This evening I wanted to take a look at Matthew, and if you have your Bible, it turns me to Matthew chapter 2. And on Sunday we were looking at the fact that 30% of the Bible is prophecies, and they gave some of the prophecies that dealt with the first coming of the Lord Jesus, and tonight I wanted to look at another passage that feels just a little bit after the time of Jesus’ birth. Most Bible scholars and historians believe that this event that we’re going to look at this evening happened about 1 to 2 years when Jesus was born. Jesus was born at Bethlehem.
He was born in a stable, given in Luke’s Gospel. They went to Bethlehem because of the tax that the Roman Empire had placed on all the sins, and they were to go to the place of the family’s origin and be taxed there. And Joseph, being of the lineage of David, as well as Mary, was a lineage of David as well.
They both went to Bethlehem, and when they got there, there wasn’t any room for them in the end. So they ended up having to spend the night in the stable, and that’s when Mary delivered the day to Jesus. Now, this event that we’re going to be looking at this evening, as I mentioned, is about a year or two later, because we see that Mary and Joseph are no longer in the stable.
We read in Matthew’s Gospel in chapter 2 that they are not living in a house. They’re still in Bethlehem. Part of the reason that they stayed in Bethlehem is that we just touched on it on Sunday.
First of all, after the time of purification, which was 40 days for a woman after she had delivered her child, then they were to take the child of the baby to the temple, and they were to dedicate him to the Lord. And that’s what we saw just briefly on Sunday, when we read towards the end of chapter 2 of Luke’s Gospel, where Simeon and Anna were at the temple when Mary and Joseph brought Jesus or his dedication. And they saw the Lord revealed to them that this was the Messiah that they’d been waiting for.
And this is one of the reasons that they stayed and remained in Jerusalem. But they stayed there longer, and the reasons aren’t really given beyond that. But we know that they were there, because now they’re in a house, they’re not in the stable.
So let’s just look at chapter 2 of Matthew’s Gospel this evening.:
Matthew 2
Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judæa in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, 2 saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him. 3 When Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. 4 And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he demanded of them where Christ should be born. 5 And they said unto him, In Bethlehem of Judæa: for thus it is written by the prophet, 6 And thou Bethlehem, in the land of Juda, art not the least among the princes of Juda: for out of thee shall come a Governor, that shall rule my people Israel.
7 Then Herod, when he had privily called the wise men, enquired of them diligently what time the star appeared. 8 And he sent them to Bethlehem, and said, Go and search diligently for the young child; and when ye have found him, bring me word again, that I may come and worship him also.
9 When they had heard the king, they departed; and, lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was. 10 When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. 11 And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh. 12 And being warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed into their own country another way.
13 And when they were departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word: for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him. 14 When he arose, he took the young child and his mother by night, and departed into Egypt: 15 and was there until the death of Herod: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called my son.
16 Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently enquired of the wise men. 17 Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying, 18 In Rama was there a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not.
19 But when Herod was dead, behold, an angel of the Lord appeareth in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, 20 saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and go into the land of Israel: for they are dead which sought the young child’s life. 21 And he arose, and took the young child and his mother, and came into the land of Israel. 22 But when he heard that Archelaus did reign in Judæa in the room of his father Herod, he was afraid to go thither: notwithstanding, being warned of God in a dream, he turned aside into the parts of Galilee: 23 and he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, He shall be called a Nazarene.
That’s just following through.
The only Father I pray that you just speak to us through your word tonight and help us to see all the events that occurred, and how that you are in control. And Father that you orchestrated all the events surrounding Jesus’ birth, and surrounding the events that happened afterwards, and where he ended up growing up in the Galilee, and in the city of Nazareth. What I pray that you just speak to us and help us to be encouraged as we look at our world today, and understand that we live in a very difficult time.
But yet, as we look at the events around us, we see all the signs pointing to your Second Coming, and they would be encouraged that you are just as in control today as you were then. And Lord, speak to us now this evening and pray in Jesus’ name. One of the amazing things as you look at this is we don’t, a lot of times, we begin to look at Bible historical accounts, and we hear them, and we think of them as stories.
They’re not stories. These are real historical accounts that happen to real people. And one of the things that you need to realize is what was happening in Israel at the time when Jesus was born.
Because a lot of times, we fail to take into account what’s putting around a given situation that’s recorded in Scripture. The Romans were in charge of the land of Israel. The Romans, as you look at the book of Daniel, see that the Romans had come to power after the Greek Empire, and then died, and they were the latest empire that was in power.
