Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Okay, let's get our bibles and go into the second chapter of Matthew.
[00:00:11] Matthew, chapter two.
[00:00:23] Matthew, chapter two.
[00:00:28] To think it's not even Christmas time.
[00:00:32] Are you guys, are you going to be able to listen to a message about the incarnation of Christ outside of Christmas? We're busting all the traditions. Before you know it, we're going to start doing crazy stuff. All right.
[00:00:45] All right, let's pray. And then we'll start in verse number one of Matthew, chapter two. Our Lord, thank you for. For your goodness again, to be able to meet and to worship you, to praise you, to hear and to sing these songs. Lord, we just. We need you every day. We need you every moment. Thank you, Lord, as we saw this morning. For being our savior and for providing and securing our salvation. Thank you for that. Lord, we pray for these things that have been brought up as prayer requests that are in need right now, like Sister lager with the heart ablation and the heart failure. Lord, I don't know the problems there or the causes, but I pray that you please protect her and give the doctors wisdom in the treatment, Lord, and have mercy on her as well as on Sister Diane Baruch with the kidney problems she's been having. Please, please, Lord, spare her and give her the help she needs and healing, Lord, and the mercy she needs right now. And I pray for the baby that's mentioned, Jedediah in the hospital, born early. And, Lord, you know the needs there. And, Lord, watch over him and give him the grace to be able to move out of where he's in, out of where he's at into a more stable condition, Lord, please give grace there. And, Lord, we think of also of Sister Priscilla's family who is going to be traveling from Japan soon.
[00:02:16] Please bless and protect them. And, Lord, we do pray for the japanese people, Lord, that your mercy and grace would be extended to them, Lord, indeed, that you might save them and just turn their hearts to you. And we pray for your people, that you would especially protect them with the potential of an earthquake in Japan, Lord, we also pray for Brother Joseph, that you would bless him and fill him with wisdom in onboarding this client on Thursday. Lord, you know the needs there and how much help he needs. Please bless and protect Sister Judy as she's away and give her sister dawn a grace and just a moment of clarity to be able to talk to Sister Judy about the gospel.
[00:03:05] And so, Lord, we commit these things to you. We pray your blessing would be upon Brother Dennis as well and that you would help him to get better from this kidney stone quickly. And, Lord, as we look at Matthew chapter two tonight, please bless our time in your word. Let it be profitable, let it be edifying and encouraging. Lord, we acknowledge we can't do anything. We don't even know what we need. So please help us, Lord, and be our teacher. We ask in Jesus name. Amen.
[00:03:32] All right, Matthew chapter two. We are going to begin reading in verse number one, and we will just kind of walk through it down to verse number eleven or twelve.
[00:03:42] And Paul's here and there. As we get into what I want to show you, we're going to have a fair amount of history and things like that because there's a lot of background in the nativity of Christ. A lot of things are just stated and the background of it is not really understood. I think I'm going to surprise you with some information that surprised me as I was studying it here in just a minute.
[00:04:08] But in verse number one, the Bible says, now, when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, now, this is Herod the great is what he's called. Herod the great. Herod the first. There are several Herods in the New Testament, but this is Herod the great, all right. This man was a murderous, brutal, bloodthirsty hypocrite. That's what he was, Herod the great. He was a man who. The only reason that he had an heir is because he did not kill that one heir. He spared one of his children to be his heir. All the rest of them he killed.
[00:04:45] He's a great guy. He's a great guy.
[00:04:49] And so you see, in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men. Notice not kings, but wise men just. I know that's not that big of a deal, but, you know, we three kings of Orient are. You know, we three wise men of Orient are. Doesn't sound as good, I guess. There came wise men from the east to Jerusalem. So where is the east? You know, nobody really knows where they came from. What it seems to be obvious is they were likely not jewish. That seems. And that's kind of reading between the lines. But these wise men, they're sometimes called magi, which is related to the word magic. And so when you think of these wise men, here's what you and I need to think, Daniel. That's what we need to be thinking. Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, or their hebrew names, if you prefer. Those.
