The Wise Man’s Savior | Matthew 2:1-12

We finally made it to Matthew chapter 2

Matthew 2 · chapter mention

from Matthew. And in this passage, we

see the wise men coming to worship Jesus

and bring him gifts. It's interesting

that we're landing in all this right in

the Christmas season, New Year. And up

to this point, we see a train of thought

as we look at Matthew chapter one

through the eyes of a Jew who's asking

the question, Jesus set the criteria

for Messiah.

And he's the Messiah that we should be

expecting. There's a a Jewish audience

in mind for Matthew the first century.

So in the book of Matthew, he quotes a

lot of Old Testament passages and we'll

see that here in Matthew chapter 2 that

Matthew 2 · chapter mention

there's Old Testament prophets that are

quoted and there's things alluded to.

What we see in chapter one, first of

all, our first sermon, we talked about

Jesus is the promised Abraham was told

that in him all the nations of the earth

will be blessed. What do we see in

Matthew chapter 2? We see wise men

Matthew 2 · chapter mention

coming from other nations coming from as

far and and there's this message of

gentile inclusion. We saw even in the

family tree of Christ that certain women

are mentioned who several of them are

Gentiles and they're grafted into the

tree of Christ which is a bit of

surprise to the Jewish reader that oh

this is actually part of God's plan that

in Christ all the nations are going to

be blessed and Gentiles are going to be

grafted into the family tree. We also

saw that he is the promise kept to David

that David was told that one of his uh

that his that he would have a son who

would have an everlasting kingdom and

Jesus fits the bill. He comes from the

right family. That's why we have a

genealogy. He is the promised king who

was to come, the king of kings and the

lord of lords. And now what are the wise

men coming to do? They're coming to

worship the newborn king, King Jesus.

And uh we saw him also as the one in

whom we have running, the remission of

sins, the forgiveness of our debt, the

God of man. He is both God and man. And

in this chapter also we will see the

wise men

bowing to worship Jesus. Now no one is

to worship any creature of God. But

Jesus isn't merely a preacher of God. He

is the God man. He receives worship

throughout the book of Matthew. Multiple

times Jesus will receive worship which

would be unlawful to do but for the fact

that he is more than him. He is the God

man which is what we talked about last

week in the incarnation. Now this

morning I thought this wise man savior

and the point is that Danielside

becoming his king Jesus kings fear him

and wise men seek him. In in this

chapter, we will see the wise men go to

the logical place. They go to Jerusalem.

And what is the response of Jerusalem?

They're troubled. They are fearful. Why?

Because King Jesus is a threat to

existing power structure.

He's a threat. He is still a threat.

This is why Christianity must not be

tolerated and must be persecuted by all

totalitarian regimes

because Christ demands loyalty. He

demands the obedience of the nations.

And so when Christians proclaim the full

scope of the authority of Jesus Christ,

it is a threat to existing power

structure. Caesar must persecute

Christians because he cannot maintain an

empire of order where he is the center

of the world and Jesus is the center of

the world.

No must persecute Christians because

Christianity is a threat to Rome. It's

also been a threat to atheistic

communism. It's a threat to Islam. It's

a threat today in countries like

communist China. It's a threat in

Myanmar. It's a threat anywhere where

they deny the authority of Jesus Christ.

It is a threat. And I dare say that it's

a threat here as well. The systems have

bought into this idea of secularism.

Secularism is not a biblical concept. In

fact, the first commandment for this

secularism,

the first commandment, you shall have no

other gods before me, is a declaration

that God is the source of ethics for

morality, crime and punishment, right

and wrong. He is our authority

and secularism and the authority of

Christ cannot equally coexist with what

we put.

Our founders in the United States

recognized on paper that Jesus is the

sovereign judge of all the earth and

they appealed to him for the justice of

their father. They said that rights come

from God. They said we hold these things

to be self-evident that all men are

created equal. Atheists can't say that

and are endowed by your creator with

inaliable rights life

aka properties. concept is God has said

it's wrong to steal and therefore

socialism is also famous

that that God created man in his own

image. All men all ethnicities all

colors of skin are created in God's

image. That means all men have value and

worth in that sense equal before God not

equally talented equally beautiful

equally wealthy equal under the law of

Christ.

This is a concept that has existed in

Christianity and you hear it in the term

Christendom

for millennia Christian spoke of

Christendom. What is Christendom? Well,

it's short for Christ kingdom. There was

a knowledge that kings must tremble

before him. I heard that when handle

messiah

was being played that the king uh the

king who was there present he had to

respond and worship because recognize

there's a king greater than himself.

That should be the response of kings

everywhere to bow before the king of

kings and the lord of lords to proclaim

his sovereignty to acknowledge his

authority

for by him king.

Daniel prophesied the timeline in which

king Jesus would come. He prophesied

and and uh he he laid it out. We're

going to this morning and there were a

group of wise men that received this

prophecy and I believe they've been

waiting they've been waiting for 400

years and they see step by step the

prophecy of Daniel taking place

and now appears the nature of which can

be debated a bit but as far as appear

they out to these wise men it's the

right time and there's the

And the

other books would have given us.

Now if you were standing,

where is he who has been born king of

the Jews? For he saw his star when it

rose and had 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 Bethlehem of Judea. For so

it is written by the prophet, "And you,

oh Bethlehem, and the land of Judah are

no least among the rulers of Judah. For

from you shall come a shepherd my people

Israel. Then Herod summoned the wise men

secretly announc

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 you word that I too

may come and worship him. And listening

to the king, they went on their way. And

behold, the star that they had seen when

it rose went before them until it came

direct over the place where the child

was. When they saw the star, they

rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. And

going into the house, they saw the child

with Mary his mother, and they fell down

and worshiped him. Then opening their

treasure, they offered him gifts, gold,

and frankincense and myrr. And being

warned in a dream not to return to

Herod, they to their own country by

another way. Oh Lord God, we thank you

that our king is we thank you father

of David sits on the throne at the right

hand of the father and just as you

always

go it is our pleasure it is our honor.

our glory to be your subject to to live

a life that pleases you to further the

advancement of your kingdom to make you

known to worship you as these wise men

worship you. So we worship you today in

our heart

that you have sent Christ to bear our

sues.

