To Us a Shepherd Is Born | Matthew 2:1-12

Welcome to Grace Christian Church.

It's lovely to be together this morning all together

and it's amazing to have our dear sister Thelma back

and to have her back with us safe and sound.

And yes, please, as we prayed this morning

for the Muhlenberg family, please keep them in your prayers.

And I'm sure Thelma and Eric would be happy

to answer any questions that you might have

so that you can pray for them in a more specific way.

This morning we are gathering around God's words,

not man's words, so let us ask God to help us

with this passage this morning.

Would you pray with me?

Father God, we thank you that these are indeed your words.

And Father, we do ask by the work of your spirit

that you would hold the word high among us this morning.

The word who became flesh and came to dwell among us.

We ask that you would steal our minds,

soften our hearts and work in us,

that this wouldn't be a Bible lesson,

but that we would hear from you this morning.

We ask for this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

So, as we've seen over the past couple of weeks,

as we've been in this series, Matthew wrote his gospel

to show his original Jewish audience

and converts to the Christian faith,

why the Jesus whom he followed around

for a good three years is the irrefutable,

long-awaited Messiah.

And we're only one chapter in

and already seen a few ways that Matthew has shown us this.

First, he's shown us that Jesus is qualified to be the Messiah

because Jesus is a descendant of David

through Joseph and Mary,

which is affirmed later by the Apostle Paul,

who says, as to his earthly life being Christ Jesus,

he is a descendant of David, Romans 1-3.

And as we saw last week,

Jesus is the legitimate son of David

as the angel who was sent to Joseph announced

that he was to take Mary to be his wife,

which we saw he did, even though she was already pregnant.

However, as we saw, she was already pregnant

because that which was conceived in her

was from the Holy Spirit,

chapter one, verses 18 and 20,

which means that this Jesus is incredibly unique,

as not only is he biologically and physically a man,

but also very God in the flesh.

In fact, it's from passages like this

that pastors and theologians in the ancient church

were able to formulate the various creeds

and confessions that Christians hold to.

For example, in the Athination Creed,

we read for the right faith is that we believe and confess

that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God

and man, God of the substance of his father,

begotten before the world's and man of the substance

of his mother, born in the world,

perfect God, perfect man of reasonable soul

and human flesh, subsisting.

Second, Matthew also interestingly linked to Jesus

to Abraham and he did this because it was to Abraham

of all the people in the world

that God promised that his seed would be a blessing

to the world, Genesis 12.

So not only did Matthew link Jesus

to being of keenly heritage, but also to the full qualification

of being the one that God spoke to Abraham about

all those years ago, who would bless the world.

And finally, Matthew also showed us

under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit

that Jesus, who was a child born to a virgin,

was the fulfillment of an incredibly special promise

given through the prophet Isaiah 700 years

before Jesus was even born.

Meaning that God prepared his people to receive his son

who would be known as Emmanuel,

which means God with us.

That's what Matthew has done in his gospel so far.

He has shown us that this Jesus is the son of David,

the son of Abraham and that he is the fulfillment

of an awesome prophetic message given to God's people

that said God would come to dwell among them.

And Matthew says he has in Jesus.

Now this morning we turn our attention to another prophecy

that was given about the Messiah to which Jesus again fulfills.

And like Matthew did last week for us

in the conception narrative, he again gives context

as to how the promises of God were fulfilled

in the life of Jesus, the Messiah.

So with that said, if you have your Bibles

with you this morning, let's have a look at verses one and two.

We read, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea

during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east

came to Jerusalem and asked,

where is the one who has been born King of the Jews?

We saw his star when it rose and we've come to worship him.

Okay, so church, there's a couple of things

that we need to understand here

so that we can get what Matthew is showing us.

The first thing tonight is that Matthew tells us

that Jesus was born in Bethlehem.

That's significant because that was the city

where King David was born as well.

So again, Matthew reinforces Jesus' connection

to the throne of his father David

and his connection as the rightful Messiah of Israel

because not only was he from the Kingly tribe of Judah,

he was born in the very city of David.

That's not all.

You might also notice that Matthew has introduced

some new people to the narrative here.

And we need to understand who they are in order for us

to grasp the significance of Jesus' entrance into this world.

So the first person I want you to notice is King Herod.