[00:05:41] These were men that come from the east. Now, east of Israel is just a big desert, right? That's what's east of Israel. But you go past the desert and you follow the fertile crescent, and you go kind of up and then down like this. Some of you know what I'm talking about, that have taught or have paid attention in geography. You follow the fertile crescent down and to the east is what is now Iraq, or a little bit further than that is Persia. All right? That's where Daniel lived. Daniel lived in Persia.
[00:06:17] And so likely these men were from that area of town. So you know what that tells us? That area of town, that area of the world, that tells us that these men traveled a long way to get here. They traveled a long way to get to Jerusalem. All right? So wise men from the east saying, where is he that is born king of the Jews? Now, I forgot one thing in verse number one. Here's what you have to understand.
[00:06:42] Everything in verse, everything. When we start reading in verse number one, everything in Luke chapter one, and almost everything in Luke chapter two is already past.
[00:06:56] Okay, so what are we talking about? We're talking about the announcement of the birth of Jesus before Mary's conception by Gabriel. That's happened. The travel to Bethlehem, that's happened.
[00:07:12] The mention of the taxing that led to Joseph traveling to Bethlehem, that's happened.
[00:07:17] The actual birth of Christ, that's happened. The announcement to the angels, glory to God in the highest on earth, peace, all of that, that's already happened. They've already. Mary and Joseph have already taken the Lord to the temple to present him to the Lord and do the sacrifices, which is where they met Simeon and Anna. Remember, that's all happened.
[00:07:38] That's all in the past now. So really, if you were just reading Matthew and not reading any other book of the Bible, there would be a lot of questions raised as to how he got to this point. Luke answers those questions, right, how we just started verse number one, and we are already in Bethlehem. But that's, we know from Luke that that's not where Mary and Joseph lived.
[00:08:01] But listen, for the purpose of Matthew presenting Christ as a king, this is the salient and relevant information, because being a king, he was of the line of David, and this was David's hometown. You see why he picked that. There's not a contradiction. It's just, it's giving relevant information. And we do this all the time. And, you know, people, skeptics look at the different accounts of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and they really, you know, lose their mind over why this says this and omits that and all that. Listen, we all do that every day of our life, but somehow we have a double standard when it comes to the Bible. You know why the writers included this and didn't include that. But of course, the Lord is leading them. But we have to understand, we do that all the time. When we are relating stories, we give people relevant information and leave out the rest.
[00:08:52] We do it all the time. All right, so we get to verse number two.
[00:08:55] Where is he that is born king of the Jews?
[00:09:00] Now, what you'll notice is seeing how we are in, at this point in Bethlehem, no mention in Matthew has been made of Nazareth. Again, that's Luke. We will see it later. But no mention up to this point has been made of Nazareth.
[00:09:22] And we see Bethlehem, the word Bethlehem, that goes way back to the 1000 years before. In fact, I think this goes back to the time of Joshua, which is a long time before David, some 500 years ish, four or 500 years before David. Even where Bethlehem is mentioned, Bethlehem means Beth, that means house. Lehem means, in Hebrew, means bread. So Bethlehem means the house of bread. That's all it means. Very simple.
[00:09:56] So this is where Jesus was born. Now think about that. Of course, we know he was born in Bethlehem because it was. Because he was in the line of David. He was the rightful king. So it's fitting that he be born in Bethlehem. But remember that Jesus is called the bread of life, and he's called the bread which came down from heaven. And so all these things kind of converge here, where you have the Lord Jesus, who is the bread which came down from heaven, referring to the manna. Right.
[00:10:27] The bread which came down from heaven in his incarnation in the city.
[00:10:33] That's the loosest possible way we could describe this, in the place called Bethlehem, which is the house of bread. And so the bread of life comes to earth in the house of bread. It's just a fitting picture.
[00:10:46] Now, what you. This is the surprising thing about Bethlehem. When I opened up Google Earth, and I got, if you've been on Google Earth, they have a measure tool. How many of you know about the measure tool on Google Earth? That's very helpful. So Miss McLean is looking over like, I have no idea what you're talking about.
[00:11:04] So it's a button that has a ruler on it, and when you click it, it allows you to measure between any, just any two points. Right.
