We're looking this morning in Matthew chapter two, the first 12 verses, especially often when I preach a text, I just kind of like to go straight through the passage and see what each verse has to say from God's word. With the care that we're taking to not keep our services from going too long, we're not gonna be able to do that this morning, but we will for Matthew two, take a look especially at the ways in which the various people in this text respond to the good news that the king of the Jews has been born. So as we read together, kind of have that in the back of your mind as we hear the word of the Lord read to us this morning. So as we do so, I invite you to stand at home. If you're there, please stand as well together as we hear from the word of the Lord from Matthew chapter 2. We'll be looking particularly this morning at the first 12 verses, but I'm going to read through verse 18 for some more context. So please hear the word of the Lord. 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 have come to worship him. When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. And assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. They told him, in Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet. And you, O 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. Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time the star had appeared. And he sent them to Bethlehem saying, go and search diligently for the child. And when you have found him, bring me word that I too may come and worship him. After listening to the king, they went on their way. 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. 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 treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way. Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt. And remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child to destroy him. And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet. Out of Egypt I called my son. Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious. And he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men. Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah. A voice was heard in Rama weeping in loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children. She refused to be comforted because they are no more. Thus far the reading of God's Holy Word. Let us pray and give Him thanks for it. Heavenly Father, indeed we are grateful for Your Word. We know that without it we would be utterly lost. But through the giving of your word and the way in which the spirit impresses upon our hearts, we may know you. And yes, we may know your son who has been born for us. So Father, we ask that you would bless our time this morning in your holy scriptures. We pray that we would build up in the faith. We pray that we would know Christ better, that we would love him more, that our hearts would be turned toward him as he is lifted up and glorified in this time. And so we indeed, we ask this in his name, amen. Please be seated. For various reasons, I've always really enjoyed the Sunday after Christmas. kind of a chance to take a breath and to look back at Christmas, perhaps from a different angle, kind of reflect on the way in which we celebrated the coming of our Savior. Of course, for a large portion of the church, they're saying, what do you mean after Christmas? We're only in day three of the 12 days of Christmas. And that is a good reminder that we continue to celebrate the birth of our Savior. As I mentioned before we read Matthew, this is a good opportunity to think of how others in Scripture responded to the news that a Savior had been born. I really want to do a home in on these three major characters or groups of characters that we see here in Matthew chapter 2 this morning. And as we pay heed to the various ways in which they respond to the news of the Savior's birth. We'll have time to compare our own response to Christ's birth and the way in which we have or have not responded appropriately to the news that God has come in the flesh. So I apologize in advance. We won't have time to consider the Magi's gifts. We won't have time to consider all the different Old Testament quotations that Matthew weaves into this text. So if you do have other questions, feel free to ask me later. But I want to begin with the chief priests and scribes. The text in Matthew chapter 2 doesn't give us a lot of background. It just tells us that wise men, that magi, come to Jerusalem. They have seen a star arise from the east. They have come. And they come to Herod, who they know to be the king of the Jews. That was the title that he bore. And they know they need to ask him, where is this new king that has been born? And Herod, of course, doesn't know. He's like, I haven't had any children recently. So he goes to the experts. He goes to the chief priests and the scribes, the scripture tells us. Now these were the leaders of the religious life of Jerusalem and in all Israel at this day. The priests, the chief priests would have been head over the sacrificial system there in the temple that Herod had rebuilt. The scribes would be the experts in the law in the Old Testament. And so between these two groups of people, they would have been the ones that you would go to. If you had a theological question