Day 3

Chase: Hello and welcome to the Point Church Podcast. We're really glad you're here. Before we jump in, if you'd like to stay connected, you can download the Point Church app. It's a simple way to find messages, resource, and what's happening. And if this podcast is helpful, take a moment to like, subscribe, and share. You can find us on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Amazon Music. Let's get into today's episode. Hello everyone. Welcome back to our day three of our Lent series of forty days, forty podcast. ⁓ or pick it up where we left off with Pastor Sam ⁓ and Matthew, and we're gonna be starting in chapter two. So this is where it's starting to get real interesting if it wasn't interesting already. ⁓ picking up in chapter two, verse one, it reads After Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of King Herod, wise men from the east arrived in Jerusalem. Saying, Where is he who was who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star at its rising and have come to worship him. So I want to pause there and ask you, right? If you're reading this, first off, who's King Herod? Yeah. Why is he important? Yeah. Who are these wise men? And who are they talking to? Yeah. So ⁓ King Herod is the ⁓ king. of the Jews. He's not really a true king of the Jews. It's a little bit of a complicated political backstory. But the short version is Israel at this time is under Roman occupation. And the way the Romans worked is they always held the strings, you know, like they were always you you lived under Roman law, but they would do their best to, you know, set up someone to help oversee the people. Someone who would work with Rome and keep a tight you know, fist on them. So King Herod got his power from being in league with Rome. ⁓ he was known as a builder. Like he built a lot of the infrastructure around Jerusalem and overall in Israel. ⁓ one of his most famous projects is the rebuilding of the temple. So that's why 'cause after the exile, the temple gets burned down. You've probably seen photos of it. There's still part of it that's left ⁓ in Israel, but he rebuilt that and it was ⁓ being built during Jesus' lifetime. So He's the king of the Jews. ⁓ he's in Jerusalem, which is the capital of the area of Israel. ⁓ the wise men we don't know where they're from. I think it's intentionally vague actually, that ⁓ again is indicating that God is expanding the people who he's bringing to himself through Jesus, that these are just people from the East. So they're not people these are not Israelites, these are outsiders, these are Gentiles who up to this point had not been involved in the story of scripture in many ways, but now they're like we we are faithful to however they discovered who God was. We're here to worship this king. We've been somehow they've been told there is a king of the Jews, and even though we're not Jewish, we're here to worship him. Yeah. So that's that's I think and then who who they're talking to is Herod and his court. So they're in his court right now that's kind of the setting of it. Right. And do you know like why they were called wise men? Or anything? Or is it just like a name? I probably I think it's well the original is Magi. So it's like a title. We could probably guess there are like aristocrats of some sort, but probably people who just Yeah. Study the stars at the very least. But again, ⁓ people who were religious, who were aware of the Jewish faith, that something was happening for whatever reason that they saw. Yeah. It almost reminds me of in Acts, ⁓ the story of the Ethiopian eunuch. Yeah. Someone who's not Jewish but travels all the way to Jerusalem to worship God. And it it seems similar to that. Someone outside of the faith but is intrigued and wants to come and worship this God. So adding on to Jesus' importance of his lineage and mom his mom's Joseph and Holy Spirit. It's adding on to that. And it's not just the insiders. It's again the outsiders. Like it's That's what you're seeing throughout this. Yeah. Poor woman, ⁓ you know, ⁓ a man who's royal but is clearly not sitting on the throne, like Joseph's not on the throne. Herod is ⁓ you see people who are not of ⁓ Jewish descent who are coming to worship him, they're the first ones to worship him after his own parents. So like again, it's it's a Gentile. And then he goes to the person who should have been the most excited for the savior of the Jews, and he is the king of You'll see in a minute is not very happy with it. Yeah, because continuing on in verse three, it says when King Herod heard this, he was deeply disturbed and all Jerusalem with him. Mm-hmm. So he assembled all the chief priests and scribes of the people and asked them where the Messiah would be born. Yeah. So, like right there, it's showing us that he didn't he's not happy. And it's not just him. No. It's all of Jerusalem. Yes. So this gets out to all of Jerusalem, not just to