The Jesus Decision
Sermon Notes
Good morning, everyone, so glad that you could join us for the first Sunday of 2022. I know it’s going to take us a little while to get used to that new number, and it’s going to be awkward when we think about how crazy 2020 was and forget that we went all the way through 2021 already.
I’m really excited to open up God’s Word for us this morning. We’re going to be looking at a familiar Christmas adjacent story in Matthew 2 this morning if you’d like to start opening your Bibles there. I’ve got two goals this morning as we study this passage. The first has to do with the big idea of the passage itself. I’ve titled this sermon “The Jesus Decision.” It reminds me of the college football playoff games that were played a couple days ago. What a lot of us love about sports, especially playoff or championship sports, is the head-to-head competition with major stakes on the line. You have two teams matched up against each other, one’s going to win and advance, and the other is going to lose and miss out on playing for the championship. There are only two possible outcomes. In some sports, during the regular season, games can actually end in a tie, which no one likes. Or they can last so long that the fans of the teams start to be ok with the game ending no matter what the outcome so that the team can rest up for the remainder of the season. But in a playoff game, each team or fan lives and dies with each play of the game because the only option is to win or lose.
The Bible is clear that when it comes to Jesus, there are really only 2 possible decisions. There’s acceptance or rejection. There isn’t some kind of spectrum when it comes to Jesus. Many people act as if this is the case. They like the love of Jesus or the healing of Jesus but not the Lordship or moral teaching of Jesus. They think they can be fans or occasional followers of Jesus but still hold on to some stuff in life for themselves. We’ll explore why this isn’t the case.
Secondly, I chose this passage to give us a practical introduction to what we’ll be teaching throughout 2022. Next week, we will be starting our series called The Story, where we will be walking through the entire storyline of the Bible to see how it is connected and telling one big story. This passage is a perfect example of reading the entire Bible as one big story. Matthew wrote this Gospel predominantly with a Jewish audience in mind. So for him, it was vital that he go out of his way to demonstrate how Jesus fulfilled the many Old Testament prophecies about the Messiah or Savior. In this chapter alone he makes about 6 or 7 direct or implied references to Old Testament passages that the birth and early life of Jesus fulfilled. Our goal for 2022 would be that you could read your Bible like Matthew read his, that you don’t have to read it and think, “How does all of this go together?” When you start to read the Bible passages with knowledge of what’s going on throughout Scripture, the Bible truly opens up to you in an amazing way. Let’s dive in to see how Matthew did this.
After Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of King Herod, wise men from the east arrived in Jerusalem
Right away we are introduced to the people that represent the two options when it comes to our decision about Jesus. We see King Herod and the wise men. We’re gonna put Herod aside for now and focus on the wise men first. Now we have a lot of cultural or traditional ideas about the wise men that aren’t really backed up by Scripture. We usually assume that there were three of them based on the three gifts that they give to Jesus later in this story, but Matthew doesn’t limit them to that number. We also lean on the idea sometimes that these guys were kings, again there’s no biblical witness to this. Some traditions even give them names and full backstories. While this can be interesting, they just don’t have biblical ground to stand on. There’s a NT scholar named FF Bruce who calls these ideas “beautiful but baseless.” So, we’ll stick to what Matthew says about them.
What we do know about the wise men or magi as they are called in the Greek is that they likely came from somewhere in the former Babylonian or Persian empires. These guys would have been incredibly well educated in literature and astronomy as well as practitioners of astrology. So, they likely travelled all the way from modern day Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, or even as far as Pakistan. Let’s see what brought them all the way to Israel.
After Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of King Herod, wise men from the east arrived in Jerusalem, 2 saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star at its rising and have come to worship him.”
As I said, these guys were the expert astronomers and astrologers of their day. So, they saw a star or some kind of light in the sky that they knew to be unique and worthy of investigation. They would have known when something different showed up in the western sky. But you might be wondering how a strange star or light led them to Jerusalem searching for a king of the Jews worthy of worship? The answer is that they knew the Old Testament. The first reference to a star being associated with the birth of the Messiah comes all the way from Numbers 24:15 saying that a star will come from Jacob. This theme is then picked up by later prophets like Isaiah who associated the Messiah with a light rising to cast away the darkness that people had been trapped in. So, these non-Jewish, pagan wise men were able to connect what they had read with what they saw and knew that they had to go check it out.
After they introduce themselves, they get some more information about where the Messiah should be born from the Jewish scribes (we’ll circle back to them when we talk about Herod) and start heading to Bethlehem. Let’s take a look at what they decide about Jesus when they see him, starting in verse 9.
9 After hearing the king, they went on their way. And there it was—the star they had seen at its rising. It led them until it came and stopped above the place where the child was. 10 When they saw the star, they were overwhelmed with joy.