Now, as I said in the first sermon in this series,

Matthew was writing to a predominantly Jewish audience,

either to prove to them that Jesus was the Messiah

or to encourage the converts that Jesus was indeed

the Messiah that they'd been waiting for.

And I'm reminding you of that

because we got that context among other things

from a very early source in Christian history

being from a man named Papius.

And he was the Apostle John's disciple.

And it's from this incredibly early source

that we were able to understand

that Matthew wrote to the Jews

sometime during the ministry of Paul and Peter

while they were still alive and ministering in Rome,

which was in the early 60s.

All this to say, Matthew doesn't go on

and explain about who King Herod was

because his original Jewish audience

would have known exactly who he was talking about

because he was a very well-known public figure in the nation.

In fact, we have other sources outside of the Bible

that talk about King Herod.

There's a Jewish historian who lived around the time

of the destruction of the Second Temple in the 70s,

a man named Josephus,

and he wrote a biography on King Herod,

and it's in the biography that we learn

that Herod was the son of Antipata,

who was an Edomite.

And we would see that this man

at Antipata would have been what we would deem

to be the head of the police force in Jerusalem,

who kept law and order for the Roman conquerors.

So as you can imagine,

this family wouldn't have been very popular with the locals.

And we see in the writing of Josephus

that Herod took over from his father at some point,

but not only that, but he was put in a position

as a bit of a puppet ruler

and named King by the Romans in about 37 BC.

But that's not all.

Josephus also notes that Herod was known to be jealous

and paranoid, even having his own wife

and two of his sons murdered

because he was worried that they were positioning themselves

to take his position.

In fact, it was rumored to have been said by Emperor Augustus

that it was safer to be Herod's soul,

which is a female pig, than his very own son.

The second character is an individual,

but a group that Matthew introduces us to

whom he calls the Magi,

which has been traditionally rendered as wise men.

And again, we don't have a huge explanation

about who they were.

But what is interesting to note

is that he mentions quite clearly in our text

that they came from the east.

And I hate to break this to you folks,

if you're a massive fan of the Christmas plays.

But there is no evidence here

that the Magi were in fact kings,

three kings from Oriental.

No, they were more likely prominent religious scholars

who travelled from either Persia or Babylon,

who studied religious text

and discerned astrological phenomena

and reported information to Kingly Court

so they could make diplomatic decisions

based on zodiac observations.

But what's really interesting

is that doesn't seem to be

why they came to Jerusalem, right?

No, we see it in our text this morning.

They didn't come to Jerusalem

to give diplomatic counsel,

but as we see here,

they came to worship the King of the Jews.

Now, for whatever reason,

we're not completely sure,

but they had access to the Jewish Scriptures,

which prophesied that there would come a day

where there shall come a star out of Jacob

and a scepter shall rise out of Israel.

Numbers 24 verse 17.

Numbers 24:17

This is just one of many prophecies

about Israel's coming Messiah.

Thus, when they were studying these texts

and observing the night sky,

they must have put two and two together

and were driven to the conclusion

that Israel's God was announcing to the world

that his King had come

and they went to meet him.

So, you can imagine the scene, right?

You have this paranoid King,

a man who knew he wasn't

from the rightful lineage of the kings,

who had aligned himself with Israel's enemy Rome,

and a man who was willing to destroy

his own flesh and blood

to keep that position.

Then these highly influential scholars came to town

saying, where's the King of Israel?

Because we've seen the heavens declare

that he has been born

and we've come to worship him.

You could almost hear the prophet,

Isaiah's words, ringing in the background here,

that a light has dawned

and people from the nations,

the Gentiles were literally being drawn to it.

Church, we're doing a lot of context and background here

because we're meant to start to fill the tension building here

in Matthew's narrative.

His original readers would have felt this as well.

Word got around and people started talking

and it got to the upper political courts

that the Magi were asking questions

about the long-awaited Messiah.

So, it's a little wonder what we read here in verse 3.

Matthew says, when King Herod heard this,

he was disturbed.

Now, this word disturbed is a translation of a word

which means to have inner turmoil.

But notice what else Matthew notes here in verse 3.

King Herod isn't just having this inner turmoil,

but as Matthew goes on to say,

all Jerusalem was as well.

We need to see that in our text.

All Jerusalem and Herod was disturbed.

It's interesting.

Matthew reports that you have these pagan stargazers,

which is an awesome name for a metal band,

come to Jerusalem asking where Israel's king was

because they wanted to worship him.

