of his life, struck ill, sick, and worried about keeping his grip on the throne.

This was the man. This was the guy who loved power. Now you find Herod here then, when he hears the report of the magi, you see him here disturbed and agitated because a usurper has been born. In fact, a Jewish king has been born.

And he might lead the Jews against him. And unlike the magi, he was not eager to prostrate himself before this new king. That was not what he was about. Notice as well that all the people were disturbed.

Jerusalem was also troubled, not because they love Herod, but because these sorts of questions could result in fresh outbreaks of cruelty. So they're not happy about it either. Well, Herod quickly summons the chief priests and the scribes of Jerusalem for a consultation, asks them the question, where is this king supposed to be born?

They respond to the question by referring to the prophecy that Micah had made some 700 years earlier. And then he has a secret meeting with the magi. And in the inner rooms of the palace, Herod speaks to these men, faking his humility and pumping them for information about the timing of everything that was going on.

He already had a scheme in mind. It was to kill this new baby. And so he sends them to Bethlehem. On the way to the village, that supernatural heavenly phenomenon appears again, confirming their direction and they are overjoyed.

And soon they find the child and approach him with their gifts. Now in the ancient East, near East, whenever you came to a superior, you brought gifts. So what does that tell you about these men? They honestly believed he was a king and they brought those gifts and they opened their gifts before they came.

However, they're warned in a dream not to report to Herod and so they returned home. Now the question to ask here is the question you always, write this down. This isn't just for this sermon. This is for every time you open the Bible.

Every time you open the Bible and you want to study a passage, the most important question to ask is, why is this here? What is the purpose of this passage? Why did God give us this text?

All right?

A related question is, why did Matthew record these events while ignoring others?

Right?

Why these events? Why does he choose these events to record in his history of Jesus? Here's the first thing, or here's what he wants you to see. He wants you to see the king as coming to the nations. He wants you to see from the very start that Jesus is a king that's come to and for the nations.

Even at this point, the birth of the king, Gentiles are drawn to him. And see, you can't miss this. Who has the focus in this story? Gentiles, those outside of the people of God. Now note, Matthew leaves out of his record the story of the shepherds, right?

He doesn't include that. That's not his purpose. You see, Luke records that. And Luke also had a purpose. The Messiah has been sent to reach even the lowest. Matthew tells us this Messiah has been sent to reach even the farthest.

All right?

He's not just come to reach the lowest. His reach is for the farthest. From beginning to end, Matthew makes the point that this Messiah is a Messiah for the nations. That's what we have to see here. That's what Matthew wants to drive into our hearts.

Jesus has come as king over the nations, not just the Jewish people. And so this king coming for all the nations fulfills the scripture. Now immediately we find that these religious scholars can point to the prophecy from Micah as a fulfillment.

In Bethlehem of Judea, for 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 the promised Messiah comes through Israel to shepherd Israel. But the Old Testament scriptures also provide a wider vista than just the rule of the Jews. They also have a universal scope. Turn back to Psalm 72.

Psalm 72 is a psalm written about, it appears, about Solomon.

All right?

In fact, the superscript at the very beginning, and there again, those aren't inspired by God, but they are superscripts of those who thought they knew these psalms. It says this Psalm 72 is of Solomon.

And yet, when you read it, Solomon, in all his wisdom and greatness, doesn't fit all of what is said about the king, God's king here. And I want you to look beginning in verse eight. Watch what it says about God's king.

Verse eight, may he have dominion from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the earth. May desert tribes bow down before him and his enemies lick the dust. May the kings of Tarshish and of the coastlands render him tribute.

May the kings of Sheba and Saba bring gifts. May all kings fall down before him. All nations serve him. Of course, Solomon never fit those robes. And so they started looking for a king who would fit those robes, who would actually fit this description.

Look down at verse 11. No, I'm sorry, verse 17. May his name endure forever. His fame continue as long as the sun. May people be blessed in him. All nations call him blessed. And so they're looking for a king.

And Matthew's trying to point out, it's starting to happen. The nations are showing up. The nations, those outside of the people of Israel are showing up. They're coming to worship. Look at Isaiah chapter 60.

Isaiah 60. Isaiah 60, one through six. Arise, shine, for your light has come and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. For behold, darkness shall cover the earth. A thick darkness, the peoples, the nations.

But the Lord will arise upon you and his glory will be seen upon you. And nations shall come to your light and kings to the brightness of your rising. Lift up your eyes all around and see. They all gather together.

They come to you. Your sons shall come from afar and your daughters shall be carried on the hip. Then you shall see and be radiant. Your heart shall thrill and exult because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you.

The wealth of the nations shall come to you. A multitude of camels shall cover you. The young camels of Midian and Ephah. All those from Sheba shall come. They shall bring gold and frankincense and shall bring good news, the praises of the Lord.

