- True / False
- True / False
- True / False
- True / False
- True / False
Chief Priests and Scribes
Herod
Which side have you aligned with?
- Jesus is a THREAT, I must eliminate him!
- Jesus is the KING, I must embrace him!
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
-
00:00-00:07
Alright, grab your sermon outline because we are going to take a test.
00:09-00:15
This morning before church, the same Brooke Rhodaberger was like, "You're not doing the Christmas test again, are you?
00:16-00:17
This is an easier version.
00:17-00:20
I remember the multiple choice one I gave.
00:20-00:21
That one was hard.
00:21-00:24
Like I missed a bunch on that one and I was like so ashamed of myself.
00:24-00:30
Like really dude, you've dedicated your life to one book and you don't even know it?" Yeah, that was a long time ago.
00:30-00:34
Okay, so I thought, wouldn't it be fun to take a test, right?
00:35-00:35
All in favor?
00:38-00:39
Pam Campbell and Derek Edwards.
00:42-00:44
Oh, the rest of you are going to love this.
00:47-00:50
All right, we're not going to check your papers.
00:52-00:52
True or false?
00:54-00:55
Number one.
00:57-01:00
The wise men were at the manger when Jesus was born.
01:00-01:01
True or false?
01:04-01:05
Circle it on your paper.
01:07-01:09
Is this how you all take tests at school?
01:12-01:14
Man, I wish I was in your class.
01:19-01:20
Okay, number two.
01:21-01:23
The Bible says there were three wise men.
01:30-01:31
Do you want to shout out the answers?
01:39-01:41
At what point did you lose control?
01:41-01:42
You never really had it.
01:45-01:54
Number three, the wise men rode on camels.
01:59-02:00
Oh, not so sure now, are we?
02:03-02:06
Number four, the wise men were kings.
02:12-02:18
And number five, the wise men were Oriental and Ethiopian.
02:22-02:23
True or false?
02:26-02:27
All right, time to check your papers.
02:28-02:30
Hand it to the person behind you.
02:30-02:31
Remember doing that in school?
02:31-02:33
that now, but do you remember doing that in school?
02:33-02:37
He hands it to the person behind you so they can see how dumb you are.
02:41-02:43
Okay, the answer to all of those questions is false.
02:45-02:46
Did anybody get a perfect score?
02:47-02:49
All right, very good.
02:49-02:51
Very, very, very good.
02:52-02:54
All right, let's review real quick.
02:57-02:59
Were the wise men at the manger when Jesus was born?
03:00-03:03
No, they were not, and you're going to see that in the text this morning.
03:04-03:12
You're like, "But I have this nativity set." I hope you kept the receipt.
03:14-03:15
Maybe you can just return to wise men.
03:16-03:18
The Bible says there were three wise men.
03:19-03:20
That is false.
03:21-03:23
Why do we associate the number three with the wise men?
03:25-03:25
Because of the gifts.
03:27-03:54
on. You know that song, "We Three Kings of Orient Are"? Well, number three, "The wise men rode on camels." True or false? That's false. We don't know what they rode on, but some people, I mean, that's like, that's as surely in the Bible as the doctrine of justification by grace.
03:55-03:55
It's not.
03:57-03:58
What are we on?
03:58-04:02
Number four, "The wise men were kings." Actually that's false.
04:03-04:04
They were not kings.
04:07-04:10
So when you sing "We three kings of Orion" you'll just have to swap another word out.
04:10-04:12
What are we going to swap instead of kings, Bob?
04:12-04:13
What do you want to say?
04:14-04:17
We three… We three guitar players.
04:20-04:21
have seen that one coming.
04:22-04:26
The wise men were Oriental and Ethiopian, the answer to that is false as well.
04:27-04:31
Okay, so we're going to talk about Matthew chapter 2.
04:32-04:38
We're going to be looking at, in my opinion, some of the weirdest people in the Bible, honestly.
04:39-04:53
And you have your nativity set up and you have, okay, God in the flesh and, you know, Mary, and there's Joseph, and then you get the animals, and you probably have some shepherds and an angel that sits on top of the thing.
04:54-04:58
But then you have like these weird guys, right, like the wise men, like who are they?
04:58-05:01
And there are a lot of misconceptions about who they are.
05:03-05:10
And before we get into the text, I want to sort of give you a backdrop on some of the characters that you'll be encountering in the text.
05:12-05:14
That way things will make a lot more sense.
05:14-05:15
So jot these notes down.
