January 26 2014 Steve Rahter Mathew 1 18- 2-23

Sunday January 26thMatthew 1:18-2:23Even though we’re almost at the end of January, we’re going to take a look today at Matthew’s account of Jesus’ birth. And I think that’s just fine since the Russian Orthodox Church celebrates Christmas on January 7th and the Feast of the 3 wise men was on January 6th. So here’s what Matthew has to say, starting in chapter 1 verse 18: Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: when His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit. 19 And Joseph her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly. 20 But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. 21 She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” 22 Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet: 23 “Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which translated means, “God with us.” 24 And Joseph awoke from his sleep and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took Mary as his wife, 25 but kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a Son; and he called His name Jesus.Someone said that we could sum up those verses as “Jesus' Dad hears from Jesus' Father”! Joseph was Jesus’ legal father, his earthly Dad, but not His literal or actual father. God alone is Jesus’ true father.We actually don’t know much about Joseph. In all of gospels put together there is not one single quote from Joseph. We never hear him speak a word. But the man knew how to LISTEN! And that alone made Joseph the right man for God’s plan. Not only would he listen, he would OBEY!Notice that Matthew only records Joseph’s encounter with the angel, not Mary’s. Mary’s visit from the angel is found in Luke’s gospel. Matthew also doesn’t mention the journey to Bethlehem, the manger, or the shepherds. Those details are also found in Luke. But Matthew adds this record of Jesus’ other visitors in chapter 2:Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying, 2 “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him.” 3 When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. 4 Gathering together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. 5 They said to him, “In Bethlehem of Judea; for this is what has been written by the prophet:6 ‘And you, Bethlehem, land of Judah,Are by no means least among the leaders of Judah;For out of you shall come forth a RulerWho will shepherd My people Israel.’”7 Then Herod secretly called the magi and determined from them the exact time the star appeared. 8 And he sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the Child; and when you have found Him, report to me, so that I too may come and worship Him.” 9 After hearing the king, they went their way; and the star, which they had seen in the east, went on before them until it came and stood over the place where the Child was. 10 When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. 11 After coming into the house they saw the Child with Mary His mother; and they fell to the ground and worshiped Him. Then, opening their treasures, they presented to Him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.12 And having been warned by God in a dream not to return to Herod, the magi left for their own country by another way.Some people have referred to the magi, or wise men, as “The most famous trio to ever attend a baby shower.” Someone also referred to their journey as “The Original Star Trek!” The wise men actually didn’t follow the star all the way to Bethlehem, like the song We Three Kings would lead us to think. The bible simply says that they saw the star of the Messiah in the east and that it caused them to seek out the new King of the Jews. So they went to Jewish capital, Jerusalem.Of course, the first stop they made in Jerusalem was to see King Herod. They figured “surely the current king will be able to tell us where to find the NEW king!”Herod IS able to pinpoint the town of Bethlehem when his scribes look it up in the book of the prophet Micah.But of course he’s not too thrilled to learn that he’s going to be replaced, so he asks the Magi to report back to him after they find the child so that he can go and “Worship” him. Thankfully God speaks to them in a dream to return home by a different route and to bypass Herod.As they begin their journey toward Bethlehem the star actually reappears and it directs them right to where Jesus is staying. Notice it says “After coming into the house they saw the Child with Mary His mother”. The fact that Jesus and Mary were in a house rather than a cattle stall shows that they probably didn’t arrive on the actual day of Jesus’ birth, but some time after.When the wise men finally do come to Jesus, they bring three gifts: Gold, which is a gift for royalty, a gift for a king. Incense, which was for divinity, a gift you give to a God. And myrrh, which is a funeral gift, a spice used for burial. Their gifts show that they understood a lot about the Messiah. They knew He would be not only a king, but God himself, and that the reason he had come was to die. You might think these gifts were just an amazing coincidence, but they’re not. God actually set up these events years in advance.Nine months before all of this, God sent angels to tell Joseph and Mary about the birth of His Son. On Christmas night, God sent angels to communicate