And when word got around as to why they were there,

you don't have all these people celebrating with them.

Just the opposite.

They're wrestling with inner turmoil.

And I say this is interesting because let's step back

for a moment and remember the context here.

Matthew has written this gospel with a Jewish audience in mind,

and he's saying here that the first people

who came to worship Jesus were, in fact, Gentiles.

They're the ones who came to worship the Jewish Messiah,

not the Jews, which is Matthew's way of showing

from the very start of the gospel that God sent his son

into this world to draw the nations to himself,

not just the Jews.

Because hey, they didn't even discern the signs

which were told to them by their very own prophets.

No, it was this pagan stargazing club from hundreds,

if not thousands of miles away,

that had to bring their attention to it.

And when they did, all Jerusalem were pretty much terrified.

Probably wondering what their paranoid tyrant leader would do about it.

Let's read on verses 4 and 5.

When he, being Herod, had called together all the people's chief priests

and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born.

Now, with the background and the context that we've just looked at,

it's not like Herod had called all the theologians of the city together

because they were getting all excited that God was finally fulfilling

what he had always promised to do for their nation.

This was a fact-finding mission because Herod was paranoid

that there was someone else in this world that could challenge his power

and take his political influence away.

And as you will see next week, Tom Richards is coming to preach for us

and he's going to take us through the rest of chapter 2

and you're going to see how that's played out.

But there's something else that I want you to notice here.

I want you to notice this.

This is the first time that we're introduced to Jesus' ongoing opposition

and that's to the religious leaders of the day.

And we're going to get to know them really well as we make our way through this book.

And I want you to notice how incredible it is,

how Matthew introduces us to them because for all intents and purposes,

as we'll see, they advise Herod as to where the Messiah will be born,

not so they can get on their donkeys and get on out to meet him.

No, they use Scripture, which they knew were the very words of God

to advise a paranoid tyrant puppet king who murdered anyone who was a threat to him

where to find the Messiah.

And then we read, they do nothing about it.

That is worth noting as we start to make our way through this book.

All this to say, Matthew has given us a really interesting insight

into the religious culture of the day.

You have a nation who has missed the science.

You have a tyrant king who's not even meant to be there who thought of himself

as the king of the Jews willing to do anything to keep that position.

And you have religious leaders who we see here are somewhat compromised.

It's a pretty dire situation, Matthew's painting for us.

So Israel's religious leaders are summoned to Herod and they point out

Micah 5 to him in regards to his question.

And they say, in Bethlehem of Judea, for this is what the prophets written,

but you, Bethlehem in the land of Judah are by no means least among the rulers of Judah.

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

Now, Sam wonderfully read those texts out for us this morning.

And if you were listening keenly, you may have noticed that there were a few differences

in the words that Micah used and the way that Matthew quotes it here in verse 6

of our text this morning.

And without getting too technical this morning because it is quite technical,

but we are a church that believes in God's Word.

So we don't ever want to skip over passages that can seem too hard.

We do want to look at them.

I do want to briefly explain what Matthew has done because this is in no way a misquote.

This is a way of handling the Jewish scriptures which was completely acceptable to the Jewish people,

his audience.

Let me say that another way.

What Matthew is doing here is all very intentional.

And remember, Matthew was writing to a Jewish audience.

So it's not like they didn't know what this very famous passage said.

Now, as we'll see, Matthew was just emphasizing certain points to bring out the prophetic fulfillment

which actually happened in the historical life of Jesus.

Let me show you what I mean.

Micah 5-2.

But you, Bethlehem, Ephrathah, though you were small among the clans of Judah,

out of you will come for me, one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from old and from ancient times.

So that's Micah 5-2.

Now compare that to Matthew 2-6.

But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah are by no means least among the rulers of Judah.

Out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people, Israel.

Okay, so let's go back a bit here.

I don't want this to become a full-on Bible lesson, but we do need to see what's happening here because it's very important.

Micah 5-2 starts with, but you, Bethlehem, Ephrathah, whereas Matthew says, but you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah.

First things first, Ephrathah was an archaic term used for Bethlehem.

So by including the land of Judah, Matthew is in no way changing the location.

He's emphasizing the messianic connection to the tribe of Judah.

This is something he's been doing ever since the beginning of his book.

But that's not all.

He goes on to say, but you, Bethlehem and the land of Judah are by no means least among the rulers of Judah.