05:16-05:23
This is a little 101 here in understanding some of these characters.
05:24-05:26
But first of all, the magi, who were these guys?
05:29-05:31
Well again, they weren't at the manger scene.
05:31-05:40
In Matthew 2, verse 11, it says that they came to Jesus when He was at His house.
05:42-05:49
So they were not, they were not, everybody say they were not, they were not at the manger, okay?
05:50-05:53
Matthew 2:11 says that they came to his house.
05:55-05:56
So who were the magi?
05:56-06:04
They were actually Gentile priests among the Persians and the Medes.
06:06-06:09
They're actually known as advisors to the king.
06:11-06:16
That's why we typically know the Magi, and that's why it's translated in a lot of your Bibles as wise men.
06:17-06:18
They were the king's advisors.
06:21-06:22
They were the scientists.
06:23-06:24
They were the doctors.
06:24-06:25
They were the mathematicians.
06:25-06:27
They were the philosophers.
06:27-06:28
They were the astronomers.
06:30-06:33
They carried some religious beliefs similar to the Jews.
06:33-06:35
They believed that there was one God.
06:35-06:37
They didn't go for idolatry.
06:37-06:42
They believed that light was a symbol for God, and they even believed in blood sacrifices.
06:42-06:48
But on the other hand, they were also involved in sorcery, witchcraft, astrology, and a lot of occultic stuff.
06:51-06:52
But they weren't kings.
06:52-06:57
Actually, the interesting thing about these men is they would have been people who chose the king.
06:58-06:59
Okay?
06:59-07:09
They would have been revered as this council of men with such wisdom that nobody would have become a king without their say-so.
07:12-07:27
So maybe instead of "We Three Kings of Orient Are," we'll change that to "We Nobody Sure How Many Kingpickers of Persia Are." I don't think that's going to fly.
07:29-07:32
So how did they enter the scene here, right?
07:33-07:43
Like we kind of get Israel and Mary and Joseph, we're going to talk about some of the Jewish people in this scenario, but how did these guys get here?
07:43-07:53
Well, when Israel was exiled, many of the Jews ended up living among the Babylonians, the Medes, and the Persians.
07:54-08:02
So these magi, these wise men, would have been very familiar with what Israel was anticipating from the Old Testament.
08:03-08:12
And all throughout the Law and the Prophets, God was promising that His Messiah was going to come, how He was going to show up and where He was going to show up.
08:14-08:16
So these kingmakers would have picked that up from Israel.
08:16-08:20
They would have been very familiar with the Law and the Prophets.
08:22-08:26
Another group of characters we're going to encounter in this scene is the chief priests and the scribes.
08:27-08:29
I'm not going to spend a lot of time talking about them.
08:29-08:40
We've talked a lot about them as we've been going through the Gospel of Mark, but they were the religious elite among the Jews, and they would have known their law and prophets forwards and backwards.
08:42-08:53
But then there's another character that we're going to look at today, and I need to give you a little backdrop so you understand sort of the impact that Matthew is wanting to communicate in sharing this account.
08:54-08:55
Let's talk about Herod.
08:57-09:01
Herod was a really weird guy.
09:04-09:11
Herod built a temple to God, but murdered babies.
09:14-09:21
Herod was a guy who gave generously to strangers, but he killed his own family.
09:22-09:28
He was a guy who rose to power through bribery, and you can -- I'm not going to give you the whole history lesson, but I encourage you to look it up.
09:29-09:30
It is really fascinating.
09:30-09:36
Starting in about 41 BC, he just rose to power through bribery.
09:39-09:50
He was an extremely paranoid man who committed horrible acts of murder, constantly living in fear and suspicion.
09:51-10:05
Herod would actually have spies everywhere, and Herod would disguise himself as a commoner and just mingle with people because he was sure that they were talking about conspiracies against him.
10:10-10:12
Do you want to hear who's on his deadpool?
10:14-10:15
Absolutely crazy.
10:16-10:17
murdered his wife.
10:22-10:29
He murdered his wife and then he murdered her mother, and then he murdered three of his sons, including the oldest.
10:30-10:36
He had his brother-in-law drowned, which he made look like an accident.
10:37-10:38
He murdered his uncle.
10:39-10:41
He murdered his wife's grandfather.
10:41-10:42
He murdered his followers.
10:43-10:44
He murdered his own soldiers.
10:44-10:45
He murdered his friends.