Amen. You may be seated.

One of the things I love about the

Christmas season is you read the old

Christmas, the old one, and they rejoice

in the kingdom of Christ. Joy to the

world, the Lord has come. Let earth

receive our king. It's this joyful

optimistic message that Christ rule. And

even as we see sometimes uh we look

around at the world and we see we say,

"What a mess." Oh, but what a What a

change we've been in the last 2,000

years. Been a massive change. As the

wherever the gospel goes, it brings

healing to the nations. It brings

transformation. And just as Christ

coming into a man's heart, God begins to

sanctify him and change him and mold him

or her. Uh so it is when Christ comes

into a church when Christ is in a

community. When Christ goes into a

nation and a people group who have never

heard the gospel before, hear the

glorious gospel and it starts leading to

a change.

We we teach with the gospel. We begin to

teach husbands. Love your wives as

Christ. Love the church. Quit hating

them. Right? And to the wives we say

submit yourselves unto your husbands as

unto the Lord. And the children we say

to fathers, train up your and the

discipline, the admonition of the Lord.

So, so no longer do you follow your

pagan customs, but you learn to think

God's thoughts after him. And you learn

what God's word says about being a

father and being a mother and being a

being a parent and and and how to apply

God's word to your work and to your life

and to your community, how to deal with

your neighbors and and you say, "Well,

what about that beaten swords and the

file stuff?" Well, you begin in the

home. You begin with your neighbors. The

concept of good and the other cheek that

we'll get to later in chapter five of

Matthew isn't talking about national

defense. It's not talking about an

invader coming into your home. It's

talking about your your day-to-day

personal relationships. We humble

ourselves and we bear insult. We don't

return evil for evil. We return good for

evil. We we bless other men curse. Yet

that the kingdom begins on a very small

level. It's like leaven that a woman

into a the lump of bread until the whole

is leaven. Christ begins to change us

from the inside. If if we teach people

love your enemies, love your neighbor,

love your wife, love your husband, love

your children, will that have an effect

on crime rates? Yes, it does. And it's

not from the outside in, it's from the

inside out. You want to change America?

Start with your toddlers.

It doesn't happen overnight. Great those

great sequoas that I saw in in

California, some of them being a

thousand years old. We were out there a

few years ago and we saw some of these

sequoas thousands of years old and a

wind had just recently come by and it

knocked over like four of them. Huge

tree like standing like double or triple

my height the root of that thing. It's

like wow it seems so sad. It took

thousands of years for this thing to

grow. Well, it it didn't happen in a

day. You can plant a tree today. It

takes time to grow. It takes time for

the kingdom to grow. It takes time to

change things. But instead of to the

outside looking all the time at two

political solutions. The kingdom of God

spreads in the hearts and minds of men.

It starts with the home. It starts with

individuals. It changes us from the

inside out. That's where we begin.

That's where Christ's kingdom grows in

the fertile hearts of men of men and

women and children and communities. All

right, let's look here at Got a lot to

cover because I'm going to be looking at

Daniel, but let's look again at

particularly uh the first verses. It

says, "Now after Jesus was born in

Bethlehem, so this isn't the night

Christ is born. This is after, as we

shall see, he's living in a house at

this time. Now after Jesus was born in

Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod

the king, the old wise men from the east

came to Jerusalem, saying, "Where is he

who has been born king of the Jews? For

we saw his star when it rose and has

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. Now, there's

several things that I want to point out

to here that I think the original

audience would have immediately seen. It

would have reminded them of Daniel

Daniel 2 · chapter mention

chapter 2, which we're going to go

through in several ways. Number one,

there are wise men from the east.

They're from the east. Where in the

east? From Babylon. From Persia. Now,

Babylon was divided up into different

countries afterwards. And Persia was

divided. So, they may have been from

different parts of the empire, but they

were from the east. We've read about

wise men before in Daniel chapter 2.

Daniel 2 · chapter mention

We're going to look at it again today.

There's there's wise men. There's no

reason to believe that there's no good

reason to believe there's only three of

them and that they're writing on camera.

There are

gold, frankincense, and myrr. But it

doesn't doesn't say there was only

three. They likely came in a very large

number writing Persian is probably how

they showed up. Not the way we see. They

they come and if there was just three of

them, I doubt they would have troubled

Jerusalem very much. But when you have

this this bunch of of Persian thieves

showing up with minimum influence from

Babylon uh a great Iran today uh that

that was would have been perceived as a

threat. And what are they looking for?

They're looking for the king who is to

be born king of the Jews. What's the

response?

Herod is troubled. Now Herod couldn't

possibly be that king. He was doing his

best to make people think he might be

that king. He he had been really truly a

pretty impressive man. I might go into

it more. In many ways, he's an

impressive man, but he was a very

vicious man. He was a builder. He built

incredible cities. He had been building

the temple for for decades already. He

had he had been a a friend of Mark

Anthony. And when Mark Anthony lost uh

to to Octavian 40 something years

earlier you know 44 Caesar was dead for

maybe 40 BC or so uh I forget the exact

year but but Herod had been a loyal man

to Mark Anthony and he saw Mark Anthony

was defeated he humbled himself and he

ran to Octaven and said listen I've been

a loyal subject to Mark Anthony I will

be a loyal subject to to you as well and

Octaven was impressed by

because the logical thing would been

done is kill him and uh he says actually

I'll keep you around and he made him

king of Judea so he's a king he was uh

he had many many wives one of them his

favorite wives he's known for kicking

her to death and regretting it

afterwards very vicious man but he was

an incredible organizer an incredible

builder but one thing that would have

bothered the Jew was a

is is a Latin word that means Edomite.