Clearly this isn’t a normal star that they are following, since it leads them straight to a specific house in a specific city. But it is clear that God is making sure that they get to see this King of the Jews that they are seeking. We spoke about the tradition around the wise men earlier, here’s another tradition that Scripture doesn’t back up. Notice they’re going to a house and not a stable outside the inn. We learn later that this likely took place around a year and a half to two years after Jesus’ birth. Sorry if that throws off your nativity scene at your house, but these guys were not with the shepherds and donkeys at Jesus’ birth.
But look at their reaction when they find where Jesus is. They are overwhelmed with joy. The ESV puts it down a little more literally. It says that they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. That’s about 4 modifiers showing how greatly they rejoiced at finding Jesus and learning that what they read was true all along. They are overjoyed. When is the last time that you can remember your faith bringing you that kind of joy? That you could honestly say that something about your relationship with God caused you to rejoice with exceeding, great joy? Even as followers of Jesus, we can cloud out how incredible it is that we have a personal relationship with the living God but distracting ourselves with everything going on around us. Let’s use this year as a time of cherishing God’s Word and his work through it in our lives and get back some of this joy that is waiting for us.
11 Entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and falling to their knees, they worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. 12 And being warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their own country by another route.
Here we see the first option when it comes to our decision about Jesus: Joyful, Submissive Worship.
As soon as they see Jesus they fall to their knees and worship Him. He’s who they have been searching for. They also present their treasures to Him. Now we’re familiar with the gifts that they give to Jesus. I’ve seen a lot of people say that those gifts don’t make a ton of sense to give to a baby or toddler. I think that comes from a misunderstanding of what the wise men were doing by going to Jesus’ house. They weren’t showing up to a baby shower to tell Mary how cute Jesus was, pinch his cheeks, and drop off some onesies and diapers. They were showing up with gifts for a King at His coronation. Remember they asked about where to find the child born King of the Jews. They recognized that Jesus as the Messiah was a royal and spiritual king. Gold was a gift for royalty, frankincense was the primary incense used in religious ceremonies and sacrifices, and myrrh was an ointment used to perfume the rich and royal especially at their burial. So, their gifts were a perfect representation of who Jesus would be for the world.
The wise men give us a beautiful picture of what our worship of Jesus should look like. That we would honor Him as King and Lord as they did by bowing to their knees. And that they opened up their treasures to Him. We stress this point all the time and goes far beyond what we do with money. There are many things in our lives that we treasure, and, for many of us, those are the hardest things for us to submit to the Lord. It might be our time and comfort, it might be our career path, it might even be our family relationships. We fear that submitting all of those things to Jesus fully might lead to difficult decisions and conversations that might throw off the comfortable status quo that we cherish. It’s a treasure we don’t want to open up. But if Jesus is our best and only hope for the forgiveness of our sins, then surely he is our best hope for these things that we treasure.
The wise men’s story ends with this note about being warned not to return to Herod. Let’s take a look now at Herod to show us the other side of the Decision for Jesus: Outright, Selfish Rejection. Let’s go back to the beginning of the chapter.
After Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of King Herod, wise men from the east arrived in Jerusalem, 2 saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star at its rising and have come to worship him.”
3 When King Herod heard this, he was deeply disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him.
So, already a different reaction. So, what part of the wise men’s request would most disturb King Herod? If you guessed the whole born King of the Jews thing, you’d be correct. Because Herod’s title was King of the Jews. He was given this title by the Romans back around 40 BC, so he had been ruling Israel for the Romans for over 35 years. Herod actually wasn’t even Jewish, he’s described as an Idumean. This means he was a descendant of the Edomites. The Edomites traced their lineage back to Esau unlike the Jews who were descendants of Jacob. The nation of Edom would then become sworn enemies of Israel throughout the history of the nation of Israel. So, Herod is ruling over the Jews as a descendant of an enemy nation serving at the will of another foreign invading nation. Herod did many things to try to please the Jewish people in order to keep his power, most of these were grand building projects. Herod was actually responsible for restoring the Temple in Jerusalem back to a condition equal if not better than when Solomon built it. But you can see why he might be a bit testy to find out someone else might have a claim at being King of the Jews.
4 So he assembled all the chief priests and scribes of the people and asked them where the Messiah would be born. 5 “In Bethlehem of Judea,” they told him, “because this is what was written by the prophet: 6 And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah: Because out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.”
Herod calls on his day’s version of Google to try to find out where the Messiah might be born. And where do the priests and scribes look? The Old Testament again. Now what we have here is Matthew’s paraphrase of what they would have said to Herod. He actually quotes parts of a few different OT passages here to help make a point. Most of it comes from Micah 5, which is all about a future ruler to be born in Bethlehem. Here are a few verses from that passage that Matthew condenses in his account.