him. So like Yeah. And again, that could be somewhat of like a literary device. Okay. Like when we say like you're getting on my last nerve, it's not like you're actually holding a nerve ending. It might be a way of saying those in power. Yeah. Because, you know, Jerusalem was the seat of power. So those who had the seat of power within the seat of power who were in the court were like all of Jerusalem. What does it mean like every it probably doesn't mean like every slave and peasant ⁓ is being asked? about this. Yeah. You know, it's it's like those with power were disturbed by this new baby. Wow. Yeah. And so when he says he assembles all the chief priests and scribes, when someone looks at that and sees a chief priest, what what does that mean? so a chief priest was the intercessor between God and the people of God. The chief priest was the one who would ⁓ one day a year would go into the temple ⁓ go into a specific part of the temple that was called the holy of holies. It was like the hotbed of God's presence. And you were only allowed in one day a year and it was only the chief priest who could go in. And it ⁓ comes to us from first high priest was Aaron, Moses' brother, who was an intercessor for the people. On behalf of the people, God, we are sorry. On behalf of the people, God, we have sinned and would you forgive us? So that's the chief priest's job. Is to represent the people of God to God Himself. And he could only go in on one day ⁓ a year to do that. And ⁓ so he has a lot of power. It had unfortunately become ⁓ corrupted. Again, it depends on who the chief priest is, but like a lot of power comes with this, there's wealth that comes with this. So you can already imagine that if Herod has such quick access to this chief priest, but he's working with the Romans. You know what I'm saying? Like there's a lot of human element in here where they're like, Well, we don't want to lose our power. We don't want to lose our authority. And and you see that's why Jesus always upset the high priests and he always is upsetting like the Pharisees and the Sadducees because they saw their position gave them power. Yeah. 'Cause with that too, just so we can help people if they're looking at that word scribes, yeah. Just really means writers. 'Cause it's not like everyone was literate back then. So it's like someone who would not only scribe it because think of like a li a librarian. Yeah. Quickly search the scroll. Hey, what have we read about Isaiah? What have you read about Malachi? Yeah. Now verse five, it says, And Bethlehem of Judea, they told him, Because this is what was written by the prophet. So we're going into that prophet again. Yep. And you and in this is what it says, and you, Bethlehem, and the land of Judea are by no means least among the rulers of Judea, because out of you will come a ruler. Who will shepherd my people, Israel? Yep. So with that, let's stop there for a second on verse six. Who is this? Because again, we're seeing that we just saw this in the last of chapter one. Now we're seeing it again with another prophet saying, you know, this is what's gonna happen, and it is happening. So who is this prophet they're talking about? So it's interesting. Verse six is actually two ⁓ verses being pushed together from the old testament. So the first one is, and you Bethlehem in the land of Judah are by no means least among the rulers of Judah. So like that comes to us from Micah chapter five. Micah, again, an Old Testament prophet during ⁓ same time period as Isaiah was saying, you know, the the Messiah, one of the marks of the Savior, how you'll recognize them is where they'll be born and they'll be born in Bethlehem and And ⁓ but then it says, Because out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people, Israel. That actually is part of the coronation ceremony of King David, who wasn't the first king of Israel, but he was the best king of Israel. He was the second one. And so again, you see David popping up because it's ⁓ second Samuel chapter five where all of the tribes of Israel come together after this bloody civil war. Again, the old testament's awesome, but it's you know, it was a lot of battle, a lot of war. And they're like, okay, we're done fighting. We're done. We're we want to shepherd, and you're the most qualified to do it because you're the man after God's own heart and we want to crown you king. Would you shepherd the people of Israel as if you were God shepherding us? And so this is the same language being used to describe Jesus is he's gonna take all these scattered people. He's gonna build a bigger kingdom than David ever did. A more war-torn, bloodied people of the entire world. He's like, I will shepherd these people. That's amazing. So that that's alluding to Jesus. Yeah. Yeah. And so it just further shows that all of these prophets are pointing right to the story that we're in right now. Because it continues on in verse seven. Then Herod secretly summoned the wise men. And asked them the exact time the star appeared. Yes. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, Go and search carefully for the child. When you find him, report back to me so that I can go and worship him. He was not going to worship. He was going to war with that baby. ⁓ so this is a interesting thing that we kind of get wrong in the telling on the Christmas story, because when we think about the Christmas story, we think about the manger And there's always a donkey and like sometimes a pony and like sheep, and then there's the shepherds, you know, that the angel told, and then of course Mary and Joseph, and there's a little baby Jesus who's like in the manger, but the wise men are not there because what it says is tell me the exact time the star appeared. And when you have to find that is in Luke. Luke tells about the star appearing, it appeared on ⁓ the day of Jesus' birth, but it's not like they were next door. These wise men traveled a great distance. They did not have cars. No. It's an unspecified distance and an unspecified period of time. Now what most people speculate is it took about two years. so and we're going to talk about it, I think, tomorrow or the next set part of this chapter for ⁓ the massacre that happens because he's not looking necessarily for an infant. He's looking for Two or three-year-old child potentially. So, ⁓ but he sends them to Bethlehem. Yeah. Because he thinks they live in Bethlehem. But again, if you read Luke, which as you continue in your reading in the Bible, you'll see they have to go to Bethlehem to register for the census, but they don't live there. No. So, you know, if you were from Dayton, but you live in Cincinnati for the ⁓ census, you have to go back to Dayton, and then you just happen to have a a child in Miami Valley Hospital. Yeah. But you move back to Cincinnati after you can, like after a week or so and you're discharged from the hospital. That's how we have think about birth of Jesus. So ⁓ not saying Jesus is leaving Dayton or anything like that. But like so they go looking for Bethlehem 'cause the prophet was telling the truth where he'd be born, but not where he would live. Yeah. So that again, how God's in plain sight, but also like somewhat eluding. Yeah. Yeah. Like he's dodging These powers that be that would do great harm to the child. Yeah. To Jesus. So far. Yeah. And so pick it up in verse nine says, After hearing the king, they went on their way. And there it was, the star they had seen at its rising, and led them until it came and stopped above the place where the child was. Mm-hmm. So right there where it says where the child was, what what is that saying that the Jesus was right there and like the star showed him or Yeah, I think ⁓ so like I have this timeline here, I wanna pull it up because I just don't want to get it wrong. But so Jesus is born. If you this is this comes from layering to piece together Jesus' childhood is a little tricky because you have to look at all four biographies and they all hit different elements. Yeah. So Mark doesn't give you anything on his childhood. John goes all the way back to like the beginning. ⁓ Matthew Luke are the most helpful. So it's like Jesus is born, and then it says eight days later, this is just putting all the time on together. Eight days later is when he's given his name and circumcised based on Jewish custom, which meant he had to go to Jerusalem. So he's born in Bethlehem, but you had to get circumcised in Jerusalem and that's when you were named and dedicated and followed through on ⁓ you know the custom. That's when you run into ⁓ You run into people who are like, I'm blanking on the name, this is terrible. But basically there's a man who had been living in the temple, waiting until the deliverer to be born, and he says this child will cause the fall and rising of many in Israel. And then so this is at eight days. So they're in Jerusalem at eight days. Then ⁓ name to circumcised that's at the temple on the forty days. But then they're they're not gonna go back to the manger. They're not gonna go back to The end they're gonna go home. Like so they're going to Nazareth. Then it says about two years later is when the magi show up. Now it prophesied Bethlehem. So I what people speculate, and again, a lot of this is ⁓ doing our best to put the pieces together. Yeah. They went to Bethlehem, but the star wasn't quite over it, but the star was over Nazareth, because that's where they were before. So they go to Nazareth, and there it's about two years old. And then the next big milestone is what we'll talk about next is when they have to leave Nazareth because Herod wants the child killed. Yeah. Because in verse ten it says when they saw the star, they were overwhelmed with joy. Entering the house, they saw the child with Mary as mother. I think you even say a house. No one it's not called an inn