such as, where is the king of the Jews to be born? These are the ones to whom you would go. And Herod does. And He asked them, well, I've heard that this king has been born. Could you perhaps tell me where? The royal nursery is empty at the moment. Easy to miss this fact, but don't forget that these chief priests and these scribes, they know the right answer. Their problem, as we'll see in this text, is not a lack of knowledge. It's not like they're standing there scratching their heads, well, we're not really sure. No, as we would say today, they even know chapter and verse in the Old Testament. It's what we read and had read earlier in their worship service from Micah chapter five. They know to turn right there and they know to tell Herod this, this is where the king of the Jews is to be born. So the chief priests and the scribes, they have all the knowledge they need, they have all the information, they have all the truth that they need to therefore go and worship. But we notice what they do with this information. What do they do with the fact that they know all the right answers, as it were? They don't do anything. I mean, yeah, sure, they go and tell Herod what they know, they show off their knowledge, but besides that, they don't actually follow through. Friends, knowing the right answer, knowing the Scriptures is important. Having our doctrine all figured out and deepening our knowledge of theology is all well and good, but on its own it is not nearly enough. For what is the purpose of knowing Scripture? What is the purpose of studying and having systematic theologies written and having our confessions of faith and having all these good tools to teach us more about God if they only remain in our brains, if they don't work their way into our hearts, if they don't work themselves out in true worship of the Lord to which they point? especially in the Reformed faith, as we sometimes call the Presbyterian faith. We know our reputation as being rich in doctrine, and that is good. It is important to not merely skim the surface of Scriptures, but to dig in deep. But again, the purpose must be not merely to have all the right answers, not merely, as Paul tells us, to have knowledge puff us up. but to actually have it be rooted in a way that leads to worship. The chief priests and the scribes miss this. And if you read later in the Gospels, we know that these groups are some of those who were most interested in seeing the Lord Jesus Christ crucified. Now it wasn't every single same person who was in the group when he was born, but many of those same elders would have still been alive 30 years later. How would things have gone differently if they had responded 30 years before when Jesus had been born with worship? Now we know the Lord's will to offer his son as a sacrifice would not have been thwarted, but the individuals who had done so would not have been guilty. If with this deep knowledge of the scriptures, their position of expertise among the religious community had led to worship, they would be enjoying the presence of Christ even now in glory. But instead they do not. Instead that builds up to a murderous rage over the years of Jesus' ministry. I have had a friend compare it to this. I had a friend in high school who, if you asked him, how do you get to San Diego? He could tell you every interstate. He said, you take this interstate to that interstate to that interstate. If you said, well, how do you get to Seattle? He could actually lay it out like he had the atlas memorized or something. But if you ask him, how many times have you actually been to San Diego? How many times have you actually driven to Seattle? Well, he'd never been there. It's like having the map of Disney World memorized, but never actually going and enjoying the park. Knowing all the right answers, separated from the purpose that those answers are given, the worship of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's as silly as memorizing the atlas, but never getting behind the wheel of a car. We know scripture. We know the traditions that surround Christmas. But if we stop there and don't worship the Christ who was born, We remain far off from the Lord and from the goodness that is shown there in that birth. We have to move on. Let's move on to Herod. King Herod, of course, was the one to whom the wise men came, the one to whom the chief priests and the scribes gave their answer. And King Herod actually, he talks a good game too, if you noticed, particularly in verses seven and eight. He summoned the wise men, he says, all right, I know where to go. He sends them to Bethlehem. He actually sends them to the right place. He says, go and search, because I want to worship too. I want to worship too, he says. But we know, ultimately, as I read later in this chapter, Herod does not respond in worship either. But he actually responds in rage. And it would be good to spend a minute concerning why this is. For Herod is actually a very interesting historical figure. Herod was born in what the Old Testament called Edom, what the New Testament calls Edumea. Those are the descendants of Esau, Jacob's brother. So he was born an Edomite, but he was actually raised a Jew. He was raised a member of the Israelite faith and his father was a good friend of Julius Caesar. And