10:49-11:06
This guy was so crazy that when he was advanced in years and about to die, he had this arrangement with his people, "Hey, when I die, I want you to murder this list of prominent Jewish people." Why?
11:07-11:10
Because he wanted people to be crying when he died.
11:11-11:16
And nobody was going to cry because he died, but there would be crying because these important Jewish people died.
11:17-11:18
That's the kind of guy Herod was.
11:22-11:26
Caesar Augustus said it's safer to be Herod's pig than to be Herod's son.
11:28-11:36
And then about 4 BC, he died in Jericho of a terrible disease.
11:36-11:38
He was about 69 years old at the time.
11:40-11:41
All right, so we've got the characters.
11:43-11:44
Let's look at the text.
11:45-11:51
I'm going to read through this and just make some comments as we go through, and then we'll be making some application to wrap up, okay?
11:52-12:23
Matthew chapter 2, it says, "Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of Herod the king," that's the guy we were just talking about, "wise men from the east came to Jerusalem." Okay, so understand, they didn't show up at the manger scene, they actually first showed up in Jerusalem, saying, "Where is he who has been born King of the Jews?
12:23-12:41
For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him." Now the verb tense in verse 2 where it says "saying," that verb tense is continual, meaning this, "They were asking around." So get this scene.
12:41-12:46
Okay, so these kingmakers arrive into town, and people surely noticed, right?
12:47-12:48
And they're asking around, they're going around.
12:49-12:50
"Hey, we're looking for someone.
12:51-12:57
We're looking for the king of the Jews." So creating quite a stir.
13:00-13:03
But to say they were looking for the King of the Jews, well, here's the problem.
13:05-13:06
That was Herod's title.
13:07-13:15
The Roman Senate actually gave Herod the title, "The King of the Jews." Now, I told you what a paranoid guy Herod was, right?
13:16-14:15
So when word got back to Herod that these people had come looking for the King of the Jews, and his title was King of the Jews, how do you think he reacted to that? How do you think he reacted? It'd be like this. It'd be like, "Amanda, somebody shows up at the hospital and walks up to you and they say, 'Excuse me, I'm looking for the dietician,' and you're like, 'That's me,' and they're like, 'No, I'm looking for THE dietitian." And you're like, "That's me!" That's very cute. "I'm looking for THE dietitian." Right? That's what was going on there. You know, imagine somebody showing up at your place of work, or "I'm looking for..." You're like, "That's me!" No, no, no, no. Well, here's the king, and getting word that these people are looking for, somebody that just happens to have their title.
14:17-14:19
Now what's this star that they saw?
14:19-14:24
Actually, in the Old Testament, the word for star literally means something that shines forth.
14:25-14:27
Was it a literal star?
14:29-14:31
Well, we know it wasn't like the sun.
14:33-14:35
What was this star that they saw?
14:35-14:40
What was this shining forth thing, literally, that they saw?
14:40-14:43
I'll draw this reference on Luke chapter 2 verse 9.
14:43-14:49
Do you remember when the angel showed up to the shepherds?
14:49-14:54
The Bible says in Luke 2, 9 that the glory of the Lord shone around them.
14:55-14:58
And I believe that that's what these magi would have seen.
15:01-15:02
We saw this shining thing.
15:02-15:07
I believe what they saw was the glory of the Lord shining forth.
15:11-15:28
So picking up verse 3, it says, "When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled." Look at what Matthew says next, "and all Jerusalem with him." Okay, this word for troubled can also be translated agitated.
15:30-15:32
it means he was shaken up.
15:34-15:38
And you can imagine Herod, he hears about the… "Whoa, whoa, whoa, King of the Jews?
15:39-15:40
Somebody's here looking for the King of the Jews?
15:41-15:44
I'm the King of the Jews!" And it says all of Jerusalem with him.
15:44-15:44
Why?
15:44-15:46
Why was all of Jerusalem stirred up?
15:47-15:54
Because they know when Herod got sideways about something, people were going to die.
15:56-16:00
So all of Jerusalem stirred up now.
16:04-16:25
Verse 4 says, "And assembling all of the chief priests and the scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born." That's like the president calling Billy Graham and asking him a Bible 101 question.
16:26-16:27
That's what's happening here.
16:31-16:34
Every Jew knew where the Messiah was going to be born.
16:34-16:35
That's Bible 101.
16:35-16:40
That'd be like the president calling Billy Graham and saying, "I have a Bible question for you.
16:42-16:46
For God so loved the world that he gave his only," I can't remember the rest.