[00:11:12] Well, so what I did is I went to the. I went to the image of the satellite picture of the Temple mount, and I put one dot there, and I went to the.
[00:11:26] I went down to Bethlehem, which is also in Israel, to the church of the nativity. Now, who knows if Jesus was born there, but it is in the general vicinity. Do you know the distance? Does anybody want to take a guess as to the distance and miles between those 213? No.
[00:11:52] Is 5.33 miles.
[00:11:55] 5.33 miles.
[00:11:57] Now, 5 miles is not far.
[00:12:00] Now, that's as the crow flies. Okay? It says the crow flies, but 5 miles is not far. It is about 5 miles as the crow flies. From where we're standing, where we're sitting, rather, to downtown Greenville. That's how close Jerusalem was to Bethlehem. I would say, even for this time, that's not very far. Like, that's. That's like you could go there and come back in a day. If you're like, if you're walking and if you're on an animal, you could go there, spend some time and come back. It's a day's journey, basically. There and back. It's not far.
[00:12:36] So we get this idea. You know, there was this huge long journey. No, it wasn't long journey. When they got. When they wanted to give the sacrifice for the birth of Christ in the temple, they basically went, you know, they went there on, you know, on Thursday morning. They left on a Thursday morning and probably stayed overnight and came back on Friday. It was that easy? That easy. It wasn't a big deal.
[00:12:56] 5.33 miles from the two.
[00:13:00] Between the two.
[00:13:02] Now, another thing about. About Bethlehem. If you look at a map of Bethlehem, you get. You see, you'll see this. This is a. I mean, it's not a huge metropolitan area or anything. It's not. Doesn't have, like.
[00:13:13] But I mean, in Israel, it's a sizable place. It's a sizable place.
[00:13:19] Nothing like Greenville or anything like that, but it's a sizable place. There's a fair number of people that live there. But in the first century.
[00:13:28] In the first century, Bethlehem was a nothing place. It was a nothing place. Now, how so? When I. Of course, I've read that. That's not hard to find, looking at a commentary or anything like that. But why did they say that? They say that based upon excavations of Bethlehem, of the old houses, because they can dig down and find where the houses and the structures would have been. And basically, you come away with this, that Bethlehem probably had between 601,000 inhabitants.
[00:14:05] It was basically like a little town. A really little town.
[00:14:10] So the number of just. We'll get to this later, but the number of children under two years old, which is what we'll see here was actually only around 50 or 60, statistically speaking. I mean, we have this idea that there were hundreds and hundreds of babies in Bethlehem, you know, going door to door. No, it wasn't like that. It was a very small town. And in fact, there's Bible proof of that. Hold your place here. And look at the book of Micah.
[00:14:39] Micah, chapter five, verse number two.
[00:14:58] Micah five two.
[00:15:02] It says this, but thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting. This establishes that the king, right, has no beginning point. That's what this verse indicates. The king, this king has no beginning. His goings forth are from everlasting. And notice out of Bethlehem. And it describes Bethlehem Ephratah as little among the thousands of Judah that. Thousands of villages, right? So basically that tells you how big it was. It was not a notable place. In fact, it was probably only on the map because David was born, happened to be born there before he was ever kingdom.
[00:16:00] In other words, this is a small, insignificant, nothing place that's only on the map because of David. And when Christ was born, it's basically still that there are thousands of villages and this is just one of the thousands. The only thing that makes Bethlehem even known to us, the only reason people live there now probably is because of Christ being born there. So go back to Matthew two, verse number three, or verse two says, saying, where is he that is born king of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the east and are come to worship him.
[00:16:45] We have seen his star in the east and are come to worship him.
[00:16:49] This is the wise men. Now I'm going to say more about the wise men as when we get down to verse eleven. So let's just keep going. In verse number three, when Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled.
[00:17:03] And all Jerusalem with him, he was troubled.
[00:17:10] You know, I asked myself when I read that, why was Herod troubled?