He's a descendant of Esau. I'll go into

that more next week and a little bit in

this sermon. But he's troubled because

he knows that he cannot be the one of

the line of Judah of the line of David

to be the everlasting king. He doesn't

have the genealogy which we just read in

Matthew chapter one. He doesn't have the

pedigree. He's maybe half Jewish, but

everybody knows he's a descendant of

Esau. And Esau is not to reign over

Jacob. Jacob is to reign over Esau. So,

he's troubled. If a king has been born,

this king is a threat to power. Karen

killed some of his own sons because he

thought they were a threat to his power

when he was getting close to death.

That's the kind of man he was. He had no

qualms about killing anyone and even his

own son if he thought they were

conspiring against him. Killed one of

his own his own favorite wife who killed

her. So he's troubled in all of

Jerusalem. Why Jerusalem? Because

there's a whole there's a whole uh

entourage. There's a whole system.

There's a there's a swamp. Let's put it

in modern day. The the priest uh there's

corruption in the priesthood. A bunch of

Sadducey priests. There's there's

corruption in the politics. all kinds of

people that that shouldn't be there or

they are ruling over people. So when

they hear that one from the the house of

David has come they are greatly troubled

in trouble because Christ is a threat to

the existing power.

If Christ the king has come then they

are in trouble. They can either bow and

worship him and submit to him and

relinquish their authority or they can

they can seek to kill him. I think of

Saul

Saul was big fan of David until he

figured out that David was to take his

place. And then what did Saul want to do

in the Old Testament? Saul wanted to

kill David. Even now the mad king wants

to kill the rest of his power and all of

Jerusalem with him. Now we read about

these wise men. They're from the east

and they saw his star. They saw his star

as we so so these the other names of

these people are the magi.

uh the word we get magician from they

were astrologers they watched the

heavens they watched the horoscope now

they the the Jews also used horoscopes

even mentioned in the book of Job for

example a lion is mentioned in the book

of Job horoscopes go back very very far

there's different views on them the

horoscopes you read about today are

pagan people trying to tell the future

by the stars is a very pagan concept but

the Jewish concept they use the

horoscope as well but it was it was a

uh they believe that the sovereign God

that rules over heavens and earth rules

over the stars also and that he at times

chooses to reveal things through the

stars but they didn't look to the stars

in a pagan sort of fortune telling way

but these men were astrologers and

there's there's probably a mixture of of

paganism and thought and and thought

aligning more in line with scripture

among them but in any case they were

magi they were astrologers they were

from Persia or Babylon and they they

have come to meet the king. Now to

understand this I'm going to do quite a

bit of reading in Daniel and um I I did

a sermon on this about a year ago or a

little less um but I went back and uh I

want to take another look at it. I think

it's very important to understand the

book of Matthew. Major theme of Matthew

is that Christ is the king we've been

waiting for. He's here. That's the major

theme. The book ends with the gospel

going to all nations. Why? Because all

authority in heaven and earth has been

committed to him. It's a theme of the

book of Daniel. So we're going to look

at Daniel chapter 2. And again we see a

Daniel 2 · chapter mention

dream a troubled king and wise men.

Daniel chapter 2 verse one. In the

Daniel 2 · chapter mention

second year of King Nebuchadnezzar,

Nebuchadnezzar had dreamed his spirit

was troubled. Okay. Matthew uses this

language of a troubled king to apply to

Herod and Jerusalem. Same phrasiology.

Nebuchadnezzar is troubled. The Hebrew

reader knows. He's been reading book and

he's going to remember ah a troubled

king troubled power.

His spirit was troubled and his sleep

left him. Then the king commanded that

all the magicians, the magi, the

enchanters, the sorcers, and the

calaldans be summoned to tell the king

his dreams. So they came in and stood

before the king. And the king said to

them, "I had a dream and my spirit is

troubled again, troubled to know the

dream." Then the cow said to the king in

Aramaic, "Oh king, live forever. Tell

your servants the dream and we will show

the interpretation."

So it's like, "Hey, we We can do this.

We have books. We look to dream

interpretation manuals. Just tell us the

dream. We'll give you the

interpretation. No problem. We do this

all the time.

The king answered and said to the

cowians, "The word for me is firm. If

you do not make known to me the dream

and its interpretation, you shall be

torn limb from limb, and your houses

shall be laid in ruins." Oh, see James.

Your house shall be made of don.

But if you show the dream and its

interpretation, you shall receive from

me. gifts and rewards and great honor.

Therefore, show me the dream and its

interpretation. They answered the second

time and said, "Let the king tell his

servants the dream, and we will show its

interpretation." Interesting. At the end

of the passage, the wise men are warned

in a dream not to return to.

So, words coming up here, trouble, a

troubled king, wise men dream. And so,

what does the king do? He says, "No, no,

I how this works. I give you a dream and

then you give me a plausible explanation

for the dream and then you kind of

revise it when things don't happen the

way you want it to or you tell me

something flattery. I'm not going to

tell you the dream. You tell me the

dream and give me the interpretation. If

you truly have supernatural powers, you

can give me the dream and the

interpretation. This is the perilous

task of the wise men. And if the wise

men cannot fulfill the task, what

happens? the rich from limb to limb and

their houses are made.

The wise men need a savior.

On the other hand, if they forgive

dreams and interpretation, they're given

gifts. What do we see? We see the wise

men bringing gifts to their savior.

Okay. So, there's there's a lot of

common words here between Daniel 2 and

and common themes between Daniel 2 and

Matthew 2.