16:46-16:47
How does that go?
16:47-16:48
It's like, "Dude, you don't know that?
16:48-16:49
Everybody knows that.
16:49-16:51
He gave his only begotten son, right?
16:51-16:53
Everybody knows that." "Oh, right, right, right.
16:53-16:56
Yeah, yeah, I knew that." Well, that's what was going on here.
16:56-17:17
Herod's like, "Where does your holy book say that the king of the Jews was supposed to be born?" "And they told him in Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet, 'And you, Bethlehem, in 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.'" They're like Micah 5.2.
17:17-17:18
Everybody knows Micah 5.2.
17:19-17:20
I mean, come on, Herod, really?
17:21-17:23
Seriously, what's going on there?
17:24-17:26
So verses 7 and 8 we see that Herod has to plan.
17:28-17:42
It says, "Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time the star had appeared." Like yeah, that flashing thing you saw, when did that happen?
17:46-18:07
And he sent them to Bethlehem saying, "Go and search diligently for the child, and when When you have found Him, bring me word that I too may come and worship Him." What are the chances Herod really wanted to worship Jesus Christ?
18:07-18:08
What are the chances?
18:08-18:13
Let's percentage-wise, we're not going to do a sliding scale, Ben, so percent, yeah, zero, right?
18:14-18:14
Zero percent.
18:15-18:17
He wasn't interested in worshiping.
18:17-18:18
What was he interested in?
18:20-18:23
was interested in killing him, right?
18:25-18:26
But he hatches this plan.
18:26-18:31
He finds out, "Well, the Messiah is supposed to be born in Bethlehem, so I'll send them to Bethlehem.
18:31-18:37
I'll get them to do the work for me, and I'll tell them, 'Yeah, I want to join your little worship band thing, your worship team here.
18:38-18:38
Yeah, yeah.
18:39-18:39
Grab me a guitar.
18:39-18:41
I want to join your worship team.
18:41-19:08
And when you find him, let's worship.'" And then verse 9 says, "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 it came to rest over the place where the child was." So again, this glory of the Lord, this Shekinah glory of God shows up again, and this time it leads them to Jesus' address.
19:10-19:18
I love verse 10, it says, "When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy." I love that.
19:18-19:20
Do you know how far these guys traveled to get here?
19:21-19:22
Like over a thousand miles.
19:23-19:33
Okay, so they see this flash in the sky and they follow it for a thousand miles and apparently there's a time where they don't see it because the Bible says it shows up again.
19:33-19:52
Well then it does show up again, and the Bible says, "And they were somewhat elated about it." Now, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy, ecstatic to see the glory of the Lord again, leading them right to Jesus' address.
19:53-20:03
And then verse 11 says, "And going into the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, And they fell down and worshipped him.
20:05-20:19
Then opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh." I can't help but wonder, what were Mary and Joseph thinking about all this?
20:19-20:30
Could you imagine, okay, like you just had a baby and you're in the house and these people show up, they're like, "Yeah, we kind of came from a thousand miles away.
20:30-20:31
Can we worship your baby?
20:32-20:32
Is that alright?
20:33-20:34
Can we worship your baby?
20:34-20:35
Oh, by the way, we brought gifts.
20:35-20:45
Is it okay if we just come into your living room and worship your baby for a while?" Really we just came a thousand miles and that's really all we wanted to do was to see him and worship him.
20:45-20:45
Is that okay?
20:47-21:03
Like, "Put the coffee on." Jesus at this point, people a lot smarter than me estimate that he could have been anywhere from six months old to two years old at this point.
21:06-21:08
And also here in your Bible you have the weirdest baby shower ever.
21:11-21:19
I remember when our kids were born, people got us things like diapers and like onesies and like chew toys for kids.
21:24-21:28
Look at the… apparently these wise men have never been to a baby shower before.
21:29-21:30
Look what they brought.
21:31-21:35
Actually all joking aside, these gifts have very deep significance.
21:35-21:36
First of all, they brought gold.
21:38-21:40
Gift very appropriate for a king.
21:40-21:42
The most valuable thing you can get your hands on, right?
21:42-21:49
They're like, "This is what we want to give the baby, the most valuable thing we can, gold." Frankincense.
21:49-21:50
What is frankincense?
21:50-21:54
Well, actually, frankincense was used in Old Testament worship.
21:54-21:58
It was used in the altar of incense outside of the temple.
21:58-22:04
It was always burning, and the smoke from the altar of incense was always rising.
