PLEASE NOTE: There are no small group questions this week as most groups have wound up for the year. Small group questions will be prepared again for our 1 st term series on the Sermon on the Mount commencing the first Sunday in February. Advent series: God with us # 3 Jesus: King of the Jews Matthew 2:1-12 Right response Wrong response Ruler and Shepherd Entrapment What will you give? Try this quick Christmas quiz 1. What did the innkeeper say to Joseph? 2. What date was Jesus born? 3. Who visited Jesus on the night he was born? 4. How many wise men were there? Well just goes to show why we need to read the Word and make sure we have the story correct! There is so much that people assume they know about Christmas... even Christians... and yet it doesn t match with what we have here in God s word. // One of the dilemmas of Christmas is finding the right present for someone especially the one who already has everything. Some people will go the TEAR or WORLD VISION catalogue and buy a goat or a toilet for someone in the third world... and that s a great idea... But let me ask you what would you bring to the one they call the King of the Jews. To a baby born to be King? We ll come back to that... But this is fascinating story of a number of accounts... We first see a right response Have a look with me a vv1-2 After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him. This is an astonishing incident. How did these people know about one born King? What was this star that they followed? Who are they anyway? How did they know the appropriate response was to worship?
Answers: We don t know how they knew... but perhaps from reading the Old Testament and other Jewish documents. The star several explanations have been offered some sort of super nova or even a comet - but the one that makes most sense it was supernatural... placed by God to announce the birth of his son to the world! Who are these people? The Magi first Gentiles which is why their interest in the King of Jews was amazing - interested in dreams, astrology, magic, books about the future offered called wise men perhaps the philosophers of the day... enticed by the star and their readings to see this King... Right response to this baby born? Worship! To fall on the ground and pay homage. To honour! Oh friends if only people today had this response to Jesus. If only people today heard the message of God become man God as one of us God with us and wanted to as it were bow before him. But many have Christmas without Christ in any form! For others it s about baby Jesus but not King Jesus! For many it s about carols and a certain feeling or sentiment or romance based on Christmas growing up but still has little to do with Jesus. We re reminded of John 1 aren t we? though the world was made through him the world did not recognise him He came to that which was his own his own people and even they didn t recognise him! Irony then - that these Gentiles from the east had it right! // There must have been a lot they didn t know But they knew who Jesus was They knew what to do. Do you? This baby... as we saw last week is God with us. The one who would save his people from their sins. What other response is appropriate? Is Christmas all presents and food and family and party all there is to it for you? Is Jesus simply a sweet cute part of the story to you? Or is He God with us... Saviour? King? / Well if theirs was the right response, we re about to see the wrong response. Have a look with me at v3 When King Herod saw this - he was disturbed and all Jerusalem with him. So Herod is fascinated and anxious and threatened when these Eastern visitors come enquiring about a King of the Jews having been born. Disturbed? Why disturbed? Disturbed because he was a threat He was King! How could there be another! This Herod who ruled on behalf of the Romans was paranoid especially in these years when Jesus was born late in his reign and life. For goodness sake, he d killed his wife and two of his sons. I guess in some way similar to the way Kim Jong-un of North Korea had his Uncle killed this week he was a threat. And why was all Jerusalem disturbed as well?
Most likely because they knew what Herod was like and they were anxious as it turns out with good reason... about him over-reacting with some sort of violent response... // Many today still see Jesus as a threat... In fact many say though perhaps not in such a thought out way I am King I don t want some other King... He s a threat to my sovereignty. I am in charge. I call the shots. I do not want Jesus to reign over me. So they keep him at arms length They keep him as a baby They live like he never came They make out like it s all made up Like Herod who wanted simply to wipe him out many want to wipe him out of the history books and write the Bible off as a fairy tale... But it s not that easy he won t give up so simply... He came from eternity He was expected in history He will reign in perpetuity...have a look with me v4 when he had called together all the people s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Christ was to be born. In Bethlehem in Judea, they replied, for this is what the prophet has written: but you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will be the shepherd of my people Israel A ruler who will be the shepherd of my people... Jesus the righteous ruler Jesus the good shepherd For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7 Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and for ever. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this. He s not going away any time soon Despite Herod s plans. Despite our rebellion Despite those who want to rewrite history Despite those who want to turn their backs or bury their heads in the sand
He is ruler and shepherd And one day he will call all to account And those who pretended he wasn t real; those who held out on him; those who simply continued in rebellion, will answer to him... and find that far from rejecting him; they will find he has rejected them!! / But to those who received him who believed in his name he gave the right to become children of God!! Well Herod sets a trap for the magi... proclaiming that he wants to go and worship the King too... So with a hypocritical humility he asks the magi to come back and tell him where he is once they ve found him. But God is bigger than any trap of human invention to do away with him! He will act to protect his Son this ruler and shepherd destined to reign for eternity. And so once the Magi find the King, they are warned by a dream not to tell Herod and return home via another route. No human invention today no trap no plot no threat no attempt at deception to do away with God and his King will succeed. Many of the new atheists believe they are oh so clever and that Christians are oh so thick... and so they pot and scheme.. they even have set up a non-religious church.....they try and convince that the gospels are the invention of the church early church..that you can t believe anything you read in the Bible...that none of the words Jesus was reported to have said he actually said... But they can t and won t win out For just as we ll see next week that God protected his Son...... so we can be sure... that God will always win out. The gospel is the power of life to win and save many And nothing can stop God s purposes..! The King is born... And this same King now sits at God s right hand for ever and ever and laughs at those who seek to do away with him. // So our final task this morning is to ask what will you give this King? This King who flung stars into space This King who spoke and the world came into being from nothing This servant who left the glory of heaven to enter the muck of our world The one who was obedient even to death on a cross... This shepherd who tends his flock and feeds and clothes them This one who in the valley of shadow of death is ever present... This one who will return with power to right all wrongs and finally put down evil What will you give him? The magi brought gifts. Bringing gifts was particularly important in the ancient East when approaching a superior. They were expensive presents and reflect their understanding (albeit imperfect) that this new birth was of no ordinary baby. What about you?
What will you bring to the King? Not baby Jesus... but the one who even now sustains everything by his powerful hand. What is fitting? What is sufficient? / In the hymn when I survey the wondrous cross we sing in the last verse... Were the whole realm of nature mine that were an offering far too small Love so amazing, so divine demands my life, my soul, my all Or in the beautiful carol In the mid bleak winter the last stanza goes What can I give him, poor as I am? If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb; if I were a Wise Man, I would do my part; yet what I can I give him: give my heart. Does he have your life, your soul, your all? Does he have your heart? He deserves nothing less He commands nothing less! And if you have not already done so I urge you today this Advent this Christmas to give him your all and nothing less!! And my brother Ian... On this the day of your commissioning and welcome here I want to urge you to keep holding up this Lord Jesus to us! You ve joined a church which is aiming to draw closer to God, closer to one another and closer to our community. And we want to do that so that we become passionate disciples of the Lord Jesus who make passionate disciples of the Lord Jesus! So now you come to partner with us that great work. So please teach us about Jesus as you open His word Proclaim Christ crucified Help us to love him more Rebuke and admonish us where necessary Lead us by your example Shepherd us after the pattern of the Great Shepherd. And may God both use and bless you mightily!!