[00:17:16] You compare Herod being troubled to just even here, look at for instance, as in verse number, verse number ten. The wise men, when they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. You see that the wise men were happy. If you take a peek at Luke chapter two, you will see two others who were also given information about the birth of Christ. You have in Luke two, verse number 15. And it came to pass as the angels were gone away from them into heaven. The shepherds said one to another, let us now go even unto Bethlehem and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us. And they made haste and found Mary and Joseph and the babe lying in a mangere. And verse 18. And all they that heard it wondered that those things which are told them by the shepherds. So the shepherds. Were the shepherds troubled at the announcement of the birth of the king? No, they rejoiced. They said, let's go find out. Let's go see what's going on. Let's go see it with our own eyes. Then you see Simeon in the same chapter, in chapter two and verse number 28. Then took him up in his arms and blessed God and said, Lord, now let us, thou, thy servant, depart in peace according to thy word. For mine eyes have seen thy servante salvation.
[00:18:45] Verse 34. And Simeon blessed them.
[00:18:48] And you keep reading on down verse number 38, talking about Anna. She coming in that instant, gave thanks likewise unto the Lord and spake of him to all that look for redemption in Jerusalem. So you see other people in scripture. You see Herod, and then you see other people in scripture that are, that respond to the news that Christ has come. Now we know that the first coming of Christ is one thing, but the second coming of Christ is another thing entirely. But it tells us something about the people. When you see the response to the Lord's coming with Herod, not only Herod. Verse three. What does it say? When Herod, the king, had heard these things, he, Herod was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. Why are they troubled? The shepherds aren't troubled. Anna's not troubled. Simeon's not troubled. They're happy. They're excited. Why is Herod troubled?
[00:19:47] He is not joyful.
[00:19:49] And his reaction, indeed, the reaction of the people of Jerusalem, their reaction is a telling sign of their heart condition.
[00:20:03] They did not welcome Jesus. They were not looking for him. They were not happy that the king was here.
[00:20:13] To them, the Lord's appearing was an unwelcome intrusion. It was a hindrance to their pursuit of self interest and sin.
[00:20:27] Again, Matthew presents Christ as king. Right here. The king, Herod.
[00:20:32] He is. He is the king. Why would he want another king? I'm the king. These people, these other people in Jerusalem, they. Why would they want a lord? They have a lord. I am the Lord. I don't want another lord.
[00:20:48] It's very telling about the heart of a person. As to their response to the Lord's coming. Now, this is the first coming, but the same truth can be applied to the Lord's second coming. Coming.
[00:20:59] People's response to that shows where they are.
[00:21:03] Two timothy four eight. Listen to this.
[00:21:06] Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day, and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.
[00:21:22] By contrast, revelation, chapter one, verse seven, says this, behold, he cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him, and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, amen.
[00:21:40] So listen, the way someone responds to the coming of the Lord tells you everything you need to know about where they stand with of God, whether it's the second coming of the Lord or the first coming of the Lord. Not only was Herod, and this is obvious, Herod was not right with God. Herod was a wicked man. Herod was his own king, his own lord. He was not looking for someone to come and reign in righteousness. He did not want Jesus here, obviously, but he's not the only one. The world into which the Lord Jesus Christ was born was a world that was in a spiritual state of decline that did not want him there, as evidenced by the fact that they were troubled.
[00:22:28] They were troubled.
[00:22:30] But as a believer, the coming of the Lord should be a source of great joy for us, something we look forward to now. Keep reading.
[00:22:46] Excuse me.
[00:22:49] Verse four. And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he demanded of them where Christ should be born. You know what's funny about Herod?
[00:22:59] Herod didn't look himself.
[00:23:02] He demanded other people do the research for him. Keep reading. Verse five. And they said unto him in Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written by the prophet, and thou, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, art not the least among the princes of Judah, for out of these shall come a governor. Thou shalt rule my people Israel. Which is. This is taken. It's not an exact quote, but it is taken from Micah, chapter five, verse two.
[00:23:24] So they understand that the messiah, the king, is going to be born in Bethlehem. Verse seven. Then Herod, when he had privily called, the wise men, inquired of them diligently what time the star appeared, and he sent them to Bethlehem. Notice the words, and said, go and search diligently for the young child. And when you have found him, bring me word again that I may come and worship him also. So you have a brutal, bloodthirsty tyrant with a paper thin veil of religion. This is what you got, he had a veil of religion. Now notice something about Herod.