22:04-22:07
And the Scripture teaches that that smoke represents prayer.
22:07-22:10
It's a picture of prayers ascending to God.
22:13-22:18
It's a gift that certainly points to the divinity of this child.
22:20-22:24
And then, by far the weirdest gift they brought was myrrh.
22:25-22:27
Do you know what they use myrrh for?
22:28-22:29
You know what they use myrrh for.
22:29-22:30
You've read this book.
22:30-22:31
Do you know what they use myrrh for?
22:32-22:33
Embalming dead people.
22:36-22:44
Okay, so it's like your baby shower, and they're like, "Congratulations, we brought you some formaldehyde." that.
22:46-22:46
Re-gift, right?
22:47-22:54
Well, myrrh was actually used on Jesus himself.
22:54-23:02
John 19, verse 39 says that Jesus was, his body when he died was prepared with myrrh.
23:02-23:05
It's a gift given for someone who's about to die.
23:06-23:13
And again, joking aside, this is a very significant gift because it reminds us that Jesus Christ came to die.
23:14-23:16
We don't like to think about that at Christmas, do we?
23:17-23:34
We like to think about the little baby in this story, if we overcome, overcame adversity, you know, nine months pregnant and traveling and no room, and we like are with all the animals and have a baby and we stick him in the feeding thing and everybody's just kind of cozy and happy.
23:36-23:39
We don't like to think of the truth that that baby came to die.
23:39-23:51
His purpose for coming was to suffer a horrible death as he was bearing God's wrath for my sin and for yours.
23:51-23:55
And that's what the gift of Myrrh prophetically looks forward to.
23:57-24:05
Then reading on, it says, "And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way.
24:07-24:28
Now when they 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.' And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt and remained there until the death of Herod.
24:29-25:02
For this was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, 'Out of Egypt I called my son.'" And then verse 16, "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 in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men." What a horrible, horrible, horrible act of bloodshed.
25:02-25:02
Could you imagine?
25:03-25:14
Murphy's, could you imagine, like, the military shows up at your house and says, "We have orders to murder Lincoln." Why?
25:15-25:25
Because he fits a demographic, because he's a boy, and we're looking for all boys like about two and under, and if you have somebody in your house, like, we're going to kill him.
25:27-25:48
Jared wanted to make sure that he got Jesus, and he was willing to murder an entire young generation of boys, because this old and dying man was so afraid of Jesus Christ.
25:52-25:53
Well, that's the story.
25:56-25:59
That's the story of anticipation and controversy.
26:02-26:05
This was the biggest season of anticipation in history.
26:05-26:18
You can read Roman historians, rather, from this day record that everywhere throughout the East, men were looking for the advent of a great king who was to rise from among the Jews.
26:19-26:27
There was something about this time in history that the world was anticipating a king was going to come from the Jews.
26:30-26:35
So there was all this anticipation, but it was also one of the most controversial times in history.
26:37-26:42
And as I shared with you last week, and Taylor will share with you next week, this happens every Christmas.
26:45-26:55
Not just about who Jesus is, that's what we talked about last week, whose child is this, but the question I want to ask you this week is just simply this, what are you going to do with them?
26:58-26:59
What are you going to do with Jesus?
27:05-27:19
The controversy is the same, and the choices are the same, as they were with the wise men, As they were with Herod, when it comes to Jesus Christ, you have two options with Him.
27:20-27:24
You can embrace Him, or you can try to eliminate Him.
27:25-27:27
The question is, what side are you aligned with?
27:29-27:33
Are you team Herod, or are you team wise men?
27:36-27:40
Jot this down first of all, underneath what side are you aligned with on your outline.
27:41-27:57
Jesus is a threat, I must eliminate Him." It's hard, isn't it, brothers and sisters, to not be Scrooge?
27:59-28:06
Because I don't know if you noticed, but the atheists are out to try to ruin Christmas again every year.
28:06-28:08
I get so sick of hearing this, honestly, every year.
28:09-28:11
I just, I get sick of hearing it.
28:11-28:14
I'm certainly sick of them trying to do it.
28:15-28:20
And to be honest, I get just kind of tired of hearing everybody up in arms about it.
28:21-28:22
I mean, you've heard it, right?
28:24-28:33
Public displays, schools, concerts, pageants, this college group is banned from selling Christmas trees.
28:33-28:42
You know, the latest thing I read last week, the American Atheists on Times Square I have this big campaign called Christmas is Better Without Christ.