As a matter of fact, they would be the last empire that would be in power of Daniel’s four empires that he sees recorded in his book. When the Romans came to power, they ruled with iron hands. And one of the things that they did is oftentimes they wanted to place their rulers in positions of authority, but they wanted to make it appear to the people that the people still had some say, if you would.
And so when they came, Herod, and a lot of people don’t know this, but Herod had gone to school with the Caesars, he’d gone to school with Cleopatra, he’d gone to school with Mark Anthony, some of the people and names that you recognize in history, those were Herod’s classmates in Rome. And he was appointed to be in charge of the Israel, Syria, and Israel, and that region of the world. And when he came to power, you need to understand who Herod was.
Herod was not a Jew. Herod was an Edomite. Now, in order to understand the significance of that, you need to go all the way back to when Rebecca was pregnant with Jacob and Este.
She went to the Lord in prayer and said, what is going on in my womb? I feel that there’s a war going on in my womb. He says, well, there are two nations in your womb, and they’re struggling. And these two nations came out of Esau and Jacob.
The Edomites came out of the lineage of Esau. They were the descendants of Esau, and the Israelites were the descendants of Jacob. Now, the Israelites and the Edomites have always been at contention with one another.
Part of that goes all the way back to the time that Esau was the elder. He was supposed to receive the blessing. He was also supposed to receive not only the blessing, but he was also to receive the birthright.
Yes. The birthright and the blessing. He sold his birthright for a bowl of stew, and he did not receive the blessing.
Jacob received the blessing, and then Esau had given away his birthright. So he inherited either one of the things that he should have inherited. He became very angry about this.
He had wanted them, even though he had no desire to be the one that would be in the lineage of the Messiah. Jacob would become Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the lineage of the Messiah. Out of Jacob would come Judah.
Out of Judah would come David. And David would be the one that would be the king that would sit on the throne. And Jesus would come out of the lineage of David.
He would sit on the throne of David when he returned and establishes his kingdom on earth. So we see that that is the background to this. And then you come now, and Herod is the king of Judah.
How does an Edomite become the king of Israel? How does an Edomite become the king of Israel? A despised person. How does it become the king of Israel? Well, he feigned that he converted to Judaism, but he really didn’t. He did it for political reasons.
He did it because he wanted to maintain control in the area. And he also knew that Rome would be very upset with him because the Jews had oftentimes been a rebellious people against authorities that were placed over them, and they wanted him to maintain control. He also ruled with an iron hand, and he was a very evil and wicked man.
You have to know a little bit about Herod, too, to understand of the events that transpired after the wise man, Tom, to see Jesus. Herod was very paranoid, and he was also very evil. Herod killed some of his own family members because he was afraid that they wanted to take over his throne.
He was so paranoid of Cleopatra, if you ever go to Israel, one of the things that they will take you on is the tour of Masada. Masada was a castle he built up in the desert south of Jerusalem, up on top of a big plateau mountain. And he built that to flee to if Cleopatra came to try and kill him.
He was just a very paranoid man, a very evil man, and he also didn’t really like the Jewish people, even though he was supposedly the king. So, this is the circumstances that are surrounding the events that you are going to see. Now, the other thing that you have to understand is who is in control.
Herod in control? Are the wise men in control? Are Mary and Joseph in control? If you look at the whole thing, you see that God is in control. And if you stop and think about it, this is pretty amazing. Because Jesus has been, and you see that Herod got out of the wise men from the text, that Jesus had been born somewhere about two years prior to this, because he got from the wise men when they started seeing these signs, and where these signs were.
Because he wanted to find out who this king of the Jews was, so he could kill him. That was his whole intent. And we see that after the wise men leave, he sends his soldiers to the Bethlehem region.
Bethlehem is a little town that is south of Jerusalem, south and a little bit east of Jerusalem, and it’s about three miles, four miles, five miles south of Jerusalem. It’s not that far, but it was at this time just a small town. Today you go there, and it’s like there’s most places.
It’s kind of a city all the way from Jerusalem to Bethlehem, but at that time it wasn’t. And he sent his soldiers to Bethlehem, and all the region immediately around Bethlehem, to kill all the babies that were two years old and younger. He was going to make sure that he got rid of this king, because he didn’t want anybody to take his position in power.