The king answered and said, "I know with

certainty that you are trying to gain

time, if you see that the word for me is

firm. If you do not make the dream known

to me, there is but one sentence for

you. You have agreed to speak lying and

cleft words before me till the times

change. Therefore, tell me the dream,

and I shall know that you can show me

its interpretation." No magic trick.

Give me the dream. Give me the

interpretation. I'm not playing with

you. Verse 10. The Caldians answered the

king and said, "There's not a man on

earth who can meet the king. For no

great and powerful king is as such the

thing of any magician or enchanter or

Calaldian. The thing that the king has

asked is difficult

and no one can show it to the king

except the god whose dwelling is not

with flesh." We just read at the end of

chapter one, Jesus is God and flesh, the

god man. Very interesting. Because of

this, the king was angry and very

furious and commanded that all the wise

men of Babylon be destroyed. So the

decree went out and the wise men were

about to be killed and they thought

Daniel and his companions to kill them.

So wise man is a wide enough term to

include Daniel and his three friends and

they're all the gone out kill them all.

Right? So Arich,

the uh you read here in verse 14 comes

to Daniel. When Daniel replied with

prudence and discretion to Arioch, the

captain of the king's guard, who had

gone out to kill the wise men of

Babylon, he declared to Arioch the

king's captain. Why is the decree of the

king so urgent? When Arioch made the

matter known to Daniel, Daniel went in

and requested the king to appoint him

that he might show the interpretation to

the king. So Daniel says, "Listen, just

give me a little bit of time to pray

here and I'll give you the

interpretation."

So Daniel went to his house and made the

matter known to Haniah, Ma and Aariah,

Asadra, Meshach, and Abednego, and told

them to seek mercy from the God of

heaven concerning this mystery so that

Daniel and his companions might not be

destroyed with the rest of the wise men

of Babylon. Then the mystery was

revealed to Daniel in a vision of the

night, for Daniel blessed the God of

heaven. I'll tell you uh so oftenimes we

fail when we think the only solution

political solutions when really it's

like usually the worst solution.

Don't get me wrong, there's a place

there's absolutely a place to be engaged

and be involved. If you love your

neighbor, you should be involved, right?

We're called to love our neighbor as

ourselves and when our neighbor is being

oppressed and robbed and murdered.

Christian should be a voice for the

voiceless. We should be we should stand

up for the widow and the orphan. But

Daniel's first plea is not a political

plea here. He He cries out to the God of

heaven.

He prays.

Sometimes we neglect to pray when prayer

is the right thing and we neglect to act

when acting is the right thing. But as

we see, Daniel was a man of prayer and a

man of action and he ends up being a man

of influence. So they cry out to the God

of heaven uh so that they would not be

destroyed. Verse 20, Daniel answered and

said, "Blessed be the name of God

forever and ever, to whom belong wisdom

and might. He times and seasons. He

removes kings and sets up kings. Jesus

is in that seat.

When we talk about the reign of Christ,

Jesus sits in that seat. He removes

kings and he sets up kings.

He gives wisdom to the wise and

knowledge to those who have

understanding. He reveals deep and

hidden things. He knows what is in the

darkness and the light dwells with him.

To you, oh God of my fathers, I give

thanks and praise for you have given me

wisdom and might and Now made known to

me what we ask of you. For you have made

known to us the king matters. So they

bless the God who rules. They know from

where authority comes. They know who

they know who controls the weather. They

know who controls the times. They know

who controls the season. It's the father

and God in heaven. Verse 24. Therefore

Daniel went into whom the king had

appointed to destroy the wise men of

Babylon. See repeated phrase wise men

wise men wise men. There it is.

bring me before the king and I will show

the king the interpretation. The brought

in Daniel before the king and hasted and

said to him, I have found among the

exiles from Judah a man who will make

known to the king interpretation. The

king declared to Daniel whose name was

Belshazzar spoke to you able to make

known to me the dream that I have seen

and its interpretation.

answered the king and said, "No wise

men, enchanters,

magi, magicians,

or astrologers, people that study the

stars, uh, not astronomers, they were

astrologers, but it was all kind of

mixed up back then to show the king the

mystery that the king has asked. But

there is a God in heaven who reveals

mysteries. And he has made known to King

Nebuchadnezzar what will be in the

latter days, your and the visions of

your head as you lay in bed are. So he's

saying you know what wisdom of men

experts can solve this problem. This is

not a matter of expertise or intellect.

This is something that only god can do.

But my god unlike all your pagan gods is

a revealer of mysteries. You know demons

have uh a lot of knowledge a lot of

power to do certain things.

you know, when when people are talking

uh like like I' I've heard the

testimonies of uh witches and u

what do you call them the uh fortune

tellers people like that people people

who

uh tell stories as Christians about

really incredible revelations that they

had from their spirit guide which they

now believe accurately to be demonic

entity and and they could give they

given like I heard a testimony of a

woman I She was on Michael's one time

also on

the other guy with Christian who does

these kind of things. Anyway, she's on

there and she was she was talking about

how she gave an incredible prophecy to

this woman or telling this woman that

she started speaking as if her dead

brother who was was murdered and started

giving her details of the murder that no

human being could know. She never met

the woman in her life and the woman

became like enraged over it. How how did

the demon know that? Because it was past

and the demon knew about this woman and

what had happened to her. Demons can see

and recount facts as they have been, but

the demons don't know the future. They

may be able to guess kind of like we're

able to guess and sometimes we get it

right. Sometimes we get it wrong. But

but demons don't actually know the

future because they're not in control.

They they know a lot of things that have

happened. They know things that they

have done and and sometimes they can

manipulate and do things in the

immediate future. But demons don't have

knowledge of the future in the same way

that God God knows the end from the

beginning. And so, uh, it's not in the

power of these magicians or or those

demon spirit guides to tell the king

what's going to happen. But God knows

and God is a revealer of mysteries.

