Where is the King? | Pauper's Service

Very good morning. It's a real pleasure to be with you, to worship together and to preach

God's word with that. If you have a Bible with you, won't you turn to Matthew chapter

Matthew 2:1

2 verse 1. We're going to read through this text that follows the account of what's known

as the infancy narrative as we consider and ask the question, where is the king? Where

is the king? Matthew chapter 2 and verse 1. Oh God, would you be with us now as we

Matthew 2 · chapter mention

sit under your word, read and preach, illuminate the eyes of our soul, that we will be conformed

more and more into the likeness of your Son. Our Lord Jesus Christ, our man. 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? 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 so it was written by the prophet

and you, oh Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, up 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 have found him, bring me word that I

too may come and worship him. After listening to the king, they went on their way, 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. They fell down and worshiped him, then opening

their treasures. They offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh being warned in a dream not

to return to Herod. They departed to their own country by another way. Now when they had departed,

behold an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, rise, take the child and his

mother and flee to Egypt and remain there until I tell you for Herod is about to search for the child

to destroy him. He rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt,

remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the

prophet out of Egypt. I called my son. Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise

men became furious and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and all that region

who were two years old or under according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men.

Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah. A voice was heard in Rehmer,

weeping and loud lamentation. Rachel weeping for her children. She refused to be comforted

because they are no more. But when Herod died, behold an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream

to Joseph in Egypt saying, rise, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel.

For those who sought the child's life are dead. And he rose and took the child and his mother and

went to the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea in

the place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Being warned in a dream, he withdrew to

the district of Galilee. He went and lived in a city called Nazareth so that what was spoken by

the prophets might be fulfilled that he would be a Nazarene. This is the word of the Lord.

You know Christmas is such a remarkable time of year and yet how quickly it can fade into the

background as we turn the page and move to the next stop in the calendar, New Year's Day.

Matthew, the author of our text says not so fast. The celebration of Christ's birth, his advent

into the world is not just another day, another holiday to be checked off before moving on to

the next commercial event as we are so prone to do in America. Let's remember what has happened.

Let's pause. Jesus is none other than Emmanuel, meaning God with us. He is the incarnate of

the incarnate son of God, clothed with our humanity. God has written himself into the story

of redemption. He has entered into his creation, now marred with Adam's sin to make all things new.

In other words, God is going to remake this fallen world from within by becoming one of us,

the infinite being clothed with a finite. God would become men. The word made flesh.

My friends, this is mind boggling. This is the nature of the gospel. His birth was for our

rebirth, a recreation that would extend not only to our personal hearts, minds and bodies,

but a recreation that would extend to a restoration of the entire universe, which as Paul tells us

is currently groaning together in the pains of childbirth until that day when Christ will make

all things new again. In short, what God had first promised to Adam and to Eve in their sin,

all the way back in Genesis chapter three, while they are still in the garden about to be cast out

of the garden, that first announcement of the gospel where the seed of the woman would be born

and would crush the head of the serpent in Christ is now beginning to be realized.

Thousands of years have passed since God spoke that word of hope into a world of hopelessness.

Light has entered the darkness. Bread and wine are an offer to the hungry and the thirsty.

Liberty is at hand for the oppressed, for the captive, making way for reconciliation between us

and God and us and one another, those who have been estranged and resurrection life for the dead.

Matthew tells us that the events that follow the infancy narrative, what we find in

chapter one are not unimportant. He doesn't simply jump from lying in a manger to Christ

being baptized by John the Baptist at the age of 30 in the Jordan River for two full chapters.

Matthew sketches an account of Jesus beginning with a detailed genealogy of Jesus,

the events surrounding his birth and then as we find in out text today, the whereabouts of the king.

The first years of Jesus' life both in Egypt as he flees from Herod's tyrannical and imperial

ways all the way up to Nazareth in Galilee up north away from the gaze of Herod's son,

Archelaus, who would rule over Judea in the southern part of Israel.

None of this is insignificant. None of us is merely a kind of historical documentation,

nice for us to know but really doesn't move the soul.

Because Jesus' story is the culmination of what God began under Moses.

Moses was the servant in God's house who pointed forward to the Son in God's house being Christ.

Moses liberated God's people from the captivity under Pharaoh in the first Exodus from this

oppressive enslaving rule of Pharaoh, a story that would point forward to a second and greater

Exodus under Christ and Matthew doesn't want you and I to miss this.