28:43-28:48
And every year we get so up in arms and I'm just like seriously we went through this last year.
28:49-28:54
And if the Lord tarries, guess what we'll be talking about next year at Christmas?
28:55-28:57
All the atheists are out to ruin it for everybody again.
29:00-29:01
You're like what are you saying Pastor Jeff?
29:01-29:02
Are you saying you don't care?
29:02-29:03
Of course I care.
29:07-29:10
I don't have this in my notes because I wasn't going to say it, but I'm going to say it anyways.
29:13-29:33
Everybody gets so up in arms about things like, "I went to the Banana Republic and they say happy holidays, not Merry Christmas, so never shop there." If your church wants to take Jesus out of the Christmas season, boycott your church.
29:34-29:37
But look, the Banana Republic's not church, okay?
29:37-29:39
Walmart's not church.
29:40-29:45
They're a retail place that's just selling stuff that we buy to give to people.
29:47-29:48
They're not your church.
29:49-29:52
So why are we so offended that they don't say Merry Christmas?
29:56-29:59
And I guess what I'm saying is, are we really surprised when dead people act like dead people?
30:00-30:01
The Bible says they are lost.
30:02-30:11
They are in a state of being rebellious and hostile in mind towards God, and then we're so shocked that they don't want anything to do with Jesus.
30:15-30:16
Can we let that go?
30:18-30:29
Can we make a covenant that we're going to let that go, that when somebody says "Happy Holidays," we're not going to jump on Twitter and curse them out, like I saw some people do this week.
30:29-30:38
"I can't believe I went to Home Depot and they said 'Happy Holidays.' It's Merry Christmas!" Seriously, seriously.
30:40-30:44
Boycott your church if your church takes Jesus out of Christmas.
30:47-30:49
I just don't see where that's a hill to die on.
30:52-30:54
Dead people act like dead people.
30:57-30:58
I had to get that out.
30:59-31:00
Thank you for listening.
31:02-31:03
No, I'm not done yet.
31:06-31:07
But these, I just, I don't know.
31:08-31:11
These people just kind of confuse me, these American atheists.
31:11-31:13
I was thinking about that a lot this week.
31:13-31:15
Christmas is better without Christ.
31:16-31:17
You know what's so confusing to me about this?
31:18-31:24
I can understand putting so much time and effort and energy and money into promoting something.
31:25-31:26
I can understand that, right?
31:26-31:28
Can you understand that promoting something?
31:29-31:33
Here are people that are spending all this time, money, effort, energy to promote nothing.
31:35-31:39
And I would think that there would be something in the back of their minds that's like, "Can't we just live and let live?
31:39-31:41
Okay, the Christians love Jesus.
31:41-31:42
We don't want to believe in Him.
31:44-31:46
We won't send them Christmas cards or whatever.
31:51-31:55
But to put so much effort into promoting nothing, I just, I don't get it.
31:55-31:57
I honestly, I just don't get it.
31:58-32:01
But this whole "get rid of Jesus" thing, it's nothing new.
32:02-32:03
Every year it's been happening.
32:04-32:05
It's only going to get worse, people.
32:06-32:09
But I want you to see that, again, there's nothing new under the sun.
32:10-32:15
In Jesus' day, the concept of getting rid of Jesus was literal.
32:21-32:31
It's kind of a funny scene, in a sense, when you think that Herod was agitated and the whole city was beside themselves nervous and scared, and what was the thing that Herod was so scared about?
32:31-32:33
A baby.
32:35-32:38
I've had the blessing of being around a lot of babies in my life.
32:38-32:40
I have never been scared of any of them.
32:43-32:45
I still carry that title.
32:45-32:47
I can take anyone in this room 12 and under.
32:48-32:51
I've never been scared of a baby, ever.
32:53-32:54
Herod was scared to death.
32:58-33:05
And honestly, he was right to be concerned, because that baby became a man.
33:06-33:33
That baby became a man who said things like, "Deny yourself." That baby became a man who said things like, "Die to yourself." That baby became a man who said things like, "Lose yourself." That baby became a man what said things like, "Carry your cross daily and come after me." And the truth is, church, Jesus Christ is the biggest threat of anyone who's ever lived.
33:36-33:40
Because, when you encounter Jesus Christ, He comes after your hearts.
33:44-33:46
That's why Jesus is such a threat.
33:47-33:59
Because, when you encounter Jesus Christ, the question is this, "Who's going to rule your life?" Herod was so concerned about the throne of his power.