Whereas Micah says, though you are small among the clans of Judah.

Again, not a problem.

Matthew is just emphasizing that Bethlehem is a small city with a small population.

But in saying that, in no way insignificant, but extremely important because Israel's ruler will come from there.

This is the last thing I want you to notice this morning.

Matthew says, for out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people.

Whereas Micah says, out of you will come one who will be a ruler over Israel whose origins are from old from ancient times.

Now, as we've made our way through that this morning, it's that last phrase that's interesting.

A ruler will shepherd my people Israel.

It's totally different.

Why? Because Matthew is actually connecting Micah's prophecy to a promise that was given to David.

A promise that was given to David in 2 Samuel 5 verse 2.

2 Samuel 5:2

And this promise to David stated that David would shepherd the people of God.

And Matthew was showing us that this Jesus who was born in Bethlehem in the tribe of Judah, in the line of David.

Well, he is the fulfillment of this prophecy.

He is the good shepherd.

He is the perfect shepherd.

He is the shepherd that will lead God's people back to Yahweh and be the one to reign as king over God's people.

There's a lot more that could be said about that this morning.

A lot more can be said about the way that Matthew is showing us this incredible truth.

But what I do want to say is Matthew is incredibly intentional here.

Like we've seen all throughout his book so far, he's making everything about Jesus.

We looked at the genealogy.

It was about Jesus.

The marriage of Joseph and Mary.

It was about Jesus.

Everything, even prophetic utterances all throughout the Jewish scriptures, it's all about Jesus.

He's showing us that it's all pointing to this Jesus.

And Matthew, the great Jewish theologian evangelist, he's putting it all together for us.

And he's showing us it's all pointing to one person.

Jesus, the Messiah.

Let's keep moving.

Verses 7 and 8.

Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared.

He sent them to Bethlehem and said, go and search carefully for the child.

As soon as you find him, report to me so that I may too go worship him.

Another thing that's interesting to note here church.

All Jerusalem we know knew about why the Magi were there.

We know that the religious leaders knew about it.

But Herod calls these scholars to himself secretly.

Under cloak and dagger in the dark.

Now with what we've seen so far, we know that Herod had no intention of worshipping anyone else's king.

But at this point, the Magi don't seem clued in on that.

They don't catch on.

They obey his command as after they had heard the king.

They went on their way and the star that they had seen when it rose, when ahead of them,

until it stopped over the place where the child was.

When they saw the star, they were overjoyed verses 9 and 10.

We read on verse 11.

Coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother, Mary, and they bowed down and worshipped him.

This is incredible what Matthew was showing us here.

You have this scene, these prominent men from the east,

whose work is advising kings and councils who have learned scholars

and most likely brilliant mathematicians and religious experts.

Yet we see these men from Gentile nations bowing down, falling down before this little boy.

That's what Matthew says here.

That's the picture we're meant to see.

The Gentiles falling to the ground and worshipping this little king.

We read on verse 11, they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense, and mer.

It's customary in the ancient Near East that when you saw someone who was superior to yourself,

you were to bow to them, but also present gifts to them.

That was customary in coming into the presence of a king.

It would have been all known to the original readers.

There's some discussion about the different gifts of gold, frankincense, and mer, and what they symbolised.

But for time's sake, I don't want to enter into that discussion here.

But what I do want to point out, and what is clearly seen, and there is no doubt in this,

Matthew wants to show us that worship and offering from the Gentiles to this Jewish king took place.

That's what we are meant to take away from this.

The God of Israel gave a sign to his creation in his heavens to which the Gentiles took notice,

and they came from the ends of the earth to worship and give gifts to the Jewish Messiah.

Matthew concludes this scene by stating in verse 12,

and having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another root.

And might I say, based on verse 16 in chapter 2, which you're going to look at a bit more next week,

we see that Herod, when the Magi left without coming back to ever report to him,

he decided to have the children two years and under killed in Bethlehem,

based on the time that he had learnt from the wise men when they'd first seen his star.

So by taking that into account, theologians estimate that Jesus would have been around two years old

when all of this took place, give or take a few months,

meaning that he was no longer a baby but a toddler living in a home with his mum.

So the scene that we are all so familiar with, with the shepherds and the wise men and the little drummer boy,

well I'm sorry to break it to you folks,

these scholars from the east came much, much later to the party.

Months, not if many months are for the birth of Jesus.