Notice that word reveals. This is a a

key word. And he says he's going to

reveal to you what will happen in the

latter days. Now, some translations will

say last days, which is a phrase that

means later on. Doesn't necessarily mean

at the end of time. It just means later

on. These are things that are going to

happen in the future.

and latter days. He uses this word

multiple times in verse 29. So you king

as you laid in bed thought of what would

be after this. And he who reveals

mysteries made known to you what is to

be. But as for me this mystery has been

revealed to me not because of any wisdom

that I have bore more than all the

living but in order that the

interpretation may be known to the king

and that you may know the thoughts of

your mind. The word apocalypse that we

the book of revelation means unveiling

and in that same like like in the Greek

translation here it's a it's a variety

of that word I believe I studied that in

the past that it is the word basically

apocalypse is used in the verb form

revealed revealed revealed God is

unveiling to you what is going to happen

in the coming centuries from now till

the coming of we will say Christ and

therefore it's going to provide a

timeline you have a timeline wise men

could watch the timeline until the

coming of the kingdom of God.

He said, "You saw, oh king, and behold,

a great image. This image, mighty and

exceeding brightness, stood before you,

and its appearance was frightening. The

head of this image was of fine gold. Its

chest and arms were of silver, its

middle and thighs of bronze, its legs of

iron, its feet partly of iron and partly

of clay. As you looked, a stone was cut

out by no human hand and it struck the

image on his feet of iron and clay and

broke them into pieces. So he sees this

thing. He sees this image and he's not

this is the stone dream. He's not

telling the interpretation but this the

stone is cut out without hand

and the image on the broken piece. Then

the iron the clay the The silver and the

gold all together were broken in pieces

and became like the chaff of the summer

threshing floors and the wind carried

them away so that not a trace of them

could be found that the stone that

struck the image became a great mountain

and filled the whole earth. This was the

dream. Now we will tell the king

interpretation since these kingdoms that

had been heavy substances become like

chest. You know when you take wheat and

you beat it with the stick the grain of

wheat separate from the you can take it

and on a windy day or you can have a guy

stand there with a fan and you can throw

the grain up in the air and the wind

will blow the lighter chaff into one

pile and the grain will fall into

another pile so that you can gather the

grain up into your barn and then you can

burn the chaff. John the Baptist will

say for the king heaven is at hand. It's

right here right here. Come up here. And

he will use the imagery of the Messiah's

coming and his hand is in his hand and

he will thoroughly clean his and the

chaff will burn with unquenchable fire

and the grain will gather to his barn.

That imagery is taken in part from this

dream and other places like Psalm one

and little places that speak of the

wicked being like death. But this

judgment language that says the Messiah

has come. He's going to separate the

righteous from the ungodly, the wheat

from the chaff. He's going to burn the

fire. He's going to gather the righteous

unto himself. That's the imagery being

used here. But now he's dealing with

kingdoms. These kingdoms become his

chap. And what happens to the stone?

It became a great mountain

and it fills the whole earth.

Now what's the interpretation?

Verse 37. You, oh king of the king, to

whom the God of heaven has given the

kingdom. Where does your kingdom come

from?

comes from God. He gave it to you.

You're pagan and he uses you as he sees

fit. He's given the kingdom, the power

and the might and the glory. And into

whose hand he has been has given

wherever they dwell the children of man,

the field, and the birds of heaven,

making you rule over them all. You are

the head of gold. Okay? So, you saw this

image. The head was of gold. He was not

even going to enter you and your

kingdom. In other words, is that head of

gold.

you're you're at the beginning of the

timeline, which logically means that

what comes after comes after you. And so

he says that here, verse 39, another

kingdom, inferior king, shall rise after

you. And yet a third kingdom of bronze,

which shall rule over all the earth, and

there shall be a fourth kingdom, strong

as iron, because iron breaks to pieces

and shatters all things. And like iron

that crushes, it shall break and crush

all these. So we're told the timeline,

Babylon is the head of gold. A kingdom

that is inferior to you. Meaning at

present that kingdom is under your

authority. It's it's inferior to you. I

don't think it means that the quality of

the kingdom is necessarily going to be a

worse kingdom because it's actually

going to last longer. The Persian

Empire, but uh but right now they're

inferior to you. They're under you.

They're going this not Nebuchadnezzar

would want to hear one of your subject

kingdoms is going to take your place.

That's what Daniel's telling him very

forthrightly. No reason to lie about

that. He's telling him something he

doesn't want to hear. But the the the

next kingdom, the silver kingdom, would

be media Persia because it was all about

gold. It fit his kingdom very well.

Media Persia used silver currency used

to market the silver currency to gain

power to buy people off. Um and then

after that comes the kingdom of bronze.

Heroditus refers to the armies of

Alexander the Great who conquered the

Persians. conquered them cloud in bronze

said they were cloud and bronze. It was

a bronze empire. Bronze was the metal

that Alexander used. Uh it was it was

superior. It didn't rust like like like

iron does. Um it's an alloy of tin and

nine parts tin and one part copper. So

it has it has strength. It's less likely

to rust. Uh and his army was cloud in

bronze. And then after that comes the

iron kingdom.

the Romans defeated the Greeks and uh at

the time they they didn't have an

emperor yet but uh but shortly

thereafter the empire rises you got the

iron and clay now what what happens

there is like like iron it crushes it

shall break and crush all of these it

just it ruled it it ruled it defeated

all the Persians all the Babylonians

they were all subjected to Rome

and as we saw the feet and toes partly

potter's clay and partly of iron, it

shall be a divided kingdom. But some of

the firmness of iron shall be in it. But

as you saw iron mixed with the soft

clay, and as the toes of the feet were

partly iron and partly clay, so the

kingdom shall be partly strong and

partly brittle. As you saw, the iron

mixed with soft clay, so they will mix

with one another in marriage, but they

will not hold together just as iron does

not mix with clay. So this this Roman

Empire would be Roman Republic would be

succeeded by the Roman Empire. It's very

interesting that Octavian after Julius

Caesar dies Octavian gives his sister to

Mark Anthony to be his wife. Mark

Anthony goes down to Cleopatra who

already had a son with Julius Caesar and

he breaks he divorces his wife sister of

Octavian and and starts shacking up with

Cleopatra and Octaven said that's an act

of war and they go to war with each

other that's interesting that that right

after that is when Herod comes Octaven

said I was I was loyal to Mark Anthony

I'll be loyal to you and so it really

very accurately at that time there's all

these alliances being formed in Rome

They're like iron and clay. But Rome

Rome as an empire is full of civil war.