so when Herod was a young man, actually Mark Antony, one of the generals under Caesar, gave him an early post in the region. and he became a ruler from a very young age. Some turmoil arose. Turmoil seemed to follow Herod throughout most of his reign, and again turmoil arose, and so Herod actually fled to Rome. He fled to Rome to get some support, but he actually received more support than he was asking for. The Roman Senate declared him King of the Jews. The Roman Senate declared Herod as King of the Jews. That's, of course, the very thing of which the wise men ask in verse 2, the very same title, King of the Jews. And so he returns to Jerusalem with now the imprimatur of the Senate behind him, and he conquers Jerusalem, and by 37 B.C. he has established his rule as King of the Jews. And if you know anything about Herod in antiquity, his reputation besides the turmoil was as a great builder. He built lavish palaces for himself. He built big monuments. He built civic and religious construction. Like I mentioned, he refurbished it and really made the temple into the grand building that it was at the time of Christ. So when this man, declared King of the Jews by the Roman Senate, established his rule, built wonderful buildings to his own name and to his own glory, when he hears that another King of the Jews is on the scene, we can imagine perhaps now his reaction. Think of all that is in jeopardy by that announcement. His wealth, his power. His influence, his very authority as king is evidently now in question. He clearly thinks so. Why else would he respond in the way in which he does? And here's the problem. He can't fathom giving up any of those things. He cannot fathom giving up his wealth. He cannot fathom giving up his influence, his power. And I think, again, we can see how we are challenged by this response. If the chief priests and the scribes pointed to the fact that that doctrine on its own is not enough and must lead us to worship, well, then Herod shows us that wealth and influence and political action, all those things which in and of themselves are not bad, but they can what? They can take over our hearts. They can become what Scripture calls idols. They can become not things that help us to serve the Lord, lead us to serving others, leading us to serve and love our community and those around us, but can rather become stumbling blocks. Our desire for wealth, our desire for influence, our desire for political power and for gain, These things can keep us from falling on our knees before the newborn Savior. They can become so alluring because the world is alluring to us. The world offers us, from its perspective, many good things. But what these good things can do is keep us from the greatest thing, the Lord Jesus Christ and his claims upon our hearts. Remember, Herod was born a Jew. When he needed to know the right answers, he knew where to turn. He had that background, and yet he was smitten by the world. He was in love with the things of the world, and they kept him from humility. They kept him from realizing that who cares who called me the king of the Jews if the Lord is giving us his own king to shepherd us as that Micah passage says, to rule us, to lead us well, to lead us in peace, the very thing that had been missing from years of Herod's rule. What are palaces? What are inns with a Roman Senate? What are wealth and privilege? in comparison to the Prince of Peace coming to rule much better than I could as Herod. Now, here's the thing about King Herod. As I mentioned, he was one who always had turmoil following him, often because he was the one causing it. He was, as we see in Matthew 2, he was a murderous tyrant. He forfeited his claim to any throne in the way in which he led his people. He forfeited any right to wealth and privilege as a murderous man and as a tyrant. But he wanted those, he wanted to cling on to those and therefore would not worship the Lord. Isn't that an exact opposite contrast with the Lord Jesus Christ? As Chris has been pointing out through this month from the book of Philippians, the one who did have the right to all the prerogatives of God, but what? But let them go. freely release them for the sake of others, for the sake of His people, that He would come into this dirty and dingy world and be born as a man. Herod is, in that sense, sort of like an anti-Christ, one who had no right to those things but clung on to them. And in doing so, only draws in sharper contrast the wonder and the marvelous nature of what Christ has done. One who had claim not merely to a throne in Jerusalem, but to the entire world. Not merely the riches that the Jews could raise in their taxes, but the riches of the entire universe. But gave those up for us. showing us what it means to be one who is humble, as we have seen from Philippians chapter 2, to let them go for the sake of the other. Therefore, that shows us the sort of attitude we have towards the things that tripped up Herod, the wealth and the privilege and the influence and the good name among the powers that be of our age. Those things are meaningless if that we allow them to keep us from Christ, to bow before His throne, to come before Him with all that we have and all that we could ever desire. That Philippians passage, if you recall, where does it head? Where