Matthew 2 | The Upward Way | Bible Study with A. Z. Adams — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00[Music]
2. 0:00Jesus, open our eyes to see, our ears to
3. 0:05hear, and our hearts to receive and obey
4. 0:09your word. In your name we pray. Amen.
5. 0:15Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of
6. 0:18Judea in the days of Herod the king,
7. 0:22magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem,
8. 0:26saying, "Where is he who has been born
9. 0:30king of the Jews? For we saw his star in
10. 0:33the east and have come to worship him."
11. 0:36When Herod the king heard this, he was
12. 0:40troubled and all Jerusalem with him.
13. 0:44Gathering together all the chief priests
14. 0:46and scribes of the people, he inquired
15. 0:49of them where the Messiah was to be
16. 0:52born. They said to him, "In Bethlehem of
17. 0:56Judea, for this is what has been written
18. 0:59by the prophet. And you, Bethlehem, land
19. 1:02of Judah, are by no means least among
20. 1:05the leaders of Judah. for out of you
21. 1:08shall come forth a ruler who will
22. 1:11shepherd my people Israel.
23. 1:14Then Herod secretly called the magi and
24. 1:17determined from them the exact time the
25. 1:20star appeared. And he sent them to
26. 1:23Bethlehem and said, "Go and search
27. 1:26carefully for the child. And when you
28. 1:29have found him, report to me so that I
29. 1:33too may come and worship him." After
30. 1:36hearing the king, they went their way,
31. 1:39and the star which they had seen in the
32. 1:42east went on before them until it came
33. 1:45and stood over the place where the child
34. 1:47was.
35. 1:49When they saw the star, they rejoiced
36. 1:51exceedingly with great joy. After coming
37. 1:55into the house, they saw the child with
38. 1:58Mary, his mother, and they fell to the
39. 2:01ground and worshiped him. Then opening
40. 2:04their treasures, they presented to him
41. 2:07gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrr.
42. 2:11And having been warned by God in a dream
43. 2:14not to return to Herod, the magi left
44. 2:17for their own country by another way.
45. 2:21So here we have Matthew pivoting in
46. 2:24chapter 2 to explain to us the various
47. 2:28responses
48. 2:30that Christ receives from the people of
49. 2:33his day.
50. 2:35We have a witness of foreigners, kings
51. 2:38from the east. We don't know how many
52. 2:41there were. The Bible does not tell us
53. 2:43that there were three, but it does say
54. 2:46that they brought three gifts. So people
55. 2:48kind of infer that
56. 2:50But what we know is that Jesus's
57. 2:53appearance produced one of two responses
58. 2:56in these verses. Fear or worship.
59. 3:01Fear from Herod that made him feel
60. 3:05threatened that his own kingship would
61. 3:08be destroyed or lost. You see, Herod was
62. 3:15partly Jewish and partly Edomite, a
63. 3:18descendant of Esau,
64. 3:20and he had been placed as the king of
65. 3:22the Jews.
66. 3:24And he was serving as a client king by
67. 3:28Rome. So he was a king in submission to
68. 3:31Rome who was kind of keeping the
69. 3:34appearances of the old Jewish kingdom in
70. 3:37intact, but he was really the servant of
71. 3:40Rome. He wasn't well-loved, but he was a
72. 3:43power-hungry,
73. 3:45brutal ruler. And so when he heard that
74. 3:48a king has been born, he wants to know
75. 3:50where. And he behaves in a most ruthless
76. 3:54manner. But the magi go and they have
77. 3:57the exact opposite response. They leave
78. 4:00the safety of their kingdom. They leave
79. 4:03the safety of their country and they
80. 4:06travel and they come and they worship
81. 4:09Jesus.
82. 4:10This is perhaps a good while after he
83. 4:13was born. He's living in a house now.
84. 4:16He's not in a stable and he may be two
85. 4:19years old by this point. We don't know.
86. 4:22But Herod is able to find from the magi
87. 4:24the exact time of his birth based on the
88. 4:27appearance of this star. It's not a
89. 4:30detail that the Bible records, but it is
90. 4:32a detail that would have been known at
91. 4:34that time. But the magi are warned by
92. 4:37God in a dream. And they don't tell
93. 4:40Herod where the baby is staying.
94. 4:44Now when they the magi had gone, behold,
95. 4:47an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph
96. 4:49in a dream and said, "Get up. Take the
97. 4:52child and his mother and flee to Egypt
98. 4:55and remain there until I tell you, for
99. 4:58Herod is going to search for the child
100. 5:01to destroy him."
101. 5:04So Joseph got up and took the child and
102. 5:06his mother while it was still night and
103. 5:09left for Egypt. He remained there until
104. 5:13the death of Herod. This was to fulfill
105. 5:16what had been spoken by the Lord through
106. 5:18the prophets. Out of Egypt I called my
107. 5:22son. So this is Matthew again telling us
108. 5:26that Jesus is Israel.