34:02-34:07
And Jesus goes even deeper than that because He's after the throne of your heart.
34:07-34:08
Who's sitting there, by the way?
34:10-34:11
Sin says, "I do.
34:11-34:12
I sit on the throne of my own heart.
34:12-34:14
Nobody tells me what to do.
34:15-34:29
I live life my way and by my rules." And then you encounter Jesus, and Jesus says, "I deserve to be sitting on the throne of your life.
34:30-35:18
the Lord." And if you're a follower of Christ, can you remember the time that you had to wrestle through that? I remember back in 1995. I wish I could say somebody shared the gospel with me and it was just like, "Woohoo!" like immediate reception. No. I went through, thankfully, a brief season of wrestling over this lordship of Jesus issue. What was the real issue? The issue was I wanted to hold on to my sin, and I knew that if I came to Jesus, I was surrendering lordship of my own life up to Him. And I'll be honest with you, I wasn't sure I I was ready to do that.
35:24-35:28
Jesus says, "Your way is destroying you.
35:29-35:30
Come to me for healing.
35:30-35:31
Come to me for life.
35:32-35:45
Come to me and let me change you." It was only when I really saw the love and the grace of God to save me from my own self-destructive sinful habits.
35:49-36:04
I'll tell you, it's a struggle for a lot of people, because the truth is Jesus came to save us from our sins, and we'd rather be saved in our sins.
36:04-36:09
Can I get a ticket to heaven and still live the way I want to live?
36:09-36:18
That's not an option, because the Bible says that when you truly embrace Jesus Christ by faith, He changes you.
36:20-36:23
And if your faith hasn't changed you, it hasn't saved you.
36:28-36:48
So if you're looking to Jesus as your fire insurance, your get-out-of-hell-free card, But His Holy Spirit hasn't been changing you and conforming you into His image, Romans 8:29, and maturing you.
36:52-36:54
Then you haven't embraced Him for who He really is.
36:57-37:04
If you'd rather hang on to your sin, your only option is to eliminate Jesus Christ.
37:08-37:10
That's what the chief priests and the scribes did, by the way.
37:13-37:19
You know, a lot of preachers say, "Well, the big crime that these guys committed was they were just sort of indifferent.
37:19-37:27
Everybody knew that there was this king in town that the king makers were looking for, and they didn't even respond to it.
37:27-37:42
They just pointed out the Bible passage to Herod and went on their way." So, when you get to the end of the Gospel of Matthew, you see that that's exactly what the chief priests and the scribes tried to do, was eliminate Jesus.
37:45-37:47
Which by the way, you don't eliminate Jesus.
37:49-38:00
Herod learned that, the chief priests and the scribes learned that, and if there's somebody here who thinks that you can eliminate Jesus Christ, this is your wake-up call.
38:02-38:14
You can rebel against Him, you can protest, you can debate, you can try to drown Him out in the clamor of your selfishness, you can attempt to crowd Him out with your sin, but you will reckon with Him someday.
38:19-38:31
could not get rid of him when he was an infant. And Herod was the most powerful person in the region. This is God's anointed and you will reckon with him.
38:37-39:14
So if you are on Team Herod, that is what you are saying this morning, "Jesus is a threat. I must eliminate him. But finally, this is the team that we're on. By God's grace, Jesus is the King. I must embrace him. In the middle of the controversy, I encourage you this Christmas, and I'll encourage you again next Christmas, embrace Jesus Christ in worship. I don't really care what's happening at the Banana Republic. I don't even know if I've ever been to the Banana Republic.
39:15-39:40
Have I been there? Oh, okay, that's right. I have been there once, right. I like their clothes. I'm not wearing Banana Republic clothes now, am I? I just know they're always like at the top of everybody's "don't shop there because they say happy holidays" list. I would say, "Hey, you know what? Let them do what they're going to do you, embrace Jesus Christ and worship.
39:42-39:42
How do you do that?
39:45-39:47
I would say just do what the wise men did.
39:49-39:50
Just do what the wise men did.
39:50-39:51
What did the wise men do?
39:51-39:53
Well, first of all, they pursued Him.
39:54-39:55
Pursue Him.
39:59-40:00
You've got to love that diligence.
40:00-40:03
They saw a flash in the sky and traveled a thousand miles.
40:05-40:08
So what was your complaint about getting to church again?
40:10-40:15
"It's too hot." And what was it last week?
40:15-40:27
"It was too cold." Next week, "It was too just right." Like, are we still talking about church or are we talking about Goldilocks?