This morning as we find in our text we are going to go along a journey together,

a kind of road trip of sorts post Christmas from Jerusalem to Bethlehem down to Egypt

and up to Nazareth asking the question, where is the king?

And so as our text begins we find ourselves in Jerusalem and this follows the previous

chapter, chapter one in Matthew where we find details of Christ's birth in Bethlehem are

outlined for us and very quickly we find that all is not well in Bethlehem.

Jesus' parents Joseph and Mary have traveled about 90 miles south, there was no Uber back then,

there was no car, this is a woman who is almost nine months pregnant traveling 90 miles south from

Nazareth to Bethlehem because of a decree by Caesar Augustus the first Roman emperor who had

issued this decree that everyone was to register for a census in their ancestral towns.

This is what is happening when we find ourselves in Bethlehem the city of David and so with no

room available in the inn or the guest quarters what we find is that Mary lays Jesus down to

sleep in a manger which sounds like a very nice kind of nativity story only when you realize

that a manger is nothing other than a feeding trough for animals where this grain and hay are

stored this is where the Christ child was laid to sleep but sometime later Jesus' humble entrance

into the world doesn't go unnoticed wise men from the east likely from Persia follow a star in the

night sky that would lead them towards this newborn king they themselves are not kings they are magi

wise at interpreting stars it's not uncommon for the time that these kinds of wise men would find a

correlation or connection between stars and political events or to see how the stars in fact

signal the birth of a figure that is destined for greatness these are the magi we don't know much

more about them apart from what we find in chapter 2 except that they saw his star when it arose and

they followed it for the purpose of worshiping this great new king what's interesting is that

they don't end up in Bethlehem which is where Christ is born they end up in Jerusalem about

seven miles north of where Jesus was laid to rest and sleep in that manger what seems to have happened

is that the magi kind of started out following the star only to end up following their intuitions

since they arrive in Jerusalem and not Bethlehem which certainly seems to be an obvious place to

look for Jewish royalty or so their thoughts remember Jerusalem is the city of God but they

couldn't find the newborn king there and so they began to ask around where is the one born king of

the Jews well word spreads quickly and soon Herod catches wing a wind of the news most likely he

heard about it through an informant informants were employed by the Roman Empire at the day

to squish dissent among the people that they oppressed Herod's reaction we see is very different to

the magi Herod's disturbed he is feeling threatened so he begins to scheme why we might ask well

Herod the great is also called Herod the king and he has been clad with the royal regal title

king of the Jews a title that was granted to him by the Roman Senate a title that he wore with a

kind of iron grip you see despite his lofty position as king of the Jews Herod was not Roman

he was an Edomites he was a descendant of Esau who is the estranged twin of Jacob you might

remember the story but Jacob or but Herod is a stranger to the Jewish faith to its history

even despite that he was nonetheless appointed by Rome to be a client king which is a kind of puppet

monarch whose strings are pulled by the imperial power up high that reigned over him and over Judea

and so for three decades Herod rules the region of Judah Judah with an iron fist and he balances

the Roman interests with his own aspirations for political power and what we find is that Herod's

reign is actually something of a paradox on the one hand it's the reign of ruthless pragmatism

marked by political shrewdness as he eliminates any kind of threat without hesitation even

his own wife who he has executed on the other hand he is celebrated he's a celebrated king

his as a visionary builder he is a patron of grand architectural promises projects in the land

and that leave an indelible mark in the region most notably his ambitious achievement was the

renovation of the second temple in Jerusalem transforming this humble temple into the most

magnificent or one of the most magnificent structures in all of the ancient world that was

the temple that was originally built rebuilt undeserobbable five centuries before as the

people of god come out of Babylonial exile but belief this facade of monumental achievement

Herod's legacy is tainted by cruelty by selfish ambition and an insatiable thirst for power

Herod is troubled by the news of one born within Judea within his region that has been given the

same title that he owes king of the Jews was not bestowed upon Jesus by Roman senate but by

God himself and attested to by all kinds of divine signposts of miracles and wonders in the sky

not only is Herod troubled by the news but what we see in the text Matthew tells us is that all

of Jerusalem is likewise troubled which seems odd since this is none other than the long expected