[00:24:13] In verse number eight, Herod tells the wise men to go search for Jesus.
[00:24:18] He displays in this verse and throughout this passage such just an enormous spiritual laziness. Now I'm nothing. Obviously, Herod would have been lazy in spiritual things. Herod did not love Christ, did not want Christ. He was hostile. He wanted to kill him, obviously, but they're displayed kind of as a lesson to us. Such a spiritual laziness. He didn't do the research about where Christ would be born. He didn't care about that. And when it came time, when he did get news that Jesus would be born, he sent other people to go find him. He let other people do his searching for him.
[00:24:54] You compare that to the wise men. That was the exact opposite. The wise men were the ones doing the searching, and they were doing so without any prompting from anyone else. They were seeking after the Lord and were willing to put a great deal of expense and time into it. And they were much, much further away. Herod was 5 miles from where Jesus would be born. 5 miles and would not lift a finger.
[00:25:24] He knew where Jesus would be born, not by his own research, but he did find out.
[00:25:30] And knowing where Jesus would be born, he was but 5 miles away and would not take any time. And instead sent someone else to go do the searching for him.
[00:25:42] His desire to find Jesus did not rise to the level high enough to get him to even lift a finger. And therefore, it is no surprise that Herod never found Jesus.
[00:25:58] This is what spiritual laziness looks like.
[00:26:02] This is what spiritual laziness looks like. And you know what? Spiritual laziness can come in us, it can creep up in us, and the telltale sign of it is when we are. So, listen, I want to say this because I want to be sensitive to the fact that people have health problems and, you know, don't have the energy maybe they used to have or dealing with things. I'm not talking about physical laziness. I'm talking about spiritual laziness.
[00:26:32] It's a condition that afflicts both young and old. Often it's most evident in younger people because they have energy. And yet, spiritually speaking, there's such a haze, a laziness, such a lethargy in spiritual things that there's not enough energy to even get them to get up off the spiritual couch and seek after the Lord at all.
[00:27:00] If it takes work, if it takes energy, if it takes time, if it takes money, if it takes anything. Eh, this is what it looks like 5 miles away.
[00:27:16] He would not go.
[00:27:21] You know, it tells us if we, as God's people, are so lazy that we can't do the smallest of service or devotion to God, even the smallest, the five mile things, that's a good indicator of where we're at spiritually. And this kind of lethargy that's kind of settled over us.
[00:27:47] I mean, what are some of the simple things in life that we should. I mean, reading our Bible, you know, I mean, there's nothing easier than that. Assuming you're literate, there's nothing easier than that. And yet some people just. They don't even have the spiritual energy to do just the smallest things.
[00:28:08] And, you know, here's the thing. This is the sad part. How does that end? You know how it ends?
[00:28:15] You don't find Jesus.
[00:28:17] I'm talking about, even if you're saved, there's not enough energy to get you to lift your head, to lift your hand. And when we get like that, we just never find it. And all the while, the Lord is saying, seek me, seek me, seek me. There is great reward, right? There is great reward. And we're just like, eh, I'll have to turn off TikTok or Instagram or Facebook or whatever.
[00:28:44] Those are all, you know, TikTok is the youngest, then Instagram, and then as you get older, then it's Facebook.
[00:28:51] That's how it goes, right?
[00:28:53] I'll have to do something.
[00:28:56] I'll have to, you know, listen, is not the Lord worthy of our energy?
[00:29:03] Spiritual energy? He is.
[00:29:07] But Herod.
[00:29:09] Herod had none.
[00:29:11] Herod had none. And remember, don't forget, he had that little thin veil, that paper thin veil of religion. So for all the things, Herod was a brutal, murderous, bloodthirsty, shameless tyrant. He was not a man without religion.
[00:29:30] Beware, not everything wrapped in religious garb is good and godly. Because it's not. We should be aware. We should be aware. Why does the wolf dress in sheep's clothing?
[00:29:44] All right, this was Herod.
[00:29:48] Now, the last thing I want us to see, I skipped the point. And I want to.
[00:29:59] One more thing. I want to mention about Bethlehem before we go down to verse eleven.