This entire history there's just one one

successor fighting with another

successor and each one sending the other

one's a usurper and finally killing

them. And I mean that goes on for for

for the Roman Empire's history. There's

constant civil wars. Most of their most

of their emperors died by unnatural

causes like murder. Uh, in fact, I think

up to the time of um I mean it's it's

thought that most of these emperors over

in Octavia, they ended up dying by

assassination plots in one way or

another or by suicide. And so it it's a

union. It's a union of power, but

there's a lot of division. There's a lot

of civil war. I think that describes

Rome very well. And so what happens

next? In the days of those kings, what

kings? Not Babylon, not Persia, not

Greece, not the Roman Republic, but in

the days of those kings, the days of the

empire. All right? Heaven will set up a

kingdom that shall never be destroyed.

And the days of those kings in the first

century, not at the end of time. The

feet are not separated from the body.

There's no 2,000 year gap here. that the

feet are iron and clay connected to the

iron legs in the days of those kings.

The God of heaven will set up a kingdom

that shall never be joy. Nor shall the

kingdom be left to another people. It

shall break in pieces all these kingdoms

and bring them to an end. and it shall

stand forever just as you saw that the

stone was cut out from the mountain by

no human hand that it broke in pieces

the iron the clay uh the iron the bronze

the clay the silver and the gold a great

god is made known to the king what shall

be after this the dream is certain and

it interpretation sure you can think on

it it's going to happen

Nebuchadnezzar fell upon his face

falls down and worship and paid homage

to Daniel

and commanded there an offering an

infant be offered up to him. So he

worshiped Daniel. He's pagan. He doesn't

know any better. The king answered and

said to Daniel, "Truly your God is a God

of God and Lord of kings." You hear that

language, King of Kings and Lord of

Lords and a revealer, a mystery.

for you have been able to reveal this

mystery. Then the king gave Daniel high

honors and many great gifts and made him

ruler over the whole province of Babylon

and chief prefect over all the wise men

of Babylon.

Daniel made a request of the king and he

appointed Shadrach, Meshach, and

Abednego over the affairs of the

province of Babylon. But Daniel remained

in the king's court.

So Daniel is a savior to the wise men.

Of course, the wise men were scheduled

to be executed. The Arch, the captain of

the guard, had already been sent out to

kill them all.

And Daniel by the God in heaven gives

the dream and the interpretation. And

these wise men, what do you think they

thought about this?

Oh, thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. How did

you do this? How did you do this? How

did you know? Do you think some of them

became believers? I I think so.

Some of them later on there, you know,

the the uh the wise men were were kind

of like

kind of like Nazi scientists after World

War II. Have you ever heard of Operation

Pap

after World War II? a bunch of the Nazi

scientists von Braum different people

they said you know these people done

some real damage but we can't kill them

because they know too much they're too

useful they are useful knowledge they

know they know how rockets work they

know how some people think UFOs work I

mean there's different theories about

where different technologies come from I

don't know about all that but it is an

absolute fact that the most brilliant of

the N scientist was kept either by

Soviet Union or by the United

because they they do too much. The wise

men would be when the Persians come in

and conquer the Babylonians, they say,

"Give us your intellectual. We want to

use them." Right? They stick around. So,

they stick around to the Babylonian

Empire, the Persian Empire, the Greek

Empire. You don't get rid of your, you

know, your 152 IQ. You keep them around.

And so, uh, kept coming up and they

watch and they read over the next

400 something years and they see Daniel

prophecies coming place. Now there's all

kinds of prophecies in the book of

Daniel. There's multiple timelines. I'm

only going into this one. One of them my

favorite one is Daniel 7.

One like the son of man comes up to the

end of days to receive a kingdom that

all peoples and nations and tongues

should worship and serve him. What do

the wise men do when they come to Jesus?

They bow down and they worship him. They

worship him because he is the divine

king they have been waiting for and they

watch. All right, let's go back and read

verse one again. Back in Matthew chapter

one says now after Jesus was born in

Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod

the king. Behold wise men from the east

came to Jerusalem saying where is he who

has been born king of the Jews? For we

saw his star when it rose and had come

to worship him. His star. What are you

talking about? Well, this is debated.

I've heard a very very interesting

theory that deals with constellations. I

don't think I'm sold on the idea but

it's very interesting. Michael talked

about it and uh supposedly BC which

sounds a little off by a couple years

because I've been told

but anyway

that that uh that the constellation the

Virgo which is the Virgin above her was

Leo the lion was the star and Saturn

which is like the king stars and they

all line up in a very particular way. So

you got this this combination of virgin

and of the tribe of Judah and Virgo. And

it all lined up on a particular day like

a like a few like like 23 minutes on

September 11th, which was Roshana, the

head of the year, the the Yumua, the day

of blasting in 3 BC. They all line up at

a very particular time and that ancients

understood this as the king from the

tribe of Judah has come of the virgin.

There's this excellent theory about it.