40:30-40:31
Pursue Him.
40:32-40:36
Obviously, pursuing Jesus Christ is not about church attendance.
40:39-40:48
It's about seeking Him in prayer, growing in that love relationship that God has blessed you with because of Jesus Christ.
40:48-40:58
Seeking Him in prayer, seeking Him in His Word, it's allowing Jesus Christ the rightful place of being first in every area of life.
40:59-41:26
him. Secondly, humble yourself before him. Humble yourself. Verse 11 says, "When they went into the house and they saw the child with Mary his mother," do you notice it says they fell down and worshipped him? Literally, boom, they went down on their faces in reverence.
41:26-41:29
That's why I would tell you, church, humble yourself before Him.
41:32-41:41
Forget the elf on the shelf, put yourself on the shelf, because coming to Christ always starts, continues with, and ends with humility.
41:43-41:44
So humble yourself before Him.
41:47-41:51
And then finally, give to Him.
41:53-41:53
Give.
41:56-42:00
Spiritual giving is part of worship.
42:03-42:05
Ken, you keep track of our finances, right?
42:05-42:07
You've been with us since before this church launched, right?
42:08-42:10
How many times have I gotten up begging people to give?
42:11-42:14
How many times have I gotten up here trying to give people a guilt trip to give to the church?
42:14-42:16
How many times have I done that, Ken?
42:17-42:17
Not once.
42:18-42:20
How many times do I plan on doing it?
42:21-42:21
Not once.
42:23-42:24
What's that?
42:24-42:25
Yes.
42:25-42:28
The Bible says that God loves a cheerful giver.
42:30-42:37
So as soon as I say give to him, there are some people here that are like, "Pack your bags, here comes the guilt trip." Not at all.
42:38-42:39
Not at all.
42:41-42:43
I just want you to see what the Bible says, right?
42:44-42:48
And the Bible says the part of worship is giving.
42:52-42:53
I don't come around when we're singing.
42:54-42:57
I don't walk around the aisles when Darren and the crew's up here leading worship.
42:57-43:00
I don't come around and, "You're not singing!
43:01-43:03
You realize God's listening and you're not singing.
43:03-43:04
Maybe you should lift your voices up.
43:04-43:06
You're not singing." I don't do that.
43:06-43:07
I don't do that.
43:07-43:07
Why?
43:08-43:10
Because if you're going to worship, it has to come from where?
43:10-43:12
It has to come from in here, right?
43:13-43:14
Giving's the same way.
43:15-43:19
I don't know what a single person in this church gives to this church.
43:19-43:19
I have no idea.
43:19-43:20
I can't make sure of that.
43:22-43:25
There's only really one person I know what they give, and that's me.
43:26-43:29
I don't know what anybody gives, and I don't want to know.
43:30-43:35
But you have to see, folks, that giving is part of worship.
43:37-43:47
And just like your time in prayer, time in the Word, your time singing worship songs, It's like all of those things have to come from the heart.
43:49-43:55
In the same way, giving has to come from your heart.
43:59-44:00
It has to come from your heart.
44:00-44:02
It is an act of worship.
44:04-44:14
Notice that these wise men weren't like looking around the house for something with the tag still on that they could re-gift to the baby, because after all, he's a baby.
44:14-44:16
You probably won't remember what we brought them.
44:19-44:21
They brought the very best of what they had.
44:23-44:23
Why?
44:24-44:26
Because giving is an act of worship.
44:29-44:33
So like the wise men, it's worship.
44:33-44:40
You pursue Him, you go after Him, you seek Him in all things, you humble yourself before Him and then you give to Him.
44:43-44:56
So no matter what team you're on, there's something that we can all agree on, and that is this, for all of their differences, both Herod and the Magi realized that Jesus was someone who must be reckoned with.
44:58-44:59
Is He a threat to your sovereignty?
45:01-45:05
Or is He your Lord who saved you from your self-destructive sin?
45:09-45:14
And once again, you have the same options that Herod and the wise men had.
45:16-45:17
You have them this Christmas.
45:19-45:23
You can try to eliminate Jesus Christ, or you can embrace Him in worship.
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Matthew 2:1-16
Why is Jesus such a threat to people? Why do you think many people hate Him and His Word, even if they are unfamiliar with either (or both)?
What amazes you the most about Matthew’s account of the birth of Christ?
How do you think Christians should respond to all of the “anti-Christmas” propaganda?
Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another