[00:30:03] You know, I mentioned how Bethlehem was a very small place.
[00:30:07] It was a very, you know, being a small. One of the many villages, one of the many thousands of places. If I were to say, does anybody. Does anybody know where cross anchor is?
[00:30:20] 1234. Now, you know that you guys probably live down there, right? No. Are you close to it?
[00:30:28] Most people don't know across anchor. Did you know Sister Sarah Muxlow was born in cross Anchor? She was born, but nobody knows where cross anchor is. There's actually a sign on 385 going down.
[00:30:39] When you go down on the south part of Greenville county, there's a place called Cross anchor. But it's. Listen, it's one of the thousands of communities in the upstate. It's like that. Most people don't even know what it is. This is Bethlehem. This is kind of an idea of Bethlehem. It's not like a big place that anybody would know.
[00:31:01] And for that reason, this became a stumbling block to many of the Jews, because they knew that the messiah would be born in Bethlehem, which is a small place, but yet every time you see them talk about Jesus, he's of Nazareth, they assumed he came out of Galilee, but they knew the scripture said Bethlehem, right?
[00:31:23] And this became one of the reasons that they kind of stumbled, the Jews, as the Lord got older and became a man and started his ministry, that they stumbled because they debated this well, how can he's doing these miracles and all this? That's obvious. But there's no prophet coming out of Galilee. Jesus, he came from Nazareth. You see, what I'm saying? What the gospel record does is it sets the record straight as to where Jesus came from. Most people would not even know this because it would just been passed along. While Jesus came from Guile, obviously, Mary and Joseph, they lived in Nazareth, and Jesus was raised in Nazareth. He only spent, like, basically a couple, maybe, maybe two years, year and a half, two years in Bethlehem, and that's it.
[00:32:08] All his upbringing, his accent would have been a galilean accent.
[00:32:14] And so they pass around, well, Jesus, he's from Nazareth. And you see, they had false information.
[00:32:20] And because they didn't know the whole picture, they made wrong decisions and misunderstood who Jesus was. That's. Listen, that's what the whole gospel record. In fact, I would argue that Matthew, from a human perspective, was written to combat that idea, to show, no, he was actually born in Bethlehem. He is fit to be king. But there are many times that false information like that really derails people and gets them off track and leads them in a wrong direction. You know what it comes down to? They just don't know. They just don't know the facts. They don't know the whole reality, you know? And this goes back to what I said before, which is seeking out the Lord, seeking out the truth, finding the answers. The Lord expects us to do that. Now, we can't do it without his aid, for sure. We won't do it without his aid, but he does expect us to do it.
[00:33:13] All right. Verse number eleven, and we'll finish here.
[00:33:18] So the wise men come into the house. I know everybody always says they come into the house, not the manger, not the stable. Jesus was a young child, likely a year or two old, probably a year old or something like that.
[00:33:32] And when they were coming to the house, they saw the young child with Mary, his mother, and fell down and worshiped him. And when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts gold and frankincense and myrrh.
[00:33:47] You know, I know it sounds cheesy, but I'm gonna say it because I think it's fitting.
[00:33:52] This is the why. The faith journey of the wise men, I know is cheesy, but this is an actual journey by faith, though, right? It really was.
[00:34:06] How did their journey start? It started with a star, verse two, which is a natural phenomenon.
[00:34:16] And perhaps they had a scripture portion, because they say, where is he that is born king of the Jews? And remember, you think Daniel, you think Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. Those are men who are familiar with the scriptures and the scriptures that would have been familiar to them. The scriptures written at that place. The book of Daniel told of the timing of when Christ would be born. It's actually very clearly stated in our book of Daniel.
[00:34:45] And so you have the. You have. They have a natural revelation, the star. They have maybe a little bit of the scriptures that they've looked at. Maybe incidentally, they've come in contact with the scriptures back in their home country.
[00:34:59] They did not know, however, the place where Christ would be born, because notice, they arrive and they have to ask, they take this huge journey, faith. Right. They take this huge journey on maybe not a whim, but the Lord's revealing a little bit at a time to them. And they're notice, in contrast to Herod, they are seeking God, and they're willing to put their money and their time and their effort and travel for months. They're willing to put all their energy into this journey to meet the king of a people that's not even probably their people.