Jesus as we sang earlier the consolation of Israel this is the deliverer leader who god had

promised this is the seed of the woman whom god had promised to adam and eve whom Israel had longed

for all those years and when they should have rejoiced instead they're disturbed they frightened

like king Herod who goes on the rampage which is really nothing other than a mentality quite

typical of the roman empire whenever they were threatened and so here's how the events played

out in Jerusalem when Herod is first informed by this news of another one called the king of the

Jews he consults his magi the magi in the city not the wise men from the east but the his magi being

the chief priests and the scribes of Israel the scribes and of of Israel and the chief priests

they don't have stars to look at but what they do have is they've got the scriptures which

detail the place of the coming christ where he would be born which is found in mica chapter five

and verse two and it's this that matthew cites where he says but oh you oh Bethlehem in the land

of Judah or by no means least among the rulers of Judah for from you shall come a ruler who will

shepherd my people Israel and so armed with these words of Micah's prophecy and beginning to see

the store once again the magi heads south to our next destination to Bethlehem from from Jerusalem

after worshiping him in Jerusalem we find them falling down before the christ offering him their

gifts out of their treasures frankincense and myrrh and others what's interesting is that

we find in verse 12 there's a kind of a turning point within the narrative the magi are warned in

a dream not to go back to Herod they are warned in a dream to go to their country by another way

and here at this turning point there's an escalation of tension in verse 13 where Jesus and his family

are warned by God to flee south to Egypt to leave Bethlehem and to flee south to Egypt as refugees

remember friends let's take the tinsel and the christmas lights off the narrative story this is a

poor young olive skin family on the margins of society have been displaced by a government

census away from their home and they are likely carrying no more than a bag or two of their possessions

but God's watching over them he has not forgotten them no matter the bdi of Herod who is plotting

who is plotting and scheming a way to kill the christ you see in the night god speaks to joseph in a

dream where an angel of the lord appears to him and exhorts him as we find in verse 13 to rise

take the child and his mother and to flee to Egypt and to remain there until i tell you

for Herod is about to search for the child to destroy him once again who Jesus is and what Jesus

has come to do are brought into sharp focus within just a very brief paragraph within verses

13 through 15 matthew gives us a window into the exodus story which itself points us forward to a

new and second exodus where Jesus is the true and greater moses who will bring about a final exodus

as god's son and so from the get-go in matthew's text there is a parallel between the first days of

moses' life and the first days of jesus' life so a little bit of history as we go back into the

old testament we see in exodus chapter one we are told that a new king has arisen in

egypt one who did not know about joseph and his brothers and the way in which god had favored

joseph and egypt during the time of the famine and so this new king that arose not only did not

know joseph but was not favorably disposed any longer to israel and much like how Herod feared

jesus the egyptians lived in dread of the israelites fearing that they might grow too strong for them

and thus escape egypt and so it's into this context of fear that the pharaoh gives the following

commandment that we find in exodus chapter one every son that is born to the hebrus shall be cast into

the nile but every daughter shall live can you imagine this takes place around the birth of

moses his mother fearing for his life the life of her son hides him for the first three months

and after concealing him and feeling like she can't conceal him any longer she makes a basket

a basket of bull russell bull rushes with some bichman and pitch and she places his in the reeds

right by the river bank what's fascinating is that the basket the hebrou word is a loan word

meaning coffin or chest it's only used twice in the entire old testament one here the story of

moses and the other was a reference to noah's ark you see just as moses was placed in a vessel that

was to be saved through the waters noah's ark as god's ordained vessel ushered in new creation

realities saved through the flood waters and we find this echoed in second peter chapter three where

where peter tells us that the world that then existed the pre-flood world was deluge with water

and perished it's as if that world no longer existed and noah steps out of that then existing

world into a new world cleansed by the waters of judgment in other words when we look at

moses's watery trial at his birth where he emerges from an arc like basket is a picture of god's

deliverance from death to life from pharaoh's condemning judgment and the death that awaits him

in denial moses is saved from these very waters by pharaoh's own daughter and it's actually an event

that foreshadows the exodus to come when god's people are liberated through moses's leadership

from their oppressive captivity in egypt they led through the red sea on dry ground a baptism

as paul tells us while pharaoh's armies pursue them only to drown in the judgment borders of the sea

one commentator notes and he he says of moses that moses's role encompasses every conceivable

office of redemption moses is a savior figure he is a forerunner of israel's deliverance he mediates