does it go? Where is its end point? Well, it's people in heaven and under the earth and in heaven bowing before Christ, bowing the knee. Actually, that's where our passage leads also, is it not, here in Matthew chapter 2, as we see people from all over the world coming to bow before the Lord Jesus Christ. The insiders don't get it, the chief priests and the scribes, the powerful don't get it, Herod doesn't get it, but these outsiders, these foreigners, these men from a distant country They are the ones who in a sense show up, the Israelites, the Jews, because they are the ones who come and freely bow before the King of the universe, freely come and worship the One who is born in Jerusalem. This is such a beautiful picture of the way in which the good news of Jesus Christ works. I mean, think of the ways in which the gospel is pictured in the response of the Magi, of the wise men, as they come as true worshipers and to bow before Christ. The first thing we see is that it's not who you are. It's not who you know. It's not your worldly credentials that you have to offer. It's what? It's how you respond to Christ. It's how these astrologers, these men who from the Israelites perspective would have been total outsiders, total rejects. But the Lord uses even that to bring them to him. It's not who you are, it's not your credentials, it's not the size of your bank account. It's how you respond to the good news that a king has been born. It's also a beautiful picture of the worldwide reach of the gospel. Again, these men, it doesn't tell us how far they've come from, but we know they've come from afar. They've come from the east. And if they can come and leave behind their false religion, their astrology, their divination, however they were used in that distant country, to come and bow before the true King. How much more we, who are also in a distant country from Israel, from across the ocean, the gospel has reached though even to us. Through the grace of our Lord, reaching even us from a distant country. Our ancestors at the time of Christ, most of us would have been far to the north, even further from the wise men. Yet the Lord has brought us near. The Lord has made us his people through the blood of the very child who was born there. in Bethlehem. Of course, we also see from the Magi, from the wise men, a beautiful picture of the Lord draws his people to himself. After all, the wise men were going about their everyday business, you know, studying the stars. And we may, you know, wonder, we may debate, well, what was the star that they saw? But we know who put it there. We know the one who named the stars and placed them in the heavens was the Lord, the God of the universe. He is the one who placed it there, and He is the one, therefore, who was drawing them in. This is, again, a picture of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, that He goes out and finds His people. He brings them to himself. This is what he says later in the gospel, especially in John, that he is the good shepherd who goes and finds his sheep, who draws them into his sheepfold, that they may have one shepherd and be one flock. Whether Israelite, Edomite, astrologer from the east, northern Europeans like many of us, Asians, Africans, wherever our source is, the Lord draws us to himself. But we also in this passage see the flip side of that, that we must respond, that we must respond to the work of life that the Father does in our hearts, that we must confess faith, we must come, we must actually bow down. We must actually declare Christ as king. We must actually worship him. It's not really enough to know these things. It's not even enough to appreciate them and see how the intricacy and beauty of the gospel works together. We must actually see where that points to the Lord Jesus Christ, the king who has come, the king who was born that we might be his people. because he came to live and to die and to be born again. And by doing so, he won for us eternal salvation, forgiveness of our sins, and eternal life. Friends, when we think back on the celebration of Christmas, we know that the good news is that a Savior has been born, that one gave up all the prerogatives of divinity and heaven to be the God-man on earth. And the question is, how will we respond to that act? Christ got low for us. The question is, will we get low before him? Will we bow before him? Will we worship him? Will we give him our hearts? Will we not keep him at arm's length, but embrace him fully as the Christ, the Messiah, the one coming into the world to rule us forever as the shepherd king of peace? Let us pray together. Our Father, we thank You that You have not left us to our own devices, but that You have made us Your people, that You have through Christ and through His work done all that is necessary to secure our salvation. And Lord, even our faith is a gift from you, so we pray that we would be utterly grateful, that we would be utterly transfixed by the beauty of this Christ child, who even now is ruling and reigning over us. And Father, we long for the day when he would return, and we may bow before him face to face, may see our King for as he truly is, and enjoy the presence and the light of His glory forever. I pray that He would come quickly. And indeed in His name we pray. Amen.