I don’t know how a two-year-old would take the position of a man who was approaching the time of his death, but that’s the paranoia of Herod. And also, if you look at Herod, there’s a lot of, I believe, demonic activity in his life, just the way he responded and how he had no problem killing people. And also, he desired to kill the Messiah.
Satan has always desired to prevent God’s prophecies and God’s promises from coming about. Today you see that in our world, and people say, why do people hate the Jews so much? Why is there so much anti-Semitism? Well, it has nothing to do with the fact that the Jews are a people. It has everything to the fact that they are the ones that God has made promises to that haven’t been fulfilled.
Satan desires to get God so he cannot fulfill his promises. And if he would kill every Jew today, God would not be able to fulfill his promises about the second coming of Jesus where the Jews are going to be blessed in a special way, and they’re going to turn back to Jesus and acknowledge him as a Messiah. It wouldn’t happen.
So you see that this has been a constant battle going all the way back to the Garden of Eden, which we looked at on Sunday. So we see that there are these events that are occurring. This is a little bit of the history behind them.
Now I want you to take a look at these three why’s then. Who are these guys? Where did they come from? Well, it says they come from the east. In all likelihood, they could have come probably from Calvary, which would be Babylon today.
We know that from looking at other portions of Scripture, that there were men in Babylon that were referred to as wise men. They were referred to as those that had great knowledge and understanding. They would study the stars.
They would look at astrology and the heavens and figure out things. And in all likelihood, that’s probably the reason they came from. And these were some of the things that they had done.
What they began to see, and if you want to stop and think about it, my wife and I just saw a little video that was put on YouTube by an astronomer and scientist about the events that would have surrounded the stars and the heavens at the time of Jesus’ birth to allow this stuff to line up so that the star would be bright and it would be right over the city of Bethlehem. And if you stop and think about it, it’s amazing. God controlled all of this.
If you stop and think that this had to happen exactly at this time, it had to happen so these men would see this happen and they would take them time to get from Babylon to Bethlehem and that God would arrange the heavens so that they would see this unique star and unique light that would be planted right over Bethlehem and showing them where to go. And if you stop and think about it, it’s just amazing, but most people don’t stop to think about it. They think, that’s nice.
Well, God did it all. It just doesn’t happen by chance. And so we see that this happened and they saw this star, they begin to see it, and evidently they saw these changes in the heavens occurring two years before they actually got there because Herod inquired, how long does it happen? And that’s who I’m going to kill.
It’s everybody that’s under that age that’s a boy. And so they tell him, now when they get there, where would be the logical place you’d go to find a king? Well, the first thing I can mention, you’re only five miles apart from Jerusalem to Bethlehem and so they go to Jerusalem, they go to the king’s palace because that’s where they think the king should be. And they get there and they say, we are here because we see that the king of Israel has come.
Well, Herod knows he’s not the king of Israel. He’s a politically appointed king of Israel, but he’s not the real king of Israel. He’s not from the line of David.
He’s not the one that fulfilled any of the Jewish prophecies dealing with the king of Israel. He’s not the one that has been told about that would be coming and he knows it. But they go and they present themselves to Herod, who is the king of Israel, and they say we’re here to worship the king.
He says, well, who is this king and where is he? What do you know about him? And Herod immediately wants to know because Herod doesn’t exactly study the Bible. Herod doesn’t really spend a lot of time reading it, so he gets those who do. And so he calls the priests and the scribes in to tell him, where is this king supposed to be born? And they come in and they know of the prophecy that’s recorded in Micah that talks about that this king will be born in Bethlehem of Ephrata.
Now, it’s important that it’s Bethlehem Ephrata because there’s another Bethlehem in Israel. There’s another Bethlehem in northern Israel that’s not Ephrata, but it said Bethlehem Ephrata. Bethlehem Ephrata is the one that’s right next to Jerusalem.
That is where he said that the prophet had foretold that Jesus would be born. Well, that prophet had lived a few hundred years before Herod came on the scene and before the wise men were seeing the stars, and yet the prophet had foretold that that’s where he would be born. And so these prophets, these priests and scribes, and the scribes, just so you have an understanding of who they were, they were the people that recorded the Scripture, and they would go through and they had to make sure that every jot and fiddle was correct, and so they had to know the Scriptures because they were recording it, and if they made a mistake they had to start all over.