But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah,
from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days. 3 Therefore he shall give them up until the time when she who is in labor has given birth; then the rest of his brothers shall return to the people of Israel. 4 And he shall stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God. And they shall dwell secure, for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth. Micah 5:2-4
You can see that in Matthew’s account he shortens this passage and focuses on Bethlehem being in the land of Judah and the fact that the leader will act as a shepherd. The shepherd motif was a common reference to King David and his childhood as a shepherd. You can even see this in David’s coronation address in 2 Samuel 5:2. Now most Jewish people knew that the Messiah was supposed to come from the tribe of Judah and be a direct descendant of King David. Matthew in this paraphrase is trying to make it a glowing sign pointing his Jewish readers to the fact that Jesus checks all of these boxes. To Matthew and the wise men this is a joyful discovery, but check out the response of the priests and scribes. They simply give Herod the info and then move on to other business. They don’t jump on the road to Bethlehem to find Jesus and worship him like the wise men. They’re rejecting Jesus through their apathy. Herod will also reject Jesus, but he was far from apathetic. Let’s take a look.
Then Herod secretly summoned the wise men and asked them the exact time the star appeared. 8 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 too can go and worship him.”
So, Herod lines up the Biblical info with the calendars of the wise men and tells them to go find Jesus so that he can worship Him too. This is a lie from the start and we’ll see how much of a lie it is.
We don’t have time to explore verses 13-15 in detail but it describes how, after the wise men left Jesus, Joseph gets a warning in a dream that he needs to flee Bethlehem with Mary and Jesus and hide out in Egypt, because something bad is about to happen. Matthew links this event to Jesus essentially playing out the events of the Exodus and fulfilling yet another prophecy about him found in Hosea 11. I told you this story was full of OT references.
16 Then Herod, when he realized that he had been outwitted by the wise men, flew into a rage. He gave orders to massacre all the boys in and around Bethlehem who were two years old and under, in keeping with the time he had learned from the wise men.
Herod is so concerned with holding on to his title as King of the Jews, that he orders a massacre. Now Bethlehem was not a large town at this time, but it is still estimated that there would be about 20-30 boys of that age living in and around it at any time. This wasn’t unusual for Herod, he killed a wife, three of his own sons, and countless other people who he thought threatened his power. Caesar Augustus once wrote that he would rather be one of Herod’s pigs than on of his sons. But Matthew sees even in this tragedy the redeeming work of God, and he uses Scripture to show it again.
17 Then what was spoken through Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled: 18 A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children; and she refused to be consoled, because they are no more.
Matthew even tells his writers that this prophecy comes from the book of Jeremiah. Specifically, this one comes from Jeremiah 31:15. Jeremiah was writing another tragedy that happened to Israel, the fall of Jerusalem and resulting exile at the hands of the Babylonians. Ramah was place near Jerusalem that was used as a kind of staging ground and crossroads. The people who weren’t killed in the fighting were gathered there to separated and sent into exile in various places across the Babylonian empire. So, families who had lost people in the fighting now had to watch as they were separated and sent away likely to never see each other again. Rachel is a reference to all the mothers in Israel as Rachel was the beloved wife of Jacob. So, in the face of the tragedy in Bethlehem, Matthew writes down Jeremiah’s recounting of an even larger tragedy. But the way a lot of these quotes work is that the NT author will write down only the beginning of an OT passage and assume that his readers would know what follows it. Since, we aren’t as well versed in the OT as a 1st century Jewish person, let’s read what comes after this in Jeremiah.
15 Thus says the Lord: “A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping.
Rachel is weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more.” 16 Thus says the Lord: “Keep your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears, for there is a reward for your work, declares the Lord, and they shall come back from the land of the enemy. 17 There is hope for your future, declares the Lord, and your children shall come back to their own country.
Just like Jeremiah promised that the people of Israel would eventually come back from their Babylonian exile, Matthew is promising that, through the work of Jesus as the Messiah, all people could return from an even darker form of exile, separation from God due to sin. Through His life, death, and resurrection, Jesus would bring his people back to right relationship with Him after a long separation. That’s why it is so vital that we make the right decision when it comes to Jesus.
The Big Idea of the message is this: When it comes to Jesus, the choice is either joyful, submissive worship or outright, selfish rejection.
Someone is going to be King over your life. It’s either going to be Jesus, something of this world, or more likely yourself. The temptation for us is to reject Jesus like Herod did in order to maintain our sense of power and control. We just can’t accept that Jesus would come in and take over the things that we hold so dear. You may not react in the violent way that Herod did, but you may kill certain lines of conversation or say that certain aspects of life are off limits. Religion or spiritual things become third rail topics in conversations. You may like some of what Jesus and the Bible teaches but refuse to submit to what it might say about money, relationships, or other issues important to you. If you are hear today or listening online and think that you are somehow riding the fence or most of the way there in following Jesus, understand that there is not fence to ride. You are either trying to worship him fully as King (understanding that we aren’t going to do this perfectly) or you are rejecting him in favor of keeping the crown on your head. But know that God’s Word written to act like the star the wise men followed in order to lead you to the exceeding joy of worshipping Jesus as your King.