[00:35:38] Would you say they have spiritual laziness? No. Would you say that the Lord is probably paying attention to their. The energy and the desire that they have in seeking God? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Lord's paying attention. Do you think the Lord is just going to let them seek blindly. No. At each step of the way, be it the star, be it the scripture, the Lord is leading them along, right.
[00:36:05] They get to Jerusalem, and they do not know what particular place they need to go. So they start asking, and no doubt are disappointed to find that basically all of Jerusalem do not want the king. Their news is unwelcome.
[00:36:25] That must have been disappointing to them.
[00:36:27] You know, I know after I got saved, the Lord provided for me to go to a christian school. And I think my wife, you know, my wife and I met at Tabernacle Christian School during our last year of high school. It was both our first year in a Christian school and our last year of high school. And we both came from out of public schools. I went to Berea, she went to Wade Hampton, and we met at Tabernacle. And I know, and I think this is true of her as well. We thought, coming from public school, you know, the pagan world, right? Going into a christian school, we thought, man, this is going to be great. There's going to be all these people, and it's going to be, you know, it's awesome. They're going to love the Lord, and they're going to, you know, they're going to be reading their Bible, and they're going to be encouraging one another. And, boy, was it disappointed. Disappointing.
[00:37:19] And it's not to say anything negative against Tabernacle christian school, but I think it's just christian schools in general. There's a high level of, you know, that spiritual laziness, we might say, or whatever.
[00:37:34] But, like, these wise men probably felt. I felt a lot of disappointment.
[00:37:42] It was a letdown.
[00:37:44] Well, this is not what I expected.
[00:37:46] This is just not what I expected.
[00:37:49] The wise men got to Jerusalem, and they're like, where is he? You know, he expected there was a party going on. You know, they're welcoming the king. And they found that not only were they not welcoming the king, they were hoping that he wouldn't be here. And their news troubled them.
[00:38:04] But nevertheless, even though they did not know the scripture of Micah five two, they did respond to the light and guidance and revelation that God had given them by undertaking this long journey, which was done basically by faith and at the proper time.
[00:38:24] When they arrived at Jerusalem, the word of God found them. And you think about the means whereby the word of God found them by means of the scribes and Herod. That's how God got the Lord revealed the next step for the wise men in their faith journey, using these wicked people. But yes, even though it wasn't, you know, they didn't meet Simeon, they didn't meet an Anna, they didn't meet those godly people we see at this time? No. They met these wicked people. But the Lord used even that, even people who are against Christ, to get them the verse of scripture they needed for the next step, additional revelation.
[00:39:13] At the next step, they grew closer to Jesus. They go into the village of Bethlehem, and the Lord intervened, using the star and its movement to lead them to the Lord's exact location. The Lord led them right along to the place where the very baby, the Lord Jesus Christ, was laying in the house where Mary and Joseph lived.
[00:39:40] And having met the Lord Jesus, we find them doing this.
[00:39:45] They saw the young child with his mary, his mother, and fell down and worshiped him.
[00:39:53] In contrast to Herod, they found Jesus.
[00:39:59] You know why? Because they searched for him with all their heart. And the Lord made sure that they found him. They could search blindly without the Lord's aid. Never would have found him. But the Lord is intervening to lead people who search for him with all their heart.
[00:40:20] And you know what? They found him. And when they found him, what did they do?
[00:40:27] When they met the Lord, they naturally did what every person ought to do when they meet Christ.
[00:40:34] They fell down and they worshiped and having. And when they fell down and worshiped, they gave to the Lord Jesus the best that they had.
[00:40:49] They offered to the best.
[00:40:53] That's what they did.
[00:40:54] What a good lesson to us in seeking the Lord.
[00:41:01] When a person seeks the Lord and with all their heart and God helps them along one step at a time, when they finally meet him, it is natural for them to fall down at his feet and offer to him, Lord, this is the best that I've got right here. This is it. Everything I have. You are worthy of it all.
[00:41:22] Let's pray.