Their job was extremely important in recording the Scriptures to make sure that they were accurate, because this was the Word of God. And the priests, the priests were supposed to be the ones that were directing the people on how to worship the Lord. They were to be the ones that would lead in the sacrifices.
They should have known about the coming Messiah, but we know that already the priesthood, like the kingship, had been perverted by the Romans, and they were willing to sell the priesthood, the position of priests, to whoever would pay them and give them the greatest political alliance. And at the time of Jesus’ death, we see the Father come to its culmination, as Caiaphas and his family were not supposed to be the high priests, but rather they had arranged circumstances and they bought the priesthood, and one of the reasons they wanted to kill Jesus was because they felt him a threat to their position of power and their corrupt priesthood, and they wanted him out of the way. And so we see that all of these events that come to a culmination of his death, the foundation of these events being laid, occurred way back at the time of his birth.
Herod is told that he’s born and best with him. Then he tells the wife of these three, well, we don’t know for sure if there were three. The reason he comes three is because there were three gifts that were mentioned, and so they say, well, there must have been three.
Well, we know that there were at least three. There could have been more because a lot of times they would travel in large parabens and contingencies, so there may have been more with them, but we know that there were at least three. And these men are told by Herod, go and find this child, and I am so excited that you’ve come.
Go and find him, and when you find him, come back and tell me, because I want to go and worship him. No, he really wanted to go to kill him. But the thing is, he’s lying, because he’s also a liar and a murderer, and he has no problem lying.
He’s just like his father Satan. He has no problem telling people, and he has no problem lying. So he lies to them and tells them, I want to go worship him, so come back and tell me where he’s at.
So they leave and they go, and then the Lord, if you stop and think about it, the Lord knew when all of these things were going to happen, so he has the heavens orchestrated so that this star, and whether it’s the sky that we listened to, said that it very well could be planets that were aligned themselves in a unique role that never hardly ever happened, and it’s extremely bright, and then as they’re moving in the heavens, they stop, and because of the circle that they’re making, they’re going back the way that they rotated, and so that they’re aligning, and it appears that they’ve stopped for a period. I don’t know if that was, or if it was a special star that God created for this. Whatever, God was in charge, and it’s something that you or I couldn’t do.
Men couldn’t do. Even with all of our, quote, space technology, we couldn’t do it. One guy that we know very well when he was living, Dave Hunt, I liked his comment.
He says, the United States talks about their day space program. He said, their space program, our space program is like an ant climbing to the top of a blade of grass and looking out over the lawn and saying, I know all about the world. That’s our space program, because we haven’t been anywhere in space when you stop and think about it, and so we have no concept of God’s ability when he flung and created all of this, and he knows every star by name, and so he could orchestrate these things whether he had a specific star, whether it was planets, he orchestrated it, and he orchestrated it to happen right at the moment that the wise men left, Herod thrown, the star plants itself over Bethlehem and over the house in Bethlehem where Jesus was, and you talk about fulfillment of prophecy and who’s in control, God’s in control.
So we see that that happens, the wise men go, and when they get there they find Jesus just as they were told. When they find Jesus, they bring him in their gifts. Now it’s interesting the gifts they bring in, gold, frankincense, and myrrh, and if you look at these three things, why these three gifts? Well, it’s interesting as you look at that that gold is a symbol of authority, or a king, power, and purity.
Frankincense is an aromic perfume, and it’s a symbol of the fact that this person would rule, and he would rule with the authority. And then myrrh is used for burial, and it’s the spice that is associated with death. You have the three things, you have Jesus as king, Jesus as the benevolent ruler, and Jesus who would pay the penalty for our sins, exemplified in the gifts that these three men bring.
Why would they bring these three gifts? They didn’t know anything other than he was a king and a Jew. Now, other things that they may have heard, and why they in likelihood were Chaldeans, if you go to the book of Daniel, go to the book of Ezekiel, go to the book of Jeremiah, go to the book of Isaiah. Those are the four major, longest prophets that have written the most, their writings are the most in the Old Testament, that’s why they’re called the major prophets, it’s not because they’re more significant than the other prophets, it’s just that they have spoken longer than the other ones.
They all had ties to Babylon. It’s about the weeks of Daniel and it’s dealing with the Messiah and what’s happening with the Messiah in Israel and the whole world. And the thing is, they would have in all likelihood heard of these prophecies, especially Ezekiel and Daniel, because Ezekiel and Daniel were affiliated with the wise men of Babylon because that’s where Nebuchadnezzar had placed Daniel amongst them when he was brought into captivity. And Ezekiel was also affiliated, he was ministered more to the Jewish people there, but they would have known about their prophecies.