You can Google it. I don't know if

that's right or wrong. are a whole lot

of interesting things that seem kind of

beyond coincidental except for the time

indicators unless scholars are wrong

about when Hera died. But uh it's

interesting because Roashana is the day

of the year when began to rain on

Roashana was the official beginning date

of the rain and that's when the star

appeared on September 11th the beginning

of the piece of tabernacles when the

word was made flesh and tabernacled

among us. There's all kinds of

interesting things to go into, but in

any case, there was something about a

star that these magi recognized in

heaven and it led them to a place. It

led them to initially the capital of

Judea, Jerusalem. That's where you

expect the king to be born. They saw his

star arrive. So, they have Daniel's

prophecy laying out the time sequence

and they have a star that in some way is

pointing at Jerusalem, pointing at

Israel. Where is this concept of the

star that they would have gotten? Daniel

doesn't mention the star. Where's the

star? Well, they also would have had the

books that Daniel had. They would have

had the Torah. They would have had the

five books of Moses. And there's a

prophecy, a messianic talk about a star

and a book of numbers. This guy, a

gentile named Bum makes this prophecy.

And here what he says in Numbers 24 15

to 19. He says, "And he took up his

discourse and said, the oracle The son

of the oracle of the man whose eye is

opened. The oracle of him who hears the

words of God and knows the knowledge of

the high who sees the vision of the

almighty falling down with his eyes

uncovered. I see him not. I behold him

but not me. A star shall come out of

Jacob. A spectre shall rise out of

Israel. It shall crush the forehead of

Moab and break down all the sons of

Shef. Edom where Herod came from shall

be dispossessed. Fear the capital of

Edom.

Fear also his enemies shall be

dispossessed. Israel is doing valiantly.

And one from Jacob shall exercise

dominion and destroy the survivors of

the city.

star rising in Jacob dispossessing the

Edomite.

That's that's the kind of picture that

these wise men were reading. We see this

come good news.

Good news for Herod.

Verse three. When Herod the king heard

this, he was troubled. Now you see why

he's troubled. And Jerusalem with him

and assembling the chief priests

described to the people inquire of them

where the Christ was to be born. He

assembled describes the chief priest.

What is he doing? He's assembling the

wise men.

I'm just making a thematic contextual

association of Daniel 2 and Matthew 2. a

lot of things. I think the original

reader would have saw all that and he

wants to know from our holy books where

is the Christ not a Christ the Christ

was to be born.

They told him in Bethlehem of Judea for

so it is written by the prophet and you

oh Bethlehem and the land of Judah are

by no means least among the rulers of

Judah for from you shall come a ruler

who will shepherd my people Israel. Now,

this is found in in Micah. I'll look at

that in a second. And notice he's going

to be a ruler who shepherds my people

Israel. Now, Bethlehem was the hometown

of a shepherd boy named David who was

taken from ruling over the sheep to rule

over his people Israel. So, this is very

after David. This is written uh Micah

was a contemporary with Isaiah and

Hosea. And it was about the time Assyria

was invading the north. Michael was

prophesying to the north and to the

south. And here's this thing that out of

Bethlehem will come the one who will be

a leader

who will shepherd my people Israel. He

said I am the good

who gives his life to the people. He is

the ruler, the star, the

stone cut out without hands of his

kingdom. Here I want to show you though

a little richness we get from Micah

itself. Another detail that Matthew

doesn't give us. But you, oh Bethlehem,

who are too little to be among the clans

of Judah, from you shall come forth for

me one to be ruler Israel, whose coming

forth is from of old, from ancient days.

There's different ways to translate this

word that they put ancient days. Um, but

is a word for eternity

all over the world. In fact, when Hebrew

blessings, they always make the

blessings to

the kingdom.

the king of the universe. That's the

word used here for ancient day. So the

LSB when they translated it kind of the

same thing with King James version and

NASB they all emphasize his going forth

is from everlasting

from the ancient days. Everlasting.

What's the point here? The point is that

in the Hebrew it's very clear that that

even though he's going to be born in at

Bethlehem he's been he's going forth is

from everlasting from eternity. So he's

going to be born a child but there's

something about him that's eternal

something everlasting is going to be

born to the Virgin Mary. He is as we

said last week the God man Emmanuel God

with us. His going forth is from

everlasting but now a child in a manger

born to Mary and at the time of Matthew

2 living in a house

in Bethlehem.

Then Herod summoned the wise men

secretly and asked 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. Notice

Nebuchadnezzar he bows down and worships

Daniel. Oh I want to worship this king.

I'm so excited to live for the king.

Verse 9. After listening to the king,

they went on their way, and behold, the

star that they had seen when it rose

went before them until they came to rest

over the place where the child was. When

they saw the star, they rejoiced

exceedingly with great joy. Something

about the star

visibly moved from Jerusalem

to Bethlehem, which is about four miles

away. It's not a great distance.

walked

four miles away. It's not far David's

hometown. And I don't know that I buy

the horoscope. As interesting as it is,

if Herod died in 4 BC, it seems like

Herod is want to know when thinking

maybe the child was born earlier.

Doesn't mean that he was could have been

very shortly after the birth of Christ.

I think there's some evidence that it

was. Um, but there's also a theory that

the child is two years old, which would

make Jesus like 35 at the time of his

death and not 33. So, or yeah, 33. So, I

don't I don't know about all that, but

they're astrologers.

They watch stars and it leads them to

Jesus. We know that because the text

says

and going into the house they saw the

child with Mary's mother and they fell

down and worshiped him. Then opening

their treasures they offered him gold

gifts gold and frankincense and being

warned in dream not to return to Herod

they departed to their own country by

another way. They warned in a dream

was warned in a dream. They are dream

interpreters. One more point of contact

with Daniel chapter 2. I believe that if

Daniel 2 · chapter mention

we read Matthew 2 without reading Daniel

2, we're missing essential cont.