And if you're looking for an application of that, when you set up your nativity this Christmas,

just make sure you put the Magi there maybe in April.

Brothers and sisters, the point of this whole passage and the point that I pray will grip your heart this morning,

that this isn't just a feel good story that we look at at Christmas time.

Though it is so cute to see our little ones dressed up,

all the details of what Matthew is showing us here is that all creation is yearning for salvation.

That is the point and the connection that I want you to make this morning.

There is a shining star in the sky in this passage because God wields the universe in his very hands

to make his son known to the world.

That's right, the one who is creator, who was sovereign over all that there is,

used that authority to make an announcement to the world about the birth of his son

and creation needs to pay attention.

Now as we see, there were people who were blind to that, but not everyone was.

There were others, others from the nations who were drawn to the king of the Jews, to the Messiah,

and they were drawn because God had made a promise to bless the nations through Abraham's seed.

That's what Matthew is setting up for us here.

That's what Matthew is holding high in the midst of this passage.

God is bringing about the salvation of his people by bringing his only begotten son into this world.

He has set the Messiah and the invitation is clear.

Come and worship the king.

That invitation is still being held out today.

If you were here this morning and you were not a Christian,

if you were not called upon the name of the Lord,

then I would invite you this morning to see, like these wise men saw,

that God has indeed sent his son into this world.

Why did he send them?

Well, there's another evangelist called John, and he makes the reason for this very clear out of the words of Jesus himself.

Jesus says, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son,

that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

That is why God sent his one and only son because he so loves the world.

And it was this love that caused Jesus to live a perfect life on behalf of his people,

to be crucified on behalf of his people and to be raised in victory on behalf of his people.

And the scriptures tell us that whosoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.

I would plead with you.

I would plead with you to turn and come to Jesus this morning

and to call upon his name while there is still time.

You might be here this morning and saying, you don't know what I've done,

but the very words of Jesus is that he will forgive all unrighteousness

and he in no way will cast out anyone who comes to him.

No one knows what time or hour our hearts will stop beating.

And this is eternal business.

Don't walk out of this place having rejected God's free and gracious gift

that is being held out to you this morning.

And church, I want to say this to you.

Tyrants have always tried to cast God off,

to reject his ways and snuff out God's people, but they will never be able to.

Why? Because God is totally in control.

Which means that we as his church must not fear what the world throws at us.

But in saying that, we do have to understand that the world will throw things at us.

We see this all throughout church history.

We have brothers and sisters all throughout church history

and all throughout the world at this very moment

who have been driven out of families, out of their homes, out of their countries

and others have been killed for their faith in the risen Jesus.

So we must not be surprised when tyrants plot and plan to come after the church.

We must not be surprised when we are rejected by our families.

When we lose our jobs, when we are told to sit down and shut up

because our nation has in a turmoil with the message that we have to bring to them

that the king of kings rules and they have to turn to him,

we mustn't be surprised as the people of God.

But I also want to say this morning,

we know that that little baby who was visited by those people all those years ago

who was worshipped, we know he grew up.

We know he grew up to conquer death to destroy the devil, his power.

He grew up to ascend into heaven to sit at the right hand of God in power and majesty

and church, he is in total control at this very moment no matter what it looks like right now.

He is the king of kings.

He is the Lord of lords and no tyrant dictator or rebellion has ever,

or ever will be able to destroy him or his people.

All this to say, what we have around us isn't a war that can be lost.

But a battle that is fought daily, not with the things of this world

but with the very spirit of God in his people,

with the gospel being shared with others, with spiritual armor given to us by God,

with prayer, with faith and above all with love.

Would you please pray with me?

Father, we are indeed aware of the things happening in our world.

And Father, as we look on our devices probably more than we should

and the world preaches bad news, we are so thankful for good news.

Father, we are thankful for the news that you have given us

like Matthew and Mark and Luke and the other evangelists

and the people that you have raised up all through the years in your church,

it is news to be told to others.

And we pray, Father, in the midst of whatever is going on in this world

that we don't believe the bad news but know the good news.

You have the victory.

You have the glory. You have the power.

And I pray for your church that we would be strengthened.

That you would make us bold.

That you would make us a people that love you

and love those around us enough to tell them this news.

And we ask for all of this in Jesus' name, amen.

Church, we are now going to stand and sing in response to the words

that we've heard this morning.

So if you are able, would you please stand as...