And they would have known about the fact that this king that was coming, there was something going to be special about this king. He was going to be a different king because of Daniel’s prophecies. And so that’s why they came, and that may very well be why God inspired them to bring these three gifts because they would deal with who Jesus was.
Jesus would be the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Jesus would come as the King’s servant and come to offer himself for the people as a sweet aroma. And then he would be the one that would suffer and die to pay the family for our sins.
So God inspired them, I believe, to bring these gifts, and they may have gotten some of it from the prophecies of Daniel and Ezekiel, but they came with these gifts. Well, then there’s interesting things that happen after this. They come, and remember Herod told them, now when you find them, come back to us.
Come back to me. I want to know where he is, because I want to go worship him. God appears to them, and he tells them don’t go back.
Don’t go back because he desires to kill the baby. I want you to go here home, but go a different way. And so they are obedient, and they listen to what the angel of the Lord tells them, and they go a different way.
Then the angel of the Lord appears to Joseph, and he tells Joseph, you need to take your wife, Mary, and the baby, and go to Egypt. Now I should put a map up here. I could have shown you that Egypt wasn’t just a little trek from Jerusalem by foot or by donkey, and that’s how they would have traveled, by foot and by donkey.
But Egypt would probably be quite a trek to get down there. You’d have to either go south to the Negev and over, or you’d have to go to the Sinai Peninsula and down to Egypt that way. But it’s a bit of a trek, but that’s where they went.
They went to Egypt. And they went to Egypt because Pharaoh wasn’t going to go and look in Egypt. I mean Pharaoh, Herod wasn’t going to go and look in Egypt.
And so they went to Egypt, and Herod gets all of his soldiers, and he immediately goes out and tells all the ladies in the Bethlehem area. Now what’s the other significance of Bethlehem? Those are the prophecies given in the Old Testament. They talked about the fact that Rachel is weeping for her children.
What is the significance of Rachel in Bethlehem and weeping for children? Rachel was buried in the Bethlehem area. Rachel was the second wife of Jacob, and she is the one that is weeping because all of these prophets are seeing her, in essence, weeping because of the death of these children. But she didn’t live then.
That’s what the Bible is equating to, is that she is weeping because of these children’s death. And it was in Bethlehem, where they were killed. And that prophecy was given in the Old Testament as well.
So it seems that we’ve already had a number of prophecies that were given that was fulfilled around Jesus, the coming of these wise men, all those events that transpired around them. Now, we know that Jesus ended up in Nazareth. That’s where he grew up.
He ministered, the majority of his ministry was in the Galilee region. And if you go to Israel today, you will see, if you go to the sites, some of the places Jesus said the ,, Jesus gave the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus went across the Galilean Sea.
Jesus went to the east side of the Sea of Galilee. And you see all these places, they’re all up in the Galilee region, because that’s where Jesus mainly ministered. His center of ministry, when he ministered, was Capernaum.
Capernaum is a city that’s right up at the north end of the Sea of Galilee. And it is down at south and east of Nazareth. And it’s not that far from Nazareth.
So Jesus went and he ended up growing up in Nazareth. Well, how do you get to Nazareth when you’re born in Bethlehem? That’s where your parents are both from, that’s their ancestor at home. And then they head out to Egypt to avoid you being killed.
How do you get to Nazareth? Well, some other events happen. Herod dies. Herod the Great dies.
When Herod the Great dies, an angel appears to Joseph and he says, you can now go back to Israel because the one who desired to kill the boy, or kill Jesus, is dead. And so they go back. But when they go back, they hear that Herod’s son is on the throne.
His son, find the verse where I get the written in the meantime, right? Arceleus. Herod’s son Arceleus was worse than Herod when it came to killing people. He was as awful as his father.
He was in charge. Herod had other children that were in charge of other portions of the country. One son was in charge of northern Israel.
One son was in charge of northeastern Israel. And Arceleus was in charge of Jerusalem and the media were thrown in the area. He was the worst of them all.
Philip was actually, I believe, in charge of the northern portion when Nazareth was. And so the Lord tells Joseph not to go back to Jerusalem, but to go to Nazareth. And they take the child back.