All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered to you. The rams of Nebaiot shall minister to you. They shall come up with acceptance on my altar and I will beautify my beautiful house. By the way, right? They're coming to the brightness.

Just kind of happenstance. What are they bringing? Did you notice that? They're bringing gold and frankincense. Look at verse 11. Your gates shall be open continually. Day and night they shall not be shut.

That people may bring to you the wealth of the nations which their kings, with their kings led in procession. And just to remind you, turn back. So we've looked at these two scriptures of the Old Testament.

Look, turn back to the one that we've been listening to for the last few weeks. Psalm 2, remember? Psalm 2, verse eight. Ask of me and I will make the nations your heritage and the ends of the earth your possession.

You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. Verses 10 through 12. Now therefore, O kings, be wise. Be warned, O rulers of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling.

Kiss the son lest he be angry and you perish in the way for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him. And so these Gentiles come and bow. They are the first fruits of all the nations who will one day bow before Jesus, before this king.

And what Matthew is showing you here is that the nations are beginning, they're beginning to worship this king. These are the first fruits. These are the beginnings of nations to worship the king. Now this king who came then commissions us to extend his reign.

It is no mistake. It is no mistake that, turn to Matthew 28, that Matthew begins, begins with asserting the universal reign of Jesus or the beginning of it and then ends, ends with Jesus claiming all authority in heaven and earth.

It's not just like, oh, that's the way the story ends. He's making the point, all right? Matthew 28, verse 18. And Jesus came and said to them as disciples, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you and behold, I am with you always to the end of the age.

The king came and Gentiles knelt before him. And now since this king has inaugurated his kingdom, more of the nations must be gathered in. And so the gospel has gone out to all the nations. And there are people all over the world who are bowing the knee to King Jesus.

And he is gathering all of that in fulfillment of the Old Testament passages about the kings, worshiping, about the nations bringing their wealth. And lest we forget, all those prophecies will be ultimately fulfilled when Jesus returns.

Turn over to Revelation 21. Revelation 21. Now I'm going to read verses 22 through 27. And as I read, you should hear echoes of another passage here. Echoes that reverberate through these verses. 21, 22, and I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God, the Almighty and the Lamb.

And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light and its lamp is the Lamb. By its light will the nations walk and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it.

And its gates will never be shut. You remember what Isaiah said about the gates being opened continually and about arise and shine. And he goes on. And there will be no night there. They will bring into it the glory and the honor of all the nations.

But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life. Here again, you hear echoes. Echoes of Isaiah 60 there in fulfillment.

So the king has come and inaugurated his reign, receiving the adoration of the nations at his birth. And one day he will return to complete the fulfillment of all those prophecies. He's begun and it will be ended when he returns again.

Opposition to Christ's Rule: Herod's Power-Seeking

And so the king has come for the nations, but also see that this king always arouses opposition. There is always opposition to his claim of rule. Look at Herod, trembling for his throne. And in the last year of his life, obsessed with clinging to power and to riches, to comforts and to pleasures, all of this life.

And people have not changed. They still cling to all those things rather than bow the knee to Jesus. They cling to the pleasures of this life rather than exchanging those rags for the riches of salvation in Jesus.

Hasn't changed. Yesterday, I was listening to the music of the OJs. See, it just sailed over most of your heads. You gotta be 50 years or older to remember the OJs, right? Part of what was called the Philadelphia Sound back in the 70s.

Oh man, you're ancient, pastor. Back in the 70s. Used to love the OJs. And I was listening yesterday and a song came up and it was called Living for the Weekend. Now, the OJs songs would often go for six to 10 minutes.

All right, so I'm just gonna just, I just took a slice out of it. Listen to what they said. Gonna have a real, real, real good time living for the weekend. Gonna party hard, hard. Come on, you all, it would sound better if they were singing it, you know?

If they were singing it, man, it'd be a whole lot better. But you just bear with me. Come on, y 'all, let's go downtown. Come on, y 'all, let's groove.

Hey, hey.

Sounds better when it's sung. But now listen, listen to what they say. Monday to Thursday, I'm dead on my feet. Most of the time, too tired to eat. When I try to read the paper, I fall fast asleep. But as soon as Friday rolls around, I lay all my weekly burdens down.

I put on my glad rags and paint the town. Friday night alive, living for the weekend. Said I'm living for the weekend. Don't stop when I party down. Party hard, party down. Party hard, party down. And that's just the middle of the song.

It goes on for a while. Now, you get it, don't you? Some people will cling to the pleasures of drunkenness and partying rather than repenting of those sins and casting themselves on Christ for forgiveness, rescue from judgment, and the joy of a life lived in obedience to Christ.

They don't wanna do that. Look at the residents of Jerusalem. They're also agitated. They fear more cruelty. Today, most people are interested in the status quo. You know what my mom used to say when things were starting to get tense at our house?