or a manger. It's a house. So they're in their house. Like again, we're they're in Jesus' house. They're in And they and falling to their knees, they worshipped him. Mm-hmm. Then they opened their treasure and presented him with gifts gold, frankincense, and myrrh. I think those three things, if you grew up in church, you know those through and through. But You only want one of those gifts if you really grew up you're like, give me the gold. Yeah. I want to know where the gold at. But like you don't want the frankincense or the myrrh. Giving a little kid frankincense. Yeah, exactly. ⁓ But what is the important of those three gifts? Why are like We I remember growing up like always doing plays and the wise men always had one had Frankincense, one had Murr, and like you said, everyone fought over who could have the gold, yeah. Right. But why are those so important? I yeah, like I think in one of our plays the kid called Frankenstein sense. Like so what it is again is each gift is of course representative of something important. Yeah. The first one of gold would have represented, you know, g ⁓ Jesus' royalty. He's the king. Yeah. You give gold to the king. You can even think of it as like taxes. You give your gold to the king. You give, you know, your money, you know, gold to the king. He's royal. He's precious. The next one would have been frankincense. Now, frankincense was used in the offering of prayers. Yeah. Some churches still practice this today. They'll have ⁓ perfume or different ⁓ scents that are getting Spread around the church as the priest walks ⁓ down the aisle to prepare for the message. And this is also used in the book of Revelation, where God is hearing the prayers of the people, and it's like a fine fragrance. It's like it awakens the senses. So what frankincense represented was Jesus as our high priest. So again, he's subverting King Herod. Yeah. with gold. He's subverting frankincense with the high priest. So he's already being like so you again, you can see why they were disturbed. So they're like, wait, new king, new high priest. Yeah. Same person. Like that's a threat to our power. Now Myrrh is ⁓ this is probably gonna be the one that is ⁓ gonna bother Mary the most because Myrrh is not a ⁓ Comfortable gift to receive as a child, ⁓ like at a baby shower, basically, because myrrh was used as an ⁓ like an ointment, but also was used in the like embalming process of a dead body. So myrrh, they talk about adding spices to Jesus' body later on, like after he's taken down off the cross, and most likely myrrh would have been a part of it. So what these men are giving. Mary and Joseph and ultimately to Jesus like you will need all three of these because you're the king, because you're the high priest, and you're the suffering servant. You're the one who's gonna die for us. So they're basically laying out their trajectory of his life. He is a king, he's a high priest, and he's gonna die for the people. Yeah. So like that's why they're worshiping him in this way. Yeah. And why they fall to their knees in worship. In worship. And they seem to have this wisdom. Again, we don't see it in the text specifically. Where it comes from, but they seem to understand who Jesus is. Yeah. Again, revealed from the spirit, maybe an angel, but like they have a deep understanding of who this child is. Yeah. Well, you know that they're in someone we th we believe God is communicating, 'cause then it goes on in that final verse in twelve, and being warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they return to their own country, which is important. Yep. By another route, which is also important. Yeah, but we're not told like before we're told Holy Spirit is the one who gets married pregnant, and then we're told it's an angel to visit Joseph. This one we're not told. They're just they're just told. Yeah. So like we could speculate it's an angel. We can speculate, but it doesn't explicitly say. No. So they go back another route. Again, they have placed their faith in God. They're listening to it. It's probably the same way that they heard about this king of the Jews. Mm-hmm. ⁓ but they go back to their own country. And they avoid King Herod because he wants to do him harm. Now, I do think this is an early, early, early introduction to how Jesus followers are to operate. You come and you worship and then you go back. You go back to your own country, you go back to your own people, you go back to your own family, your own workplace. You take the good news that the king has been born. high priest is here, the suffering servant has been born, and you go back to your people with that good news. You don't just sit and stay inside the church building and huddle up with other people who know that you go and take it with you. Yeah. It's for the whole world. So this is like an introduction to that. Amen. Well we're gonna pick up ⁓ verse thirteen ⁓ tomorrow. So come back then.