god's covenants on behalf of god and israel between the two he acts as an intercessor on behalf of israel

unto god each of these function as a precursor as a pointer not to himself but one to come

to the seed of the woman to christ the consummate savior mediator and high priest

the inverse 15 matthew signals not only the next destination in our text that being a journey north

up to nazareth but more importantly what matthew does in verse 15 is he highlights the role

of christ in redemption and what he does with an emphasis on jewish history is he points and uses

another prophecy this time a prophecy from joseph and he says out of egypt i called my son

israel friends was known as the firstborn son of god as a nation as a people israel's exodus from

egypt as god's son foreshadows jesus's return from egypt as god's eternal son and in other words if

you and i are in the sun as the people of god the exodus story is our story and testimony

as pharaoh sought to end the life of moses who was the servant in the house of god herod

seeks to kill the son in god's house christ but herod's murderous intentions and actions

in fact they foreshadow a day when pilots would sentence jesus to death on a cross

the place of the second exodus of god's people not through the waters of the red sea but this time

through the waters of the side of christ that signifies death and make way for new life

you see what's what's remarkable about this is the same jerusalem that was so troubled by the news of

the king of the jews born in bethlehem is the very same city over which jesus would later weep

as he rides into jerusalem on a donkey just days before they would reject him

the people of jerusalem became so agitated in a disdain for christ that they lift up their voice in

rage to do exactly what king herod had wanted to do all those years before this time it's not herod

but the jerusalem describes and the chief priests doing the scheming petitioning pilots and the roman

empire crying out over and over again as they shout crucify him

now matthew records a little detail that is certainly not a throwaway detail towards the end

of his account of the gospel as he tells us about a sign a notice of sort that is placed over jesus'

head as he hangs on the cross it's the charge against jesus and it reads as follows this

this is jesus king of the jews the second temple in jerusalem majestically and magnificently beautified

by herod the king counted for very little in the end destroyed a few years later in 80 70 and

has never since been rebuilt because what really mattered was the body of christ the temple of god

as christ referred to himself where is the king we might ask when we've seen from bethlehem to

egypt's out of egypt's up north to nazareth later on to golgotha and then into the tomb

where the angel tells us why do you seek the living among the dead he is not here but has risen

see friends this is the storyline of the bible of how god is remaking the world again

marred in sin see if you are in christ you have come out of egypt out of the world and you have

been brought into the wilderness period this period between christ's first coming and his

second coming a place of trials a place of testing that's the world in which you and i live in we

have not yet fully entered into that promised land though we have come out of egypt the promised

land is where we are headed that promised land of consummate Sabbath rest where we will behold

god face to face in the new heavens and the new earth for all eternity this is what the king of

the jews came to do to make way for people from all nations to be restored to god and to dwell

with him free from sin friends what is egypt all the roman empire have in comparison nothing

nothing at all and yet you and i are so often tempted by wilderness like by empire like thought

structures by the appetites of the immediate at the cost of what's to come i mean this is

certainly what the Israelites endured and faced and how they lived many of them scoffing at the

manner that god had provided in the wilderness in that land of testing hankering after as we read

for what cucumbers melons leaks onions and garlic back where in Egypt and in the end they died in

the wilderness in unbelief may i say to each one of us rather be marginalized with chasers

than seek to dine in the courts of Pharaoh rather identify with the sufferings of christ

and take up your cross daily all your life let his pattern of life be your pattern of life

let his manner of love be your manner of love where we love god with our all and our neighbor

as ourselves since we know the love of god in christ in the very depths of our soul

this community the community of saints are to be quite like any other community on the planet

we are to love like none other because we have been loved extravagantly and yet our testimony

at times betrays that let the overarching story of redemption be your story a story much grander

and all encompassing than any other narrative that exists a narrative that exists only for today

you see the pattern of sin is very simple sin separates it segregates it corrupts it oppresses

it enslaves and it is marked with suffering sorrow and death but in christ let's rather

do all things as we go into the new year unto the glory of god and for the common good of all

from now until the day the lord takes you home and until that day as we ask the question where is

the king let us remember he is making intercession for his own having begun a work in his first coming

only to bring it about to a completion in his second a new and second exodus as we are brought

out of the world into a renewed world made new by christ and through christ this is what god is

doing today let us live in the light of it let's pray