She would say, let's just keep it even keel now. In other words, don't get dad upset. Just keep it even keel now. And that's what's going on with these people. Let's keep it even keel. Let's not get this guy upset, right?

We don't want it to get worse. And so many are interested today in the status quo and they dread a change which might introduce greater calamities, right? Let's not do that. They might say to you, sure, life is hard, but to follow Christ in obedience will make my life even harder.

You ever heard people say that? Yeah, following Jesus will make my life harder. And let's face it, to submit to Jesus means upsetting everything. It means upsetting everything. It does mean that. It might get harder, all right?

The Cost of Discipleship

Look at what Jesus says in Matthew 16. In Matthew 16, listen to these words, verses 24 to 26. Then Jesus told his disciples, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself. Okay, deny myself. No, not deny myself some things, but deny myself my agenda.

Everything that I love, I gotta deny in order to follow Jesus. And take up his cross. What does that mean? It doesn't mean bearing a burden. If you forget everything today, remember this one. To take up your cross does not mean to carry a heavy load.

What it means is you are gonna be crucified. So he says, deny yourself and crucify yourself. Crucify yourself. When someone was bearing a cross, he was taking a one-way trip. He was going out of the village, carrying his cross, and he was not coming back.

So Jesus says, deny yourself, crucify yourself, or as my friend John Street puts it, crucify the criminal within you. Deny yourself, crucify yourself, and take up his cross and follow me, for whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

Jesus is not interested in becoming merely an addition to your life. Okay? Let's go back to the 70s again. I seem to be stuck there. Coca-Cola, somewhere in the mid to late 70s were trying to really push Coke, and they had a slogan called, try it, you'll like it.

And some real, you know, hip Christians got the idea, and they got these bumper stickers that said, try Jesus, you'll like him.

Isn't that cool?

The problem with that is Jesus isn't about you trying him. He's not about you just kind of seeing if he's okay. He's coming and saying, I demand everything from you. You're gonna have to deny yourself.

You're gonna have to crucify yourself, and you're gonna do what I say. He demands all of us, right? When Jesus comes, you don't just add him like a room to a house. The whole house is destroyed, and you start over.

That's what it means to follow Jesus, and people just don't want that, right? It's total surrender. And so, just like the people of Jerusalem, people are troubled. Man, that's just gonna be hard. Yeah, but it'll be the best life you have ever known.

Religious Opposition: The Priests and Teachers

And then, there's the priests and the teachers. Their opposition takes the form at this point of apathy. Now, see, they knew exactly where to look in the Bible to answer this question, but it doesn't seem to make any impression on them.

Now, the chief priests are composed of a party called the Sadducees. The Sadducees seem to have a lock on the priesthood in Jesus' day. The Sadducees are the theological liberals of the day. They don't believe in miracles.

In fact, they don't believe in resurrection at all. In fact, they're not too crazy about the Bible. They only accept the first five books. The rest of them, nothing to do with it, right? They're the rationalists, the theological liberals.

They hate the supernatural. They don't want anything to do with that. They knew the Scriptures, but they didn't believe the Scriptures. Now, you know what? I could go into my office and I could pull commentaries off of my shelf written by biblical scholars who don't believe the Bible.

When I was in seminary, if you wanted to get an Old Testament, now, don't be offended by this.

This is the truth.

The best place to go study Old Testament was at the University of Michigan. They had the best ancient Near Eastern department in the country. But I would say all of them, most of them at the very least, didn't believe it was God's Word and believe a bit of it.

They studied it, they knew it, and they knew it well, right? But you could learn Hebrew there like nowhere else. But the Bible, it's just an ancient piece of literature. That's the way the Sadducees were.

Okay, Micah said that, okay. The scribes are the Pharisees, the religious legalists of the day. They're more interested in the words and the grammar and their academic reputations than they are in the God who spoke the prophecy or the one who might fulfill it.

Some of you may be in those camps. You've heard it all, but you don't believe any of it. You've heard it all, but you don't believe any of it. Maybe you do believe it's true, but you've never responded to it.

It's like background noise, right? Spent your whole life coming here because your parents made you. It's just background noise for you. Yeah, I believe it, but you know.

But you know what?

Matthew is not interested in just giving us a story about this Jesus who's king of the nations. His purpose is to actually put Christ right in front of you and say, will you submit? This is the king. What are you gonna do with him?

What are you gonna do with him? Presents him to you, not just to know about, but to believe in and to trust in him, to bow your knee in submission and to obey him. Last thing Matthew wants you to see is to see that the king always requires worship.

The King Requires Worship and Submission

The scripture reveals Jesus. The scripture presents Jesus to you. The one who came so that you might find salvation in him. And having come to him for salvation, you respond with worship and adoration.

You know, today, before I stepped into this pulpit, this morning I was praying, God, don't make this an academic treatise for God's people. Don't just, help me not to be like those teachers who care about how it all fits together and makes a nice story.