109. 5:30That he is not a new thing in the sense
110. 5:32of separate from what God spoke and
111. 5:34promised and did for the Jewish people.
112. 5:37Instead, he is tied to their story and
113. 5:40he is fulfilling their story because we
114. 5:43know that Israel as a nation came out of
115. 5:46Egypt. But now we see that Jesus is
116. 5:49going through that same journey. He's
117. 5:52got to be part of the Abrahamic covenant
118. 5:55of promise and the Davidic covenant of
119. 5:58the royal kingdom. And so Matthew is
120. 6:01showing that to us once again. It's
121. 6:04powerful to see the obedience of Joseph
122. 6:07and just what kind of person God chose
123. 6:10as a husband for Mary and the earthly
124. 6:13father of Jesus. This man, we've seen in
125. 6:16chapter 1, is righteous because he
126. 6:18doesn't want to embarrass people even
127. 6:20when he thinks they've gone wrong. Now,
128. 6:23we see that this man is able to overcome
129. 6:25his fear when the Lord tells him not to
130. 6:28be afraid to take Mary as your wife. And
131. 6:30in chapter 2, we see that he has another
132. 6:33visitation of the angel. And God speaks
133. 6:36to him in a dream to take action. And he
134. 6:39does not even wait until the sun is up
135. 6:42before he's got the baby and the mother
136. 6:44and they're headed to Egypt. This man is
137. 6:47not a man of rigid principles. He's
138. 6:50willing to set his principles aside when
139. 6:53he encounters the presence and the voice
140. 6:56of the living God.
141. 6:58Then when Herod saw that he had been
142. 7:01tricked by the magi, he became very
143. 7:05enraged and sent and slew all the male
144. 7:09children who were in Bethlehem and all
145. 7:12its vicinity from 2 years old and under
146. 7:16according to the time which he had
147. 7:18determined from the magi.
148. 7:21Then what had been spoken through
149. 7:23Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled. A
150. 7:27voice was heard in Rama, weeping and
151. 7:31great mourning. Rachel weeping for her
152. 7:34children, and she refused to be
153. 7:37comforted because they were no more. But
154. 7:41when Herod died, behold, an angel of the
155. 7:43Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in
156. 7:45Egypt and said, "Get up, take the child
157. 7:49and his mother, and go into the land of
158. 7:51Israel. for those who sought the child's
159. 7:54life are dead. So Joseph got up, took
160. 7:58the child and his mother, and came into
161. 8:00the land of Israel. But when he learned
162. 8:03that Archulus was reigning over Judah in
163. 8:07place of his father Herod, he was afraid
164. 8:09to go there. Then after being warned by
165. 8:12God in a dream, he left for the regions
166. 8:15of Galilee
167. 8:17and came and lived in a city called
168. 8:20Nazareth.
169. 8:22This was to fulfill what was spoken
170. 8:24through the prophet. He shall be called
171. 8:27a Nazarene.
172. 8:29In these final verses of chapter 2,
173. 8:32Matthew is again telling us that the
174. 8:35same thing that happened at the time of
175. 8:38Moses is happening at the time of Jesus.
176. 8:42the competitive worldly king of the
177. 8:46time, Herod, in this instance, is going
178. 8:49on a rage and a rampage and he's
179. 8:52slaughtering the innocents.
180. 8:54And he's again connecting us to prophecy
181. 8:57by telling us that this fulfills what
182. 8:59Jeremiah prophesied about Rachel, which
183. 9:02is figuratively
184. 9:04the the children of Joseph, the children
185. 9:07of of the covenant. And then he also
186. 9:10tells us that Jesus ending up back in
187. 9:13Nazareth, which is the place of Joseph's
188. 9:17heritage, that that is fulfilling
189. 9:19scripture. So all of this that seems
190. 9:22chaotic and scary, God is weaving a
191. 9:26thread of covenant promise through it.
192. 9:28And the pivotal player in all of this
193. 9:31story of Matthew is Joseph. Joseph is
194. 9:35obedient when he takes his wife in
195. 9:38response to the Holy Spirit. Joseph is
196. 9:40obedient when he flees to Egypt in
197. 9:43response to the Holy Spirit. Joseph is
198. 9:45obedient when he returns to Israel in
199. 9:48the response to the Holy Spirit. And
200. 9:50Joseph is obedient when he goes to
201. 9:52Nazareth in response to the Holy Spirit.
202. 9:55And these four steps by Joseph, God was
203. 9:59depending on to protect the child of
204. 10:02promise, the Messiah. So God is honoring
205. 10:05Joseph in Matthew's first chapters here
206. 10:09more than anybody else.
207. 10:11[Music]