They end up in Nazareth. Now, guess what? There’s other prophecies given in Scripture that speak of the fact that Jesus was going to grow up in a place in the northern part of the country where he would be despised and rejected by the people. Why would he be despised and rejected if he went to Nazareth? And would he be called a Nazarene? Because the people of Nazareth were looked down upon, especially by the cosmopolitan people of Jerusalem.
In the south, this all goes, and it goes back to the time even when the kingdom split. And you had the northern kingdom of Israel, the southern kingdom of Judah. And the southern kingdom they kept on in the temple worship.
The northern kingdom began to worship false gods. And so the northern tribes were always looked down upon by the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. Because they’re the ones that stayed true to the Lord longer, but they became just as wicked as the northern tribes.
God actually calls them all worse because he says, You saw what your sister Israel did, and you saw my judgment upon her when he brought the Assyrians upon them. And yet, you did the same thing except worse. And I’m going to bring the Babylonians on you as judgment.
So they viewed themselves as being superior, but they really weren’t. And the thing is, they looked down on people that were from there. They looked at them kind of like the country hicks of the Israelites.
So Jesus sets up his ministry out of Capernaum. And he comes from growing up in Nazareth. And he grew up not as a priest and not as a loyalty.
But he grew up as a carpenter. And the word carpenter is probably not quite correct in its English translation. Because if you go to Israel, it would be more like a brick mason.
He grew up in handling stones and bricks and building, and that’s what Joseph did. And because they put buildings together, they were translated as carpenters in English. But they really were working with stones.
The thing is, that was his job. He’d been trained by his father, his earthly father that had been entrusted with raising him, to be that. And we see that he was looked down upon.
First of all, does anything good come out of Nazareth? That’s what people would say from the south, when Jesus would come down there. Is anything good out of Nazareth? They’d also put him down, because he wasn’t one of them. And if you look at his disciples, of his disciples came from the north.
The only one that was not was Judas Iscariot. And he was from Judah.
He was from the south of Jerusalem. And so we see that all of these things come into place, and they’re prophesied hundreds of years before the events occurred. And then they occur, and the people don’t see it.
The vast majority of the people don’t see it, but some do. And it’s interesting, if you look back, and we just touched on it on Sunday, Simeon and Anna, in Luke chapter , you’ll see that Simeon and Anna were both from northern tribes. And yet, they were in Jerusalem, worshipping at the temple, because they were God-fearing people who loved the Lord.
And they were looking for the Messiah, because they listened to the Scriptures, and they saw the Messiah was supposed to be coming, and they saw the events that were supposed to be surrounding his birth, and the events were all there, and he had to be coming. And then the Lord revealed to Simeon, he said, I will not allow you to die until you have seen the one that is coming, your promised Messiah. You will see him.
And when they carried the baby Jesus in for his dedication into the temple, after the days of purification of Mary, he brings the baby in, Simeon sees him, and he says, I have seen my Lord, I’ve seen the Messiah. And he says, God has blessed me in his promise that I would see him, I have seen him. Anna, a similar type of thing, in that she acknowledges that she sees the Messiah.
They knew, but you had the priests who didn’t see anything. And during the whole ministry of Jesus, they saw very little. As a matter of fact, they were the biggest ones, the religious establishment was the biggest ones that stood in the way, and tried to silence Jesus and prevent him from ministering.
You see that they were constantly inspiring on how do we silence this man, how to prevent this man from doing the miracles, how to prevent this man from teaching the people, and they would try to silence him all the time until finally it culminated where they orchestrated the events surrounding his death, but even God was in control of that. So we see here that Scripture, once again, is filled with prophecy. And we see that God’s prophecies came true %, just like they were foretold.
You go back and look up these prophecies in the Old Testament. Many of them I’ve seen in the book of Isaiah, a lot of them in Zachariah, some of them in Hosea, some of them in Micah. But you see that a number of these prophecies in the book of Daniel is filled with prophecies of the time in which we live.
The time in which we live, we should be excited. He sang that one song entitled, I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day, written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. And I shared the story with you before about when he wrote that poem.
His son was in the Civil War, and his son had been hurt. And Henry Wadsworth Longfellow looked out and he saw a nation torn apart and killing brothers, killing brothers. And he said, what’s going on here? How is God in control? How can I celebrate Christmas? My family is being destroyed by this war.
But he wrote this song. And the last verse of that song, really, I’ll just read it to you one more time, because it tells what our hope is. Then pealed the bells more loud and deep, God is not dead, nor doth he sleep.