with shepherds about the birth of His Son. Hundreds of years before Christmas, God sent the prophet Daniel to Babylon to teach their wise men to watch for a certain star and when they see it, to respond by bringing gifts to celebrate the birth of His Son.Ultimately these Magi were looking for “Messiah the Prince” spoken of by Daniel’s in his prophecy.Daniel 9:25 shows why they were watching for the star and looking for the Messiah at this particular time in history:“Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.”To do the math, we have 7 weeks, “threescore weeks” which means 60, and 2 weeks, so in totalit would be 69 “weeks” from King Cyrus’ decree to allow a group of Jewish men to go back to Jerusalem under Ezra and Nehemiah to rebuild the city walls until Messiah the Prince would arrive.Prophetically 1 week is equal to 7 years, so 69 weeks times seven years for each week would total 483 years.The wise men already had the exact date of Cyrus’ decree so they kept track of those 483 years and therefore they knew the time was at hand for Daniel’s prophecy to be fulfilled. So now they came looking for the newborn king who would fulfill that prophecy.God had communicated to the wise men that the Messiah would be both a king and a God, and that He would come to die. Through a combination of Daniel’s prophecy, the Hebrew Scriptures, and the appearance of a certain star, these wise men seemingly knew more about the coming of the Messiah than the Jewish leaders did.Someone summed up the situation this way:“The magi were seeking the King; Herod was opposing the King; and the Jewish priests were ignoring the King.” So the Magi came and brought their presents and then returned home. But their visit had accidentally put the young Messiah in danger, because Herod was now aware that his rival has arrived. However, God has already made provision to protect His Son.13 Now when they had gone, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Get up! Take the Child and His mother and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is going to search for the Child to destroy Him.”14 So Joseph got up and took the Child and His mother while it was still night, and left for Egypt. 15 He remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called My Son.”16 Then when Herod saw that he had been tricked by the magi, he became very enraged, and sent and slew all the male children who were in Bethlehem and all its vicinity, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had determined from the magi. 17 Then what had been spoken through Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled:18 “A voice was heard in Ramah,Weeping and great mourning,Rachel weeping for her children;And she refused to be comforted,Because they were no more.”Mathew is focusing his Gospel towards his fellow Jewish citizens, so he goes out of his way to show all of the fulfilled Old Testament scripture that applies to Jesus as the promised Messiah. Matthew quotes from Hosea 11:1 “Out of Egypt I called My Son” and from Jeremiah 31:15 to describe the weeping of the mothers whose sons were slaughtered by Herod’s soldiers.The fact that Herod ordered the killing of all male children “from two years old and under” is another indication that the visit from the wise men didn’t happen on Christmas day, but sometime after. I think maybe they saw the star for the first time on the day that Jesus was born, but finally visited him after traveling all the way from their county to Israel.Then Joseph has two more dreams, which is how Jesus ends up back in Nazareth:19 But when Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, and said, 20 “Get up, take the Child and His mother, and go into the land of Israel; for those who sought the Child’s life are dead.” 21 So Joseph got up, took the Child and His mother, and came into the land of Israel. 22 But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Then after being warned by God in a dream, he left for the regions of Galilee, 23 and came and lived in a city called Nazareth. This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophets: “He shall be called a Nazarene.”In God’s awesome, perfect plan, EVERYTHING has significance! He allows Daniel to be taken into Babylon so that many years later these wise men will honor the birth of the Messiah. He has angels speak over and over to Joseph through dreams to bring Jesus just where He wants him.And where does God want His Son raised? In Galilee, some remote, insignificant region of Israel, and in Nazareth, a town that was looked down upon even by other Israelites.Look at John 7:52: They answered him, “You are not also from Galilee, are you? Search, and see that no prophet arises out of Galilee.”   And again in John 1:46: Nathanael said to him, “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” God went out of His way to select the least of the least as a place for Jesus to grow up, so that the wisdom of the world would be overturned by the foolishness of God. He chose to make humility an essential part of who Jesus would be, and who WE must be if we intend to follow Him!Things haven’t really changed that much since these events unfolded over 2000 years ago. I think we could sum it up this way:“The Wise Still Seek Him, The World Still Hates Him, And God Still Saves Those Who Come To Him!”