Well, here's the thing. The Bible was

written for us. It wasn't written to us.

It was written to an original audience,

an audience that read the Tanakh.

And they were extremely acquainted with

the book of Daniel. And they were

acquainted with the Torah. acquainted

with the prophets. And so Matthew, as we

go through Matthew, he's constantly

bringing in the Old Testament. He's

quoting Old Testament prophets. He's

quoting Micah. He's quoting Isaiah. He's

quoting he's making illusions to the

narrative. And sometimes it's not

obvious in the text because audience is

kind of cumbersome. Every time he's

explaining every little detail of

nuance, he expected his audience to pick

up on it. So when we read it, here's

here's the beauty of it. I said last

I'll say it again. The main things are

the plain things. We can dip in this

text and say Jesus is the God's king and

we should worship him. That's a right

interpretation.

And we can dig deeper and we can look at

the lens of the Old Testament and we get

a little bit more of what the original

audience also would have picked up. And

that's that's what we ran on here. Very

simple though is that wise men worship

Jesus and wise men bring in gifts and

wise men fear God and not man. We can

pick up those things very easily. They

were warned in a dream don't go back to

go home another way. And so they did.

And so what's our pro what's the proper

response of wise men? One is

we also should bow, surrender and

worship the king.

Without Christ, your life

is an utter failure.

You can you can retire a billionaire and

live.

You can be set in

beautiful

president United States be a billionaire

saving the world.

But if you don't have Christ much more

man

without Christ your life

your life will not have meaning. Now I'm

not saying following Christ will make

your life easy. It may get a lot harder

because

was troubled by the coming of Jesus and

by the ones bringing the message of

Jesus.

If the wise men would have gone back to

Herod, Herod would have killed them

because they knew who the king was. He

would have killed them and he probably

would have killed and he would have

sought to kill the child finding out

where he was at.

So when you sign up to be a Christian,

you're signing up for a fight.

When you align yourself with Christ,

you're you're you're already in a war.

for the hearts and the minds of men and

women, children.

To be a Christian brings you in conflict

with the unseen cosmic powers and with

the seen powers that reject the

authority of the Lord Jesus Christ. It

brings conflict. If you start living

your life by the word of God, your

family will say, "You've joined a cult.

You're strange. Your children are going

to turn out weird.

Why can't you do what the rest of us do?

Why can't you just go along? Why can't

you just get in line?

Wear the stupid mask and shut up.

But we as wise men are to bow,

surrender, and worship him only shall

we.

Second thing is they give him gifts. I

think it's so interesting.

Nebuchadnezzar said to them, "If you can

give me the dream of tribulation, I'll

give you gifts." God does give us many

great wonderful gifts. It should be our

desire to give them right back to them.

Our relationship,

our treasure,

the days of our life, our health. Some

people want to try to con

children will say, "Ah, I want to enjoy

them in my youth. When I get old, I I'll

just say a prayer and I I'll get I'll

get to go to heaven, but I can enjoy

life, too.

How smart God are you? I believe on the

absolutely why do you want to waste your

life of your life to the devil to give

God the less

he gave you every gift you have

your health or the dream you have it is

a gift from God your relationships your

family your children your friendship how

can you say oh yeah but if I follow

Jesus my my my friends or my boyfriend

my girlfriend won't follow I'm reminded

of a story of piano player

used to come to church many years ago.

None of you knew her. Nobody in this

room knew her. Name was Joy Walker. Boy,

she was a joyful woman. And uh when she

was a young girl, she was probably up in

the 80s at the time in the 90s. When she

was when she was a girl, uh her her kind

of adopted parents were an evangelist in

life. And they they used to preach all

over the south and everywhere. I

remember it was just the south. It was

all over the place. And one day um The

famous Bonnie from Bonnie and Clyde came

into the tent meeting and the story is

that Bonnie is the story she told me

that the cell heroped Christian mother

had told her Bonnie was

convicted

by the hearing of the gospel of Jesus

and itself

And the evangelist's wife was talking

with her seren

right now. God's not ready to follow

Jesus. And it was just a couple weeks

later they were both stop the

read the book and here stop the pieces

in a car running from the

time the call was given.

She didn't want to bow.

She died a death and is most reasonably

in hell.

She didn't want to give it back to God.

She wanted to give it back to Christ.

Wise men bow and worship the king. Wise

men give him their life, the treasures,

the relationships, the hopes, the

dreams. They surrender and repentance.

And wise men fear God and not man. Jesus

said, "Do not fear him destroy the

do nothing but fear him body and soul

fear God.

Don't waste your life.

Jesus is king. Now there's debate over

uh whether or not the king of God has

made a difference in the world. I read

history and I think no doubt it has.

Wherever the gospel grows,

Christianity goes with it.

learning literature goes with it,

science goes with it, people wanting to

solve problems and leave the world a

better place. I think a person can be a

better place. I I urge you to make your

life mission in some way to make the

world better than for you not having

been here by allowing Christ by

surrendering and having Christ for you.

You can do it in any way. You can say,

"I want to bring the kingdom of God to

bear in my place of employment, in my

neighborhood, in my community. God, use

me. I want to give my life back to you.

I want to lay it at your feet in Jesus."

Christianity want the world just wants

to live live up pleasure for the moment.

You know, if we're not here, we're

spending our kids inheritance.

The Christian wants to glorify God and

their family, the work.

their lives.

Leave the world a better place than they

found. Let us pray. Father, we thank

you, oh God, that you are the king. You

are our savior.

You are our savior. You came to save us

from the sentence of death. Came to bear

our sins in your own body.

And Lord, it is our pleasure to give our

lives to you, to worship you, to serve

you. God, I pray Lord today that you

would inspire in the hearts of your

people a desire not just to live with

pleasure and lift, but God there would

be a desire in this place in this house

to live for you with all of our hearts

and minds.