The wrong shall fail, the right prevails, with peace on earth, good will for men. He was a Bible reading Christian, and he knew he’d read the book of Revelation. He knew evil is going to come to an end.
He was being faced with all kinds of evil in the day in which he lived. Brothers killing brothers, fathers killing sons in a war that was orchestrated by wicked politicians behind the scenes. And you can go and study why the Civil War came about.
A lot of people say it was about slavery. It was partly about slavery. It was about a whole bunch of politics behind the season.
He became discouraged until all of a sudden he goes to the Bible and says, well, who’s healing in control? Who was really in control when Herod was going around killing the babies? Who was really in control when his son was waiting to find this taking of Jews? God was in control. God is in control today. And sometimes it seems like things are out of control.
There are many of our brothers and sisters, like I said at the beginning of the message, that are being martyred for their faith in countries around the world. Especially in Africa is really the worst place right now. There have been literally hundreds of Christians killed in Africa.
The thing is, is God out of control? Doesn’t God know what’s happening? No, he knows what’s happening. And the thing is, he tells us, this is what it’s going to be like in the last days. And he says, be prepared.
Because look up. And there used to be a song that we had a guy that was a youth pastor, and his favorite song to sing as a solo was, Look up, your redemption draws nigh. And that was the chorus of the song.
Look up your head, your redemption draws nigh. And the thing is, we are told, we have hope. And that hope is in Christ.
Christ will gain the victory. Just as he is the one, no matter how Satan tried to kill Jesus, Jesus could not be touched. And read the scriptures, read the Gospels.
Many times they tried to kill him, they couldn’t touch him. Until God’s time was ready, and it was God’s way. The Bible foretold that he would die on a cross.
He wasn’t going to be pushed over a cliff, like they tried to do in Nazareth. He wasn’t going to be stoned, like they tried to do in Jerusalem, on various occasions. He had to die on a cross.
Because that’s what God, the prophets, had foretold. And his blood had to be shed, and he who was without sin had to pay the penalties for our sin. He had to be lifted up.
If you go back and look at Moses, he lifted up the serpent on a stick, and all those who looked on the serpent would live, those who would not look on the serpent and believe would die. It was really a symbol or a type of what Jesus would do for us on the cross. Those who look at the cross will live.
Those who won’t look at the cross will die. And the thing is, and look at what Jesus did for us there. And then he had to die in a certain manner.
He had to die in a certain day. And all of that was foretold by the prophets, and you can go and it happened to the day, to the hour, and the way it is said. He had to be buried.
He had to be buried in the tomb of a rich man that nobody had been buried in before. That’s exactly what happened. How would he that was really an itinerary, a poet, a poet, a preacher and prophet that was going around the country and living on gifts, how would he end up in a wealthy tomb? Except God said he would.
That’s what he was. And he would rise from the dead, and then he would ascend into heaven, and he would pay the penalty for all those who believed in him. These prophecies are real, and God’s at work in our nation, in our world, even today.
Let’s just close and pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for the opportunity you’ve given us to study your Word. Lord, we thank you for the account of the wise men, and how they took two years to get there, but they got there on time.
They got there in the place you wanted them, with the message you wanted them to bring. And all the events that occurred were the events that you orchestrated, and, Father, that they show us that your son is who he says he is. Lord, now I pray that you would just go with us and help us to look to you, and look to your second coming, and maybe be filled with joy.
This we’d ask and do this one. Amen. In closing, if you would turn with me to hymn number .
Which speaks of Jesus’ second coming, Joy to the World. Joy to the world, the Lord is come. Let every sinner came.
Let every heart prepare him room. And heaven and nature sing, and heaven and nature sing. And heaven and heaven and nature sing.
Joy to the world, the Savior reign. Let men, their sons employ. For fields and flocks, rocks, hills and plains.
Repeat the sounding joy. Repeat the sounding joy. No more the sins and sorrows grow.
No thorns and thefts are grown. He comes to make his blessings flow. Far as the curse is found.
Far as the curse is found. Far as far as the curse is found. He grows old with truth and grace, and makes the nations proud.
The glories of his righteousness, and wonders of his love, and wonders of his love, and wonders and wonders of his love. Lord, we just thank you that you one day will return and establish the kingdom on earth. Enjoyable times, and righteousness will reign, and truth will endure forever.
Lord, be with us now and help us to go out and share this tremendous message of hope that we possess as your children.